Social Networking
IM for Facebook (iPhone), $0.99 (was $1.99)
Facebook supports chat when you’re using a web browser, and IM for Facebook pulls the chat feature onto your iPhone.
The app incorporates your Facebook friends and lets you instant message them the same way as if you were sitting and chatting at your computer. This app is great for keeping connected if you already spend a lot of time using Facebook Chat, and since it uses instant messages instead of texts, it uses your existing Internet plan instead of using up text messages.
Utilities
Greener Mile (iPhone), Free (was $1.99)
This is a pretty standard GPS travel tracker, except that Greener Mile keeps track of the environmental differences made by taking a trip using public transportation or walking rather than driving.
You get all the regular functionality out of this app – it tracks your trips with GPS, lets you share them over Facebook, and lets you save them for later reference. But it also generates statistics when you use “greener” forms of travel over driving and lets you save and share those along with your trips, too. The app offers an interesting way to measure one’s environmental impact and a good way to encourage keeping it to a minimum.
Games
Galaxy on Fire 3D (iPhone), Free (was $2.99)
This is a 3D sci-fi shooter in which you pilot a spaceship, and it’s free. It’s hard to say no to that! If you need more incentive, consider that it’s huge. Developer Fishlabs touts 20 hours of single-player story campaign and hundreds of planets and space stations to interact with. You’ll also take on escort and combat missions and gather resources to spend to upgrade your ship. And there are nine other ships you can acquire as well. It sounds pretty immersive.
