The joy of an app phone (as opposed to a mere smartphone, which only gets e-mail) is that you can download and install your own little programs and operate them on a touch screen. If you haven’t checked out these apps, you’re missing a lot of joy.

* Dragon Dictate. Speech-to-text is built into Android phones—a huge time-saver on a phone with no physical keys. But on the iPhone, you need this free app. Two taps later, you’ve slapped the transcription into a text message, email, or Twitter or Facebook update.

* Glee. You sing into your iPhone, and the software autotunes you—and multiplies you, creating a backup choir of you’s, singing perfect harmony. You can post the resulting mix for your adoring fans to hear.

* Google Voice. Google’s free service gives you a new phone number; when someone calls it, all your phones ring at once, so people don’t have to hunt you down. The feature list is huge: free texts, free calls, voicemail transcriptions, and so on. This app, which Apple turned down for the iPhone, pulls it all into one place.

* Google Goggles. This visual-search app, available for both Android and (as part of the Google Mobile app) for iPhone, seems like futuristic sci-fi stuff. Point the phone’s camera at a book, DVD, wine bottle, logo, painting, landmark or bit of text, and the hyper-intelligent app recognizes it and displays information about it from the Web.

4 Comments

1. 1. landsaf 10:16 AM 1/31/11

   is that it?

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. xxfallacyxx in reply to landsaf 12:09 PM 1/31/11

   I concur with your sentiment :)
   
   This kind of article always has potential, but the list is just a tease. Needs more apps.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

3. 3. chuckg 04:53 PM 1/31/11

   I'd like to see an app called "acceptable sound quality" on phones. Or, am I the only one who uses a phone to talk to people?

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

4. 4. SophiaLawrence 03:25 AM 8/31/12

   Amazing new apps avialable at itunes store
   
   Scan to PDF- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scan-to-pdf-scan-multi-page/id549095412?ls=1&mt=8
   
   Sticky Notes with Reminders- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sticky-notes-with-reminders/id545238012?ls=1&mt=8
   

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this