Yes, my name is Tim. I'm a geek. I'm not in recovery. I realized this on the first day the iPhone went on sale, and I was sitting in my folding lawn chair, surfing the web on my laptop, from inside Lenox Mall, just outside of the Apple store with hundreds of others who also needed therapy for their technology addiction.

I've loved my iPhone though I've been dismayed with the AT&T network. The phone continues to grow in functionality with the addition of the Apps store at iTunes––where users can download applications that have a growing variety of functionality. Many are free. Most are very inexpensive.

At present, I've tried nearly 100 apps. Some were quick any easy discards. Some have really limited functionality, yet I can't bring myself to abandon them yet as they are growing. Some gain more functionality as more and more people use them. And even some of the applications that I really like, have need of improvement. (This platform is indeed in its infancy.) And, finally, many will also work on the iPod Touch.

Today Time.com published their Top 10 iPhone Apps. I use and love several of the ones on their list. So, to celebrate the season, in a series of four posts, I've decided to post my 12 Apps of Christmas. If you don't celebrate Christmas, you can still join in the festivities by thinking of this mini-series as "These Are Just 12 of My Favorite Things." They are presented in no particular order.

1. Fake Calls

When I was a principal in Cobb County, I knew of several colleagues who would have their secretary call them at a particular time during a boring meeting. They would immediately flee the meeting claiming some horrid emergency at school demanded their immediate attention. Clever

Well, now the secretary no longer need be complicitous! With FakeCall, even your iPod Touch can act like a cell phone. Schedule "the call" to come in whenever you like (at a specific time or in so many minutes from now), from whomever you would like in your address book. Your iPhone or iPod Touch rings at the designated time; you act conspicuously worried as you mumble quietly, unintelligibly into your device to the imaginary caller (whose picture can even appear on your phone); you collect your belongings and quickly scurry from death by boredom.

At just 99 cents, what's not to love here?!

2. iTalk Recorder and iTalk Recorder Premium

Turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a digital recorder. The simple, elegant user interface gives you control of audio quality. You can Pause and later append to any recording already on your device. Add notes to recordings. The basic application is free as of this writing. The premium version is selling for $4.99.

Using iTalkSync (a free computer download as of this writing), you can download the AIFF audio recording to your Mac or PC when your computer and device are both on the same Wi-Fi network. You will need to use a file conversion utility to convert the AIFF file to an mp3 format if you plan to upload it as an audio podcast to the web.

The iPod Touch will also require at least version 2.2 of the operating system and a mic attachment of some sort. The mic attachments did not work on the iPod Touch prior to OS 2.2. Several mic options are available. I have personally used these four with success:

1. My older version of Macally's iVoicePro for the iPod Classic now works on my iPod Touch with OS 2.2. I can only assume the new version of the iVoicePro works with the iPod Touch as well. The mic has a mini jack for external input. And the new version also has a USB port.
2. The Belkin TuneTalk Stereo for the iPod Classic also now works on my iPod Touch with OS 2.2. It has a mini audio input, autogain button, and a USB port with cable.
3. My old XtremeMac MicroMemo for the iPod Classic also now works on my iPod Touch with OS 2.2. The device features a mini audio line in. I do not find these available on the XtremeMac site; so, they may no longer manufacture them though they are listed on Amazon.com.
4. But I suppose my favorite is the Shure Music Phone Adpater While this attachment has some extra features that are great, it's the quality of the recorded sound that I love!   Of all of the iPod mics I've used through the years, this mic has the best sound quality by far! It's actually designed to be connected to earbuds that plug into the end of the cable so your favorite earbuds can be used with the iPhone to make calls. In this configuration you can easily switch between listening to music and taking a phone call. However, I've attached the mic, without any earbuds connected, to my iPod Touch and used the mic for recording. The wire allows you to put your iPod Touch in your pocket or on a belt clip while having the mic attached to your tie, shirt, or blouse with the tiny clip.

3. Jott Notepad for iPhone

Jott allows you to record a brief memo. Jott transcribes the memo into text with astounding accuracy and sends an email and/or a text message to the desired recipient(s). You can setup groups of recipients: the department heads, all staff, your family, yourself... Forget the typing––just Jott! Jott Notepad for iPhone is free as of this writing.

I've written about Jott before: All Good Things... . Well, I couldn't break up with Jott, even though it is now a subscription service. However, they do offer a limited free plan.

Jott has a growing feature set which can be used in conjunction with other services. For example: you can Jott to your blog (limited blog engines supported); you can Jott to Google calendar; you can Jott a tweet to Twitter. (It's just getting a bit crazy, isn't it!). Jott also has a nice web interface and a tiny "application" you can run from your desktop to manage your jotts.

If you haven't heard about Jott, you should explore it. It's one of my favorite things. When the dog bites, when the bee...

Stay tuned tomorrow for part 2!