I hate to say it but mine has already saved me more than it cost. When I upgraded my phones I signed up for a new two year contract. After the dust settled I was actually a couple hundred dollars ahead. I paid $300 to upgrade two phones & have two $100 mail in rebates in process. Then my carrier shot me a $300 thank you for re-signing since I'm a long time customer.

Not two weeks after I got the BlackBerries I got a phone call from a local business that I frequent. The sales person I always deal with called me on a Saturday evening & said they had a fantastic deal but I would have to move on it that night. I was out of state at the time but I was able to use the phone to transfer money from my savings account to my checking account so that a debit transaction could be done. That transaction saved me a couple of thousand dollars.

(Before I get lectured/flamed too bad. I don't plan on doing banking from my phone in the future since I seriously doubt that's it's very secure but it's good to know that it's possible in a pinch.)

So this topic is leaning towards the SmartPhone slant, but I'm wondering, are there any similar apps for IPhone? I just got my new 2-yr phone upgrade last week and specifically did NOT want a B-berry.

But... I also want to go buy an ITouch this week b/c of the number of medical apps avaible on it.

This thread is good timing - what good resources are out for IPhone/Touch, and are they only via the apple store?

Thanks.

I can still send an email using this old junk I just pulled out of the botton of a drawer faster than I can using an iPhone. Well nearly!

Its no more insecure than online banking from your home PC which is still way more secure than writing a paper check.

One generic (ie non-iPhone) Java app I like is called Compass. It actually just gives you information about the sun and the moon. If you can see either of them, it'll help you work out which direction is north. It also has an information page with rise and set times, which may be important if you need to set up camp before it gets dark.

For BB's Shazam song ID & GPS Logger (takes a bit of getting used to but its free!)

Since this thread was so fortuitously revived and I now have a smartphone again (had a company-supplied BB a few years ago), I'll toss in my $.02.

I have a Motorola Droid running Android 2.0

I use:

Droid Light (uses camera flash as LED flashlight)
Weatherbug
Google Voice (will let me make calls using an available WiFi internet connection if my cellular carrier is off-air)
Google maps with voice turnXturn nav and topo layer
Banking app (can transfer money between accounts in a pinch)
GeoPointer (Compass, Lat/Long)
MyTracks (overlays my movements on a local map; good for backtracking out of the woods)
Toddler Lock (interactive lights and sounds, keeps them from unlocking phone without unlock sequence; keeps them entertained in an emergency)

Under heavy usage conditions I can run my phone battery down in about 3-4 hours. To address this I have a Solio charger that can slowly solar charge its own battery then move that power to the phone battery. I also have a couple chargers from Energizer that let me run/charge the phone from AA batteries (I have a few of this size around), USB cable to charge from my laptop battery, and a car charger in each vehicle.

Add in Compass, a nice compass app
Dockrunner, lets you turn on the home clock mode without placing in the dock.
GPS Status
Wifi Analyzer
google translate, never know when you may need to translate to another language
MapDroyd, downloads maps from openstreetmap.org for use if no data is available.

iTunes has the SAS Survival Guide app for iPhones.
Great reading for long waits...
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sas-survival-guide/id357811968?mt=8

Password manager:
http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password

Air Sharing (drag and drop documents between iPhone and desktop):
http://avatron.com/apps/

reQall:
http://www.reqall.com/

Emergency Radio:
http://www.apptism.com/apps/emergency-radio

wxRadar:
http://web.me.com/atlwx/wxRadar/index.html