iPhone 4 must have apps

The Weather Channel

The sheer number of weather apps runs deeper than my love for pancakes but the Weather Channel has its own, you know, channel. And we all know that society judges something based upon whether or not it's on TV.

So in that spirit, the Weather Channel app is a good place to start. It'll show you the forecast based on your location using the phone's GPS chip, there are radar maps, severe weather alerts, 10-day forecasts, and you can even set up automatically updating widgets on your phone's home screen.

Facebook


f you're not on Facebook, how will you know that the kid who lived next door to you for less than a year in third grade just completed a fruit flush? I have no idea what that is, but someone I know literally just posted that Facebook. See what you're missing? All that—and on your phone!

Twitter


While Facebook is good for keeping up with your real-life friends (or people you've somehow convinced to approve your friend requests), Twitter lets you live vicariously through celebrities, minor celebrities, and strangers.You could wait hours (days? weeks? months?) for the mainstream media to report that fact, or you could have gotten it directly from the source in real-time. If you can think of a better use for a phone, I'd like to hear it.

GasBuddy

Thinking back on all the mindless, ridiculous crap you've wasted your money on over the years, it's amazing how far out of your way you'll go to save a buck on gas. It's a compulsion, really.

GasBuddy knows this, and its Android app feeds that compulsion like retired parents feed their adult-aged children as though they're still in high school. You've got one click access to a map of nearby gas stations and what they're each charging per gallon. Lowest price wins.

Angry Birds

Some pigs steal from you and then hide in a ramshackle fortress built out of wood and ice. You knock down said fortress by launching birds from a slingshot. These birds each have different powers. Except flight.

That's the basic premise of Angry Birds. I think. I've played every level and I still can't figure out why the birds and the pigs can't just get along. Anyway, just get the game. It's free and highly addictive.

Shazam

It's quite possible that you'd find Shazam to be a useful app. If you hear a song that you like on, say, the radio or in a bar, you hold your phone up to the speaker and Shazam will analyze the song's waveform and match it with the correct artist and track information.
ESPN ScoreCenter

Do people who read TIME like sports? I can never really tell. I like sports, if that makes any difference. If you like sports, you'll want an app that relays scores and news from the world of sports, no?

ESPN's ScoreCenter app covers just about every sport on the planet, serving up real-time scores and news in a slick, simple interface.

So these were some of the basic apps you must have in your factory unlocked iPhone 4.