iOS Tip – 7 Must Consider Free iPhone Apps, Week of Sept 16, 2011

Twitter Client (Pro) HootSuite

I’ll admit I don’t use it a ton, however, it is very reliable. I love that Hootsuite also integrates with LinkedIn and facebook, the search is great, and the multiple account management is superb. My biggest gripe is when Hootsuite web flipped the switch to pro and really cut back on the basic features, I lost much of the functionality in my mobile pro app because it was linked to my web account which isn’t pro… go figure that one! I also really don’t like Owly for short urls.

Twitter Client (Basic i.e.. not Pro) – Echofon

Echofon is crazy simple to use and quite powerful for a free app. I use it as my main twitter client for my personal feed (@gletham). It provides all the functionality that I need to have including integration of Flickr link for photo uploads, immediate notification of mentions and DMs, auto fill/remember of twitter follower names, excellent list management, and multiple account handling. The biggest pitfall is the lousy search capabilities, otherwise it rocks.

Photo Enhancement (Basic) PhotoShop Mobile

I’ve been using this app since day 1 and I love it. Photoshop mobile provides pretty basic functionality (contrast and color enhancement, rotate, cropping, frames, and special effects) but what it does do it does really well. The app is easy to use (my 9 yr old uses it), its stable, and the results are spectacular.

360 Degree Photo Panoramas – PhotoSynth from Microsoft (Bing)

Designed to integrate with Microsoft’s PhotoSynth web service, this powerful app enables the user to create 360 degree geotagged panoramic scenes quickly and easily. Once captured, the user optionally uploads the pano shot to their PhotoSynth account, can share with Bing maps, push to facebook, and even associate the shot with a local business (detected using GPS and a POI lookup). The most impressive attribute of PhotoSynth I think is the speed that the panos are created and uploaded.

Photo Effects (Basic) ColorinGrey

I just stumbled onto this app recently, however, I’ve quickly grown to really dig it! ColorinGrey takes a photo, converts it to grey scale, then allows the user to brush portions of the photo and add back some color… imagine a black and white photo of a person but their red shoes are gleaming red.. its a way cool and fun effect. The user has control over the brush size and brightness, much like using "Paint".

Live Video Streaming – uStream

I’m a huge fan of uStream and the iPhone app really delivers. You’ll need an existing uStream account but once you have that the mobile client links up nicely and is simple to use. Fire up the app, start recording video, then upload to a channel of your choice. A tip, facebook pages have a uStream Tab option so you can easily create a Video Channel in your facebook page and live stream from your iPhone directly to facebook for your fans to enjoy… oh, did I mention that its free?

Fun Social Geo App – TweetSpot

TweetSpot is relatively unknown app, however, it provides some really cool functionality for those who like to visualize geo-Tweets on a map. The app links to your twitter account, then enables you to search tweets based on a keyword or hashtag then displays the results on a map, showing you the location of the tweet origin… for example, search "earthquake" and see the resulting tweets on a map of where people are tweeting about earthquakes. Pretty basic, simple to use, and effective.

I could go on and easily list about 50 more favorites, however, I’ll leave off with these 7 to give you something to think about. Got a favorite iPhone app to share? Feel free to tell me about it – ping me on Twitter @gletham