'iPhone 4 - Twitter' (c) 2010, William Hook - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Yesterday, my wife gave everybody in the family an iPhone as early birthday presents. It was a gracious gesture, but the mood quickly turned ugly as the kids began argue who was going have teach me how use it. “But, Mom, it’ll take forever!” said one family member her mother.

After quickly reducing the number of people named in my will, I began search the Web for potential resources that could help me grasp how I could best use my new gadget.

I’m eager hear additional suggestions.

Here are my picks for The Best Sites For Beginning iPhone Users Like Me (I tried only include resources that seemed particularly recent and up–date):

iPhone For Dummies Cheat Sheet

20 Ways I Really Use My iPhone Teach Band Class ( is useful for any teacher)

The Daily Beast: 15 Best iPhone Apps

TIME: Top iPhone Applications

Lifehacker Pack for iPhone: Our List of the Best iPhone Apps

PC World: The 18 Best iPhone Apps

Extreme Tech: The 30 Best Free iPhone Apps 2010

The “App Hall Of Fame” features monthly listings of iPhone applications thought worthy of “hall of fame” status.

Instagram is a new iPhone app that the blog Read Write Web raved about — see Instagram Has Made Me an iPhone Addict. NOTE: Instagram just made many changes. You can read about them at Instagram Launches Its Biggest Overhaul Yet (But Still No Android App).

Top 10 Must-Have Apps for the iPhone, and Some Runners-Up is an article in the New York Times.

David Pogue from The New York Times has published his “10 Favorite iPhone Apps.” He also includes several “runners-up.”

Mashable has posted a useful list titled “10 Unique iPhone Photography Accessories.”

The Top 10 Apps Make Your Holiday Travel Much Safer is a nice list from EDUdemic.

Read Write Web has a post highlighting a number of sites where you can get reviews and recommendations for mobile phone apps, including ones for the iPhone. Two of the betters ones seem be appolicious and appsfire.

10 Best Free iPhone Apps For Ebook Reading is a useful list explore further.

I’ve learned about two interesting iPhone apps that I’m adding list:

SoundCloud has created one that makes it super-easy record audio and upload it your social networks. You can read more about it at TechCrunch.

How Take Better Pictures with Your Smartphone’s Camera comes from Lifehacker.

My favorite iPhone photography apps comes from the writer of the Los Angeles Times blog.

12 Smartphone Apps Help With Last-Minute Holiday Shopping comes from The Atlantic.

A Veteran Tech Reporter’s Favorite Apps is a useful article by NY Times journalist John Markoff about the apps he has his iPhone.

The Best Media Streaming Apps for Your iPhone from Lifehacker

The Best Shopping Apps for iPhone, also from Lifehacker

The Best iPhone Apps for Your Car from Lifehacker

The Top 40 iPhone Apps of 2010 is a very useful post from TechCrunch

Mashable has published The Ultimate iPhone Guide: 60+ Essential Resources. Out of that massive list, here are the resources I’m adding list:

Free Books is an app with 24,000 free classic.

Open Culture has an educational audio and video collection.

10 Useful iPhone Shortcuts, Tips and Tricks

7 Useful iPhone Camera Tips and Tricks

HOW : Give Your iPhone a Spring Clean

Just got an iPhone? The best apps, accessories, and tips comes from Engadget

Skype’s New App Brings Video Chat The iPhone, iPad And iPod Touch comes from TechCrunch.

How Use Dropbox with an iPhone or iPod Touch

Camera+ looks like a very nice app. I especially like its zoom feature.

PicPlz is another app that has potential.

50 Best iPhone Apps 2011 comes from TIME Magazine.

Word Lens is an amazing new iPhone application that will translate written words in an image. Right now it just does English/Spanish, but the developer is planning expand its number of languages. You can read more about it at a TechCrunch post, and watch video:

Google has announced that their Google Translate app for the iPhone now includes “speak–translate” and “listen your translations” features. Read all about it at TechCrunch.

12 Totally Awesome (Yet Free) Photography Apps For Your iPhone is from Luke Tech Tips.

The iPhone for Advanced Beginners is a short and useful video from The New York Times. I’ve also embedded it below:

Tango looks like a good video calling app.

Top 12 iPhone Apps That’ll Increase Your Productivity comes from Dumb Little Man.

Joe Dale has created a new blog just devoted apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad that might be useful language learner students and teachers. It’s called MFL edapps, and it looks great.

The Top 30 Best Photography Apps for iPhone is a useful post from The Next Web.

Photsynth is a new free Microsoft app for the iPhone for taking panoramic . Here’s how ReadWriteWeb describes it:

Photosynth stands out as you can capture images not just along a horizontal line, but in all directions – up, down, left and right. And rather than just relying you hold the camera steady while you pan, the app gives you guidelines of where the next image should be places and next snapped.

It also lets you the Facebook and Bing Maps.

HOW : Master Smartphone Photography [PICS] comes from Mashable.

16 Tips Take Your iPhone the Next Level is from The New York Times.

Onavo Is A Money-Saving, Must-Have App For EVERY iPhone Data User is a pretty interesting post from TechCrunch about a new iPhone app.

Videolicious For The iPhone Helps You Edit Quality Videos, Fast is a post from TechCrunch about a new free iPhone app that appears make it super-simple edit video.

New Apps Post Videos With Ease is a New York Times article.

I’m adding two more resources: They are 25 Essential Apps for Travelers from TIME Magazine and TripLingo Teaches You Foreign Language Phrases You’ll Actually Need When Traveling.

10 Excellent Photography Apps for iPhone Users comes from Smashing Hub.

David Einstein writes an advice column technology for the San Francisco Chronicle, and recently wrote one apps for translating languages smart phones. It’s short and worth reading. Here are the three he recommends:

Google Translate

Jibbigo Voice Translation

Talk Me – Text Speech

Here are a couple of great smart phone resources use with students in class:

Seems Like A Pretty Easy Way Practice Speaking….

Sock Puppets is a simple iPhone app that lets you easily record a student and upload it YouTube. It can be used briefly record a student speaking or reading in class, or even have two or three students record a simple play (the free app allows thirty seconds of recording while for 99 cents you can upgrade 90 seconds). One major advantage of using for speaking practice is that it’s the sock puppet that’s actually speaking the display, not the student. It looks like it could have potential. Thanks techchef4u for the tip.

50 Best iPhone Apps 2011 comes from TIME Magazine.

Lifehacker Pack for iPhone: Our List of the Best iPhone Apps

Add Pictures Your Audio Recordings with Snoozerr
is a Lifehacker post about an app that lets you make an audio recording connected the you’re taking.

100 Cameras in 1
looks like a useful app.

iPhone App From SimpleGeo Discovers the History, Politics & Wildlife Around You

11 tips ensure great smartphone is from MacWorld.

Here’s a post from TechCrunch about Photovine, Google’s – app.

What Is That? Let Your Smartphone Have a Look is a useful New York Times article

Klip is an impressive app videos from your iPhone.

Kleiner-Backed Vlix Is An Instagram For Video; Adds Filters, Effects And More Mobile Video is a TechCrunch post about a new iPhone application.

Dear Apple, Please Make My iPhone 4S Battery Life Suck Less is from TechCrunch. The tips in the comments section are particularly helpful.

iPhone 4S Battery Life Bugs Got You Down? Try is also from TechCrunch.

25 Essential Apps for Your New iPhone 4S is from Mashable.

Show and Tell: iPhone 4S is a video from David Pogue at The New York Times.

I just learned about APPitic, which describes itself as:

…an directory of apps for education by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) help you transform teaching and learning.

It has over 1,300 categorized apps, including a ton organized by Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Hidden iPhone Tricks: Secret Keyboard and Panoramic is from TIME.

Forget Text, Vimessa Brings Visual Voicemail the Masses is from Mashable.

iPhone apps download now is from The BBC.

Apps 4 Edu comes from the Utah Education Network.

The Top 20 iPhone And iPad Apps of 2011 comes from TechCrunch.

Best iPhone Apps of 2011 is from The New York Times.

New iPhone? Try these apps for travelers is from MSNBC.

Want Make Your iPhone’s PIN More Secure? Repeat A Digit is from TechCrunch.

Instahub collects links all apps and sites related the popular smartphone app Instagram.

Finding apps for the shadow economy: The digital divide is fast becoming ancient history, thanks the all-powerful smartphone is a very interesting article from Salon.

10 awesome apps for iPhoneography is from Matador.

The Wall Street Journal gave Camera Awesome an incredibly positive review, and free iPhone app became available yesterday for download. It looks very impressive.

Here Are 13 Awesome Things Do With All of Those You Take With Your iPhone is a very useful slideshow.

I’m starting take (and have students take ) using iPhone apps that let you provide an accompanying audio commentary.

The best app for kind of excellent speaking practice exercise is Fotobabble. The web version is already The Best Sites Practice Speaking English list, and I’m adding the phone app there, too. You take a , provide an up–one minute commentary, and then can it several ways. You can email it yourself, too, where you are provided a link it the Fotobabble site. You’re given the opportunity re-record if you don’t like how it sounds the first try, and you can make other changes it, too. It also provides the option embed, as I have done with quick experiment (a of one of our dogs, Lola):

Another option, which was launched week at the SXSW conference in Austin week, is an app called Picle. It only gives you ten seconds of commentary, but you can choose have it record at the same time you’re taking the or afterwards. It doesn’t offer an embed option, but you can link it the Picle website. It also doesn’t appear give you an opportunity re-record if you’re not satisfied with your first try. Here’s a sample – again of Lola.

I’d definitely vote for Fotobabble. However, since Picle is new, I assume they’ll be making lots of improvements in the future.


50 Best iPhone Apps 2012
from TIME.

Is the iPhone the Only Camera You Need? is from The Wall Street Journal.

Snapguide looks like an interesting iPhone app that lets anyone make a guide just about anything. You can read about it in New York Times article.

Here are some “new me” smartphone apps I’ve found for translation. Though the last one is not iPhone-related, I’ll still add them all list:

SayHi Translate is an iPhone app that translates what you speak into a language of your choice. It’s very similar Google Translate, though has fewer choices. It may have some advantages, though — it seemed work more accurately than Google Translate when I tried it out morning. It costs 99 cents. I’m going have my students try-out both next week and give me feedback which one they like better.

7 Language Translation iPhone Apps for the Digital Traveler is a useful post from Mashable.

The Microsoft Translator app for Windows Phone has recently added an augmented reality feature translate signs, menus, etc. You just point the phone at it.

Tourwrist looks like a useful iPhone app take 360 panoramic images. You can read more about it at Read Write Web.

Still Shot is a cool iPhone app that lets you get from your videos.

Vocre is the latest in an increasing number of SmartPhone translating apps that can help you communicate in another language. It can come in handy if you just have communicate something an ELL student in their native language, or if you need communicate family members.

I’ve described some nice apps that let you add an audio recording your and then them. enpixa is a new one that’s very similar the others. It’s free, and you can add a thirty second recording.

Ptch is a new iPhone app that lets you easily mix your and videos into a neat slideshow with music. It seems me like Animoto with a more attractive interface, more options and better music.

How Make Your Lost Phone Findable is from David Pogue.

Ten Tips and Tricks Every iPhone and iPad User Should Know is a very helpful article.

Top 10 Tips For Better iPhone has useful advice.

Microphones For iPhones

Vidify is a similar automatic video-combining app Magisto, which is described earlier in list.

How Smart Is That Phone? Apps Unveil the Tricks is from The New York Times.

Beamr looks like a great app that lets you full-resolution from your iPhone. You can read more about it at TechCrunch.

Google has just created an iPhone app for YouTube. It looks like it might be useful and have advantages over using the regular iPhone uploading function in the iPhone. You can read more about it at TechCrunch and at Read Write Web.

Glide is an iPhone app that lets you easily video messages and is rapidly gaining popularity.

You can read more about it in The New York Times.

PhotoBlab is yet another Smartphone app for adding audio your .

TIME recently published the new edition of their annual list: 50 Best iPhone Apps, 2013 Edition.

Tellagami is neat iPhone/iPad app that lets users quickly create virtual characters that can speak audio that’s been recorded or use text–speech.

Here’s an example:



Here’s What I’m Using As An External Microphone For My iPhone5

A Collection Of Recommendation Lists From Around The Web For iPhone & iPad Apps

Vobok is an iPhone app that lets you easily record thirty second audio messages. You can read about it in the San Francisco Chronicle here. It might be a useful tool for English Language Learners, but I haven’t tried it out yet.

Yakit and Yakit Kids are iPhone and iPad apps that let’s “any talk.”

Chatterpix is an app for the iPhone/iPad that:

…can make anything talk — pets, friends, doodles, and more. Simply take any , draw a line make a mouth, and record your voice. Then your Pix with friends and family as silly greetings, playful messages, creative cards, or even fancy book reports. And best of all, it’s FREE!

Flipgram is another Animoto-like app to create videos out of your media. Thanks to Richard Byrne for the tip.

Voxer is an app that has potential for speaking practice with English Language Learners. Joe Mazza talks about various other educational uses for it at his blog. Here’s video about it:

PhotoMath & Reactions To It From Around The Web

Plotagon Is A Free & Simple Tool For Creating Animations

“Clips” Might Be The Easiest Tool Out There For Editing Videos

“KnowMe” Has Immediately Become The Most Useful iPhone App In My Classroom

The New “PhotoScan” By Google Is One Of The Most Useful Apps I’ve Ever Seen

Feedback is welcome.

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