Favorite iPhone Apps So Far

There's already so much good material in the App Store that's it hard to pick favorites. There are a few I've spent some time with already, though, and one in particular was a incredible surprise. This isn't a full list in any way, just a few things I've enjoyed so far.

The two I grabbed right away are Remote and AIM. Bill Bumgarner does a good job of explaining the value of Remote. AIM basically does what it sets out to do, and it's been demoed in public quite a bit. The one note on this is that there's an entry in Settings that allows you to log out when exiting the app. Obviously, a manual log out would be a welcome addition.

AOL Radio works as advertised as well, and is pretty enjoyable. The drawback is that it only seems to offer stations distributed by CBS Radio or AOL Radio. That leaves out a huge chunk of local stations, at least here in SF Bay Area. The app itself works well, but I'd really love an alternative app that doesn't discriminate by distributor.

Shazam is amazing, as many already know. The idea is that you launch the app, tap "Tag Now" and then hold the microphone up to a song on the radio, TV, etc. Shazam samples the song, uploads the result, and returns the title and artist with album artwork. It works really well and the UI workflow is fantastic. A great model of an iPhone app done right — both in terms of concept and execution.



Aqua Forest is the oddball of the group, but also appears to have a growing following. It's essentially a physics-based puzzle game, where you draw or manipulate materials on the screen to achieve certain effects. At a high level, it sounds similar to Enigmo (which I haven't played yet), but it seems to be much more open-ended and artsy.

In addition to the puzzles, Aqua Forest has a "Free" mode in which you draw whatever you like. It uses the accelerometer in full 3D orientation too. For example, you sometimes need to position the phone horizontally to get an object to inch across the screen instead of going straight up or down.



The biggest surprise so far has been Aurora Feint (app store page). Made by Danielle Cassley and Jason Citron, this game seems to have come out of nowhere. The production values are incredible, and I've found it fun and really too addictive. The artwork, musical score, and sound design are amazing. It looks like this is a pre-release of sorts, with plans to make it into an MMO exclusive to iPhone. Found via Elliot Harris.

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