If you've learnt to curb your smartphone compulsion - see pg. 58 of the March issue of
COSMOPOLITAN magazine - give these cool applications a spin on your iPhone or Blackberry.
FOR YOUR iPHONE
SoundHound
How it works: You’re driving to work and hear an awesome song on the radio. Instead of risking the DJ not telling you what it’s called, just hold your iPhone up to the radio and
SoundHound will tell you what the song is called, who sings it, and what album it comes from.
Fun, fearless feature: If you can’t reach for your phone in time, simply hum the tune and this app will still be able to spit out all the necessary information you need.
Size: 2.0MB
Cost: $4.99
NDrive Navigation System
How it works: Halfway to your destination, you realise you’re completely lost. The
NDrive Navigation System is a bona fide GPS service that lets you search for street names, postal codes, coordinates, as well as places you’ve recently visited, but simply can’t remember how to find.
Fun, fearless feature: Looking for a restaurant? A hotel? Maybe you’re about to run out of petrol and need a petrol station. This system is preloaded with more than 150 000 points of interests to help you out in sticky situations.
Size: 170MB
Cost: $54.99
Photo Makeover
How it works: Someone’s taken a photo of you on your iPhone, but you think it’s hideous. With
Photo Makeover, you can edit the photo to fix your facial expression (even add in a smile!) or simply adjust your facial features before you upload it for everyone on Facebook. Features include the ability to slim down or plump up your face, open those closed eyes and adjust expression strength.
Fun, fearless feature: You can change your facial expression to anything from a confident or sexier look to making a kiss or adding a smile.
Size: 2MB
Cost: $0.99
Voice Text Pro
How it works: Want to tell someone you’re stuck in traffic, but know you can’t SMS and drive? Instead of typing out a SMS, simply say your message out loud, and
Voice Text Pro records it and types it out for you.
Fun, fearless feature: The fact that it’s hands-free is by far its best feature.
Size: 2MB
Cost: $4.99
Top 100 on iTunes
How it works: This app tells you which songs are topping the charts on iTunes every day. You can listen to the latest, most popular tracks on iTunes, complete with lyrics, album art and the option to watch the music video too.
Fun, fearless feature: If you don’t like song number 38 for example, you can just skip to another one.
Size: 0.5MB
Cost: $2.99
Jamie’s 20 Minute Meals
How it works: Your new man is coming over for dinner, you can’t think of anything to cook and you’re running out of time. Browse through this app and Jamie Oliver will lay out 55 recipes you can prepare in 20 minutes. The app lets you know all the essentials you’ll need in your kitchen before you start cooking, as well as 21 video clips to show you exactly what you need to do.
Fun, fearless feature: If you don’t feel like sifting through all 55 meals, simply shake your iPhone for a random recipe.
Size: 99.6MB
Cost: $7.99
All of the above applications are available through the iTunes South Africa store.
FOR YOUR BLACKBERRY
DrinkBook
How it works: Whether you’re planning a cocktail party or simply want to sip on a Cosmopolitan after a long day at the office,
DrinkBook has more than 1 000 cocktail recipes for you to browse through.
Fun, fearless feature: There are more than 1 000 cocktail ideas… more than 1 000. Enough said!
Size: 2MB
Cost: $4.99
If I Were a Girl
How it works: This entertaining app is for the man in your life. If he’s ever wondered what he would like or what he would do for a living, as a woman,
If I Were a Girl will give him the ‘facts.’
Fun, fearless feature: There’s nothing special here, but it’ll definitely get you laughing with your guy.
Karaoke
How it works: Sing along to your all-time favourites, such as Queen’s ‘We are the Champions’ or The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’ just as you would at any karaoke bar.
Fun, fearless feature: While
Karaoke only comes with a few songs preloaded, you can download more songs.
SmartYoga
How it works: With
SmartYoga you can browse through loads of yoga positions, each with step-by-step instructions, illustrations and explanations about the benefits of each position you try.
Fun, fearless feature: If you don’t have time for a yoga class, you still have the option of getting your daily exercise right at your fingertips.
Talk Like a Pirate
How it works: Following on from the Facebook pirate trend, this fun-filled app translates whatever you type into pirate language. Why not?
Fun, fearless feature: You can send your pirate text via e-mail, SMS or Twitter… just for the hell of it.
UberTwitter
How it works: Tweeps, this is for you! Upload videos and photos, shrink your tweets for longer messages and shorten URLs all directly from your Blackberry.
Fun, fearless feature: With
UberTwitter you no longer need to be in front of your laptop or computer to update your tweets. The apps’ boundaries are limitless.
Excluding
DrinkBook, which is available at
www.handango.com, all of the above Blackberry apps are available for free from
www.getjar.co.za.