Best iPhone Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders

by Josh Clark

Book Overview

With over 50,000 iPhone apps to choose from, there's a mind-boggling number of ways to make your favorite device do just about anything you can imagine -- and almost certainly a few things you would... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 059680427X
• ISBN13: 9780596804275
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Provides Focus For iPhone Newbies

"Best iPhone Apps" is a short, very readable collection of representative iPhone apps for the iPhone newby who, like me, may be overwhelmed by the estimated 100,000 potential apps available (and still coming). It is written in a friendly, easy to read style that will appeal to the non-techies among us who just want some direction and focus in the various types of iPhone applications out there, whether for utility, entertainmaent, travel, or finance. The book is filled with colorful illustrations, useful descriptions, screen snapshots on how-to-use them, and explanations and user tips for the over 200 applications presented. The book is broken into 7 color coded segments helping to keep things organized--which turns out to be especially useful since the author DID NOT include an index for easy locating and reference. Section 1--At Work. This section contains utilities for handling documents, editing, databases etc. It also includes apps for phone calling and even one that turns your iPhone into a remote control. Section 2--On The Town. These apps refer to wining and dining opportunities including a wine pairing selector, top restaurants, how to make cocktails and how to get reservations. Applications to find movies and get tickets are included here. Section 3--At Leisure. These include apps for Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace interactions as well as news/media resources, and radio/music options. Section 4--At Play. Here are samples of arcade games, puzzles, sporting games, and strategy games. Section 5--At Home. This section includes apps on cooking, shopping, finding ATM's, car maintenance, and financial records. Section 6--On The Road. Here you will find helpful apps for finding taxis, using subways, tracking air flights etc. Section 7--For Your Health. The concluding section presents apps that deal with dieting/weight control, personal training, stress relief, and running and golfing (among others). In conclusion, I recommend this effort for those who are new to the iPhone and seek a simple, colorful method to get acquainted with the whole concept of applications. Obvioulsy the author was forced to make choices on presenting only about 225 out of the tens of thousands of apps out there...but the book provides direction and some focus for the new members of the iPhone family.

New iPhone User

REVIEW : Mr. Clark must be given a star for the apps he has chosen to display. There is a handy table of contents that lists more than two hundred apps. The price for apps will run between $5.00 and $20.00, though many are free or under $3.00 and all can be ordered on line. The book is easy to use, it's only 6" X 8" and about three eights of an inch thick, so may be carried as an easy reference. The front edge of each page is colored to serve as an easy topic division. The ideas and suggestions are easily understood so the book is usable for the novice, yet worded cleverly to appeal likewise to the professional. In addition to the list of contents, the short App Index is practical for effortless location of sought after apps. One must know the apps name to find success. The book is divided into seven classifications and color coded for clarification. m PRO - The chosen best of some 8000 Apps were described, per page opening. In addition, separated by vertical dotted line, a very similar app is shown with price and version given in both cases. CON - Some two hundred apps that shine with creative and productive activity are shown but because of growth in numbers, it will be difficult to keep abreast. MOOSE RATING - 5

The ONE iPhone book to buy!

Highly recommended. If you own one iPhone book, let it be this! This is a wonderful book. I own a copy and have given copies to iPhone-using friends and colleagues. Just browsing through the table of contents gave me ideas about entire categories of apps that I had not even considered. I then went and downloaded apps in several areas. I have tested 200-300 apps myself and I keep track of the best apps in many categories. I also consistently read what reviewers say. One thing I particularly like about this book is that the author's choice generally agrees very closely with mine. That is, the book's number one choice in a category is generally either my #1 or #2 choice. That fact gives me high confidence in the book, so I can use it to acquire excellent apps in areas where I have not done much research. Rush out and buy this book.

Review of Best IPhone Apps

Great Book for those of us who are just starting on the IPhone Journey. Since I am relatively new, I don't really have a comparison, but this book worked for me

Awesome book for an awesome iPhone...

As an iPhone junkie, anything that has the word "iPhone" on it makes me giddy. When I saw this extremely glossy and colorful book entitled `Best iPhone Apps' in my bookstore, I started to salivate. This book is exactly what it says: a resource for those who want to get the best of the best. I will say that this is a pretty bold book in that it picks the best iPhone apps when, according to one website, there are at least 400 apps added PER DAY! Holy crap!! That's 1,600 per week!! Josh Clark certainly put a lot of work in this book to come up with the "winners". Suuuuuure. Getting to test out numerous iPhone apps as a job... oh the horror!! :-) Anyway, Josh test a number of useful apps, IE; best app (b.a. from now on) for tracking packages, b.a. for to-do lists, and b.a. for editing office documents. He also tests fun apps: b.a. for sharing your adventures, b.a. for Twitter, and b.a. for when you can't hold it. Guy apps: b.a. for poker games and b.a. for sport scores. Girl apps: b.a for emotional manipulation (oh shut up it's a joke!) and b.a. for dieting and weight loss (OK so I'm pushing it). This book is 228 pages with *about* 1 app per page, so this is a pretty informational tome. Josh covers a pretty wide gambit of interests so you'll always have something to look for. A few times he actually puts a runner up to the best app as well. He does this with Twitter, apps for reading books, and for finding movies. Nice. I didn't count to see what the ratio was between paid apps and free apps because 1. I have a life and 2... I have a life. In my opinion, the apps were picked based how freaking sweet they were and that's it. There is only one complaint I have about this book. Josh left out the app that helps us find jobs like the one he has!!! Dude, not cool! Look, all jokes aside and taking all of the iPhone books into consideration, this one rocks. It's very descriptive, eye catching, and really fun to read. THIS is the one you should have.