Back when I was a nipper I was absolutely hopeless at keeping track of my pocket money. What little coinage my parents would bestow upon me was quickly wasted on sweets, comics and other superfluous items, usually prior to me realising that I didn’t have enough pennies left to get the bus home.

As an adult I’m still inept at controlling my meagre finances, but unfortunately my bumbling accountancy skills have a little more impact these days – not keeping track of incoming and outgoing monetary transactions can have more far-reaching results that merely having to walk home from town in the rain.

PocketSmart is an application built for people such as myself. It allows you to track expenditure quickly and easily, which means you’ll (hopefully) never be caught short again when it comes to protecting your precious wealth.

Whenever you make a purchase, you simply fire up PocketSmart and quickly log the transaction using the calculator, voice recording or voice recognition facility.

The first choice is naturally the most accurate of the three, but takes a little longer to input the data. Using this method you can insert the cost (in GBP, EUR or USD), whether it’s a personal or business payment, and the type of payment used (cash, Visa or Mastercard). You can also add other details using the phone’s keypad.

Additional details can be assigned depending on what kind of purchase you’ve made. For example, if you’ve denoted a transaction as business-related, you can pick from a pre-selected list of possible options including petrol, office stationary and postage costs. You can edit these choices so they suit your particular type of work, if you wish.

Categories for personal expenses can also be assigned, although the default suggestions – including rent, food, telephone, clothing, etc – cover pretty much all of the bases.

Obviously, inputting all of this information is only worthwhile if can interpret it quickly and efficiently at a later date, and PocketSmart boasts a reporting feature which does just that. You can choose to see either your business or personal transactions over several different time periods (last week, last month, all time, and so on), and the results are handily broken down into a pie chart as well as a rather less exciting list.

What’s more, you can search for individual entries, which is indispensable when you’re trying to track down that pesky transaction that eventually puts you past your overdraft limit.

Considering the complexity of PocketSmart, it’s almost inevitable that some minor niggles are present. We noticed that the program wouldn’t allow us to change the currency manually in each transaction. No matter how many times we tried, it always reverted back to the default setting, which can only be changed by accessing the settings menu.

Also, as nice as the voice recognition feature is, it’s not tremendously accurate - and when you’re stood in a busy shop trying to record your entry the till the background noise completely confounds the software, resulting in some humorous results. It’s far easier to use the text-based input, or record the entry for submission later on.

Still, the app is evolving slowly and there’s a good chance that the developer will iron out such issues. Although it’s hard to get truly excited about a program that merely keeps tabs on boring fiscal issues, we can see PocketSmart becoming a life-saving tool in today’s cash-obsessed world. If only this had been available when I was a kid, I might have had some money left for the bus ride home.

PocketSmart info

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Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Price: Free

Developer: Delads Ltd

Website/Demo: The Pocketools website

The modern world moves at such a frighteningly swift pace that keeping track of everything can be a mammoth task. If you’re feeling jaded by the pressures of everyday life, then Where is likely to bring a broad smile across your otherwise world-weary face.

Billed by its developer as a program that allows you to track your favourite people, places and things, Where brings together several different ‘widgets’ to create a one-stop application that aims to cover every aspect of your hectic social world.

For example, it’s possible to plan an entire day’s proceedings using this powerful tool. If you’re at a loose end then you can use the Eventful widget to browse interesting events that are happening near you. Once you’ve decided on which place you’d like to visit, you can see if any of your friends are nearby using the Buddy Beacon widget.

Buddy Beacon naturally requires you (and your friends) to register to the service, but once this is done your chums will be displayed on the map and their precise location will be updated regularly. From here you can choose to send them a message or give them a call.

As soon as you’ve roped someone in to spending their day with you, you can arrange to meet somewhere – a Starbucks, perhaps? Using the appropriate widget you can see all of the Starbucks coffee shops in your vicinity and designate one as a rendezvous point.

Once you’ve chugged your espresso and attended the event you can then look into grabbing an evening meal; Where’s Yellow Pages widget allows you to search for nearby eateries and even call to book a reservation. Should you enjoy the food and want to revisit again at a later date, you can even flag the restaurant in question as a favourite using the myPlaces widget.

The application’s usefulness doesn’t end there, either. You can locate cinemas, find the cheapest petrol and even look for photographs of local places of interest. It’s also possible to share data with people in your iPhone address book, so should you spot an upcoming event that you think one of your mates would enjoy, you can kindly pass the information on.

If we had one criticism of Where it’s that it’s obviously aimed at American users; some of the widgets are only useful when on US soil as they relate to services not currently available elsewhere. However, given the general level of usefulness this is a minor quibble at best.

Many Apple fans have proudly boasted for some time that the iPhone is a device that mankind simply cannot live without; although such hyperbole is probably pushing it a bit, an iPhone equipped with Where comes dangerously close to being truly indispensable.

Where Info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Version of app: 1.3.0

Price: Free

Developer: Where

Website/Demo: Where website

Some regard radio as an outmoded format, but it’s still the best place to get music without heading for the more utilitarian hotspots like Last.fm and Spotify, or even if you just want to hear a bit of chat between your tunes.

A good few UK FM radio stations have been pretty quick off the mark in getting their radio waves transmitted to the iPhone via a dedicated application, but they’re certainly not all there. We scoured the App Store to see which ones we could find.

The most startling thing we found out was that just about all the major radio stations in the UK are served by one single application made by Global Radio. However, it has been given a minor re-skin for each station. You can still access all the stations from any of the Global Radio applications, so even if you secretly listen to Heart, you can retain your cred by keeping an Xfm icon on your iPhone’s home screen.

These Global Radio applications don’t match the functionality of the top-selling radio hub Wunder Radio, which can pull in just about any radio stream on the net including BBC stations, but then you have to pay £3.99 for the privilege of using it.

In our tests, music suffered under the low bit rates fed through the application, with fidelity lower than you’d expect from DAB or FM radio. This could improve with a stronger signal, but it didn’t seem to be limited by our connection’s bandwidth, but instead by the application’s in-built settings.

We’ll take a more in-depth look at paid-for radio solutions in the future, but here are the radio applications currently available using the Global Radio framework:

Heart
Pop
It may be commonly thought of as a station for middle-aged women, but Heart has a huge audience across the UK. We could connect to more than twenty local variants of the station too, meaning you’ll be able to catch up with your local Heart station just about wherever you are.

95.8 Capital FM
Pop
Being a London station, there aren’t any variants of Capital FM in Global Radio’s network, but it’s the closest alternative to BBC’s Radio 1 available without paying for a more powerful radio app.

Galaxy
Dance/R&B
Although there appears to be a few national variants of the Galaxy radio station, we could only pick up a one.

Classic FM
Classical
Classic FM essentially does what it says on the tin, or at least it would if it you could store radio waves in a tin. In our tests, this style of music fared better than the other music-oriented stations in terms of coping with the relatively low bit-rates transmitted.

LBC 97.3
Talk
Ostensibly a phone-in station, LBC’s full of strange individuals calling up to discuss everyday problems, often with comic results. LBC sounds just about perfect in spite of the limited signal quality.

Absolute
Rock/Pop
What was once Virgin Radio, Absolute has veered ever more towards the middle of the road since its takeover. It has become something of a male counterpart to Heart, playing some fairly soft classic rock tracks alongside modern songs that sound a lot like fairly soft classic rock tracks.

Xfm
Rock
Partnering with Capital as one of the more youth-focused stations available over the Global Radio network, Xfm plays indie and rock tracks, generally originating from the last 10 years.

Mobile phones, at one time, used to stay in your pocket when it wasn’t at your ear, but now the likes of the iPhone has so many uses other than phone calls, there’s lots of reason to keep it exposed. But with exposure comes security issues, and that’s where Thief Buster comes in.

The idea is to provide an application that fires off an audio and visual alarm whenever anyone but you so much as moves the handset.

Thanks to the accelerometer and light sensor, there are plenty of options for an iPhone to detect where it is and what it’s doing – what’s important is how Thief Buster makes use of those features.

Arming and disarming involves a unique form of passcode, which uses a series of simple gestures against the touchscreen, rather than numbers or letters.

The three alarm modes include motion sensing, designed to allow you to leave your iPhone laying around; anti-pick pocket mode, which triggers when the iPhone is brought out into the light, and defender mode, which uses the previous modes as a kind of detector for other objects, like your bag.

For a bit of extra security, the app also pumps up the iPhone’s speaker to full volume, regardless as to what it was previously set at, and should your clever thief just turn the app off to silence it, it automatically restarts and sets the alarm off again.

While it does beg the question as to why you’d leave your iPhone laying around – alarmed or otherwise – Thief Buster is a novel app that could almost prove as useful for ensuring you don’t lose or forget your iPhone, as much as stopping it being stolen.

If you’re quick, it’s currently free to download before going back to the budget price range.

Today info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.1

Developer: FLAG Solutions

Website/Demo: FLAG Solutions website

Download Thief Buster from

Vlingo has been available on a range of platforms for quite a while now, and now it's hit the App Store with some premium add-ons.

Previously, the app allowed you to speak commands (such as Facebook update: I need a coffee), and the app will convert the command to text and post to Facebook.

Now you can pay for add-ons that allow you to send an SMS or email to contacts already saved in your phonebook. These add-ons cost £3.99 each or you can get them both for £5.99.

Getting the add-ons is simple - Vlingo has put in-app purchasing to full use. All you need to do is select which package you want, confirm your wish to purchase it and enter your iTunes password. The add-on will be automatically installed and ready for you to use instantly.

So once you're set up and have entered the details for Twitter and Facebook in the Apps section, you'll have to take a minute to look through the tutorial and familiarise yourself with the correct terms.

When you're confident you know which commands you have to use to post to a specific service, press the big button and speak into it clearly.

There are a whole load of commands you can instruct Vlingo to do, including find an address or business on Google Maps, search the internet, dial a phone number, send an SMS or email.

The design is pretty basic, comprising of nothing but that Press & Speak button and the help panel below.

In the top right corner, there's the app menu that allows you to select manually which application you'd like to use voice commands for. It's a lot less fun to use Vlingo in this way, but the accuracy is better because you cut out half of the command.

So now onto the negatives.

Like many voice command apps, Vlingo sometimes struggles to pick up what you're saying. For example, we asked it to text our friend Jennifer asking 'How's the feature going?' The app translated this at 'How is the peach during'.

Another issue with texting and emailing is that you can't just send an SMS or email directly from the app - you'll have to copy the text and paste it into the SMS or email app and then send it. This seems a little pointless really, especially as the iPhone doesn't yet support multitasking - you can't just swap between the apps, so Vlingo will close when you enter the SMS or email app.

The service failed to connect us to Twitter at all, which is an issue as this is the social networking service we use the most.

Vlingo would be a useful app if it supported in-app messaging rather than copying and pasting functionality (that you pay for the privilege to use) and the voice recognition technology was more accurate.

As it stands, we don't really see the point of it - it doesn't save time when using the email or SMS functions, although the Google search and Google Maps functionality are a little better.

Take our advice: Get this app, but don't bother paying for the add-ons.

Vlingo info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: Free

Version: 2.0.0

Developer: Vlingo

Website/Demo: Vlingo website

Download Vlingo from

There really isn’t any information about yourself that isn’t considered sensitive these days, which is probably why secure ‘wallet’ style programs are growing in popularity every day.

Naturally this trend has spread to the iPhone, though not without a few difficulties along the way.

Primarily Apple is against the notion of all these fancy security algorithms running inside apps – despite the fact that it’s the only way to ensure your data is locked away nice and safely.

One of the latest additions to the burgeoning password keeper genre is 1Password, which has one of the vital benefits that few of these virtual password safes can boast – compatibility with a desktop version.

It’s Mac-only software, which is quite a downer for Windows users, but if you have an Apple on your desk as well as your pocket, chances are 1Password is something that’s already in use.

The accompanying iPhone app allows you to transfer your secure database to the handheld device directly from the computer, using Wi-Fi. Since 1Password allows for the generation of random passwords (the most secure kind) manually re-typing this information can be nigh on impossible.

Prohibitively difficult, at the least. Moving over a database from the computer means you’ve got all your info, it’s accurate, and it’s easy.

The app also features two layers of protection. A shorter PIN code to access the app, and a more complex master password for locking away your more sensitive information, like credit card numbers and online banking logins.

Coupled with the option to automatically copy and paste this data into mobile Safari, you’re able to make use of the secure websites on the go.

There are two versions of 1Password Pro on the App Store, so you can test it out before paying to go pro (the pro version still feeling a little pricey, despite its excellent features. Especially if you’ve already paid for the Mac version).

Chances are any existing Mac users will leap on this wallet application, and would be wise to do so.

1Password Pro info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: £4.99

Version:2.4

Developer: Agile Web Solutions

Website/Demo: Agile Web Solutions website

Download 1Password Pro from

If you're a Twitter user and have an iPhone, it's pretty likely that you're struggling to make a decision which one is best for everyday use.

There are so many available on the App Store, both free and paid, that it can be a minefield to choose which to keep on your first homescreen.

HootSuite is just one of these, but it's certainly worth a download.

To be fair, much of what makes this application so useful isn’t down to the app itself, but the social networking management system HootSuite has already built.

It’s a great looking, organisable in-browser system that allows you to operate all your social networking identities in one place, which feels surprisingly necessary once you give it a shot.

The official HootSuite iPhone application only focuses on the Twitter aspects at the moment, however, but it offers a far more diverse and entrenched experience than Twitter itself.

Primarily, you can manage as many different accounts as you like (great for work and personal Tweeting) and submit a new micro-post to as many or as few all at once, simply by ticking which accounts you want to carry the message.

Simple sliding screens provide you with all the info you need, such as sent Tweets, direct messages, feeds from those you are following and so forth.

It also includes access to some pretty detailed analytics, showing how many people have read your Tweets, the number of times links have been followed and a whole lot more – great for business users.

On top of all this you can take photos with the camera and upload them to Twitter, embedded in a post (HootSuite uses its own URL shortening system automatically, which is first class), create lists, view pages of Tweets based on specific keywords and a host of other functions that Twitter alone doesn’t offer.

Indeed, HootSuite is very much what Twitter should be. Once you’ve started using this system, Twitter itself will feel incredibly limited.

HootSuite info

Ease of use:
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Platform: iPhone/iPod touch 

Cost: £1.19

Version: 1.0.1

Developer: HootSuite Media

Website/Demo: HootSuite Media website

Download HootSuite from

First it’s probably worth clarifying what XBMC is. It stands for Xbox Media Centre, and although it was originally conceived as a replacement firmware for Microsoft’s first living room console, the popularity of the platform has seen it spread to other devices (hacked Apple TVs, PCs, and such).

This iPhone app serves as a kind of next-gen remote control – dispensing with infrared and sending far more complex commands via Wi-Fi.

Being as we make intensive use of an Xbox running XBMC, this is an app we had our eye on for a long time, but couldn’t quite part with the £1.79. A new TV in the bedroom convinced us to make the purchase, as the infrared extender was very flaky with the Xbox, while a Wi-Fi remote is rock solid.

The app allows you to control every aspect of your XBMC set up, and goes one step further by scraping in all kinds of data about the shows, films and music you’re accessing through the platform.

So choosing a program to watch (for instance) can be done via the on-screen list, grouped into series, shows and individual episodes. Scrolling though menus on the remote control (being your iPhone or iPod touch) rather than through individual button presses on the TV, is immensely liberating.

You do have a more traditional remote control set up, which offers a gesture system as well as virtual buttons. Gesture control is very effective, allowing you to keep both eyes firmly on the screen while still using the iPhone’s touchscreen to navigate.

The buttons are configurable, too, so you can resize, rearrange, add more screens and customise your remote to a remarkable level of detail.

The tall and short of XBMC Remote is that once you’ve tried it you’ll realise this isn’t a nice add-on. It’s an essential part of your Xbox Media Centre set up.

We’d even recommend you buy an iPod Touch just to give your XBMC the remote control it deserves.

XBMC Remote info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: £1.79

Version: 1.4

Developer: Collect3

Website/Demo: XBMC Remote website

Download XBMC Remote from

Humans used to use the stars for navigation and so their position was common knowledge.

These days, however, such information is more of a hobby or academic pursuit which can translate into high prices in the App Store. Stars is a free map of the stars which illustrates the location of the 88 constellations that we’ve named in the sky.

The premise of Stars is extremely simple. The stars are shown on a black background – as you might expect – with the constellations picked out in blue.

While is may seem obvious to opt for this colour scheme, it might have actually been easier to have the background white and the stars picked out in black, as the labels and lines are difficult to read on the dark background, a fact that isn’t helped by the reflective surface of the iPhone screen.

As you flick around the stars, you can see a dotted green line which indicates the celestial equator. This is the area of the sky that can be found directly above earth’s equator as it spins away.

Slightly to an angle of the celestial equator is the ecliptic which is the path that the sun follows, around the planet – though essentially, it is of course the other way round. The red is particularly tricky to pick out on the back ground.

To say that Stars was a no-bells-and-whistles app would be something of an understatement. A zoom feature for example would be great. However, the fact is that is delivers on what it promises in the item description in the app store which is more than can be said for a lot of other apps.

The real downside for Stars though is that apps such Planets do its job a lot better and are also free.

If you need a quick positional reference for the constellations, then you could do a lot worse that Stars and if sky gazing is something you’re into in general, then it could be worth a look considering it’s free.

Stars info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch  

Cost: Free

Version: 1.2

Developer: Nelix   

Website/Demo: Nelix website

Download Stars from

As the battle rages on between food label anoraks and trading standards agencies to get clearer-marked packaging, it’s thought that several countries in the world are falling into an obesity epidemic.

Whether you subscribe to this particular theory or you just think its standard scare mongering by the news papers to make a meal out of nothing and increase copy sales, staying fit can only be a good thing.

One good way to stay in shape is to walk. It might not sound like much, but if you were walk down to Margaret’s house for a cup of tea instead of fire up the Fiat Panda and drive your way there, then you can keep up with your calorie consumption and avoid it taking its place on your hips where it’s immeasurably more difficult to shift.

It’s this reason that apps such as Go Pedometer can be a great start to get your on track for healthier lifestyle

The first time you fire up the app, you’ll need to enter your height in centimeters or feet and weight in pounds, so make sure you have that information to hand. Once you’re in, the app has two screens.

One displays all the relevant information such as the amount of time it’s been running and the number of calories you’ve burned while the other is the settings page.

The pedometer page is packed full on information. In addition to the two parameters mentioned above, it will tell you the number of calories you’re averaging to burn per hour, average speed, current speed and the distance travelled.

When you’re ready to head off into the wilderness of, simply press the start button, put your iPhone in your pocket within the allotted three seconds so the measuring can begin and off you go.

While we mooched down to the supermarket to pick up some alcohol to burn off walking later on, the pedometer measured our steps accurately. Sometimes it seemed to double count a step but this was rare and you’d need to do some serious walking before it started to make a big difference.

The information on show is relevant and clear and it’s pretty easy to use. Being on your iPhone means that you’ll rarely leave it at home, leaving your motivation to do a little more exercise the final ingredient for success.

Go Pedometer info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch  

Cost: 59p 

Version: 2.3

Developer: Ilya Suzdalnitski

Website/Demo: N/A

Download Go Pedometer from

Life is pretty complicated these days and, sometimes, everything can pile up and really get on top of you.

Thankfully though, the limitless goodies in the App Store never cease to diversify and you can download apps that will help you on the road to more positive thinking.

Live Happy is brought to you by Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness.

The opening screen provides a shot of Lyubomirsky and a small TV icon which plays a short introductory movie. This reel tells you a bit about the developers that she works with to make the app, Signal Patters that specialise in psychology-based applications to improve wellbeing.

The idea behind the app is to take advantage of scientific studies in the area of positive psychology that suggest a few simple things can increase happiness levels.

These activities are things like savoring a moment and taking a picture, keeping a gratitude journal of all the things that you’re grateful for and setting positive goals and making notes of the ‘baby steps’ that might lead you to achieving them.

There are eight activities in total and a survey at the beginning will help decipher which ones are most suited to you.

When you start browsing around the app, you realise that it’s got a lot of content for your cash. There are lots of videos that explain all parts of the app in detail and also footage of Lyubomirsky appearing on TV shows such as Good Morning America.

Everything is very well put together to and it’s clear that a lot of work has gone into the interface. However, because everything is broken down into more manageable steps to make thing easier to follow, it can sometimes get a bit confusing until you’ve learned your way around.

The usefulness of an app such as this really comes down to the individual. The fact is that it’s been put together by trained professionals in the area of positive psychology and so the techniques are there.

However, you will need to take the initiative and actually invest time in using the features, which involves a good measure of inputting text. From an objective standpoint, it’s generally a well-made app with lots of content for the price and tried and tested scientific methodology at its foundation.

Live Happy info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch 

Cost: 59p

Developer: Signal Patterns

Website/Demo: Live Happy website

Download Live Happy from

Space - the final frontier for software developers looking to make a quick buck.

Many free iPhone apps are pretty pants but when we stumble across one that looks decent, we like to give it a punt. Planets is one such an app. It can be found in the education section of the App Store and provides you with a decent surprising amount of goodies.

The app has four main features. Firstly, it provides a 3D, planetarium-style view of the night sky, showing the constellations and planets.

You can change the background view to settings such as infrared, microwave, though as far as we can tell the effects are just aesthetic. Either way, the 3D view works just as well, if not better, than many expensive applications we’ve such as Go Skywatch.

Next up is a visibility meter for each of the planets in the solar system. It shows you the times that they will visible to the naked eye and also the level of visibility which is indicated by the opacity of the marker.

This is a great tool for anyone that likes to point out the planets and impress someone or indeed, star gazing hobbyists and professionals. The layout is clear and easy to understand, even if you’ve no idea about astrology.

The Globe section is very cool. By this point we were already impressed with the amount of features in the free app. As if the above wasn’t enough, this section shows you 3D rendered and detailed spheres of all the planets in the solar system and also our moon.

You can watch the textures of their surfaces spinning away flick then round to examine specific points such as the great storm on Jupiter.

Finally, you can view a two-dimensional view of the night sky and constallations. If spinning around the planetarium view is making you dizzy then this view should let you browse the stars in a way that you’re probably more used to.

We were expecting this application to have adverts and the likes to make up the funds but there wasn’t one in sight. It’s brilliantly put together, easy to use, packed with great features and best of all, it’s free.

Planets info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.7

Developer: Q Continuum

Website/Demo: Q Continuum website

Download Planets from

Heater apps seem to be the current fad of the App Store, claiming to turn your iPhone into a mpbile heater.

The notion that an application could in fact turn your mobile phone into a heater to warm up your paws on a cold winter’s day is, of course, ludicrous.

Your iPhone might get warm when you sit there and play a 3D game for a couple of hours, but that’s not the same as having a butane burner in your palms.

The reviews of the App Store section is interesting. Some people are saying ‘wow it really works’ and others are saying ‘don’t bother wasting your money on this app’. Like many in the reviews section, curiosity got the better of us and so we downloaded it and, virtually speaking, fired her up.

There’s only one screen in the app which looks like one of the old petrol hand warmers that people used to have before they no doubt got deemed a health and safety hazard.

Fortunately, you don’t need to pour any petrol inside your iPhone to get Heater to work either. Pressing the small circle at the top right of the screen will get the heater fired up and have it start to produce a burning sound.

A temperature gauge at the bottom of the screen indicates how ‘hot’ the app is getting. With the temperature gauge and increasingly noisy burner-like sound, you have a couple of sensory cues that will tell you an object – in this case, your iPhone – is increasing in temperature. The power of suggestion is a wonderful thing.

To test the app, we started it about the same time we started writing this review and turned off the audio so that we didn’t have that cue. We then placed the iPhone on the corner of the desk, occasionally tapping the screen quickly so that it didn’t go to standby.

Eventually we picked up the app, put it to our face only to find the glass surface of the touchscreen as cool and smooth as it always is.

The app is good for a chuckle, and maybe you can prank a few people with it, but it won’t warm your hands up any better than an iPhone that’s been used for a couple of hours of gaming.

Heater info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch 

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.1

Developer: Presselite

Website/Demo: Presselite website

Download Heater from

As far as instant messengers go, MSN – now known as Windows messenger – has to be one of more prominently used on in the internet.

Many companies use it to communicate around colleagues and collaborators and it’s a staple of student halls communication.

There are a few apps in the App Store that claim compatibility but Microsoft, ever in competition with Apple, haven’t managed to wangle their own version in the App Store as yet. This being the case, we decided to take a look at one of the unofficial ones.

When we first downloaded MSNi Messenger, the reviews and rating section was awash with complaints about bugs. The version that we originally downloaded was indeed problematic but a newer version was released shortly after so we’re now working with that one instead. This review is for the version 1.13 which seems to have address the previous issues.

All the hallmarks MSN Messenger features are present. The way in which your buddy lists are laid out are copied from that of the desktop version so you won’t have to mess around organizing your contacts.

You can add, delete and otherwise manage your contacts via the application too. Chatting to people works in much the same way as an SMS message conversion on the iPhone, with speech bubble-like windows of green or grey background colours. It’s a tried and test method that works well.

One thing that’s a bit odd is the interface. We couldn’t quite put our finger on why, but it just seems a bit unintuitive and not made in the same ilk as MSN Messenger on the desktop.

Perhaps it’s because you can choose photographic backgrounds for chat screen which makes the text difficult to read. For some reason, a plain white background isn’t an option which is frustrating.

The chat process worked well enough and with the update that we downloaded, we didn’t have any issues in that respect.

The app just isn’t that well made. If you need MSN on the move and you have an iPhone, then by all means, this will do the job. Just don’t expect a brilliantly made app from an experience software giant.

MSNi Mobile Messenger info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch 

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.13

Developer: App.mobiler 

Website/Demo: N/A 

Download MSNi Mobile Messenger from

SMS Box For Lovers is essentially a myriad of pre-written smooshy poems, jokes and soppy apologies that you can copy and paste and then send to your better half. The trick is, of course, not to let them know that there’s an app for that too.

On the main page of the app, the list of categories is quite comprehensive. There are 16 in total ranging from love quotes and sayings, to wishes and jokes.

We started off by browsing the jokes category and found that many of them were quite funny though jokes such as ‘kissing a frog to get a guy is a waste of a perfectly good frog’ are among the stinkers. There are a lot of jokes there though, something that we found out can be said of all the other categories. You won’t be left short of something mushy to send your loved one.

Having browsed all the categories, we can say that the quality of the quotes, is largely high with the rest falling below par. However, stuff like this really comes down to preference and we think that most people should be able to find something that will float their boat.

Once you’ve selected you soppy saying, you can press the screen to select and choose your mode of sending. The app gives you the choice of SMS, MMS or mail. The former two means that the app will copy the text to the clip board and pressing the send button will take you to the message screen so that you can send paste it into the box. To use the mail feature, you’ll need to have a push mail account set up on your iPhone.

This sort of app really comes down to preference and if it’s the sort of thing that you’re interested in, then it delivers on its promise very well. Something that would be good is a feature that marked messages that you had already used, as it could save some embarrassment.

SMS Box For Lovers info

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Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.4

Developer: Flysoft 

Website/Demo: Flysoft website

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Life is full of big decisions, marriage and condiments are but a couple of those epic trials that it throws at us on a daily basis. What if you had an iPhone application that was forged from nowt but raw wisdom to aid you in making these achingly difficult choices? The Mighty Decider might be just the ticket.

Not only does it help you make some of the lighter decisions in life, it's also brimming full of funny one-liners straight from the mouths of the Mighty Boosh characters.

Mighty Decider has four main modes. The first is called Naboo’s Wisdom. Naboo is ahead with a turban that’s floating around on a twirling background with clouds and pressing his head will see him communicate with the gods of the ether and tell you fortune. Fortunes range from talk of bowling allies and stubbing toes, to hashcakes and the devil.

They’re generally pretty funny, but ultimately, completely useless. We went to a bowling ally that very night but there was no stubbing of toes…

The Spin the Bottle version was more useless than Naboo and also less funny. It’s also quite hard to actually spin it, like it’s on some grippy surface. We’d recommend sticking to real think if you really must play this game. There Flip a Coin section sees the character Crack Fox sitting on a garbage can and providing coin flipping services. This one is pretty funny and also actually works so if you don’t have a coin, then this is your substitute.

The final Ask the Moon section allows you to throw your big questions at this most of wondrous of celestial objects. It seemed to predict a lot of bad things for us, which made us want to give the app a bad review. However, we couldn’t do it.

From the moment you fire The Mighty Decider up, it’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into how the application looks. The art style is colourful and bold and it’s as easy on the eye as it is easy on the touch-screen interface of the iPhone.

An introduction is played out by a couple of stoned indie kids messing around with examples that you could use it for such as figuring out which chords to go to in a jamming session. A skip button at the bottom of the screen sees a long arm with a boxing glove punching them out the way…

The Mighty Decider is brilliantly drawn, often very funny and generally £1.19 well-spent on a bit of light iPhone entertainment.

The Mighty Decider info

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Platform: Google Android

Cost: £1.19

Version: 1.0

Developer: Tribal Games

Website/Demo: Tribal Games website

Download the Might Decider from

Gazing up at the stars is something that human beings have done as long any records of history hints at human existence.

The problem is, it can give you a neck-ache craning up at those pinholes in the curtain of night.

Thankfully, miniature gizmos such as the iPhone mean we can save our poor necks and start wistfully at screens instead. It might not hold the same charm or satisfaction for many, but it certainly satisfied urges of the high-tech kind.

There have been a few of these apps on the iPhone and Go Skywatch is one of them.

It uses the iPhone 3GS’ compass to track location and direction of celestial objects so you’ll need compatible hardware if you want to use it.

The app allows you to set your location as a reference point or any other point that you happen to know the longitude or latitude of around the globe.

The star-saturated globe that sits in the middle of the screen and you can rotate it around with your fingers. A yellow circle sits in the middle and, as long as there’s something of interest there, whichever part of the night sky that falls under it gets brings up an in detail box.

Things such as constellations or our moon for example is brought up. However, this feature is very fiddly. While we were browsing the stars in this way, what looked like a colourful nebulae.

We searched for some time in the area that it appeared to pop up in but, much to our disappointment, we couldn’t find it again. This feature only seems to work some of the time.

If you’re looking for the direction of particular objects such as a particular planet, a constellation or a nebula then you can find it by using the magnifying glass symbol. Details about that object are displayed as a picture and a lot of very specific information is provided about them too.

Orbital period, size, gravity distance and a load of metrics that we had never even heard of such as RA and Ei are included. We presume it’s all this info that makes a lot of the price and it will no doubt be useful to anyone that uses it on a professional basis.

This latter feature and seeing the general direction of a celestial object are the main redeeming features for Go Skywatch. The info is very detailed, but using the app is a little sketchy. If you’re after a star gazing app then we preferred Pocket Universe.

Go Skywatch info

Ease of use:
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Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: £3.49   

Version: 3.4

Developer: GoSoftWorks

Website/Demo: GoSoftWorks website

Download GoSkyWatch from

If you live in the UK, the US or much of Europe then you might enjoy the relative normality of your country’s flag. Some might think it boring, but either way, the simple designs are easy to draw or pick out from a group when the need arises.

Some countries in far corners of the world have some downright obscure flags which make them harder to learn. The intricate designs and symbols confuse us lowly westerners and leave us embarrassed at pub quizzes when we have no idea to which country the described flag belongs.

Thankfully, we now have Flags Fun to help us avoid such situations. The name might be cheesy and an obvious attempt at making learning sound like entertainment but by gum if you don’t learn your flags by end of a couple of hours with this app then we’ll eat a Union Jack.

There are two modes of play. The first is similar to the simple card game, Pairs, where cards – or indeed flags – are laid face-down on a table. You’re allowed to turn two over at a time and you must remember the location of matched pairs of flags.

The game looks great, with twenty tiles per screen with a stylish design on the back and curved corners, all very much in-line with the sexy iPhone. Each time you match up two correct flags a chime sounds and the name of the country to which the flag belongs appears at the bottom. It’s an effective way to learn and – dare we say it – it’s actually pretty fun too.

You’ve guaranteed to learn a great many flags in this mode that were previously a mystery. Once you’ve done so, it’s time to move on to the ‘Guess the flag’ game mode.

An array of 20 flags is displayed on the screen and a country’s name can be found down the bottom. You must guess which of flags is the corresponding design. This is trickier than the ‘Flags match’  game but should give you a good test when you start becoming familiar with things.

Flags Fun is a remarkably addictive app. You’re given scores and times as you play through the game which gives you something to compete against and it is genuinely useful for learning country’s flags.

If this is something that you either need or would like to do, then you’d be hard pushed to find a more fun, and economic way.

Flags Fun info

Ease of use:
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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: Free

Version: 2.2.2

Developer: Lima Sky

Website/Demo: Lima Sky website

Download Flags Fun from

Drawing applications for the iPhone, or most other devices with a touchscreen for that matter, are inherently flawed. An index finger is no substitute for a sharp pencil or a paintbrush.

However a few iPhone apps have done a damned fine job of making passable drawing apps. This is iSketch, the latest hopeful looking to join the ranks of the good, as oppose to the bad and the downright dreadful.

The biggest problem for iSketch is going to be Sketchbook Mobile, a formidable piece of scribbling software for the iPhone. Let’s see how iSketch shapes up to the competition.

Opening up the drawing space presents you with a fresh white sheet with a gear (read ‘c\og’) on one side to open up the settings.

Initially, the settings seem fairly minimal, but the two main sections are broken down into a comprehensive colour picker and less comprehensive brush selection. You can choose any colour in the rainbow and more-or-less every one in between too.

A full light spectrum much like you might expect to see in applications such as Photoshop is on offer, allowing you to chose any shade you so desire. If this all seems a bit too fancy pants, then a simple palette is present containing 30 pre-mixed colours from which to choose.

Next up is the Brush selection. While we’ve seen worse brush selections but, as mentioned, apps such as Sketchbook Pro feature considerably wider selections.

iSketch shows 7 brushes in total, featuring a pencil tool, paint car-style tool, eraser and a text tool.

A slider on the settings menu lets you adjust the size of brush tools and you can also choose the font size for text. However, you can’t choose between different font styles and once text is laid down and position, you can’t adjust it further. There’s no option to adjust opacity of brushes and no layers feature.

We’ve seen worse drawing apps than iSketch but there are better ones out there too. Some people might not be looking for a wealth on functionality and if you’re looking for something simpler then it could be worth a download.

Anyone after a more comprehensive iPhone drawing experience though might feel let down by iSketch. 

iSketch info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.1.2

Developer: CCC Development LLC

Website/Demo: CCC Development website

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If ever you’ve been in the situation of not knowing what your screen saver should be but having trouble finding images or inspiration that comes in the correct resolution for your iPhone, then fear not.

The iPhone application 14,000+ Wallpapers features – as you may have already ascertained – over 14,000 wallpapers from which to choose and keep your favorite gizmo looking fresh every time you slide the unlock bar.

An iPhone application such as this has to be largely judged on the quality of the wallpapers therein. With so many too choose from, it’s just as well there’s an easy-to-use search feature which also breaks things down into categories. You can view the wallpapers via genre such as nature, sea or flower and also by the colours red blue and green.

We started out by browsing the Nature section. The images are broken down into scaled thumbnails (allowing you to see the whole image rather than a portion of it chopped into a square) which can be pressed to see the full size version.

The images themselves are varied and often gorgeous, ranging from beautifully drawn renderings to some amazing photography. The occasional out-of-place image pops up though. For example there was a photo of a long-exposure city scene in amongst the Nature images.

Next up we tried entering a category of our own which was Space. We were greeted with 7 pages – each containing about 24 images – of wallpapers ranging from amazing photos of nebulae and planets and an image of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

There is also a category called ‘Sexy’ which contains pictures of scantily clad girls. Anyone looking for models of the male persuasion in here will be disappointed to find only two of which to speak. Also, many the girls have had obvious airbrushing jobs – and jobs of other descriptions – applied which is a little disappointing.

Like other apps that have a large number or jokes, images, or excuses to get out of work as a main feature, some quality is lacking. However, what’s not also brilliant is made up for by sheer numbers. There’s a lot of gorgeous eye-candy in this app and if you’re the type of person that’s forever getting bored of your wallpaper, it’s worth a shot at just 59p.

14,000+ Wallpapers Name info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.2

Developer: Huisheng Ye

Website/Demo: N/A

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It’s often said that Joke-telling is quite the art. Some people just have a real knack for the process of building up and delivering a punchline for maximum effect.

Aside from the interpersonal talent required for this skill, having the right material is another key factor for making people laugh successfully. In terms of quantity, 18,000 Cool Jokes should be enough to fill the troughs of just about any aspiring joker.

Before delving into the quality of the enormous quantity of jokes in this app, lets first take a look at how 18,000 Cool Jokes has been put together. A lot of these apps that have a text-heavy nature simply slap the words into an basic interface, stick it on the App Store at a low price and watch the money come in (albeit slowly in most cases).

However, 18,000 Cool Jokes has a decent wedge of production value. The interface is well thought-out and well-drawn. You can add jokes to a favorite list, share them via Facebook, Twitter or email at the push of a couple of buttons and view the ludicrously long list of laughs in random or in categories.

Many of the jokes are more anecdotal, amusing stories spanning some 400 words (about the length of this review). If you don’t have the time or inclination to read the jokes then there are options in the settings to display only the short or medium length jokes. This is another very useful snippet that’s very much in-line with the thoughtfulness applied to the rest of the app.

Which brings us to the quality of the jokes. With such a larger number, there will inevitably be some stinkers in there. However, after half an hour of reading we were pleasantly surprised. Some of the funniest are in the dirty jokes category and you do get prompted that the app is for persons of 17 years and above.

A particular favorite tells the story of a blonde and a brunette talking. The blonde explains that every time her boyfriend brings flowers home, she has to spend the weekend with her legs the air. The blonde goes on to enquire: ‘don’t you have a vase?’.

It’s tough to pick holes in 18,000 Cool Jokes. The comedy is on a decent standard; the interface is a breeze to use and looks great. Definitely worth a download for aspiring joke-tellers.

18,000 Cool Jokes info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 2.3

Developer: Cramzy

Website/Demo: Cramzy website

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Anyone that’s into art will appreciate the genius behind figures such as Leonardo De Vinci or Salvador Dali.

Those that are more into art than others will be able to real of names of a hundred equally brilliant painters that have lived over the years.

Viewing the work of such folk is a great source of education and inspiration for any aspiring artist. You could browse the internet for such work, but you not always have a PC to hand and doing so on the iPhone can be fiddly with all those search boxes to fill and fields to fill out. Art books are often bulky and always expensive. Thankfully, the App Store now has an answer for this too.

The application we’re looking at today is called Art. Initially, the downsides of app are glaring, so we’ll get through those first. Straight off the bat, ‘art’ is something of a generalisation. Art comes in many shapes and sizes but the artworks that permeate this particular app are in face paintings and drawings. Don’t expect to see any photography, photographs of sculptures or obscure works such as those of Damien Hurst and other Turner Prize winners.

Another characterising feature of the artists that have found their way into Art is that they are all dead. The most recent artist in the list – which can be viewed either alphabetically or by date of birth – is Andy Warhol. With our eyes agleam at the prospect of seeing some cans of Campbell’s soup and pictures of Marilyn Monroe, we were disappointed to get a message telling us that there was no pictures added for this category yet.

The lists denote that there are 187 artists in total, but this is something of a fib as there are several that don’t yet have any pictures. The images are loaded from the net as you’re browsing through them so if you’ve no signal, you won’t be able to view them.

For all its imperfections though, Art is a very endearing app. The artwork contained within the well-made interface of Art is incredible. Browsing through the engineering sketches of De Vinci is a real joy. You can view paintings by thumbnail or in a picture reel, save images to your photo album individually or by artist and read biographies of the painters themselves.

The app appears to be getting updated all the time too. It would already be a great resource for anyone studying art history or fine art and with new stuff being added all the time, would be even more so in future.

Art info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 4.4

Developer: ADS Software Group

Website/Demo: ADS Software website

Download Art from

The internet allows us to be connected in ways we probably never imagined were possible;, thanks to the myriad social networking sites and online profiles we have forced upon us these days, it’s literally impossible to use the net and not become embroiled in the tangled web of connectivity.

Gaming is just one of the many areas where this omnipotent linkage takes place, thanks to the popularity of machines such as the Xbox 360 and PS3 – not to mention the mainstream success of video games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – more and more people are hooking their machines up to the net in order to play against living, breathing opponents.

Of course in order to do all of this you need an online profile, and that’s where Microsoft’s ground-breaking “GamerTag” system comes in. Just like any other online service, it involves creating a username and connecting with other players in order to indulge in multiplayer action.

The ludicrously-named 1337pwn iPhone app (net speak for “Elite Ownage”, which is essentially a proclamation of your God-given gaming skill) gives you the tools to track your fellow players by manually inserting their GameTag.

Once you’ve done this you can add them to your friends list and follow their progress as well as take note of their all-important gamer score.

The process is very streamlined and the app certainly isn’t difficult to use – the only problem is that it’s a lot of hard work for very little reward.

You see, Microsoft doesn’t currently allow third-party applications to access its online servers to retrieve your unique GamerTag information, so you can’t just log onto an app such as 1337pwn as yourself and load up all of your friends – something which would be a much faster and less labour-intensive process than what is currently being offered.

If you happen to have a lot of friends on your 360 then you’ll have to sit and type in their tags manually, which seems like a pretty sizable waste of time when you consider that they’re all linked to your profile anyway.

Where 1337pwn does score over rival apps is that it offers the ability to import your friends list from its dedicated website, and it also has a shortcut which links directly to Xbox.com that allows you to send messages via Microsoft’s network. The latter option does raise one question, though – why bother with the app when you can access the official site via your iPhone anyway?

To get the full range of options associated with Microsoft’s online service you either need to be sat at your 360 console or use the online website.

1337pwn remains useful for checking up on your mates when you’re unable to do either of those things, but outside of satisfying your natural curiosity it really doesn’t have much else going for it.

1337pwn info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: Free

Version: 2.0

Developer: 1337pwn.com

Website/Demo: 1337pwn website

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The days of fighting over who gets to read the latest copy of the Radio Times are behind us; the highly-esteemed publication has entered the digital age by releasing a dedicated iPhone app which grants painless access to the week’s TV and radio schedule without even having to pop to the newsagents.

Just like its papyrus-based relation, the iPhone version of the Radio Times is all about making your viewing (and listening) activities as enjoyable as possible.

Full listings are included for all regions of the United Kingdom (you have to select your location the first time the app is fired up) and each station’s output is laid out in very much the same way as it is on the printed page.

Where this app scores over its non-interactive sibling is connectivity; when you select a particular programme you can add it to your favourites list, check to see if it’s repeated on another day (or even another channel) or explore the internet for related content.

For example, if you’re watching a show like Friends you can drop onto the web to check out Wikipedia links or even clips on YouTube.

What’s more, if you’ve stumbled across a real gem of televisual programming you can ensure it gets enjoyed by as many people as possible by sharing the details with your friends.

Heck, the app even connects to Twitter and Facebook, which means no one can escape your myriad recommendations.

There’s even a section called “Now Showing” where movies are listed, which proves to be a handy filter for those times when you’ve grown tired of TV shows and fancy watching something a little more substantial. A similar filter exists for sports-related content, too.

There’s very little to fault with the Radio Times iPhone app, but it’s not entirely perfect.

Aside from station logos there’s a complete lack of imagery, which makes the browsing experience a little drab at times. While this obviously helps keep download speeds fast, it wouldn’t hurt to have the odd photo here and there to illustrate some of the more noteworthy shows.

Also, if you want to find out what’s on both the TV and radio you’ll have to manually toggle between the two choices as the app only shows listing for one format at a time. This is hardly a deal-breaking issue but it does require you to drop back to the “Providers” menu each time to switch, which can become annoying after prolonged use.

The biggest stumbling block is probably the price of the app itself, but it’s hard to grumble too much when you consider the potential saving that could be had; this app means you never have to purchase a copy of the magazine again.

Radio Times info

Ease of use:
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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: £2.99

Version: 1.2.0

Developer: tvCompass

Website/Demo: Radio Times website

Download Radio Times from

Tired of relying on the pop-packed radio to provide you with all of your listening pleasure? Bored of waiting for the bevy of commercials that seem to loop between each song? Ready to control your own music destiny?

Sonos is a multi room sound system that interfaces with your home wireless network and allows you to control your iTunes, Napster, Pandora, and Last.FM music libraries, enabling music playback in multiple rooms. Sonos bundles come with a controller (the CR 200) as well as two ZonePlayers, which can be controlled via the remote or your desktop/ laptop. 

Following the fingertip trend of making use of touch screen tech, Sonos has recently released an updated remote control for its home Hi-Fi heaven, the CR200. On the unfortunate side of things, it’s a pocket scorcher. Running at around £270, this upgrade has given pause to almost all Sonos owners who acquired their systems when they came with the clunky, outdated older brother of the CR200, the CR100.

Luckily for those who are caught in this sticky situation Sonos created a free app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The app allows you to perform all of the functions of the normal CR100 and 200, but at the highly likeable cost of free.

There are two types of ZonePlayers: the ZP120, with its own dedicated 110W amp, and the ZP90, which is able to connect to your home theatre’s sound system. These ZonePlayers allow you to set up zones in your house.

These zones are areas where the music will be played, and Sonos' Home Controller app allows you to wirelessly control all the zones that you have set up in your house, either individually or as a whole. So you can be listening to Virgin Radio on your living room couch, and put a little Barry White on in the bedroom with out having to dislodge your bum from its comfy couch cushion.

With the controller app, you can easily browse through a huge variety of online music libraries, podcasts, and radio stations, not to mention your own music library.

When you open up the app it will connect to your wireless network and sync with your network of ZonePlayers. You are now at the helm; you can see your entire Sonos kingdom and what each zone is playing.  You can select a zone or click the “zone group” button to control the whole of your system at once. Now you can search for songs or access your bookmarked artists as simply as scratching an itch.

With your top tune selected, you’ll be taken to the “Now Playing” screen. Here the album art, track name, and album name are displayed in a stylishly laid out screen. Happily, if someone got the Barry White hint in the bedroom and happens to be calling your name, there is a mute button that you can tap which will silence the music in the selected zone. You can also get to the list of zones, bookmark songs and view your “queue” from this screen.

In the top right of this screen there is the ever important “Music” button. This button will bring you to a hub of your music options. Presented options are: Music Library, Sonos Playlists, Radio, Line-In Sources, and System Settings. The Music Library tab will take you to your own iTunes, allowing you access to your tunes even if your computer is off! Radio allows you access to a cornucopia of international radio stations, as well as internet radio services like Pandora and LastFM.

We have found this app to be a smooth running, easy to handle alternative to the pricey, but sleek CR200 that Sonos offers. With a nice user interface and pleasing visuals, this app is a great compliment to a great home audio system.

Sonos Home Controller info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.0

Developer: Sonos

Website/Demo: Sonos website

Download sonos Home Controller from

Trust is the cornerstone of every healthy relationship. Without it, we become reduced to overly suspicious sceptics, constantly trying to catch our partners out and practically hoping for an opportunity to break the up the liaison. Suffice to say, a partnership that lacks good faith is like a house built on sand – it’s doomed to crumble and fall.

Of course that doesn’t mean that people can’t take advantage of the natural urge of people to pry into the matters of their loved ones. The advent of smartphones has resulted in a boom in mobile connectivity – from your humble handset you can now talk to old school friends via Facebook, shoot the breeze with people on Tweeter and of course email and text personal acquaintances.

This increased level of communication comes with one drawback – you other half is likely to become extremely agitated if you’re constantly tapping away at your phone rather than paying them the attention they deserve.

They’ll also assume – perhaps rightly – that you’re using these new lines of contact to chat with old flames or potential new conquests. And this new-found curiosity may well result in your partner attempting to delve into your iPhone’s secrets when you’re not around.

With that in mind, developer Jorgnsn has produced iTrust, an app which allows you to see if inquisitive hands have attempted to gain access to your iPhone.

To use the app you first have to take a screenshot of your home screen (hold down the Home button and tap the power button to do this) for the app to uses as a static, non-interactive background.

If somebody tries to open up your emails or messages, the phone will appear to be non-responsive but in actual fact iTrust records touch-screen activity, noting the areas of the display which have been prodded.

When you return to your device you can watch a recording of recent touch screen activity, showing which parts of the phone your inquisitive spouse has attempted to gain access to. We assume the next stage is to confront them with this evidence, thus causing the domestic equivalent of World War III.

Of course this is an excellent way of keeping your iPhone as secure as possible but there’s one fatal flaw – as soon as your partner presses the Home button (which is a pretty natural reaction when faced with a seemingly unresponsive iPhone – it is, after all, the only physical button on the face of the device) the iTrust app is closed and it’s possible to snoop around the menu system with impunity. Once they know this, the app is effectively useless.

You also have to consider that as soon as your other half is aware that you’re using iTrust, they will instantly assume their flimsy hunch is correct and you do in fact have something to hide – so merely installing this program is as good as admitting you’re up to no good.

However, obvious shortcomings aside, iTrust’s biggest failing is the fact that it requires you to be in a pretty dark place as far as your relationship is concerned before it becomes even remotely useful. If you’re really so bothered about your partner looking at your text and email messages then perhaps you should save your 59p and put it towards relationship counselling instead.

iTrust info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.0

Developer: Jorgnsn

Website/Demo: Jorgnsn website

Download iTrust from

We’ve all been watching Jack Bauer on 24 and seen the amazing feets of technological spy wizardry that him and his agency are capable of. In fact just about any TV show that involves clandestine operations displays an arsenal of personal tracking gadgets that would make eve Q from the James Bond movies jealous.

So what if someone made an iPhone application that would allow you to track any mobile phone number in the world? For a start it would raise serious questions about the tracking capabilities of ‘big brother’. More importantly though, you could keep tabs on loved ones, family members, mortal enemies and anyone else who’s mobile number you had and privacy you wanted to invade.

If this all sounds pretty farfetched for something that you can download in the App Store for 59p, then there would be a good reason for that. Phone Tracker is an iPhone app that initially appears to be a bit of software that does precisely  that.

Opening up the app shows you Googlemap of the world, zoomed out to give the impression of some global capabilities. At the top there is an input field, into which you can punch a number for the mobile phone that you want to track the position of.

We started off by ‘tracking’ the phone number of a friend that works in Baker Street in central London, not far from the KYM headquarters. When the application started honing further and further into central London, we were pretty astounded.

It appeared to be working. However, it eventually stopped by honing into the KWM headquarters themselves. After attempting a couple more phone numbers in Finland, Scotland and Canada, we soon realised that any number we entered or added in from our contact book were going to home in on KYM Headquarters.

In the end we went back to the app’s page in the App Store to read the information page more thoroughly to find that this is in fact a prank app. The idea is that you tell a friend that you’ve got a Phone tracking app, punch in his number and the app tracks his location.

Of course, your friend is standing right next to you at the time and thus the app is really homing in on your location using your iPhone’s GPS beacon.

This is a pretty funny prank. However, there are a lot of reviews of people that didn’t read the information page properly that aren’t very happy about getting their 59p back.

If you think you can catch out a few friends of colleagues with Phone Tracker, then it could be worth a shot.

Phone Tracker info

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Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.0

Developer: DWorld Services

Website/Demo: DWorld Services website

Download Phone Tracker from

I Am T-Pain is an iPhone application made by developers Smule who have ported a professional music tool called Auto-Tune to the iPhone. Let's start off with a little introduction to Auto-Tune.

It's the tool that pop musician T-Pain uses to make his voice hit the right notes in the song and imbue it with that electronic twang.

The effect has also been used by musicians such as Cher and Daft Punk in their music. While there used to be a time when being a singer loosely revolved around the ability to sing, this is no longer the case.

All that is needed is to talk into a microphone and Auto-Tune will tweak the tone of your voice up or down so that it matches the melodies of a track which in this case, is made by T-Pain.

I Am T-Pain opens up with a professionally-drawn interface resembling a stage where your singing 'talents' can be flaunted.

Added to the application is a number of T-Pain's more popular songs such as Kiss kiss, I'm on a boat and Buy you a drank. However not all of the tracks are included for free.

There are three tracks bundled with the application and if you want to hear your voice spliced over others then it will cost you the princely sum of 59p.

Once you have a track on your iPhone, the app will download the lyrics which then appear in text form on your screen so that you can record the audio. The app recommends that you use a mic for the best results and rightly so. The quality is significantly better with a headset in.

Not being massive fans of pop music, we didn't know the lyrics to any of T-Pain's songs.

This made us the perfect guinipgs for the app as we wouldn't be able to so much as try to get it right. After successfully recording a couple of awesome pop tunes we played back the song to hear our handy work. The app had indeed applied the lyrics correctly which was quite amazing.

There's an option to change key of a recorded set of lyrics and you can share your work via email, Facebook, Twitter or MySpace at the push of a button.

It's a shame that more tracks aren't included for the price but I Am T-Pain is good for a chuckle and, with it's social fun capabilities, you should get your money's worth, especially if your a T-Pain fan.

I Am T-Pain info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: £1.79

Version: 1.2

Developer: Smule

Website/Demo: I Am T-Pain website

Download I Am T-Pain

Everyone loves guns. Okay not everyone but most people. Okay maybe not most people, but definitely most boys. Well, a lot of boys at least.

Whatever age a boy is, he usually has a penchant for weaponry of varying descriptions, a fact that is largely responsible for the reason that so many guys play video games and not many girls do.

It was only a matter of time before people starting stuffing the App Store full of firearm-related applications to satisfy that gun lust.

A couple of weeks prior to writing this review we saw AAA Gun Club and iGunPro is a very similar application to that. The idea us that you get your very own gun cabinet which is laden with weapons of a multitude of calibers and categories.

Weapons include sniper rifles, semi-automatic machine pistols, handguns and assault rifles. Selecting your weapon is a matter of pressing on the gun that you want to fire, at which point  you’re taken to the firing range to get your itchy trigger some serious working out.

On the firing page a close-up of your gun is displayed, except the developers have taken it upon themselves to exclude the hindquarters of many of the weapons, leaving just the main body and barrel.

At the bottom of the screen is how many bullets you have left and you’ll need to head back to your weapons cabinet if you want a reload. To do this, you need to press the ‘i’ button at the top right hand side of the display.

In AAA Gun Club, the ‘i’ button will give you information about the weapon and how to operate it, making for a more realistic simulatory experience. The guns in iGunPro don’t have any moving parts so really all there is to do is fire the weapons which is a bit boring.

The sound effects used are very convincing and the blurry effects used in the animations of the firing weapons is also pretty cool. You can also set the rounds fired from some guns to three-round bursts or fully-auto.

There are many options that allow you to change things like the amount of recoil from a gun. However, this isn’t enough to carry the application.

iGun Pro info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 2.93

Developer: David Holtkamp

Website/Demo: Avidon Media website

Download iGun Pro from

There are a lot of drawing apps on the iPhone, but many are of a decidedly average quality.

The pens are either of limited use or scope and many of them render your pictures in a slower than satisfactory manner.

While many developers have attempted to make serious drawing apps with a professional finish, the vast majority have failed, with just a few, such as Sketchbook proving to be of any worth.

One way around the trap of trying to make a serious drawing app for a 3.5-inch touchscreen which is clearly unsuited to such an endeavour is to make a drawing app that isn’t so serious.

This is exactly what the developers of Glow Doodled have done. If ever you’ve wondered what your name would look like in a neon sign, then Glow Doodle would be a good place to start.

Mainly because a 59p iPhone application is a damned sigh cheaper than the real thing, but also because it’s this effect that the application aims to emulate.

The interface is orientated in a landscape view with your limited toolset along the bottom. There are five colours from which to choose, being red, green, blue and yellow.

As with all drawing apps, drawing is done with your finger rather than a finer stylus. This is little clumsy but the iPhone screen doesn’t pick up many finer tips.

There’s an undo button for any mistakes made but a redo button is too much to ask. At the right hand side are options to clear the screen entirely or save your handiwork to your iPhone library.

Once you’ve drawn your masterpiece, it’s time to make it light up. The glow button applies a filter to your previously unglowing drawn lines to give it that neon appearance.

Where two lines cross over one another, the light will be lighter which breaths some much-needed dynamics to the app. The primary colours bleed into one another a little too which varies things up a bit. The premise of Glow Doodle is incredibly simple and tools at your disposal are incredibly limited.

The best thing to do before buying this app would be to check out the screenshots on the apps page and decide if you like it. We thought they were pretty cool but, a few more features with future updates would really make the app worth the money.

Glow Doodle info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.0

Developer: Y Lau

Website/Demo: Ooodot website

Download Glow Doodle from

What seems like a great many years prior to the iPhone’s release, Sony Ericsson made a mobile phone that allowed you to record sounds via a built-in microphone and set them to play when your phone rang.

Truly, this was a custom ringtone. This led to odd satiations such as sitting on a quiet London bus and hearing a loud ‘moooooooo’ sound, everyone looking around in bewilderment and someone on the front row pulling out a mobile phone and saying ‘hi Mom’ followed by everyone chuckling.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could find sort of iPhone app to make custom ringtones for your beloved device? Well, this is what we were expecting when we downloaded Custom Ringtones.

The limited text on the app’s page in the App Store reads ‘Custom Ringtone Creator is an app that helps guide you thought the process of creating custom ringtones for your iPhone’.

The fib is in the part that says ‘Creator’ and the truth is in the part that says ‘guide’. It’s already enough of a letdown that the icon resembles awesome game Crayon Physics but actually isn’t anything remotely akin to it.

Essentially what someone has done is put together a series of screenshots from iTunes on a Macintosh computer and then put them together with some overlaid text, making a tutorial on how to insert a custom ringtone into your iPhone’s repertoire of jingles.

Even then the results are somewhat limited as you can’t use the mic from the iPhone and no sounds are provided with which to play. You have to pic something that’s in your iTunes library and then record a 30-second sound bite of it. The process is quite fiddly but we could relay it to you for free in this review but we feel that would be taking away from the’ developer’s’ work unfairly.

It’s kind of tricky to write 400 words about the app because it is simply a guide, the likes of which you could find in many places on the internet for free.

All we can do is tell you that the app is nothing more, nothing less than a guide and not to bother buying it unless, for some reason, you’ve developed an allergic reaction to internet browsing.

Custom Ringtones info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.1

Developer: Ronald Bell

Website/Demo: N/A

Download Custom Ringtones from

If you own either an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, then chances are you’ve already experienced the wonderful world of online gaming connectivity.

Both of these machines use their own game community system, with Microsoft’s Xbox Live gamer tag setup being arguably the most accomplished.

You simply sign up for the service and can communicate with other players, unlock game-specific achievements (which contribute to your gamer score – a numerical indication of their prowess) and much, much more.

The concept has been tried on mobile formats in the past – Nokia’s abortive N-Gage portal was probably the best attempt thus far – but with the iPhone, Apple has been content to allow third-party developers to come up with their own equivalents.

As a result there are now three main rivals in the arena of social network gaming on the iPhone platform: AGON Online, ngmoco Plus+ and Open Feint. Of that trio, the latter is possibly the most popular right now, with more and more titles boasting support for the service.

Just like Xbox Live, users are required to sign-up for an free account. Once that is done, any new game they purchase will instantly log into Open Feint’s online servers where users can view what their friends are playing or even peruse what achievements they’ve successfully unlocked. And just like Xbox Live, there’s that all-important gamer score to encourage good-natured rivalry between friends.

You can add people if you know their Open Feint username but the service also integrates neatly with Facebook and Twitter. Friends using the former will instantly appear on your contacts list in Open Feint, and it’s possible to post score and achievement news to the latter.

The degree of interaction doesn’t end there, though. You can see what Open Feint games are proving popular at the present time and also indulge in a spot of banter with fellow players thanks to the app’s chat and forum options.

There’s even an option to view the “Free game of the day”, which is a daily promotion that details a specific title which supports Open Feint and has been reduced for a 24 hour period.

In truth, much of this functionality is available in Open Feint-enabled games, but none of them manage to tie together all the different facets of the service as skilfully as this dedicated application.

When you consider it’s being offered free of charge, there really is no reason why you shouldn’t have this on your phone if you’re a socially-minded games player.

Open Feint info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.0

Developer: Aurora Feint

Website/Demo: Open Feint website

Download Open Feint from

Lego has been a firm family favourite for several decades now and the iconic red block logo is an instantly recognisable brand all over the globe.

It’s fairly easy to see then why an app such as Lego Photo – which essentially allows you to take any image and make it appear as if it’s constructed of bricks – is going to go down a storm with iPhone owners of all ages.

The app gives you the option of either taking a brand new photo or using an existing one from your phone’s gallery. After a few seconds you’re presented with a “Lego-fied” version of the image, displayed in a series of multicoloured blocks. Tapping the screen results in a pleasing ripple effect as the colour of the bricks changes, but the image remains the same.

When you’ve found the colour combination that suits your mood you can save the image, but it’s worth nothing that it saves directly over the photo if you’ve decided to take a fresh snap to use.

The first time we experimented with the colour changes we saved several times assuming that the app would create successive copies of the image, but in fact it merely overwrites the original.

If you want to use the same image but create several different variants then it’s best to take a snap using the iPhone’s default camera application and then edit that image using Lego Photo.

Of course once you’ve crafted your blocky masterpiece you can email it to friends or even perform the procedure on all your contact photos so your address book is filled with Lego-faced people, but that’s really all there is to it.

Aside from creating wacky pictures, there’s little else on offer here. However, depth of functionality isn’t really what Lego Photo is about; it’s a free app and works perfectly well for what it is, so there’s little reason to grumble about a lack of features. Besides, it’s virtually guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of anyone who has ever cradled a Lego block in their hands, and that’s no mean feat.

If you remember the good old days of sitting on the carpet attempting to build the Eiffel Tower out of Lego bricks but then realising in horror that you didn’t have enough to complete the task then Lego Photo will bring all those happy (or not so happy) memories flooding back.

Lego Photo info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.0

Developer: Lego

Website/Demo: Lego website

Download Lego Photo from

Ever had raging arguments with your better half when you’ve put diesel in your petrol car and ended up getting stuck in the middle of nowhere with the sudden realistation that your AA membership is one day out of date?

Yes, don’t worry, it’s happened to all of us. At this point, you’ll get called a lot of things that are likely cruder variations of the word idiot with colorful language both before and after the said accusation. Now, you can prove them wrong with this simple iPhone application.

The Idiot Test is something like a simplified, cartoonified IQ test with a series of questions that will test your memory, pattern recognition and mathematical abilities, giving you a score at the end.

The tests are broken down into levels which are themselves catagorised with names such as idiot, fool, almost average and smarty. Each time you break through the threshold of a new level you are presented with a congratulatory screen that contains a password, allowing you to return to that point without having the repeat the preceding levels.

The tests start off simply with a series of different coloured buttons that need to be identified and depressed in order to advance to the next stage.

If you fail to answer a question or task correctly then you’ll fail the test and be ushered back to the starting screen where you can enter in the last gained password.

The tests are designed in such a way so as catch you out. They might follow a set pattern so that you become complacent with the answering the questions and thinking you’re doing well against the clock at the bottom left hand side.

Then without warning, you’ll think you’ve got the answer nailed and press what was previously the smallest circle on the screen only to find a tiny one has been surreptitiously sneaked in. Upon failing you get a sound bite that could be Nelson from The Simpsons laughing which makes the ending all the more bitter.

Once you’re through the first few levels the tests start to become mathematical and include equations where you must find the value of ‘X’. At this point we failed entirely but it will be good for anyone that didn’t fail maths quite as dramatically as we did.

The Idiot Test 3 is a well-made and entertaining little app that’s ready for some group fun with friends and colleagues.

The Idiot Test info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 2.7

Developer: Nexx Studio

Website/Demo: Nexx Studio website

Download the Idiot Test from

The ancient practice of yoga has many benefits. In addition to making your muscles more supple and flexible, it can held alleviate stress or depression, increase energy and concentration levels and help in maintaining and healthy cardiovascular system.

Quite the repertoire for an exercise that doesn't involve leaving your living room, and the list of benefits extends even further than these few.

So how can an iPhone application help you achieve such health benefit boons? Well, Yoga stretch has been designed to teach you the poses – or asana as they're known in the practice – involved in performing yoga.

The opening screen consists of five options. The 'custom' and 'poses' options allow you to set up a routine and view the individual stretches respectively. The info page shows details on the app's creators and the likes and the settings page allows you to turn on and off music and audio cometary on the poses that you're working on.

The music is an unusual mix of triphop-like tracks and natural sounds such as rain or ocean waves, with one or two cheesy new agey-type audio loops for good measure. You can also add in your own music from iTunes if you deem it more suitable but generally speaking we'd recommend avoiding the AC/DC.

On the pose page small icons with different coloured backgrounds are displayed with a silhouette of a person doing the finished pose. Pressing on the screen will display a short piece of text describing how to complete and hold the pose correctly.

Yoga poses aren't just a matter of sitting in the correct the position. There are many nuances that must be observed in order to get the maximum benefit from the practice. The texts included are very concise but more detail would have been good.

Thankfully though, once you have loaded up the poses that you want into the session and you press the begin button, a voice-over tutorial guides you through more of the specifics and gives general advice on the importance of breathing.  

Also included are some ways to make the pose easier, as some can be quite strenuous to the uninitiated. As far as illustrations go, however, the silhouette pictures could also have been animated, or generally show more detailed.

The developers of Yoga Stretch have made a damned good fist of tackling the potentially daunting process of learning yoga into an iPhone app. The production value is high, it's easy to use and represents very good value for money at under a quid.

Yoga Stretch info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 4.3

Developer: Neil Harris

Website/Demo: Neil Harris website

Download Yoga Stretch from

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Empire and are into movies, you’re missing out. The publication has been delivering top-notch critique on industry shenanigans and productions since the late 1980’s. If you’re big into your films then Empire is the magazine to read.

Surely then to have all of the review from Empire on your iPhone would be the greatest boon of all for any film lover? Well, in short, yes – that it is indeed the case. As you might expect from such an established publication, the app is brilliantly made with a well-drawn interface.

After running for a couple of decades, there is a fair back-catalogue of movie reviews to archive. In order to tackle this feat the lists have been broken down so that you cans search the reviews library a number of different ways. For starters, on the homepage of the app, reviews are listed by the date posted.

There are also alphabetical lists for movies and directors with an alphabetical shortcut bar on the right hand side much like the one in your contact book. Believe us - you’ll need it.

The amount of reviews in the app is astounding. Scrolling the letter A took us nigh on three months to get to the bottom. If ever you’re in the position of wondering what to download from a payable movie service for your evening-in movie, this is a great way to find some inspiration. Being an established print publication, the quality of the reviews are excellent too.

You can browse movies by genres too so if you’re looking for horror flicks then you can bypass the new Mary Poppins remake while you’re scrolling down. You can also browse by actor, writer and date released, all of which culminate in a dynamic way to filter through the vast library.

A final touch is present in the form of a favorites section where you can bookmark reviews to show to your movie-watching buddies the possible candidates for the pending movie night. At a shade under £3 it’s veering towards one of the more expensive apps but considering that amount of content you get for that price – it’s a bargain.

Empire Movie Guide info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: £2.99  

Version:1.01

Developer: Bauer Media

Website/Demo: Empire website

Download Empire Movie Guide from

Toast is possibly one of the most awesome snacks ever conceived by the human race.

If there is one thing that we’ve gotten right over the millennia, it’s the creation of quickly heated bread.

While it can be awesome by itself, the bread has to be mighty fresh to for it to really work. The best thing about toast is that you can top it with so many things to increase just how amazing it really is.

It’s with a virtual version of the noble practice of topping selection that More Toast seeks to provide you with for entertainment.

The procedure starts much as you might expect it to – with a toaster and a couple of slices of bread. Pulling down the lever on your toaster will usually get you off to a pretty decent start.

Once the toast is cooked to perfection, it’s thrown on a plate where it cries desperately to be applied with some toppings.

A broad selection is at your disposal, including the classics such as strawberry jam, to some of the more connoisseur toppings such as nutella and crunchy peanut butter.

Once you’ve used your index digit to apply the toppings of you choice, it’s time to eat. You’re presented with a series of ways in which to cut your toast prior to virtual consumption. Once it’s finished, you can start the process again.

Once we’d enjoyed several slices we went on to find the options menu feature a host of useful toast-making adjustments to suit your every desire.

There are no less than 13 different bakery products available for toasting including pancakes, waffles, blueberry bagels and even gingerbread men.

There’s a broad selection of plates, a slider to change how well done – or not – you’d like your slice and even a world rankings section where you can pitch your toast-orientated abilities against other enthusiasts around the world.

The application is one of the silliest we’ve seen to date but the entertainment value is also up there with the best of them.

We would have liked to have seen anchovies as a topping and maybe even an egg or two.

The interface and animations are expertly realised though, further ensuring you get you money’s worth. The only downside of the app is that after eating a few slices, you’re absolutely starving and have an unshakable hankering for the real thing.

More Toast info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 2.5

Developer: Maverick Software

Website/Demo: Maverick Software website

Download More Toast from

When it became undeniably clear that the financial markets were all going to manure, a lot of people lost a lot of money.

Even sound investing knowledge couldn’t have prevented a lot of the amassed wealth that got dumped down the drain as the tides turned.

However, that’s not to say that there’s no money to be made with a keen eye and a little understanding of the mechanics.

It’s that understanding that Stock Market Lessons aims to imbue it’s adopters with, breaking down the various areas of this most illusive of markets. As the title suggests, it’s a tutorial application.

The first thing you notice upon hitting the launch icon from your home page is that the app is a very basic one. The interface is simple and all but void of illustration.

If you’re the kind of person whose brain melts at the site of walls of text then you should stop reading right about……..here.

On the plus side however, the text are broken down into categories and subcategories in a very effective manner which makes things easier to digest for anyone not familiar with the basics.

For example, the introduction section itself features six subcategories which, in addition to the intro, cover matters such as when to invest, how much to invest, where to invest and investment growth via compounding.

The text is littered with links which will exit the application to websites via Safari that will aid or further guide you on your investment adventures. Aside from the links, the only other breaking up of the text is in the form of advertisement banners.

The app costs £1.19 already so we were surprised to see them here – normally ads are seen in free apps. Most are easily ignorable but some flash alternate colours which are a little annoying. A distraction is the last thing you want on your mind when you’re learning how to put hard-earned cash on the line.

The real test of such an app though is how much it can teach you.

Before reading the app, we knew precious little about the stock market. Once we’d finished reading through a lot of the literature though, we felt pretty well-versed in the goings on of investing.

Considering how few books on the subject you could buy for £1.19, that’s a pretty good effort. The app would be worth a look for anyone thinking of taking up such an endeavor and wants to browse something on the train on the way home.

Stock Market Lessons info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: £1.19

Version: 1.1

Developer: Raj Kumar

Website/Demo: N/A

Download Stock Market Lessons from

When we’ve reviewed image editing apps in the past, we’ve occasionally made reference to Adobe Photoshop and how they’re not exactly what you might expect from the desktop software. Of course that’s a given, but today we actually have the iPhone version of Adobe Photoshop. It’s the real deal, albeit a somewhat cut down interpretation of the full package.

Being made by one silicon valley’s biggest software giants, you can all but guarantee that you’re going to get certain production value levels from Photoshop.com Mobile. The interface uses the same fonts and menu style as Photoshop elements, which can only be a good thing. Speaking of good things, the application can edit photos in either landscape or portrait orientation, with the menu bars at the top and bottom adjusting accordingly with the accelerometer movement.

While there are some decent image editing apps for the iPhone with drawing features, Photoshop.com Mobile is, surprisingly, not one of them. While the app is bereft of drawing features, the crop tool is a most welcome one and you can also flip and rotate images too.

Another Photoshop-esque feature is the filters that can be applied to your snaps. Both the ‘sketch’ and ‘soft focus’ filters have been added to the app, a pair of genuinely useful touches for stylizing your shots. Not to be confused with the filters is the effects menu that will add effects such as black and white, vintage, and blur adjustments.

Some are more useful than others. For example, there’s an effect called rainbow that applies strips of bright diagonal colours over an image, which made our photo of central London on a rainy day look quite ridiculous.

Exposure, saturation and tint can all be adjusted individually and there are undo and redo buttons to boot. The feature-set is somewhat limited compared to other image editing apps available on the iPhone, and the lack of drawing tools is a particular let down.

However, considering the app is free, has a crop tool, a few nifty filters and effects, and is brilliantly put together, it would be worth a download even if only to check it out. Hopefully Adobe will continue to add effects and tools as the months roll on by.

Photoshop.com Mobile info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.0.1.3

Developer: Adobe

Website/Demo: Adobe website

Download Photoshop.com Mobile from

Anyone that’s ever attended a pub quiz will know they can be pretty tricky affairs. There’s a lot of general knowledge to have a handle on if you and your team are to prevail and win that awesome - generally alcoholic - prize.

Anyone that isn’t one for general knowledge on popular subjects will be pleased to hear that The Impossible Quiz is a test of another type. The questions asked are not on sport, history, pop music or geography. They are questions of a more cunning mind benders and are arguably of a more entertaining nature.

We should warn users though that when you fire up the opening splash screen lets off a flatulence-resembling sound. If you’re sitting on the commuter train from Kent to London with a few million others jammed in, you’ll want to use this app with the volume down to spare embarrassment. Consider this just one of the many services proffered to you by KWM.

Let’s take a look at a question or two to give you an idea of what you’re up against. The first question we saw from the app was: ‘how many holes in a polo?’. The obvious answer would be one. However, you have to look at the question a different way. The real answer is four which represents the amount of Os in the sentence. Pretty crafty.

It’s just as well the answers are multiple choice too or we’d be in real trouble. Another question is: ‘can a match box?’. The answer options are ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘no but a tin can’ or ‘yes, one beat Mike Tyson’. This is another good example of the crafty nature of the questions.

You have three lives when you start a game, which again is just as well because the questions become progressively more difficult as the game carries on. The Impossible Quiz is a comical app and features sound bites and music that accords with this principle.

Some of the audio clips, such as the scream that issues out of the iPhone when you get a question wrong, are a little annoying but as there’s a volume button on the iPhone, this isn’t such a concern. The scribbly nature of the interface drawing really suites the app’s silly entertainment style. At 59p, this is definitely a worthwhile download for anyone looking for some chuckles.

The Impossible Quiz info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: £0.59

Version: 1.1

Developer: inXile Entertainment

Website/Demo: inXile Entertainment website

Download The Impossible Quiz from

The tabloid press doesn’t half love its flavors of the month. Whether it’s a tragic death, pending outbreak of some inconceivably gruesome disease – or even one that’s little worse than a common cold – they just love to cause a drama. It gets us flapping like headless chickens, which gets the copy sales up and keeps the money-spinning media machine afloat.

Swine Flu was a good example, and while it was a legitimate concern, it was little more than a regular flu that originated with bacon. We were getting told to self-diagnose and stay at home rather than see the doctors, if something was up. Thankfully though, you no longer have to self diagnose as there is now an app for that too.

Swine Flu scanner opens up with a thumbprint scanner, which is of course just an emulation of what one might look like. A picture of a thumb print hints that you should place your thumb in the centre at which point bars of green light run the length and breadth of the pad in order to ‘scan’ your thumb.

Using this simple process, Swine Flu Scanner will determine not only if you’re infected with the H1N1 virus but also the level of infection. Of course this is absolute nonsense, but you get the idea.

Next up, it’s time to talk to Dr Ham Funk who is, naturally, a graduate of swine science at the University of Mexico. A photo of Dr Ham is placed next to his graduation certificate so you can be ensured that you’re getting legitimate, top-notch medical advice…

Depending on your level of infection, different advice is given. The first time we tried the app we had a mild infection and so were recommended to wave at friends instead of handshaking and consider buying an isolation bubble suit. Sound advice.

Further advice is available in the experimental treatment section, which offers some funny text and animations for everything from shock therapy to positive thoughts treatment. Swine Flu Scanner is funny app and good for a laugh but the amount of content isn’t as high as many apps in the same bracket such as The Impossible Quiz. It won’t break the bank and it’s good for a laugh, but there are better-value comedy apps out there.

Swine Flu Scanner info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Phone/iPod touch

Cost: £0.99

Version: 1.4

Developer: Shaved Ham

Website/Demo: BMJ website

Download Swine Flu Scanner from

It’s likely that a lot of people reading this review will be healthcare professionals and so should know what differential diagnosis means. For those that don’t – it’s basically a technique that operates using the process of elimination to identify unknowns. It can be used by taxonomists to identify which families living organisms fall into, or by doctors to identify why a patient’s legs are falling off…for example.

At the time of writing the app costs £4.99 and even that’s on a special offer. The price hints at the app being more of a professional tool than some light entertainment. When you open it up, this fact is bolstered by the fact that everything is very no-nonsense. There’s little in the way of pleasingly aesthetic additions to the app. This one is all about the functionality.

The first page is a list of symptoms longer than the working week with an alphabetical shortcut bar down one side much like the one from your iPhone contacts book. Each symptom can have anything up to 45 different differentials which are outlined in some detail when you press on them.

When you press on a symptom and differential, you are taken to a screen where you get the lowdown on what that symptom might mean. The text is clear and concise, and you can add notes, bookmarks or photos. The latter is particularly useful as over time you could build up a more illustrated version of the app.

The symptoms aren’t just things like ‘runny nose’ or ‘gammy leg’ either and contain everything from ‘high prolactin’ to ‘viral exanthem’. We couldn’t think of a medical symptom that wasn’t included and there were many that we couldn’t think what they might mean. This is truly Doctor’s territory.

An equally comprehensive list is provided for diseases, which is again relayed with an alphabetical shortcut, and the app’s search function will save you a lot of scrolling. If you’re ever in need of a quick second opinion or want a quick reference then Differential Diagnosis might be worth a look.

It’s expensive though and most Docs will have a PC with Google to hand making the app’s appeal questionable. If you do need something like this on your iPhone though, Differential Diagnosis seems a comprehensive application.

Differential Diagnosis info

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Platform: Phone/iPod touch

Cost: £4.99

Version: 1.0

Developer: BMJ Group

Website/Demo: BMJ website

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Anyone that has a job that requires concentrating will know the feeling of losing your focus and struggling to get things done. Granted, this feeling appears more when you have a hangover or were up all night playing games, but it can sneak up on you regardless of the circumstances.

Sleep Cycle is an app that’s been designed to ‘wake you up when you are in the lightest sleep phase’. When we sleep, we go through phases of light sleep and deep sleep. The stage of sleep that you are in when your iPhone goes off is crucial to whether or not you’re feeling groggy all day long.

This why you sometimes wake up a couple of hours before your alarm time feeling fresh but opt for more kip rather than an early start and then wake up feeling like you’re weighed down by large cows on your limbs two hours later.

It works by registering your slumbering movements and analyzing them to determine when to kick you out of bed at least unpleasant time. Thankfully, there are comprehensive instructions on how to use the app included as one of the features.

Sleep Cycle tells us that placement of the iPhone is important. It must be nestled in a spot just above the pillow and to one side, in the corner of the bed. As the app will be running all night, it would be a good idea to plug in the charging cable. As you flay around while dreaming of killing Zombies, the app registers your movement and determines what phase of sleep you are in.

We used Sleep Cycle for about a week and have to report that more often than not we woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day ahead. After a little research is seems that there are in fact stand alone devices for this sort of thing and we can assure you that they cost a whole lot more than 59p.

This is definitely worth a go for anyone that’s feeling their energy levels running low, just don’t expect a miracle cure for hangovers, a bad diet and lack of exercise.

Sleep Cycle info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 2.0

Developer: LexWare Labs AB

Website/Demo: LexWare Labs website

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Augmented reality was set to be one of the massive trends of 2009 and to be honest, it probably didn't pick up as much momentum as the industry predicted.

However, it certainly has the potential to be groundbreaking and a lot of fun when coupled with gaming. Location-based services could benefit too, but many of the apps out there are pretty disappointing.

NearestWiki is one application that uses augmented reality and applies it in an interesting way.

If you ever go walking or wandering and want to know more information about what's around you, NearestWiki allows you to do just that.

It takes the idea of augmented reality - information overlaid on what's around you - using GPS and your phone camera, and takes it to a whole new level.

Using Wikipedia as its information source, NearestWiki allows you to see what's around you (using your iPhone's camera) and find out more information about each landmark.

The landmarks are displayed as translucent black rectangles bearing the name of the landmark and a short paragraph of information, with its distance from your current location.. If Wikipedia holds a picture, that's displayed too.

Tap on any of the landmarks you see and you'll be taken to the relevant Wikipedia page. It doesn't take you straight to Safari, but appears as if in the app, with the same layout as if it were in the mobile version of Wikipedia. You can tap on 'back' to go back to the interactive scene if you wish.

If you find that there is more than one PoI in any direction, they'll stack up in order of distance, the furthest away from you being at the top. To access these, you simply have to swipe your finger down the screen so you can read the blurb about them.

Although NearestWiki is a handy app for sightseers, there are a number of foibles inherent in the app.

Firstly, errors about 'Compass Interference' pop up frequently - basically if anything's remotely near your iPhone. To remedy this, you have to wave the iPhone in a figure-of-eight movement which becomes pretty irritating after a while.

It also becomes pretty irritating when the compass adjusts itself.

Annoying interruptions aside, NearestWiki is a nice little app for the iPhone, and a great example of augmented reality for those who like to know what's around them.

NearestWiki info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: £1.19

Version: 1.4

Developer: acrossair

Website/Demo: acrossair website

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Setting goals can be a tricky business. You don't want to sell yourself short and undermine your potential, but at the same time you don't want to overstretch yourself and set unobtainable results. Aiming high and maintaining an optimistic outlook is usually the best way to go about business.

Writing things down is all but essential, as it really helps to bring your goals out of your head and into the real world. It also gives you somewhere you can check back on and see how you're doing and what needs to be done.

The optimistic name of Make it Happen is a good start too. Opening up the application presents you with the interface which is somewhat bland.

There are two types of goals that can be created; a regular goal or a numerical goal, the latter of which is good for things like paying back debts or other financial goals. On the goal detail page you can set all the parameters for a given goal. At the top of the page is the name of the goal and the date by which you want it to happen.

Below this are two features that allow you to set notes. The first is the 'progress record' while the second is 'milestones'. Both of these mean more or less the same thing but at least give you the option of adding in lots of notes for the more complex tasks.

These notes are then held in their own sub-menu away from the goal detail page and can be accessed by pressing the title of the note made.

There is a text box on the goal detail page itself so you can write whatever you want about the goal that you want to read immediately when you visit the page.

These three options make for a trio of note-taking diversity which will allow you to track even the most complex of aims comprehensively.

Goals themselves can be organised into categories which are displayed on the applications main page, a handy touch if you have a lot of things to get through. One issue with Make it Happen is the interface which is in desperate need of spicing up.

Aside from this, the version of the app we reviewed seemed a little buggy and showed up seemingly random pieces of code in the title of one of our tasks.

It didn't seem to like the use non-textual characters in goal titles. Other than this issue the app worked very well and would be worth a look for any with many an aspiration.

Make it Happen info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.0

Developer: Cobalt Techno

Website/Demo: Cobalt website

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Top Gear is a car-orientated TV program that broadcasts all over the world. If you grew up in Britain, from where the show hails, and you're into cars then it's likely that Jeremy Clarkson and the gang have been core component of your weekly TV diet for well over a decade.

A feature in the show known as 'The Cool Wall' has been present for several series now. The gist of the infamous wall is that there are four categories into which a car can fall. At one end of the scale, is 'seriously un-cool' which pretty much speaks for itself while at the other end is 'sub-zero', a category reserved only for the most stylish of rides.

Whether a car is cool or not isn't down to how fast or expensive it is. Some debate between the Top Gear hosts attempts to pin down how a car fares in this most illusive of specifications. The aim of The Cool Wall application is to browse through the categories of model and manufacturer and then guess which end of The Cool Wall the car falls in. getting as many correct answers as possible.

There are a heck of a lot of cars in the application so you're going to need to have seen a lot of episodes of Top Gear, have a good memory and a decent sense of style if you're to guess a car's position correctly.

Cars are chosen using two scroll-wheels which denote make and model and there's a randomiser button to chose for you if that seems too much effort. Once you've picked your car you're taken to a screen with a photo of the badge and four buttons which represent the four positions on the wall.

It's a shame that only an image of the badge is shown as it would be nice to see a picture of the whole car. There are a few obscure makes and models present which you might not remember or otherwise be familiar with.

Once you've pressed the button, a soundbite from the show plays with the final verdict for the car as decided by one of the Top Gear hosts. When you've had enough of guessing how cool Top Gear deems cars you can see an overall score of how many you've guessed correctly.

The interface is masterfully designed but the game gets a bit old after a few plays. However, The Cool Wall would be good for a chuckle with a few bored friends or even hardcore fans of the show.

The Cool Wall info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: £1.19

Version: 1.0

Developer: BBC WorldWide

Website/Demo: Top Gear website

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Anyone that grew up watching the X-Files might remember the opening credits with the hand placed on a temperature-sensitive panel with a hotspot in a certain part of one of the digits.

It's one of these temperature-sensitive gizmos that Heatpad aims to emulate. Of course your touchscreen isn't able to determine temperature, and so instead, the longer your leave your digits on the screen, the 'hotter' they will get. The result is an application that can make some pretty cool effects.

Being unable to measure temperature, the effects and images produced by Heatpad are purely aesthetic, but that's not to say that there isn't any fun to be had. At the default settings, the background of Heatpad is set to a cold blue.

If you place an index finer on your iPhone, the blue will slowly turn to turquoise, then yellow, to orange and finally red. Once you remove your digit, the colours will slowly reverse  back to the original cool blue. Thanks to the iPhone's multi-touch display, you can use as multiple fingers some cool pictures can be made using the app.

In addition to the default settings, the colours to change through different scales, some of which produce very cool effects. One we particularly liked was called 'Spirit' which sees any areas that you make contact with cycle through red yellow and black in a mesmerizingly slow fashion, slowly expanding the area until it covers the entire interface. Options such as 'Metal' or 'Fantasy' perform in the same way as the default settings except with different colours.

Other settings include sensitivity and inertia. The former determines how long you need to keep the touchscreen pressed before the different levels of the colour appear while the latter adjusts the rate of change back to the original state.

Heatpad is a very simple application which has little to no practical use. It can create some interesting shapes though that could possible be loaded into Photoshop or a similar application to be used in some interesting digital art. Watching the colours change is also pretty relaxing which is a quality that will appeal to many.

If you like the look of the screenshots then it could be worth a shot, just don't expect a broad span of usefulness.

Heatpad info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.4

Developer: Padadaz

Website/Demo: Padadaz website

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It's an extremely frustrating experience. You've decided to drive into the city centre to do some post-payday shopping, parked in a multistory with more levels than a game of Tetris or a on a city block with as many Starbucks as every other one for a 12-mile square.

You're carrying more shopping bags than you can just about manage with your better half chewing your ear off and you have no idea where you car is.

Never fear though, there is now an app for that as well. iPark: Find Your Car uses the iPhone's GPS locator and Googlemaps to mark the location of your parked car and then plots a route back to the location to save you spending the last of your available energies figuring out where you parked.

The first time you fire up the app you'll be asked if it can use your location, a question which will have to be answered in the affirmative if you ever want to see your wagon again. There are then two options, the first of which is to remember the current location while the second will plan you a route to the previously saved location.

Your current location is displayed on an embedded Googlemap locator which can be shown in map, satellite or hybrid form which should help you get your bearings. You can also add in a photo or make notes, both of which are pretty handy if you're somewhere you've never been or there isn't many oustanding landmarks around.

Once you click the 'remember' button, the app informs you that the location is saved and you can now quit the application.

Once you've depleted your bank account in the shops you can fire up the app once more and have it direct you to your automobile. When you press the 'bring me back to my car' button, you'll get the option to see the notes or photos that you may have left or get directions on the map.

One thing we should add in is that you can add a locator pin in Googlmaps and have it direct you back to the pin without paying for this app. However, iPark: Find Your Car does have the addition of notes and pics and it's all bundled together in a tidy interface.

iPark: Find Your Car info

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Value:
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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.0

Developer: Dworld Services

Website/Demo: Dworld website

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The step up from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G was a step forward in terms of both updated software and sexed up hardware.

When the iPhone 3GS was revealed, many of us were hoping for some inconceivably slick sheet of glass with no visible electronics and more functions than a Swiss Army Knife.

While the hardware looked very much the same as the 3G, one or two  internal increments were present. The most notable perhaps was the addition of a compass.

Many apps that have been written since the inclusion of a compass in iPhone hardware need the miniscule pole-pointing device to work. While Compass may not allow you to use these more modern apps, it will tell you the direction in which the ends of the earth lie.

As there is no hardware compass present, Compass first requires some user input to determine which direction is North.

The app needs to know what time of day it is which it can get from the iPhone's clock and also your current location which can be determined using the iPhone's GPS locator or you can set it manually in the 'update location' page.

Finally, all that is needed it for you the point your iPhone towards the sun. The major downside to this is, of course, it's not always possible to know where the sun is.

Using this simple equation that will no doubt be familiar to astronomers and naval personnel, the app can then point North. However many outdoorsy adventurers will be more than capable of finding North if the sun is visible. Compass shows  twelve compass points in a pointer that is well illustrated and easy to read.

While logistically the application is easy to use, it works as though it's being run on a 15 year old Amstrad computer. Any pages with scrolling on them are a particular pain.

Thankfully the compass itself updates at a reasonable pace. At the top and bottom of the app's main page, the developer has surreptitiously added a couple of buttons that take you to a Safari page with other apps made by the same developer.

This is another slightly annoying downside to the app but not the end of world. At just 59p, Compass wont break the bank, but if your venturing in the great outdoors, it's no substitute for the real thing.

Compass info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.0

Developer: Piet Jonas

Website/Demo: Compass website

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Whenever you hear the words 'get on the floor and give me twenty', you're either watching the movies or you've upset your girlfriend.

Let's face it - it's usually the latter. Executing about twenty of what are known as 'good form' pushups is pretty tough for most people. Performing one hundred then is going to be a serious challenge that will require some serious upper body strength

One Hundred pushups has been written with a view to provide a six week training program that will see you well on your way to reaching this heady target by investing no more than thirty minutes each week.

This seems like a pretty serious challenge but on the App Store screen, the developer insists that with a little discipline, it's an achievable target.

The first time you head into the app, you're promted to perform an initial test whereby you set the number of good-form pushups that you can perform at the present. This number will then dictate your targets over the ensuing six week period.

Starting on your first day, and you're given five sets of pushups to perform with a counted one minute rest period in between each set. The number of pushups seems somewhat random but rest assured that the rest period of a welcome one.

As the days roll on by, the number of pushups per set increase and see you working your way slowly up towards the heady heights of triple digits. A log book is included so that you may reap the gratification of your long efforts.

There is a 'tip of the week' section that delivers what the name suggests. A good example of tips is one that suggests that you take rest days during the program – sound advice for anyone building strength as your muscles need to rebuild first before being pushed to the next level.

The app also has a handy section that shows an animation of what is considered a good-form push-up. There's no point attempting to work through the regime if you've got sloppy execution so it's good that this tutorial is included.

Something that is sorely lacking from the application is some guidance on how why it's laid out the way it is. There is just very little tutorial on how to use it.

Taking people through the process of something like tackling 100 pushups is the sort of potentially delicate process that requires a degree of hand-holding for many people and that is something that you don't get with this app.

Aside from that, the main ingredient in getting the most out One Hundred Pushups is going to be your own self discipline.

It's worth a download if this is something you want to achieve but only if you dont mind clocking up a bill in the App Store.

Hundred Pushups info

Ease of use:
Value:
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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: £1.19

Version: 3.0.2

Developer: Software X

Website/Demo: Retain Release website

Download Hundred Pushups from

Many of you will have grown up with movie heroes such as Arnold Schwarzenegger in films such as Commando and Sylvester Stone in the classic Rambo flicks.

If these were before your time then in all likelihood, games such as Counter Strike or even Call of Duty: Modern Warfare were not. With such gun-strewn entertainment fed into our vulnerable minds, a passionate enthusiasm for firearms is practically an unavoidable characteristic.

Even when you realise the horrific capabilities of guns, they seem to maintain a certain allure.

This is why AAA Gun Club for the iPhone has been written. You can now play about with virtual versions of your favorite weapons without so much as owning them, satisfying your urges along the way. This will be especially appealing for those residing in the UK where guns are about as easy to own by as winning lottery tickets.

When you get past the opening screen, you're presented with a weapons rack that resembles Arnie's shed in the movie, Commando. All of the important guns are present including an M16, AK47, .45 Magnum and of course, a Vulcan M134 Minigun. The developers have even thrown in a chainsaw, just in case of emergency.

The images of each weapon are both beautifully rendered and in scale to one another. After pressing the image of each gun, you're taken to a landscape-orientation screen with the firearm centered against a black background.

A question mark icon in the bottom right hand side of the screen bestows you with instructions on how to operate the firearm. Good use has been made of both the touchscreen and accelerometer portions of the iPhone's interface.

For example, sliding your finger back will operate the chamber return of an M16 and jerking the iPhone upwards will lock a fresh magazine in position in place and ready for virtual action.

There are of course ethical implications in selling an iPhone application that essentially tutorials people on how to use deadly weapons. However, we're here to review the app and not chime in our political opinions. We will say though, don't buy guns and don't use them. It's for the best.

On the whole, AAA Gun Club delivers some fun and realistic virtual firearms to mess around with. The sound effects are realistic and mechanism (from what we've seen in the movies) are a decent approximation of the real deal. Anyone that loves guns will be a kick out of this app.

AAA Gun Club info

Ease of use:
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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.7.2

Developer: The Binary Mill

Website/Demo: The Binary Mill website

Download the AAA Gun Club from

Have you ever known someone that has a face with a characteristic that's not quite to your liking? Perhaps their cheeks are too fat or too thin. Maybe their jaw should more resemble that of Buzz Lightyear or maybe their ears are disproportionally small for their head.

While purchasing a gift voucher for plastic surgery is an ever-present temptation, now you can see what they would look like with said alterations prior to investing your hard-earned cash on the real thing.

FaceGoo will let you take a fresh picture to smudge around or select one from your photo album. If you're not much of a portrait snapper then you can use one of the four bundled example faces. The interface is slim in the main squidging area, allowing you optimum space to manipulate the photo to your every whim.

The mechanic works much the same as the smudge tool in Adobe's Photoshop except a little less precise. The algorithm is quite cleverly executed and will let you distort any part of the face to your heart's content.

At the bottom right can be found a 'play' button and an 'i' button. You might expect the play button played some kind of media file but in fact it returns your face to the default position in a cool, springy fashion. If the 'use accelerometer' setting is turned on the options, then the play button turns the face to a sort of jelly which can be shaken and rotated around to varying degrees of squashiness.

This is a pretty cool feature and it's weird to see an image turned into a very convincing, liquidy eJelly.

The information button actually doesn't give you any information per say but it does open up the settings. There aren't a whole heck of a lot of them, but more than we expected. There is a slider to adjust the 'gooyness' factor of an image, a button that enables the app to remember the last goo next time FaceGoo is fired up and the afore mentioned accelerometer option.

For 59p in the app store, Face Goo represents a decent hours-of-amusement-to-cost ratio and worth a download if you're want to kill some time or see what your friends or colleagues would look like with a few improvements.

FaceGoo info

Ease of use:
Value:
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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 3.5

Developer: Robot Wheelie LLC

Website/Demo: Robot Wheelie website

Download FaceGoo from

Flatulence is a wonderful thing. This is mainly true if you're male and/or under the age of 16.

It's the the most endearing department of potty humor and, even if you don't agree with any of the above, something that we all succumb to at some point.

Even Her Majesty the Queen has to let out a bottom burp from time to time, and if that doesn't make it a right and true pastime, then we just don't know what does.

iFart Mobile for the iPhone and iPod Touch is an application that delivers pre-recorded examples of the fine art of flatulence. No such an app would be finished without a little production value and this app has done itself proud in that department.

A sort of industrial angle has been taken to the interface design which looks almost post-apocalyptic and is very well drawn. The quintessential big red button makes an appearance with the words 'fart now' emblazoned boldly in the center. Selecting a prootle of your choice from the scroll wheel below and pushing the button to make the app sound off.

The selection of farts is both versatile and extensive. Even the most experienced  connoisseurs of wind-passing should find something here to get their juices flowing. The names are quite creative too and include, 'Jack the Ripper', 'Bye Granny', 'Bombardier' and 'Fly By'.

The latter of these was our particular favorite. If you think you can do better then you can record your own farts for later consumption. Furthermore, you can buy fart packs to extend your repertoire of rear-end music.

Once you've had your fill of farts there is a few interesting features to check out. The security fart feature gives you five seconds to put you iPhone or iPod Touch on a flat surface. The next time your device is moved, iFart Mobile will let one rip right into the ears of an unsuspecting potential thief.

Just opposite the security fart feature is the sneak attack feature. This lets you set a countdown timer which will then play a bum-whistle when the timer reaches zero, ideal for if there is someone around and you just need them to hold your phone for a second.

There's no doubt that iFart Mobile is one of most immature and preposterous apps in the App Store. However, the execution is exemplary and the developers have done a great job on delivering what the title of the app promises. This one is definitely worth a download for the flatulence humor-inclined.

iFart Mobile info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 2.3

Developer: InfoMedia Inc    

Website/Demo: iFart Mobile website

Download iFart Mobile from

Anyone that skates or has ever skated will appreciate how difficult it is to make a deck work against the god forsaken law of gravity.

When you first learn to pop an ollie it seems like the most impossible task ever bestowed upon you and learning hardflips may be responsible for many a skater being entirely unable to produce children.

A safer – and undeniably less satisfying – way to get your head round the process might be to download an iPhone application that helps you see how it's done.

This is what iGrind appears to have been made to do. Using your digits as feet, iGrind will let you work the deck to perform tricks in a way that's a lot easier-going on your trainers than the real deal.

Most people will also endure a great deal less pain though there's no real guarantee of this being case. When you first fire up iGrind, you're presented with a choice of three choices including two designs plus a blank deck.

We started off with the humble ollie. Pushing down with our back finger and sliding our front finger up the deck produced a satisfying pop that sounds like it's recorded from the real deal and saw the deck animated appropriately.

Sadly though the realism broke down somewhat when we realised that pushing down the back of the deck and produced exactly the same result.

The natural progresssion from this might be a pop-shoveit. We tried for some time to have the board rotate 180 degrees but for love nor money wouldn't achieve it. This simplest of tricks doesn't seem to be programmed into the application.

Next up: kickflips. Using two fingers, we produced a believable kickflip with the accompanying audio and animation. As you might suspect, lipping the board in the opposite direction produced a reverse animation and the resulting heelflip.

Sadly though moving just one finger to the side of the board produces the same result, so again there is no real need to emulate the footwork that would make a kickflip on a real deck.

Also,  this seemed to be the extent of the application's repertoire of tricks. We were unable to perform hardflips, 360 flips or any other trick in the app.

The deck is always stationary too, so there's no grinds and no apparatus to mess around with. Overall, iGrind is a very limited skateboard simulator and it doesnt even simulate the physics in a believable fashion.

The animations are decent, as are the animations, but that's about the only thing good things to be said about the app.

iGrind info

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s to deliver a virtual skateboard with realistic physics.

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Cameras on mobile phones are now commonplace and as a result you can always rely on someone whipping out their handset whenever anything even remotely interesting occurs in the world at large.

It might be the appearance of a celebrity, a sudden and unexpected accident or simply the opportunity to snap a particularly gorgeous individual; not a day seems to go by where you don’t witness someone taking a photo on their phone.

The trouble is the practice is now so widespread that being caught doing it is a pretty effective way of destroying whatever shred of credibility you once had.

As you might imagine, some bright spark has concocted a solution to this problem. SneakyPix is an app which allows you to snap away without having to worry about the consequences.

It’s an amazingly simple program to use. You simply switch your phone to silent (to mask the tell-tale 'shutter' sound) and press the 'start' button to initiate SneakyPix. The app will then take a photo every 4-seconds, allowing you to disguise your voyeuristic tendencies by pretending to send a text, or holding your phone aloft as if you’re trying to get a decent reception.

Once you’re done all of the covert images can be found in your Camera Roll gallery, just as normal. SneakyPix therefore doesn’t actually do anything incredible - it’s basically a substitute for your itchy trigger finger.

Still, there’s a legitimate use here. No one wants to be the guy who pulls out and snaps candid events on his phone yet there are some moments you just don’t want to miss – bumping into a famous person being the most notable.

If you’re a level-headed person then you won’t want to embarrass the aforementioned star by asking for a photo, so you can just fire up this app and pretend you’re doing something else entirely.

Naturally, there are more nefarious uses for SneakyPix, but we’ll leave those to your own twisted imaginations. Just make sure no one actually looks at your phone’s display, otherwise it will be pretty obvious what kind of activity you’re indulging in.

SneakyPix info

Ease of use:
Value:
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Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.0

Developer: Skidmore Apps

Website/Demo: Skidmore website

Download SneakyPix from

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month or so then you’ll be fully aware of the existence of a video game called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The title has sold millions since its launch and is likely to rank as the most popular game of 2009 by some margin.

Modern Warfare 2 predominately involves shooting bad guys with a dizzying assortment of deadly weapons (if you’ve paid attention to the controversy surrounding the game then you’ll also know that it involves shooting innocent civilians in a Russian airport, although we’ll not open that particular can of worms in this review) but arguably the most popular facet of the game is its online mode, where players can fight against (or alongside) other human players on a wide range of maps.

This is where Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack comes in. At first the connection with Activision’s game seems painfully tenuous as all this offers is bird’s eye views of each of the multiplayer maps, but you only need to spend a few minutes with Modern Warfare 2 to realise that many of these war-torn locations are a complete and utter pain to navigate, so any kind of assistance is welcome.

Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack shows each level as well as offering helpful textual hints which point out good 'camping' spots (this means a place where you can easily take out enemies and not, as you might assume, somewhere to erect your tent and travel stove) as well as other items of note that will help improve your overall performance within the game.

The trouble is that these maps are highly detailed and you can’t zoom in them in the application itself; you have to first save the map as an image on your phone, and then view it using the iPhone’s photo viewer, where you can utilise the trusty 'pinch-to-zoom' method.

Once you’ve done this it becomes apparent that the average quality of the map images causes them to look pretty rough on closer inspection. Also, because they’re displayed in 2D they fail to show interior detail and other elements of the environment; Modern Warfare 2 features some impressive, undulating 3D levels and a flat 2D representation doesn’t quite cut the mustard.

Of course, the biggest blow to Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack’s credibility is the fact that it’s almost impossible to play and consult your iPhone at the same time. The game is so relentless in multiplayer mode that if you take your eyes off the screen for as much as a second then you’re likely to end up face-down in the sand with a bullet in the back of your cranium.

A far more effective way of improving your skill is to simply put a few hours in on each map so that you begin to learn its arrangement off by heart. This may be more time consuming but it’s the only way you’re ever going to rise through the multiplayer rankings.

As it stands, this is a neat idea but it’s one that doesn’t actually function as well as you might think. Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack might be useful for familiarising yourself with the basic layout of the maps with in the game, but during actual play it’s of very little use.

Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack info

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Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.0.5

Developer: AtMedia

Website/Demo: AtMedia website

Download Modern Warfare 2: Map Pack from

Like patting your head and rubbing your belly, texting and walking are two things that are extremely tricky to do in conjunction with one another.

That doesn’t stop thousands upon thousands of people attempting to do it on a daily basis, of course. Look around any busy town or city and you’ll spot these foolhardy individuals fairly easily - they’re the ones that stumble into lamp posts, fail to halt when crossing busy roads and generally make a nuisance of themselves.

Rather than ignore the problem and hope that the numerous bumps and bruises sustained from ill-advised texting might be enough to dissuade people from trying to do whilst in transit, developer CGActive has cooked up Type n Walk, an app which aims to allow you to do both without the risk of personal injury.

The premise is simple – Type n Walk is a text editor that features a 'transparent' background so you can see what’s currently in front of you. It does this by taking a live video feed from your iPhone’s camera and displaying it behind the text you’re writing.

While the concept gets full marks for effort, the actual execution is rather less impressive. For starters, the app only works if you’re the kind of person who texts whilst holding their phone right up in front of them. Most people look down at their phones when they’re in use, so all you’ll be seeing when using Type n Walk is your feet and the pavement, which might help if you come across a massive, gaping hole in the ground but isn’t going to stop any other potential accidents.

If you do decide to change the way you text in order to accommodate Type n Walk’s functionality then you run the risk of being a prime target for mobile phone thieves – holding your phone up in front of you when you’re in a busy street is a bit like wearing a sign that says 'Please mug me'.

Another key problem is functionality. Type n Walk doesn’t actually interface with any of your other apps, or with any of the iPhone’s built-in elements (texting, email, notes, etc). If you want to compose a text message using Type n Walk you have to first create the message using the app, then select it all, copy it and then paste into the iPhone’s text messaging program.

This is a painfully protracted method when you’re standing still, so trying to do it while you’re walking is asking for trouble – in fact you could argue that wrestling with the iPhone’s often inconsistent copy and paste procedure during a brisk stroll through a busy city is actually more dangerous than the age-old walk and text technique.

Type n Walk is one of those ideas that sounds good on paper but when you actually use it you realize that it’s massively flawed. The bottom line is that trying to concentrate on a phone’s display and walk at the same time is not advisable, and no matter how many similar programs appear, that fact is unlikely to change.

Type n Walk info

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Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.0.5

Developer: CGActive

Website/Demo: Type n' Walk website

Download Type n Walk from

The thought of visiting an IKEA store will elicit two very different reactions in you, depending on what kind of person you are.

If you’re female then the notion of patrolling the endless aisles of cheap Swedish-designed furniture and household items will probably fill you with glee.

If you’re a bloke then we’d wager that in your eyes the name IKEA is synonymous with heaving crowds, nightmarish flat-packed bookshelves and the ghastly spectacle of having to man-handle your purchases into your vehicle without any assistance from staff members.

We’d like to think that the recently-launched IKEA iPhone app is an attempt by the benevolent owners of this corporate giant to extend a hand of friendship to downtrodden males. By using the medium of technology, the company is trying to make the practice of shopping for furniture fun again for the men out there.

Of course, that is incredibly optimistic thinking because in reality the IKEA iPhone app is little more than a digital version of the now-ubiquitous paper-based catalogue.

Granted, the interface is slick and intuitive - you flip through each page with your finger, pinching to zoom and double-tapping to swiftly focus in and out of each image.

You can even bring up a thumbnail-sized gallery which shows each page, allowing you to deftly jump to the section of the catalogue that appeals to you.

The actual image quality is impressive, with detail holding up very nicely even when you’re zoomed in close. However, it’s clear that corners have been cut to keep the size of the app down, as there is noticeable dithering (as a result of image compression) on some of the pages. If you’re a stickler for fine detail then you’ll probably want to stick with the proper catalogue.

Aside from browsing the latest ranges and consulting the most recent prices, the IKEA app offers nothing else in terms of functionality.

There’s no link to order items on the IKEA store and no way of making contact with the firm to query stock levels. It’s not outlandish to expect such luxuries as several other iPhone apps are offering the same level of usefulness.

The big plus point about this app is the fact that it saves you having to lug around a copy of the physical catalogue, and for those of you out there that are keen to do your part for our ailing environment, it naturally prevents waste, too.

In all honesty though, the IKEA iPhone app is a pretty lazy effort by the iconic Swedish brand. The opportunity was there to create something that would truly aid your shopping experience, but instead all you’re given is something that is freely available in another – arguably superior - format.

While it’s encouraging that such huge firms are finally viewing the iPhone as a potential way in which to attract custom, we’d be willing to bet that such lackluster efforts won’t generate many sales.

IKEA Catalogue 2010 info

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Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.0

Developer: Inter IKEA Systems

Website/Demo: IKEA website

Download IKEA Catalogue 2010 from

Modern smart phones are power-hungry beasts, sucking dry their batteries at an often alarming rate.

This is because of the sheer number of different features present. Not only does your iPhone make use of a 3G signal, it also boasts “always-on” connectivity, push notifications, instant synchronisation with email, contacts and calendars and much more besides.

And when you take into account that it’s also a music player and games console, it’s little wonder that most iPhone owners have to charge their devices up on a daily basis – sometimes even more.

Of course there is one simple solution to this – don’t use the iPhone to its fullest potential and the battery will naturally last longer. It’s possible to switch off 3G or wireless connectivity, dim the brightness of the screen and even force the display to shut off quicker than normal, thus conversing a considerable amount of juice over the course of a day.

Knowing the magic settings is half of the battle and iPowerSaver is an app which seeks to educate you in the ways of prolonged battery life.

It features a trio of profiles which give you three different standards of phone functionality. The most meagre setting grants maximum battery life at the sacrifice of key features, so there’s no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no 3G and no push notifications.

The second setting is something of a middle ground. It’s configured to ensure your phone gives the best operating performance for calls and other network activity, but still maintains a little bit of restraint when it comes to other less essential tasks, such as watching YouTube videos and surfing the web.

The third option is the one that basically throws caution to the wind and enables all of the iPhone’s functionality. This choice is naturally going to be the one that drains your battery faster than a thirsty dog empties its water bowl, but it’s worth using if you want your expensive handset to do what it was designed to do.

To have these options at your fingertips is incredibly handy, but there’s one massive flaw with iPowerSaver – none of the configurations can be enabled automatically. You have to manually input all of the settings by dropping out of the app and laboriously changing them in the iPhone’s options menu.

This isn’t actually the fault of the developer - Apple currently doesn’t allow apps to alter phone status settings (unlike Android phones where programs are granted access to pretty much every facet of the phone’s setup).

Regardless of this, it does render iPowerSaver a rather superfluous download. Most of the settings involved are actually pretty obvious if you have any common sense, so it’s not like it’s actually that much of a guide – unless of course you’re not fully clued-up on your iPhone’s features.

If Apple changes its policy in the future regarding apps being able to change profile settings then iPowerSaver could become a truly indispensable tool – but as it stands, there’s little point in clogging up your phone’s internal memory with this.

iPowerSaver info

Ease of use:
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Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.1

Developer: iPowerApps

Website/Demo: iPowerApps website

Download iPowerSaver from

No matter what business you’re in, naming your product something succinct and eye catching that tells your potential patrons what it does is essential.

You can get fancy of course, but often the straight forward approach is the best one. Clearly the developers of this app believe in this direct approach. Medical News is an iPhone application that delivers news of the medical variety to the iPhone.

The app has been put together by website and medical resource www.doctors.net.uk, an online info treasure trove for medical professionals that offers secure e-mail and free data. The website is apparently used by thousands of doctors each day in addition to public sector medial bodies such as The Department of Health and also pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

While it’s good to have a little background information on the people that make an app, if it’s as something like a news service then knowing that your information is coming from a reliable source is paramount, especially in the serious world of the medical professional. Medical News is not just an average news reader application put together to fill out the portfolio of a bedroom app developer.

This fact is further bolstered when you see the interface. Some inspiration has been taken from the www.doctors.net.uk logo and the cool blues are featured throughout. You can read news stories or listen to podcasts that the app states have been written exclusively for www.doctors.net.uk.

There’s also a series of medical stories which are ‘from a variety of sources’. The standard of the writing is very high, with most of the copy being written in a concise, academic and formal manner. Of all the stories we read we didn’t spot one typo or grammatical error.

Some photos or video content might have broken up the endless reams of text, but considering this app is free and made specifically for the medical professional looking for information and not entertainment, Medical News does its job very well.

If you’re in the medical trade and looking for up to date info in your industry then Medical News is well worth a download to check out.

Medical News info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Phone/iPod touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.0

Developer: Doctors.net 

Website/Demo: Doctors.net website

Download Medical News from