The iPhone was the first phone with a touch screen made for consumers, in a world dominated by Windows Mobile and boring, stylus operated business devices. Everyone laughed at Apple for using a capacitive touch screen (“it doesn’t work with a glove”, they said), but look at the market now: Windows Mobile is gone, while capacitive screens are all the rage.
Being a consumer device, of course means that entertainment would be a priority on the iPhone, and indeed it was from the beginning (unlike, say, Android, which couldn’t play back videos properly until version 2.1). There are quite a lot of apps for entertainment on the iTunes market right now, but to save you some time, here’s a short list of some of the most popular ones (which, coincidentally, are the best, as well):
Spotify
Spotify is one of the most talked about service in North America, because it brings a working business model to the online music distribution, which as you may know, is riddled with problems like pirating and region locking. Spotify first launched in Europe, but later came to the US, as well, and it basically allows people to stream music online, listen to their favorite songs offline, share it with their friends, create playlists that stay synced between multiple devices and more – it’s like Pandora and iTunes, combined. And best of all – it’s legal (they pay a fee to the artists and/or the studio) and it’s cheap (plus there’s a free 2 day trial).
[ilink url=”http://itunes.apple.com/app/spotify/id324684580?mt=8″ style=”download”]iTunes[/ilink]
BBC iPlayer
If you like BBC, you’ll like their iPlayer. The app allows you to watch any of their programmes and TV series that have aired in the past 7 days (anything older is deleted), anytime and anywhere, using a 3G or Wifi connection. You can also listen to their radio, find the schedule for the upcoming programmes, create your own schedule, and more.
[ilink url=”http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/bbc-iplayer/id416580485?mt=8″ style=”download”]iTunes[/ilink]
LiveStream
If you like watching TV in general, LiveStream is the app for you. You can watch over 1000 channels live, streamed directly over a 3G or Wifi connection, search and find your favorite channels, chat with your friends on Facebook about the news/shows, watch everything on Apple TV using AirPlay, and much more. The basic version is free, but there is a premium version to which you can subscribe if you want to.
[ilink url=”http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/livestream/id379623629?mt=8″ style=”download”]iTunes[/ilink]
iTunes Movie Trailers
As you may already know, iTunes often gets the newest and best trailers for all the good movies to come out. So Apple decided to release an app based around that, and iTunes Movie Trailers basically blows its competitors out of the water – wit this app, you are guaranteed to have the latest trailers at your disposal as soon as they appear, and features like the year movie calendar, enhanced search, theater search, top charts and iCloud integration make this app a must have for any movie buff.
[ilink url=”http://trailers.apple.com/” style=”download”]iTunes[/ilink]
Angry Birds
I would be surprised if you haven’t heard about this game by now. It has taken the world by storm, and it all started on the iPhone, as well. Angry Birds is one of the most addicting mobile games in ages, and you should definitely play it as soon as you can download it.
[ilink url=”http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds/id343200656?mt=8″ style=”download”]iTunes[/ilink]
The entertainment category on the iTunes apps marketplace has tens of thousands (if not more) of apps, so if you’re looking for more, be sure to visit it and do a few searches. But before you do that, check out the apps listed above – there’s a reason why they’re among the most popular ones, and I’m sure you’ll like at least some of them.