Will’s top five apps

A newcomer to the iPhone fold, I cradled my first Apple product back in April last year, a 13” Macbook Pro. I’d love to tell you from then on it was love at first sight. But it was more lustful than that. My obsession with that sleek unibody of steel went so far as prolonged caressing and even the unhealthy habit of sniffing its fragrant metallic frame on a daily basis.

It was only natural then, that following a years sojourn in South East Asia, I was to own the holy grail of Apple products, the much heralded iPhone 3GS.

Having first been mesmerised by that strange little black device I saw occasionally being held in the paws of Vietnamese locals, I longed to stand at their side touching, sliding and hammering my little heart out across Mail, Safari, Tweetdeck and more.

Imagine my joy standing in a busy London shopping centre, 6,000 miles away and two years after my first encounter with Apple’s premier product, finally part of Steve Jobs’ gang. I took it home, nursed it, slid my Orange simcard deep inside and surfed my little heart out.

It was to be a fully-fledged affair. A passionate outing between man and Maps (for we were forever getting lost iPhone and I). It continues until this day.

My favourite five apps span broad territories. My first, Read It Later, similar to counterpart Instapaper, saves my favourite webpages for browsing later offline. Its integration across Firefox, Google Reader, Tweetdeck and other apps makes it integral for getting me through a long underground commute.

The next, High Noon, a free gaming app that transforms iPhone users into Western-style gunslingers akin to Billy the Kid, is the perfect way to blow off some after-work steam. Firing up its online world, connecting and duelling with other cowboys then ransacking them for gold to purchase a new Stetson hat has brought out a side I never knew I had.

Tweetdeck and its lovely columned interface help me catch up with the world in 140 characters or less, spy on nearby tweets and even update my Facebook profile all from the same interface. Battery likewise lets me know just where I’m at in terms of time for watching video, listening to music, surfing on both wireless and 3G and, most crucially, the amount of time left for stalking across social networks.

Finally, as I said before, my sense of direction is anything but good. Long live TubeMap and its ability to get me across London in relative ease. Thanks to this handy little creation advice on the shortest way back home to sniff and cuddle my Mac is only an app away.