I’ll admit it, I love my iPhone. Rather I love the apps. Don’t get me wrong, the interface is sweet enough to make me return to AT&T (something I never thought I’d do), but it is the extended functionality of the applications that I’m really jazzed about.
You see, there is a plethora of social media apps, most of them free, that really help you keep up with things on a real time basis. I’m going to take a look at a few of these now.
In the first group there are the basics, the official apps put out by the social media platforms themselves. Generally all free and usually quite well done. LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Livejournal, WordPress, and Skype all have solid functionality and beautifully streamlined interfaces. All of these are fantastic for turning your iPhone into a veritable social media swiss army knife.
Two things in particular I would like to note with this group of apps.
First: MySpace, which is an annoying wasteland of bells, whistles, and dating site ads, is much easier to manage from within the app than on an actual computer. Highly advised if you use the platform.
Second: While Skype has full functionality you can only use the voice aspects over wi-fi. From what I can gather that’s due to their deal with AT&T. Even so the chat function, which I confess I use more frequently, works over the 3G/Edge networks quite handily.
Then comes the second group, third party apps. There are a few in particular that I like: Red Delicious, Mobile Photo, and Twittelator Pro are indispensable.Lets take a closer look at them, shall we?
Red Delicious ($1.99 from Mac Appetite)
You can browse tags and bundles, view and search bookmarks, it supports device rotation, and allows you to view Delicious’ popular bookmarks. Nice streamlined functionality for my favorite social bookmarking service!
Mobile Photo ($2.99 from XK72)
I’ve been waiting for a Flickr app for the iPhone. All of a sudden there are several. I found this one to be the best across the board. Not only does it give you quick access to almost all of the Flickr functionality you are used to but it also allows you to open the camera from within the program. This lets you immediately title, tag and upload (as well add to any pertinent set or group) your photos as you take them. Brilliant stuff, I can’t wait for the next event I liveblog!
Twittelator Pro ($4.99 from Big Stone Phone)
Darnell Clayton over at The Blog Herald has a great review of this king of Twitter apps that goes into extensive detail. Suffice it to say that there is nothing I’ve found that is even close to it. If you use twitter check it out, there is a free, cropped version you can test drive. Trust me you won’t want to go back. It lets you do everything!
Installing these two groups of apps will allow you to bring your social media prescence with you everywhere that you could want it. The possibilites for liveblogging, citizen journalism, and lifecasting are incredible!
Do you use these apps? Are there others you like better? Let me know, I’d love to hear from you!
