Pimp your iPhone or iPod Touch with applications

THE new age of touch screen smart phones has changed the way we look at the world. Everything from movies, music, games and multimedia gives us hours of entertainment at the touch of a finger.

But as many users know, add-on applications can enhance the functionality of your iPhone and iPod touch.

Here is a taste of applications that will definitely come in handy.

Facebook application

The addictive Facebook application has been accessible on Apple’s products for a while now. While its design is simplistic, it is perfect for keeping an eye on your profile – even if you have already checked it ten times today.

The application includes the Facebook basics – a homepage with a news feed, your profile, your list of friends, chat and your message inbox.

Updating your profile is easy, but the application is not without its flaws. You cannot check your events, change your personal settings or save those drunken images directly to your iPod.

The “Twitterati” rejoiced at the chance to be able to tweet about their lonely bus trips or their sub-par egg sandwiches for lunch straight from their iPhones.

One of the many Twitter applications available in the App Store, TwitterFon does the basics well and is perfect for Twitter addicts to keep up to date.

Much like Facebook, it is a stripped down version of its online form but it features the basics: friends feed, replies, messages, favourites and search.

What you see is what you get with this application and although the design is not mind-blowing it does what it is was designed for – tweeting.

Hendrik Kueck ColorSplash

A strangely mesmerising application, ColorSplash focuses on selective desaturation.

Basically, it allows you to remove the colour from a select area of your images leaving a dominant colour to brighten your images.

But the application does not allow to change the remaining colours, meaning only the photos original colours are used – you are unable to use the colours that you desire.

The interface is well-designed and allows you a lot more freedom with the touchscreen when viewing the images. You are able to zoom out instantly to see the full photo and you can move the image anywhere on the screen.

One handy feature is the autosave session which means that if you accidentally hit the home screen button you will not lose your work.

collect3 Picture Safe

Private photos can be protected with this application as it can quickly hide your pics from nosy onlookers.

During initial set up you are asked to choose and verify a PIN, which guards access to the photos you choose to protect. Images can be imported through the iPhone’s photo album or by taking photos from within the app itself.

It features Quick Hide, which is like a boss key – it rapidly displays a graph when the user double-taps the screen.

This app will definitely come in handy when you want to keep photos of your loved ones or more confidential material private.

These are just a select handful of applications that are quite useful but there a lot more out there – both free and for a price, for both normal and jailbroken iPods and iPhones.

So pimp your iPhone your own way.