iAppLover

The iPhone is quickly becoming more than just newtech – it’s making the move to try to become a miniature desktop computer, one that can play music, edit pictures and documents and even play games, some of which are fairly complex. Photogene is one of those iPhone apps that can bring photo editing on the road with you. Every now and then, you just want to touch something up before you send it to someone and Photogene can let you do that.

This is one of the few instances wherein being overwhelmed is a good thing as when you open the program a massive variety of options leaps out from the screen. You’ll find yourself facing immense freedom when it comes to manipulating your image. Customization is amazing – it’s actually difficult to describe it here, as the sheer volume is best experience rather than spoken of. If you’ve seen it in Adobe Photoshop, chances are you’ll actually see it in Photogene.

Color adjustment through manipulation of saturation, temperature and the like is available, as well as photo cropping a picture. You could even apply various effects onto your picture, such as neat designs, shapes and even frames to make sure that you can present your picture the way you want to. Of course, while they are tons of options available, it still does not compare to a full fledged photo editing program, but it does a fantastic job nonetheless.

Despite the overwhelming amount of options available, the controls are intuitive and very smooth – it works exactly the way most people would expect it to. It also has the neat functionality of redo and undo in case you want to check a before and after look. It is surprisingly cheap, clocking in at $2.99 and bringing with it a ton of functionality and lots of options. If you want mobile editing, Photogene is the program you’re looking for. It is an excellent app for the iPhone and one that photo editing enthusiasts should not miss out on.

Twitter’s one of the most famous and most used things on the internet today and it only makes sense to bring it with you on the road. Tweetie is a useful app, a Twitter client that gives you a clean and slick interface to check out Twitter with through your iPhone. Whatever you’re looking for in a Twitter client, it’s probably on this iPhone App.

Of course, you’ll need to have a Twitter account to use Tweetie on your iPhone as it’s the very first thing it asks for when you turn it on. Interestingly, the app allows multiple accounts which gives it a step up in terms of usability as opposed to other Twitter clients. After logging in, Tweetie gives you four main buttons.

Each tab, from replies to messages and others initially offers twenty results but you can have the app load up more per page with the simple touch of a button. There’re a number of things that the Tweetie client can do that really lets a user get into Twitter, from checking out links to viewing entire chains of replies to a simple message for greater ease of viewing. Short of browsing the web, it does everything for the average Twitter user, making it a must have.

Perhaps the look is not for everyone, but the look definitely suits the iPhone interface. It feels like it was made for the iPhone rather than just an awkward port of another client and that’s where it really shines. Having a professional feel to the program lends it a lot of weight and credibility. It’s a solid application and one that deserves the $2.99 price tag set to it. Power users and casual users alike can find use for Tweetie – if you enjoy Twitter, you should definitely take a glance at Tweetie.

Now, there was a PC game, not too long ago, where you played the part of an ancient god watching over a civilization. It gave you the opportunity to examine what kind of god you could be if you had ultimate power or at least to play out some omnipotence fantasies. That kind of joy has leapt over to the iPhone in the form of Pocket God.

Most people will find this change of pace from the standard iPhone game quite refreshing – it’s a fine example of a portable game that’s more than just a match three game or the like. Pocket God is one with a clear and unique premise, with a different set of mechanics, the way that a console or a Nintendo DS game would be made. It doesn’t seem like it’s just an App – it’s a real, full blown game.

Pocket God puts you in the position of being an overlord, a god of some pygmies who’re hanging out on an island. Like the aforementioned game, Pocket God gives you the option of taking the high road with some kind acts or some vicious evil megalomaniacal stuff with some pain. The game’s cruelty potential is startlingly high for a portable app. A good flick of the finger can knock an unsuspecting and happy pygmy into a fiery volcano. Three of those actually could provoke the volcano into an explosion and rain of flaming horror, possibly igniting whatever pygmies you have left.

Shaking the iPhone can also affect the flow of gravity, further tormenting your little subjects. Even lightning is a viable option if you’re a big fan of Zeus. Roast some pygmies, have a few laughs. It’s up to you. Luckily, the game designers foresaw the entertainment that can be gleaned from inflicting abuse upon fictional beings and gave it the graphics and the sounds that make every action very satisfying. The graphics and sounds can easily be considered polished.

Fine, Pocket God isn’t quite a game. There’s no real objective or puzzle to break apart. This app seems to be targeting those who enjoy those Facebook pet games or those ancient Tamagotchi handhelds. This is more of an interactive screensaver than anything else – a very entertaining one, but not one with a point. It’ll entertain, but it’s not something that’ll offer a sense of accomplishment, bragging rights or any of the like.

Fortunately, Pocket God has been receiving frequent updates, offering more and more ways to entertain you when you don’t feel like playing a game and the ennui is overwhelming. At ninety-nine cents, Pocket God is definitely worth a peek.

F-mylife – well, no, I’m okay with mine. I’m referring to that ever popular website that feeds and relies on the idea of schadenfraude, or finding joy in another person’s suffering or embarrassment. Sounds mean? Well, that’s pretty much the home and heart of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and a vast majority of other reality tv shows and even some fictional ones, like the Three Stooges. Like Tvtropes or a long-running webcomic, it’s a chrono-vore, a time vampire that threatens to mug people of their sweet sweet time with short stories of unfortunate things that have occurred to other people.

There’s no real price that you could put on a nigh infinite source of embarrassment, especially it’s not your own. F-mylife on the iPhone offers you constantly updated news on the bad and personal things that people share around the world. There’s no such thing as bad news now – only F-mylife news. Now you can make sure that you never, ever miss out.

These anecdotes can be conversation starters or time wasters, depending on your need. This is best for people who just want to relax their minds when they’re on a break or resting. You’re going to hear a lot about people who want to keep their minds sharp with constant exercise by playing puzzle games while they’re on their break.

The stories themselves are categorized, from sex to health to the miscellaneous for people who can’t quite pigeonhole their shame. If you’re in the mood for some shameful sex secrets, here you go. If you’re not quite sure, the miscellaneous section will probably find you something interesting.

I personally don’t think it’s a good idea to whine. I’m among the “Law of Attraction” and think it’s important to be grateful. If you feel anything like me, you might not get a kick out of this app.

F-mylife is for people who enjoy and wallow in the shame of other people, anonymous as it may be (I guess it’s some kind of guilty pleasure that is especially appealing to the younger crowd). The app itself is relatively simple and at the moment, doesn’t offer as many options as the actual website would. Happily, that should be fixed soon. Besides, the important part, the meat of the stories, is still there and ready for your perusal. If you’re not sure if it’s the kind of thing you read, you can check out the original at fmylife.com and see if you want to be carrying that around in your pocket.

There are some apps for your iPhone that are cute, but don’t really do much. Most of the time, it’s a fun little program that’ll get a few chuckles from your friends, a “That’s awesome comment” every now and then. Some even actually go under that guise and offer a deeper experience than first advertised.

Amazing X-Ray is not one of those apps. It might not even be considered an app and merely a little program running around a ninety-nine cent disguise, pretending that you’re getting something when you’re just hurling a dollar into cyberspace for something.

The first thought that probably came to your mind is that wow – an X-ray on my iPhone? That is bloody amazing. I mean, I’m no doctor, but getting an x-ray should be pretty fancy. It even makes numerous pseudo-scientific statements and claims such as “Ultra hi-res” and “realistic 3D like X-ray effect”. While they may occur on some, perhaps quantum level, for the most part you’re just playing with a picture.

Yep, no special effects come into play – you turn on Amazing X-ray and it shows you an Amazing Picture of an X-ray of a person’s hand. Woohoo. I’m pretty sure that if people check out the most commonly searched pictures out there, X-rays of a person’s hand would not be on them. To add insult to injury, your ninety-nine cent purchase of the program gives you a pre-recorded x-ray of a hand.

Yeah, that’s all you get. No chest, leg or skull – just a bloody hand. Sure, tilting the iPhone moves the picture but that’s about it. Put it over your chest, pretend that it’s a real x-ray and watch your friends roll their eyes or facepalm in shame as your chest takes on the skeletal structure of a human hand. The best thing anyone could actually say for Amazing X-ray is that well, the picture looks nice.

The app itself? Nope. Nice isn’t the word I’d choose.