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First Look: An app that gives your iPhone something to do 24/7

by Steven Sande Oct 20th 2008 at 10:00AM

PhotoFrameYou're probably keeping your iPhone busy most of the time making calls, surfing the Web, exchanging emails, playing games, and snapping photos. But what are you doing about making your iPhone work during those hours it is sitting in the dock soaking up a charge?

Chilli X has just the answer for you: PhotoFrame. The US$0.99 app displays six pictures from your photo library as a slideshow while your iPhone or iPod touch is docked, with a nice clock / calendar displayed at the bottom of each photo.

Controls allow users to select a 12 or 24 hour time display, and the app overrides your auto-lock setting so that it can show off your photos as long as you want. If you're impatient and want to see the next photo immediately, you can tap the picture or shake the iPhone or iPod touch.

If you're not using PhotoFrame (click opens iTunes) to keep your device occupied during those times you're sleeping or otherwise engaged, what is your favorite "downtime app?" Leave a comment below to keep the rest of us informed.

Thanks to Aidan for the tip!

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You're probably keeping your iPhone busy most of the time making calls, surfing the Web, exchanging emails, playing games, and snapping...
 

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26 Comments

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JW

I'd like an idle app that could display status information from my desktop (ims, emails, twitters) while I'm in full screen playing games ^_^

October 20 2008 at 3:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chris Aubeck

I'll be using it to display some structures I want to learn in Chinese.

October 20 2008 at 3:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
FoundInTheFlood

I bought Photoframe after i read your article, and now i have my girlfriend that lives a few hours away on my desk 24/7. The Dashboard Widget "Classic Frame" or what the name was again was kinda nice, but i don't use the dashboard that often.

So thank you for that little nice app, i hope future versions will add more than 6 pictures to the slideshow, the rest of the app is great.

October 20 2008 at 2:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mare

I often use PDAnet to thether my jailbroken phone during the night. My provider throttles BitTorrent traffic to 25 K/s and my iPhone's 3G connection is much faster at around 150 K/s. This way I actually use some of the 6 GB of data I pay for.

This is of course in Canada where tethering is legal.

October 20 2008 at 1:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mare's comment
Shunnabunich

Mind if I ask who your ISP is, so I know which one to steer clear of in the future?

October 20 2008 at 5:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
fl1pn0t1c

so this app crashed my phone 4 times. thanks.

October 20 2008 at 1:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to fl1pn0t1c's comment
Dave Hornsby

Hi fl1pn0t1c

I'm one of the developers of PhotoFrame and I saw your post.

The app seems to have been pretty stable so far so I'm quite interested in any problems you're having. Could you let us know what version of the iPhone software you're running and if you downloaded on the phone or through Tunes.

If we can't get you sorted I'll work out a way of getting you a refund - there's no mechanism to do this through the iTunes Store unfortunately...

October 21 2008 at 2:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sebastian

I saw this yesterday. It sounds like an OK idea.

http://lifehacker.com/5065354/diy-iphone+turned+alarm+clock-stand

October 20 2008 at 11:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Sebastian's comment
Techslacker

I saw that also and already bought a clock program to do this. The only difference is that I plan to get a dock so it's charging overnight which means it'll set upright(the clock app rotates so no biggy).

The wife has already said she likes the alarm on the iphone better than the alarm clock we already had.

Seems to me that a cheap ipod touch would be great in the home as not only an alarm clock but as a remote control for media.

Now if Apple could just get things configured so that you can define an app to run when the device is plugged into a dock.

October 20 2008 at 12:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
totoro

does it work in landscape mode? (while plugged in as opposed to in the dock)

October 20 2008 at 11:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ben

Well I'd love to see an app where I can see my next dates and appointments.

October 20 2008 at 11:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeshii

I like to turn on AIM to preserve my WiFi connection when I'm at starbucks... does that count?

October 20 2008 at 11:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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