What are smartphones? All too often, they are perceived to be just boring business phones, or worse. For sure, the most common perception is that smartphones are intended for business or official purposes only. You really can’t blame anyone for thinking this. After all, in this day and age, such phones are named after confectionary items and come with a bubblegum type of imagery.
In reality, smartphones are anything but boring. In fact, they are so, well, smart, that they can easily incorporate quite a few quirky apps to make things more fun. We look at some of these apps that have to be only downloaded on to such handsets to shatter the myth of being a “boring” smartphone owner:
Make A Mess
Think you can be da Vinci if you had the right tools at your fingertips? Well, you are out of an excuse now, with the ‘Make A Mess’ application that gives you both, an easel as well as a palette to create your own finger painting masterpiece right on your BlackBerry screen. You can then share the image with your friends or upload it to an online gallery. All you have to do to get started is pick the size of your brush, which, of course, is your finger, and pick the colour you want to use first. Just move your finger across the screen to indicate where you want the finger paint to be applied. Price: Free
Revolver
As the name suggests, this app converts your Blackberry into a revolver. Click anywhere on the screen to load bullets. Touch, not click, each chamber to insert or remove bullets. You can load any number of bullets and even play the infamous Russian Roulette. The ‘revolver’ can be fired by flicking the phone back, swiping right on the trigger, or by pressing any of the hardware convenience keys. Price: $2.99 (Rs 140)
Kitchen Calculator PRO
This app basically does all the kitchen conversions for people fond of cooking but who still struggle with the basic measurements. For instance, you could convert grams of sugar into cups. Available on Apple iTunes, this app does all the ingredient measurements you will need to keep your culinary calculations accurate. It also tells you the number of servings you can dish out from the quantity of food you’ve made. $3.99 (about Rs 190)
Translating Parrot
Nokia’s Ovi Store has this fun app that allows you to translate your texts into various languages. All you have to do is send the text to the ‘Parrot’ in your native language and he will respond in up to 12 languages, including Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew and Japanese. This app, however, requires a continuous internet connection in order to be able to translate. Price: Free
Guitar Toolkit
The popular band Nickelback had nailed it with: “We all just wanna be big rockstars”. Well, don’t we? Now, the Guitar Toolkit is a must have app for all budding, seasoned as well as newbie guitarists. It comes with a chromatic tuner, a chord library with over 500,000 combinations and a chord finder as well. Having this Apple iTunes app means that you are carrying a virtual guitar tutor with you at all times. It’s a bit costly, yet it’s value for money. Price: $9.99 (about Rs 500)
Cheat Detector
Haven’t you ever wanted to be able to find out when people are lying? Available on Nokia’s Ovi Store, the Cheat Detector uses a built-in lie detector to reveal the subject’s stress-levels during questioning. Quite a powerful app, this. Price: Free
