Six Weird iPhone Apps

October 25, 2008 - Reading time: 3 minutes

As some of you know, I recently got an iPhone 3G. I really like it… such an improvement over my other phone. What really blows me away is the vast array of applications for this device. Seriously. Who the hell is writing these things? Here is my list of strange iPhone apps, in random order.

1. Hello Cow — It’s an app that moos at you. Ok. It’s an improvement on the programmer’s perfunctory “Hello World.”

2. Useless $1000 App — Well… they pulled this one, but some guy made an app that did nothing and he charged $1000 for it. Some rich fools patronized him. Why didn’t I think of that?

3. Call Checker — This “handy” app calculates whether it’s a decent time for you to call someone… it handles times zones and such. It sounds remotely useful until you realize that the built-in clock on the iPhone can easily display times in any city and in any time zone. An improvement would be if the app could sense the mood of the person you were trying to call, e.g. if they were out on a date, asleep, with their OTHER boyfriend, or whatever… THAT would be a cool app. This app, unfortunately, isn’t.

4. iQuit — a program to help you quit smoking. Contains graphic images and in-your-face videos depicting the shocking truths behind nicotine addition. Wow. I hope this helps some people. I’m kinda upset that herds of chemists are out there working to make cigarettes as addictive as possible while some party-people just puff away without realizing how badly they might be damaging their bodies. Then again, a meteor might become crashed into us at any moment, and that would make my pompous commentary rather insignificant.

5. Wide Mail Keyboard — This one is overdue… the keypad for texting and emailing is amazing in theory, but in practice you tend to fat-finger things on an iPhone. Most apps will rotate if you put your phone into landscape position, but not the Text and Mail apps. Yar. This app promises to remedy that omission.

6. How Many Shopping Days Until Christmas? — Finally! An app for consumer whores! Seriously? Please. As a developer, I love that the platform is open, but if you want to open up development, then why not open up the other parts of development? Like product specs and quality control? This is one app that would never see the light of day if there were some sort of reality check in the process.

Well, I could go on, but I won’t. The point is that there is an app out there for just about anything. My favorites? Well, they’re kinda specific to me. I use an ear-training app…. other than that, I mostly stick to the defaults, but I will mention that the technology behind the Midomi app is amazing… you hum a part of a song, and it will tell you what song it is (and it’s pretty accurate, too!). The other app I use a lot (as a composer) is the Recorder… you can simply record stuff. Memos, song ideas, whatever. It’s really useful. You can then email the sound files around.

-- Everett Griffiths