iPhone Savior

Review: iPhone 'Off Leash' Dog Park Locator

Finding a dog park nearby has become easier than ever with "Off Leash", the first iPhone app that helps you locate the nearest off leash dog parks. This free app pinpoints your location and then displays the 5 closest parks for little Muffin to romp in. Click any park from the list and exact directions will be mapped out for easy access. This app will be an ideal tool when traveling with your hairy roommate.

I was impressed with how quickly 'Off Leash' located dog parks in the Seattle area. The noticeable draw back of this app is the limited locations loaded into the database. That can be easily overcome with updating. A short park review would also be helpful in the near future along with adding the size of the individual parks. Over 2,000 downloads for an almost invisible new app tells me that dog people are absolutely ready for an Off Leash Dog Park Locator.

Developer, "The Casual Game Network" has received over 200 emails containing fresh input on new dog parks to be included in the database. It appears the audience is listening. I'm confident that frequent updates will transform this app into a brilliantly useful resource for cult of iPhone dog owners. 

I've included a direct link to "Off Leash". You can now find it in the iTunes App Store as well. Off Leash is one of the good one's that will prove to only get better with time and community input. Nicely done!

[UPDATED 1-4-09]

iFart Mobile Finds The Sweet Smell of Success

Leave it to New York Times best-selling author Joel Comm, to transform the anatomy of a simple fart into hundreds of thousands of dollars in just over two weeks. Joel Comm launched his iFart Mobile iPhone app on December 12th then witnessed his unique blast of flatulence skyrocket to over 100,000 copies sold by Christmas Day. Firmly holding onto the number one position in 'Top Paid' apps.

The net income for Comm, after Apple takes their 30-percent cut amounts to a sweet smelling $70,000 from his $.99 gas app. Roughly $27,000 of that total came from Christmas Day downloads alone, totaling 38,927 purchases. Is it just dumb luck?

iFart Mobile's sneak attack instantly blew the popular "Pull My Finger" farting app from the App Store's number two 'Top Paid' app spot on December 19th. By today "Pull My Finger" can't even be found in the 'Top 50' listings at all.

There seems to be no stopping iFart Mobile when it comes to appealing to the baser nature of iPhone and iPod Touch users, confirming my long held belief that simple is best. The infamous fart, burp and the mythical queff all make for instant comedy no matter what age. Largely because they're authentic and often uncontrolled bursts of bathroom humor. There's some truth to the notion, if you throw enough crap at the wall something's bound to stick.

"With Wal-Mart entering into the iPhone marketplace, the App Store will have more customers than ever before, said Joel Comm, "This is getting interesting." Source: JoelComm.com

Thanks to the newly baptized Cult of iPhone recruits coming into the fold from Walmart, I'm certain Mr. Comm is well on his way to a half million of net profits from iFart in no time. I can't wait to see what kind of 'gold rush' ideas the instant success of iFart brings to some twisted developers. iQueff anyone? Apple will never have it! Or will they?

[Ars Technica via iFart Mobile]

Farting App Goes Number Two In The App Store

"Pull My Finger", the controversial iPhone app that launched on December 12th has gone number two in the App Store among the Top 25 paid apps less than seven days after its triumphant release. The wildly popular Pull My Finger has easily surpassed a list of over 16 farting apps currently floundering in App Store limbo. Most developers would sell off a kidney to gain the kind of attention and free press Air-o-Matic has generated around its unique iPhone gas passer.

Pull My Finger which originally made headlines after being rejected by Apple, calling it a 'limited utility', recently became the first approved app of its kind unleashing an entirely new "genre" of NSFW applications. Certainly no one expected it to rocket upwards as the number two Top Paid app so quickly. The number one spot is now easily within view.

'Job Compass' App Makes Slackers Feel Productive

The worst part of job hunting is sifting through all those crap jobs in the worst parts of town. By the time I finally find the right ones I'm totally exhausted and ready for happy hour again. Who's with me on this? I was a bit skeptical after downloading the new Job Compass app for iPhone until I finally took it for a typical half-ass test drive.

This app uses iPhone's locator to hone in on your miserably unemployed position on the map and then it gives you the option to job search inside a 5 mile or even a 100 mile radius. The great news is that Job Compass still performs even if you have a sweet gig but you're buying into the delusion that the grass is greener somewhere else. Too bad there's not a "get over yourself" button included.

Most importantly, this app is a mad slackers dream. It does the heavy lifting for you but still makes you feel like you're job hunting at warp speed. I searched for an Accountant job in the Seattle area with one finger and 288 results popped up faster than Wal-Mart bargain tramplers on Black Friday.

"Pull My Finger" Farting App Approved By Apple

 

Silent but deadly news has come down the pipe that "Pull My Finger", the brilliantly low-brow iPhone farting app rejected early on by Apple has finally been approved for release. "Pull My Finger" has been green-lighted by Apple to lead the charge for an entirely new 'genre' of sketchy apps that were originally rejected by the App Store citing 'limited utility'. Who doesn't want a quality farting app that can be called up on command?

Apparently Apple has sniffed out the brilliance and viral potential of this kind of app, since iBeer has remained a Top 25 paid app for the longest time. Developer Sam of Air-o-Matic told Mac Rumors;

"Apple told me that they are going to start approving a whole new 'genre' of apps, and Pull My Finger will be the first to be accepted in this genre,"  Sam said. "A very kind Apple Team Member told me that they didn't want to reject it originally, but that they were sorting out how this "genre" of apps were going to be handled."

Pull my finger is now available in the App Store for $.99 loaded with a plethora of "ass-tastic" butt blasts for your listening pleasure. One of my personal favorites is "Bigfoot". The iPhone Savior team are all relieved that this highly controversial app has finally been squeezed out for the cult of iPhone faithful to marvel over. I would like to believe that our early coverage helped to make it so. I have already enjoyed dropping bombs over some of my favorite songs. Jeff Buckley's 'Hallelujah' never sounded so raw being accompanied by a chorus of Bigfoot's ass magic. Brilliantly done Sam!

[get app link, $0.99] 

iPod Touch PAC-MAN Paper Arcade Rules!

Bangkok toy geek and photographer Khantipol Kasemsant wanted more than the thrill of playing "Ms. PAC-MAN" on his iPod Touch. Kahn wanted to capture that epic old school arcade cabinet feeling that made hours of game play in the 80's much more satisfying. WARNING: Geek alert in progress!

The paper arcade cabinet (pictured above) was printed, cut-out and glued together from a template Kahn discovered on "Way of The Rodent". He used a heavier grade stock for printing his authentic cabinet and finally captured that full arcade game experience he was desperately searching for. If only in a snapshot. It made me ask; "I can haz paper arcade?"

Kasemsant slipped in the iconic "Vault Boy" character to his snapshot just to add one more layer of gamer-geek flair. Nice work Kahn! PAC-MAN and Ms. PAC-MAN for iPhone and iPod touch can be found in the App Store for $5.99 each. Paper Arcade cabinet not included.

[Khantipol Kasemsant]    [Paper Arcade]

'Santa Live' App Gets Run Over By A Reindeer

"Santa Live", an iPhone app that was launched into a storm of controversy back in mid November, has been pulled down from Apple's wildly successful App Store by developer Adam Majewski after a recent string of complaints by users over the apps' inclusion of the song "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer".

The 'Santa Live app' contains a series of 3D animated videos featuring Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus and his elves viewed through North Pole web cams. The app began updating on Thanksgiving Day, releasing a new clip that would peep into Santa's daily activities right up until Christmas morning when Santa settles down for a long overdue nap.

Shortly after 'Santa Live' launched in the App Store on November 14th, Wired's Gadget Lab posted a report entitled; "iPhone Developer May Be Bribing Reviewers", alleging that developers, the Casual Game Network, may have paid reviewers to give the application glowing reviews on the App Store. Several more posts followed on highly visible tech sites like Gizmodo and Ars Technica.

"The developer of Santa Live, a jokey iPhone app for kids, appears to have posted a listing on Amazon's Mechanical Turk offering to pay $4 for the highest-rated reviews on Apple's iPhone App Store." Source: Gadget Lab

If You Buy Our App We'll Plant 'A Real Tree'

That's the promise of Mokugift, the group who created 'A Real Tree' app for iPhone and iPod touch. Each time someone downloads A Real Tree app from the App Store, Mokugift will ensure that a new tree gets planted by partners who are all award-winning tree planting organizations in 12 countries.

The goal of these high flying developers is to fight global warming, deforestation and poverty in countries like Belize, Nicaragua, Zambia and Haiti to name just a few. A lofty goal that will certainly take a village to accomplish.

"There are more than 13 million iPhone users," said Mokugift's Hans Chung in a brief phone interview, "If every iPhone owner planted one tree, the environmental impact would be equivalent to taking 500,000 cars off the road."

'Be Like Lil' Wayne' May Be The Sickest iPhone App Ever!

I've not experienced an iPhone app yet that's as unique or as totally sick as "Be Like Lil' Wayne". Transform every photo you take on the fly or pull from your photo library into a ghetto fabulous version of Lil Wayne himself. Apply bling, grills, tats, dreads and even add your boy Wayne to your white boy photo fantasy. The only thing you don't get to add is Lil' Wayne's cash money yo.

This app makes it simple to drag anyone from your photo roll directly into your fake-ass, hip-hop lifestyle and then email the nasty results when you're done. EpicTilt has even provided an online gallery where you can upload your stank or view other ghetto-ized picts from all around planet iPhone. In addition there's a 'Photo Slider Game' that times your ability to rebuild photos by sliding squares around old school style.

'Be Like Lil' Wayne' is the most ridiculous fun you can have on an iPhone other than being Wayne himself. Contrary to the review by "Handsome Ugly Boy", this app is made for iPod touch as well, so don't even start to panic weezy. This epic $.99 app has it all. The only missing tool is you!

Reviewer James Esposito said; "Very cool! I can't believe no one had thought of this... the possibilities are endless!"

[My Wayne-ified Jack Russell above]

'Ditsy Chicks' Video Could Push 'Pocket Jockey' iPhone App To Number One

Many developers would hand over their first born infant to a black market adoption ring in order to get the kind of viral publicity the legally blonde "Ditsy Chicks" video is bringing to the new .99 cent "Pocket Jockey" iPhone app. The app is described by creator Warren Stringer as a full-body horse racing game. He's not exaggerating. The closer you gallop to the beat of the song, the faster your horse runs on the electronic iPhone track. Horse whipping is encouraged to make your pony run faster. 

In the "Ditsy Chicks" promo video, jumping up and down while racing iPhone horses never looked so retarded or so wonderfully fulfilling all at the same time. I just could not look away. The video has been viewed over 28K times already in spite of the fact that these chicks could kill zombies with their annoying voices. Pocket Jockey is going to make millions now. More like Bazillions! 

Note to Developers: Hire the Ritalin-free "Ditsy Chicks" to star in your promo video.