Gavin Baker

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.

(more…)