Robb. Knight.

After having yet another “Why should I get an iPhone?” conversation, I decided to put together a list of the apps I use every day that I consider to be ‘killer’ iPhone apps. And by ‘killer’, I mean not only that they are excellent apps to use, but are also iPhone-exclusive and are, in some respects, keeping me from switching to Android.^[1] Number one on the list is Reeder. If you don’t know already, Reeder is a Google Reader-powered RSS client. The interface is absolute perfection, bugs are fixed quickly and sending articles elsewhere, e.g. Twitter, is fast and easy. Add in the fact that there is a nearly-as-good Mac version and I know I won’t be using another RSS client for a long time to come.

Next up is Boxcar. A free notification app that feels like it should be built into iOS. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Email are all in there ready for notifications to come in. Setup is easy, services can be managed online and there are plenty of notification sounds to differentiate different types of notifications. I use Twitter. A lot. I like stats even more. And that’s where Birdbrain and Ego come in. Birdbrain tracks everything in your Twitter account; followers, who you follow, retweets, mentions, DMs. You name, it Birdbrain tracks it. Simply log in from every now and then, and statistics start to build up.

Ego, on the other hand, tracks many different services and gives you a beautiful overview of said stats. Feedburner, Google Analytics, Vimeo, Twitter are all in there as well as Mint, Ember and SquareSpace.

Finally, Instapaper. The app is excellent, and Marco Arment seems to be on an unstoppable quest to make it the best, most feature-packed awesome read-later app ever. And if you’re not using Instapaper, why on earth not?

For more information on these apps, check my reviews on AppAdvice:

• Ego Review
• Birdbrain Review
• Instapaper Pro Review