Mini Reviews: Fandango, What Does My Name Mean, Mixology

There's an App for that!  Check movie times, find out exactly what your girlfriend's name means, or learn how to make a mean Tequila Sunrise.

Fandango

The iPhone, at least in its excessive marketing campaign, is
often described as a possible hub for almost every type of function you can
think of.  This is part of the shift to
integrate everything onto a little portable device that you take with you
everywhere.  For many people this means
creating constant access to your IM and email accounts, and for others it means
connecting with almost everything they do on a regular basis.  This can be as major as connecting to a bank account
or something as simple as checking movie times.  There have been a number of free iPhone
applications that will provide most of the movie services but, just like
online, Fandango proves to be one of the best. 
The Fandango free iPhone application is based around getting you the
information about movies, which you can look at in a few different ways.  You can look at the films themselves, either those
In Theaters or those Coming Soon, and then select to see production information
or information about where they are playing. 
You can also search by your areas to find theaters and then see what is playing
there, and once here you can select the film to get information.  Fandango is also well known for allowing you
to buy movie tickets ahead of time, and you can also get involved in this by logging
in to your Fandango account.  Fandango turns
out to be a pretty solid, though sometimes sluggish, application for movie
information.

What Does My Name Mean

Every simple programmer is looking to get you to download
their free iPhone application.  Free iPhone
applications are the easiest way to get an advertisement for a pay one, or a
local banner ad.  What Does My Name Mean,
which is also sub headed with 'FREE, FREE, FREE," gives you a large list
of names that you can choose from.  You
can scroll through them in browsing form or just search for one.  There are a lot of names in What Does My Name
Mean, but not enough to actually make it worthwhile.  On top of this the profiles of information
for each name is fairly sparse and not that interesting.  The most inclusive part of What Does My Name
Mean is the constant advertising that comes up as a pop up when you first open it
up and the annoying banner ad that comes in during the name list.  There is not much here, and just because it
is a free iPhone application does not meant hat you need to check it out. 

Mixology

One iPhone application genre that has sprung up with force
are catalogues of food and drink information. 
These encyclopedias and cookbooks are a constant feature, and may soon
have their own Category section at the iTunes' App Store.  Mixology is a free iPhone application that teaches
how to make over 7,800 cocktails.  You
can browse by either drink name, category of drinks, or the ingredients, and
you can set up favorites.  There is also
a strange little function that will let you find a liquor store or bar in your
area using the GPS location feature. 
There are a few different sections on top of the base one including a
Cabinet section that lists what should be in your liquor cabinet and a
Bartending section that gives you terminology, what kind of tools you need in a
bar, and other bartending snippets. 
Mixology is a free iPhone application of the full Mixologist: Drink
Recipes application that is $0.99. 
Thought the upgrade to the full version from the free one is not that
expensive there really is not reason to drop extra money at the iTunes' App
Store just so you can get a few extra drink recipes.