ultimate geek girl

It seems like I’ve been writing a lot of iPhone app posts lately. Probably because I have been. But I’ve had plenty of time to test some really neat free ones that I think you all will like. Check ‘em out and let me know what you think!!

CauseWorld
Are you out shopping or eating and want a quick easy way to donate to charitable organizations without spending any extra money? Check out this app. It looks for where you are in the world then tells you participating locations where you’ll then “check in”. Once you check in, you earn “karmas”. Get a certain number of karmas and donate them to the charity of your choice. Pretty simple, right? I’ve donated karmas for classrooms and drinking water, but now I’m saving so I can help give vaccines. It’s yet another app with Facebook connectivity (sorry but I’m still on the old school basic Facebook), so you can invite folks you know if you want or share your good deeds. Sometimes I do have problems with the app finding me & local stores, but when it does it’s great. Download it and get to work!

TwitBird
I saw this app in the app store and I had to check it out when I saw it had the ability to find twitterers near you. So I downloaded it just to check that out. It’s a pretty solid twitter app and while the free version may not replace TweetDeck for me, it’s great to see what people in my locale are talking about. Even the twitter homepage can’t do that for me right now (I know it can for some places but not where I am). I really like the features it has including being able to check tweets from the lists you made in twitter, having multiple accounts easily accessible without accidently sending from the wrong one, and push notifications. Rock on!

NYCWAY
Since Ellie lives in NYC and I like to visit her there, I’m always looking for great apps to help both of us out. This app is very good. The only thing I didn’t see listed in any category was bookstores (though they do have all the libraries listed!), but I emailed the app developers and they emailed me back within minutes and said they’d work on adding it to the next release. That gives them major kudos in my book. It’s well organized and I found things I needed quite easily. Pick the category of what you’re looking for and it will locate what is nearest to you by using the GPS on your phone or any location you put in. So if you’re just planning a trip, it can be very useful if you can give it a landmark to search from. You can even use it on their website!!!

BrightKite
I’m still really trying to get the hang of BrightKite but the premise is neat – a social networking site based on your geographic location. Of course you can talk to and see what people all over the world are doing, but you can leave messages at random places in your town and when another BrightKite user is near it, they can see them! Isn’t that cool?

xkcd
If you’re not familiar with this cartoon (xkcd is the name), please download immediately. If you love this cartoon, do the same. It’s exactly what you think it is, a quick way to view cartoons (and probably have people on the bus looking at you funny). You can even see the alt text that can be even funnier than the actual graphic.

last.fm
At first I was in love with Pandora. Until I started getting too many repeats and songs that were nothing like what I asked to listen to. Enter last.fm. It’s exactly what I needed. I can pick an artist, a genre, a random mix, etc. Based on what I’ve played on my iPod or iPhone or computer (using the scrobbler application), it will give me suggestions of artists to check out. I can make playlists of songs I like and listen to just those. The iPhone app is very functional for what you need it for and you can control the site from your computer as well. I really like that it can show me the patterns of my listening by artist. Mine currently tells me that I’ve listened to a lot of Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds lately! If you’re listening to radio as opposed to your library, great download.

Period Plus
Ok ladies, listen up! (Sorry fellas!) Have you ever gotten to the doctor and had to fill out the dreaded “last day of period” on a form? Can’t remember exactly, just kinda when in a range it was? Not sure about something that happened 2-3 months ago? Put it all in this free app. That’s all I gotta say.

IMDb
Like the website? Get the app. Look up info on movies, actors, tv listings, etc. Full reviews, just like on the website, and the top film listings are here too. Want to know when that DVD you’ve been waiting on will be released? It’s got the new list of DVDs and Blu-ray discs available. If I even need a suggestion for movies to suggest to my worst enemy, I can check out the bottom 100 films (as rated by users).

Kernel Mobile
I love reading my campus (UK) paper every day. It’s the greatest source of news for what’s happening on campus right now and a lot easier to understand than the university web site. At least from a student perspective. Anyway, this app keeps me from picking up a paper copy of the news from the newsstand (I’m trying to be green). Instead, I can read all the latest news on the go and even check out archives. Need the classifieds? Check. Sports news? Check.  (And to be biased, this is my 3^rd school so I have to pause here to give props to The Appalachian and The Pitt News, though they don’t have iPhone apps).

Indeed
Even though I’m STILL in school, it is almost time for me to be done. So I’m job hunting. I really got turned on to the site Indeed a few months back and they’ve got a great app that works almost identically to their website. Put in all the necessary info and voila! Search results. Check it out, I think you’ll like it! You’ll even be able to quickly re-search a previous search (it keeps track).

In a couple weeks, look for another post – this time a non-iPhone related one. The next post will be on how to spring clean – the advanced version. In the meantime though, tell me what you think about the iPhone apps I blogged about today!

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