app store

Good news for all you 'House' fans out there. If you own an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, you can download at no extra charge a special app called 'InHouse' which gives you inside information on the show as well as special "Appisodes" only available on the program. It can be downloaded from the App Store in iTunes.

The "Appisodes" are of a character named Nurse Jeffrey (any relation to 'Nurse Jackie?') and are written by members of the 'House' writing staff. Do I smell a possible spin-off?

This is a cute variation of the popular 'webisode' concept that has been around for many series such as 'Chuck' and 'Smallville.' You'd think a show with science fiction overtones like the aforementioned would be the first to try this concept, but 'House' has origins in Sherlock Holmes so there's enough of a geek factor there for this app to do well.

With the invention of the App Store, it should be no surprise that game versions of various television properties would appear on the iPhone and iPod Touch. I have managed to get my hands on two of them (Family Feud and The Simpsons) and offer a brief review of each.

Family Feud - This game is a wonderful recreation of the environment of the game show it's based on, right down to the camera pans. The big difference is that one has to type any of the top-however-many answers rather than speak them, so it's best if the player have excellent spelling skills. Currently the game is on sale for $2.99 in the App Store.

The Colbert Report's The Word is one of those iPhone applications that takes advantage of that sort of portable player. The Word is one of those segments that doesn't translate well to a book, unlike Letterman's Top Ten Lists. Video clips better convey the emotion of the segment.

Basically, the application is all the clips of Colbert's most famous segment, and I mean all of them. The app requires a WiFi or data connection to work (because you don't want all those clips taking up memory) but they're constantly updated. I'm not sure if this will be forever or until they get bored with it and figure out another way to make money.

Fans of TV's Dexter have been clamoring for the release of the video game version for quite awhile, ever since news of the game's development first hits the stands. But just like the show's title character would say, patience and preparation pays off when you're trying to execute the perfect kill.

Dexter the Game would feel like just another run-of-the-mill TV to video game translation if it hit the Xbox Live Arcade or the Playstation Network. But this slice and dice retelling of the Showtime show's first season is special because it's on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

That's right, the touch screen manna from Steve Jobs' heaven now lets you cut up evildoers with a bone saw with the flick of your finger. Now you can fulfill the needs of your own "Dark Passenger" without having to max out your Home Depot card on visqueen and power tools or thin the pet population of your neighbors' backyards.

An iPhone software developer is trying to turn the "anybody can sing" craze triggered by American Idol and America's Got Talent into an online social networking craze.

And, I admit, the more I think about that, the more terrifying it becomes. Take the first couple weeks of Idol shows with all of the bad auditions and multiply them by the endless fool factor of the Internet.

iSing (created by Island Labs and available in Apple's iTunes store), enables anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch to record a 30-second audition. Singers then publish it and watch for their recording "to climb the charts as their 'fans' vote for (or against) it in this worldwide competition for stardom" (all according to an Island Labs release). You don't win anything but "stardom," should you do well.