Thursday iPhone App Potpourri
Much to the chagrin of many of our iPhone-less readers, TUAW receives a huge amount of mail every day from iPhone developers who are releasing new software or updates. Here are a few of the apps that have made their way to our mailbox in the last day or two:
Walt Disney World Notescast (click opens iTunes) -- Any readers taking a summer vacation to the Walt Disney World Resort should look at this reference app from TimeStream Software. The US$0.99, 17.7 MB app features over 200 pages of detailed and updated info that can make planning and enjoying your vacation as simple as reaching for your iPhone. My personal favorite? The Hidden Mickey tours.
iBonsai (click opens iTunes) -- Bonsai is the Japanese art of growing miniature trees in small pots, shaping and pruning them to create small, living works of art. iBonsai uses a proprietary algorithm to produce beautiful and completely unique trees in just 30 seconds. This US$0.99 app is one of the most unique apps I've found in the entire App Store.
As a calm, meditative tool / toy, iBonsai excels. Each tree is rendered in the sumi-e style of Japanese brush painting and is worthy of being printed for posterity! You can force the direction of growth by holding a finger down near a branch, shake the leaves off of your tree for a cleaner look, and rotate the tree to admire it from many different directions. Koi Pond and iBonsai make a nice pair of stress-relieving apps to help find balance in our busy lives.
You may need iBonsai for reflection and calm in this economy; if you're job-hunting, you can also use Resume PRO (click opens iTunes) from Vurgood Applications. This US$1.99 app takes a bunch of personal and professional information, then creates a very good looking PDF resumé file that you can then send to contacts you meet. It even creates a cover letter if you want one. For the person seeking employment or a better job, this app is a bargain.
