The iPhone Mom

Siri Assistant is billed as your new personal assistant, who just happens to be an iPhone app. It combines a smorgasbord of different information into one app that is also very easy to use. You can ask Siri to do all sorts of things for you. Find a restaurant, check the weather, book a taxi, find an ATM and more. It pulls in search information from bing, yelp, Yahoo, Citysearch and movietickets.com just to name a few places. You can type in what you’re looking for or say it out loud to the app. Siri uses dictation software from Nuance and it worked like a charm for me. It even deciphered what my 5 year old was asking for and we can’t even do that much of the time. Tonight I was looking for an alternative to cooking dinner so I told Siri I wanted to find a take out restaurant nearby. It used my location to pull up a list of choices along with their addresses and phone numbers. Some restaurants even had reviews that were pulled from the web. If you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for then you can let Siri “guide” you. The main screen provides a list of things that it can help you with. Restaurants, movies, events, local businesses, taxis and weather. You can tap on one of these and then continue to make selections that will narrow down your search results.

Siri keeps a running list of what you’ve used it for. This way you can scroll up and down the screen to look things over again. This list disappears when you shut down the app but the next time you open it the searches will be available via the “Recents” button at the bottom of the screen. Siri also has the ability to send you email reminders about anything you like. You simply set it up, choose when (and how often) you’d like to be reminded and the next thing you know you’ll have a friendly reminder in your inbox.

It didn’t take me much time to learn how to use Siri but I’m still discovering all the things it can do.  I’m impressed with how quickly it pulls up information and how relevant that information is. There’s no need to visit Safari and click through search results anymore. Throw in the app’s solid dictation ability and I’m sold.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: Siri

On the Menu app was sent my way and I wasn’t sure what I should do with it. Not because I didn’t like it but because lately I never dine anywhere that doesn’t have a play area or a “To Go” entrance. Then I decided that there are probably many moms who do get out of their house and eat things that aren’t served in paper bags. So for all of you lucky ladies I present On the Menu.

This app lets you look up unfamiliar types of foods at restaurants. The idea is if you’re  dining out and you have no idea what something on the menu is, you type it into On the Menu and it pulls up a definition for you. As you’re typing in a word it will pull up possible suggestions for what you might mean so if you spot your food you don’t even have to finish typing or tap search. Just for fun I’m including the screen shot of me trying to spell “foie gras”. Why I thought it had a “de” in it I do not know but this smart app figured out what I meant. Also just for fun I tried to look up hot dogs. Not included in On the Menu but you do get a list of closet results. Yummy.

This app could save you the embarrassment of having to ask a snooty waiter about a dish. Or worse, faking it and ordering something only to be unpleasantly surprised when your food arrives. I know that if I ever make it to a restaurant with real tablecloths this app would help me out. I’ve also thought of a more immediate use for it at my house. I’m going to use it when I watch Top Chef so I know what in the world they’re cooking and what exactly Tom Collicchio is going on and on about.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Ikamo Software

This is the ice cream that I turn to when I want a treat but don’t want to hate myself after I finish a bowl. It’s from Dreyer’s light, slow churned line of ice cream but you’d never know it was “diet”. I like to scoop up a bowl and then let it  sit for a few minutes until the ice cream gets soft and creamy. Mmm. Such a great way to end a long day. The best part is since it’s got half the fat  I can eat two bowls instead of just one.

Let me begin by saying that I’m not nearly as health conscious with food choices as I should be. I think I’ve eaten enough preservatives to guarantee myself a very long shelf life should the need arise. Most of the time I don’t  read that fine print but there was a time when my son had a wheat allergy and we were reading labels and trying to decipher the gibberish on them. I did some research online and then had a note stuck to my fridge listing all the ingredients that he needed to avoid. The system worked out okay at home but when I was in the grocery store it got tricky. This was pre iPhone days so I couldn’t even do a google search from the cracker aisle.  What R U Eating would have been a handy app to have around. It allows you to search from a database of over 80 food additives. Select one and you’ll get a description of what it does along with foods it’s commonly found in. The search is easy to navigate and full of information  you’d probably rather not know about if you’re really going to enjoy that Oreo cookie.

What R U Eating also comes with a game but I could not figure out how to play it. It features falling junk food and a set of teeth trying to eat the food. I just couldn’t get the teeth to go where I wanted them to be. Instead the game kept pausing on me. According to the iTunes description once you’ve eaten all the food all of the additives you’ve just consumed will be displayed. I never got to that point.

If you need to know exactly what’s in your packaged food this would be a nice app to have on your iPhone. It’d come in extremely handy when you’re grocery shopping. Buy it for that reason, not the game.

*Update – Marc contacted me to explain the teeth game. It’s based on the iPhone game Falling Balls and the teeth are meant to move left to right along the bottom of the screen as you tilt your iPhone. I was trying to use my finger to get the teeth to move so no wonder they didn’t catch any junk food. Thanks Marc!

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Marc Edwards

Did you all get the email from AT&T about the new YPmobile app (for yellowpages.com)? It found it’s way to my inbox last week and I figured I’d give the free app a try.

In the YPmobile app if you tap the “Business” button you can search local businesses by typing in a keyword or location. A list of results will appear and you can touch the one you want to view more details about the business. From here you can add the business to your contacts, my favorites list or my plan (a feature within the app). You can also email out the business information or pull up directions. The YP Mobile app asked if it could use my location but it didn’t appear to use my exact location. The search results I got were all based around the center point of my city, but since I actually live just outside the city limits these results were all miles away. I could deal with this if I was using the app at home and planning out a shopping trip. But if I was in my car out and about I’d want results that were much closer to my location.

The “Events” button brings up my favorite feature of the YPmobile app. Tap this and it pulls up a list of upcoming events for your area. At the top right of your screen you’ll see a small button that says “Sort”. Tap this and you can sort the events by date or popularity. When we get a spare minute on the weekends I like to hunt around for something fun to do in town. This list would give me access to events I might not otherwise know about. Touch the event you’re interested in and you’ll get a screen with more details. From here you can add the event to your plans (more on that in a minute), email it out or find driving directions.

The “Nearby” button lets you search categories or businesses located near you. This time my search actually pulled things up close to my real location. I used the category search but not the business search because it made me choose from a list of preset businesses (Staples, AutoZone, Home Depot, etc.). Tap the result and you get the business detail screen as described above.

If you tap the “My Plans” button you’ll see the list of what you’ve added to your plans from the previous buttons. The “Favorites” button works the same way.

YPmobile is a decent, free, business search app but it’s not my favorite out of the ones that I’ve tried. The one thing I did like was the events search feature. My advice with this app is to try it out because it’s free. You might like it or you might not but you won’t be out any cash.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Available at iTunes

Seller: YellowPages.com

ManGo is an app that helps you find locations for stores, restaurants, banks, etc. It’s easy to use and has a couple features that I really liked.  If you touch the "Feature" button at the bottom of the screen you’ll see some ManGo picks. I don’t think you can go wrong with a list that includes Target, Costco and my kid’s favorites McDonalds and Redbox. You can also tap the "What’s New" button at the top of the screen to see what’s been added to the ManGo app. It’s a pretty long list. If you see something you like on one of these lists just touch the name and ManGo uses your iPhone’s current location to find the nearest store. You’ll see a map  view first but if you touch the icon at the top right of the screen you’ll get the actual address and distance from your current spot. From here touch the address and you’ll see the store’s phone number. You can also touch "Add to my favorite stores" or "Add to my Favorite Chains" – more about that later. At the bottom you’ll see "Directions to Here". Tap this and you’ll get a highlighted Google map with your route info.

Back to the buttons on the bottom of your screen. "Categories" displays all the categories of stores, etc. found in ManGo. Choose one and then you’ll see the list of what’s available. Touch the one you want and you’ll get the information mentioned above.

The "My ManGo" button takes you to the section that I really liked. Here you can create a location list for places that you might visit frequently. At the top you’ll also see "My Chains". If you touched this button for one of the stores you looked at earlier it’ll show up on this list. The same goes for "My Stores". I love that I can save stores and not have to go through the long list of categories every time. If we’re out and about and the kids want to get a Redbox movie, but I don’t know which one is closest I can choose it off my stores list. Easy.

I know there are a ton of navigational/location finding apps out there and I’ve only tried out a few, but I really like the fact that I can create a saved list of stores in ManGo. If I’m out running errands with my kids I’m not going to have the focus to scroll through all the categories to find what I want. If I’ve already searched for it and added it to my stores or chains it’s right there when I need it fast. Anyone who’s ever tried to find a McDonald’s in an unfamiliar part of town while the kids are whining and crying in the back of the van knows just how important this feature is.

*On a side note: I’m not sure whether the title of this app is Man Go or Mango (like the fruit that’s shown on the app icon). I’m guessing it’s the first one since this is a navigational app but if anyone out there knows the answer, please email me. I know it’s a silly question but it’s bugging me.

Seller: Linkworks, LLC

Price when Reviewed: Free

Click here to see the app at the iTunes store

What a handy little tool this is. Once a week I have a night where I’m in the car from 4:50-7:15 shuttling kids to and from classes. Lovely timing right in the middle of dinner and if my kids don’t get fed close to schedule they become very, very disagreeable. So once a week we hit a drive-thru. My kids could dine on McDonald’s several times a week and never get sick of it. As much as I love their fries, I can’t handle that much McD’s. But our options are limited to staying within a 5 mile radius so we can make it back to pick up/drop off on time.

Thanks to this app I can spice things up a bit. It takes your location from your phone and pulls up a list of fast food restaurants. If I had a hankering for Taco Bell I’d select it from the list and then I’d get another list of all the Taco Bell’s in my area and how far away they are from where I’m at. I’d pick the closest one and then I’m shown the restaurant address and phone number. In case I had no clue where the address was I can also choose to see it on a map. The app will even allow you to email the restaurant address to someone.  No more aimlessly driving down roads hoping to see something other than the golden arches appear.

Seller: Kuchbi Inc.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Click here to see the app at the iTunes store