50 iPhone App Recommendations for Newbies

Now that Verizon is selling iPhones, a whole bunch of my friends + coworkers have recently made the switch to iOS for the first time.  That means a lot of "what are the best apps I should download first?" questions coming in!  Now that Blippy is on the verge of getting shut down, I thought it might be helpful to write out a quick list of iPhone apps that I recommend.  For the most part I've left a quick note about each app's purpose.  Some of these might be a bit unusual, but I'm recommending them because I really like them at the moment or I think they have real potential.  Some of them also require subscriptions to other services, though I've tried to minimize that.  I've also left games off this list because they're fairly subjective and the best ones are usually reviewed heavily in the app store.  Last but not least, a lot of these have very comparable alternative options, but these are the ones I've been drawn to for one reason or another.  With that said, here's my list- what do you think? Which do you agree or disagree with?  What would you change?  What are your questions? [view the full list on the post page]

SOCIAL APPS

• Facebook - the official app for Facebook
• Twitter - the official app for Twitter
• Linkedin - the official app for Linkedin
• Foursquare - share and discover local places you visit
• Hashable - to log new biz contacts
• Plancast - view info on events to attend
• Posterous (or Tumblr) - easy on the go blogging
• Meebo - for AIM or Google Chat
• Whatsapp - free international text messaging (to app users)

FOOD

• Yelp - view restaurant recommendations
• Menupages - view restaurant menus
• OpenTable - make restaurant reservations
• Fooducate - search food health facts by barcode
• Foodspotting - share pictures of dishes you eat

MUSIC

• Pandora - free music streaming
• SoundTracking (or Shazam) - identify music you're hearing
• Vevo - play music videos

NEWS

• Reeder - read Google Reader RSS feeds (offline too)
• Instapaper - read webpages saved for later (offline too)
• Newser - catch up on breaking news quickly
• NYTimes - read NYTimes.com articles on the go

PHOTOGRAPHY

• Instagram - snap and share stylized photos to social networks
• Snapture - advanced camera features like continuous shooting
• PS Express - on the go photo editing
• Photosynth (or 360) - capture complete 360 degree panoramas
• Flickr - upload and view photos to Flickr

SPORTS

• Sportacular - follow sports games and scores
• WatchESPN - stream ESPN live anywhere (if a member)

ENTERTAINMENT

• Netflix - stream movies and TV shows (if a member)
• IMDB - look up information on movies and TV shows
• Fandango - buy movie tickets from your phone
• IntoNow - identify TV shows by a few seconds of audio
• GetGlue - share and discuss movies and TV you're watching

SHOPPING

• PayPal - send people payments via your phone
• Mint - keep track of your bank accounts on the go
• Shopsavvy (or Google Shopper) - look up product costs and reviews via barcode 
• Groupon - purchase and redeem neighborhood deals on the go
• Square - pay without credit card at (some) neighborhood shops 

TRAVEL

• Mapquest - hands free driving directions
• Tripit - keep track of your plane, hotel and car reservations
• Google Earth - search across a virtual earth
• GateGuru - look up restaurants in airports
• Hipmunk - look up flight times on the go

UTILITIES

• Weather Channel - look up the weather report
• Google - mobile search (by voice) and links to Google apps
• Mobile Mouse - control your mac trackpad by phone (w/ plug-in)
• QuickMark - scan QR codes
• Box.Net - 5 GB of free cloud file storage
• DropBox - sync files between cloud, computer and phone
• Evernote - record and sync multimedia notes, has built in OCR