iPhone Application Watch: Direct Line, PCalc, iBlessing, Style.com, PhotoSwap, Murderdrome no more

Direct Line

The Direct Line application aims to get you through the highly irritating string of automated menu choices you're always confronted with when you call a large company these days.

I've a suspicion that it will only work well with US and Canadian companies at present. Plus, it won't do anything for the annoying 0870 numbers we have to put up with in the UK. I refuse to call customer services that use these numbers from my iPhone as they're not included in my call plan.

(Via TechCrunch)

PCalc

If the iPhone's built in scientific calculator (turn the phone into landscape mode, if you hadn't already discovered it) isn't enough for all your über-calculating needs, try PCalc which also offers both simple and scientific modes, but also hexadecimal, octal, and binary modes, bitwise operators, a range of unit conversions and constants, virtual paper tape, multiple undo and redo, and "shake to clear" (I never thought a calculator would use the accelerometer this way, it's a bit "Etch a Sketch".)

Some might say it's a tad expensive at $9.99 (£5.99), but if it does what you want, six quid for a calc isn't bad. Now, if it did graphs, too...

iBlessing

Developed by The Jewish Learning Group, iBlessing displays and plays appropriate blessing prayers for a variety of food groups. It's free to download.

Style.com

Style.com has introduced a fashion application enabling users to watch runway (catwalk) shows during New York Fashion Week. From 5th September, there will be updates from every major catwalk, including London, Paris, New York, and Milan. It also offers direct access to Style.com's reviews of the show, so it's a great draw for the magazine. Free to download.

PhotoSwap

Padadaz has developed the free PhotoSwap application which allows photos taken on the iPhone to be sent to anyone else (with an iPhone, that is).

The developer writes "Looking at something worth taking a picture of? Use PhotoSwap and send your picture immediately to another randomly selected PhotoSwap user. In exchange, you'll get a picture from him. You can reply to each picture you receive with another picture. PhotoSwap lets you engage in a real photo-based conversation. Be surprised by a unique glimpse into someone else's life."

Murderdrome pulled

One of Apple's staff obviously wasn't on the ball when Murderdrome was approved for addition to the iPhone App Store, because Apple has now seen fit to pull the comic book app on the grounds that it's too violent.

That's apparently because the SDK says that applications mustn't offend anyone "in Apple's reasonable opinion".

"Here at Infurious, we would love to work with Apple to ensure a content-rating system can be put in place to allow material that is no more offensive than many of the R-rated films available to download on iTunes," read a statement on the Infurious blog.

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