Q: Hey, here’s a question, MAD mate!

I’ve been considering buying an ipod touch as a cheaper way to get into the whole kindle dealie (my gal-pal has a kindle, loves it)–plus (and here’s the rub) for any other possible useful apps.

Here’s the thing–I went on youtube to check out some ipod/iphone app reviews, and all the apps seemed to be a bunch of silly “fake lightsaber” gimmicks or very simplistic games. I realize this is because the people most likely to make a youtube video are teen boys and junior nerds, so there’s that.

So, my question to you, master of all gizmos–nay, my challenge!–since your family has at least one of these iPhone things, can you talk about any iPhone apps that are actually useful or worthwhile? I just need a couple to look forward to along with the free kindle app to maybe actually take the plunge!

A: We interrupt this art/cartoon-centric blog for a brief digression into the world of electronic gadgetry! This question came via a comment on my post about an iPhone repair service.

I’ve had an iPhone since Day One, when I happened by the AT&T store in the mall of America on the day Apple’s smartphone went on sale to find a scant 20 people in line (the line at the Apple store in that same mall was at least 150 people). While there are a lot of useless, silly apps there are a number of great ones as well that do everything from increase work productivity to make life more convenient… and of course there are ones that are just plain cool.

My Favorite Apps

Productivity

Actually a lot of the apps that I use for business and work come with the phone, but the features they have make them extremely useful:

Mail- Most smartphones have good email capabilities, so this is hardly groundbreaking. I use e-mail all the time on the phone and it has really made e-mail my main method of communicating with clients.

Safari- The built in web browser is like an instant reference machine on the go. I can do a Google image search for anything or anybody, and I get a plethora of results to peruse and find ones that work for my purposes using a special “mobile” image browser. Best of all, a simple touch and hold of the image allows me to save it to my photos and I can then browse these offline at my leisure. Great zooming ability to for getting a close look when needed.

Contacts- Another feature virtually every smartphone has, but as a Mac user it’s seamless. Fully synced contact list from my studio machine. Via Apple’s “Mobile Me” service any changes I make on the iPhone get’s synced with my studio Mac and my Macbook Pro automatically over the internet with no wires required. Phone number, notes, e-mail… the works.

Things- This is my ToDo list app of choice. Syncs with my Mac over wifi but only when I have them both open. Good scheduled/recurring task features and long term “when I get to it” categories. The red badges on the icons makes it easy to see you have something that needs attention.

WordPress- App for blogging on-the-go isn’t perfect but does work. I use it mostly for checking and approving comments as writing an actual post is unwieldy because it requires html and php tags instead of WYSISWG, but it keeps me in touch with the blog on the road.

AppBox Pro- Toolbox of mini apps that you can use for a variety of tasks.

ACT Printer- This app allows you to “print” anything to your iPhone or Touch. The document is saved as a PDF file that is easy to access and read on the phone. Works great for making a portable copy of some art direction or a script for a MAD job so I don’t have to lug a pile of paper around.

Convenience

I can’t categorize these apps as “productivity”, but they are timesavers and makes life more convenient. I use these all the time:

Maps- Basically a GPS unit in your pocket. Not only do I use this to find places I am looking for, but it works great as a telephone directory. Type in the business name , city, state and then tap the pin tag that pops up and you go to a contact list type entry with address, phone number, website, etc. Another tap calls the number. The maps are pretty accurate.

Facebook- This is a great app for keeping up with your Facebook account. Not as fully featured as the website itself but a lot easier to use than trying to navigate Facebook proper or it’s mobile web version.

PayPal- I can access my PayPal account, see my balance and send money right on the phone. The sending money of kind of pointless because you can’t use it to pay for an auction or a specific item you are ordering from some website, but the ability to check balances and transactions is nice.

Fandango- This app I use all the time. I can check showtimes for movies anywhere I am using the location feature, or look up my saved theater’s shows and times. Then I can buy my tickets straight from my Fandango account all while I am on the way to the theater. You can read about the films playing and even see fan reviews.

MLB At Bat- You have to be a baseball fan to appreciate this one, but if you are it is seriously awesome. You can follow all scores, go to a “GameDay” style play by play of a game in progress, and even watch video highlights shortly after they’ve happened. You can even watch some games completely right on your phone. That works best when you are using wifi.

Sportacular- This app is great for the sportsfan in general. It will keep constantly updated scores and there is a graphic representation of games in progress that will let you follow the action somewhat. Features almost every professional and collegiate sport, allows you to customize what gets followed including favorite teams and sports.

Phone Flicks- This is the “Netfilx” app which lets you manage your cue from your iPhone. Add movies, move them around, delete entries… virtually everything you can do from the web.

OpenTable- Great app for making reservations at a restaurant. Many restaurants belong to this network and with an account you can book a table at your favorite place or search for nearby spots based on the type of food, rating, etc.

Rocket Taxi- I don’t use this one much but when I do it’s handy. It simply looks up local taxi companies based on your location, and allows you to call them directly to get a cab. It also has a trip calculator feature so you can estimate the cost of your cab ride.

Kayak- App version of the popular travel website which will search for the lowest airline fares among all the online travel sites like Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. Handy for researching flight costs and option on-the-go.

Livestrong Calorie Tracker- Portable app that syncs to your Livestrong account and allows you to track your calories and activity levels for the day. Makes sticking to a healthy diet easy and accurate.

Fast Food Calorie Counter- This is another great app to keep your healthy eating goals in line. It will tell you all the nutritional info on over 70 different fast food restaurant menus.

Pure Frivolity

You can’t be serious all the time:

Platinum Solitaire- The best solitaire game I’ve found. Choose your casino and game. Simple but works great.

Bobble Rep- ‘Nuff said.

The Moron Test- This will drive you crazy.

Guinness- This will locate the nearest pub that serves Guinness on draught and give me directions to it… actually this should be included in the “productivity” category.

Chipotle- This app will let me order ahead at a nearby Chipotle and then gives me the location on the map. Just don’t check the calorie content of a carnitas burrito first (1165 !!!)

I’ve got a lot of other apps that are just for fun, but actually I consider my iPhone a very useful business tool.

Thanks to RC for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!

Bobble Rep, the iPhone app conceived and produced by Ray Griggs and featuring my caricatures of all 540 members of the 111th U.S. Congress was APPROVED by Apple late last night and is now available on iTunes for the low, low price of 99 cents (cheap). This after my innocent little blog post of a few days ago caught fire and was picked up by major news outlets and high traffic tech blogs.

Apple came to its senses yesterday and approved the app. You have to wonder how much of the decision was based on the press covered and image hit Apple had taken, and how much of it was simply that some overworked approval person rubber stamped it as a reject. My less cynical side is hoping for the latter, but I am pretty sure any reconsideration at all was facilitated by the many responses and support of people on the internet who were dumbstruck that such an innocent and innocuous app would be determined “defamatory” to the members of congress we depicted.

Regardless, it’s now approved and you can check it out on iTunes. Thanks to everyone for the support, and thanks to Apple for taking the time to give it another look and see that their initial rejection was unwarranted!

EDIT- Apple reconsidered its decision and approved the Bobble Rep app after a media storm of protest was set off by this innocent little rant on my insignificant little blog. Below is the original blog post:

Just yesterday I was complaining about how Apple sometimes treats its customers as if they were stupid.

I had no idea how right I was.

Back in the late summer movie director/entrepreneur Ray Griggs, for whom I did all that art for his movie “Super Capers“, approached me with an idea for an iPhone app. The concept was a database of all the members of the United States Congress which allowed the user to find the names and contact information of their senators and congressional representative either via zipcode or by using the iPhone’s GPS location services. He wanted the visuals to be more than just a bunch of pictures, and asked me to do caricatures for each senator and representative.

That’s 540 caricature if you are keeping count (including those non-voting members of the house from Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.). FIVE HUNDRED FORTY. Five-four-Oh. Whew.

The caricature “heads” would be placed on one of 12 different bodies I has also drawn to make a cartoon, virtual “bobblehead” for each member of congress’s page. You can make the heads bobble by shaking your phone or flicking the head with your finger. Of course that’s just a novelty, and the real purpose of the app is the database that allows you to find out who your representatives in Washington are and how to contact them.

I did all 540 caricatures. In fact I finished the last few dozen in my hotel room in Washington DC prior to my USO trip. Ray and his programmers wrapped up the programming and the app was sent to Apple for approval.

Here are some of the visuals that were sent to Apple:

Ray had showed a lot of people this app, and there was a fair amount of interest in it. In fact, he tells me that he is booked to appear on both the Glenn Beck John Stossel show and the Mike Huckabee show next week to talk about the app and his upcoming documentary. Both Beck Stossel and Huckabee loved the app and that’s what precipitated his appearance on their shows.

Looks like all Ray will have to talk about is how ridiculous Apple’s app approval folks are, since the app was REJECTED yesterday . Here is Apple’s official rejection letter and the “reason”:

Subject: Bobble Rep – 111th Congress Edition 1.0: Application Submission Feedback

Please include the line below in follow-up emails for this request.

Follow-up:  87280909

Dear Mr. Griggs,

Thank you for submitting Bobble Rep – 111th Congress Edition to the App Store. We’ve reviewed Bobble Rep – 111th Congress Edition and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it contains content that ridicules public figures and is in violation of Section  3.3.14 from the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement which states:

“Applications may be rejected if they contain content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, sounds, etc.) that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.”

A screenshot of this issue has been attached for your reference.

If you believe that you can make the necessary changes so that Bobble Rep – 111th Congress Edition does not violate the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, we encourage you to do so and resubmit it for review.

Regards,
iPhone Developer Program
****************************

Wow. I’ve had rejections in theme parks before but never because my drawings were considered “obscene, pornographic, or defamatory”. I can see where they are coming from, though. Check out these “hard hitting” caricatures (said with tongue firmly in cheek):

CA- Harman

ND- Pomeroy

OH- Kucinich

Brutal, I know. I mean, if Dennis Kucinich ever saw that he’d doubtless curl up in the fetal position and cry for a week. What was I thinking, doing these over-the-top, cut-throat abominations of caricatures for a public iPhone app????

Wait… someone is at the door. MAYBE IT’S THE SECRET SERVICE!!!!!!

This is truly ridiculous. These caricatures aren’t mean or very exaggerated. They are simple, fun cartoon likenesses of the politicians and the purpose of the app is a informational database. There is no editorial commentary involved at all.

This is the very reason that Apple as a company should be taken to task over its ludicrous and inconsistent app approval policies. Clearly this app does not “ridicule public figures” and is violating nothing, but Apple has decided the world must be protected from the insidious subversiveness this would force upon the public and the brutal, heinous ridicule that my cruel, cruel caricatures would subject these politicians to.

Hard to believe that anybody could be this blind. Maybe they just have a monkey doing the approval of their apps, and he throws a dart at a dartboard with “approved” and “rejected” targets on it and whatever it hits is the fate of that app. That would explain how they could approve an app with a cartoon baby picture and when you shake the phone hard enough the baby dies. Yes, that one got through only to be yanked after some outraged people complained, but no way are a bunch of flame-throwing caricatures going to get through!!!

Unbelievable.

The really sad part is that here is an app that might get people interested in who represents them in Washington, especially kids and young adults, and connects people to their senators and representatives via fun and PARTISAN FREE way. Yet Apple has decided it’s not appropriate. There needs to be more of that in this world of right versus left, especially as that applies to young kids who are being raised to consider politics the public equivalent of professional wrestling. Ray’s documentary “I Want Your Money” is distinctly right wing (and my own political views are mostly left of center) but the app is totally partisan neutral.

Please spread the word how stupid this rejection is. Apple of course does not care what its customers think… apparently they consider us idiots at best anyway (appropriate on my part, as I am a member of MAD‘s “Usual Gang of Idiots”), but it’s worth a laugh and a shake of your head.

EDIT- Thanks for all the comments, support and suggestions from everyone. Ray and his programmer Stevo Brock are working on other options, including other platforms… but that’s all in their hands. I just draw funny pictures. I’m going to close down comments on this thread, but feel free to e-mail me with further comments or suggestions.

Also, for those who have written and asked about seeing all 540 of the congressional caricatures, one way or another I will make sure we publish those… either via the app on another platform or here on my website if nothing else.