Comments on: Making the most of my iPhone while I'm offline

Question: Making the most of my iPhone while I'm offline

exquisite_deluxe — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:32:31 -0800

What are your favourite iPhone apps that can be used offline?

I've just inherited a jailbroken iPhone 3G that I'm using without a data plan. What are some apps that I can install that don't require cellular data or wi-fi? I have wi-fi at home but otherwise my wi-fi access is spotty.

I'm looking for anything fun or useful that can help pass the time while I'm waiting for the bus, stuck in line somewhere, or taking a break at work. I'm especially interested in finding a good offline app for quick and simple "to do" lists (syncing to my Macbook would be nice, but the most important thing is that it's fast and easy on the iPhone).

By: Joe Beese

Joe Beese — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:33:17 -0800

SimpleNote

By: two lights above the sea

two lights above the sea — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:35:31 -0800

Dear God, Tetris. It's a little frustrating that it ends after level 15 (Seriously, I can beat that with my eyes closed), but it's still entertaining.

By: Carillon

Carillon — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:36:01 -0800

My favorite iPhone game is warblade. Absolutely addictive and fantastic.

By: two lights above the sea

two lights above the sea — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:37:03 -0800

For the "to do list": I use Todo and I've heard good things about Things.

By: mrsshotglass

mrsshotglass — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:38:00 -0800

Angry Birds is the best $1 I've spent in months. There's a reason it's the #1 app.

By: nomadicink

nomadicink — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:39:02 -0800

Glyder, 1 and 2

By: Narrative Priorities

Narrative Priorities — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:45:06 -0800

Games:
Drop 7
Carcasonne
Strategery
Zen Bound
LineUp
Flood-it
Flight Control
Myst

Reading:
Eucalyptus (expensive but a fantastic interface)
GoodReader
Stanza
Instapaper

By: Skot

Skot — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:51:13 -0800

Seconding Angry Birds. My wife and I barely speak any more, as our lives are consumed with murdering smug little fucking green pigs.

By: dpx.mfx

dpx.mfx — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:53:18 -0800

Tetris
Angry Birds
Peggle
Memory Block (It's like Simon)
the Couch 2 5 k app

By: jontyjago

jontyjago — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:56:45 -0800

Osmos is lovely. Like playing snooker whilst living in an Orb album. Really.

By: elmay

elmay — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:05:49 -0800

Kindle -- I'm never w/o a book!

By: jedicus

jedicus — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:06:00 -0800

Encyclopedia is an offline Wikipedia app. It downloads a copy of the text of the English Wikipedia, so it takes up about 2.6GB, but it's pretty handy.

By: painquale

painquale — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:12:10 -0800

The New York Times Crossword Puzzle app.

By: kimdog

kimdog — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:14:12 -0800

More games: Orbital and DoodleJump

By: jasondbarr

jasondbarr — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:21:09 -0800

Evernote can be used offline, and is great for to-dos (and it's free!). You can also sync notebooks to your iDevice for reference offline.

By: booksherpa

booksherpa — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:46:14 -0800

Angry Birds, oh my YES! I usually get frustrated with this type of game and quit, but I've enjoyed Angry Birds and used walkthroughs for the tough levels. My husband keeps stealing my Touch to play it.

Gas Cubby for tracking gas usage/mileage. Much better than a notebook.

FreeAppADay requires internet, but helps me find free apps (usually games) that don't require internet.

I'm not as addicted as I was, but iProximity is a neat little strategy game.

Other games: Skee-Ball, the Associate This series, Civilization Revolution, Dark Nova (Space Trader for the iPhone), Call of Atlantis (sorta Bejeweled, with extras+backstory)

Melodica for random musical amusement. Plus it entertains small children.

Some of these were free, some were $.99, some were free via the FAAD app but may cost now - Civilization Revolution and Dark Nova in particular.

By: Diagonalize

Diagonalize — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:48:48 -0800

Some of my favorite five-minute fixes that haven't been mentioned yet: Doodle God, Fruit Ninja, Sword & Poker 2, and Babo Crash HD. Doodle Find is a nice cheap as in free thrill.

Don't get the NYT Crossword app if you don't already have a subscription, and it will require regular wifi updates to be worthwhile.

Todo is pretty good, although I don't know if a lot of the functionality is lost without regular web access.

Other random useful apps: Hipstamatic is one of my favorite photography apps, and if you're the lady type I'm assuming you to be, Period Tracker Deluxe is a surprisingly handy app.

I review apps for a living, so feel free to memail me if you have any questions.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:49:56 -0800

OffMaps is a big help in your pocket for when you need a map. Download and cache where you need to go. (Note, your plan-less iPhone is essentially an iPod Touch.)

By: AnimalKing

AnimalKing — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:51:15 -0800

On several occasions I've found it useful that the Dictionary.com app works offline.

By: Dennis Murphy

Dennis Murphy — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:31:52 -0800

Evernote can be used offline, and is great for to-dos

Ugh. Evernote has it's strengths. It's terrible for a task manager unless all you want is a list (and simplenote does that better).

Things looks great but still depends on the desktop version for many things.

OmniFocus does pretty well without the desktop version, but isn't cheap (as far as iPhone apps go) and might be more than you want in a task manager.

By: rtha

rtha — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:56:33 -0800

Nthing angrybirds, Simplenote, Stanza, Instapaper, GoodReader. Also, Bejeweled and Hive.

By: TheGoodBlood

TheGoodBlood — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:15:38 -0800

One more game: Tilt to Live. Seriously addictive.

By: synecdoche

synecdoche — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:22:40 -0800

Seconding Carcassonne!

By: majikstreet

majikstreet — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:56:17 -0800

nthing Instapaper. Also, the New York Times app- it works well if you update it before leaving your house in the morning (then you can read the news whenever). The LA Times app is similar.

By: Cuke

Cuke — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:46:10 -0800

The National Film Board (NFB) of Canada app. It is free and lets you load up to three films that you can watch off-line, for a 48 hour period. You can load up new films whenever you have access to Wifi. The selection of films & animations is outstanding.

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:46:55 -0800

Seconding Tilt to Live and Carcassonne, adding Osmos and Bowmaster and Jet Car Stunts.

By: majortom1981

majortom1981 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:27:01 -0800

Angry BIrds ROCKS.

Also civilization revolution i think is $.99 Its also worth it.

By: cheapskatebay

cheapskatebay — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:11:01 -0800

I'm enjoying Angry Birds, Gas Cubby, the NY Times, Weightbot, Sporcle, and any of the Big Fish hidden object games.

By: painquale

painquale — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 09:34:08 -0800

Yeah, Civilization Revolution is the only game that I have not deleted from my iPhone since installing it. It's perfect.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:49:21 -0800

SimpleNote, Instapaper, and the games Plants vs. Zombies, Strategy and Carcassonne.

By: Deor

Deor — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:17:23 -0800

Have to agree with the 'Simplenote' recommendation. Any notes you add will sync next time you're on wi-fi. There's a lovely Dashboard widget for it too: Dashnote.

'True (offline) Maps'. But oh does it take forever to download the maps initially!
I have a UK route planner too; maybe there's one for your country.
You might find apps that use the GPS chip in the iPhone to provide location services will work. Or maybe they need a bit of data access too--probably some do and some don't. Can anyone who knows more chime in? I only have an iPod so I don't know much about how GPS apps work.

I wonder if there's a language translator that works offline. The one I have doesn't. Mmm...

My favourite offline use for my iPod is to just get my RSS reader up to date then read the articles when I'm out.

Install a third-party wi-fi finder because the one built into the iPhone is crap and doesn't see a lot off networks.

'Cambio' for converting lots of things like weights and currencies.

'Dropbox'. Anything you favorite in the iPhone app will be downloaded to the phone for permanent access.

If you blog you can make draft entries to post later with most blogging apps. Tweets can be saved as drafts as well of course.

'Kalm Sutra', '69 Positions', 'The Perfumed Garden. ;-)
'Vincent'. An official, free multimedia presentation about Van Gogh's life and work.
'OECD Factbook'. Lots economic, environmental and social info.
'Oxford Dictionary of World History'.
'The World Factbook'.
I know someone read 'War and Peace' on his iPhone while commuting. You could try audiobooks too, and podcasts.
There are comics like 'Craphound'.

If you want silly little games when you've some time to spare try: 'Jumbline Lite', 'Resquare', 'Fling' 'Wordsearch' 'Labyrinth 2', 'Ski Jump Lite'. 'RM' (Record Makers) is a totally surreal, humorous art game that defies description, just try it.

'Ambience' is handy when you can't access www.rainymood.com. In a similar vein, 'Birdclock' is cool. 'Pocket Pond' puts an animated, interactive carp pond on your screen.