Software Testing Blog

Self improvement is a lousy business model. Mobile app developers understand this better than most. For every app to help you lose weight or improve your IQ, there are basically 10x as many to help you drink more, find your nearest trans-fat vendor or change the channel without standing up to get the remote. What a world we live in!

But if sloth and gluttony aren’t your thing, you can rest easy knowing that your vices have also been covered. And so to illustrate, I’ve posted an app for each of the seven sins.

Gluttony: “Happy Hours, is a free application for the  iPhone,  Android, and the mobile web. With it, you get access to some 15,000 happy hours in 30 different cities around the country. You simply load the app up, tell it where you are (which it can know automatically on the iPhone and Android phones), and let it show you happy hours close by.” (from the washingtonpost.com)

Lust: Girl Zoomer – “This application turns your iPhone camera into a pair of binoculars with 4x zoom, so you can see “the details that other people can only furtively glance at.” (from reuters.com)

Anger: “Boston now lets angry citizens file complaints about potholes, graffiti and missed trash pick-ups via iPhone. Boston’s Citizens Connect, which city officials say has been downloaded 5,000 times since it’s October 2009 debut, won’t be the only way people can let city government know what’s awry in their fair city. The Cradle of Liberty aims to be the city of smartphone apps thanks to a new one called Boston Urban Mechanic Profiler, or BUMP.” (from cultofmac.com)

Pride: Birth Buddy – “You’re about to give birth. So pull out your iPhone, fire up this paid-for app, and track your contractions with Birth Buddy. No. You’re giving birth. Put the damn phone down. I pity the kid already.” (from itpro.uk)

Envy: iEnvy – This application lets you upload pictures of yourself for others to rate based on your “envy-ability.” Of course, you can also rate the envy-ability of others and share the results on Twitter, where else? (from teameros.com)

Greed: E*Trade Mobile Pro – “Receiving huge praise from the Apple community, E*Trade Mobile Pro gives members and non-member alike access to streaming quotes, charts, and watch list. Obviously, E*Trade members can execute live trades using this application.” (from speakstocks.com)

Sloth: “Comcast Corp has added a new feature to its Apple iPhone and iTouch application that allows users to program their set-top box digital video recorder remotely.” (from homemediamagazine.com)

With thousands of sinful apps now available, surely I have missed some good ones (pride is not a problem for me). So if you have any to add – and I hope you do – the comment section is all yours.