Soci@lByte

From the desk of Elaine Schoch…

I did not sleep on the sidewalk or wait for hours in a line to get the iPhone when it first came out. Instead, two weeks after it was released I conveniently left my cell phone in my car when I was running to catch a flight to New York City for a business trip. This was not planned, or so my husband believes… Regardless, a girl can’t be without a phone in NYC – especially when she’s four months pregnant. So upon my arrival I jumped into a cab and headed to the Apple store in SoHo.

The first time I held the iPhone I was in love. I can’t even explain the giddiness I felt when the App Store came out. Each week I get a little twinge of this feeling back as I scour over the ad Apple runs in the Sunday New York Times.

Yes, I know and openly admit – I am a full fledge gadget geek. But, I’m not alone…

Since we’re just kicking off this blog I’ve asked my fellow Soci@lByte bloggers to share their favorite iPhone apps with me to give you a sense of who we are and what we’re about. Moving forward, each week I’m going to post a few new apps I’ve found to be useful – or a waste of time/money. If you have ones you’d like to share, please do.

Soci@lByte Bloggers Favorite iPhone Apps

Me – Elaine Schoch

• TweetDeck: If you use TweetDeck and have an iPhone this app synchronizes the two so all your contacts and columns can be in two places at once.
• Recorder: I never thought I would use this one very often but as my daughter started to laugh and sing songs I had to capture them. (It’s great to playback her little laughs when you’re having a bad day.) I’ve also been known to use this for app in meetings or brainstorms but its more fun to playback Samantha laughing.
• Shazam: Listening to a song and want to know who sings it? Hold your phone up to the music and presto it tells you the song, band, album and will connect you to iTunes to buy it.
• Maps: I can get lost in my house if I’m not careful so this app is essential for helping me get where I need to be and on time.

Melissa Hourigan

• Urban Spoon: According to Melissa, “This is a great app for finding a lunch location when traveling with a client and you need to find something quick.” The reviews and price categories are also very helpful.
• Bug Squash: “This is fun app to play with and a great distraction for little ones when you are at the airport or grocery store.” (Watch out for her son – he likes to grab any phone now to play ‘bugs’.)

Ef Rodriguez

• WoW Armory: “This app allows me to keep track of my characters in World of Warcraft, a massive online game that I have devoted hours and hours to playing. I can also search for my friends’ characters and get information about them. It’s the nerdiest thing in town, but I’m delighted with it.”
• Huffington Post: “Simple and effective. Allows me to read top HuffPost stories on my phone with very little loading time. More pubs should do this.”

Elaine Ellis

• Red Laser: “Price scanning for the shopper.”
• White Noise: “I use this app for plane calls.”
• Scrabble: Just because it’s fun.
• Notes: “It’s boring but I love it.”

Jeremy Story

“My favorite apps change pretty often, but right now it would be TweetDeck for work so that I can track what people are saying about my clients and XM for personal use so I can stream the commercial-free music that I like.”