Your iOS device is a crowded place. You've got an app for that and an app for that and an app for that. Wouldn't it be nice if you had at least one app that did more than just one thing? Well, you're in luck, because at least two developers have sweet little apps just packed to bursting with all kinds of function flavors.
Probably the better known of our two apps, Fossil Software's Appzilla 2 - 100 in 1! is a slickly designed piece of software. From its multicolored eye icon to its customizablility, this app features scads of visual options as the icing on the cake of tons of smaller apps all packed into one. You want customizability? You can even control how quickly the app starts up (though why you'd choose anything other than the fast setting we can't imagine).
The kind of things you'll have access to
If you can use your iOS device, you can use these kinds of apps. It's like having an iPhone inside your iPhone. Tap on the Sauron-like eye to get started and you are presented with the first page of apps. Flick your finger across the screen to turn the page and tap the app you want. Across the top is a customization/navigation bar when you're in the app. Settings for each app can be found here. Tap the eye icon to change the color of most apps to whatever you can dream up.
Customize your color on a sliding scale
Now clearly when the app was updated to put more in (previous versions sported 90 apps), the developers chose to leave the order as is, because a quick flick across the page of apps to the last page shows you a few tacked on at the end out of alphabetic order. But that's a small matter as you can reorganize to your heart's content. Like an app on the last page, just go to the settings, tap Edit, then tap and hold the app you want, dragging it to the top of the list.
Customize your list, turn apps off, resort the order
Whenever you have this many app types in one place, yes, some are bound to be fluff, and those are here, but taken altogether an app like this -- at this price point -- could save you upwards to 100 dollars. For instance, you might spend the same amount for a flickable Zippo style lighter app as for this one. But with AppZilla 2 you'll get tons more.
If cameras are your cup of tea, AppZilla 2 features at least five or six different kinds. If you walk while you type, there's a camera app that allows you to type while seeing through your camera lens (helpful for not tripping over curbs). If you want to use the full screen as a shutter button, there's one of those too. Need a timer so you can set up the camera then run and get in the shot? AppZilla 2's Auto Camera lets you set your timer from 5 seconds up to 1 hour (though this last may kill your battery). Sure, some of these like Night Vision and Vintage FX are really just different filters broken out as separate apps, but who's really counting?
One of several camera related apps
Did you spring a buck for a level? How about a buck for a metronome? AppZilla 2 has both for the price of one. And there's alarm clocks, area code searches, BMI and BMR calculators, relaxing sound effects, a coin flip (which you can rig to always come up heads), dice rolls, and several types of drawing apps.
There are apps for health, apps for fun, a kitchen timer that lets you set up to 6 different countdowns for the very advanced chefs among us, even an app that lets you send messages in flashed Morse code if your name is Nancy Drew. Don't know what an app does? Tap the ? in each app for explanation and tips on how to use it.
Roll some dice, flip a coin, set multiple cook timers
Now, back to the counting question because apart from the multiple cameras (which could have been packed altogether), AppZilla 2 also fudges a little with 9 different Google services all set up as apps (though oddly not Gmail). Obviously there's an inflation going on here because why spend a buck on 100 if someone else says they've got 150 for the same price?
Too many apps? Set a favorites list
But these are quibbles. We guarantee if you download AppZilla 2, you'll spend hours just trying out the different apps and discovering everything packed into this little marvel. And once you find out you use some apps more than others, tap the heart icon up in the top toolbar and you can make a quickly accessible page of your favorite apps. After all, the touchable drum set is tucked away on the second page and you want to rock right now.
Not to be outdone, Ryan Bertrand introduces 120+ in 1: Applets whose file cabinet icon opens to reveal a few new wrinkles on multipurpose apping. Instead of opening directly to an app screen, Applets uses your location to give you the current weather, the time, and will even pull from the iOS calendar to give you today's schedule. That's a sweet feature we can't get enough of, and it's just a little thing, but it's the little things that matter. Below the schedule you'll find the settings button, so when you need to adjust, it's just a flick (or several) back to page one to find it.
This is a sweet home page, we must admit
In app density, AppZilla 2 packs them in 20 to a page with a toolbar across the top to boot. 120+ in 1: Applets take the more spread out approach, giving you 16 apps per page. While this feels less cramped, it ultimately means more flicking to get where you're going. It'd be helpful here if we could shift the order around to put our top apps toward the front, but at this point that's not an option.
Not to be outdone in apps, Applets offers tons too
Like AppZilla 2, Applets lets you make a favorite list, but instead of being accessible from any page, you have to return to the front page of the app then pinch the page to get an overlay of your apps in a wheel that you can spin through.
We love this but want it more accessible
There are a number of things that make many iPhone users' wish lists like camera timers and translation apps built in. Applets goes one better than AppZilla 2 by adding in a few more web services such Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo! It too includes multiple Google apps, and here Gmail makes the cut.
Not as much customizability
So where else does Applets distinguishes itself? With a few listy type apps such as Elements, which lists the periodic table of elements. Tap one on the list and you get its place in the table and facts about it such as its abbreviation and atomic weight. Other informative apps include an incredibly long recipe list for cocktails, some "Cool Facts" (such as "2.5 cans of Spam are consumed every second in the United States" -- gross), referee calls for baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and soccer, rhyme dictionaries, and the weather.
1000s of drinks, a level, and an baseball scoreboard and more
Then there are some truly interesting, possibly even inspired choices of apps. Volcanoes lets you choose from a list of the earth's volcanoes and opens up a Google maps satellite view of the lava font in question. Granted it's not real time eruptions, but it's still pretty neat. Umpire lets you score baseball games. Earthquakes loads a week's worth of seismic activity. Traffic gives you updated traffic reports for your ZIP code. If you regularly leave your iPhone on your desk at work, a security alarm can be set to catch would be thieves. You can even calculate your blood alcohol content based on gender, weight, number of drinks, and how quickly you chugged. With all the drink recipes, this seems like a common sense addition.
Volcanoes might not be useful but it's interesting
Then there are the fakers, which seems to be a big deal in Applets. Want some fake text messages, emails, or calls? There is an app for each. Privacy is also a specific issue in Applets as you can passcode lock the address book, memos, notes, photos, videos, and calendar. So if you have a few private things you're not interested in letting just anyone see, tuck them away inside the app and passcode lock the specific one.
As there are only so many kinds of apps, there's bound to be some overlap between the services offered by both. We found Applet's GPS location services to not work reliably, but also to remain turned on after we shut the app down, while AppZilla 2 was quick and accurate and cut out when we did. We also liked how much we could customize AppZilla 2 both in appearance and in arrangement of the apps. It's this last feature more than any one single app offering within the app that decides it for us. A cool hundred apps is at its most convenient when we can get to whichever one we want as quickly as we want.
