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Wednesday is now officially iPhone App-stravaganza. I will download some free, some paid applications for the iPhone and give them a short review. In this first Wednesday App-stravaganza, I am going to recap the first set of apps I have and use regularly and then review the applications I downloaded last night.

The Essentials

OmniFocus

Six word review: mobile GTD with location awareness goodness

I am a hard-core OmniFocus user. It keeps everything that I need to do organized. The only problem that I have had is that I can’t take my tasks with me. I had a convoluted sync that involved some AppleScript, some Automator actions, some FTPing, generally it wasn’t super reliable. But that only kept the home and work computers in sync. Now with OmniFocus version 1.1 and OmniFocus for the iPhone, I can keep my shopping lists, errands, and all of the other projects I have close at hand. The syncing features require either a WebDAV account or MobileMe’s iDisk, but the syncing itself is flawless after setup.

Reviews in the App Store are mixed. It has a high learning curve and it can be used independent of the desktop application but if you aren’t a full-time OmniFocus user, it may not be worth the investment of time. There are plenty of “to do” applications for much less, heck, Notes are free.

OmniFocus costs $19.99 [iTunes link]

Jott

Six word review: Simple voice powered reminders, transcribed automagically

jott.com is a free reminder / call transcription / email service. To reduce the head scratching let me walk you though how I use Jott. Things should be come clearer.

Jered is walking from his car to the grocery store and remembers that he needs to email a coworker about a project. Jered pulls out his phone, taps one of his favorites, is asked who he wants to jott. “Doug” *beep* “Doug, we need to meet tomorrow to talk about the signage project.” and then he hangs up. An email is sent to Doug and Jered with the message transcribed.

The iPhone app takes a slightly different tact focusing more on creating lists and to do items. I use it mainly to remember things that will evaporate before I have a chance to write them down. The jott service is great and I still use it to communicate with coworkers and friends, and it is a pity that the iPhone app doesn’t allow for messaging. Fingers crossed for the next revision.

Jott is free [iTunes link]

Zenbe Lists

Six word review: Sync capable, web editable, sharable lists

Zenbe lists is a list management program that syncs to the Zenbe web services. This allows for editing at any computer that has a browser, meaning data entry isn’t nearly a tedious for those of us with fat thumbs. I know you are thinking: Jered another list program? I use Zenbe as a checklist which is wholly different than a task list. These are things that reoccur, so when I check them, they stay on the list and I can uncheck them later. The thing that is great about Zenbe is the ability to share lists with other Zenbe (and non-Zenbe) users. My grocery lists is shared with Esther, so is a list of things to pack for the baby.

Zenbe Lists is free [iTunes link]

2 Across

Six word review:Slickly implemented crosswords without newsprint smudges

I have never been a fan of Sodoku, maybe it has to do with my semi-irrational fear of numbers, who knows. One thing I do love to keep the grey matter performing well is a good crossword puzzle. 2 Across is just that: a well done application on the iPhone that lets me spend countless hours trying to figure out 38 down. If I were a New York Time subscriber, I could do their puzzles using the premium subscription features, but the list of 11 news sources for available puzzles are fine for me. 2 Across is a well done implementation of something that I had written off as being purely paper and pen (yes, I’m that daring).

2 Across costs $5.99 [iTunes link]

NY Times

Six word review: Pocketable version of the Grey Lady

I used to read the newspaper everyday. My uncle says everyone should read two newspapers everyday. Unfortunately, time is scarce, newspapers are bulky and I prefer to skim to the articles that are of greater interest to me. The NYTimes app makes skimming through the entire paper easy as well as being easy on the eyes. Photos that expand to the page width, the text is well rendered, making reading the news of a dreary world a joy to read.

NYTime is free [iTunes link]

NetNewsWire

Six word review: My feeds synced across all computers

I use NetNewsWire for the Mac and NewsGator when on Windows (read about my feed journey here) and they sync very well, including a iPhone optimized web version, but with the release of NetNewsWire for the iPhone, I now have a nice option to sync my feeds with my iPhone. There are a few features that are missing from the current implementation, but I am sure they are coming in later releases. The most important of which is the ability to mark a story as new. It is nice to have a system that syncs all of my feeds so I don’t have to worry about leaving feeds on a device. Yes, I know there is an iPhone optimized Google Reader, but there is something desirable (I can’t really put my finger on what it is…) about having a client on my desktops.

NetNewsWire for the iPhone is free [iTunes link]