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Top Ten Free Business Apps for the iPhone

by Kyle on November 24th, 2008

The app store is one of the greatest selling points of the iPhone. There are literally hundreds of apps already available (including hundreds of free ones!), with more being added every day. Apple’s device is already a great productivity tool, but there are also some additional applications that can really help you and your business succeed.

So without further ado, here are the top ten (free!) apps not to miss for your business needs.

1.) PageOnce

Access all your accounts from one app.

Access all your accounts from one app.

In order to make this app work, you’ll need to get an account at PageOnce.com- but no worries, this is free too. PageOnce is a useful site that allows you to view many different accounts on one page. This can range from social sites like Facebook to email accounts. However, the real use for PageOnce from a business perspective is the ability to add financial services accounts to the page. It supports more than 6,000 financial services- including credit card accounts, bank accounts, and investment accounts.

The most useful aspect of the app for the business owner is the ability to check bank account and credit card information easily right on your phone. Whether or not you use the PageOnce website, having one-click access to your bank balance and recent transactions is really handy.

2.) iProcrastinate Mobile

Easy task management.

Easy task management.

There are plenty of to-do lists and project management applications for the iPhone, but most of the best ones cost money. Not so with iProcrastinate Mobile. This terrific application gives you a slew of features without being overbearing or difficult to use.

First, you create your own groups to categorize your tasks. Adding tasks is quick and easy, but you have plenty of options to work with. You can set the due date, write a brief note about the task, and set the priority. You even have the option of adding steps to your tasks. Plus, you can add team members from your contact list to tasks.

As if this weren’t enough, iProcrastinate Mobile has a couple other features that make it practically irresistible. First, the ability to create “smart groups.” You select which categories you want to aggregate, and you can create a group that will show you all tasks that are due within the time period you specify. I’ve made a “Due Today” group so I know what needs to get done immediately and a “Due This Week” group so that I can do some more long-term planning. The second really great added feature is the ability to email your task list, either to yourself or to anyone else.

iProcrastinate is also really easy to use. When you want to delete an item, simply ’swipe’ it and delete it. If you are looking for a certain task, type in a key word in the search bar at the top of each category page. You can also color code different types of task for easier viewing.

Finally, one of my favorite features of this app is that it displays the number of due and overdue tasks from the home screen. This allows me to easily see how far I’m falling behind with all my tasks. Depressing, but useful.

3.) Wordpress

Easily access your wordpress blog.

Easily access your wordpress blog.

If you built your company blog using Wordpress, as we have, then you may want to get this nifty little application. Adding blogs is really easy, and you can manage all of them (if you have more than one) from the same interface. You can write a new article or edit existing ones, including the tags, categories, and status. Although it will not usually be practical to write your blog entries using your iPhone, it can’t hurt to have the ability. It’s most useful for looking over articles and making quick fixes while you’re on the go.

4.) Box.net

Take documents with you on the move.

Take documents with you on the move.

Accessing your spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents while you are on the move can be very useful. Box.net provides an convenient way to access, share, and collaborate on your business documents. You just set up an account at the Box.net website (don’t worry, you can get a 1 gig account for free). It’s a breeze to upload your documents and share them with others as well. The app is clean and easy to use as well.

5.) IM + Lite

Although instant messaging is often the bane of productivity, it can also be an extremely useful tool for business. There are several possibilities to go with here on the iPhone, but I would recommend IM+ Light. I’ve had several problems with the AIM application, and the IM+ app offers some extra great features. Most important, it allows you to use several different services, including

  • AIM
  • Google Talk
  • ICQ
  • MySpace IM
  • Yahoo!
  • Jabber
  • MSN Live Messenger

Not a whole lot of bells and whistles for this app, but support for multiple services, ease of use, and less bugs than other offerings (in my experience) gives the nod to IM+ Light.

6.) BeamME

Send your contact info to anyone, at any time.

Send your contact info to anyone, at any time.

Business cards are really a big pain. They are easy to lose, inconvenient to access, and hard to transfer. The idea behind the BeamME app is to get rid of business cards altogether. Using this service, you can quickly beam your contact information via text or email to whoever could use it.

Signing up is a breeze. You just pick your address book entry (or create one if you don’t have one of yourself in the address book), and you’re ready to go. You can edit your account info at any time. Once you have a card made, you’re ready to go. You can now send your card information via phone or email to whomever you please.

If you choose to send your card via phone number, then the recipient will receive it in a text and will have to go to the rmbrME website to get your contact info. This is a decent solution but ultimately sees a tad inconvenient. The best way is to send the card via email. The recipient can see your contact info easily right in the email, or they can download your vCard and add it directly to their address book.

There still might be something to be said for the traditional business card, but the BeamME app can certainly come in handy if you need to get someone your contact info. The app is simple, clean, and easy to use.

Send via text or email.

Send via text or email.

7.) Fring

Mobile VOIP.

Mobile VOIP.

We do many of our business conferences using Skype, a free VOIP (voice over IP) application I highly recommend. I discovered Fring when I was looking for a way to join the Skype conversation directly from my phone. As long as you are connected with wi-fi, this nifty application allows you to access your account while you’re on the move. Another advantage: calls are completely free if you make them with Skype.

8.) Bloomberg

Worldwide market indexes.

Worldwide market indexes.Detailed information on individual stocks.Create and track your own portfolio.

Whether you invest in the stock market or not, it’s good to know the state of the market and the economy. While the iPhone comes with a native stocks app, it really doesn’t get the job done. A much better solution is the free offering from Bloomberg. You get up to date reports on all the major markets- Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, Nikkei, and many more- from all around the world. You can also look at detailed reports of individual stocks, and you can select your own portfolio to quickly monitor the state of your favored stocks. Even better, the Bloomberg app comes with a terrific news section so you can stay informed on the state of the economy.

The app also looks slick, is easy to use, and loads quickly, making it the easy choice for tracking the financial world.

9.) iXpenseIt Lite

Mobile expense tracking.

Mobile expense tracking.

If you’re looking for a mobile expense recording solution, iXpenseIt is the way to go. Remembering why you spent $23.19 at Wal-mart two months ago can be very difficult- so why not record it on the spot?

This app allows you to do pretty much anything you could want. Set your budget, and track how well you are doing. Entering an expense item is quite easy, but you also have a lot of options. Enter the dollar amount, the type of expense (business or personal), place it in a category and a subcategory, specify the date, the method of payment, the vendor, append a note, and take a picture of the receipt. Categories, subcategories, vendors, and expense types can be edited so that you have the options you want.

Once you’ve entered your expenses, you can easily view your data with a number of displays (summaries, bar charts, and pie graphs). Plus, quickly email your data to whomever you choose, either in HTML or CSV format.

One big limitation of the free version is it only allows you to input 10 expenses. If you use it frequently, you’ll have to email yourself the results often to keep track of them. However, having such a limitation does greatly reduce the utility of the application. There is a paid version that allows you to input unlimited expenses, which may well be worth your money if you are attracted to the idea of mobile expense recording.

10.) iTalk Recorder

Simple voice recording.

Simple voice recording.

It’s always good to have an audio recorder with you. You never know when you will want to log a meeting or a good idea that pops in your head. But nobody wants to carry around a clunky recording device. That’s where iTalk Recorder, a free app created by Griffin, comes into play.

The interface is wonderfully simple. You just name your recording (if you want, you can always rename it later), pick your preferred audio quality (good, better, best), and press the big button. You can pause and then resume recording as well. You can easily listen to the different recordings on your iPhone and you can append notes for easy reference later.

Finally, you can head to the support site to get iTalk Sync, a simple program that allows you to easily drag and drop audio recordings from your phone to your computer desktop.

Did I miss something? Leave a comment and let me know if I left a deserving app off the list.


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Posted in Business, Miscellaneous, Project Management 13 Comments »


13 Responses to Top Ten Free Business Apps for the iPhone

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  1. olushola  November 24, 2008

    Thank you for this list. I already got Fring and it’s fantastic. Just wish Apple will enable the bluetooth fully and some other minor tweaks.

  2. Tom Cheredar  November 25, 2008

    The Digital voice recorder Griffin App is pretty awesome. They fixed the issue of getting the recordings off my phone, which is a huge deal for a journalist who likes to record his interviews.

  3. Travis Stark  November 27, 2008

    This is an awesome top ten list.
    You can make your own on my buddy’s site http://www.toptentopten.com/. I’m really trying to get them to make thier site more useable on my iphone, but so far i can’t get the voting sections to work.

  4. Jack Da Cruz  December 24, 2008

    How do I get all this great stuf

  5. bob  May 7, 2009

    How bout “mware mobile”, a credit card terminal. Just downloaded it and can’t believe it’s free.

  6. Susana Ortiz  May 21, 2009

    Awesome list, thank you!

    sanctumds.com

  7. SamSamIAM  June 16, 2009

    A great app you missed is PortfolioLive. Amazing real time stock quotes, very stable and very easy to use. I have my whole portfolio in there and can check it from anywhere.

  8. Thanks for the list. I am really interested in playing with the Iprocrastinate app.

  9. One more to add on the list, for anyone in the diamond, gold or jewelry space please check our my app:

    http://itunes.apple.com/app/myjeweler/id363435663?mt=8

    Works great if you just like buying diamonds, gold or jewelry :)

  10. Hello;

    I’d like to introduce you to two new iPhone apps.
    They both create new contacts automatically from text or speech!

    - WhoPaste works with the Contacts app on the iPhone
    - WhoP-G works with Google Contacts.

    You can ‘copy’ text from an email, a web page, or wherever and then launch the WhoPaste app that’s right for you.
    Both apps recognize company names, job titles, phone numbers, email addresses, urls, and postal addresses.
    A new contact is created and previewed, allowing the user full editing before saving.

    These apps can also be used in conjunction with Dragon Dictation.
    This combination allows you to create a new contact by just SPEAKING!!

    Here’s how it works:
    Launch the Dragon Dictation app
    Tap ‘Record’
    Say: “John Smith john s at gmail dot com 754 555 2345”
    Tap ‘Done’
    Tap ‘Send to Clipboard’
    Launch either WhoPaste or WhoP-G
    Tap ‘Save’ -> a contact is created in either the Contacts app or in Google Contacts
    It’s pretty sweet!!

    WhoPaste:
    WhoP-G:

    Contact me for a promotional code when you are ready!
    The promotional codes expire and I want you to have a valid one when you need it!

    Steve
    sales@whopaste.com

  11. The list is great. Ive been using iXpenseIt Lite and it helps me a lot.
    http://itunes.apple.com/app/adpack/id359562015?mt=8

  12. Thanks for the list, good work.
    ———————
    Business Sales

  13. Great article. Small businesses definitely can benefit a ton from iPhone apps.

    Check out http://www.BiznessApps.com

    Were a start up company that let’s businesses create their very own iPhone app for only $39 a month. We have specialized templates for restaurants, bars, realtors, lawyers, gyms, and more.

    Mobile apps are about building that connect with with your customers as well as establishing credibility, and what better way than creating your own iPhone app? I highly suggest checking us out.

    Andrew Gazdecki
    CEO of Bizness Apps

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