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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 [email protected]. ::