Say Who – Dialer
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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Flick Bowling
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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Fake Calls
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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Freshwater Aquarium
November 8, 2008 by WilliamL
Filed under Entertainment
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 Radio
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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iBall 3D
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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ESPN Cameraman
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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Google Earth
Google Earth for the iPhone is a good complement to its desktop counterpart, but with a few neat additions. Like on the desktop version, you can search for an address and view it from far away or as close as almost street level, seeing an overhead shot of the location as if you were a few feet above the building. Once you’ve zoomed in as far as you can zoom in, you can tilt your phone to change the perspective from front to back to side.
Because of iPhone’s built-in GPS, the app can find your current location. Just click on the icon in the bottom left of the screen. Once you’ve found yourself you can search for local businesses and get their locations marked by icons. Just click on the magnifying glass in the top left corner and type in what you’re looking for. Though you can’t get a map or directions, the app will display the address and phone number and a link to the company’s website.
If nothing else, this is just a cool way to look at your surroundings, and it does have some practical use as well. However, it seems the functionality is a bit too overwhelming for the iPhone. It takes several seconds to load most pages, and the app crashed several times while I was using it. Hopefully this will be fixed in a later update. Currently, this sluggishness would prevent me from using it too often.
But for the price – free – Google Earth is a great app. It’s fun to get a view of your house or numerous destinations around the globe in a view few other programs can offer.
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White Pages Mobile
When you’re out and about and you realize you can’t remember the address of where you’re going, this app is a great tool to have. Better than just a GPS, it allows you to look up business and residential addresses by name and gives you the complete street address and a thumbnail map so that you know the cross streets. Simply click on the map itself and you will be redirected to Google Maps so you can get detailed directions from your current location.
Another perk of this application is that it can end the mystery of when a random number shows up on your phone. Instead of having to call the unidentified person back, you can simply plug the number into the reverse phone number search. You’ll be rewarded with the caller’s name and address (if available) as well as his or her cell phone carrier. Then you can choose if you wish to contact the individual or not.
The app seems to be fairly up to date, as it found businesses that had only been around for a couple months. And it didn’t seem to have a lot of addresses that were no longer current. My friend didn’t like the “end” button at the top of the page. He kept selecting it when he wanted to begin his search and then found that nothing happened. So be sure to watch for that. The proper search button is at the bottom of your screen.
Once you find the correct button, all you have to do is type in the name of the person or business, give it a touch and go.
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Vegas Pool Lite
In Vegas Pool Shark Lite, the free app of Vegas Pool Shark, you’re given one version of play (straight pool) and a choice of three appropriately shady opponents. They each have a different skill level, from beginner to advanced. The higher the level, the more money you get for beating them. What is the money for? Who knows? Basically bragging rights.
Although the game features all 16 standard pool balls, the object of the free game is simply to sink three balls before your opponent does. Play control is intuitive using your finger to pull the pool cue back and releasing it to strike the ball, with the quickness of your release equating to the force put on the ball. You can put top spin and bottom spin on the cue ball in an attempt to put English on your shots, but this does take some getting used to. The first time I tried it, the ball barely moved a virtual half an inch.
The app uses the standard iPhone pinch and spread options to zoom in and out on the pool table so you can further configure your shot pattern. It’s not too difficult to eyeball your shots, especially once you’ve practiced a few times. It seems like you always get to go first, which is good because at times your opponent seems to run the table at will and there is nothing you can do to change this fact. My best advice would be to sink your three before he or she even has a chance.
The sound effects are minimal and not too annoying, relying mainly on the sounds of balls striking each other and a trumpet sound to tell you that you won or lost at game’s end. A happy trumpet means you won. A somber trumpet means you lost, plus your opponent will be wearing a big smile, which is actually pretty funny to see.
The full version also contains an eight ball mode and a practice mode.
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