John Myles White: Die Sudelbücher

Here are some more reviews of iPhone apps I’ve had a chance to use. This completes the list of apps I’ve downloaded so far, but I’m sure I’ll try more over the next two weeks before I leave for Europe for the rest of the summer.

1. Facebook: A very slick interface to Facebook. Worth using if you have a Facebook account.
2. Myspace: Also a slick interface. Similarly worth installing for Myspace users.
3. Jott: This is a really great interface to Jott, a web service I’ve been using for several months now. I consistently encouraging others to try Jott, and I think that this app should convince many more people to use Jott for a while. It’s actually much more intuitive than the Jott website itself, even when viewing the Jott website on a full screen like my iMac’s. I would suggest that any one who needs to take notes while they’re walking down the street or driving should install this app as soon as possible.
4. Where: I haven’t had much time to use this, and it seems that some of the features, notably the Starbucks location finder, don’t work because the server can’t be reached. When I start driving and using the gas station finder I’ll give an update on my opinion of this app.
5. Whrrl: Another app whose real use I think is still somewhat in the future for me. So far I don’t have any active friends who I can locate using Whrrl, so it’s a bit boring. Also, there are simply way too many places displayed at once on the map even when you select only restaurants for viewing. Somehow the list of places to show needs to be made a lot smaller (and more tailored to my taste) before the app will be really helpful to me. I am interested to see where this goes with time.
6. NettersNeuro: This application is a set of touchscreen enabled flashcards for students of neuroanatomy. It’s great if you ever find yourself wanting to review the basal ganglia on the subway. So great, in fact, that it’s worth the $40 bucks it costs.
7. Blip Solitaire: Playing Pong against yourself really isn’t very fun. This is a small step above phonesaber in the novelty category.
8. Bubble: Another novelty app. All you can do is draw and pop bubbles on your screen. Nice looking, but boring after about five seconds.
9. Epocrates Rx: A great interface to a brilliant service for anyone who deals with prescription drugs regularly. I have no idea how much is lost using this free version over a premium edition, but I find it contains enough information for my needs.
10. Aurora Feint: One of the best, if not, the best free iPhone game I’ve played so far. Very nice graphics; interesting, if not yet great, gameplay. I would probably get rid of the superfluous RPG elements if I were redoing this app, though. They don’t seem to add anything ,and they definitely end up taking away time I’d rather spend mastering my accelerometer skills.
11. Cube Runner: Surprisingly fun for such a simple game. Basically this is a very simplified version of Super Monkey Ball, that’s free and has straight up polygon graphics. It’s still fun, though. Worth trying since it’s free. Probably the smoothest accelerometer use I’ve seen in any of the free apps.
12. zintin: I probably shouldn’t comment on zintin since I’ve already deleted it. It seemed to be a conglomeration of ideas handled better by separate apps: a Twitter style “wall”, some location finding, and map use á la Whrrl or Where. Maybe others will enjoy it, but I personally don’t see it as worth having.

Here are some very brief reviews of the iPhone 2.0 apps I’ve downloaded and used since getting the leaked firmware last night:

1. Advent: As terrible as Adventure ever has been. Truly a monument to incompetent game design. Also one of the greatest pieces of evidence in human history that constraints on your possible choices at any given moment make life more interesting rather than less interesting. In fairness, though, everything wrong with this game was wrong with it for the last quarter of a century: there is no new awfulness that should be blamed on the porters.
2. AIM: Very usable, but I have not yet had a chance to leave myself logged in while I walk away from the phone to see how (or even if) it handles incoming messages when running in the background.
3. LifeGame: Every programmable system needs a version of Conway’s Game of Life. This implementation is quite good, but has one serious flaw: the dots are so small that you cannot systematically control their placement using the touchscreen. There should probably be an option to zoom in on the screen while adding dots so that you can get fine-grained placement. Otherwise, this app deserves a lot of praise.
4. Phonesaber: Fun, but like everything using the accelerometer, it is difficult to control at first. I, for one, tend to be surprised when the placement of the phone doesn’t translate into meaningful acceleration and therefore produces no sound. It’s just a novelty item, though, so I can’t complain.
5. Remote: Absolutely brilliant. A wonderful interface for controlling iTunes, which is particularly great if, like me, you’ve set up iTunes to use remote speakers through an Airport Express.
6. SuperMonkeyBall: A great game, but very difficult to get used to because the controls are purely implemented using the accelerometer. There are very impressive graphics, and the game as a whole is a true testament to the sophistication of the iPhone 2.0 firmware as a platform for applications.
7. TapTheBeat: Minimally functional, intolerably ugly graphics and accompanied by a naïvely audacious advert wondering if people would be willing to pay for an upgraded version. Unimpressive, though still somewhat useful. A real beat calculator program should include a metronome that clicks out the tempo you’ve just input and absolutely needs to be less brutal on the eyes.
8. Trism: A game as brilliantly thought out as the original Tetris. It makes truly inventive and intelligent use of the accelerometer and is amazingly addictive. I can see this setting the standard for accelerometer use in games.
9. Twitterific Incredibly useful and well-designed. Probably the best example I’ve used (relative to the Facebook and Myspace apps) of a web service turned into an application.