Ah the smartphone. What would you do without yours? Before my Blackberry came along I didn’t know why anyone would need anything other than a basic arithmetic calculator to help you add up your shopping and Snake II to keep you entertained on the bus.
I rocked an old Nokia 1100 with no battery cover which meant I had to sellotape the battery to the phone. What’s more there was no camera and consequently no flashlight app! Oh no, my best pal had a torch. Useful when you drop your sweets down the side of your chair in the cinema, not so useful for practical, everyday life purposes.
Image by Metaphox
Unfortunately smartphone dependency comes with a price. iPhones have had a world of ridiculously useful applications since January 2007, when the first handset was unveiled by Steve Jobs. There are many incredible apps designed to make the user’s life a little simpler. But, of course, there has also been some unfathomably stupid, useless applications.
We thought we’d run through some of our favourites of each. So, ladies and gents, brace yourselves for a few of the best… and worst iPhone apps ever.
The Good Guys
The RedLaser 2.2 Barcode Scanner
This app enables you to take a picture of any barcode on any item and in seconds, it comes up with a list of possible stockists and a price comparison. Goodbye high street pushing and shoving… it was nice knowing you!
DrunkDial
DrunkDial can stop last night’s text blunders from creeping into your thoughts whilst trying to hold yourself together the next day. Before making a call, you must answer a three stage math problem (unless it’s an emergency call of course). Unfortunately it only works on the premise that you are too drunk to answer math problems and let’s face, we all have an incredible, elephant- like memory for our ex’s phone number/that old credit card PIN when we’ve had a few sherries, so the jury’s out on this one.
The Not-So-Good Guys
The Alarm Free
Supposedly alerts local authorities by sending off quiet bleeping signals if you feel under threat. Now at the height of your fear and suspicion that a mugger may be following you on the way home, all your have to do is launch the app and wait for assistance. That is provided your GPS works, even in areas with no signal… and of course that the criminal doesn’t indeed make off with your iPhone. Clever.
iNap@work
Image by Yeray Herandez
Didn’t get enough sleep last night? There an app for that. This application makes ‘hard at work’ noises like paper rustling or the tapping of computer keys whilst you nap. This only works however if your boss is blind and/or totally stupid. But otherwise it’s a stroke of new age genius.
The Genius App?
On the other hand if you find yourself wandering around the office like a zombie because you don’t sleep well; this one could be for you…
The Sleep Cycle Application.
All you have to do is set your alarm for the time you want to get up, and it will wake you in the half hour period before this time, whenever your body is most naturally ready to wake up.
“But how does it work?”, I hear you cry. It works by recording how much REM sleep, or rapid eye movement sleep, you get each night i.e. how long you spend in a deep sleep. You place your iPhone underneath your sheet and, by monitoring how much you move around in the night, in the morning it can tell you how much sleep you’re getting and the quality of sleep you’ve had. It has been reported that the app itself can help diagnose sleep problems and why they occur.
So there you have it. Some of the best and worse apps around. But whats your favourite app? Don’t forget to leave us your comments below!
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March 2, 2012
Tech & Gadgets