iPhone starter kit

By Jessica Dolcourt on 28 January 2009

Title

The iTunes AppStore cracked open a whole universe of awesome native iPhone apps — and a few that were terrifically inane.

Here are our picks for the most useful, informative, social and media-friendly of the bunch to get you started with your new iPhone or iPod Touch.

Spare your fingers while you compose and search.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

WritingPad for iPhone
As sleek as the iPhone's touchscreen is, constantly tapping fingers still tire. WritingPad (free) takes a different tactic with a keypad meant not for punching, but for gliding.

Sliding your finger from one letter to the next in an unbroken motion supplies the word you're looking for. Ignore the letters in between and most of the time WritingPad gets it right. If not, you can manually enter the word into the library. WritingPad stores notes within the app or will drop them into an email message of your choice.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)

Vlingo
Vlingo (free) has just pulled off a magnificent coup and has scooted past Google's new-and-improved mobile app to grab the title in voice-activated iPhone apps.

Speak into the phone to search Google or Yahoo, to dial a contact, find a spot on a map, and update your status on Twitter and Facebook. And yes, you'll be able to edit status updates before you send them, in case Vlingo didn't get it right.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)

Todo
The iTunes App Store is glutted with to-do lists and time managers, but many are so simple they're ineffective. Appigo's Todo (US$12.99) has the highest price of its cohort, but is also more complete than the budget offerings.

Unlike other to-do lists, you can have Todo assign a due date and priority ranking; it will winningly associate tasks with mobile numbers and websites. You can further synchronise your lists with your pro Remember the Milk account and with Toodledo, both web-based task organisers.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)

A Personal Assistant
An ultimate mobile productivity app, A Personal Assistant is a dashboard for all your online accounts. After adding an impressive array of social, financial, productive and shopping services, A Personal Assistant will display them as buttons.

Tap to view your banking transactions and total balance, travel itineraries, social commitments, and friends' status updates on a slew of social networks. To help keep data secure, Pageonce has 256-bit encryption and settings to determine how passwords are saved, to limit data to just your iPhone, and to disable your mobile account if you lose your phone.

Topics: mobile phone, iphone, apps, 3g, cbs, app, credit, interact, news, photo

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