iPhone4idiots

Just in time for Valentine’s Day I thought I’d do a review of Flowers, Just2Me $0.99. There is a free version of the app which is the same other than it includes ads and limits you to three downloads and one email per day. When you launch the app you are taken to the first picture which then rotates every few seconds. At anytime you can double tap to pause so you can look at the current picture longer and double tap again to proceed. All pictures can be pinched to zoom. Tapping once brings up the control panel where you can set the photo refresh interval. Continue Reading…

Breathalyzer 5000, Nerdtown $1.99, is one of the many blood alcohol content measuring apps out there. They all are about the same and of course only for fun as none of them really work. This app is the only one of those with voice support. It’s very simple and looks real enough to where you probably can fool a drunk person. Whether or not this will help you get their keys is another matter and depends on the person. When you launch the app you are taken to the screen seen here on the left. You tap “Begin Test” and quickly hand your iPhone to your buddy and the voice simulator speaks, “Being Blowing Now”. A few seconds later it says, “Test Complete” and then “Calculation in Progress”. Continue Reading…

Excuse Me, Thomas Schober $1.99, is an app for those not great at lying. Personally, I don’t have this problem, but it’s a little funny nonetheless. There are over 180 excuses listed in the app. When you launch the app you are taken to a screen that gives you buttons for excuse choices for being late, forgetting something, why you were wrong and getting out of something you don’t want to do. Continue Reading…

Apple has just released new firmware for the iPhone 3.1.3 (7E18), a minor OS update for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, iPhone 2G, iPod touch G1, iPod touch G2, and iPod touch 3G. It includes a fix for the iPhone 3GS battery level reporting, fix for apps crashing with Japanese Keyboard and fix for apps crashing upon launch. None of this is very important which is a little surprising since its been awhile since the last firmware upgrade. A major firmware upgrade will occur on or before the newest iPhone is released this late Spring or early Summer. IMO, I wouldn’t upgrade your firmware yet as none of this seems like anything you’d want and if you have a jailbroken iPhone as always DO NOT UPGRADE your firmware until the dev team clears it. Unless you want to risk losing your jailbreak or unlock, just wait til its cleared. It wont’ be long

The Day I Was Born, Unusual Things $0.99, is a fun little app that gives you lots of information about the day you or your friends were born. I remember getting a baby gift when my son was born five years ago that was a framed paper with facts about that day. Well, this app does the same thing and includes a database of almost 100,000 events. When you launch the app you are taken to the screen seen with the typical options. However, a nice feature I haven’t seen in many apps is the clickwheel at the bottom for options. The main option is Begin which launches the app and takes you to the screen where you pick the date hit “Next” and you are taken to the screen here on the left. Options for the day include births, deaths, holidays and events. There are lots of data in these categories. Other options include elements, numerology, stones and chinese and western zodiac. Now I’ve never been into these later categories so I don’t have anything to say about their quality. The former categories do have lots of data. For example, see the picture here on the right. There are over 60 people listed as dead on the date I selected, January 22. These include Heath Ledger (the actor who played the Joker in Batman) in 2008 and German religious leader I’ve never heard of named Bernhard Knipperdolling in 1536.

Logo Creator, Laughingbird Software $1.99, gives you a simple way to create a logo for your company or blog right on your iPhone or iPod Touch. When you launch the app you are taken to the screen seen here on the left. When you tap “Create Logo” you are taken to a blank canvas where you can add objects and text. The app features over 30 templates that you can drag your elements to. Objects are scaleable by pinching as well.  It is simple to move objects or text around on the canvas or to move items to the back or foreground. Once finished you save the logo to your iPhone photos library where you can email it or use it for wallpaper. Continue Reading…

For anyone considering jailbreaking I thought I’d give a little update as a few things have changed over the past couple of months. First, to review there are basically two main jailbreaks/unlocks out there. Blackra1n/Blacksn0w by GeoHot (an incredibly smart kid) and redsn0w by the Dev team (a small group). Either one is well tested and works fine. Redsn0w works for all iPhones and 1st and 2nd generation iPod Touches and will soon work for 3rd generation iPod Touches. Also, redsn0w no longer requires you to point to a modified firmware file (recall the PwnageTool jailbreak required you to download an ipsw file, then run PwnageTool to modify it and then point to that file during the jailbreak). Thus, its even more idiot proof Both jailbreaks work on firmware 3.0 or the current firmware 3.1.2 so if you haven’t already updated your firmware I highly encourage you to do so. Continue Reading…

When it comes to the kitchen I bet a lot of you are like me. I can boil some noodles with Ragu, microwave frozen food and heat a can of soup, but that’s about it. Thus, I decided to give iFood Assistant by KRAFT, $0.99, a try. Now there a lot of cooking apps out there, but this is the only one I’ve tried so I have no basis for comparison. I’m just writing this as an idiot in the kitchen that wants to see if his iPhone can help. Overall, it does a pretty nice job whether I’m looking for something to make for dinner tonight or for brunch on the weekend. The amount of recipes in the app probably rivals that of thickest cookbooks. Continue Reading…

Biz Cards sounds fine, but I don’t see the point. I’m not a big fan of this app, but frankly, I haven’t liked a lot of apps I’ve tried recently (Background Check App, for one, is horrible). Anyway, Biz Cards $3.99 by Senstic, works kind of, but doesn’t really save you time. They market it as a “Business Card Holder/Scanner/Printer” well I didn’t even try the printer because the scan quality was poor. The App Store states, “It will even “scan” your card and extract the text for indexing and contact creation”. Sounds cool, but this feature most definitely does not work. At least not on my iPhone 3G. Continue Reading…

Slango, SchroederDev LLC $0.99, the urban dictionary app for the iPhone is sure to make you smile. For example, December 20th’s word was the timely pornament. Yes, as it sounds it is a pornographic Christmas ornament. Did you see one or two over the weekend? Slango has access to 4,000,000 words many of which you’ll have never heard. Of course being slang, you won’t find most of these words in Webster’s dictionary but that’s the point. I like to think of it as a pop culture dictionary or what teenagers are saying guide book. The app has a share button that allows you to easily share any word you want on Facebook, Twitter or email. Continue Reading…