Best iPhone/iPod Apps

[CardiacCoug]

Thanks to whatever jackass in this thread turned me on to Temple Run. Stupid time eating addictive app.

During lunch, I had a ridiculous run. Score of 12.8 million.

Reminds me of Tiny Wings. I became obsessed with that one and beat every level. I don't even want to know how many hours that took.

[Clark Addison]

I need some help.

I went out to my car this morning, and my GPS had been stolen. Instead of buying a new one, I am thinking of just buying an app on my phone. The built-in one in "Maps" is not sufficient to be a full-tim auto GPS. Anyone have one they would recommend? I had a Garmin Nuvi before, so something similar to that would be nice. I would prefer voice-activated.

Also, bonus side question: Is there any point in reporting the theft to the police? All they took was the GPS, with no damage to the car. I'm actually glad they did not take the bag of basketball uniforms or box of choir music in my trunk. Both would have been greater losses.

[thesaint258]

I have the free Mapquest app. It's simple and not nearly as fancy the Nuvi, but it works. Garmin also has some apps that would probably be the same as your Nuvi. IRIC they have one that's 99 cents that is essentially a thirty-day trial, then you can decide if you want to upgrade. You could give that a try to see if having it on your phone works for you.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I need some help.

I went out to my car this morning, and my GPS had been stolen. Instead of buying a new one, I am thinking of just buying an app on my phone. The built-in one in "Maps" is not sufficient to be a full-tim auto GPS. Anyone have one they would recommend? I had a Garmin Nuvi before, so something similar to that would be nice. I would prefer voice-activated.

Also, bonus side question: Is there any point in reporting the theft to the police? All they took was the GPS, with no damage to the car. I'm actually glad they did not take the bag of basketball uniforms or box of choir music in my trunk. Both would have been greater losses.

I lost a Garmin Nuvi to a smash and grab a couple of years ago. I reported it to the police but never heard anything back. I wouldn't bother if I were you. I would imagine returning lost GPS units would be near the bottom of the police priority list.

As for apps, I assume you are talking iPhone since you are in this thread. I have tested most of them. I think the best free option is Waze. The interface is nice and simple and it includes voice directions. The main problem with Waze is that the maps are not accurate. MapQuest is free and it is not bad, but no voice directions. I think the best option is MotionX GPS Drive. I bought it for ~$2.99. They charge a recurring fee for voice guidance (common for the higher-end nav apps), but they have a sale going now where you can get one year of guidance for $10. That should get you to IOS 6 where I strongly suspect that Apple will provide an integrated navigation app. GPS Drive has an excellent interface and seems to work well.

If you are quite fond of the Garmin interface, you can buy the iPhone version for $40. From what I understand, it is the very same software used in their devices so it would be what you are used to using. Pricey app, but much cheaper than buying a new Garmin device.

[bluegoose]

MapQuest is free and it is not bad, but no voice directions.

Are you sure about this? I've had the mapquest iphone app for about 6 months now. Its been several weeks since I've used it, but I am almost certain that it has voice directions very similar to Garmin or TomTom.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Are you sure about this? I've had the mapquest iphone app for about 6 months now. Its been several weeks since I've used it, but I am almost certain that it has voice directions very similar to Garmin or TomTom.

Clarification: it does have voice guidance, but I don't think it does spoken street names. I.e. "Turn right in 100 meters" vs. "Turn right in 100 meters at Clark Street".

[thesaint258]

Clarification: it does have voice guidance, but I don't think it does spoken street names. I.e. "Turn right in 100 meters" vs. "Turn right in 100 meters at Clark Street".

It does that, too. It's possible that previous versions didn't do that, but the last time I used it, it used street names (or numbers).

[Jeff Lebowski]

It does that, too. It's possible that previous versions didn't do that, but the last time I used it, it used street names (or numbers).

Oh nice. I haven't tried it for quite a while.

[thesaint258]

Oh nice. I haven't tried it for quite a while.

It's pretty good for being a free app. There are other things I wish it had, but I can't complain since I didn't pay for it.

[DU Ute]

Get an android phone. Google maps and voice navigation are great and free!

[Surfah]

Get an android phone. Google maps and voice navigation are great and free!

Amen. The Android navigation pwns anything out there, even Garmin and TomTom.

[DU Ute]

Amen. The Android navigation pwns anything out there, even Garmin and TomTom.

Buying an Apple product just announces to the world that you're willing to spend money on nothing.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Buying an Apple product just announces to the world that you're willing to spend money on nothing.

lol.

I love my iPhone. Zero buyer's remorse.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I have been toying with video player apps lately. The built-in Apple player only plays mp4 format. As I understand it, this is at least partly because that format uses hardware decoding and therefore has a minimal hit on the battery life. But if you have something in AVI or some other format, it is a PITA to convert to mp4 format and when you do, the audio easily gets messed up and gets out of sync. I hate that.

They used to have an alternative video player on the iPad/iPhone called TLC that plays lots of formats. But they pulled it for some reason. I have that on my iPad but it is way out of date now and has some issues. Fortunately they have some new players that are similar. I have tried a few and my favorite is AVPlayer. There is a separate version for iPad/iPhone and they are $2.99 each, but well worth it. They play just about any format and the interface is much better than the Apple Video player. The killer feature is swipe gestures. Swipe to the left or right and you skip forward or back ten seconds. Swipe up and down to speed up or slow down. I never use the native video app anymore.

[DU Ute]

lol.

I love my iPhone. Zero buyer's remorse.

Whatever makes you happy.