Some Pretty Cool iPhone Apps

It seems as though many iPhone apps gain popularity not because of utility or productivity value, but simply based on their "cool factor." Out of the 90,000+ Applications available through the iTunes store alone, one could possibly speculate that at least half of them serve little function other than to be humorous or "look cool." One of the greatest iPhone apps to possess such coolness would be the "vitaminwater sound lab," a mini DJ Application allowing you to remix 50 Cent's latest single, "Baby By Me."

The sound lab presents you with a screen full of buttons, each of which allows you start at stop various elements of a typical hip hop track, including drum lines, vocals, and special effects. You can touch a a special effect for a brief, "one off" soundbite or press and hold for continuous play. You can either experiment in free play mode or record mixes for upload to the vitaminwater remix contest. Winners of the remix contest can win cash, product, and possibly a meeting with 50 Cent himself. The app is obviously designed to promote vitaminwater's products, but that doesn't stop it from being cool. This vitaminwater sound lab is extremely engaging for hip hop heads, and will "get yo iFone blowin' up fo sho, ya dig?"

Iphone Application

Another cool, but ultimately unproductive app is "Expando", by Happy Appy. Expando is a cute little game that presents you with a screen filled with tiny red balls that bounce around the screen like popcorn in a 70s style hot air popper. Your mission is to destroy these balls and fill up the screen with happy faces. You accomplish this by pressing your finger on an empty part of the screen. Pressing the screen creates a happy face. The happy face grows bigger the longer you hold your finger to the screen. Be careful though, as you must let go of the screen before your happy face comes into contact with a red ball, or else you lose the happy face.

Expando takes full advantage of the iPhone's accelerometer, as tilting the iPhone around causes your happy faces to shift around the screen. With enough shifting, you might be able to manage "squishing" all the red balls off the screen. This tactic is particularly useful in later stages when there are too many red balls to make happy face creation easy.

This game, however simply it may be, is very addicting. Its simplicity, use of the iPhone's orientation sensing capabilities, and shear addictiveness are what gives Expando its cool.

Some Pretty Cool iPhone Apps