AutoSilent
I carry my iPhone with me everywhere I go, and it’s on my nightstand every night. In the past, I would set up different “profiles” on my cell phone or pda for different situations, such as meetings, sleep time, driving, etc. and I could toggle between them depending on what I was doing.
AutoSilent provides this functionality for iPhone users, and takes is a step further by switching between the profiles automatically based on time rules you set up. So for instance, my iPhone goes into “work mode” at 8am, where most audible noises except the email and ringtone are silenced, and vibrate alerts are enabled.
At 5pm, it switches into “driving mode” where all sounds are enabled and volume set to louder along with vibrate on. At 10pm, it switches into “sleep mode” where everything is silenced including vibrate turned off, with the exception of the ring tone which is set to a low volume in case someone needs to call me in the middle of the night.
Of course, I can still manually invoke any of these profiles automatically, and can choose to allow the silent switch on the side to override or be ignored. Now, I don’t have to keep remembering to set the proper profile throughout the day, AutoSilent takes care of it for me!
Cost: $2.99
LockInfo
One of the features I’ve always missed from my days as a Windows Mobile user was an “at a glance” home screen that combined a view of my upcoming appointments and unread messages. LockInfo solves this by overlaying an informational screen over my iPhone’s normal lock screen.
This informational screen can be configured to display different details, such as unread SMS/MMS messages, missed calls and new voice-mails, emails from selected accounts, historical log of push notifications, and even the current outside temperature and a 6-day weather forecast. Each section can be collapsed and expanded on the fly, so I can quickly and easily view a large amount of information right from the lock screen.
Cost: $4.99
qTweeter
I’m a frequent Twitter user, carrying on conversations with other Twitterers about various topics throughout each day, as well as sharing my own thoughts and status updates. My go-to Twitter app is Tweetie 2, but there are often times I want to fire off a quick status update without launching a full-blow app.
qTweeter runs in the background at all times, using very little memory, so its always ready when needed, and is accessed by pulling it down from the status bar with a finger swipe. A text bubble slides down where you can type a message and update both Twitter and/or Facebook. One of my favorite features of qTweeter is a swipe, tap, and tap to send is all that’s needed to share out the name along with a link of whatever song I’m listening to in the iPod app. Very slick!
Cost: $4.99
ActionMenu with Plus Pack
The copy/paste menu in the iPhone is one of those features you’ll either use all the time and love, or never use it and don’t care. I’m in the first group — I copy and paste text and images between apps all the time. But wouldn’t it be nice if this menu could function more like a traditional “right-click” menu offering context-sensitive options for whatever is selected? ActionMenu, along with its additional Plus Pack, does just this, including the ability to lookup the definition of a word, translate, share to twitter, and more.
My most-used feature is the “Favorites List” where you can store frequently-typed phrases or words, and paste them in with just 2 taps. I save URLs and email addresses I find myself typing all the time for easy inserting into any app. The app also changes the pop-up menu to show icons rather than boring text, making it look more like native Apple functionality.
Cost: Free (ActionMenu); $2.99 (Plus Pack – adds additional actions)
