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There are thousands of iPhone apps to be discovered.  Yet the memory limits of the iPhone demand you be judicious in your selection of which apps to use.  Let’s look at some freebies that are quite useful!

Just as I am very fond of the open source concept of computer applications, I seek out the same in iPhone apps as well.

One important consideration especially with ‘free’ apps is that many (not all) are ad supported.  These ads use some bandwidth, although it’s largely minimal.  However if your plan has limited bandwidth this is something to be aware of.  There is a way to block these ads but it can be cumbersome and cannot be used if the app requires connectivity to work.  Go to Settings and turn ON Airplane Mode.  What this does is essentially turn off all connectivity on your phone, which prevents many of the ads from displaying. It also prevents calls or text messages from coming in as well so be advised.

A second consideration are the apps that only serve to steal info off your phone.  Your contacts, photos, etc.  Yes, they are out there.  So be careful where you get your apps.  Apple does a pretty good job policing these apps in the App Store but some have gotten through.  Make sure you know who the app creator is and that it is a trusted source.  The apps I use and share here I have vetted as much as possible, but I can’t guarantee they aren’t stealing info.  These are merely my choices.

Finding Replacements For The ‘Bad’ Built-in Apps

Unfortunately a few of the native Apple apps just don’t measure up to good usability as I discussed in the previous post.  Nor can they be deleted from your phone, only hidden from view (see the previous post), and so they remain, wasting valuable memory space.  While we can’t remove them, we can replace them with much more useable alternatives.

The Apple apps I have personally chosen to replace are Weather, Maps and Calendar.  Here is where we will start.

Weather

I have 3 weather apps at the moment.  All are vastly superior to Apple’s Weather app.
My most used is local to Indianapolis, the WTHR Skytrak Weather app, which gives me radar and an hourly forecast.  Likewise, you may find you get a better weather app from your local weather source simply by browsing their web site or the App Store.
My second choice is WeatherBug which I like quite a bit as it utilizes local data gathering sources to also provide a good picture.
In last place is The Weather Channel.  I personally find their forecasts, at least for the Indianapolis are, to be greatly lacking over the local forecasters, so I rarely use this one.  

Maps

Google Maps – this is THE map app.  Mostly accurate and provides real-time GPS location of where you are in relation to where you’re going.

Calendar

My main go-to Calendar replacement for over a year has been The Grid which to me is hands down better than the Apple Calendar.  It uses the same iCal calendar files but the display is far better and easier to see what’s going on for each day.
I recently discovered Horizon Calendar and find I really like it’s simple layout which also includes your local weather forecast for each day.  It’s far less detailed but is great for seeing what’s on your calendar at-a-glance.  As of this writing it’s free for a ‘limited time’.
Alternatively there’s Pimp Your Calendar, also an improvement over Apple’s Calendar but can be a little overwhelming to set up and get how you like it.

Stay tuned for utilities, games, and more.