When I started writing this blog post, it was called My top 5 favorite iPhone apps. But as I sorted through my installed¹ apps, I had a really hard time limiting my self to just 5 apps – so I changed the scope to “top 8″.

If I could only install 8 3rd party apps these are the ones I would choose. These 8 apps are the ones I use most frequently, and I couldn’t imagine living without them.

OmniFocus

First up is OmniFocus. OmniFocus is labeled as “Professional-grade personal task management” and is my most used app. OmniFocus keeps me sane – as an indie Mac developer, a consultant in the finance and telecommunication industries and as a father of 3 beautiful children² I have a lot of stuff on my mind. OmniFocus allows me to clear my mind and insures that I don’t let anything important slip through the cracks. OmniFocus also exists in a desktop version, and I highly recommend getting them both – they are well worth their asking price³.

Tweetie

Everyone is on twitter, its fun and can be a very powerful source of information if used correctly. Tweetie is a great twitter client with support for multiple accounts. An absolute must have for the twitter power user on the move. A desktop version of Tweetie is in the works, and it looks very promising.

1Password touch

If you spend any amount of time online, you will accumulate an obscene number of usernames and passwords. 1Password touch lets you bring this info and all your other personal info with you everywhere you go in a safe and secure⁴ manner. 1Password also has a desktop companion that will allow you to keep your info in sync across all of your Macs and your iPhone.

WordPress

Everything a mobile blogger could wish for! You can both add new content and manage existing content. Write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog, and as WordPress it self, it is of course Open Source! Works with both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress installations (2.5.1 or higher).

Stanza

Stanza is an amazing e-book reader loaded with nice features and support for a lot of different e-book formats. I have purchased a lot of e-books from the Pragmatic Programmers in pdf format, and they recently republished allmost all of their books in the EPUB format. Stanza is great for killing time while on the bus or in the train, and carrying around 5 or 10 books won’t kill your back either.

Files

I like being mobile, Files will let you bring your important documents and files with you where ever you go. No need to lug that huge laptop around all the time. Another great back saver. I have tried a lot of “virtual disk” apps, but Files is the one that suits me best. I like the ability to password protect my documents, and the way Files lets you display the content of most common file types.

iSSH

Being a unix geek, I can’t live without an ssh client. I love being able to restart a failed server, fix a broken config file or upgrade WordPress plugin from any⁵ location in the world. There are other ssh clients in the App Store, but I like iSSH’s fixed screen size as oposed to scrolling around in TouchTerm looking for that missing piece of text.

WifiTrak

When you are on the move and need a network connection Apple’s build in wifi-locator leaves a lot to be desired. WifiTrak lets you quickly browse the neighborhood for an open access point with a strong signal. WifiTrak will scans all networks in the vicinity and validate each network it finds. It then shows a list of the networks sorted from most usable (open, not redirected, strong signal) to least usable (secured or hidden, weak signal).

These are my favorite iPhone apps, they each inrich my life in different ways by widening my options when I am on the move and away from my regular computer and internet connection.

Apps on the App Store are ridiculously low priced⁶, for any App that can enhance your quality of life, the developer should be able to charge a fair price without the fear of bad reviews by silly iPhone users that think the price of a large pizza and a coke is too much for an app with the potential to enhance your productivity exponentially.

Now go forth and buy some cool apps!

1. I have 107 apps on my iPhone and a total of 144 apps in my iTunes library.
2. Well, only 2 of them are mine biologically, the 3rd one is a bonus child
3. Some would say OmniFocus is too expensive, but the level of Zen it will bring into your life is surely worth at least twice what they ask for, if not more!
4. It encrypts your data with AES CBC.
5. And by “any” I mean any place that has some kind of network connection.
6. Some of the apps on the App Store deserve the low price – all I am saying is that price and quality should go hand in hand

Related posts:

1. 1Password on the iPhone
2. OmniFocus for iPhone 1.0.2 released