Mini Reviews: Stick Click, Doodle Buddy, Take Conversation

Whether you are a stick figure that just wants to be ignored, or a fake doctor calling in to give the latest test results, the iPhone has become the place for free iPhone applications with a little ingenuity. 

Stick Click

There seems to be a new iPhone application genre emerging.  In this new iPhone application genre you are simply told not to do something, and as you continue doing it there are more clever and entertaining responses.  Much of this was originally popularized by button applications that you are told not to press, and once you continue doing it the application will continue insulting you.  Now this function has now been united with the iPhone developer obsession with stick figures.  Stick Click gives you a stick figure that just stands there.  When you touch it then the stick figure will tell you to stop.  If you continue it will explain how much it does not like you.  Later it will hide in a box, shrink itself, going invisible, climb the walls, sit in a chair, duplicate itself, and so on.  This is all done while verbally assaulting you and egging you on to continue.  Beyond this it really does nothing else, but that is not really its point.  Stick Click does lose interest very quickly, but it is hard to compare it against some free iPhone applications that you will use on a regular basis.  Instead, Entertainment iPhone applications are really just meant to be passively amusing.  This means that applications like Stick Click are somewhat designed to lose interest after a short period of time, but what it does it does fairly well.  It is a free iPhone application, so you do not lose much by trying it out.  It does repeat itself after only a few minutes of use, so it could include more to at least justify the time it takes to download it and sync it onto your iPhone.

  

Doodle Buddy

The iPhones' touch screen has opened up the window for drawing applications that can work easily.  This is also added by the ability to take screenshots of your image to use it for an iPhone wallpaper.  Doodle Buddy, a new free iPhone application for drawing, allows you to have a number of different options for drawing pictures on a blank white canvas.  You have the ability to add colorful cartoon emoticons, and even alter the backgrounds to things like blank bricks or a beach scene.  You can do a direct save to the Photo Album so you can use the image as an iPhone wallpaper or email the image.  With all of these features Doodle Buddy does not stand out too greatly except as a pretty standard and adequate iPhone free drawing application.  You do have the ability to draw with another user by pulling them from your Contacts List.  This is more difficult than it is worth and is really just utilized to make it appear as though there are more features to Doodle Buddy than there really are in any practical sense.  They did not need this as Doodle Buddy does what it does well enough to make it casual fun.  It is never going to stand out as one of the best of the iPhone drawing applications, but for young users and those who like to 'doodle' quickly then Doodle Buddy will be a worthwhile free iPhone application.  The one thing that does detract from Doodle Buddy on top of this are advertisements that you often have to go through when opening it up.  This does not happen all of the time, but when it does it is a major distraction.  There is a pay 'Holiday Edition,' but the free iPhone application version is the way to go.

 

Fake Conversation

The iPhone has been a main source for software developers who have strange ideas that are hard to explain in a practical sense.  One of these are iPhone applications that fake phone calls.  Fake Conversation is one of these and will give you a number of options for this, but you first have to decide exactly why you want to have fake telephone conversations.  Fake Conversation gives a whole menu of different types you could have.  In the 'Select Fake Conversation' area you have so many different options for faking a conversation that you will have trouble deciding.  In 'My Conversations' you can select a people like Doctor or situations such as 'Animal in the House.'  Once you assign this you can hit the Place Fake Call button and you will get a phone call.  When you answer it you will have a voice on the other end that will actually engage in a conversation as prescribed by the situation or caller.  You also have the ability to buy more Premium Conversations for $2.99, and there are even more here that get specific and complex.  There are some conversations that are built for speaker mode, excuses to leave, and even those from other languages.  You then have the ability to set a time delay for the conversation so that the call will come in when you want, or even a special ring tone for it.  On top of this you can assign the name you want to come up, which you can align with the type of caller you have set up.  Fake Conversations is a strange idea for a free iPhone applications, which is found in the Social Networking section of the iTunes' App Store for some reason, but it is the best of this function.  If you have ever wanted something like this on your iPhone then Fake Conversations is going to be the number one choice.