There's a wide range of apps I use on a daily basis for work, fun and productivity. What exactly do I use?

Productivity

Things: all my to do's and projects are well organised thanks to this app. I wish Things supported push notifications to remind me of some important stuff that have to be done by a certain date.

Calendar is mostly used to keep track of my courses for school. I always set the alert to '1 day before' and '2 hours before' to make sure I never forget anything. All my calendars are pushed to the cloud with MobileMe.

SimpleNote is a fast, no-nonsense note app. The big difference with Apple's Notes app is that it syncs automatically with a web app. If you make changes in the web app, they are automatically synced to your iPhone.

Communication

Mail: like calendars, e-mails are pushed to my iPhone with MobileMe. I don't have a data subscription so I turn this off when I'm on the road. Tip: by turning Push off, you save a lot of battery power. If you still want to receive mail, turn Fetch on and set it to 'Hourly'.

Tweetie: I use this more than once during the day. I have two accounts: one for personal stuff and one for App Temple. I'm always amazed how many tweets I receive in the morning when I wake up.

Ping: I've got some friends abroad so this app comes in handy. It's great and saves me €0,40 per SMS sent internationally.

Messages: my subscription includes unlimited free text messages 24/7. I send about 10 messages a day on average.

Fun

Facebook can be used for communication but to me, it's just for fun and photos. Most people in Belgium don't use Twitter as heavily as Facebook. 

iMob is really addictive and I play this game way too much. Feel free to add me to your mob: 335.430.114.

What about you, what iPhone apps do you use on a daily basis?

Undercover, the theft-recovery app for the Mac is also available for the iPhone and iPod touch and now supports push notifications. The app helps you locate your lost or stolen device and can even be remotely launched from a web interface using push notifications.

When you launch the app for the first time, you have to fill in your e-mail and iPhone name. An e-mail will be sent with a link to set a password and complete the registration. With your new account, you can access the web interface where you can track your iPhone and send a push notification, just like MobileMe. Your device's location is displayed on Google Maps and you even have the ability to report it lost or stolen.

This app can come in handy if you're not a MobileMe subscriber. For €3,99, it's a steal.

Do you use a theft-recovery app for the iPhone or iPod touch?

The iMob developers have released an update for iMob which contains bug fixes. Gamers can also deposit and withdraw money again.

Playfish, the company behind the popular Facebook games GeoChallenge and Pet Society, has been acquired by one of the world's biggest game companies, EA. I think we can expect great things from this new team!

Read the blog post on the Playfish website.

Ping! is a handy little app to send free text messages to fellow iPhone and iPod touch users. Everything happens via WiFi, 3G or Edge so there are no additional costs for sending messages. You just need to create a free Ping! ID when you startup the app for the first time and there's no need to login or out afterwards.

The interface is similar to Apple's Messages app and supports landscape typing. The app is very useful for when you're travelling and want to limit the roaming charges. The app has a very fast startup time and messages are delivered instantly. Ping! does Push Notifications too.

Update

Unlike WhatsApp, another iPhone-2-iPhone messaging app, Ping! doesn't ask for your phone number.

The good

• free messaging!
• works anywhere
• simple interface
• there's a free (contains ads) and paid version (€0,79)

The bad

Personally, I only know two people with an iPhone.

Do you use iPhone-2-iPhone messengers? Which one?

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Great news: App Temple has now its own domain name! From now on, point your browser to apptemple.com for the latest articles on Mac and iPhone apps. We are currently working on our logo and expect to release it to the masses by the end of this month.

I'm pretty much addicted to iMob but I haven't played the game since the last update. It's impossible to deposit and withdraw money and some fights are just unreasonable:

If the developers don't fix these bugs soon, there's no point of playing it.

For the fourth time in history, MacHeist is offering a new app bundle and this time, it's completely free! However, some apps aren't that interesting and are just a replacement for existing apps.

ShoveBox: easily capture important bits of information. There's a free alternative for that: Evernote. Their iPhone app is free while ShoveBox' mobile version costs €1,59.

WriteRoom: distraction-free writing. I really like the idea of fullscreen writing but when I'm writing a paper, let's say for school, I'm constantly switching between Safari (looking up information) and my word processor. WriteRoom is a great tool for bloggers and writers, especially if you don't need tables, charts and heavy formatting. There's a (paid) alternative for that: Office 2008. Read my thoughts on Mariner White for more word processors.

Twitterrific: one of the best Twitter apps out there. I was a Twitterrific user until Tweetie came along and fell in love with the desktop and iPhone version. In my opinion, Twitterrific is probably the best app in the nanoBundle.

TinyGrab: a simple, powerful app that enables you to quickly share screenshots of everything on your Mac. Great, another screenshot app... There's an endless list of alternatives for this one: Skitch, LittleSnapper, Flickr, ImageWell, ... Even Evernote does the job.

Hordes of Orcs: a Tower Defense strategy game where you build walls and towers to defend your village from orcs gone rogue. My current Mac doesn't support this game. Although it looks amusing, I can't comment on this one.

Mariner Write: a fast, streamlined word processor that’s useful for everyone… Another word processor. 99% of all users are already using a word processor. There's no point on having five different word processors on your Mac, is there? A list of alternatives: OpenOffice, NeoOffice, Microsoft Office, TextEdit, Pages, TextMate, TextWrangler and so on.

Conclusion

Some apps like WriteRoom and Twitterrific are a great addition to your app inventory. The other apps don't really add much more value to the nanoBundle. Heck, they're all free so most people will download the bundle anyway just for kicks.

Hi, and welcome to App Temple! This isn't your typical blog with ads and fancy stuff.

App Temple is your daily stop for all things Apple, specifically iPhone apps. Whether you are having a coffee break or you're getting ready for bed, App Temple will give you the latest news and objective reviews. Don't forget to subscribe to the RSS feed.

Take care and enjoy the blog,

Stefaan