Apps to Buy For

…your iphone of course. I am told by the lesser denizens of this earth that these apps are also available for non-iphone users. Anyway. I thought I’d give you a peep at the apps that have tickled my fancy recently. January 2011 might be a tad bit too late to wax lyrical about the power available at your fingertips but on the other hand that is one of the beauties of the internet powered revolution: it never ceases to impress. The apps listed below are in no particular order but they are all mystically superliciliously snobbishly fantabulastic.

J’accuse has no sponsorship deal with any of the following apps or their creators. Just in case you were wondering of course.

1. Whatsapp

I thought I’d get rid of this one because it is the most down-to-earth and unglamorous of the lot. What it lacks in glam and glitter it wins back in absolute practicality and money-savingness. This nifty app zaps through your telephonic contacts and makes them its own and then proceeds to inform you which among these contacts is already equipped with Whatsapp. The next step is instant messaging at prices that neither Go nor Vodafone nor Melita will give you… it’s free. Bully for the expats… we get to sms people in Rome, London, Rio and Malta for free… and they answer back at the same expense. Now to make some friends around the world who will actually speak to me….

2. TuneIn Radio App

If, like me, you never swallowed the line “video killed the radio star” then you will love this one. Open up to the world of radios wherever you are. Why be limited to the range of stations on the FM band? Why be a slave to the hissing fadings and shoutings of the AM frequency? Travel back in time and listen to the best radio Italy and the UK have to offer as though you were carrying a tranny in Rome or Sheffield.  It’s simple. Download the app that runs on the radiotime database then just browse the world – literally. Your iphone will be as at home in Mauritius as it is in Mumbai. There’s no limit.

So if you are bored of counting the number of times Maltese rock deejays drool over the cliches of il-Floyd and il-Bono and if you are addicted to the non-stop orgasm that is Classic FM this is your answer. Plug it into a set of JBL on stage speakers (iphone users beware – buy the phone adapted version to make sure you eliminate the intereference from cellular buzzing) and bob’s your uncle. You can leave it plugged in at your bedside overnight and you’ll fall asleep to the sound of your favourite radio (timer enabled) and wake up to it thanks to the programmable wake-up alarm. And while it is in sleep mode your iphone doubles as a wonderful bedside clock. Next time I’ll share some cool radios I’ve discovered… it had been ages since I could hear a crystal clear footie commentary (Radio Rai 1 or BBC 5 live).

3. Google Goggles

Save the best for last. Transform your iphone into a Star Trek app. I’d say that the basic principle behind google goggles is “doing things with images”. Google has jumped onto the fact that people now carry cameras everywhere thanks to advanced optics on iphones (and maybe on other non-iphones). The idea is to take a photo of ANYTHING and see what goggles does it with.

Not recognising a landmark? Snap a photo of it and let goggles scan it and browse the web for it. After a few seconds it will tell you what it is. I took a photo of a Gauguin poster in the office. In a few seconds Goggles told me what it was and where to find it. You could try it on people but it is not that good at recognising those yet. Take a photo of a barcode and Goggles will tell you what the product is, where to find it and how to buy it online.

The most jaw-dropping of all was the Sudoku. I took a photo of a Sudoku puzzle straight off the pages of the Daily Mail (difficulty hardest). It took Goggles a few seconds (a) to tell me that  it was a Sudoku image and (b) to ask me if I want it solved. Want it solved? Want it solved? I couldn’t believe my eyes. I pressed solve puzzle and there you were… in what was surely under three seconds the Daily Mail hardest puzzle was solved. Stuff that. For the crossword enthusiasts out there… don’t despair, the day a machine can get through the nuances of a cryptic crossword is still very far off.

There you have it. Three goldmines to tap. There’s much much more but I thought I’d share these three lovely ‘uns for the weekend. It’s frosty in Luxembourg as in all of Europe (I know that because my iphone told me this morning). There we were thinking that summer was round the corner… instead we’re stuck inside, playing with our iphones.

Related articles

• Google Goggles Solves Sudoku (tech.slashdot.org)
• Google Goggles for iPhone recognizes ads, solves Sudoku puzzles (tuaw.com)
• TuneIn Radio iPhone App Review (brighthub.com)
• Top Apps of All Time (chris.pirillo.com)