Mini Reviews: Cell Phone Tracker Pro FREE, i2i Chat, Shut Up Button

Pretend to look up phone locations, tell people to shut up, or jump on the newest iPhone social networking phenomenon. 

Cell Phone Tracker Pro FREE

You have to be suspicious when an iPhone application says "Don't be fooled by imitators."  Cell Phone Tracker Pro FREE is the definition of a bate and switch.  The basic premise behind Cell Phone Tracker Pro FREE is, as one should suppose, to track the general location of a certain cell phone number.  You start by entering a phone number of choosing one from your Contacts List.  You then hit the Initiate Track button to then find the location.  This then sends a lot of fancy "locating" graphics where a red cross scales around a map of the world.  If it did boil down to that number's location then Cell Phone Tracker Pro FREE would be right on target.  Where does it fall short?  It doesn't do that.  At all.  Instead it finds your own current location, which is something that you could find with the regular iPhone map function that it uses.  This is true of no matter what phone number you enter, which you tend to figure out when you realize that all your friends and family do not live on the same block as you.  If you go into the fine print you will find that it is supposed to be a prank, but who cares?  If a free iPhone application promises something, even in jest, and does not deliver it kind of has no use.  This is one of the worst iPhone applications available, but it does come complete with an annoying banner ad.  So it has that going for it.

i2i Chat

Social networking was generation defining before smart phone technology like the iPhone, but now that it comes with you at all locations it is becoming even more involved.  i2i Chat is a new social networking format for your iPhone that uses a text chat function in a way that you may find similar to instant messaging and status updates.  Once you create an account with i2i Chat you can begin adding friends from other social networking services like Facebook and Twitter, which is part of the new trend of one social networking service jumping on the popularity of another social networking application.  When you get right down to it i2i Chat is not the most innovative social networking service around.  You create a profile, update your situation, and check others as well.  The reality is that i2i Chat is not going to be defined by whether or not it does something significantly different.  Twitter was just a simplified version of the Facebook status update, but it gained even more popularity by circumstance.  i2i Chat is just as solid as the rest of these social networking services, but whether or not it ends up being worth it depends on how many iPhone users will go for this free iPhone application.  i2i Chat is definitely worth it for those who love social networking services and like to have them synced to push notifications on their iPhone, but do not expect that this is going to change the way social networking is currently set up.  Go ahead and create an account now and if it never seems to take off you can just delete it.  It's that simple.

Shut Up Button

Who are the people that just have to have their iPhone make clever little phrases.  How important to you is it to have a button that bleeps out swear words or says things like "That's What She Said?"  Now we have Shut Up Button, which is not even as clever as the previous two.  Strange enough, Shut Up Button has become so crazy popular that you are going to be hearing this stilted phrase more often.  You should be aware right from booting up Shut Up Button that there is a problem when a pop up window comes up asking if you want to upgrade to a pay iPhone application.  When you finally do get it open you will have, well, a button that says Shut Up.  When you press the button it will say Shut Up.  No big mystery here as to what the main purpose here is, and if you are getting excited by the sound of this then you can feel free to jump over to the iTunes' App Store and check it out.  If you actually upgrade Shut Up Button you can get other buttons like a dynamite sound, a boing sound, a gunshot, a scream, and elephant, and others.  This Big Button upgrade only costs $0.99, so if you find the sound of the Shut Up Button amusing then the full version is probably a must.  The idea of Shut Up Button is an annoying ploy to pitch a pay version and get you to look at a banner ad, but if you really want it there is no real reason to avoid it.