Planet of the Apps

In an effort to test how many "apps" she could successfully integrate into her life, Molly Baker sampled more than 300 over a three-week period. Below are descriptions and ratings of the more noteworthy programs she used, as well as a list of content-providing applications and not-so-successful app efforts.

For boosting productivity

Allrecipes. This on-the-go cookbook provides recipes and reviews to fit your ingredients, prep time, and palate.
Rating: A great tool when staring at the butcher counter looking for inspiration or planning dinner in the car-pool line.

MultiCam Philadelphia. Sure, the maps application color-codes highways red, yellow and green, according to current traffic. But how yellow is yellow? This app has 199 cameras offering real-time views of your must-travel hot-spots.
Rating: An absolute necessity for a regular commuter, helpful to anyone who drives Philly's major roadways.

SodaSnap. Simple little app that turns your photos into "postcards" for e-mailing.
Rating: Free and fun for travel.

Shazam. This app records a tiny slice of any piece of music you hear - in a store, on your television, on the radio - analyzes it, and returns with title, artist and album.
Rating: My all-time favorite application. Never again will I stand in the Gap wishing I knew what song was playing.

Textfree. As an owner of a smart phone, I felt a text plan was unnecessary. Wrong answer with a 12-year-old cell-phone owner in the family. This app lets me text for free without a plan.

For fun

BubbleWrap. Virtual bubblewrap. Pop away.
Rating: BubbleWrap the app has turned what was a stress-reliever into a competitive game of speed and escalation. But it is free.

SpinArt. Unleash your inner kindergartener. Squeeze on colors, spin the wheel.
Rating: Just as satisfying as the real thing, and no waiting in line at the school fair with a bunch of 8-year-olds getting cotton candy in your hair.

Word Warp, Wurdle and Word Squares. Three variations of word games akin to Boggle and Scrabble.
Rating: Addictive apps with many options and levels of play.

Flick Fishing. Virtual fishing - with a variety of bait, locations, and species of fish.
Rating: From a 7-year-old: "It's the best thing on the whole iPhone."

iBird Explorer Backyard. A full-featured field guide on-the-go. It's got photographs, calls and songs, range maps, and wikipages for every bird.
Rating: Takes advantage of all the capabilities of a handheld.

Content providers

NPR Addict. A portable library of audio segments of the most popular NPR shows.

WXPN. Live streaming audio any time, anywhere you've got a connection.

Classics. Virtual bookshelf offering a handsome read-on-the-go experience. Negatives? It consists of only "classics," and a mere 20 of them at that.

Pandora. If WXPN isn't playing what you want, Pandora builds a custom radio-station experience for you - all the pleasure and none of the fees of satellite radio.

Not worth the thumb trouble

Groceries. An electronic grocery list that proclaims "say goodbye to boring grocery planning . . . features that really make sense and fun." Clearly the people behind this write computer code more frequently than they write grocery lists. A task better done in less time on a used envelope.

Piano Man. I fantasized that this app could count as piano practice in a pinch for my three kids. But does sitting in the parking lot reading People magazine count as "going" to the gym?

To Do's. Like a grocery list, a to-do list is a very personal effort that no app has yet been able to match.

Pedometer. Like many an app, great in theory but short on practicality. To be an effective pedometer and track your steps throughout the day, the device must be actively on, thus sapping battery life needed if you wanted to use your phone to, say, make a call.

iFart. Let's face it, if you pay money for anything that falls in the "prank app" or "visual gag" category, you have only yourself to blame. There are more than 200 flatulence applications, to say nothing of other bodily functions that software developers must think double in humor value once they become virtual.