Think of all the things you’ve always wanted to know how to do: fold origami, set a formal dinner table, pick a lock…or maybe have sex in a car? Amazingly enough, you can learn how to do all of these things—and many more—with Howcast’s free iPhone app. This excellent freebie puts an iPhone “wrapper” on the mind-blowing array of how-to video content available on Howcast.com.
Search for topics in the search bar or tap on Most Recent or Featured to see a list of how-to videos on Howcast.
Because the content is served from Howcast’s site, you need a wireless Internet connection (Wi-Fi or 3G preferably, though it worked fine over Edge too) to get the most out of Howcast. Even so, we occasionally ran into glitches that seemed to be caused by the way a video file was formatted. In these instances, when we tapped the icon to play a video, we could hear the audio, but all we saw was a static QuickTime audio screen. This occurred, for example, with the How to Apply Self-Tanner video.
Howcast content runs the gamut from silly to serious. One of the top-rated vids on the site—and one of our favorites—is How to Look Great in Photographs. In contrast, How to Convince Someone to Go Skinny-Dipping and How to Take a Nude Portrait are about as campy as Howcast videos get. If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at origami, there are almost a dozen videos on the subject.
If you like a video enough to share it with a friend (or enemy), tap Share to email them a link to the video on Howcast.com.
The app has some fun features that you won’t find by visiting the site on your computer: If you shake your iPhone with Howcast running, it’ll choose a popular video at random and surprise you with its selection. That’s how we discovered How to Avoid Long Lines at Amusement Parks and How to Make a Coin Disappear—both incredibly handy bits of know-how, depending on who you hang out with.
Howcast is a standout useful—and entertaining—app in a huge and growing sea of supercool freebies in the App Store. You won’t regret giving it the 0.4MB it’ll take up on your iPhone or iPod touch.
Amazing range of subjects covered. Helpful tips and facts included as onscreen text.
Needs a wireless Internet connection to work. Occasional glitches prevent some videos from playing.
