Normally when I introduce an application in Soft Approach, I usually start off with some personal experience or some background knowledge. But not this time; since we will be looking into trivial applications, and I mean really trivial applications. Some of them are just good for a laughs; others to pull a prank; and a few with insignificant functionality or usage. Trivial they may be but most of them are not free; apparently even jokes and happiness requires serious money these days.

LCD TEST
The first candidate is LCD Test by Splus. The description provided is a bit too scant mentioning that “LCD Test helps you to check the display of your mobile phone for dead or hot pixels. You can also test CPU speed and compare it with other phone models”. Dead pixels are actually quite annoying and frustrating to deal with if they suddenly appear on your brand new LCD panel, but technology nowadays is advanced enough to counter these manufacturing defects.

 

 

 

A small LCD panel for mobile devices with only a screen size of 2 to 3 inch is very unlikely to be hit by dead or hot pixels. Besides, if you are really that paranoid about it, a simple display of all white, all black followed by RGB (Red, Green and Blue) screen should provide a good enough check. As for CPU speed test, if users are really into performance, I would recommend dedicated phone hardware monitor and tweaking utilities which normally comes bundled with overclocking features. To top it off, LCD Test can also let users perform a vibration check.

 

I think something like this should be sold to the repairs and services centres rather than the end user market. But if you ever happen to want such an application; it is selling for USD $4.99 in Handango or My.Symbian.Com. By the way, LCD Test is only suited for S60 3rd edition platforms.

BLUERADAR
Second on the list is an application called BlueRadar by Ingraal selling for US $9.95. BlueRadar quickly detects a Bluetooth device even if the device is not in the discoverable (public) / hidden visibility mode and notifies you when it is near. The limitation is that Bluetooth devices belonging to the person you want to trace need to be in active mode.

In other words, BlueRadar is not a magic device; Bluetooth must still be switched on in that mobile device. According to the makers, this application can be used in the following scenarios:

1. Lost your partner in the shopping center and he/she does not hear you are calling him/her.
2. Overlook someone you are waiting for in the airport or elsewhere.
3. Late to your classes and cannot find the classroom without knocking at every door.
4. Want to be warned when your boss is approaching your workplace.
5. Turning your phone into a “hide and seek” tool.
 

 

 

All in all, Bluetooth only operates in a range of around 10 meters on our mobile devices, so this kind of caps the capability of BlueRadar to be used as the ultimate “search engine”. The software interface does provide a nice sweeping radar screen though. But the search result it not directional and cannot measure distance between you and the target device.

Sigh, why would someone spend time building this application? Better rename this BlurRadar, I think.

ANTI MOSQUITO II
The last application is used as a mosquito repellent. Yes, really. It is called Anti-Mosquito II and developed by YewSoft. The concept uses ultrasonic frequencies that apparently repel mosquito. But the jury is still out on whether these things are really effective.

My speculation is that Anti-Mosquito II uses the same ultrasonic theory by emitting inaudible high frequency through handphone’s speaker. I’m not sure though if mobile phone speakers can really emit such high frequencies.

 

 

 

According to the overview, there are five choices of frequency intensity for the user to select. If millions of mosquitoes are attacking, then switch on the maximum; else keep the intensity at low to save battery. The software shows oscillograph illustration and once turned on a mosquito icon will be shown. Selling for USD $5.99, this S60 software can be obtained form My.Symbian.Com.

So there you have it! Three applications for you, the usefulness of which I am not sure of. If you really did download them, don’t forget to write in to tell me your user experience. I certainly didn’t purchase any of them.