This is by far the best football app currently available on the iPhone. It allows you to view the scores of all the weekly games and provides real-time scoring and play by play. And you don’t have to scour through a list to find your beloved Steelers or Cardinals. You can set up a group of favorite teams so that every time you launch the app you are presented with their scores.

The app also features a Smack Talk section where you chat back and forth with other fans while watching the games. Be careful though, and don’t allow your young children to use it. It does not appear to be moderated and can get a bit off color pretty quickly, though it does kind of bring that nice social aspect to the game. However, it is not functional useless if it’s not any given Sunday or Monday or Thursday as the case may be.

I also like the fact you can view photos from the week’s games, complete with lengthy descriptive captions, and get NFL news as it happens. This is not only true during the games, but with regular updates during any day of the week. You can also check out league standings for each conference with the touch of a finger, so you never need be behind on what to do with your fantasy league.

The app has a nice, clean interface and is very user friendly. I would recommend it to any fan of the NFL, whether casual or die-hard. Not a football fan? The manufacturer, Plusmo, also makes app for basketball, golf and even cricket.

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This is a good app for people who can’t seem to remember phone numbers – even their own – and for those who don’t like having to dial or scroll through their contacts list. All you have to do is press the large blue square in the middle of the screen, which conveniently says “press while speaking” and say the name of the person or place you’d like to call. The app will pull the numbers of people in your contact list that are similar to the words you said.

The dialer is actually pretty accurate. When I said my own name, it quickly popped up with my home, work and mobile numbers. (Note that you have to have the phone very close to your mouth.) Then I tried my name plus the word “cell” and my mobile number was moved to the top of the list. I said a couple more names and got good results on those as well.

Be aware that the app will only find numbers in your contacts list. If you tell it to call Dominoes Pizza it’s not going to search the Web for the phone number. Also, be careful if you have the auto dialer turned on. This option sets it up so that the phone calls the first number it finds without waiting for you to confirm that it is correct. One time I said the name “Sarah” and she did end up on my list, but the first phone number listed was for an old coworker named Julie. With only a second to see what my phone was doing, I was powerless to stop it from dialing out.

So, yes, this is a good app, and I would recommend getting it, look in the top left corner and make sure AutoDial is off first thing, especially if you have a lot of contacts.

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This app is not much to look at, but it sure has a lot of information. It’s basically a huge database of recipes uploaded by members of the Big Oven websiste. To test out the app, I did a search for “chocolate.” (It’s easy to do. Just click on the search box at the top of the screen.) I was brought to a page with the history of chocolate, how it’s made and a summary of the different types available. I was then able to look for recipes with chocolate in them and got a list of 225, most complete with step by step directions, photos and ratings. There’s even a glossary to help those that aren’t as culinarily inclined.

Don’t worry. You don’t have to comb through the database every time you want to find a recipe. If you click on the “email” link at the bottom of one of them, you can send it to a friend – or yourself. Plus, if you set up a free account and log in, you can mark recipes as favorites by pushing the heart button at the top of the screen, or you can touch the check box next to it to put them in your “try soon queue.”

A good thing to remember is that the “H” button takes you back to the home page. I kept pushing the back arrow and accidentally logging myself out of the app altogether.

I never thought I would need my iPhone in the kitchen, but I have found myself happily mistaken. Using this app is better than lugging around a cookbook any day. The best thing is you can type in the ingredients you have in the fridge, one after the other, and it give you ideas of what you can make with your leftovers.

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This game is a great diversion when you’re waiting in line or sitting at a restaurant. The kicky retro music is sure to cheer you up, as are the six different characters you can choose from with their cartoonish looks.

Game play is very easy. Simply choose your player by touching the screen, choose a bowling ball (the only differences seem to be in color and pattern, not in weight) and you’re ready. To bowl, move your player from left to right to line him or her up with your shot. Then touch the screen next to your player and move your finger upward on the screen in the direction you want the ball to go. Once you’ve let go of the ball, tilting the phone doesn’t do any good to save you from the gutter, so don’t bother. Your score shows up on the bottom of your screen after each frame in the typical bowling alley format.

The game also has a two-player mode where you simply trade off turns instead of trying to bowl simultaneously, which could be disastrous. Alternately, you can play against the computer, choosing an opponent by ability level.

My favorite thing about this game was the biographies of the characters. They range from Jeffrey, who “smells like rental shoes” to Mr. Hiner, “who still lives with his mother.” I also liked the fact that the learning curve was low so it is easy to pick up. In fact, after only playing for about two minutes, I had to increase the difficulty since it was way too easy to get strikes.

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This is just the app you need if you go on a lot of blind dates and find yourself lingering over dinner longer than you’d like to. All you have to do is launch the program by choosing it in the apps menu and your phone will ring within seconds or minutes, according to your specifications. In the background it will show a name or phone number and a wallpaper image you preset to make your call look important. You can choose to either answer the fake call or decline it by touching the appropriate button on the screen. Be sure to pick one of those options or it will just call you continuously at your specified interval.

One problem I had with this app is that it’s not very intuitive. Instead of simply clicking on the button on the apps menu and setting the program up from there, you have to go into the “settings” menu for your entire phone (the one with the gears on it) and then search through your program list for the Fake Calls icon. Then, if you want to change the wallpaper for your fake call, you have to go back to the icon in the apps menu and relaunch the program.

Another thing that I didn’t like is that you are stuck with a kind of folksy, bluegrass ringtone, which will appear quite suspicious if every other time your phone rings it plays a song by 50 Cent. There doesn’t appear to be any way to turn it off or change it, though you can have the phone vibrate at the same time.

All in all, this is a clever program. I just hope I don’t end up in a situation where I would need to use it.

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This app is just what the name implies: a simulated freshwater aquarium on your iPhone screen. You start off with about ten fish and you can watch them individually by choosing the watch button at the bottom. This will put a small arrow above the head of the fish that you’re following.

Additionally, you can feed your fish by touching the food button and then putting your finger anywhere on the screen. One pellet will appear with each touch, and you seem to have an unlimited amount of fish flakes. The fish will either eat or ignore the food at their leisure. If they eat the food, they grow, though not especially noticeably unless they eat a ton.

One part of the game that could get a little interesting is the fact that you can sell your fish for pieces of gold and use that gold to buy fish of different varieties. Touch the info button to find out how much each fish is worth and then decide if you’d prefer the cash. The value is assessed by fish size and type, so feed, feed, feed.

Once you’ve done your selling, you can touch the shop button to see what fish are available to buy. They range from a Neon Tetra at 300 pieces of gold to a Blackspot Barb at 900. Some may enjoy seeing how they can fill their tank at the best price or just how crowded they can make it. You can’t simply ditch your fish and take the money. Once you’re down to one fish, you can’t sell.

If you like fish, you may like this game. Otherwise, you’ll get bored pretty quickly. The realistic graphics are nice, but there just is not much to it.

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Pandora for the iPhone is amazingly similar to the Pandora program available on the PC. Register and you can begin creating radio stations. Just pick a favorite artist and the app will provide you with songs by him or her along with others that have a similar sound. Pressing a button in the top right corner will give you a description of why each song has been chosen to fit your station. Like more than one type of music? Just make another station. You’re free to switch between them.

Give songs a thumbs up or down as they play by touching the appropriate button with your finger. Downrate a song and you don’t have to listen to the rest of it. It will disappear and be replaced with a new one. Like a song and you have the option to bookmark it along with the artist so you can easily find it to listen to again. Hit the button that says “buy from iTunes” and you’re sent to the site and can immediately make a purchase or save it for later.

I really like this app. It’s a good way to discover new music on the go and can provide the audiophile with hours of entertainment. The music sounds great over the built-in iPhone speaker and there’s an option to turn on higher quality audio for when you plug your phone into external speakers. Over wifi networks, there is no stuttering or pausing during loading or playback and only a slight fidget with Cellular Edge and 3G networks.

You don’t need any Mp3s when you have Pandora. It gives you the freedom rock out whenever the mood hits you.

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Most anything you can do on MySpace you can do on this app in convenient iPhone form. Now you never have to worry about updating your account again. You can do it on the go from wherever you are.

You can accept or deny friend requests, search for new friends, view accounts, photos and messages, upload photos taken from your phone, send and receive emails, update your profile, look at your friends’ status and moods, view new bulletins and read and leave comments.

Unlike the PC version of MySpace, the also has some adaptations to make the site easier on the eyes. You can view photos in full screen, so you’re not stuck looking at tiny thumbnails and navigate up and down the pages of the site by scrolling. Another thing that’s really different is that you can’t see all of the song and dance that some people add to their pages, such as wallpaper and background music. You are limited to their comments, photos and friends unless you sort through a complicated hierarchy of menus on the right side of the screen. But true MySpace devotees will have it figured out in minutes I’m sure.

If you live on MySpace, you’re going to love MySpace Mobile. In fact, you’ll hardly notice it’s any different, besides the fact that it fits in your pocket. Those who aren’t such ardent users, such as myself, may notice a slight learning curve. Either way, this is definitely an app that is worth trying out.

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This app is like the wooden labyrinth game that was popular several years ago. The board consists of a platform with lots of walls and holes inside the floor. Your task is to guide a marble through the maze all the way to the finish without it falling in. Just like with the actual wooden game, you need to be careful how you tilt the platform (which in this case is your iPhone) because this controls the speed, angle and directions in which the ball moves. Once you beat the level, you are scored depending on how much time it took you to complete it.

Options on the game include the ability to zoom in on the board in order to better navigate turns and tight places. The problem with this is that you can only see a portion of the board and not any upcoming holes, which kind of negates the helpfulness. Another choice is to turn off the background music, which is fairly repetitive and tinny. The sound of the ball rolling is very good, however. It sounds almost like it does in real life.

Compared to other versions of labyrinth available in the iTunes store, I found the controls to be a little sluggish, making the game especially hard. Also, the ball seems to fall in the holes very easily, instead of slipping by on the edges sometimes as it would in the real life game. I am not especially coordinated on a good day, but this made it all the worse.

I could tell there was another board available that looks like more like a traditional circular labyrinth path and I really would have liked to try it. Problem is, I never could figure out how to get past the first level in this game. It’s great if you’re up for a challenge.

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This app is an adaptation of the popular game of “spot the differences” created just for sports fans. To play, you view two seemingly identical photos of a professional athlete and you’re tasked with finding the changes made to the second one.

You have a limited amount of time to do this and can watch the time ticking away via a bar at the side of the screen. Most alterations are fairly small, such as a different colored hat or a Nike swoosh taking off of the sleeve of a jersey, making the game fairly difficult and more suitable for adults than children.

Once you find a difference, you simply touch the screen in that spot on either one of the pictures. A circle will appear on both and you’ll get a cheery noise to congratulate you.

Touch an incorrect part of the screen and you get a loud boo and lose a chunk of. Finish the entire level (consisting of five differences) and the imaginary crowd will reward you with thundering applause. Then you get another picture set and the cycle begins again.

One fun thing about this app is that you get three lifelines in the form of little cameras at the bottom of the screen. If you’re completely stumped select one of them and the app will reveal one of the answers for you. Thanks to the extra help, I was able to reach the second to last level, 72. But after 20 minutes of hunting through photos on the iPhone’s tiny screen I was starting to go a little cross-eyed.

I would recommend this game to sports and puzzle fans. The only complaint I have is that the background music gets a little old, but you can turn it off with the touch of an icon.

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