Seismometer and Movies: Our favourite new iPhone apps

By Nate Lanxon on 15 September 2008, 3:56pm

We've been perusing the iTunes App Store this weekend for some new nonsense to fill up our iPhones, and we've found some killer apps no iPhone or iPod touch should be without.

Movies
This is a free app from Flixster that every movie fan should install. It gives one-touch access to all the latest movies at the box office and on DVD, over 10,000 high-quality movie trailers, movie, actor and director info, plus links to IMDB listings of every movie.

We've only been using it for a couple of days but it's already one of our favourites. The movie trailer feature alone is worth it. If you enable the GPS feature it'll tell you which cinemas are closest to you, how to contact them, and of course what they're currently showing.

Even if this cost a couple of quid, we'd still be sold. Get this for free while you can! Install from this link (requires iTunes).

Seismometer
Seismometer is a 59p utility that uses the iPhone and iPod touch's internal accelerometer to measure vibrations like a normal seismometer. It's absolutely pointless, but that's the beauty. It's extremely sensitive and, should you be unable to feel the earth shaking during an LHC-related implosion of the cosmos, you'll be able to see it visualised in real-time.

It has various configuration options, including various sampling frequencies between 20Hz and 200Hz, the ability to enable a high-pass filter, and the use of a logarithmic or linear scale. It can even detect your heartbeat! And all for the price of a King Size Twix. Install from this link (requires iTunes).

Speed
Another thoroughly pointless application, but a fun one to install as it's free. Speed uses your GPS location to determine your current speed in kilometres or miles per hour. Bear in mind you'll need to be at least going roughly five miles per hour for it to register.

There are absolutely no customisation options or tracking logs offered, which would be smashing additions for a 2.0 version. But if, for some reason, you're itching to know how fast you're being abducted up the M1, this might be a worthy install. On a more practical note, its could be a good one for cyclists. Install from this link (requires iTunes).

What are you favourite apps at the moment? Let us know in the comments below. -Nate Lanxon