Awesome Free iPhone Apps – Stingers Rejoice

It’s unusual for an iPhone app to cost more than a few dollars, but with millions upon thousands of apps available and the convenience of iTunes billing, it’s easy to spend a fortune. Fortunately, some developers have found a way to cover that cost with advertising, others belong to the open source software movement, and some are even motivated by the goodness of their hearts. That last may not be true. In any case, read on to discover the best free apps for iphonewhether you’re stingy, broke or both.

Stitcher Radio (free, Stitcher, Inc.) While it’s not clear who or what a “stitcher” is, this app makes listening to podcasts on your iPhone or iPod Touch easier than ever. In the default iPod app, podcasts must first be downloaded via iTunes individually or by subscription. This means a lot of tedious searching, waiting, and synchronization. Stitcher Radio bypasses all of that by allowing the user to stream the podcast directly, just like a YouTube video. Add to this great features like live radio streaming, and Stitcher Radio gives iTunes a run for its money, all without costing a dime.

VLC (Free, Applidium) VLC for Windows and Mac has no shortage of fans, and for good reason: this media player will play just about any type of file you throw at it, and it’s ad-free, free to download, and fully open source. Now, Applidium has ported VLC to the iPhone and it doesn’t disappoint. While other apps can only play native .mp4 media files, VLC for iPhone will tackle .avi, .mkv, and many others you may not even have heard of. VLC for iPhone is naturally free to download, but be sure to grab your copy quickly as its days on the App Store are rumored to be numbered.

Flixter Movies – with Rotten Tomatoes (Free, Flixter) Going to the movies is already expensive enough. The cost of movie tickets is skyrocketing, and a small soda at your average movie theater is likely to cost more than your first car. At least Flixter allows us to find movies for free, and it does it very well. Flixter will tell you movie release dates, show you their trailers, and use iPhone’s built-in GPS to help you find the nearest theater. It’ll even link you to Rotten Tomatoes movie reviews, to make sure you’re not spending all that movie money on another critical lemon.

Dragon Dictation (Free, Nuance Communications) Dragon Dictation is an app that has to be tried to be believed. Dragon is a speech to text app that, believe it or not, actually works. Just launch the app, press the dictation button and start dictating. Dragon Dictation not only offers fast and almost error-free transcription, but if mistakes were made, editing is a breeze. Users can export the text to native SMS or email applications, or even Twitter. With so many people choosing to text and drive at the same time, Dragon Dictation has the power to save lives.

Stumble upon! (Free, Stumble) Web-savvy iPhone enthusiasts will likely recognize this app from the online content discovery service of the same name. Stumble upon! the website (and browser plugin) are widely considered to be the best and most effective time wasters on the internet. After registering your free account, pressing the “Stumbling” button will bring up a random website that is sure to pique your interest. Hit Stumble again and you’ll get another one. And so on. The iPhone version is exactly the same, but portable. In other words: beware of procrastinators.

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