True Lies: We Look At Three (Count 'Em!) iPhone Lie Detector Apps

If it's a sin to tell a lie, is it just as big a sin to write an iPhone lie detector app?

Acme Mobile Products' Lie Detector would make a case for voting "yea."  This US$0.99 app would appear to be the brother-from-another-mother of the fake fingerprint analyzer Touchscan, in that both claim to work just by you touching your iPhone's screen.  Then again, neither claims to be the real McCoy; Lie Detector's App Store page even says it's "a novelty polygraph for fun and amusement purposes, it does not detect anything.  C'mon lighten up its a joke [sic]."

So while Acme's product bends over backwards to admit it's a joke, two other apps: the Agile Lie Detector (US$7.99) and the Champion Lie Detector (US$2.99) -- assert, with straighter faces, that they really work.  Both Agile (whose iTunes listing does include the phrase "This software is for entertainment purposes only") and Champion employ actual voice analysis algorithms to make their true/false decisions. 

Based on iTunes reviewers, opinion is sharply divided as to whether or not either or both live up to the hype.  One reviewer of Champion's app summed it up best: "You can't use it while on the phone, which seems like the most valuable thing it could possibly do.  You can't rewind or record the person's reaction for later analysis.  Just use for fun on friends while drinking."

In the immortal words of Lily Tomlin's character Edith Ann, "And that's the truth.  Pfffffpht."

[Go to each app's website for the iTunes link...]