Some Useful iPhone Apps for the Couch Worker

I have to admit that I’m addicted to the App store for iPhone (though I just have an iPod Touch.) Not a day goes by that I don’t check in to see what’s new and cool. With that in mind, here are a few apps I use and find incredibly useful -

iNote - A replacement for the built-in note taking application, iNote offers one major advantage: landscape entry mode. It’s so much easier to flip your iPhone on its “side” and use the wide keyboard to input notes. From there, just like the Notes app, you can save and/or email your noted. This was handy on a recent press tour when I decided to pass on bringing a paper notebook, and ended up with 15 pages of notes on my Touch. I just emailed them to my work email, and had them all set to add to a Word doc later.

Air Sharing - While once free, it’s now $6.99, but worth it if you need to carry files and docs around. Air Sharing turns your device into a WiFi hard drive so you can store a huge variety of files and view them right over your WiFi network. I tried several alternatives such as “Files” and “Datacase” and always come back to Air Sharing.

SugarSync - This app gives you access to files shared in your SugarSync file syncing account on your home PCs. First, head over to SugarSync.com, and set up a free account. Then, choose what folders to sync between SugarSync.com and your other PC’s (installing the app on all your other PC’s of course). This creates a private peer-to-peer network between them all. Then install the iPhone app, and you’ll have access to all those files without storing them on your iPhone.

A really handy feature is “Send this file to:”, which lets you pick a file and have a link to it emailed to someone else.  This was a big help after a recent remote meeting with an editor - I needed to get him a digital press kit, so I logged into SugarSync on my Touch, and had it emailed to him in an instant.

WordPress - Need to post a quick entry to one of your Wordpress blogs? Here’s the app for you. It’s quick and simple to set up, and gets the job done.