iSmashPhone - Turn your Phone into your MyPhone

Today's Notable iPhone Apps - Wenesday July 15th Edition

2009-07-15T18:59:26-04:00

Today's iPhone app reviews are all about keeping you on top of your game. With Mirror Free, you'll be able to look your best (or just trick people into looking stupid by really expecting a mirror.) With Hearing Age, you'll be able to make sure you're not getting too old (and if you are, then atleast you'll know it's time to start lying about your age.) Thomson Reuters will make sure you're up to date with today's news, and Wine Enthusiast Guide will help you choose, evaluate, manage, and enjoy wine.

Mirror Free

by Inner Four, Inc.

Category: Entertainment

Price: Free

App Store Link

Yes, this app is a joke. But atleast the developers are up front about it. It's actually kind of funny (especially since there are 28,000 one star reviews.) The app simply puts a frame around a black screen, so that you can see your reflection in the glass. It doesn't take a genius to realize you don't need an app to see your reflection, but it's a funny app to show your friends..."Check it out guys, my phone can turn into a mirror."

Hearing Age

by Dworld Services

Category: Utilities

Price: $0.99

App Store Link

Hearing Age is a fantastic little app that produces a sound from 8,000 to 20,000 Hz. As you know, our bodies change with age, including our ears. Turns out you can hear different frequency ranges depending on age, and also depending on how good your hearing is. With this iPhone app, you and your friends will be able to test who has the best hearing. Believe it or not, it's a lot of fun.

Thomson Reuters News Pro

by Thomson Reuters

Category: News

Price: Free

App Store Link

Reuters is an infamous source for intelligent information for businesses and professionals. Their iPhone app is excellently crafted and works like a charm. The app offers both on and offline access to breaking news, pictures, video, financial data, corporate information, and financial charting. It's got everything you'd want from a well made news app.

Wine Enthusiast Guide

by MobileAge

Category: Lifestyle

Price: $4.99

App Store Link

Wine Enthusiast Guide is a great application for wine lovers. It helps you choose, evaluate, manage, and enjoy wine. With over 71,000 expert reviews written by the team at Wine Enthusiast Magazine, you can rely on this app to help you select a bottle of wine. It features bottles from over 113 regions from the past 17 years. If you're into wine, or if you're into impressing people who are into wine, then it's worth the 5 bucks.

A Visual Look At 1.5 Billion iPhone Apps

2009-07-15T16:18:13-04:00

Apple has officially sold 1.5 billion iPhone and iPod Touch applications through their iTunes App Store. That's right, billion, not million. The App Store has also just celebrated its one year anniversary. That means that the iPhone has led to 1.5 billion applications being sold in just one year. These numbers are unimaginably high. That's why we decided to help you visualize them.

Could you imagine if XBOX, Playstation, or Nintendo had 1.5 billion games sold annually? I bet the CEOs sure would like to. Since iPhone apps don't have a "physical form", we figured to draw a parallel to Nintendo games from the '90s, which came in cartridges.

So, what do you think 1.5 billion Nintendo cartridges would look like?

We did the math.

Let's say we take a standard size Nintendo cartridge. Since we were aiming toward precision here, we decided to use the gold standard of Nintendo cartridges: a literally golden cartridge from VideoGamePriceCharts (same size as regular.)

The cartridges specs (assume it is a rectangle without the empty bottom corners):

4.6874 inches wide
5.25 inches long
0.625 inches thick
3.5 ounces

So now let's say we rack them up on pallets. For those of you who don't know, here is a standard American pallet. It measures 40 by 48 inches.

If we lay the cartridges out 1 layer thick, exactly 72 cartridges fit. But in order to really get a good visual feel for the vastness of 1.5 billion Nintendo cartridges, let's pile them up to the usual height of a loaded pallet - about half of an average man's height. Since an average man is about 5 feet and 10 inches (70 inches), we will be stacking the cartridges 35 inches high.

That means we can fit a total of 4,032 Nintendo cartridges onto one pallet.

So, just how many of these pallets will we need to hold 1.5 billion Nintendo cartridges when stacked 35" tall?

372,023 pallets

Let's see what that means:

Volume: 409,597,323 Liters
Area: 4,959,066 Square Feet
Weight: 328,124,286 Pounds

These numbers are huge. Now I realize that these large numbers are no easier to visualize than 1.5 billion Nintendo cartridges (let alone 1.5 billion iPhone apps which lack any physical form to begin with.)

So let's make some comparisons:

One and a half billion Nintendo cartridges is the same:

In volume as...

164 Olympic sized pools

In area as...

86 Football Fields

or 11.4 Square City Blocks (based on average sized American inner city block)

In weight as...

32,812 Elephants

or almost 1/2 of the Empire State Building

So, what's our whole point here? First of all, it's just fun visualizing huge things and comparing them to other things...it's one of our favorite pastimes here at iSmashPhone. You have no idea how many lunch breaks have been spent calculating things like the size of the sun in ants, or the size of the Milky Way galaxy in fun size Milky Way candy bars. Second of all, and more importantly, the success of the App Store is incredible! One and a half billion apps in just one year is an extraordanarily large numer. The iPhone truly did revolutionize technology.

How To Change The Color Scheme Of Your iPhone 3GS

2009-07-15T13:39:12-04:00

Turns out there's another hidden little features in the new iPhone 3GS called the "White on Black" - and that's exactly what it does. It completely inverts the color scheme of your iPhone. The background on the home screen will be white, and the text will be black (as opposed to the typical white text on black background.) Furthermore, all of your native apps will have an inverted color scheme. Maps, instead of being beige and brown/green/yellow, becomes dark and blue. The feature also inverts the color scheme of photos. Even App Store apps will have their colors inverted.

This feature is made for people with vision problems, because for a person with good vision it's not a functional way to use your phone. Every color is inverted. If you've got bad eyes, or have trouble seeing things on the iPhone with the normal color scheme, then remember that this feature exists.

Also, it's a great way to play a trick on your friend. Especially if he's one of those that thinks he knows everything about his new iPhone 3GS.

When you take a screenshot it reverts back to "normal" in the photo automatically, which makes sense...screenshots are mostly for sharing purposes, so Apple realizes that most people don't wanna stare at an inverted color scheme.

How to do it:

1. Go to Settings

2. Go to General

3. Go to Accessibility

4. Turn on White on Black

That's all there is to it. Enjoy!

Driver-Generated Live Maps for Android: Waze Review

2009-07-15T09:45:56-04:00

Waze is not your average navigation application. Nor is it merely a mobile 'radar detector' of sorts. It combines the technology of GPS and a mobile community to enable you to get to your destination with the least amount of obstacles standing in the way. See full review after the fold.

Features

Navigation - Get directions to your destination, or just browse the local map.
Events Monitor - Receive up to the minute information on local traffic load, accidents, speed traps, traffic cameras, hazards, and available parking.
Ability to report events, including upload pictures and commentary

Live input of data into system due to user interaction and the ability to track an unusual/unexpected slow down in traffic.
The driver generates real time data, which is then added to the application (while retaining the user's anonymity.
The application can learn routes and have alternate routes show up as on option when traffic hits.
Teach Waze - When requesting directions from point a to point b, you will have the option to go with a default route or to 'teach waze' an alternative way of getting to your destination.
Ability to report map errors
Chitchat - Update your status, including a blurb, mood, direction, and optional picture.

Interface

Me on map - Focus the map to pinpoint your current location.
Search - Input your destination and either save it or get directions.
Events - Get live info on police, traffic, accidents, and more.
Report - Police, traffic load, accident, hazard, speed cam, chit chat, and available parking.
Navigate - View the cardinal direction and zoom in/out, or just save a pinpointed location.
Update map - You, the user, have the ability to update the map, including record new roads, update house number, or report a map problem.

Location

Already fully up and running in Israel. In a public alpha mode in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Coming soon to Chicago and Boston.

Platform

The Waze app is supported on Android and Windows Mobile phones. Compatibility with the iPhone, Symbian, and J2ME is in the works and is said to be coming out soon.

Cost: Free

Suggested Improvements

Consider a public transportation feature (especially for San Francisco, where many people use public transit to get around)
Slightly larger selection fields to accommodate all users and eliminate potential misclicks on functions

Conclusion

So, does it actually do what it says it can? Absolutely. But, since it's still in alpha mode, there are a few areas that could be smoothed down. That is what makes the ability for users to update and build on the map themselves so great - a map made for drivers by drivers.

guest writer credit A. Ross

Check out our older post about Waze