Capsun's Corner – by Capsun M. Poe

Before I begin, I’d like to wish my close friend and fellow blogger, thesesus51, a very Happy Birthday!  It sounds like he’s genuinely excited.

The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect on what has transpired in the preceding 50 or so weeks.  So in the spirit of reflection, I’m going to devote most of the remaining days of 2008 blogging about my top lists for the year.  So today I start with top iPhone apps.

I’ve been meaning to do this particular post for a while.  Then a few days ago, I got news from my fellow blogger Sandee Oshiro that she was ending her Honolulu Advertiser blog, Hawaii Hacks.  Here’s what caught my eye:

Most relevant for your purposes, I never got around to blogging about parking secrets and top iPhone apps like I said I would…

I can help out a little on both counts and more.  First, the Beat of Hawaii blog had some great Waikiki parking tips.  Second, you can follow Sandee on micro-blogging service Twitter.  She’s @sandybeach – pretty clever, huh?  And third, here are my top iPhone apps (that are in a format native to the iPhone) for the year:

• Best Productivity App:  Remember the Milk – your to-do list on steroids, in a good way.  This is the only app on this list that costs money, $25 for a 1-year subscription to the service.
  • Honorable Mention:  Evernote – the best universal capture device.  You can send it stuff through email, by taking a picture, by recording a note, or by typing it.  It even has handwriting recognition so you can write a note, take a picture of it, and search the text you wrote.
• Best Social Utility App:  Facebook – it’s the popular social-networking site in the palm of your hands.
  • Honorable Mention:  Twitteriffic – for those, like yours truly, who are constantly on Twitter.  And the best part is it makes a bird “tweeting” sound when your Twitterstream is updated.
• Most Fun App:  Lightsaber -  exactly what you think it is, the cool energy-emitting swords from Star Wars.  I don’t care how much of a dork I look like! This is usually the app I use to show off my iPhone to others.  And my wonderful fiancee even plays lightsaber duels with me every once in a while.
  • Honorable Mention:  Zippo Lighter - also what it sounds like.  Perfect for karaoke sessions when you want to pretend you’re at a concert.
• Coolest App:  Google Earth – again, a great desktop app, now available in the sleek iPhone size.
  • Honorable Mention:  WordPress – for someone who really wants to blog all the time.  It’s a little cumbersome on the iPhone, so it is far better suited to editing blog entries than typing them from scratch.
• Best in Show:  Google Mobile – the most popular and powerful search engine at your fingertips.  The best feature is that you can do a voice search, just clearly speaking your query.

Note that all these selections are available in the App Store on iTunes.  While you don’t need a Mac, you do need an iPhone to enjoy these, although some are available in other formats.

Mahalo!

Tags: evernote, facebook, google earth, google mobile, iphone, lightsaber, remember the milk, twitteriffic, wordpress, zippo