One of the things I love about smartphone technology is apps that make life better.  Yep, apps that make life better.  Recently I rode the Megabus overnight from Knoxville, TN to Washington, DC, and I woke up a few minutes from the end of the trip.  I had some vague instructions from a friend to metro to his apartment, but I quickly realized I had no idea on the metro schedule, the lines or even where the closest station was to the bus stop.

A quick search in the Android app market yielded -  DC Metro Transit Free, an AMAZING travel app that quickly told me the closest station was a few blocks away and I had 23 minutes until my train left.  Additionally it also had a trip planner to help me figure out the best route to get from station A to station B.  Other features included real time updates, and it estimated fares which helped me figure out to put on my metro card. 

It was the perfect app to help me navigate DC for a few days.  Without it, I’m sure my trip would have been far more frustrating and certainly ill timed. It allowed me to enjoy the Cherry Blossom festival, Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse and many great museums. If you are headed that way, I’d highly recommend this app, it will make you feel at home.

Almost everyone has a cell phone these days.  A good number of us have smartphones and regardless if they are of the iPhone or Android variety, apps developed for them are changing how we shop.   Online2Offline (O2O) is THE nut to crack, we’ve had glimmers of hope with Google AdWords and with Facebook advertising but apps like TheFind and companies like Amazon and eBay are leading the charge to make it easy for us to do a quick price check.  Allowing shoppers to scan great buys with our phones.  Expanding our options to buy in-store or just maybe…we’ll find a better deal online.

Read the read of my thoughts about this topic on the Moxley Carmichael New Streak Blog – Holiday shopping made merrier with mobile.

I realized that I love other people’s recommendations – what iPhone apps they are using, where they are eating, what they are driving and what books they are reading.  Yet, I don’t share all of those things well with others.  So in a hat tip to those who’ve shared with me, here are my top 9 favorite iPhone apps.  I will make the disclaimer that Foursquare, Facebook and LinkedIn apps get used weekly.  But I consider them utilty players and really not all that sexy so I’m going to void their use for my top 9.

TOP 9

	Dragon Dictation	This app takes my speech and turns it into emails and tweets with crazy accuracy.
	Twitter for iPhone	I used SimplyTweet for months, but Twitter (aka Tweetie) knocks it out of the park
	eBay	Push notifications so I know I can swoop in a grab an auction?! Yes please!
	Notifo	Google SMS and @notifications at the speed of light speak my name
	Logos Bible	The most comprehensive bible study tool, now in my pocket
	State Farm Pocket Agent	Always have my insurance card with me now + how to report an accident!
	Meebo	Persistant chat via push. Love it.
	Zillow	Housing search and research made easy
	Pandora	My radio

Ok, I’ll throw one to the bonus round, Sleep Cycle is the closest thing to a WakeMate I’ll get since they just returned by deposit.

The other day I went to the website of a restaurant I wanted to make reservations at to get the phone number – while there I noticed they had a OpenTable icon indicating they used that for reservations.  I called and made my reservation, but that to scratch an itch I downloaded the OpenTable iPhone app to explore the app and the service.

I launched the app and I saw the screen below….and I’ll admit it hit me like a ton of bricks – it’s called OpenTable because it’s about finding an open table.  It’s primary purpose isn’t a “new” way of making online reservations, it’s that in a busy city full of bustling restaurants, I can easily find what restaurants have openings in a few easy steps.  Beautiful.

It’s worth noting that Urbanspoon just launched it’s restaurant management solution Rez, iPad app today called RezBook which TechCrunch gave an overview and while I can’t comment on the quality of the management – I’m not sure the OpenTable model can be beat for a customer, particularly in cities where it has high adoption.

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• Urbanspoon Squares Off Against OpenTable (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)
• More Ways to Snag That Restaurant Table (online.wsj.com)
• OpenTable Seats 2 Million Diners Via Mobile Apps (techcrunch.com)
• 5 Tips from OpenTable in Crafting Your Mobile Strategy (thenextweb.com)