Gadgets and Apps

Here is a fun gadget for photographers out there. There are all sorts of little tripods you can buy, but they all take up space. This bottle cap tripod deserves a high five. Innovative, small and I love people who think outside the box, or on the water bottle as the case may be.

Click here for the link to the Bottle Cap Tri-Pod

Now for Apps. What is an App? Well it is short for Application that you can put on your iphone. They are purchased through itunes or many times are free, just waiting to be downloaded. Alot of new iphones out there for Christmas, and I have had several people ask for what apps I have on my phone. There are hundreds, maybe thousands to choose from, so maybe this will shed some light on some apps I love.

First of all before I ever buy an app I look at the user reviews. There are not alot of stringent rules about how well the apps work before they are allowed to be downloaded to itunes. So I want to know what others think about it before I put something on my phone that might make it shut down or run slow.

I also talk to other people about their apps. I have found some great apps through my friends.

I will just list what I have on my phone in alpha order. $ means I paid for it, any where from .99c to 4.99, most are in the .99 cent range.

Ambiance - this app is full of white noise, rivers, oceans, birds, fans, some strange choices that seem to be a bit too obnoxious to listen to, but I have used this while waiting in busy places and trying to read a book. It lets me not hear everything going on around me. $

Bible-ASV Love my bible app. Easy to use. There are hundreds of apps to choose. $ but there are free versions also.

CameraBag - Haven't used this one yet, but it comes with great raves. Takes the pictures you take with your iphone and gives them different looks. $

Crazy Penguin Catapult - Haven't used this yet. This was a free app and I thought I would give it a try. I like to have games on my phone for my kids to play.

Facebook - Use this everyday. It is a mini-feed of the basics, makes it easy to check on your friends. Free

IDoodle2 - Art App. Sophie LOVES this app. She has used it for hours when we are in the car or waiting in a restaurant.

If Found - Hope I don't ever need this app, but it has all my info at the press of a button. I keep it on the front home page so if I lose my phone someone could push the button and know how to locate me. Free

Ocarina - Music App. Love this one. My kids love it. It is a crowd pleaser. Turns your phone into a musical instrument. Think recorder, it is fun to play around with. My favorite part of the app is that by touching the world button I can see lit up dots all over the world of people using the Ocarina app, and even listen to something playing live, could be from China or Australia or anywhere, very fun. I can't play any songs on it, but I love to hear others from somewhere else play, Amazing Grace and Somewhere Over the Rainbow are two songs I hear often. $

Old Camera - This turns the pics I take with my iphone into a black and white image with a vignette around it. I love this app, don't know if it will be similar to one of the options on camera bag or not. $

Pandora Radio - Love this app. This radio app allows me to type in the name of an artist, or a song and then it builds my own personal radio station based on that original artist or song. Plays music in the same genre, if a song comes up I don't like I just push the "don't like this song button" and Pandora tells me it will never play that song again and immediately moves to the next selection.

Pano - Another Camera App. This app allows you to piece together several images taken by your phone to make a panoramic picture. Very cool. $

Say Who Dialer and Maps - Allows for me to speak into my phone and it will dial whoever I say. i.e. Elaine at work and then the phone will dial it. I can also speak the map location I am wanting and it will pull it up for me. Haven't used the 2nd feature yet. This app requires no phone set up, just download and it works. $

Scrabble - Hours of fun while waiting for the movie to start. We all love this app. $

Shazam - Have you ever heard a song and you wanted to know who sings it. Just hold your phone up to the music after asking Shazam to tag it for you and it listens, transmits, and sends you back the title, artist, album, year made....this works almost all the time. Some songs I have tried were not in their data base I guess. They were Christmas songs though. Free

Sonic Lighter - Fun again for the kids and sometimes us adults. This turns your phone into a lighter. You can blow and make the flame waver, touch the pretend flame with your finger and move it around. I do have to say that this app came in very handy when we were without candles last week for a birthday party. The birthday girl got to blow out the flame on my phone and it was a success. This app too will show you all over the world who is using sonic lighter. $

Twittelator - Use this all the time. It is the app for Twitter, the mini-blogging website. It is a "prettier" screen than using twitter, and more streamlined on your phone.

Ultimate Voice Recorder - This app is very cool. It allows your phone to become a recording device. Will go as long as you have memory on your phone. You can then transfer the files as mp3's to your home computer. It has all the buttons like a tape recorder, stop, pause, ff, rewind...$

So there you have it. My apps.