Smack Talk 59p 99c

Smack Talk is a fantastically funny app that does one thing, but does it so well!

Essentially it consists of a 5 animated furry animals (a guinea pig, cats and dogs) that animate superbly as they repeat back to you what you say in a pitch changed voice (sounding almost exactly like the chipmunks on TV)

The repetition is almost immediate, and its this that sets of a kind of chain reaction - you say something, it repeats it squeeky voice, you laugh it laughs back squeeky etc.

I've seen this app used very successfully in schools to engage kids in modern foreign languages - its very good at knocking down the barriers of feeling awkward at speaking out loud.

Fortuna Classic 59p (99c)

This is exactly what the iPhone is all about.

We bought my Dad (he's 70 now) for Christmas one of those wooden bagatelle pinboard games - you know the one I mean? old fashioned exactly like my Grandad had when I was a kid (the only toy he had for us to play with when we visited). It was from one of those Past Times stores.

Anyway, after playing with it all over christmas with him, I started to get withdrawal symptoms, and was thinking how well this would work on the iPhone.
Sure enough, after a few quick searches, I found this little gem - Fortuna Classic.

Its a well written and authentic port of the wooden game, with the balls moving realistically and the sounds pretty much like the real game too.

Basically you push the balls into the chute, then sling them up into play, where they find their way hopefully into the pin catches or holes (usually the one worth only 5 points if you're like me) or often just down to the bottom where you lose the ball.

I was wondering about whether this might be better if gravity (ie. tilt) of the phone could have been included - making the play more realistic. Yes maybe it would have made it more tricky to play without resting the phone at the right angle, but it could have had a gravity off setting too.

But all in all, a very good simulation - well worth the 59p or 99c asking price

The iPhone Blog

I just wanted to introduce what this blog is going to be all about.

Essentially, its my own personal voyage through the oceans of iPhone Apps out there.

My goal in life appears to have become to find really cool, innovative new ways of using the iPhone and showing them off to others to increase my popularity amongst my friends. You can't imagine the buzz when you show a bunch of mates how you can scan a barcode, change your voice to sound like a chipmonk, find out if a surface is level, add a silly hat to someone's photo and check to see how much money my shares have lost all on the same device..... and of course I'd never use my iPhone to cheat in a pub quiz!

So, the idea of this page is just to hopefully appear cool to a wider bunch of people than my mates and work colleagues.

So enjoy, feel free to comment, tell me cool I am, and send me ideas for other apps to review (and show my mates!)