iPhone Guru

Panolab is a great free application that gives your iPhone the ability to take super wide angle panoramic photos. The iPhone camera captures images at 2 megapixels with a prime lens. Panolab uses a simple yet intuitive user interface to stitch your photos together and the results make for interesting images. If you want a super master shot of your surroundings Panolab can help. The hardest part about stitching your photos together is the touch interface. During testing as I lifted my finger off the screen after lining two images up the gesture of my hand would blur the image out of alignment. A pixel by pixel nudge feature would be beneficial to Panolab but it is still a useful tool for on-the-go experimental photography with your iPhone.

Got a leadfoot? Use your iPhone to avoid speed traps with Trapster. iPhone Guru in no way shape or form endorses driving above the speed limit - it’s just not worth it - you should leave earlier to get where you need to go…traffic is stressful enough as it is. Trapster pinpoints your location and in a loud voice warns you of camera equipped red lights ahead of your course and known speed traps. Please drive safely out there and don’t use your iPhone while you drive as that would be extremely dangerous. Trapster follows your location on the map and when your location beacon moves off of the current map a new map is redrawn. It’s like a poor man’s radar detector. Trapster is free and is available now from the app store. Use Trapster at your own risk.

iKoto for iPhone emulates a traditional Japanese harp and it sounds suprisingly true to it’s real life counterpart, the Koto. The Koto was introduced to Japan in the 7th century from China. iKoto brings 13 pitch-adjusted strings to your fingertips and is played by plucking the strings. It reminds me of an oriental style autoharp. iKoto for iPhone is available now for only 99 cents on the app store and delivers a great musical instrument in your pocket.

Are you looking to discover new music without listening to commercials or having to pay money? Pandora app for iPhone is a good choice to meet your needs. Everyone loves music and Pandora breaks music down for you scientifically by analyzing the elements of music via the Music Genome Project. The Music Genome project is a database containing descriptions of practically every aspect of musical compositions; harmonic tones and dry recording sounds and beats made for dancing, etc. Pandora requests a search query and will ask you what song or artist you enjoy listening to and you simply type in your response and Pandora does the rest. Within seconds great new music will be streaming to your iPhone even over the Edge cellular data network. Pandora creates a “station” you may share with others or keep private that plays only music similar to the song or artist you’ve searched for. You can extend your musical discovery experience onto your desktop or portable computer by surfing to www.pandora.com and from there you can play previously created stations from your iPhone or make new stations. The experience is incredible and every track links to the iTunes music store should you wish to support the artist by purchasing their music online. Pandora for iPhone will help you find fresh new music you will love without commercial interruptions.

Celebrate Halloween with Crazy Pumpkin for iPhone! Crazy Pumpkin is a free application which turns your iPhone into a scary jack-o-lantern and it doesn’t require any carving. Shake your iPhone to change the glow color and hear frightening sounds. You can create hundreds of combinations. Here is the Crazy Pumpkin secret combination:

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.

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.