Someone just asked me if I was going to race over and buy the new iPhone 3G S today. I said, “No, not until I drive off with my current iPhone on the roof of my car…again.”
But I still have to celebrate Apple’s relentless pursuit of excellence and mark today’s launch with an exploration of perhaps iPhone’s most intriguing innovations: “Green apps.”
From the silly, to the almost useful; here’s what I found.
Green Light $0.99
There are plenty of flashlight apps out there. But Green Light turns your iPhone or iPod into an energy efficient light bulb. Kind of silly, but kind of fun.
iPhorest $4.99
iPhorest isn’t selling a killer app. They’re promoting a living one. You can grow a virtual tree in the palm of your hand and share it with the world, all while helping to plant real trees.
Go Green Free
I downloaded the Go Green app, and now I get a FREE green trip every time I fire it up. It’s alright, but today’s tip was kind of obtuse: “Start a program where you buy in bulk and share the extras with friends and family.” Isn’t this the basic principle behind Costco?
Get Green $0.99
Go Green’s competitor. But their differentiator worth the 99 cent investment is that they send you daily tips via smart technology that are relevant to the holiday or season. So, presumably, it won’t tell you to recyle your Christmas tree during Hanukah or on the 4th of July.
Green Wars $0.99
Perhaps the most complicated, “I-don’t-have-a-life,” green app out there, is Green Wars. It asks you to buy and sell fictitious green products and curb the market on green consumerism. OrangaTank based it on the “Classic DOS and T1-83 game Drug/Dope Wars,” which actually sounds a hell of a lot more fun.
The Green Book LITE Free
This is a free preview of the The Green Book: “The Everday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time.” It includes energy-saving tips you can follow at home as well as green-living anecdotes from William McDonough, Cameron Diaz, and Will Ferrell. Seriously.
MeterRead $2.99
Just mirror your current meter settings by dialing it into the MeterRead interface, and the app will update you on projected energy use and cost savings available through some simple energy management tips. Pretty cool app, and at $2.99, you could pay for it in a week with the energy you’ll save.
Gorgeously Green Survival Guide $0.99
Developed by New York Times bestselling author Sophie Uliano, the Gorgeously Green Survival Guide is a quick reference eco-guide for the woman on the go. Whatever.
GreenSpot $1.99
This is basically a green news wire for your iPhone. It delivers daily news, views, and podcasts on sustainability and green living from the major news organizations, bloggers, syndicates, etc.
Green News Reader $0.99
The app that’s trying to scoop GreenSpot, but for a buck less.
3rdWhale Free
For the eco-shopper, 3rdWhale helps you find green and sustainable businesses quickly and easily. But here’s a NEWS FLASH that the two preceding apps may have missed: 3rdWhale is combining forces with Creative Citizen, the wiki for green living, to create the ultimate green app.
Greenpeace Tissue Guide Free
Even your comode isn’t sacred in Greenpeace’s eyes. Their free app explains that Americans can save more than 400,000 trees if each family replaced just one roll of virgin toilet paper in their home with a roll of recycled toilet paper. If it’s brown, flush it down. If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s Greenpeace, use just one piece.
Carbon Footprint $0.99
This app allows you to track fuel usage for multiple cars. You enter the data, and it spews out the stats on your carbon impact. But then what? I know a Boeing engineer that will dig this for Father’s Day.
greenMeter $5.99
If calculating and analyzing your carbon footprint is sissy boy stuff, then you’ll dig greenMeter. It computes your vehicle’s power and fuel usage characteristics, and evaluates your driving style to increase efficiency, reduce fuel consumption and cost, and lower your environmental impact: An anally green statistician’s dream.
iamgreen $1.99
This offers an interesting combination of increasing your phone’s battery life, with some energy-saving tips, and an international competition on who is the überous greenie of all.
NOW, THE GREATEST GREEN APP OF ALL
Cow Fart CO2 $0.99
That’s right, it measures your carbon footprint in cow farts. Now I can add “Bovine Flatulence” to my other international standards of measurement.
God bless America and all of its innovation.
