James Thomson

http://www.pcalc.com/

James Thomson is the developer of the PCalc calculator for the iPhone and Mac, as well as the veteran dock app DragThing. In a former life he used to work for Apple, but now he runs TLA Systems full time with his wife in Glasgow, Scotland.

The two third-party apps I use the most are the official Facebook app and Twitterrific. Both are expertly tailored to the phone, and enable me to obsessively check up on what’s happening in the wider world. Typically, I use Facebook for keeping in touch with friends, and Twitter for more professional matters, but the lines between them are getting increasingly blurry at this point.

I have AIM on there, until the very second an iPhone version of Adium is released. Sadly, other than my attempts to will it into existence, I don’t know that it’s coming anytime soon.

I would also confess that I have never actually used Skype to place a real call from the phone, but I have it on my homescreen as a kind of telecommunications insurance policy.

I use FileMagnet for storing a collection of useful text and PDF documents. I have an export of my DVD database, subway maps for a variety of cities, and so on.

RedLaser is an amazing barcode scanning application. Even with the awful camera on my original iPhone, it easily scans any barcode I’ve thrown at it and produces a useful product description.

The BBC iPlayer isn’t an app as such, but it’s still very useful. It’s a link to the BBC’s video on demand service - think Hulu with a British accent.

Finally - and I know it looks like blatant product placement - but I really do have both versions of PCalc. I do development using my phone, and it’s much easier having them both on there than having to scroll to some random page when I want to test the Lite version.