Escape for iPhone

With this handy program you can have an excuse to get off the phone every time and no one needs to know about it. Just set it to anyone in your contacts list, select a delay time (up to two hours) and press the sleep button on the top of your phone. Escape Call Free for iPhone will sit silently until the timer has run out, at which point you will get an urgent call and you can decide if it is time to leave.

School Books on Your Phone

US and Canadian college students can pack textbooks into their pockets instead of spine-bending backpacks. A northern California supplier of electronic textbooks on Tuesday released free software that makes digitized forms of college textbooks available on Apple's iPhone or iPod devices.

Instead of lugging old-fashioned ink and paper books to classes, students can use iPhones or iPod Touch devices to access textbooks online for reference during classes.

The company (Courtsmart) began offering eTextbooks in 2007 and as of Tuesday had reportedly sold copies to students in more than 5,900 schools and works with a dozen major textbook publishers to stay current with electronic versions mandated by professors for classes. It claims its prices are typically about half that of print versions. Wow, half price with no publishing costs. They probably make more than the authors.

Smart Phones?

A new Apple iPhone application called Email 'n' Walk from Phase 2 Media takes a live feed from the phone's camera, which is mounted on the rear of the device, to show the user what's in front of them as they type.

The text of your email appears as white lettering superimposed on top of the video feed - and is more than clear enough to read without blocking the view of the path or road ahead. Let's not let reality get in the way of email, duh!