Quick Look: AT&T myWireless Mobile by AT&T

AT&T released a long-overdue account management app for the iPhone. The app allows users to view and pay bills, view voice and data usage and browse account features. I took the app for a spin today and found pretty much all the functionality that I would be looking to do online, in the app.

Supplementing AT&T myWireless, a popular service through www.att.com used today by millions of AT&T customers, the Mobile edition for iPhone brings greater ease and simplicity to virtually all elements of account management. The app’s primary functions include:

- Bill and Pay - View monthly bill in full and make one-touch payments
- Voice and Data Usage - View all voice and data usage, including text messages
- Features - Browse and manage bolt-on features, including new texting plans and more

The app is really pretty complete as it even covers family accounts and individual usages for each member on the account. While I don’t look very often at my AT&T account online (or even the bill for that matter) this app should make it a ton easier for those that do.

AT&T myWireless Mobile is free in the iTunes App Store.

AT&T Website: www.attwireless.com

Quick Look: True or Lie by iPhonez Co.

True or Lie by iPhonez Co., Ltd. is an app that helps you determine whether someone is lying or telling the truth. To start out, you need t0 push the button marked “measure”. Then hold the microphone up to your subjects neck to check their pulse. Now the interr0gation begins. Once the heart rate is set, go ahead and start asking questions to the person. If they are lying, the needle should go towards the red zone and if they are not then it should stay in the blue zone (your mileage will vary).

If you don’t need the lie detector, but you need a heart rate monitor, simply flip the switch and put the mic up to your neck and wait.

True or lie is accurate only about 60% of the time for heart rate monitoring and even less at lie detection. However, the graphics on this app are pretty good and they look just like a real lie detector would.  If you’re looking for a gimic to use on your friends or significant other then look no further however, if you’re looking for FBI quality lie detection then keep looking.

True or Lie is $.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Quick Look: Two Challenging Puzzles From One Young Developer

Jeffrey Barg may only be in middle school, but he has already written and released four apps in the iTunes App Store.  Two of them are puzzle apps.  Both apps appear to be simple puzzle.  However, neither one is very simple in the end.

Jeffrey’s first app, NIM, was released in October of last year.  It is based on a Chinese game of the same name.  Jeffrey had this to say about NIM:

The idea for my first game, Nim, was given to me when my Math Teacher … showed my the ancient chinese game of Nim (I think mostly in an effort to stop me from annoying him :).  That weekend I programmed the basic game and in the next few weeks I had a finished app, which I soon afterwards submitted to the App Store.

The board looks simple enough.  You start with three rows of sticks consisting of 3, 5, and 7.  You take turns with either the computer or another person removing sticks from the board.  The object is to get your opponent to take the last stick.  You may remove as many sticks as you want on your turn, but you may only remove sticks from one row at a time.  It takes playing the game quite a few times to figure out how to force your opponent to take the last stick.  This app is for the true puzzle lover.

NIM is $0.99 in the iTunes App Store.

The second app Jeffrey released is called Number 14.  It was released in December and is a game of manipulating numbers.  Each round of the game you are given 4 random numbers between 1 and 9.  Your job is to perform simple computations with these numbers (addition, subtration, multiplication, and division) and end up at the number 14.  The app times you so that you can see how long it takes to solve each puzzle.  If you end up at another number and want to try again, you can reset the screen.  If you end up on another number time and time again and decide to give up, you can tap the “give solution” button.  A possible solution will be given to you, ending the frustration.  Maybe it is the way my mind works, but I found the puzzles in this app much easier to solve.  This puzzle is fun for those who are good at math or like numbers.

Number 14 is $1.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Both of these apps present a challenging puzzle in a clean, neat interface.  My hats off to you, kid.

Developer Website: jbbproductions.wordpress.com

Quick Look: Inflation by Integrity Logic

Have you ever wondered how much that nickel candy that your grandparents are always telling you about would cost today?  Or what the $5,000 dollars you spent on your first new car would be equal to today?  Integrity Logic and their app Inflaton will tell you just that.  You just enter in the amount you spent, the year it was spent in, and the currency used.  The app quickly calculates the modern equivalent.  Curiosity satisfied.

This app will make calculations in US Dollars, Canadian Dollars, UK Pounds, New Zealand Dollars or Pounds, and Australian Dollars or Pounds.  To make their calculations, the app uses official data published by the government of each country on inflation rates.  The makers of the app claim that while they don’t promise 100% accuracy, there should be a less than 1% margin of error.

Inflation is $0.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Quick Look: Mad Libs by inZania

Update: It appears as though Mad Libs has been removed from the App Store.

Did you ever play mad libs as a kid?  I remember trying to come up with the most off-the-wall words I could and then laughing so hard wih my friends that none of us could read the mad lib back at the end.  Mad libs are easy to do and fun for people of all ages.  You just need to know your parts of speech (ie. noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, etc.)  You come up with words that fit each part of speech asked for and the words are inserted into a story or text.  Then, you read it back.  Hopefully, the words don’t fit and create a funny story to read.

This Mad Libs app by inZania allows you to create mad libs by yourself or with your friends.  You can choose your own story by title or complete a random mad lib.  You don’t see the story until all of the words have been entered.  After you have read your mad lib, the app keeps track of them.  You can go back and read the funny ones again and again.  You can also create your own mad lib and submit it.

If you need a good laugh, mad libs will do it.

Mad Libs is $2.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Developer Website: http://inzania.com

Quick Look: Fieldrunners by Subatomic Studios, LLC

So, by now you’re wondering why are we writing about apps that have been out for months? Well, it’s easy: they’re still popular and people are still buying them.

Fieldrunners, in my opinion, is the best “Tower Defense” style game in the App Store. It is one of the only ones that allows for an arbitrary path for your enemy to follow. That’s right, unlike many other TD games, in Fieldrunners, you layout the path (by virtue of setting up your towers in a way that causes the enemy to go around them). You layout your map however you like, providing that you leave a path for the enemy to get from one side of the map to the other. However, you can divert them back and forth as many times as you like to make sure they get exposure to all of your weapons and defenses.

In the last update, Fieldrunners adds yet another map (bringing the total now to three) and a couple of new weapons to use against your enemies. There are also three play modes for each map, once you reach level 100 then these are unlocked which allows you to play the same map endlessly which is just fun to see how long you can last. There are various videos on YouTube on how to get past level 160, which appears to be a tough one.

In all if you are a fan of the tower defense games and you haven’t yet considered Fieldrunners then this is your app this week.

Fieldrunners is $4.99 in the iTunes App Store.

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Quick Look: White Noise by TMSoft

White Noise has been in the App Store for as long as I can remember.   In fact, it was one of the first apps that I installed on my iPhone, shortly after the apps initial release.  This is one app that seems to be enjoying a long stay in the ‘popular’ category and so for that - we decided it deserved a mention here on our site.

Initially released in September, white noise offered users an array of different white noises.  These noises ranged from rain and waves to fans and other common sounds used to get babies and ourselves to sleep at night or to bring us privacy and sanity in a noise laden environment.  White Noise continues to evolve, even ever-so slowly, and is now a feature rich application that produces many types of… you guessed it: white noise.  If you’re like me and can’t sleep without the fan on, then this app is a must have before any vacation or business trip - trust me, it will save you from sleepless nights.

White Noise is $.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Quick Look: Stun-O-Matic by DS Media Labs

Today I gave Stun-O-Matic a run on my 4 year old and wife. The first “stun” of my son yielded laughs and squeels that only a little kid can make, while the first “stun” of my wife didn’t yield nearly the same reaction.

The whole app is what you see, a stun gun.  When you tough the red button on the stun gun it makes the stun gun noise (ie: zaping electricity) and the phone vibrates. You can select from 3 different colors for the color of the spark.  Outside of this one function - mimicking a stun gun - there is nothing else that this app does.  I did, however, leave the app installed (which is something I typically do not do for the hords of free, pointless apps out there) as I figured it would come in use startling people… we’ll see.

Stun-0-Matic is free in the iTunes App Store.

PS: No, it doesn’t actually stun people. It’s an iPhone - remember?

Quick look: Death Cab for Cutie iPhone App

It’s not everyday that one of the bands that you admire releases and iPhone app.  Well, today, I installed the Death Cab for Cutie application and spent a few minutes with it. The app is pretty much what one would expect from a band: links to upcoming shows, pics of the band, videos, the band’s store and more.  One thing I wasn’t expecting though was a morsel of free music… well, free so long as you’re using the app to play them - but hey, I’ll take it.

DCfC is free in the iTunes App Store.