When I bought my first iPhone, I pretty much spent every waking moment surfing the App Store, downloading every app that may come in handy one day. After filling about a dozen pages with pointless games, oddly specific utilities, addictive social networking tools and other tidbits of randomness that I now look back on and wonder why anyone would actually take time out of their lives to write, I realized that I could live without most of them. Okay, all of them.
Every now and then, I still do pop out onto the monstrous cash cow that is the Apple App Store, just to see if there's anything that may make my life a little more entertaining and/or easier to manage. Everyone already knows about the heavy hitters like Facebook, Shazam, Pandora, WootWatch, and all those stupid games that get way more attention than they deserve, like that one with the slingshot and the birds. ...I forget the name.
But then there are those rare finds that don't ever make it to the front page - diamonds in the rough that would be more popular than Plants Vs. Zombies if people just knew they existed.
When I first got the phone, I resolved never to pay for an app, because I knew that otherwise I would quickly have an apple-shaped hole in my pocket the size of the grand canyon. My saving grace is that occasionally the paid apps go free for holidays or promotional events. When they do, the App Shopper is there to scoop them up and put them in a convenient App Store-style list for you to download. A must-have for anyone who doesn't like paying for apps.
HeyTell
It's like talking on the phone without calling anyone. It's like texting, but you use your voice instead of displayed text. It's like a walkie-talkie, but...not. Basically, you record a short voice message and HeyTell wisps it away to the recipient of your choosing, and they in turn can send you a voice message in response. It's like leaving a voicemail without having to call them first. It also saves conversations so that you can play them back. I'm not sure what that's useful for, but it's still pretty groovy.
VoiceBreif
We've all seen it in one form or another: the "home of tomorrow," showcasing an all-encompassing information center that reads your feeds while you get ready for the day. News, stocks, weather, social media updates, traffic, sports scores, the whole nine. VoiceBreif is definitely a step in that direction. It's not all the way there, but it definitely makes my mornings that much better. Definitely.
The Dark Nebula Series
Rarely do I find a game in the App Store that entertains me for more than a few hours. By now, it's almost a reflex to delete a newly downloaded game after a 5-minute test drive. With Dark Nebula, however, I couldn't stop playing, and I eagerly await the third episode. I think I might punch a baby if I find out they've stopped making them.
Ever since the iPhone 4 came out with the LED flash, dozens of apps poured onto the scene, designed solely to turn the phone into a flashlight. Most of them have splash screens or use the camera API, and take several seconds to actually turn on the light. That may sound like a short period of time, but there are several situations in which one might need a flashlight, where immediacy is paramount. This app is as close to instant light as I can find.
Tilt to Live
The Tilt to Live premise is brilliantly simple: the white arrow is controlled by tilting the device; red dots continuously pop up and float toward the arrow. If the arrow makes contact with a dot, and the game is over. Power-ups give you different dot-destroying abilities, and before you know it, you've been sitting on the toilet for over an hour trying to beat your 3-million high score and your legs are asleep. Great soundtrack, too.
CrazyAlarm
Of all the alarm clock apps on the market, this one does the best at waking you up. Mostly because the sounds are intentionally obnoxious and you have to shake your phone over 100 times to turn off the alarm. It's very hard to not be wide awake after repeatedly hearing Robin Williams scream "Goooood morning Vietnam!" while you shake your phone like a zombified psychopath. Plus, it's free.
All you iPhone users out there should check these out. And if you have any apps that you just can't live without, share the wealth and post 'em in a comment.
This is all for now.
-R.
No comments:
Post a Comment