iPhone Guru

Caisss Chess for the iPhone brings the strategy of chess front and center to your fingertips. The computer makes a steady adversary even when the strength is set to one and I am no novice to chess. The gameplay is solid with minimal thinking times between moves by the computer. The sprite based two dimensional graphics offer several customization features as far as board colors and pieces. The game saves your place if you close the app, perfect for the snail-paced games I love playing. You can learn how to become a better chess player with the built in hint function. This is one of the more expensive apps that I have rated here at iPhone Guru but for the time and effort the author put into developing such a solid strategic engine it balances out the cost. You can save and export games and even play against friends via email. Caissa Chess retails for $9.99 and is available now from the App Store.

The Theramin was invented in 1919 by Leon Theramin and was the first musical instrument which could be played without being touched. The Theramin is played by waving ones hand over it and the end result sounds like a martian invasion. Theraminator for iPhone recreates the spooky sounds that helped to set the mood for classic soundtracks in sci-fi horror films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still. Features include adjusting pitch and delay and double and triple finger gestures also adjust the frequency. Theraminator is available now from the App Store for $2.99.

If you are looking for a way to record audio with your iPhone that allows you to download your recordings to your computer via wi-fi without having to install any icky third-party apps then the Recorder app is for you. This app uses the built in mic within your iPhone to record ambient sounds and features realtime audio level monotoring. Recorder uses proprietary outgoing mail servers so the emailing of your audio notes is rather cumbersome and I could not get it to work. The selling point for me was being able to copy notes to my computer without having to install any third party apps on my Mac. The wi-fi sync works great and I’ve already used this app to record sounds and copy them to my Mac and make new custom ringtones with the sounds I’ve recorded in Garageband. To transfer your recordings to your computer just connect your iPhone to your wireless network and open Recorder app. Enable wi-fi sync and Recorder tells you what IP address to access in your web browser on your Mac or PC and from there you can save your recordings which are encoded in .AIFF format. Features I would like to see added would be the capability to pause recordings so that stopping a recording would not create a new memo every time you want to pause. This app is well worth the 99 cents and is available now from the App Store.

Koi pond is a lovely app brought to the masses by the Blimp Pilots. This app is well worth the 99 cents. You can shake the iPhone to feed your koi fish! If you put your finger in the middle of the pond and leave it there the koi fish will come nibbling your fingertip. Tap the lower right hand corner to reveal customization options such as different water colors and times of day. You can even customize the ambient noises. Give it a shot! Available now from the App Store.

GasBag for iPhone uses location services to triangulate your location and then displays the latest reported gasoline prices at all of the different stations around you. GasBag is a great tool for saving money on gasoline in today’s turbulent economy and is available now from the App Store.

I picked up Vegas Pool Sharks for only $1.99 from the App Store at this moment and it’s a fun game where…you guessed it! That’s right you shoot pool against various oddly modeled opponents (interestingly enough) but the game is a treat indeed. The three dimensional multi touch interface applied to pool makes playing a snap. Vegas Pool Sharks features intuitive controls and 3D camera controls and for the casual iPhone gamer there’s even a free version. Available now from the App Store from clickgamer.com.

If you want to know your precise coordinates on planet earth then Everytrail has you covered. You can grab Everytrail from the App Store and use it on your iPhone to gather your altitude, latitude, longitude and speed.. It tracks your trip progress from start to finish and continues to track your progress by utilizing an in-program Lock button to preserve your iPhone battery life. To get the best experience I’d recommend using a car charger while running Everytrail. You can upload your trip statistics to Everytrail’s web site if you create a user but you can still use Everytrail without having a user account for their website. Everytrail provides fun statistics for any road trip.

The ability to rate songs is a great feature for rediscovering hidden gems buried in your iPhone playlists. The procedure to rank songs in the iPod is rather simple really. On your iPhone tap iPod and then start playing any song. Tap on the cover art of the song or on the default cover art musical note icon while the song is playing and the cover art will flip over, exposing the album playlist. Above the playlist you will see a white star. Just tap the star and drag it to the right and you have just ranked your music using your iPhone. Happy stars!

Use the force with your iPhone! Phonesaber has been unbanned from the Apple iPhone App Store and has been re-released by the original developer The Mac Box in association with THQ and features legitimate Star Wars licensing. This free app is loads of fun if you’re a grade A geek like myself. In essence this app has been re-designed as an advertisement for The Force Unleashed, which is a fantastic gaming experience in it’s own right. You get 5 vivid lightsaber colors and bios of the main characters from The Force Unleashed. If you have Lightsaber Unleashed on your iPhone the force will be with you always.

You’re a modern day Jimi Hendrix, with your iPhone making sweet sweet melodies with PocketGuitar for iPhone. This App brings six groovy instruments aboard with customization features guaranteed to captivate your creativity. Try experimenting with the auto pluck feature enabled with 10 second delay and distortion enabled! Prepare to annoy the bloody hell out of your girlfriend! It’s a lot of fun for .99 cents.