Greg Laden's Blog

An x-ray I took of Julia's hand. Sorry, it's a little blurry.
The main two functions of an iPod touch are: being an iPod (music, podcasts, movies, etc.) and giving you a pocket size web browser. There are several other functions as well, like a calendar and such.

Here I want to review a couple of addional applications that you can get for the iPod touch.

Let's start with one of the more amazing items. Because the iPod uses an internal trans-metalic laser technology to pack more than the usual amount of data into its 'hard drive' software that directly accesses the API can redivert the laser signal by turning it on AND focusing it in the 'parking' positin at the same time. This makes the iPod Touch act as a sort of minature x-ray machine. The software is called ixRay and it is currently in version 1.0, which actually works pretty well. It is available here.

Hey man, cool concert! Since you can't bring a lighter into a theater any more (for security reasons, ever since that crazy terrorist guy tried to blow up a theater flying between Britain and the U.S. using a flaming shoe), it is now hard to show your solidarity with singers and rock bands by holding up your Bic lighter until it burns a hole in your thumb. So instead, just install the software onto your iPod Touch that simulates a lighter ... with an eerie greenish flame that in real life would indicate the presence of copper.

By the way, if you want to stop this flame from flickering right now, just hit the escape key. It is a moving GIF. This is how you stop moving GIFs from moving.

The software is available from haeku, here.

iCook gives you temperature conversions, cooking temperatures, and all sorts of cool stuff. This comes from Culinary411.com.

If things go really bad in the kitchen, you can try the new application from Culinary 911.com. Not available yet, but we hope it will be soon.

There is also a tip calculator available here, and a loan calculator available here.

Now, let's get serious for a moment.

All of the above apps are web sites that detect when they are being viewed on an iPod Touch and then act accordingly. Viewing these sties on a regular web browser from your computer gives you an idea of how they work, but they will typically not look the same as on the Touch.

Some time over the next few weeks, I understand that a new system for the Touch is coming out from apple. These applications should continue to work as they are merely web pages. But I understand that a wider range of applications or capacities will be available with the new system. About which I know nothing.