Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, First Look
A Lethal app for your iPhone
OK, the headline is a bit misleading. This app won't kill you; in fact, it's designed to inform you about dangerous situations in your vicinity. Lethal (click opens iTunes) from Elany Arts takes a location from either the iPhone's built-in location services or a list of 300 cities or parks throughout the USA, then provides you with a "lethal index" number. This number ranges between 0 and 400, with 400 being an extremely dangerous location.
The ranking comes from a composite of four scores based on lethal wildlife, crime, disease, and disaster probabilities in each area. The About screen for Lethal notes that the app is designed for informational and entertainment purposes only, so you should use common sense to guide your use of Lethal.
When I let Lethal determine the index for my home, I was surprised to see that it was 207 out of 400, or "somewhat dangerous". The wildlife index was rather high based on black bears and mountain lions in the area. Yes, we do see them on rare occasions in the area, but I'd be much more concerned about a neighbor taking a potshot at me than getting chewed on by a mountain lion.
Still, Lethal is fun (many comments are obviously tongue-in-cheek) and educational. Whether it's worth the US$1.99 introductory price is up to you. Check out the gallery below for screenshots of Lethal in action.
Gallery: Lethal App
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
iPhone Addict said 11:18AM on 1-15-2009
I bought this app and I LOVE it!!!
I would say that it is worth your $1.99 with no hesitation. I would hurry up and grab it at this price now while you can. This thing will surely take off and then the price will go up.
The makers of this app must have put a tremendous amount of time into the research. It is very impressive, not to mention, incredibly entertaining.
Reply
Izzy said 12:51PM on 1-15-2009
Was that sarcasm (I hope)? The data is readily available from a variety of sources online, for free.
Jason Latshaw said 1:15PM on 1-15-2009
Izzy –
While the information is available online (most of it, anyway, some we had to use offline resources), the effort of tracking it down, often interpreting it (like pdf maps from US Geological survey, or wildlife ranges), standardizing it (some were rated per 100, some per 100,000, etc) and putting it into one place so you could see all of the information for a specific locale was actually quite large. I know the guy who was responsible for putting together the wildlife information alone spent 80 hours on research. And there were no APIs or anything, so we had to compile our own database. Then to present all the information is easy to understand ways required a ton of equations and stuff like that. So the research actually was and will continue to be a larger effort than the actual coding of the app!
Dave said 11:21AM on 1-15-2009
What if Jack Bauer is in the area? Does it automatically go off the scale?
Reply
arpierson said 8:18PM on 1-15-2009
Or Chuck Norris...or both?
Jason Latshaw said 11:36AM on 1-15-2009
Hey, thanks for posting this! This is the app I've been working on with a team of cool people for quite some time now.
Dave, it's funny you should mention it... one of the upgrades we're working on might be seasonal fun easter eggs that do exactly what you're talking about...
If anyone has any suggestions or comments, please let us know at http://www.lethalapp.com
Thanks again for the write-up, TUAW and Steven, we appreciate it.
PS. If you're leaving it up to me, $1.99 is DEFINITELY worth it... do you have any idea how much time pulling all this information together took? :-)
Reply
Izzy said 12:53PM on 1-15-2009
It is cool to have all of that data rolled into a nice GUI format. How recent is the data? I know DoJ stats are only recent to 2004 the last time I checked.
Jason Latshaw said 12:57PM on 1-15-2009
The data is as recent as was available. The exact sources are listed in the about section of the app, and of course we'll continue updating everything as more information is compiled and released.
Angie said 11:57AM on 1-15-2009
Does it track Vampires and werewolves? If so, it's bound to be a hit with the "Twilight" fans.
Seriously, it does look worth the money!
Reply
Brian said 11:52AM on 1-15-2009
Hey, you live right by my Dentist!
Reply
Metryq said 12:09PM on 1-15-2009
And while fiddling with the Lethal app on your iPhone, you fail to notice the very thing that kills you -- and you thought texting while driving a train was dangerous!
Reply
Jeff said 12:56PM on 1-15-2009
What's the score for an Oakland BART station??
Reply
angeL said 1:25PM on 1-15-2009
I wouldn't even try using this App there, your iPhone might blow up
Josh said 2:55PM on 1-15-2009
Yes... "Don't worry, there are plenty of police officers if you need anything!"
jselc said 1:13PM on 1-15-2009
I've seen this app on other iphones and I must say it looks so interesting and fun. Plus, the clever and unexpected witticisms can be quite funny. When I get an iphone soon I will be sure to buy it--it's definitely worth the $1.99; I mean, that's LESS than a starbucks latte!
Reply
Mike said 1:21PM on 1-15-2009
I bought this app and it's surprisingly entertaining. I was interested to find that where I work is much less dangerous than where I live, just 15 miles away. Also, there's a ton of information in there about the various sources of danger. It's really well-rounded for a first-generation application. I'm excited to see what the updates bring.
Reply
Joel said 1:39PM on 1-15-2009
I got this app a few days ago and have been playing with it since, and I am thoroughly impressed. The makers obviously spent a ton of time compiling all of the information into an extremely attractive and entertaining package.
The overall design and animation is some of the best work I've seen an iPhone app so far. I can't wait to see how the app evolves, and what else Elany Arts comes out with. For a first app out the gate this is quite stellar. Grab it now while it's cheap before these guys have a hit on their hands and jack up the price.
Reply
jsfisher said 5:29PM on 1-15-2009
Apparently, you can do it with:
Trails (iphone)
HoudahGEO
Lightroom
http://inside-lightroom.com/2008/12/14/iphone-and-geolocation/
Reply
jsfisher said 5:35PM on 1-15-2009
What? that doesn't make any sense. What am I talking about!
[Sorry, 1Password (also a great program) saved my last comment along with the login and autosubmitted it.]
What I MEANT to say was:
This is an awesome looking program and one of the more innovative ideas I've seen for an iPhone app in the last month.
My friend and I are always making jokes about how we'll think of an idea for an app, and then it will come out the next week. But I sent him a link to this app, saying: "We never would have thought of this but it's so cool."
Well done guys. At 1.99, I'm definitely thinking about picking this one up.
Jack said 6:13PM on 1-15-2009
Bought this app day 1 and have been loving it. It's extremely easy to use and a lot of fun as well as informative. Definitely one of the apps that you show off to your non-Iphone friends to make them jealous.
Reply