I have about 80 apps on my iPhone. While I use many of these applications on-and-off, there are some which I use daily. These are apps that I love and I would dump the iPhone if these apps were not there!

So, here’s my list:

1. ReQall: This is my favorite app for setting reminders and getting things done. ReQall trumps in providing a dead-simple way of adding reminders from the phone – voice. It lets you add reminders by voice by recording a message within the app and ReQall transcribes it for you. It sends back reminders in the form of emails and SMS. They even have some great pro features now. And, did I forget to mention that they have a great “Memory Jog” feature.
2. Evernote: Again, a top-notch app. It is a simple note-taking application which takes notes in the form of text, voice and pictures. The great things is that is supports optical character recognition. So, you can search for text right inside the pictures! The package is complete with all the various access options that Evernote provides – it is easily accessible from the web, desktop app and the iPhone app – all in sync. There are many note-taking apps, but none like evernote.
3. Nimbuzz: If you are not my grandpa’s grandpa, I would assume you use IM (Gtalk, Yahoo, MSN etc.). Nimbuzz provides an extremely comprehensive IM suite with support for all major IM services, VoIP over wifi and “dial-up VoIP over 3G”.
4. Shozu: If you are a shutterbug like me, you have the need to click and post. Shozu releases the pictures on the phone and can upload to multiple websites like Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, Twitpic, Smugmug, Photobucket etc.
5. Facebook: Needless to explain!  
6. Twitterfon: If you are a twit-addict and don’t want to dole out a couple of dollars for a paid app, this is the one for you. Great interface. Great functionality. It supports retweeting, opening of links, follow / unfollow, twitter search, viewing of trending topics and searching of twitter users by location. It also has a great little bookmarklet for the iPhone Safari browser which lets you post links from Safari.
7. Brightkite: I use this as an “add-on” twitter app. I use this to share interesting places, restaurants, bars or simply my location with my friends. It detects your location and can post a link to your twitter / facebook about your location on a map, with details about the place you are at.
8. Bloomberg: This is my news app of choice. Despite the fact that I love Google Reader for the iPhone, Bloomberg does a great job with business news. You can customize the news section and also take a look at leading indices, stocks, bonds, currencies etc. The app is slick and fast.
9. Wikiamo: This simple app lets me search and browse through Wikipedia in a format that’s friendly for the iPhone screen. A must-have.
10.  Zyb Sync: If you are always worried about losing your contacts in case your phone is lost or gets “bricked”, this is the app for you. Zyb is a great app that can backup your contacts on the Zyb website. You can even edit your contacts on their website and sync back. Zyb was bought over by Vodafone and should be a very reliable service.

A lot of these would change with the launch of iPhone OS 3.0 and its various features. I am waiting patiently for a brand new lineup of apps this summer. What are your current favorite iPhone apps? 

• From a content “consumer”, social media encourages people to also create content. So, I no longer am just a consumer, but a part of the ecosystem of producers and consumers. I write articles on my blog, create photographic content, video content etc. And, it’s not that I had a major change in my life which made me a “content producer”. It’s is the very nature of the “wikipedia economy” to make people “active”, rather than “passive” in the ecosystem.

• Social media has weaned me off traditional media. I hardly read the newspaper these days. It’s quite a big “object” to hold in the hands anyway. Instead, I prefer to read all the news / blogs via Google Reader on my iPhone. It is always available, easy to use and serves me fresh content.

• Not that I am a big TV fan, but I was quite sure that people cannot imagine their lives without the idiot box. But, I can see a lot changing there. More and more video content is moving to the web (Hulu, Youtube, on-demand movies etc.). Not only this makes content available on demand, rather than fixed show timings, it is also a great way of content “discovery”, rather than being tied to the content you subscribed for. Also, there are possibilities to buy specific content that you like and watch it at your leisure on the phone or computer. So, I don’t like all shows on Discovery Travel & Living, but I can definitely buy Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations through iTunes.

• I have an audio cassette of one of my favourite artists, but I don’t know how to play it. With music moving to digital formats, we made the content more portable. The iPods provided a great interface to run through and organize your music on-the-go. And, then phones doubled up as your music player. Even more, now I don’t necessary have to store music, I can hear it streaming from the web legally though sites like Last.FM, Pandora etc. While the radio still is in fashion (somewhat), you have tons of web apps offering streaming radio.

• The social media makes the content timeless for me. So, I am free to go back to look at the content repeatedly with ease.

• Best of all, my content is no longer confined to me. It’s out there in the open – for sharing. Always available to everyone – on demand!

Many of these changes we see in this new web-driven world are very disruptive, changing attitudes, behaviour and even ways of doing business.

What changes did social media bring to your life?

It has been an eventful year for me. I got promoted. I left my job at Gallup India. I got married. Yay! I had a wonderful vacation in Thailand. Yay, Yay!! I joined Towers Perrin in Sing a pore. I went about Singapore. And so on.

Meanwhile, a lot of posts on this blog got quite popular. And, I thought it will be a good idea to do a quick round-up of the various things I wrote about in 2008.

• The concept of “Micro-Boredom” and how the mobile phone has become my saviour.
• My wishlist from the grand-daddy of internet – Google.
• The business case for Employee Engagement. This post got a lot of attention and was eventually published on the front page of Deccan Herald’s Career Supplement DH Avenues.
• I got myself an iPhone 3G and wondered if it is “smart-phone” enough. Subsequent fixes from Apple have resolved some of my issues with the almighty phone.
• I borrowed from some research by my company to think about “deal-structuring” for employees or how we could maximize employee RoI from their relationship with organizations.
• 2008 was the year of economic ‘pain’. I mused about how we could manage differently.
• I am bowled over by the wonderful system of ‘incentives’ in Singapore. But, why are restaurant staff here not incentivized enough to provide great service to customers?
• I became a fan of TED. Fascinating stuff. Kevin Kelly impressed with his talk on the next 5000 days of the web.
• Mumbai will not forget 2008 so easily. Neither will I. I blabbered as Mumbai took the bullets.
• I started thinking about simplifying the interfaces of enterprise applications. I think this is a big big opportunity.
• I stumbled upon an idea to convert the employee benefits system into a ‘marketplace for benefits’. I have completely given up on looking at traditional system thinking on solving this critical problem that so many organizations face. An innovative and experimental approach is more likely to lead to a solution. I am looking for organizations who would like to partner with me on such an experiment.

And, if you think, I have bored you enough with this serious stuff, go straight to my alternate blog at Tumblr to enjoy some really cool pictures, videos, quotes and fun stuff. Or meet the shutter-bug in me at Flickr. Or, just head straight to my FriendFeed page to get a snapshot of all my online activity and networks. 

Here’s to a peaceful and fulfilling 2009. Cheers!