Changing from iPod Touch to iPhone - help!
June 20, 2011 1:59 PM   Subscribe

Just got a new iPhone; already had an iPod Touch. What apps do I want now? What do I need to know?

I've had an iPod Touch for a few years, and loved it. After a while, the main things I missed were accessing the internet from anywhere and a camera. So, when it came time to get a new cell phone, I decided to go with an iPhone (Verizon, white, 32GB). What apps will I want now that I wouldn't have needed/been able to use with an iPod Touch? I already have a slew of games, so I'm mainly looking for apps that take advantage of my new features: the camera, the microphone, and internet (almost) everywhere. To give you some more specific ideas of what I'm looking for, I'm interested in photography, I'm trying to decide between Shazam and SoundHound, I'm a foodie, and I used my Touch to help keep me more organized and track my HealthMonth goals.

Not app related, if you converted from a Touch to an iPhone, what took the most getting used to? What surprised you? What tricks do you use now that you wish you'd known when you first got an iPhone? Also, this is my first smart phone - any tips/tricks/suggestions for taking full advantage of it would be much appreciated.
posted by booksherpa to Technology (10 answers total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
All that September iCloud goodness will be much sweeter with an iPhone than iPod, because of how the always-internet will help. Until then...

Google's "Search" app works really well from voice searches ("What's the capital of Sweden?") and sorta well from video searches (point the camera at something and search.)

The eBay app is golden, and includes bar code scanning with the camera for "how much is this really worth?" whether you're actually shopping on eBay or not. I prefer this app to the full-bore web version.

With the Kindle app, you can buy books and "send" them right to your device, no intermediate Mac or PC needed.

More generally, I'm rather in love with Wunderlist lately because of how valuable it is when combined with internet syncing. It's supposed to be a cloud-syncing task list, but I have used it in the last few months for everything EXCEPT tasks: flight information and confirmation numbers, shopping lists, freeform notes and ideas. It's free for iOS, Mac, Windows, Android and everything syncs dreamily. I love scribbling down an idea while standing in line somewhere and just knowing it'll be on my screen "back home" later, no fuss or worries... or conversely, adding "kinder eggs!" to my corner-of-screen list while at work, and knowing it'll be on my phone immediately. The iPad version is also extra-sweet, should you add one of those to your mix one day.
posted by rokusan at 2:23 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]


Phone specific tips?

1. If your phone plan is not unlimited (I don't know Verizon's deals), set yourself a recurring alarm to reset the minute/data counters every month on your billing date. The reset counters button is in Preferences > General > Info, I think. (iPhone not handy.)

2. Create a silent ring tone, assign it to a user in your Address Book named Jerks*, and then assign every telemarketer/annoying-person who calls you to that user. Bliss.

(* I use a somewhat more... colorful term, myself.)
posted by rokusan at 2:28 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]


You can add webpages to your home screen as if they were apps at the touch of a button. I've got the Weather Channel next to the native Yahoo! weather app because I went to Istanbul and at the time, Yahoo! didn't cover that city.

FirstAid EH has emergency numbers and poison control numbers for whatever country you're in, as well as a handy dandy counter for chest compressions. (If you can scroll to it fast enough.)

Occasions will pull birthdays from your Contacts lists and notify you.

Study Flash for flashcards.

Left to spend for dividing your budget up per day. Currrency for conversion.

Dropbox for saving your ass.

Dragon Dictation for voice-to-text.

Kindle for reading.

100 pushups, Shape Travelista, and Nike Training for fitness.

Munch 5-a-day to make sure you get enough roughage. TargetWeight to keep you on the straight and narrow.

Ebay Mobile, yay, and Handmade for Etsy.

Jamie Oliver 20 min meals. Sandwiches for your lunch menu. NIV Bible, Methodist, and PrayerPro for living not by bread alone.

Sing ENO for voice exercises, and Steinway Metronome for metronomes.

Most importantly, SleepCycle to help you get up!!!

Meetup for meetups, except it's a bit rubbish because you can only go on the site for certain RSVPs.

BachTrack for concerts, opera, and dance.

Urbanspoon for finding restaurants, Flixster for movies.

This American Life podcast for... er... This American Life podcasts, and NFB for all your animation needs.

Style.com, Chictopia, Sartorialist, and TrendTracker to keep you looking fabulous.

Dexter, Angry Birds, and Tiny Wings for fun.

PUniverse to stride the cosmos.

Hipstamatic to take blurry photos to obfuscate your dating profile with. Muybridgizer to take little zoetrope movies of your cat.

And Wallpapers to get fun wallpapers when you get tired of those gloomy granite ones that Apple gives you.
posted by tel3path at 2:43 PM on June 20, 2011 [7 favorites]


I think Dialvetica is the only app (and use often) I have that I wouldn't have used on a Touch.

Oh, and Camera + is great, but I'm wondering if we'll be able to tie the non-Apple camera app into the new Camera features of IOS 5 (quick access from the lock screen, and using the volume button to take photo).
posted by backwards guitar at 3:18 PM on June 20, 2011


Best answer: I love Calvetica (a great replacement for the crappy iphone calendar)
Public Radio (plays any station, lets you mark favorites, and stream programs on demand especially if you don't get the podcast)
Scan - to read qr-codes
TripDeck - Interfaces with your tripit account to keep all travel details in one place
Motion-X GPS - excellent GPS app that wouldn't have worked on the ipod.

posted by babbyʼ); Drop table users; -- at 3:53 PM on June 20, 2011


Best answer: I recently did the touch-->iphone switch and the biggest thing for me was finding apps that use GPS:

If you're into exercise, something that maps and keep tracks of your runs/walks/bike rides is great. I prefer runmeter because it doesn't require you to join a "community" or register or anything, and is very customizable. Nike+ is pretty good with all its bells and whistles and cool graphic interface, if you don't mind registering. MapMyRide is also good.

cheapgas - self explanatory

skyview: for cool stargazing assistance

yelp - already used this one with my touch but it's much, much cooler with gps on an iphone

any of the various bar code scanner apps - I prefer the amazon.com one

navfree - free turn by turn navigation, uses openmaps which is imperfect but usable, takes up almost 2 gigs on your iphone, but this minimizes the amount of data you need to use
posted by skewed at 4:10 PM on June 20, 2011


Best answer: Syncing google calendar with your iPhone calendar literally changed my life. I also enabled a labs feature that makes the calendar display in my gmail where chat used to be. Every time I make an appointment in real life I put it on my phone, every time I make an appointment on email I put it in my computer, and then I always have a super calendar. I forget so much less stuff now (I'll even tell my calendar "take laundry out" in 2 hours and stuff like that).
posted by Buckt at 7:03 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]


Best answer: turn off push notifications and WiFi to save battery life
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 10:53 PM on June 20, 2011


The iPhone 4 camera is a lot better than the iPod one, so you might want to look into that again. Here are two blogs to get you started.
posted by robtoo at 3:52 AM on June 21, 2011


Ooo, I'll second robtoo's suggestion. The iphone 4 camera is my primary camera. With a hand lens, I can even take some pretty classy macrophotos of insects.
posted by Buckt at 2:10 PM on June 21, 2011


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