Stare into the backlit screen of the magic iPhone as Irene’s Spirit reveals the unknown… This spooky new app claims to have the power to bring messages from the spirit world.
OK, so this is obviously a trick. But can anyone out there explain to us how this bit of wizardry actually works? If you’ve plunked down the $1.99 for the app, please clue us in.
Also, please tell me that if you ask, “Where is my bike?”, Irene tells you to look in the basement of the Alamo.
UPDATE: The developer’s of Irene’s Spirit were kind enough to let us preview the app. I’ll just say that like any illusion, Irene’s Spirit runs on showmanship, slight of hand, and a little knowledge about your audience.
From one of our tweeps, @carolyn_w: Ok here’s a hint. “Irene” reads minds about as well as the person who is using/controlling the app.
A new baby translator is now available for your iPhone. It won’t translate your babies gurgles and screams into “lavish attention on me, and entertain me,” or “I want what the cat’s eating,” but the inventors claim the app will analyze your baby’s cries and tell you roughly what the little one is trying to say.
The Cry Translator uses patented technology to analyze the tone and duration of the cries and match them to one of five possible types: hungry, sleepy, annoyed, stressed or bored.
No, the translator wasn’t built by Herb Powell (of the memorable Simpsons episode), but rather by Spanish developer Biloop Technologic. The developer claims that the app was shown to be 90 percent accurate in clinical trials, although they don’t say if these trials were published in a scientific journal (so presumably not). However, if your wailing baby befuddles you, or if you want to be an obnoxious back-seat parent, you can pick up the translator for $9.99.
The folks behind the best-selling book, “What’s Your Poo Telling You?” aren’t satisfied with being mere bathroom reading material. So they’ve dropped a new iPhone app, the Poo Log, which allows you to time, log, and graph your BMs—and learn about your gastrointestinal health while doing so.
The ‘Poo Log’ is a digital timer and journal for recording and studying the wondrous uniqueness of each bowel movement. With a clever mix of bathroom humor and legitimate medical information, the ‘Poo Log’ allows the user to track his/her digestive workings and graph their ‘poo’ – all with one hand.
According to the app‘s developers, AvatarLabs Inc, the tracker features medically accurate info that is suitable for all ages, and of course helpful tips such as, “Light a match. Now.”
Listen up, iPhone users. If you’re a little uneasy flying the friendly skies, don’t worry: Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic, will talk you through it. Branson has released a new iPhone app to help you make it through your flight. It’s for sale in Apple’s app store for about the same price as an in-flight beer.
Dubbed the Flying Without Fear app, it features an introduction by Branson himself, a video explaining how flying works, FAQs, relaxation exercises, and an emergency panic button to press for breathing exercises. And it’s Whoopi Goldberg endorsed!
The app is based on Virgin Atlantic Airways’ Flying Without Fear course, which supposedly has a 98% success rate. The idea is not bad: anything that can make your mind busy during those awkward moments of liftoff would probably be helpful, and an iPhone app seems like a perfect way to do just that. Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic, claims “the app will put many travelers at ease and enable them to prepare for their first Virgin Atlantic flight.”
However it’s unclear how this app will help during the most nerve-wrecking parts of flying—takeoff and landing—since airlines require you to turn off any electronics that have an on/off switch. Guess you’ll just have to calm your nerves at the airport bar the old-fashioned way.
Can your iPhone make you happier? But of course, according to a new application called “Live Happy.” The app is meant to boost contentedness by helping users practice “positive psychology.” It’s a technique that creates spurts of happiness that research suggests may boost overall well-being over time.
The app is based on research by psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, who has found that, for example, savoring common, yet pleasurable, experiences such as a hot shower can boost happiness. According to U.S. News & World Report:
The $6.99 Live Happy app allows users to track their happiness levels and practice some of her strategies—gratitude, for example, can be practiced by texting, emailing, or calling someone from your contact list. While Lyubomirsky is not profiting financially off the new app, she will be using it to study how her recommendations work in the real world.
So are iPhone users jumping to nab this joy-bringing app? Not all of them. When we offered one iPhone devotee a free trial of the app, he responded: “You know what would make me happy? Not spending so much time staring into an iPhone screen.”
It looks like Oompa Loompas have been replaced by iPhones. A San Francisco-based 20,000 square-foot-factory began operating this month, becoming the first chocolate factory to be controlled entirely by an iPhone and outfitted with a 3D virtual platform.
No surprise, the company behind it all, TCHO, was founded by Wired magazine co-founder Luis Rossetto and technologist Timothy Childs. Their goal is to use iPhones and other high-tech systems to reinvent the way chocolate is produced—allowing them to micromanage the entire process from scratch at cocoa farms until the product becomes edible (and delicious).
When Rossetto and Childs decided to combine chocolate making with technology, they teamed up with FX Palo Alto Laboratory to create an iPhone app that could turn a factory’s mixers and grinders on and off. And to make sure it all runs smoothly, every part of the factory is monitored with live cameras that stream footage straight to the Internet. Even the temperature is monitored with temperature-control boxes that are connected to the Web. (more…)
Apple has released some controversial applications for the iPhone, but Baby Shaker may be its most offensive yet. At least, it was for child welfare advocates who called Apple to protest the game, which consists of stopping a virtual baby’s crying by shaking the phone until two red “X”s appear over the baby’s eyes.
The game, created by a company called Sikalosoft, went on sale on Monday. By Wednesday, Apple pulled Baby Shaker amid protest and outrage from the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, child welfare advocates, and a mother whose son was shaken by his biological father and now has brain damage.
The sales pitch for the game included, “See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!” and does include the warning, “Never, never shake a baby.” How about never, never create the temptation?
It wasn’t mentioned in Mac’s official software update, but iPhone (and iPod Touch) users can now download one of the most…titillating applications yet: iSperm.
To play, you tap, shake, and tease the phone to guide an individual sperm down a “fallopian tube” in the race to fertilize an egg. The Mobigem game, now available for $0.99 on iTunes, is designed to demonstrate the stiff competition a sperm faces when it is released into the race for fertilization.
Strange, perhaps—though the title of most promiscuous iPhone app should probably be saved for its use as a personalized sex toy.
Discoblog is DISCOVER's compendium of quirky, funny, and surprising science news from the edge of the known universe. It's written by Veronique Greenwood and Valerie Ross. Email tips and suggestions to vgreenwood [at] discovermagazine [dot] com.
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Listen up, iPhone users. If you’re a little uneasy flying the friendly skies, don’t worry: Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic, will talk you through it. Branson has released a new 
Can your iPhone make you happier? But of course, according to a new application called “Live Happy.” The app is meant to boost contentedness by helping users practice “positive psychology.” It’s a technique that creates spurts of happiness that research suggests may boost overall well-being over time.
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