The iPhone Home Screen of Phil Coffman

Tweetie: My default Twitter app hands-down. I enjoy it’s simplistic UI and appreciate how easy it is to use. I do miss the dark theme from Tweetie 1.0, but it’s absence in Tweetie 2.0 is more than made up for by the indispensable “Pull down to refresh” feature.

Gowalla: I love using this app, especially at this early stage of it’s life. The thrill of discovering unclaimed spots and collecting items never gets old. Plus it’s made by a local firm and we’re big on supporting the locals here in Austin.

Facebook: Even though my visits and posts to Facebook are becoming less frequent, I still use the app to keep up with my “non-techy” friends, you know the ones you actually know in real life.

Camera: I love taking photos with my phone. The fact that I have a camera with me at all times that also allows me post-process (more on that in a bit) and then publish them to various sites and networks is incredible. I placed this icon in the same corner as the physical camera because that felt the most natural to me.

TiltShiftGen, Mill Colour, and PS Mobile: These apps need to be mentioned together since they’re part of a photography workflow I use. I’ve experimented with various photography apps on the iPhone but this combination is easily my favorite. I find that with pairing TiltShiftGen and Mill Colour I have fine-tuned control over how I ultimately want my photos to look. I use PS Mobile solely to add a white border to my photos. I wrote an article about iPhone Photography that talks about all of this in more detail.

Hipstamatic: This app is a new addition to my iPhone Photography lineup. I love the concept behind the interface and the fact that it’s expandable through in-app purchases of new “lenses”, “flashes”, and “film stock”. I’m still experimenting with the various looks, but so far it’s promising.

Photos: With taking a lot of photos I want to be able to access my camera roll quickly, so this app stays close to the photography apps.

Notes: I still use the built-in notes app mostly because it gets the job done with making lists for shopping, gift ideas, random thoughts, etc. I’ve heard good things about Simplenote, so I might be swapping this out at some point.

The Weather Channel: At first I really wanted to keep Apple’s weather app on my home screen, but I wanted more detailed forecasts which this app provides in spades.

Maps: This app is the one I was the most excited about having in my pocket before I owned an iPhone and has proved it’s value over and over again.

Settings: I access my phone settings fairly regularly, so this had to stay put.

Things: I have a terrible time remembering the things I need to get done, so Things is an absolute life saver for me. It’s helped me be more productive. I also keep this app directly above my mail app because the content in those can often go hand in hand.

Calendar: I have my phone set-up to pull in my work events, so it needs to be quickly accessible and again close to the mail app.

App Store: I need to lay off this app, but I’m not ready to move it off the home screen because I still check to see which apps are being featured and to learn more about the ones my friends tell me about.

I’ve left the Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod apps in their original positions and use them constantly. My 2nd screen is for gaming and the last two screens hold random apps I access just often enough to leave on my phone.