The iPhone Mom

If you are a shoe girl- Lucky is an app for you. I am not a shoe girl but I could still appreciate the cute and sassy shoes and the nifty service this app provides. You open it up and it shows you the March 2009 Shoe Guide. You can browse shoes by trend, brand or color. (See the buttons at the bottom) If you browse by Trend you get a picture of the style of shoe. Tap the photo you like and you’ll see even more shoes in that style. Find you one like and tap it for more information, including the price. From here you can choose "Find it Online" or "Find it Near You".  Finding it near you brings up the stores in your area that carry the  shoe. Each store has "In Stock?" next to it. If you touch that you can enter your name and email so they can let you know if the shoe is in stock. If you choose to search online Lucky pulls up the online merchants that carry the shoe. Choose the one you like and you can then order the shoe. From your phone. Scary.

Shopping by brand pulls up all the brands listed. From here you can choose a brand, then a shoe and see the same information I mentioned above. Shop by color and you pick the color you like. Lucky will pull up all the shoes it’s categorized in that color. Choose your shoe and once again you can pull up the information and find nearby availability or shop online.

If I was one of those girls who got frequent shoe cravings this could be a very dangerous app. Lucky for our checking account I tend to stick with one pair and then wear them until even my children are embarrassed.

Seller: Nearby Now, Inc.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Click here to see the app at the iTunes store

The only thing I really liked about this app was the free price tag. I think my biggest problem with it is the title. Shopping Coupons. Reading that I’d think that most moms would assume it had something to do with store coupons. But the app only shows you online deals. You choose a category and it pulls up a long list of links to websites currently offering deals. To me it all seemed like one big advertisement. Which I guess is probably the point. There seemed to be some good deals out there but nothing that I need for regular everyday mom life. But… if I get a craving to buy a big screen TV for March Madness this app could be useful. But I really don’t see that happening. Show me the diapers instead please.

Seller: InfoMedia, Inc.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Click here to see the app at the iTunes store

Shall I give you a lite iPhone app review for this lite app? I really like the concept behind it and I wanted to like this app. The concept is great – but the free app is very limited in what it offers. You touch “My Photo” and either take a photo of yourself or select one from your phone’s gallery. Then touch “Styles” and you have six hairstyles to choose from. Tap the one you like and it shows up on your photo. Along the top there’s a “Hairstyle Info” button that gives you details about the cut and styling tips. “Colors” lets you change the hair color. (You can also do this under “Settings” at the bottom of the screen.)  Like I said before, great concept but this free app didn’t give me enough. I could spend $2.99 for the full app and get 60 hairstyles to choose from. If the full version operates the same as Hairstyle Lite then it’ll be straightforward and simple to use. My hang-up is that $2.99 price tag.  Maybe the next time I’m in a funk and desperate for a new look it’ll seem like  more of a good buy.

And no – the screen shot is not of me. I used one of the default models available in the app. I was afraid if I used my real photo I’d be overwhelmed with pleas for me to go ahead and spend the $2.99 and update my look already.

Seller: KBM Soft

Price when Reviewed: Free

Price for full version of Hairstyle: $2.99

Click here to see Hairstyle Lite at the iTunes store

Click here to see the full version of Hairstyle at the iTunes store

iPhrase is to your iPhone what magnetic poetry is to your fridge. Open the app and you have a bunch of words. Touch a word and then use your finger to drag them around your screen to create sentences and poetry. Give your iPhone a shake and the words scramble all over your screen. There are a couple tricks to this app. In order to get a new set of words you have to double tap on the screen. This brings up the menu.  I don’t think you can really call it a menu though – all it lets you do is select “Close” or “Randomize Words”.  Choose “Randomize Words” and you’ll get a new set of magnetic tiles to play with.

I like this simple little app, especially for the kids. It’s great to see what they can come up with using words like nugget, electric, juicy and goat. But before you grab this app for your kids, keep reading.

** An important note – the app is rated 12+ and on the iTunes store it tells you why. There’s a trick to making it kid friendly and in my playing with iPhrase I haven’t encountered any of those 12+ situations. If you have kids that use your iPhone you’ll want to go to your regular “Settings” on your phone. Scroll down until you see the icon for iPhrase. Tap it and make sure that “Obscenities” is set to OFF. I’ve done this and I haven’t seen any objectionable words, yet. But you know your kids so use your best judgement with this app. Otherwise can’t you just see it now? You get the phone call from the teacher – Susie said this word today in class and she told me she learned it from your phone. Mother of the year potential right there.

Seller: Brian Weisenthal

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Click here to see the app at the iTunes store

This is the game that I find my four year old playing most often on my iPhone. Burning Tires Lite is a lite version of the full Burning Tires racing game. As far as I can tell you get two race tracks and one car in the lite version. It’s more than enough to keep my guy entertained but I just checked the iTunes store and the full version is on sale for $1.99, so we’ll probably upgrade soon. The full version has 12 tracks, 7 cars and best of all – trophies to win.

The idea behind this iPhone app is that you’re racing around an off road track. You control your car using a left and right arrow that appear on the edges of your screen. They’re in a great spot so as you’re holding the phone your thumbs sit right there. Perfect for little boy hands.  Under the settings option you can adjust the steering so it’s more or less sensitive to your controls. Again, perfect for little boys and for their mothers who stink at racing games.

I think this is a terrific app for little boys who love racing games. My favorite part? When you first start up Burning Tires Lite you get a choice – sound on or sound off. Any racing game that lets you turn the sound completely off is a winner in my book!

Seller: Fishlabs

Price when Reviewed: Free

Price for full version of Burning Tires: $1.99 (this is the sale price)

Click here to see the Lite version at the iTunes store

Click here to see the full version at the iTunes store

The hubby tipped me off to this neat iPhone trick. You can set your iPhone to do certain things when you double click the Home button. Go to Settings and then General. If you scroll down you’ll see “Home Button”. Tap on that. Now you can choose “Home”, “Phone Favorites” or “iPod”. I chose phone favorites. This means that no matter what I’m doing if I double click the Home button my phone favorites list will show up. Pretty slick.

This one may seem simple, but it’s a must know iPhone trick. I won’t tell you how many screens full of apps are on my iPhone right now but let’s just say it’s loaded up. Lucky for my fingers there’s an easy way to return to my Home screen (the first screen on your iPhone). Here it is, hold onto your hats, touch the Home button. Yep, that easy. If you’re on screen number two or screen number six, just touch the Home button and you’re right back to that original Home screen.

The Godiva app is a mobile way to order chocolate from the online Godiva store (www.godiva.com). Chocolate shopping from your iPhone. Or as I’ve been using it, chocolate drooling/window shopping. Don’t forget to wipe off your screen.

Start with the “Shop” button and choose your shopping category. Next you choose the chocolate item you’re craving and the app will pull up a description, price and a yummy photo. If you see something you’d like to order touch “Add to Cart”. This adds the chocolate to your shopping cart. You’ll see a cart icon at the bottom of your screen. You can also email the product information to someone who cares using the “Email Item” button.

“My Cart” shows you what you’ve impulsively, okay – maybe that’s just me, put in your shopping cart. From here you can email out your list, clear your cart or check out. If you’ve set up an account at www.godiva.com you can check out and order the chocolates directly from this app. I’ve mustered up a big dose of self control and haven’t actually done this part yet, so unfortunately, or fortunately for my thighs, I can’t walk you through actually checking out with your truffles.

If you enjoy Godiva chocolates and need to order them often this may be the app for you. It’d take a minute to set up your account online but then think of the possibilities – the ability to order expensive chocolates whenever you felt the urge. Then again, this could be a very dangerous app.

Seller: Digby

Price when Reviewed: Free

Click here to see the app at the iTunes store

On your iPhone you will find a button that says “App Store”. It should be on your first screen unless you’ve added and rearranged your apps. If you touch this button it takes you directly to….you guessed it…the App Store. Here you can browse apps directly, without having to go through the iTunes store. I’ll admit that the iTunes store is one of my least favorite things about the iPhone experience. It’s always slow on my computer and then I get impatient and click things and it gets slower and I click more things. It’s a vicious cycle.

Once you’ve opened up the App Store you’ll see a row of buttons on the bottom of your screen. I’ll explain each one.

Featured- This gives you a list of all the apps Apple wants to feature. Touch the “New” button at the top of the screen and you can see all the newest featured apps. Touch “What’s Hot” and you’ll see a current list of the most popular featured ones.

Categories- Gives you a list of all the different app categories. Touch one and you’ll find a list of twenty-five apps in that category. Along the top you’ll see “Top Paid”, “Top Free” and “Release Date”. Top Paid gives you the top twenty-five paid apps in that category. Top Free gives you the top (you guessed it) free apps. Release Dte gives you the twenty-five most recently released apps. If you can’t find what you want among those twenty-five you can touch “twenty-five more” at the bottom and so on. To get back to the main list of categories you’ll just need to touch the categories button at the top left of your screen.

Top 25 - This brings up the top twenty-five most popular apps. Not enough for you? Touch “Show Top 50″ at the bottom of your screen. When you’re on this screen you’ll see two buttons that say “Top Paid” and “Top Free”. Touch them and you get exactly what they tell you.

Search - This button allows you to type in the name of an app or the name of an app seller. It’ll pull up a list of the apps that match your search.

Updates - More about this button in my “How to Update an App from my iPhone post”.

Once you’ve found an app that you’re interested in select it from your list. This brings up more information on the app including a description, screen shots and reviews. You’ll see a rectangle with the app price or “free” written inside it. It’ll be on the top right side of your screen. If this is the app that you absolutely must have then touch this rectangle- it’ll turn green and now say “Install”. To go through with your purchase touch the rectangle again. A pop-up will appear asking you to enter your iTunes password. Do this and touch ok.

The app store will shut now (don’t freak out) and you’ll be taken to one of your iPhone screens where you’ll see the new app icon. Underneath it will be a blue status bar and the words “loading”. The bar will fill and soon your app will be loaded on your phone, ready to go!

Many apps suggest that you restart your iPhone before opening the new app for the first time. In my experience this has been an excellent suggestion.

Super Monkey Ball was one of the best games for the Nintendo Game Cube. It was a sad day in our house when the disc became so scratched it no longer worked. We tried the wii version but it just didn’t seem the same. I’ve wanted to try the Super Monkey Ball app for the iPhone but haven’t wanted to shell out $7.99. I got really excited (probably shouldn’t admit that) when I saw they’d come out with a Lite version that’s FREE. You don’t get the entire game but you do get three levels which is all we need at our house. At least until we become truly addicted to the game. Hopefully they’ll lower the price of the full app soon.

If you’ve never heard of Super Monkey Ball here goes. You have a monkey and he’s in a ball. Your job is to help him roll his ball along a course to reach the finish line. Sounds easy but the course will be bumpy and curvy and your monkey will probably fall off a time or two and you’ll have to start over. With the iPhone app you control your monkey by tilting and turning your phone. Again sounds easy but I really had to focus. I found myself getting distracted a couple times and oh, my poor monkey!

Your kids will get a kick out of Super Monkey Ball Lite. You probably will too. And did I mention it’s free? I’d grab it before they change their minds.

Seller: Sega

Price when Reviewed: Free

Price for Super Monkey Ball (regular version): $5.99

Click here to see the regular version of Super Monkey Ball at the iTunes store