Say you want to take a photo of yourself and your 4-year-old then swap your mugs, putting her teeny face on your giant head and your giant face on her teeny head. There's an app for that.

Say you want each of your daily achievements to be immediately followed by a glorious chorus of "HAAAAAAA-leluiah."

There's an app for that, too.

Or say you want to fill the room with 16 varieties of obscene bodily noises, just by touching a button.

Unfortunately - delightfully - there's an app for that, too.

Even if you don't have an iPhone, you have undoubtedly seen one of those catchy television commercials touting the awesomeness of iPhone apps.

For the uninitiated, "apps" is short for applications, which are little programs that when downloaded perform amazing tricks on iPhones.

They're one of the perks that make iPhone ownership so fulfilling. Making phone calls, texting friends and e-mailing from the car is fun for a while. But when you own a powerful little handheld computer like an iPhone, you start to yearn for more.

During my seven months of blissful iPhone ownership, I've downloaded about 30 different apps, which range in price from totally free to $100 and more. (Although most fall in the $5 and less category.)

Downloading apps is simple - you just press the "App Store" button on your phone and start shopping.

Some apps are downright useful. I use the Weather Channel app every day, which offers not only the current temperature but also a 10-day and hour-to-hour forecast.

And my Amazon Kindle app allowed me last week to download my book club's current selection straight to my iPhone for half the cost of buying the actual book.

But the best apps are the ones that serve no purpose whatsoever, other than to entertain or impress your friends.

One can, for example, download an app that displays a big picture of a lighter with a burning flame that can be substituted for the real thing during concert slow songs.

Those who are on a quest for more cowbell can download an app that allows them to clang away.

There's the aforementioned bodily function app (an inappropriate favorite with kids). And a light saber app displays the famous "Star Wars" weaponry with appropriate sound effects.

This week, I've learned of an app that will produce the "censored" beeping noise to be used around potty-mouthed friends, and one that provides a fake X-ray of a hand to be used around gullible friends.

Perhaps my favorite useless iPhone app is iSwap Faces, which allows the user to snap an iPhone picture of two people, digitally cut out their faces, then swap them.

The monstrosities I have created out of my otherwise attractive friends' heads are amazingly awful and very, very wrong. But we never fail to laugh hysterically through our grimaces at the finished products.

Say you're easily amused.

As I've demonstrated here, there are hundreds and hundreds of apps for that.

Originally posted at: SavannahNow

We've shown you a selection of free iPhone apps we've tested out. Now take a peek at some iPhone apps you actually might not mind paying for.

The Apple AppStore is chock-full of free iPhone stuff to download. We've already shown you a few of the coolest free iPhone apps available, but what apps are actually worth paying for? To find out we took five premium iPhone apps for a test drive.

Our favorite of the bunch is Avatron's Air Sharing app. Apple doesn't make it easy to use your iPod to store non-media files, even though the device is perfectly capable of doing so. Air Sharing comes to the rescue with a handy app that turns your iPhone into a networked drive that can wirelessly transfer files to and from your computers, while also letting you view a wide variety of file types on your phone. It works with Mac, Microsoft, and Linux, and it gives you Web access to files on your iPhone. This handy app costs $6.99, but if you're the type who needs access to files on the go, it's well worth the cost.

One bewildering omission is the iPhone's lack of cut-and-paste functionality. TextGuru rectifies this oversight by giving you the ability to cut, copy, and paste in documents you create with the program. In addition, it also lets you view PDF and Microsoft Word files. It's a little rough around the edges, but for $4.99 you can cut and paste on your iPhone to your heart's delight.

While SpeakEasy Voice Recorder isn't the only app out there that can turn your iPhone into a voice recorder, its simple interface and its ability to download files to play in iTunes make it stand out among the crowd. Technical limitations, like the inability to record actual phone calls, detract from the otherwise-perfect SpeakEasy, but, for $1.99, you get a simple app that provides a more foolproof way of downloading your recordings to your computer for archiving or transcribing.

OneTap Movies is a prime example of an app that just isn't worth the cost. It helps you locate a nearby flick when you're on the go, but so can other apps that don't charge you $1.99. Our advice: Save your money for the popcorn.

Another example of an overpriced app is BeejiveIM, which sells for a whopping $16. Of all the apps that let you use your favorite instant-messaging applications on your iPhone, Beejive, so far, is the only one that lets you stay connected to multiple IM services on your iPhone when you close the app. Might be worth the price for IM addicts until Apple finally lets third-party apps run IM apps in the background. Otherwise, we've gotta say it seems too expensive.

Read the short descriptions that follow and decide for yourself whether these premium apps are worth your investment. Also, be sure to check out the full range of phone and PDA apps we've reviewed in our product guide. More are on the way! If you've got a favorite iPhone app you'd like us to consider, tell us about it on this article's discussion thread.

Featured in This Roundup:

Air Sharing for iPhoneAir Sharing

Air Sharing turns your iPhone into a networked drive that can wirelessly transfer files to and from your computers, while also letting you view a wide variety of file types on your phone. At $7, it's not cheap as iPhone apps go, but it's well worth the outlay.

BeejiveIM for iPhoneBeejiveIM

For a whopping $16, BeejiveIM gives you the ability to stay connected to multiple instant-messaging services on your iPhone—even when you close the app.

OneTap Movies for iPhoneOneTap Movies

The OneTap Movies iPhone app can help you locate a nearby flick when you're on the go, but so can other apps that don't charge you $2. Save your money for the popcorn instead.

SpeakEasy Voice RecorderSpeakEasy Voice Recorder

SpeakEasy Voice Recorder stands out among the many voice-recording iPhone apps, thanks to its simple interface and ability to download files to play in iTunes. A few technical limitations keep it from being a perfect solution, however. Still, it's only $2.

TextGuru for iPhoneTextGuru

A full-featured text-editing app, the $5 TextGuru finally adds cutting and pasting to the iPhone. Its implementation isn't ideal, however, and the interface could stand a few additions to make this a standout program.


Originally posted at: www.pcmag.com

Lethal is a practical iPhone app for a change: a nice little program that uses your iPhone's built-in location services to gauge where you are, then tell you how likely you are to be maimed, mugged, mauled or otherwise maligned.

Let's say you're walking through my neighborhood back in Berlin. It's Prenzlauer Berg, so it's plenty shady: on one street corner, three filthy, mad-eyed hobos roast a baby on a spit over a burning mattress. The gutters are thick with used needles and coughed-up lung tissue. Madly jactitating mad men wrapped in raincoats stained with genetic filth eye you lasciviously from the shadows, singing to you in German about the orifices they can smell. WIndows explode above you, accompanied by screams and buckshot.

But how dangerous is Prenzlauer Berg really? Well, just load up Lethal and it will tell you: a Wildlife Rating of Zero, Crime and Disease bars maxed, and a Disaster Rating hovering around 80, since God's cursed it and all. Good to know for only $1.99.

Originally posted at:  Gadgets Boingboing

A whole lot has been happening in iPhone land lately. The 3G iPhone is now available unlocked...in China. If you want to write a nasty note about an iPhone Application, you're going to have to pay for it first. Lastly, Apple has lowered the number of iPhones it will manufacture this year, but has raised the number it thinks it will sell.

3G Unlocked iPhone

If you want an unlocked iPhone, get ready to shell out some cold, hard cash. The Apple iPhone 3G is available unlocked in China for a sum of $700 for the 8GB version and $800 for the 16GB version. The Apple Web site says that the iPhone 3G purchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier. It doesn't specify if that means any carrier in China or any carrier in the world.

Alternately, you can buy one here at the subsidized price of $200 or $300 and unlock it yourself for free. Of course, there's that pesky two-year contract to consider...

iPhone App Reviews

Here's a nice little PR move. One of the great things about the iPhone Apps Store are the user reviews. They give you the real deal, not marketing lingo, so you know what you're in store for if you choose to buy an application. Well, before this weekend, you could write a review of an application even if you hadn't downloaded it. That is no longer the case. In order to write a review of an application, you must have downloaded it and installed it on the iPhone.

This is a good move, if you ask me. Any reviewer who writes a review even if he/she hasn't even used the application is wasting my time.

iPhone Output

According to analysts, Apple has cut the production of 3G iPhones from 18 million units to 14 or 15 million units during the third and fourth quarter of this year. The Register reports that, "[Pacific Crest Securities] reckons Apple will sell 11m iPhones during H2 2008, up from its previous forecast of 8m. Accounting for the apparent discrepancy - increased sales yet reduced production - PCS noted that cutting back on manufacturing costs gives Apple 'sustainable pricing power', implying the Mac maker could reduce the handset's price over the period."

Apple and analysts think the company will sell all of the iPhones that it makes.

Originally posted at:  http://www.informationweek.com

The all-conquering free iPhone is a pretty impressive gadget out of the box - but it's the fantastic App Store that really keeps the honeymoon going, giving users access to literally thousands of downloadable third-party applications. From the sublime to the ridiculous, they're only a few taps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taps away - and a large number of them are free. Useful? Sometimes. Perfect? Rarely. Addictive? Hell yes, show me an iPhone user that hasn't thumbed through the app store late at night and I'll show you somebody who should have bought a Nokia. Here's a few of our favorite freebies - and a couple of things we want to know why we can't have!

1. AroundMe Where's the nearest bank? This is a fantastic app that takes your GPS location and shows you what's nearby, from banks, bars and coffee shops, to petrol stations, hotels, parking garages and hospitals - ranked by proximity. Once you decide on a business, you're presented with full contact details, a map and route details if you want them. We're not sure where AroundMe takes its data from, but it does an excellent job, only limited by the database. A must-have app.

2. Thumbtacts One of the many criticisms of the free iPhone is that its computer-like interface can make it a bit clunky to use as a phone. Finding and calling a contact, for example, can be a frustrating exercise if you've only got one hand free. But hey, who buys a phone to make calls these days anyway right? Thumbtacts offers a creative solution by breaking the contact list down into a series of simple thumb-clickable options that quickly and accurately find the number you're after. Hard to explain but easy to use, Thumbtacts is almost always a quicker way to find and call contacts than the standard contacts list. Nice one!

3. Midomi This one's great for its show-off value... sing, hum or play a tune into the Midomi screen and it'll identify the song, play a preview and take you through to the iTunes itunes-overtakes-wal-mart-in-music-sales Apr-4-2008 store to buy it if you want for your free iPhone. Accuracy is a bit variable, and don't expect to find anything too obscure in the database, but in general it works better than you'd expect. The "wow" factor wears off a bit once you realize how the system works, but the price is right http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Price_Is_Right and it's niftier than Shazam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shazam , its main competitor.

4. Facebook A cut-down version of facebook on your phone - can be frustrating when you can't see your events or save photos, but provides a much nicer interface for the small screen than the main full-featured Facebook page in Safari. A solid bus-stop timekiller but how much nicer would it be if you could see your events and send them straight to the iCal calendar? We live in hope.

5. Labyrinth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth LE A gaming platform with no buttons poses quite a challenge for game developers - a lot of iPhone games require a finger on the screen at all times, and suffer for it. Labyrinth, however, uses the platform to great advantage, even if gameplay is very simple. Tilt the phone to roll the ball into the goal slot, avoiding the holes along the way. Where it makes up points is in the fantastic audio, which makes your expensive phone feel like a real fifty-cent wooden box. Amazing what technology can do!

6. Free Translator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/translation Like many iPhone apps, this is simply an interface to an online service you could just as easily access via Safari. But Free Translator proves its worth in simplicity and speed. Choose a source language, choose a target language, and type in your word or phrase. The app uses Google's translation tools, so it's just as accurate and with all the usual foibles. Annoyingly, the keyboard autocorrect tries to correct all your foreign words into English, but this would happen if you were using Google Translate online anyway. Still a very handy application, particularly when traveling.

7. Cube Runner Another game that uses the iPhone's accelerometers to great effect, Cube runner simply asks you to tilt the phone to steer yourself through a maze of cubes. On the harder settings it's vaguely reminiscent of the feeling of splitting through freeway traffic on a motorcycle - so this sneaks onto the list by virtue of the fact that many of us here at Gizmag are bike heads.

8. GPS Tracker Does exactly what it says on the tin; it takes regular GPS readings and uploads them to a Web server so you can look back at a plotted map of your trip. It also functions as a laggy but passable GPS speedometer. Works very well but chews battery too fast to be much chop for longer trips without a power cable - and spends a lot of time communicating with the server too, which could mean trouble if you're on a stingy data plan. You can change the accuracy and frequency of GPS readings, but would be handy to be able to touch the screen to set a new waypoint so you could simply upload a marker every time you turned a corner or something. Still a very nifty app.

With all the great applications available, there's still some very notable omissions that would basically bring the iPhone up to speed with other mobile phones that have been available for years. Things like...

1) Bluetooth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth file transfers Sure, there's applications like FliQ that let you send certain files between iPhones that are on the same Wifi network, but why not Bluetooth?

2) Sending vCard contact details via SMS There's numerous (paid) apps that let you send vCard-style information in an email, but what good is that when a friend texts you to ask for somebody else's number? It wouldn't be such an issue if you were able to cut and paste text, but...

3) Cut and Paste 'Nuff said. Surely Apple knows by now that people want this.

4) iPhone modem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem capability Just about every smartphone can be used as a wireless modem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_modem . Why not the iPhone? It seems contractual issues have forced Apple to remove all modem software from the App Store, which is very annoying for owners and no doubt one of the biggest reasons why people are jailbreaking their handsets to use non-approved applications like iPhoneModem.

All these third-party iPhone apps are available at the App Store - just search for them by name.

Originally posted at: Gizmag