If you do not have children yet, then bookmark this page and come back when you have. You will appreciate this app in your future family live. Fathers and Mothers, read on.

This application does exactly what its name implies. It works like a real baby phone. When your little one starts crying, BabyFon will call the number you have denoted in the settings. You can also define the sensitivity. This will prevent the application from causing a false alarm, when your baby just coughs or turns around in bed while sleeping.

In our homes we do have two sets of baby phones. One set is the best rated baby phone on Amazon, yet it does not work satisfactorily. Our dwelling is surrounded by other buildings which block the baby phone’s signal when we are farther away than 50 meters from our home. The excellent Italian restaurant is 200 meters away, though. No signal there. No such problem in the case of the iPhone with BabyFon running on it. Just start the application and lay the phone in the room where your baby sleeps. If your sweet little one starts to cry you will get a call immediately. You can listen and decide whether you need to rush home or can stay and enjoy your bruschette.

You need to make sure, however, that you divert incoming phone calls on the iPhone running BabyFon. An incoming call will interrupt BabyFon and you won’t get a call afterwards.

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I got the tip from a friend of mine to play Platypus. He knows I love these old school games. He was quite right – I do love it. The game is beautifully crafted. And crafted is undoubtedly the right word because the whole world in Platypus is made from modelling clay. You can see by the art work that these guys loved what they did.

It not only is very nice looking, but has excellent game play too. You can choose from two different controls.

1. The touch control, where you steer your ship by holding and moving your finger on the touch screen. You can define an offset between the ship and your steering finger.
2. Accelerometer control, where you steer Platypus by tilting your iPhone in the direction you want to fly. You can adjust the angle and the sensitivity in the settings. I prefer this control as it is very well suited for this kind of game.

The sound track is a good fit for the game and, it reminds me of the good old Amiga games. When you are in the middle of a gaming session you can quit playing and pick up the game in a later session exactly where you left.

Here is what the makers of Platypus have to say:

Based on the cult Mac classic from Idigicon, Platypus is a fast, fun side-scrolling arcade shooter with a unique difference – every tree, cloud, ship, and enemy was created from modelling clay – so explosions don’t bang, they splat!

Defend peaceful Mungola from the invading Collosatropolans using only your trusty F-27 Platypus fighter plane. Shoot down the enemy ships, and collect fruit bonuses and a range of weapon power-ups to aid you in your quest!

Choose to control your Platypus using accelerometer-based tilt, or guide your ship with your finger across 4 massive clay areas each with several challenging levels.

And here is the video they made to promote their game. Though I think you might end up with the wrong impression looking at the video, the game looks much better when you see it on your device.

Since I generally write only about apps I like, I do not give ratings or stars. But, if I did, Platypus definitely would deserve a full five star rating. Well, I rate it with five stars in the App Store.

Total cuteness alert!

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Footnote: I know, I know, funnest is not a valid word; but it’s funny.

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Do you know Jerry Seinfeld’s productivity secret? Actually it is quite simple. Suppose you have a life goal, but have not got there because the goal seems insurmountable. The life goals may be something like I want to run a marathon once in my lifetime, or I want to give up smoking. There is a simple method to reach your goal: write it down and then make sure you take one little step each day in your goal’s direction. If you want to have success in anything, you must ensure to take action every day. For example, to quit smoking is easy: but just avoid the next cigarette. Take baby steps.

This is exactly what GoalKeep is good for. Define your goal by writing it down and then check off each day whether you did something to reach your goal. After a few days you will see a chain of check marks in GoalKeep’s calendar view. You will be proud of yourself and this will give you the motivation not to break that chain.

I know this may sound a bit theatrical, but I think this little app really has the power to change your life. In the last weeks I succeeded in remaining a vegetarian. Moreover, I am exercising every day and formed other habits which seemed important to me. Though it is really too early to tell whether the success is sustainable, I wholeheartedly recommend this little app to you. It is well worth its price.

Here is how I use it.

• I open GoalKeep each morning and go through my life goals and plan the actions I want to take that particular day. This encourages me to go after my goals.
• Throughout the day I take my baby steps I planned in the morning.
• At the end of the day I add a little check mark to the chain.

As the app description states, it is really a great motivator to have a visual feedback and see what you have done in the past to reach your goals. 

And remember, don’t break the chain.

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