The Best Ipod Apps

Upon receiving my new generation Ipod touch, I was placed in the unfamiliar world of Apps, or Applications. This thing was not just for music, oh no, but according to Apple it had "infinite possibilities" for everything else. All the stupid app commercials suddenly applied to me, and I had to ask around to see what apps I should download.

Right away I discovered one thing: most apps cost money. This was discouraging, but I came upon a stroke of luck when I logged into my neglected apple account and found around five dollars waiting patiently to be spent. On top of that, I'd heard about a thing called "Jailbreaking" your Ipod, making features usually not accessible to the average user accessible. Through this, I found the first two useful apps I'll mention.

WiFiPass, the wifi password logging app. It records any network information you find, so you don't have to keep asking for a password wherever you go. It allows your Ipod to remember and login to the network automatically. I enjoy having wifi, and it's really nice being able to skip the irritation of re-entering a network password every time I use it.


 
BatteryLogger. I think this is the light version I got from Cydia, but it's good enough for me. It does what it sounds like it does: logs your battery usage, time stamping and graphing said information. I'm kind of a freak about charging my ipod, and I like seeing the numbers instead of just guessing based on how full the battery icon in the top right corner is. 

Thankfully when I looked for free apps I found I didn't have to pay for useful things, like Facebook, Pandora, StumbleUpon, Google, and a Dictionary App. But the unfortunate thing about 90% of free apps is they're usually terrible, but there are idiots out there who rate it higher than it should rightfully be rated, creating a pile of retarded free apps that had to be pushed aside to find an occasional treasure, such as Chop Chop Ninja and the Mixology App.

However, some of my favorite apps I ended up paying for, and only because of A) the money I found sitting in my old account, B) the gift card I got for Christmas and C) the gift card I won at work. Otherwise I don't think I would've gotten the apps I did.

These are my favorites:

Although the most expensive of the apps I picked out ($2.99) it is entirely worth it. Epic Win is a To Do List of Epic proportions. Chose an Avatar, give it a clever name based on your own (mine is Chlotor) and watch yourself level up doing what you do every day. It's complete with stats, history, gold, and loot. It's a fairly slow process and I just hit level three the other day after about a month or so. It depends on the epicness of the tasks you set yourself to do, and it ranges from 50 points to 300 points. It makes remembering to do shit epic. Seriously, it's awesome.

 If you haven't played Robot Unicorn Attack on AdultSwim, go do it now. I resisted this game for a long time, out of stubbornness and the fact that everyone I knew was playing it. I didn't feel like jumping on the bandwagon, I guess. But not only do the touch controls make it easier, I'm a lot better at it on my ipod than online (even though Michael still kicks my ass at it). It's a constant struggle, trying to beat my boyfriends score, and it's not as gay as it looks. (The song, in case you are wondering, is "Always" by Erasure)

Urbanspoon. Actually, I think I got this one for free, which makes it all the better. This is probably one of the most useful tools I've found. Michael and I have this problem when we're hungry and we want to go out: where? What kind of food do we want? And commence the "I don't know what do you want" game, in which we repeat this line to each other while sitting on our asses, bellies getting no fuller. A most useless game. With Urbanspoon, we can set where we are, what kind of food we want, and how much we're willing to pay for it. I've lived in Prescott for 15 years, but for some reason when I'm hungry I can't think of a single good place to eat. This app reminds me what's around, and if there's a place I know of that isn't in the system I can suggest it so it is. I can also say what places I like, what places I don't and why. It's very helpful.



MxTube. This I think I got through Cydia after Jailbreaking my Ipod, so it was free but hard to find. I could use YouTube anyway, but with this MxTube contraption I could download and keep videos from YouTube on my Ipod. This is very useful, actually. I enjoy it, because I don't have to figure out formatting if I want a music video; most of the time I can just get it.

Fruit Ninja. Sooo addicting. Worth the dollar. It has achievements, and for whatever reason I'm not so bad at it. I know slicing fruit doesn't sound that exciting, but it is, because there are different modes and unlockables and all that good stuff. Really enjoy it.

Angry Birds. Also an addicting game, and it's gotten so damn popular there are shirts at Hot Topic and other merchandise. There are different birds that do different things, and the objective is to destroy all the green pigs and as much of the structure as you can. If you use less birds than you have you get more points for that, too. It's a pretty standard game, apparently, because it's everywhere. I like it, though after the first world it gets kinda hard.


     So those are the apps I use the most and find the most worth my dollar. I have some other entertaining apps that I don't use as much, like iGun (good for taking out frustration) and I Am T-Pain (playing with autotune). I'm always on the lookout for something new, but I'm really picky about apps unless someone I know personally looks me in the eye and says "You should get this." You'd think looking at the rating and reading reviews would give you a good idea what an app is like, but it doesn't. When top apps are "The Moron Test," "Virtual Paper Toss" and "Ow My Balls" and everyone says things like "dis ap is da best, i had soooooo much fun wit it!!!!!111!!" I lose a little faith in humanity and can't trust almost any app. You have to sift through the crap, try to find demos and decide for yourself. And for God sakes, write a real review. Rarely do I find useful reviews but I'm so relieved when I do. I hate hate hate when someone just gives five stars, has no title, and all the review says is "cool." This tells me absolutely nothing, and it screws with the overall average rating of the app.
      I thought maybe making a list of my personal favorites and a little advice would shed some light on anyone struggling with App Hunting. I still have a little more than $6 left from a gift card and I simply can't decide because I can't find anything good. I almost dread the next time I get a gift card because I'll have to go through the same thing. It may not be my money, necessarily, but I still don't want to waste it on something retarded that was made and reviewed by monkeys.