Using an iPhone & iPad in Thailand Tips, App Reviews and News for the iPhone and iPad by Richard Barrow

Top 10 iPhone Apps by Wayne

Wayne is a 'younger' retired Englishman living near Doi Saket about 12k from Chiang Mai with his Thai family. His hobbies are guitar playing, keeping in touch with friends and family in the UK, and learning the Thai language. He regards his iPhone as an amazing tool to support his hobbies and life as an ex-pat in Thailand and his 'Top-Ten' apps reflect this.

1. Skype - free/low cost way of keeping in touch with the folks in the UK and also when dealing with my bank in the UK as calls there are insufferably long. The call quality is more than reasonable considering the low/no cost and the distances involved, and it's great to be able to use the iPhone instead of having to sit in front of the PC to use Skype.

2. IPB - a great app for navigating online forums, works especially well with the ThaiVisa forum

3. Facebook - indispensable for the 'water-cooler' type chats, and storing photos for friends and family to peruse at leisure, and to keep in touch with what old friends are up to

4. Click Thai EN dictionary - expensive but large word count, quick, and has native Thai audio for most of the entries. The best Thai/English dictionary in the app store

5. New York Times - Intelligent, insightful articles with more depth than most news apps. Even though I am a Brit and love the BBC, the NYT app pips it.

6. Remote - I have 45,000 tracks in iTunes. The remote app makes finding and selecting the music from the comfort of the couch a breeze, and to start/pause/replay when I am trying to learn a song

7. XE Currency - the best of the currency converters in my view. Easy to set up and keep an eye on your choice of live currency rates. My only complaint is that it mostly shows the GBP going down against the Baht

8. Guitar Toolkit - Tuner, chords, scales, and metronome for stringed instruments. Brilliant

9. Amplitube - connect your guitar to this for a comprehensive effects and amp modelling board, and more. Great sound too for something so small and less than half the price of a single conventional pedal

10. Micro Pool - I don't bother with games on the iPhone much, I prefer to wait for a good session of 'Left4Dead' on the PC, but this one is just so well done it's perfect for those 10 minute waits

Every weekend we are featuring the favourite Top 10 iPhone Apps for Internet personalities living in Thailand. Please contact us if you wish to have your list featured on our blog.