What are some of the best free iPhone apps to date? There are hundreds of thousands of apps in the App Store, and that number increases daily. But there are a few others that you might not know about. Apps that help you get the best from your iPhone, and don’t cost you a cent. Read on to connect your phone to some of the coolest things on the web, no matter where you are.
eBay Mobile
A quick and easy way to keep up on auctions you’re watching, bidding on, or putting on yourself, eBay’s iPhone app is useful, but could be a little more functional and streamlined. Despite the fact that it’s somewhat clunky, it includes all the best features of the online auction service, including the ability to search, bid, watch items, respond to messages and leave feedback without needing a computer.Amazon Mobile
Speaking of shopping, Amazon’s app easily condenses everything cool about the online marketplace into one handheld, easily navigable place. The app’s search feature is especially handy when you see something in the real world and want to order it immediately, but you can also save items for later consideration. A home page that links you up to daily Gold Box deals is a thoughtful touch, and it’s all blessedly simple.Evernote
You’ve got your iPhone with you pretty much all the time, right? So if you have an idea or need to remember something, what better item to use to document it? Evernote makes taking and keeping notes ludicrously easy, and in several forms: as lone text, as voice recording, or even coupled with a photo. Notes can be saved and searched, as well as synced online with a web-based Evernote account.
Users of the social media website will find everything necessary to stay connected with this app. Its home page is your Facebook news feed, but posting status updates or searching for friends’ profiles each require touching only one button. Everything but Facebook apps and the service’s chat function is included here, offering a ton of social connectivity.Yelp
You’ll find yourself jumping into the Yelp app every time you’re considering a new restaurant or wondering if a service or store is worth your time. Especially in larger cities, this database of reviews for businesses is enormous and will save time and energy determining things like where to take your car for a tune-up or where to get a delicious and cheap meal. There are also lots of ways to interact with other users to find and keep track of the best businesses in your area.NPR News
If you only choose one news app, make it NPR’s well-rounded, overflowing offering. Not only does it include standard text stories like you’d find in other apps, you can stream the radio network’s broadcasts. The app also links up to various NPR programs and blogs, and lets you save your favorite local NPR stations so you can listen to them anywhere and stay up-to-date on national and world events.Dropbox
There are services with a Dropbox account you can pay for, but the bare bones – an online space in which you can drop files from your computer and retrieve them on your phone – is all free and works great. It’s an especially handy way to upload items that get saved on your phone (like photos) to free up memory space. Add music and movie files to your online Dropbox account and you can retrieve them, and play them, on your phone too.Pandora Radio
Free, streaming Internet radio is Pandora’s bag, but it’s set apart from other services, such as AOL Radio, because Pandora generates “stations” based on your specifications and preferences. The more time spent with Pandora, rating songs and making stations, the better the service gets at predicting songs you’ll like and playing them. It’s a good way to get turned on to new music and an alternative to eating up iPhone hard drive space with music files.Shazam
Score one for brilliant concepts – the fact that Shazam is free makes this great idea all the better. Ever heard a song in a store or on the radio that you’d love to know more about? Shazam employs the iPhone microphone to “listen” to the song, identify it for you, and tell you the name and artist. It even adds a link so you can go straight from the app to purchase the track. Shazam would rank a little higher if the app was better at tuning out background noise in favor of actual music – it can be unreliable, especially if you’re some distance from a speaker.AT&T myWireless Mobile
It feels a bit weird to commend AT&T’s app that’s designed specifically so you can give the mobile carrier money. But myWireless, AT&T’s Internet-based iPhone bill-paying app, is too sleek and convenient not to give it a pat on the back.After setting things up, you can pay your bill with a single button. The app includes several other screens, for altering your phone plan, or – and this is the kicker – monitoring your minutes, data usage and text messaging. And myWireless lets you know when a billing cycle rolls over to help dodge overages.
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