Handy apps keep iPhone users happy
At the PT's Pub on Warm Springs Road recently, a brunette in her late 20s ordered a drink.
Three minutes later, bartender Elizabeth Clements served the woman her Russian Quaalude -- but not before making a clandestine consultation underneath the bar.
An iPhone app (application) called Drinks Free revealed the cocktail's contents, which were unknown to Clements: two shots of vodka and one each of Baileys Irish Cream, creme de cacao and Frangelico. Nearly 6,000 similar drink recipes are only a few taps of the forefinger away.
Apps transform a smartphone into a pocket-sized computer capable of functions bordering the boundaries of the imagination. The iPhone isn't the only smartphone offering apps, but it's the only one offering 50,000 of them. (That's 1,000 times the number currently listed in the Palm Pre's online catalog, for instance.)
Some apps are actually changing the way people behave. Nicole Sligar would be lost, quite literally, without the Maps app that comes standard with every iPhone. (Most optional apps, which can be downloaded either through iTunes or a third-party Web site, are either free or cost between $1.99 to $3.99).
Sligar performs what she calls "guerrilla marketing" for her own promotions company, which sounds a lot more exciting than the flier distribution it mostly is. One recent workday required her to leave stacks of tattoo convention ads with 75 tattoo shops across the valley.
"I type an address into Maps and it tells me how to get there from wherever I am," Sligar says. "It helps me out a lot, especially in Green Valley, which I don't know for crap."
Maps is one of hundreds of apps availing themselves of the iPhone's built-in global positioning system. Others indicate the nearest locations for ATMs, Chinese food, pizza, gasoline stations (including their current price per gallon) and garage sales (automatically gleaned from Craigslist ads).
Sligar owned her second-generation iPhone for six months before realizing how Maps functioned.
"I don't know how I ever lived without it," she says.
Some iPhone apps address highly specified needs. Heather Bias activates Helios on a daily basis. She gives it a date and it responds with the precise times of sunrise, sunset and solar noon. It also provides a breakdown of the day's shade patterns.
Bias needs this information because she installs solar panels.
"If I don't have the proper information before I install a system, the customer will still be stuck with a power bill," she says.
But most apps aim at simplifying everyday life. Stay-at-home mom Juliana Goldberg uses iGrocery for her shopping list. She updates it throughout her week, as she discovers things she needs for her family. She maintains separate lists for Costco, Trader Joe's and Ralph's, and the app defaults to whatever she buys the most.
"It makes my day much easier," she says, "and it's always there."
Dr. Vilas Balakrishna regularly uses three iPhone dental apps for his dentistry practice. But his favorite icon to press is iFitness, which he uses while hitting Fitness Source three times a week. The program suggests workout routines organized by muscle group, then explains how to perform each exercise. It even tracks calories burned.
"It wraps everything into one nice little neat package to peruse," says Balakrishna, who credits the app with helping him shed 10 pounds since March.
"It's made a significant difference," Balakrishna says.
And at $1.99, it was a lot cheaper than a personal trainer.
Apps for his iPhone are more toys than life-changers for Steve Eich. But toys are pretty important to this southwest Las Vegas resident, who retired to a life of luxury after selling a DSL company several years ago.
Intelliremote, Eich's favorite toy, squeezes his entire home computer screen onto his iPhone, allowing him to execute any command remotely. He's particularly fond of using it to cool his house and warm his hot tub (via an X10 appliance control system) before he arrives home.
"When you pick up a girl at a club at 3 a.m.," Eich says, "you want the hot tub to be hot."
Contact reporter Corey Levitan at clevitan@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0456.
THERE'S REALLY AN APP FOR THAT?
Out of 50,000 apps, there have to be a few strange ones, such as:
Lady Biz ($14.99): Lets women record information relating to their monthly visitor.
Offender Locator (free): Locates the nearest reported sexual offenders to your location, displaying their photo and vitals.
Drunk Dialer (99 cents): Prevents embarrassing phone calls to ex-lovers by requiring that you hold your iPhone still.
iVoodoo ($2.99): Lets you place a photo of your least-favorite person in the head of a doll you stick pins in.
Beer (99 cents): Turns your iPhone into a pint of brewsky that tilts as you pretend-imbibe.
Annoyance (99 cents): Features 12 of life's most cloying sounds -- including a baby crying, a jackhammer and slurping -- for the benefit of co-workers you wish would quit.
Sonar Ruler (99 cents): Using the echo from clicking sounds, this app measures the distance, to within an inch, of an object less than 60 feet away.
Magic Tap (99 cents): The perfect way out of a conversation that wasn't your idea, this app sets your iPhone up to ring and announce a call coming from one of your contacts. Only you know the call is fake.
Virtual Zippo Lighter (free): They can ban your real lighter from rock concerts, but not your fake one. Let 'em see how much you appreciate "Freebird."
