It’s no secret that I’ve been damn near inseparable from my iPhone since I bought it last October. That being said, I decided to compile a list of my top 10 favorite apps for you. Now, when I was naming this post I couldn’t decide whether to call it “Top 10 Favorite Apps” or “Top 10 Favorite iPhone Apps.” I decided to just call it “Top 10 Favorite iPhone apps” because I know for a fact all these apps can be downloaded on an iPhone. Although, I’m sure some can be downloaded on other devices as well.
1. Weather
This specific weather app comes preloaded onto the iPhone when you buy it. When you pull up the weather app it’ll give you 6 days worth of highs and lows starting with the local weather. It also gives you the current temperature and if you click the current day it will give you what the weather is estimated to be every hour on the hour for 12 hours. Another great feature is that you can save multiple cities at once (I have my hometown and Chicago saved) then you can just flip back and forth between the cities.
Cost: Free.
2. Emoji Free
Emoji Free allows you to say so long to those boring and generic smiley faces. With Emoji Free you can add hundreds of different smiley faces and other emoticons into texts, tweets, etc… I loveeee this app and think it’s a must have for all iPhone users. The only downside is that non-iPhone users cannot see the emoticons. Instead, they just see a square (I think) in its place.
Cost: Free.
(there is a pay version also… I’m not sure the difference between the two)
3. Gas Buddy
Gas Buddy allows you two options: option one is to type in a city, state or zip code and option two is to just press the “Find Gas Near Me” button. Each option will pull up all the gas stations around you within a certain radius. You can then choose the type of gas your car takes and sort the gas stations by distance or price. Another feature the app offers is you can click the different gas stations and it’ll show you what that station offers (types of gas, air hose, car wash, pay at pump, ATM, convenience store, whether or not it’s open 24/7, pay phones, restrooms, etc…). The last thing I want to mention is that you can also report the gas prices at different stations and you earn 150 points for each time you report a gas price. You can earn points on the first 5 reports per day and every 1,000 points gets you one ticket into a weekly drawing for a prize (usually it’s a preloaded $250 gas gift card).
Cost: Free.
4. Chase
Before I go into detail about this app I just want to warn, DO NOT USE THIS APP UNLESS YOU ARE ON A SECURE NETWORK. The last thing you want/need is to have someone, somehow, steal your information.
Now that that’s covered, the Chase app allows you to find a Chase ATM and/or branch near you. Another option is to securely log on and view all your information just like you would on an actual computer. You can view your balances, account activity, and rewards points. You can also make transfers among accounts, pay bills or pay credit cards. This all allows me (on a daily basis) to easily manage my accounts and see everything that takes place with them. But again, MAKE SURE YOU ARE ON A SECURE NETWORK BEFORE LOGGING ONTO YOUR ACCOUNT.
Cost: Free.
5. Pinterest
The Pinterest app is just like the website… addicting! From the app you can view the pins of people you are following, explore the different pin board categories, repin things or add your own by either choosing an existing photo in your album or taking a new photo, view the activity of your pins, and view your Pinterest profile (boards, pins, likes, account information and finding more friends).
Cost: Free.
6. Michael’s
Using the Michael’s app you can view their deals (such as the weekly ad and featured deals), create lists, view your My Michael’s account, scan QR codes and look up store locations, events, projects, or products. Lastly, and my favoriteeee part of the app is the coupons feature. This feature allows you to pull up that days/weeks coupon(s) and Michael’s can scan it right off your phone! I love that I’m never without my coupon(s). I wish every store would do this!
Cost: Free.
7. My Fitness Pal
The My Fitness Pal app is just like the website giving you the option to track daily/weekly calories in order to reach your goal weight, stay the same weight or just track calories to track calories. Using the app you can view your daily summary, daily nutrient details, and weekly net calories. You can add a WIDE variety of foods from the database or scan barcodes into your food diary, add exercise, look at your progress, and manage you’re My Fitness Pal friends. This is a good app for keeping track of food even on the go, making it easy to see exactly what you’re in taking each day.
Cost: Free.
8. Waze
Google Maps is the preloaded GPS app in iPhones but I wanted to have an additional navigation app because Google Maps isn’t the most reliable source at times. After reading reviews on a bunch of navigation apps I decided to download Waze. Waze is kind of social networking navigation app (however, I don’t use it for those purposes). Using the app you can set your home, work and favorite location addresses. Navigate (directions to and from locations), view reports around you, as well as report things yourself (traffic jams, police, accidents, hazard, cameras, “chit chat,” map issues, where pavement work is taking place and check in on foursquare). You can also view your My Waze profile, share things (such as destination and location), tweak your settings and turn the app off. Overall, I really like this app and always recommend it to anyone looking for a non-iPhone navigation app.
Cost: Free.
9. Instagram
As I mentioned in my 21 Favorites at 21, Instagram is photo editing and sharing app. The best way I can ever describe it is as a sort of social network for photos. You can upload pictures by either using an existing one from your album or taking a new one using the app itself. Instagram offers a variety of different filters which have different frames. You can turn the frames on or off depending on your preference. There is also an auto fix button and you can even use a built-in blur feature to create focus on a certain object or objects in the photo. Once loaded Instagram automatically saves a copy of the edited photo to your album. Other than uploading features there are a few other sections within the Instagram app. The home section is where you view photos that the people you are “following” have uploaded. The star section brings you to the “popular page” which shares Instagram’s most popular photos at the moment. The conversation bubble section shows you your news, in addition to the news of those you are following (which photos they liked, comments they made and who they recently followed). Lastly is the profile section where you can view your Instagram profile, find friends, invite friends, search Instagram (names, usernames or tags), look at your photos, photos you’ve liked, edit your profile or sharing settings, etc….
Cost: Free.
10. ShopSavvy
ShopSavvy is an app you can use to scan the barcode off or search for a product and (if that product is in its system) it will give you the cheapest place to purchase that product. Once a product has been scanned it brings up prices from online retailers and local stores. As well as any reviews on that product they have in their system. You can click any of the choices in the online or local store options which will either allow you to buy that product on the spot from the selected online retailer or it will pull up the selected local store’s information for you. ShopSavvy saves your scanning histories and has a deals section which can be sorted by either store or categories. Deals include sales and/or coupons available for that store or category. I literally use this app to scan anything and everything in store before I purchase it because if I can find it cheaper somewhere else I’m doing it! Who doesn’t love saving money?!
Cost: Free.
Hopefully this list gave you an idea of some AWESOME apps to download. My favorite apps are ever changing as I download new apps all the time, but these 10 have seemed to stay at the top since October. I love downloading new apps to mess around with so if you have any suggestions pleaseeeee leave them in a comment for me so I can check them out.
– Katie
Oh, and it’s my Friday! No work until next Tuesday so expect a few more good posts this week! Wooohooooo!