The iPhone Mom

Did you have a See n’ Say when you were little? We did and it’s amazing how much entertainment that simple toy provided. I loved it when it’d wind down and the animal sounds would be s-l-o-w-e-d way down. Simple pleasures. There’s a new app coming that will bring the joy of a See n’ Say to your iPhone or iPod Touch. It’s called Farm Friends and it’ll be released in the iTunes store soon. I’ve checked out the demo and it looks like something my kids will get a kick out of.

If you go to the Farm Friends website you can enter your email to receive a promo code for the app. Promo codes allow you to download apps from iTunes for free. You’ll also be able to watch a demo of the app in action.

I’m looking forward to getting this one on my phone. I wonder if it’ll have a s-l-o-w feature on it???

www.farmfriendsapp.com

On a side note, the developers are conducting a survey about what types of features parents would like to see in a “kid friendly” case for the iPhone/iPod Touch.  Click here to participate and share your views.

There’s a great new product for your iPhone – the iBend. I was lucky enough to get to try one out. Click here to read my review. After you finish the review you can leave a comment on the post and enter to win a few iBends of your own.

OccupyBaby aims to keep toddlers entertained. It was designed by the father of an eleven month old who knows firsthand how tricky it can be to keep these little ones happy when you’re out and about.  Right now OccupyBaby has one theme –On the Farm. When you start the app your child will see a colorful farm scene filled with funny farm animals. The animals make noises and move and the narrator says the name of each animal. There is an auto play mode that’s perfect for the younger crowd. You turn it on and start the app and that’s that. The scene scrolls by on it’s own and when it reaches the end of the farm it starts over automatically. If your child is older you can turn auto play off and the app will respond to their touch instead.

I thoroughly enjoyed the colorful aspect of this app. I thought it was very well put together and worked smoothly. The next version is going to have more themes and improved auto play. If you’ve got a baby, toddler or even preschooler to entertain and you don’t want them  handling your iPhone then the auto play feature on this app is perfect for you.

OccupyBaby has teamed up with the makers of iBend to help you keep those sticky little fingers off your screen. An iBend is a thin, bendable plastic stand for your iPhone. Click here to read what I thought when I tried one out. After you read that post you’ll have a chance to enter to win your very own set of iBends.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller:Milobox, LLC

I was asked to try out the iBend and the first time I saw it my thoughts were something along the lines of, yeah right…there’s no way this is going to hold up my iPhone, it’s just a thin piece of rounded plastic that bends.  I was wrong. It’s not much to look at but when you’ve got it bent and your iPhone set down in it, you’ve got yourself a great little stand.

I was curious about how the idea for the iBend came about so I asked one of the creators for the story. Brandon was on a flight and ended up sitting next to Mike. They both ended up watching movies on their iPhones. Only difference was that Mike had a stand made out of a business card. The stand fell apart after an hour but it spurred some discussion and the men eventually discovered that they lived near each other in San Francisco. There was more discussion and they decided to meet up again back home and begin collaborating. Between Brandon’s engineering background and Mike’s in graphics and design the iBend was born.

So why would someone need an iBend? I received mine to go along with the OccupyBaby app. The idea behind this is to set your iPhone in the iBend and let your child watch OccupyBaby without needing to handle your phone. This is a great use for it but since my kids are old enough to touch my phone I came up with another use for my house. My husband enjoys experimenting in the kitchen. Often times his cooking escapades involve research done from his phone and occasionally there’s a “how to” video that needs to be watched. I’m thinking that he can set up an iBend on the counter and watch the video while he works his culinary magic. Now my cooking is less experimental and more functional. I could use the iBend and set up my iPhone to watch a chick flick that distracts me from the mundane task of providing nutritious vittles. Who wouldnt want to watch Mr. Darcy while whipping up a casserole?

The iBends are reasonably priced at $4.99 a pack, each pack includes two stands. There are the original black and white models and the soon to be released artist series. I have both but my favorites are the bright artist version.

Brandon from iBend has been generous enough to donate several packs of iBends for my readers. If you’re interested in winning one leave a comment below. If you tell a friend about the iBend website then go ahead and leave an additional comment.

** Update – Just got word that I’ll have 5 packs of iBends to give away! Contest is going to end Friday night.

For more information on the iBend visit: www.myibend.com

There’s a new iPhone app from Appsfire that allows you to share your favorite apps with friends and family. I’ll be checking this one out. Click here to read an article about it on www.readwriteweb.com.

Facehack is a brand new app that lets you create unique profile pictures for your Facebook account. It’s simple to use – take a picture with your iPhone or choose one from your camera roll. Now resize it, rotate it, get it exactly how you want it. The next step is to use your finger to erase the background of your image. A trick I learned the hard way: in order to get around the image you’ll want to use the “pan & zoom” button to really get in close to the image. That way you can outline the image and then swipe your finger to erase the rest. If you make a mistake tap the ‘”unerase” button and then swipe your finger over the mistake. That part of the image is restored.

In later releases it would be nice to have the ability to change the size of your “finger swipe”. Maybe it’s just my chubby fingers but I had a tough time controlling what I erased from my image. You can see that the edges on my image are a bit jaggedy. It’d be great if there was a way to adjust that feature.

This is a fun app that gives you the chance to make your Facebook profile photo stand out. When you’re done tweaking your photo you can use Facehack to upload it directly to your Facebook account and impress all your friends.

Facehack is available FREE to the first 1000 people who download it from the app store. After that the price will be $.99.

Price when Reviewed: Free to first 1000 downloads then $.99

Seller: Airgini

Are you on Facebook? I am and it drives me crazy to get all those silly notifications. I don’t mind the ones about comments and wall posts. It’s the ones about Willy’s Sweet Shop or how many “amazing” points I’ve earned that make me nuts. Luckily I came across an article that explains a simple cure for this problem. So simple I’m embarrassed to tell you that I couldn’t figure this out on my own.

Here’s what you do: On your Facebook page click on the notification button in the lower right corner of your screen. Now click “see all” and you’ll see all of your notifications. On the right side you’ll see everything that’s authorized to notify you. Uncheck the boxes for the things you don’t want sending notifications. And there you go.

Click here to see the post that explained this to me. Thanks Mashable.

Are you a yahooer or a googler? I use google mail and calendar and sync them up with my iPhone. But for those of you Yahoo loyalists out there – good news – you can now sync up your iPhone with your Yahoo calendar. I haven’t tried it out yet because for better or worse I’m a googler, but Lifehacker can tell you how here.

Are you a new mom who’s feeling overwhelmed at the very thought of leaving the house with your new little person? How many diapers do you need to pack? Change of clothes – for the baby? for yourself? If you’re finding that the devil is in the details then Baby List is worth a try. It gives you the ability to create lists that keep track of what you need to bring on various outings. The app comes with several lists already included and you can easily add your own. I thought that the included lists were very thorough but I liked having the ability to create my own personal versions.

Traveling anywhere with a baby, whether it’s to the convenience store or across the country, can be tricky at first. More often than not it’s a big fat game of trial and error. I would have loved having something like Baby List to help me get my feet wet when I had my first child.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: Agile Storm, LLC

I think I’ve been living under a rock and not just since the birth of my baby. I think I’ve been under this rock for awhile now. I had never heard of the Facebook game Lexulous before. I’m on Facebook but I’ve never really tried any of the games even though they pop up on my wall all the time. So I was surprised when I opened this app and saw that Lexulous was a Facebook game. Then I went to Facebook and wouldn’t you know Lexulous has 410,348 monthly users. Under a rock, indeed.

So what’s the deal with this app? It connects you to Facebook so you can play Lexulous from your iPhone. You can choose to play against your Facebook friends or other folks from around the world. The app also gives you the ability to chat with the other players, through the app. How do you play Lexulous? It’s a crossword game that’s a bit like Scrabble. You use tiles to build words upon a board and score points as you go. The app is clean looking and works smoothly. You can zoom in on the game board, shuffle and recall letters. Through the app you can view your Lexulous statistics and keep track of how well you’re doing. It does a great job transferring the Facebook game experience to your iPhone.

I guess I’m going to have to crawl out from under my rock now because with that many monthly users there’s obviously something to this game and I think the Lexulous app highlights that well.

Price when Reviewed: $3.99

Seller: Rajat Agarwalla