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

Top 10 iPhone Apps by @RichardBarrow

I bought my first iPhone at the end of February 2010 and then started this blog a short time later. Up to now I have been asking people what their favourite iPhone apps were. As I have had an iPhone now for nearly a year, I thought it was time that I put together my own Top 10 list. So, here you are, some of my favourite apps for the iPhone.

1. Lazy Text - A quick and easy way to copy across any text from your computer to your iPhone's clipboard [review]
2. Pro HDR - Although the iPhone now has it's own built in HDR app, nothing beats the beauty of this one [review]
3. Twitter - This is now the official Twitter app for the iPhone. It's still my main Twitter app especially on the iPad [review]
4. Google Earth - I love this app for exploring satellite images on the iPhone. It's also one of the reasons that I bought an iPad [review]
5. Atomic Web Browser - This browser with tabs is great and comes with many useful extras. I use it all the time [review]
6. Photogene - A good tool for playing around with your pictures. I bought the iPad version too [review]
7. Blogpress - The easiest app I have found so far for blogging [review]
8. Skype - Now that it has video conferencing this is one app which I will use a lot [review]
9. Map Camera - A useful app that helps you remember where you were or for telling people exactly where you are [review]
10. XE-Currency - Very useful for checking currency rates online.

I still have some more good apps so maybe I will do another Top 10 list next week! I will also do a round-up of my favourite apps for Thailand that I reviewed during 2010.

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.

Top 10 iPhone Apps by @WryEyes

Rupert James is a writer and director of commercials, documentaries and music promos. His films can be found here and his blog here. The best of his blog goes into Bed Sheets magazine, which can be read online here.

Things. A to-do app for the ambitious; a conduit for my OCD.
Simplenote. Cutting out all the fluff (and the silly fonts), this is a tidy repository conducive to great ideas.
Evernote. For earmarking everything else.
Toy Camera. Provides an approximation of the same high contrast, low saturation vignetted grade I only otherwise get with Magic Bullet in FCP.
The Mill Colour. How the UK ad industry likes colour correction.
Panascout. The selection of film aspect ratios makes this great for blocking shots.
Sun Seek. When you need to know where the sun will be. On a recce or shoot.
Light. Software that cleverly utilises existing iPhone hardware. Not beyond lighting a macro shot, either.
Currency. Great when comparing the diminishing dollar, the oddly buoyant baht and the still unfamiliar euro.
Best Ads on TV. When one doesn't have time to Google around.

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.

Top 10 iPhone Apps by @Dany_k

This is a weekly look at popular apps for the iPhone as suggested by people living and working in Thailand. This week we hear from Dany_K who is a sound designer, producer, amateur photo journo living in Bangkok for the past 3.5 years. He enjoys keeping up with the news, bringing the news and eating sushi! He has his very own blog which covers Thailand news & food.

1. Echofon: Had to get this out the way, been said before and I will say it again. This is my favourite app to browse twitter on, its functions can be done within seconds, the UI is fantastic and it has some pretty cool features. One of my favorite features is whilst typing a @ name, and they all pop up in a scrolling fashion at the bottom. Clearing local cache is also a very cool feature.

2. Premier League Sportacular: Bit of a cheesy name, but a great ‘Free’ application if you’re an EPL fan. Everything you need from a sporting app, fixtures, tables, news, clubs and a great alert system. All of these are easily customisable; I would rate this higher than some of the paid app’s I have tried.

3. BBC News: A must have app! A Criss-cross, grid type of Interface which lets you browse through a customisable list of news categories. Once in a story, you can Email, Facebook or tweet it with ease.

4. Shazam: Great little app to find out what the song playing at the moment is. Literally, tap the screen, record a small section of the song and it will find it for you. Some other cool features that come with it are YouTube videos of the song, download the song in iTunes & Tour Info of the artist.

5. IMDB: Ever been out and having a conversation about the latest film with that actor who you can’t remember? Instead of loading up safari and going through Google, use this App to browse through its forever-growing database. The one thing I love about this app is its fantastic User Interface (If you haven’t noticed yet, UI’s are a big selling point for me).

6. VLC Remote: Im not sure why you would not use this program on your computer, but VLC has been my main media player for years, simply because it just works with everything. With this app, you can control every feature of the VLC interface, handy when too lazy to get up from the sofa/bed. (They even have a lite version, which is free).

7. VNC Viewer: If you want more control of your computer than the VLC Remote, then this app is for you. Have complete control of your computer on your iphone/ipod. Mouse, keyboard, picture quality and even duel screening abilities. It can get a bit confusing on an iphone; the mouse directions are the opposite (like a normal mouse would be).

8. Disc Pool: Found this little gem out of the blue whilst browsing for games. Once known as Couronne Deluxe, this was one of the most played games on Miniclip. Used to play this with friends online while in class, endless hours of fun, and anger!

9. TowerMadness Zero: Being a Tower Defence game’aholic, this is one of the best free ones out there for the iPhone. Although some of the guns in the free version are not accessible (gives you the option to buy them), it has some great levels and guns to mess around with.

10. Sickipedia: This app made me chuckle for hours, it is a huge database of jokes. 13 different categories, and lists of the all time best, you can never get through them all. You can copy the jokes, or sms them, but still no facebook/twitter function. Also, It is updated daily!

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.

Top 10 iPhone Apps by Bill Hammerton

This is a weekly look at popular apps for the iPhone as suggested by people living and working in Thailand. This week we hear from Bill Hammerton who has been running Internet radio, based here in Thailand for the last 6 years, originally with the BBC travelling the world.  RadioBangkok does many things with the iPhone including all their HD video production - 3 iphones, 1 ipod touch and i iPad - Hi Quality recording via the Alesis pro unit and direct with the Mickey Blue.

Favourite apps on the iPhone (in no particular order)

1. Tom the Talking Cat - not really into games but this one is too cute- just extend this virtual reality a few years and what is already amazing will be unbelievable (also on iPad)

2. My Eyes Only - Just keeping track of all those passwords and logins - this makes it easy with a nice graphical interface and Mac or PC software option for backing it all up (also a free version)

3. Flip Time - the first app I ever bought, lives on my desk and just a very nice "old airport style" time board

4. Mobile Maps for SE Asia - a turn by turn gps navigation app with multiple languages and spoken voice, not bad, especially for the price

5. Apples own iBooks of course, but I still use Stanza sometimes and for PDF it has to Bookman (all free)

6. Skype - probably my most used app, every software release it just keeps getting better, more reliable and clearer than my home landline

7. WallCal Lite - the lite version does al I need - basically puts your calendar on the lock screen - Unfortunately a 2 step process if you have a phone that is not jailbroken but worth the little effort

8. Opera Min - much prefer it to Safari - altogether better for me

9. TuTune Me - playing music on the move in the car, fully configurable and very easy to control your music safely while driving

10. Awesome note - Does everything I need and synchonises too with all my 'cloud apps' There is a lite version but I upgraded - its a notes and a to-do application, again a very nice graphical interface and that's important for me

I have over 170 apps and use most of them

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.

Top 10 iPhone Apps by @thaifaq

This is a weekly look at popular apps for the iPhone as suggested by people living and working in Thailand. This week we hear from @thaifaq who is a former business owner from Canada living in semi-retirement in Thailand. He runs a popular video website about living and working in Bangkok at www.thai-faq.com and he also co-hosts a weekly Bangkok Podcast at www.bangkokpodcast.com

1. Convert: Essential tool for calculating the Baht to my rapidly falling dollar.

2. BugMe!: A great little to do app for keeping track of all the little things I have to get done during the day

3. Files: My old 2G iPhone can't run iBooks so I use this app to keep ebooks to read during the day.

4. Skype: Essential app for making overseas calls while keeping the costs down

5. Shazam: I am constantly amazed at the ability of this app to help me discover new music

6. Echofon: A nice little Twitter client.

7. WhatsApp: It's an SMS app on steriods. Works best for sending SMS/MMS messages overseas as there is no cost to do so

8. uTalk Thai: A fun visual app for learning the Thai language. It's a great icebreaker as the Thais get a huge kick out of you trying to learn their language.

9. Japanese: I'm studying Japanese right now and this is one of the best Japanese/English dictionaries in the app store.

10. DoodleJump: An addictive super easy to use game. This game is also a great icebreaker as it's fun for all ages and very easy to learn.

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.

Top 10 iPhone Apps by Kainer

This is a weekly look at popular apps for the iPhone as suggested by people living and working in Thailand. This week we hear from Kainer Weissmann who has taken a few years off from his work in Germany to spend some time in Thailand. He first worked in Bangkok before moving to Koh Phangan as a manager of a small lodge. His website is www.kainerweissmann.de

No.1 is Icebird, I used Echofone before but feel more comfortable with Icebird for Twitter.

Facebook app (free), even that it's full of bugs currently seems to be my No. 2.

No. 3 is Quick Dict, Thai edition followed by Thai from Profitt inc. as my No. 4. Both little helpers in learning and understanding Thai.

No. 5 is very useful and called Search.app (cydia store). It does exactly that. It searches through your emails, notes, sms, contacts or the web.

No. 6 goes to IMAP Folders (or Lite version for free), where I can create rules to sort my emails by name (sender) or any included words.

I recommend my No. 7 to all the Iphone users who miss the possibility to create playlists in the Ipod-App. It is called.... *surprise* Playlist creator .

No. 8 goes to My Measures & Dimensions (or Lite Version for free). This app lets you create arrows angles and text in your pictures and shows and stores dimensions.

No. 9 is Skype (free) and No. 10 3G Unrestrictor (cydia store) which tricks apps and lets them think they are on wifi even though they are on 3G even for facetime on iphone4. Nothing new I guess for Iphone users.

Top 10 iPhone Apps by @Tulip_Oum

This is a weekly look at popular apps for the iPhone as suggested by people living and working in Thailand. This week we hear from @Tulip_Oum, a news anchor on TAN Network, the only English language 24 hours news channel in Thailand. She has two blogs: Tulip on the Run and Tulip Broadcasting.

1. Twitterific for Twitter ... Keeping me update on news. I pick twitterific for twitter. It's different color coded for Mention, DM and reply. The App still have some hiccup now and then...but it's my favorite App for twitter on iPhoe anyway.

2) Facebook ...Keep me stay connect and update with friends and family. Facebook for me is a personal space. Twitter is like my store front, but Facebook is my home. So, i'm keeping friend list pretty tight. But gotto have it on iPhone, to upload photos, stay updated, post some Articles I found on web or through twitter on my FB page.

3) WhatsApp ...I got number of friends that's BB person. WhatsApp is chat app for my BB friends. Tried Palringo before, nobody use it. Tried Yahoo messenger, conversation get lost on during push and log-in. So, WhatsApp is the way to go.

4) PS Express ..Photoshop for iPhone, simple and enough tool to modify photos; crop, rotate, exposure, hue, etc.

5) Hipstamatic ..a little guilty pleasure for antique looking photos. I just like to have it set on random. You can choose different kind of lens(John S, Kaimal Mark II, Jimmy, etc) combine with various choice of negative(Ina's 1969, Kodot Verichrome, Blanko,etc) , it'll just give distorted color photos that I love.

6) Dictionary ..translation is something I do regularly and i rely a lot on Dictionary.com for spell check, and correct definition. Dictionary Apps is just necessary.

7) WeDict Pro ...I use Thai for English on this Apps. But always double check on Dictionary to make sure. WeDictPro just help with specific rank, title and Government unit.

8)  FARK ... not for the Breaking news, but for all weird or strange news from every possible newspaper on line, there is. Good source to have.

9) Enjoy Daily Sudoku ...Free different daily. I'm just addicted to this game. I can finish a whole book in couple days instead of reading a pocket book on holiday or stay up all night just to finish another one and another one and another one. So, Sudoku just have to be on my iPhone, help me kill time on the road. You know Bangkok traffic.

10) Jumbline lite ...another word game similar to Word Challenge on Facebook but just consume battery extensively. And it doesn't show battery life while playing this game. But again, a good one to help me kill time on traffic.

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.

Top 10 iPhone Apps by @gnarlykitty

This is a weekly look at popular apps for the iPhone as suggested by people living and working in Thailand. This week we hear from @gnarlykitty a self-proclaimed iPhone Addict. A native of Bangkok, she used to blog but now she tweets and is a diplomatic Facebook spy. When she's not tweeting, she's spreading her iPhotography gospel at http://bkkthruiphone.tumblr.com

1. Tumblr. Because I have iPhotography blog that I post photos taken and edited by my iPhone.

2. If I must only have ONE photo app (I have 28) PictureShow would be it.

3. But then I can't live without TiltShiftGenerator either.

4. Do It Tomorrow. Name says it all. A simple To Do app for procrastinator like me. Only two days on calendar. Today and tomorrow.

5. Pulse News. iPhone's answer to iPad Flipboard. Really pretty news and RSS reader.

6. Vintage Movie Maker. Makes your videos look like a Charlie Chaplin film.

7. Pocket God. Best $0.99 I have ever spent. Free updates for new levels.

8. Postman. The app doesn't get updated anymore which is quite sad. But one of the best postcard apps.

9. Free App a Day. They also have a website but the new app promises push notification when they have a new free app on offer.

10. OK one more photography app. Shake It Photo. Take a photo, shake your iPhone, and out comes a Polaroid! Well it appears on your screen..

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.

Top 10 iPhone Apps by @FreakingCat

This is a weekly look at popular apps for the iPhone as suggested by people living and working in Thailand. This week we hear from @Freakingcat who has been living for over seven years in Bangkok where he runs a small gemstone company specializing in Rare and Extremely Rare Gemstones.  Very active on twitter and his blog.

1. The Cat loves watching good movies so IMDb is the ultimate tool to get all background infos about a movie. Love to lay back and enjoy a movie while looking up on my iphone IMDb 's database

2. Years ago the Cat was shown a Japanese/Chinese board game which is called Go. It looks easy, but it is hundreds of times more complex than Chess even the rules can be learned in 5 minutes. I use SmartGo on Iphone whenever I encounter some waiting time (from traffic jams in Taxi to ...well you get it)

3. Being a Twitter addict, I could not do without. After trying many different twitter iphone apps, I came back to the basic one which works like a charm. Twitter for iphone

4. A picture worth to be shared on twitter. Why not! Tweetphoto for iphone is simple and quick. Snap a pic, push a button, type in a description if you like and it's shared!

5. The Cat loves to travel to many different countries and the Cat is crap regarding mathematic. So Xe Currency for iphone is it! Super easy and fast conversion into every currency

6. Not a big fan of the thousands of games available on the iphone, this one is different. WordFu for iphone is highly addictive. A great game where one has to create wordsfrom random letters. Sounds easy, trust me, it's not! Love the feature where the dices actually follow you, depending on how you hold the iphone.

7. Even Twitter is the main social network the Cat is using, hundreds of friends on Facebook ought not to be forgotten! Facebook app for iphone a must!

8. Too lazy to download music on the iphone. SHOUTcast is for you. 32.000 different radio stations, you can't get wrong!!

9. Never been a fan of Safari on the iphone, so the Cat downloaded Opera Mini. Fast reliable and just great to browse the net on your iphone

10. Last but not least even it sounds dumb, but it saved the Cat many times some embarrassment not being able to put the key into the lock when coming home late at night. Flash Light for iphone. Simple and useful!

Every Sunday 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.

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.