We’ve gone through the entire AppStore launch list. Find out what iPhone apps you probably haven’t heard of, and why you probably will want them.
10) Sketches
This one is a cult classic of the jailbreaking movement. While it does now cost $7.99, the application has gotten a full rewrite.
Ever miss your etch a sketch. Want to see how bad handwriting would be on the multi-touch display? Then this is the app for you. With multiple colors, drawing boards, email and photo support… you can write on just about anything with Sketches.
9) ICE
ICE, or In Case of Emergency, is quickly becoming commonplace on all phones. Essentially, paramedics are trained to look for the ICE function on a phone, and quickly access the emergency contacts that you would want to know, should something happen that renders you unconscious. Typically, you can work around this by creating a contact named ICE, and listing relevant numbers there.
This app goes quite a few steps farther. It lets you list emergency contacts, vital information, even allergies. For a $.99 app, this one is a no-brainer. Install it, fill it in, and hopefully never need it.
8 ) Moto Racer
Moto Racer is a heavily 3D intensive app for iPhone. Not only does it let you race around in 3D, but it relies on the accelerometer to turn. It’s fast, and the graphics keep up with the pace. For only $9.99, it’s a very well-polished game. A few things such as the inability to pause keep it from the top spots though.
7) Cro-Mag Rally
Pangea ports their classic racing game to the Mac. And, it’s even more fun on iPhone. $9.99 gets you a $30 game for Mac.
6) Yelp
Local searches are nice, but what if you want to know something a little bit more… informative, than just a phone number. Yelp gives you reviews of locations by fellow yelpers. And, with location service integration, you get both the location you’re at, combined with feedback of nearby places. It’s even more useful than local searches inside of Apple Maps.
5) Truphone
Unfortunately, due to AT&T’s restrictions on the AppStore, Truphone’s appearance isn’t as pleasant as we had hoped at first glance. Dreams of VoIP handoffs were dashed quickly. Instead, TruPhone announced that the service only works on Wi-Fi. Basically, you leave the app open, and whenever you get a call, it’s bounced from your cell phone over to a VoIP call on Wi-Fi. Simple, and free.
4) Jott for iPhone
Jott is a great service that we haven’t mentioned on PhoneNews.com before. You call a phone number, and it transcribes whatever you tell it. But, calling a phone number is hard work. With Jott for iPhone, you now just tap and talk. You get a response back with whatever you said… this time in writing.
3) Pangea VR
One of the major gripes with iPhone vs Mac, is that Apple cut out QuickTime VR support from iPhone. And, with no Flash support… that meant that iPhone’s multi-touch display, couldn’t touch panoramic models. Thankfully, Pangea has filled that void, giving you one-touch access to the broad range of panoramas compatible with it’s app. And, it’s free.
2) NetNewsWire
The best RSS reader on Mac gets a full port to iPhone. Like all of NewsGator’s other applications for consumers, it’s free, and it syncs with all of their other clients. So, you can have RSS sync on your Mac, iPhone, and PC, without ever needing a web browser.
1) SEGA Columns Deluxe
The first of what will hopefully be many 16-bit ports to iPhone and iPod touch. While SEGA is giving most of its attention to Super Monkey Ball, this game puts a new twist on an old all-star classic. Columns is the arch nemesis to Tetris, and while it hasn’t fared as well through time, it’s great to see Columns make a day one launch on the AppStore. Now, where is Sonic CD?
I’m sorry, but I have been a Paramedic for 18 years and we have never been trained to look at phone for “ICE”. We never look through a phone of a patient. Police may do this later, but most likely this could be considered an invasion of privacy, and I bet a police office would need to be very careful because if they found anything incriminating could it be used or did they need a warrant.
I actually read an interesting article about ICE in a emergency magazine, and one thing they said is that you should be very careful if you do look for ICE on a phone, as in a terrorist activity it could be a setup. They could have done the first very small explosion to get everyone at the scene, and then one someone looks at the person’s phone and calls the ICE number that number is wired to a bigger device that kills all the rescue workers.
I just want people to make sure they don’t rely on something like this, and if people lock their phones like they should we couldn’t get to this information anyway.
ICE is predominantly used in Europe, where they are trained to look for it. In the United States, it has been quite a bit hit-and-miss… mostly because major manufacturers have yet to adopt it (and the FCC has made no requirement for it). LG has taken the largest lead, and Verizon has integrated it into their standard UI.
The ICE app is useful though for situations where someone may be feeling sick, and want to hand off important information quickly. You are right though, it would be nice to see the app add a feature to quickly disable the passcode lock in an emergency…
… It would be even better if Apple let you have a static note page that could be accessed from the home screen. That page would allow you to list ICE info, in addition to contact info for a lost/stolen iPhone.
In case you haven’t heard: Congress passed the wiretapping bill yesterday. I don’t think they will be needing warrants to search people’s phones anymore (in the U.S. anyway).
Chris, I don’t want to get into the politics of FISA, but it’s much more complicated than that. The government must still get a warrant if the communication is purely domestic, and that includes “pulling” info from a cell phone.
Now, if you’re calling people in the Middle East all day, your calls can be temporarily subjected to warrant-less wiretap, as a part of spying on foreign communication. Any prolonged observation (several days) still requires a FISA warrant.
Please continue discussion on FISA wiretapping in the PhoneNews.com Forums, thanks.
Here ICE is mainly used in cases where the patient for whatever circumstance is unable to communicate. Even then they are required to contact the shift supervisor for approval prior to ICE lookup.
Hi, ICE is mainly for paramedics. If you get sick or fall unconscious it is easy for the medical team to call your family or someone you know. This is a very good idea. If you go outand have a heart attack or something, it would be very stressful for your family to find you. To give you an example, I have a disability and am on medication and my family has knowledge of my condition. If I suddenly lost consciousness or became ill, I would ideally like my family to be contacted so the doctors could be informed as soon as it is practicable for my family to relay information about my health. Now, people on the comments section here are also forgetting that the UK health services encourages an ICE number, and apart from four or five people in the whole country who may have a malicious intent, it is very unlikely that the ICE number will be used for anything more dangerous than waking up a cantankerous parent from their slumber. I can’t believe the ridiculous paranoia of people on this forum. ICE is supposed to help famillies and people who may require emergency medical care. Where the hell does police, surveillance etc come into it? If someone loses their consciousness, why on earth would the paramedics look at random files on their phone? Go figure. ICE does not authorise anyone to look through unrelated files on your phone and if they did, without a VERY good reason, surely that would be an invasion of privacy, and they would cop hell. In any case, if you suddenly fall unconscious after a stroke, and you do have an iPhone in your pocket, it’s likelier someone will steal it than call someone you know. If you have more than one phone, it is best to carry either an insured device or your second best unit, since thieves always lurk in the shadows and won’t hesitate to take something valuable when you are vulnerable.
I’m a paramedic and one thing I have learned is you take what people tell you into account but I have had people tell me they are allergic to water and thats why they only drink soft drinks. ICE is something that no self reflecting paramedic is gonna use. In a cardiac arrest or unconcious i’m still gonna check your blood sugar if your a diabetic or not and kidney patients should always wear your medical braclete or necklace. In a true emergency im not gonna have my life depend on my phone when the paramedic has to go searching for the info when i can just look at a bracelete or necklace. I was a combat medic for 4 years with the army you they fastest and quickest thing is just have the info on your body and easily readable.