Apps

10 iPhone Apps for Travelers

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 27, 2019

The iPhone is one of the most popular devices that has been made in the last decade and there are now literally thousands of applications designed for it. But with all of those apps to choose from, which ones are best to make sure you take with you on your travels?

Take a look at this list of some of the 10 most powerful iPhone applications available for you to download today.

1. Cheap Gas! (Free) Cheap Gas! helps you locate the lowest priced gas closest to wherever you're at and then display a map showing you the specific location. The application utilizes the built-in GPS feature to discover the ten nearest gas stations with the lowest prices according to GasBuddy.com. You even have the option to search based on zip code and determine whether the fuel is unleaded, premium unleaded, or diesel.

2. ExpenseBay (Free) Developed by Expense Cloud, this application removes the demand to maintain an actual collection of receipts and bills gathered throughout your travels, which puts a stop to any potential misplaced reimbursements. You can easily add transactions and receipt images to your ExpenseBay.com account in a matter of a few clicks, and also modify existing expenses that still require to be billed to a client or submitted for reimbursement.

3. GateGuru (Free) GateGuru is an application that provides intricate detail about services available at different gates at more than 80 major airports in the United States, as well as several others throughout the world. This application is extremely useful when you want to get a quick bite prior to boarding your flight and you're not familiar with the airport.

4. HopStop (Free) Similar to the website service available at HopStop.com, this particular application offers in depth public transportation directions and advice. Regardless of whether you are journeying by bus, subway, cab, or even walking, this iPhone application will enable you to get to exactly where you are heading.

5. Flight Track ($4.99) Flight Track monitors every part of your domestic and international flights together with live updates and gorgeous, zoomable maps. Examine gate numbers, flight delays and cancellations for more than 5,000 airports worldwide.

6. FlightCaster ($1.99) This app uses an innovative formula that tracks information on every single domestic flight within the last decade and then matches it to current conditions to predict delayed flights. At the moment FlightCaster only supports U.S. domestic flights.

7. Free Wi-Fi Finder (Free) Free Wi-Fi Finder does exactly as the name implies. No matter where you are in the world, it will use both your iPhone's GPS feature and network capabilities to to uncover free Wi-Fi Internet access.

8. SitOrSquat (Free) SitOrSquat allows you to track down the closest restrooms nearest to your present location. You can check out close by restrooms on the map or in a list categorized by distance and see which ones are open for use. Not only that, but you can read reviews and ratings, and even see photos of the toilets so that you know what awaits you.

9. AroundMe (Free) Developed by TweakerSoft, AroundMe easily determines your location and helps you pick the closest bank, gas station, hospital, hotel, restaurant, supermarket, and so on. You can view a comprehensive listing of all of the businesses inside the chosen category and see how far they are from where you are at.

10. Urbanspoon (Free) Urbanspoon uses a unique slot machine system that determines a high quality restaurant that you can try when you're hungry, but not sure what exactly to eat. Just shake your iPhone until you find a suggestion that suits your tastes. After locating the restaurant, you can read ratings and even compare your choices with friends. At the moment it is available in most cities in North America, along with London, Melbourne, and Sydney.

This is a guest post by Melissa Tamura. Melissa ranks online schools for the Zen College Life Directory. She most recently wrote about becoming a Massage Therapist.

Make Your iPhone Icons Smaller With Shrink

Sébastien Page ∙ May 11, 2010

Shrink is a new application available in Cydia that lets you size down your iPhone icons in order to fit more on the screen. Well, at least that's what it says in the description as I was not able to fit more than 4 icons per row, but I might be missing something.

After installing Shrink from Cydia, simply go to your Settings.app. From there, you can reduce the size of your iPhone icons to up to 25% of the actual size (see screenshot).

The good thing is that Shrink is fully compatible with WinterBoard and InfiniDock. The downside is that it also shrinks your badges, making it almost impossible to see how many unread emails you have, for example.

All in all, I think Shrink does a pretty good job at reducing the size your icons, if that's what you're looking for. If not, then save yourself $0.99, which is the price to download Shrink in Cydia.

Have you tried Shrink? What do you think about it?

QuickLauncher: A Smart App Launcher for iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ May 9, 2010

Have you ever wished your iPhone was smart enough to figure out what apps you want to launch at any given time? If so, read on because QuickLauncher might be the right app for you.

QuickLauncher is a revolutionary launcher for your iPhone or iPod Touch that automatically learns what your most used apps are and shows you a SpringBoard-like view of them.

No more flicking through your springboard pages to find your most used applications, QuickLauncher knows them and sorts them out accordingly to allow you to quickly access them from anywhere.

For quick and easy access, you can configure the way you launch QuickLauncher with Activator.

QuickLauncher is available for download from Cydia. At $1.99, it's one of these simple apps that make a great productivity tool. If you try it, please tell us what you think by leaving a comment.

WiCarrier Displays Wifi Network in Status Bar

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 19, 2010

Earlier today I told you about FullForce, a new app by Ryan Petrich. Ryan is very prolific these days as he has yet another app available in Cydia.

Ryan's new application is WiCarrier, a very simple app that displays the name of the wifi network you're connected to in your status bar. Additionally, it can display your IP address as well.

After installing WiCarrier from Cydia, you will notice that if you're on wifi, your carrier name has been replaced by the name of the wifi network. If you tap on the network name, it will display your IP address.

While it's not a breakthrough app that will change your life, it's still a nice little tweak.

FullForce Forces Your iPhone Apps to Display in Full Screen Mode on iPad

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 19, 2010

A few days ago I shared with you a hack to make your iPhone apps run in full screen mode on your iPad. This hack requires a few steps that might scare away those of you who don't feel like playing with the core files of applications.

Lucky for us, one of my favorite jailbreak developer, Ryan Petrich, created FullForce, an application that "force selects applications to show in full screen iPad mode, even if the developer hasn't certified them as compatible".

The result? Even if an application like Facebook can't be properly displayed in full screen mode on your iPad, FullForce will work its magic and make the app fit the whole screen without pixelizing it.

You can download FullForce from Cydia for free. Once installed, go to the settings.app and in the FullForce options, select the applications you want to force.

Note that FullForce doesn't work with all applications. Just like the hack, text based apps such as Facebook and Tweetie work best in full screen mode.

FullForce is developed specifically for iPad so it can safely be added to the list of iPad compatible jailbrak apps.

List of Jailbreak Apps Compatible with the iPad

Sébastien Page ∙ May 5, 2010

Spirit brought us the easiest and fastest jailbreak ever. Great! The only problem is that most of these jailbreak apps aren't compatible with the iPad just yet.

Some smart dude got the idea to create an editable list of jailbreak apps that work on the iPad. The list is on Google Docs so anyone can edit it. I'm not sure who started this but it sure is a good idea.

So far, about 70 apps have been tested, with more to come. You can find the list here. If you have tested a few jailbreak apps on your iPad, try to report the results by adding them to the list.

Star Walk for iPad, Because Bigger is Better [App Giveaway]

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

I've always been a huge fan of the Star Walk app for iPhone. Not only it is an amazing app to discover the sky, but it is also beautifully made, taking full advantage of the iPhone's features.

For those of you who don't know what Star Walk is about, here is the App Store description:

Star Walk is your personal planetarium that can answer all of your curiosities about the sky! For anyone who is interested in stargazing, amateurs or professionals Star Walk makes discovering more than 9,000 stars, planets, constellations, and messier objects as beautiful and easy as it has never been before!

With Star Walk, you can see the sky in front of you in real-time. Tilt your iPhone towards the sky to activate the digital compass which will determine the location and orientation of your iPhone. The image on your screen will correspond to the area of the sky you are pointing your iPhone towards, and it will follow your movements.

Now Star Walk is also available for iPad. If you thought SW was cool on your iPhone, wait to see it on this big fat iPad screen. I'm already completely sold on it!

Vito Technology, the devs behind Star Walk, were kind enough to give me a promo code for the iPad version so I can try it out. Even better, they gave me 3 promo codes to give away too!

If you want a promo code for Star Walk for iPad, simply leave a comment explaining why you want it. I'll randomly (or not) pick the 3 winners in a few days.

Vito Tech also gave me promo codes for Star Walk and Solar Walk for iPhone. Make sure to follow me on Twitter and on Facebook to be the first to grab one of those soon.

Snappy: the Fastest Camera App for iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ April 28, 2010

Have you ever missed a great picture because your iPhone camera app was to slow to launch? If so, then read on because Snappy might be the answer to your frustration.

Snappy is a jailbreak app available from Cydia that allows you to quicky launch the camera app simply by tapping and holding the status bar.

Look at this demo to see how Snappy works.

Snappy is the kind of app that makes me wonder why Apple hasn't implemented this yet. I mean, it's pretty basic, yet very useful.

Have you tried Snappy yet? What's your take on it?

Mini Review: Reeder 2 For iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

A few months ago I wrote about the best RSS readers for iPhone. At the time, Byline was my favorite, even though it was missing a couple important features such as being able to share articles on Twitter.

The Byline app description in the App Store has been saying for months they are working on version 3 which will add tons of new features. Turns out they "worked on it" for so long that someone else outdid them.

My new favorite iPhone RSS reader is Reeder 2. I'm not going to get too much into details but I'd rather give a short and sweet review of it.

Pros:

Easy to use and well thought UI It is incredibly fast. Items sync in just seconds Ability to share on Twitter Ability to save to Delicious Quickly "star" an item Easily browse starred, new or all items

Cons:

I don't really like the light-colored UI I wish it gave a larger preview of items

See, many pros and very few cons. Reeder definitely took over the Byline spot in my iPhone dock. If you're in the market for an RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader, then give Reeder a try. At $2.99, it is the best RSS reader for iPhone you can get.

The Best Jailbreak Apps For iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated March 27, 2018

I'm often asked what the best jailbreak apps for iPhone are. The truth is it's hard to tell what the best jailbroken apps are because what's good for me might not be for you.

While we can't all agree on the best apps for jailbroken iPhone, we can certainly agree on what our favorites are. In order to come up with this list, I asked people on Twitter and in the forum what their favorite jailbreak apps were (and I also added some of mine).

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, here are the best jailbreak iPhone apps voted by you and me:

MyWi - turns your iPhone into a hotspot Backgrounder - brings multitasking to your iPhone ProSwitcher - a nice UI for Backgrounder Circuitous - a multitasking/app switching application Categories - allows you to create folders WinterBoard - an app that lets you customize many aspects of your iPhone BossPaper - an advanced wallpaper manager that puts total control of wallpapers into your hands VoIPover3G - tricks any app into thinking you're on wifi while you are on 3G or Edge Xpandr - a shortcut expander Action Menu - improves the copy/paste experience QuickScroll - allows you to quickly scroll through a page Find In Page - quickly find any text on web pages qTweeter - lets you update Twitter and Facebook status from within any application SBSettings - a quick a way to toggle settings on/off MultiIconMover - lets you move multiple icons at a time InfiniDock - add unlimited icons to your dock InfiniBoard - vertical scrolling on your springboard QuickDo - app switching/launching LockInfo - customize your lockscreen to get the information you need

Edit: More awesome jailbreak apps here.

What do you think the best jailbreak apps are? Please feel free to share in the comments.

7 Ways Your iPhone Can Make OS 4 Jealous

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 5, 2016

Last week Apple gave us a sneak peek at iPhone OS 4. The presentation, which was more for developers than users, focused on 7 "tent poles" (multitasking, folders, enhanced mail, iBooks, enterprise, game center, and iAd).

I was not particularly impressed by the new features unveiled, mostly because most of them are already here for anyone with a jailbroken iPhone. In this post, I would like to show you how you can make your old boring iPhone 3.X look a little bit more like iPhone OS 4.

For all features listed below, there is either a jailbreak app or mod to do the job. If your iPhone is jailbroken, here is how you can give it a little taste of OS 4. If your iPhone is not jailbroken yet, then you're missing out and you should jump on the jailbreak bandwagon!

Multitasking: Install Backgrounder and ProSwitcher to bring multitasking to your iPhone.

Background wallpapers: Install BossPaper or WinterBoard, which will let you customize your iPhone in every possible way. You can even download the iPhone OS 4 Theme from Cydia!

Folders: Install Categories.

Multiple Exchange accounts: Simply look at this hack that lets you set up multiple Exchange accounts on your iPhone.

iBooks: Just download the free Kindle application from the App Store.

Home screen music controls: Install the Music Controls app.

iAd: Want more ads on your iPhone? Go to any porn site from your iPhone and you'll get plenty of ads. Ok I'm being sarcastic...

I can already hear the complainers complain that this is a huge stretch and that OS 4 will be much better than these jailbreak apps. Well, yes you're right. OS 4 will probably do a better job than these jailbreak apps or tweaks, but the point of this article is to show you that Apple didn't reinvent the wheel at all and that you don't need to wait for this summer to get OS 4 rocking on your iPhone.

How to Turn Your iPhone Into An iPad Camera

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

It's too bad that a great device like the iPad doesn't have a camera. Fortunately, there's an app that will turn your iPhone into an iPad camera. It's not the perfect solution, but it should do the job...

All you need to use your iPhone as a camera for iPad is the Camera for iPad app. After installing the app on your iPad and iPhone, simply launch it on both devices and they will find each other via Bluetooth. Your iPad will then show what your iPhone camera is seeing.

Intuitive controls let you zoom with a pinch or rotate with a swipe. You can just tap the button to take a high resolution photo that is saved onto your iPad.

Camera for iPad isn't just for the iPad! You can connect an iPhone to an iPod Touch, or even connect one iPhone to another, and choose which is the sender and which is the receiver.

Camera for iPad is available from the App Store for $0.99. While I haven't personally tried the app, MichaelB who tipped me on this confirms it works like a charm.

What do you think?