How I Organize My iPhone Applications

It can be frustrating to not have a system for your iPhone app organization–especially if you’re an optimization freak like me. Here’s how I do it: I use four screens, organized in the following way:

1. Primary Applications ​

These are the core applications that you use the most. I tend to keep the most important ones in the corners so they are easy to get to, e.g. Calendar, Maps, and Settings. Some apps of interest on this page are:

• 1Password : A good way of storing passwords .I’d advise against using it for sensitive stuff due to the iPhone’s unknown/weak security vs. physical tampering.

• Loopt : Sign up your friends and see where they are around the country.

• Twinkle : The best Twitter app right now for the iPhone.

• Jott : Speak notes into it, or call its voice mail number and it’ll convert your voice to text and send the text to you.

• MyWeather : The best weather app I’ve found

2. Secondary Applications ​

These are really just spillover from the primary page. Some apps of interest on this page are:

• Pandora : A mandatory application. It does streaming of music you will almost certainly like based on the bands that you do like. Even works great on the desktop.

• Now Playing : An awesome "going to the movies" app that finds theaters near you and gives you movie ratings using Rotten Tomatoes.

• Instapaper : Find a site you like while browsing on your computer? Click instapaper on your desktop and a local copy will be saved to your iPhone for later reading.

• Stanza : Tons of classic reading. A must have.

• Shazam and Midomi : Run this app when a song is playing and you want to know who it is. It’ll give you the song name, band, and album.

• Urbanspoon : Find something to eat in your area by shaking your iPhone.

• Recorder : This is your old digital recorder, in an iPhone app.

3. Specialized or Niche Applications ​

These include apps that you show off your device with, or only use occasionally. Some apps of interest on this page are:

• Ambiance : Play all sorts of soothing sounds, including those from nature and stuff like "rain on tin roof".

• BeeTagg : Snap pictures of QR Codes or Data Matrices to see where they take you.

• SnapTell : Take a picture of a book or CD in a store to see where you can buy it for cheaper.

• Speed Test : Check the speed of your EDGE, 3G, or Wifi connection.

• Starmap : Shows you the stars you can see from your location.

• Constitution : A pocket constitution, but way cooler.

4. Unused Apple Applications and Games ​

This is where you put your unused default apps that you can’t delete, like Weather and Stocks. I also put my games here. My favorite games are:

• HoldEm : Apple’s excellent Poker app.

—

If you know of any apps that should be added to this list, or of a better way of organizing them, let me know in the comments or via email at daniel@danielmiessler.com. ::