With an iPhone 5 you have room for 20 apps on your home screen plus four additional apps in the dock at the bottom of the screen. Like many people (I suspect) I organize my apps such that the most frequently used are on my home screen. Here then are my 20 favorite apps.
##Felix Felix is my app.net client of choice. It’s minimal but full-featured, makes great use of taps and swipes for navigation and feature controls and only costs $2.99.
##Twitterrific Twitterrific has long been my favorite Twitter app, both on iOS and Mac OS. The iOS app already has a flattened appearance so I expect it will continue to look good against iOS 7 when that is released. Like Felix its use of gestures is superb. $2.99 for a limited time.
##Check the Weather Easily my favorite weather app, and I have three or four others installed, Check the Weather packs a lot of usable, readable information into its interface. Best of all it includes the Dark Sky precipitation forecast, which provides real-time rain and snow forecasting that actually works. $3.99 from the App Store.
##Clock I make daily use of Apple’s clock app, especially the alarm feature.
##LoseIt! I reviewed this calorie tracking app once before, and mentioned it along with the next three weight loss apps. It’s a great tool for monitoring your diet and activity. LoseIt! is free.
##WeightBot WeightBot is the slickest weight tracking app I have seen. Fun to use, which makes you more likely to track your weight. Just a $1.99.
##Moves Moves is a pedometer for your iPhone. Once setup you never have to interact with it again — it uses the notification center to keep you updated on your activity level. Moves is a free app.
##FitBit The FitBit iOS app works in conjunction with your FitBit tracker. Bluetooth syncing means you can always see daily steps and sleep record. The app is free, the tracker isn’t.
##[HackerNews][1] [1]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hacker-news/id541355312?mt=8 “Hacker News” There are many, many apps for reading YCombinator’s Hacker News site. None are perfect, but this one is far better than most. Best of all it works on both iPhone and iPad. HackerNews is a free app.
##AlienBlue AlienBlue is a reddit client. As with the Hacker News client above there are many reddit clients to choose from. So far this one best meets my needs.
##[Prismatic][2] [2]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prismatic-always-interesting/id551206444?mt=8 “Prismatic” Prismatic is a aggregation site that lets you choose topics or categories of interest. The site then shows you collected articles and stories based on your choices. The app is nicely minimal if a bit slow to update at times. Prismatic is a free service and the app is free too.
##Find Friends My wife and I make heavy use of this Apple app to know the current location of each other.
##Vesper Vesper is the newest addition to my home screen. It is a very minimal note taking app that just works. Best of all it’s consummately designed and implemented. Vesper is $4.99 in the App Store.
##Fantastical My favorite calendar app is Fantastical. New event creation is quite and easy due to the excellent parsing ability the app has, and the daily display of events is exactly what I need. Fantastical is $4.99.
##Photos I really haven’t looked for any other photo management apps as Apple’s does the job for me.
##Flickr The new Flickr for iPhone app is great. My use of Flickr has increased as a result of this new app. Flickr for iPhone is free.
##Clockwork Clockwork is a metronome app. It has an innovative interface with both audible and visual time indications. A variety of “tic” sounds and the ability to devise complex rhythmic patters round out this excellent tool. Clockwork is $0.99.
##Cleartune Cleartune is a sophisticated musical instrument tuner. Perfect for string players as it can tune in violin temperament or equal termperament. Cleartune is $3.99.
##TE Tuner The Tonal Energy Tuner is a suite of apps designed to complement music education. I like the tuner as it has a vibrant display. Every evening whenI practice cello I use this app to tune my instrument. TE Tuner is $3.99.
##Camera The Apple provided camera app suits my picture taking needs wonderfully. I especially like the panorama option and the ability to take videos as well as still pictures.