Hottrix

Posted 01/25/2011 at 12:05pm | by The Mac|Life Staff When you’re done playing around with the iPhone’s many great games, consider goofing around with some of these quirky and often silly conversation-starting apps. Whether you’re using the iPhone to modify your voice or photos, or to simply trigger visual or audio gags, these options will keep you and your friends entertained. Big fans of long-running BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who will get a kick out of this free promotional app, which lets you record voice clips and play them back with the familiar robotic tone of the villainous Dalek alien race. Not only will your messages sound considerably more ridiculous with this voice synthesizer, but it’s likely the only place you’ll ever hear the Daleks say silly phrases like, “I’d love a thousand tacos!” It’s a win-win, and even if you’re not a Who junkie, it’s a fun app to keep handy for a quick laugh. From the makers of the shockingly popular FatBooth comes AgingBooth, which lets you take a photo (or use an existing one) and have it be automatically transformed with the horrifying visual signs of aging. With the tap of the screen, your perfect skin and youthful features are cartoonishly replaced with thick wrinkles, discolored skin, and numerous blemishes. It’s great fun among friends -- assuming nobody is terribly thin-skinned or ageist -- but sadly, it doesn’t offer the reverse feature of removing any existing facial flaws. Between its vibrant screen and tilt sensors, the iPhone is perfect for sight gag apps like iBeer, which simply displays one of several beverages -- including beer, mouthwash, milk, and soda -- and lets you tilt the phone to give the impression of drinking the liquid. For such a simple app, iBeer actually offers a lot of different options, including visual and sound effects, as well as the ability to connect to the iBeer Keg app on iPad over Wi-Fi and create the sensation of pouring liquid from one device to the next. You’ve paid untold amounts of money to see some much-anticipated film, and when nature calls, you don’t want to bolt from your seat for fear of missing a crucial plot point. What to do? Consult RunPee, a helpful app that lists multiple cues for most new releases so you know the best time to hit the bathroom without ruining the rest of the film. Each tip offers Read More

by Ales, stouts, porters, pilsners… so many beers, too little time. To help you navigate this vast and varied world of beer, you can always turn to your iPhone. There are plenty of beer apps available on iTunes — everything from beer games to reference guides — even apps that attempt to measure your levels of drunkenness. iPhone wielding beer enthusiasts can rejoice over the following apps to satisfy your malty, hoppy and lager-induced desires.  After all, there’s nothing like cracking open a frosty brew at the end of a long day –- or simulating it. 1 of 10 iBeer is one of those fun apps that doesn’t really do anything but entertain. It simulates a pint of beer that you can jostle and drink. With five different beers to choose from, the visual of tipping the glass (iPhone) back and seeing the liquid disappear is strikingly real. The loud burp at the end is an added bonus. No beer-related apps list would be complete without this popular one. Cost: $0.99 1 This app is a fantastic resource for a beer novice or one who wants to learn more about different brews. Divided into 12 categories, including brown ales, stouts and porters, and IPAs, Gallagher’s Beer Guide provides you with information on taste characteristics, popular choices within each category, and related styles. Cost: $0.99 2 There’s something unmistakably refreshing about a nice, cold Guinness. The dark, chocolaty and rich beer has its devout following, enough to spawn an iPhone app dedicated to finding exactly where this draught is served. Another fun feature of this app is its “Six Steps to Creating the Perfect Pint” lesson. Note: Unfortunately, residents in AK, AZ, GA, HI, IN, KT, MO, OH, PA, TX and WV will find that this app does not work due to specific state laws related to alcohol advertising. Cost: U.S. version is FREE 3 With more than 2,700 varieties listed in this app, iBeers Pro is like a who’s who of beer. Each beer lists the country of origin, brewer, type of beer and bottle size, as well as user ratings and an ability to add it to your favorites list. This is a good app to have for adventurous beer drinkers who like to go beyond the brews they’re familiar with. This app also comes in a Lite version for $1.99 and the regular iBeers version for $2.99. Cost: $3.99 Read More

We recently wrote an article called “14 Useful iPhone Applications for Women” which described some iPhone apps that a writer and iPhone user thought would be useful for women. However, many commenters (probably in an attempt at humor) responded that this article was sexist. Apparently, choosing applications that target women more than men is sexist. Perhaps it’s not clear, but men and women  different. So while not all of the applications are useful for woman, those apps are targetted mainly towards women. (Sure men can use them too, but statistically, women are the primary users of those 14 apps.) That being said, we figured we should make a list of extremely sexist and stereotypic apps for men, to really show what sexist is. Read on for 20 apps with screenshots and descriptions.  1. iFitness by Medical Productions Category: Healthcare & Fitness Price: $1.99 App Store Link 2. PickUp Lines by Ronald Bell Category: Entertainment Price: $0.99 3. Bump by Bump Technologies LLC Category: Social Networking  Price: Free App Store Link 4. FanFinder by SportsFanLive.com Category: Sports Price: Free App Store Link 5. Trapster by Trapster.com Category: Travel Price: Free App Store Link 6. Occasions (Birthdays, Anniversaries, Push Notifications, and more!) by Hand Carved Code, LLC Category: Lifestyle Price: $0.99 App Store Link 7. Bikini Blast by Smartphone Technologies, Inc. Category: Lifestyle Price: $0.99 Do I even need to say anything?  8. iStrip by Sheryl Apps Category: Lifestyle Price: $0.99 9. How To Videos From Howcast.com by Howcast Category: Lifestyle Price: Free Since all men do things themselves and never ever ask a more knowledgable person for help, How To Videos is a must have app for every man. In the extremely rare case that you don’t know how to do something, simply say you’re going to go to the bathroom, grab your iPhone, and secretly open How To Videos from Howcast.com (don’t forget your headphones.) When you come out, you’ll be fully informed and your reputation for knowing everything (a.k.a being male) will hold. 10. iBeer by Hottrix Category: Entertainment Price: $0.99 Occasionally something may happen that can make you seem less than manly. Perhaps your friends walked in on you listening to Sting with a candle on. Right before they start laughing and sharing the news, simply pull out your iPhone and open iBeer. Start drinking. Your credibility will be redeemed instantly. 11. iHandgun by Kaoru  Category: Entertainment Price: Free Men love Read More

When do you need a beer opener? When you are holding a chilled beer in your hand and are in the mood to empty down the content to your parched throat right. Now that’s absolutely normal and logical. The actual question I intended to ask is, why would you need a beer opener in your iPhone? Don’t ask me I am clueless, but I can give you some suggestions though. Lets see the Beer Opener application first. The moment you open the app, you’ll see a cool looking beer opener. Tap on any part of the opener, the cap of a drink is displayed waiting to be pop opened. Lift your device forward and the invisible bottle opens with a splash, a real vibration. Well, when and how can you use this virtual beer opener? When you are in the mood to drink beer and are not in the right place, open this application and try to quench your thirst.  Use this application to lure your friends to a beer party. Open this app as a sign of invitation. Actions could be more effective than words.  If you are planning to quit drinking and don’t know where to start, load iBeer and Beer Opener on your iPhone to replace real beer and opener with these virtual imaginary pieces. The extreme suggestion is place a real opener beneath your iPhone and flip open a real bottle making it look like you opened the bottle with your iPhone. This one would need special skills though.  These are some of the special ways you might want to use Beer Opener. If you have better ideas, as usual you are most welcome to suggest in the comments section.  Retailed at $0.99, I am not sure whether to recommend this application. I am leaving you alone to decide again like the way I often did. Read More

You can already pretend to drink a virtual beer on your iPhone thanks to applications like iBeer, but now you can pretend to open a virtual beer thanks to developer tweeller‘s new application, Beer Opener. The App Store is filled to the brim with novelty applications that serve little purpose, but if there wasn’t a market for them, they wouldn’t exist.  If you are one of those people who just can’t get enough of these applications, and if you love to open bottles but don’t want to consume what’s inside of them, Beer Opener is the application for you. Open up Beer Opener on your iPhone or iPod touch, hold it over a real or virtual bottle and place your finger on the opener where the cap is supposed to be.  You can then tilt your device as if you were opening a bottle and let go of the cap by lifting your finger.  The application reacts to the tilting of your device, and the sounds of a bottle opening and a cap falling to the floor are fairly realistic. Beer Opener is available at the App Store for $.99.  Use Beer Opener at a party once to see what kind of reaction you can get from your observers.  Just beware, not everyone has a sense of humor. Read More

“[...] The work of this iPhone controlled R2-D2 robot is still progress though it can be fully controlled with a standard remote as of now. But, the creator is working on making it 100% controllable using the iPhone’s interface. For now, only the servo and the dome motor can be controlled using iPhone’s accelerometer and slider control on the touch screen of iPhone.” Gesammelte Links: Dvice stellt 10 Kleinkinder-kompatible iPhone-Applikationen vor. Inspiredology listet und verlinkt 27 Webseiten deren Layouts und Navigationselemente schön an die Abmessungen des iPhone-Displays angepasst sind. Warnung bei Überhitzung: The iPhoneblog hat den Screenshot zugeschickt bekommen. Leser Jeff, der das Bild auf Flickr veröffentlicht hat schreibt: “Don’t sit next to a pool in Scottsdale Arizona when it’s 104 degrees or your iphone will melt away! So how to fix it fast? I put the iPhone between 2 cold beers and it worked!” Apple selbst erwähnt den “Temperature warning screen” in diesem Online-Hilfe Dokument. Durch den Po fotografiert: Ze Frank gibt Tipps zur iPhone-Fotografie und erfindet dabei das iFingrU-Feature. Read More

Mit dem neuesten Electronic Arts-Game Star Trek (2,39 Euro) wird man zum Kommandant der USS Enterprise. Die Handlung des Spiels ist an den Star Trek-Spielfilm angelehnt, mit von der Partie im Kampf gegen lästige Bewohner fremder Welten sind neben Captain Kirk und Spock auch Chekhov, Sulu, Scotty und Uhura. Für musikalische Untermalung sorgt der Original-Soundtrack der Serie. Read More

Apple hat über Nacht eine neue Testversion des iPhone OS 3.0 veröffentlicht. Die Beta 5 steht für eingetragene Entwickler zusammen mit einer neuen Version des iPhone SDK sowie einer leicht aktualisierten Vorabversion von iTunes 8.2 zum Download bereit. Die vorgenommenen Änderungen werden wir im Laufe des Tages zusammentragen und veröffentlichen. Read More

Filemaker bringt die vom Mac bekannte Datenbankanwendung Bento auf das iPhone (-> App Store-Link). Die Software kann entweder als Einzelanwendung genutzt werden oder – falls vorhanden – auch mit Bento 2 auf dem Mac synchronisiert werden. Im Lieferumfang befinden sich 25 gebrauchsfertige Vorlagen und beim Erstellen einer Datenbank stehen 17 verschiedene Feldtypen zur Verfügung. Zudem besteht die Möglichkeit, Daten aus dem Adressbuch, aus Mail, Safari und Google Maps zu verknüpfen oder Anfrufe auszulösen. iCal wird dagegen noch nicht unterstützt. Unter den vorbereiteten Feldtypen findet man allerdings keine Berechnungsfelder, diese können auch nicht auf dem iPhone erstellt werden. Dafür braucht es die Mac-Version, dort erstellt können solche Felder auf das iPhone/den iPod touch übertragen werden. Die Synchronisierung zwischen der Mac- und der Mobilversion von Bento funktioniert im lokalen Wi-Fi-Netz drahtlos. Das Programm ist vorerst nur in einer englischen Version zum Preis von 3,99 Euro im App Store verfügbar. Wer Datenbanken mit dem Mac synchronisieren will, benötigt zusätzlich noch die 39 Euro-Software Bento 2 auf dem Mac – dieses Duo macht auf den ersten Blick einen sehr netten und flexiblen Eindruck. Ebenfalls neu und interessant für Filmaker Server-Kunden (999 Euro): Der PHP Site Assistant verfügt in der neuesten Version über die neue Vorlage “iPhone”. Damit lassen sich im Handumdrehen für den Zugriff mit dem iPhone oder iPod touch optimerte Onlineversionen der gehosteten Datenbanken erstellen. Read More

Apple was expected to serve up their 1 Billionth (with a capital B) App Store download today, and lo and behold, Apple has announced that they’ve officially seen 1 billion iPhone/iPod Touch applications downloaded from their iTunes App Store! In less than a full year of existence, Apple and the iPhone have managed to make mobile applications as commonplace as an iTunes music purchase, and the App Store’s popularity continues to grow. The total tally of iPhone applications in the iPhone AppStore was estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000 in March 2009. And, with thousands more iPhone applications hitting the AppStore on a monthly basis, Apple’s success with their integrated mobile application delivery model will likely continue. No wonder everyone and their grandmother are trying to launch mobile application stores of their own. For the record, it took Apple six whole months to reach the 500-million milestone. From that point on, Apple needed just three additional months to hit the landmark 1 Billion download goal! One estimate has 75% of the 1 billion downloaded apps being of the free-of-charge variety. That means just 1 of every 4 downloads put money in an iPhone developer’s (and Apple’s) pocket. But, that still accounts for 250 million payments going through the App Store! Curious as to what the all-time most downloaded free and premium apps are? Here you go: (after the break) All-Time most downloaded FREE apps: All-Time most downlaoded Premium apps: Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see... Read More