5 apps to show off the iPhone 5
You just got your iPhone 5. What exactly can you demonstrate that takes advantage of Apple's latest phone best? Here are five of my early favorites.
- Nearly 20 years writing about tech, and over a decade reviewing wearable tech, VR, and AR products and apps
So, what's the killer feature of the iPhone 5? Arguably, its speed. Or, is it the screen? A lot of parts of Apple's latest iPhone have been tweaked top to bottom, and the first challenge you might find is picking a few apps that take advantage of the iPhone 5 fully.
I expect many more in the coming days that will really start to bring out the best in the iPhone 5, but here are a few early winners.
Tweetbot
A Twitter app to show off the iPhone 5? Really? Well, displaying longer lists better is pretty much what that extra-long screen does best when it's in portrait mode. Download this or Twitter and the extra screen real estate, while not dramatic, makes a difference...especially with something so overloaded as your tweet-stream. The same goes for e-mail and apps like Facebook, but Twitter's all about extremely long lists to begin with.
Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy
It'll be some time before more top-end iPhone 5-optimized games make their way onto the App Store, but an early hit is Namco's beautifully crisp flight-combat game, previously a killer app for the iPhone 4S and third-gen iPad. The extra width and 16:9 aspect ratio give it the feel of a game on the PlayStation Vita, not a phone. For another early show-off game, try Lili. Built off the Unreal Engine, it's a console-quality puzzle-solving adventure.
GarageBand
Apple's own music-making app is a perfect match for the new iPhone: both its virtual instruments and the loop-based track editing make the most of the wider screen, fitting more piano keys and showing more sections of your musical opus.
iMovie
Again, a perfect app to use an extra-large screen with. Editing long timelines of footage, and playing back video, both take advantage of the longer screen and aspect ratio.
TED Talks
The real video app we're waiting for to take advantage of the iPhone 5's screen -- namely, Netflix -- hasn't been updated yet. For a quick fix at playing back larger streaming videos, check out the new TED app and its collection of lectures. You can use Safari and access YouTube, too.