The iPhone is certainly a powerful device and capable of many things. But it is not designed to be your personal computer, and it certainly isn’t capable of doing your PC can’t do. But what your iPhone is capable of is giving you the ability to control your personal computers right from it. Mocha Remote Desktop is a very handy remote desktop application that lets you connect to your XP or Windows 7 computer and control it without having to be behind your desk.

Remote Desktop provides you access to your computer whether you are using your phone’s WiFi or EDGE network connection. Once you have made the connection, you can use your computer like you would with any other remote desktop application. You can manipulate files, work the menus, and everything else in between. The app supports 600×800,1024×768 or 1280×1024 resolutions. It also allows you to use a virtual mouse to do things on your desktop PC window.

There are some down sides to this app as well. For starters, it doesn’t work with the Home edition of Windows (Mac is out of question as well). You need RDP support. There is also no sound support at this point. I would also love to see other international keyboards added to the app.

If you happen to own one of those Pro versions of Windows and want to remote connect to your desktop computer from your iPhone, Mocha Remote Desktop is a decent app to try. It’s very easy to use and doesn’t require you to be super technical. Just gets the job done.

Rating: 8.25/10

Have you ever wanted to call someone without having to talk to them? Maybe you have that colleague who can’t stop talking when you call him/her. Maybe you just want to call in sick and don’t want to talk to your boss. We have all had those moments. The magic of voicemail makes it possible to get around the issue and make those phone calls without having to talk with those folks live. Straight to Voicemail is an innovative iPhone application that makes sure you always get the voicemail of the contact you are calling.

Sounds magical? It’s not magic. Actually, Slydial has been around for a while, and that’s what this app is built around. Once you call your contact using this app, you’ll hear a short ad and some beeps before getting connected to your contact’s voicemail. You can then leave a message without having to worry about someone picking up the phone.

The app performs as you would expect to. You still need a 10 digit number to make your calls, and you need to have the right settings on your iPhone ( please read the instructions). But the service works as promised.  Straight to Voicemail is quite simple to use and has a lot of potential. I am sure you won’t be using it for all your calls, but once in a while, this app could get you unstuck.

Rating: 7.9/10

Mixed martial arts is quickly becoming one of the most popular sports around the globe. Fight sports have been popular since the beginning of time it seems. Whether you are a student of boxing or mixed martial arts, you need to train properly if you want to realize your full potential. That means you are going to have to spend hours training your body and do some practice fights to realize your mistakes and hone your skills. To be scientific with your approach, you want to make sure you time everything and get prepared for the real fight the best way possible. That’s where Fight Time comes in. It’s a cool digital timer that lets you keep track of your training and stay on the right track at all times.

The app is pretty straight forward and comes with a very intuitive interface. It allows you to select your rounds, your round duration, and rest duration. You can also add delays and alerts to help you stay on track with your training. The color graphs are a nice addition as well.

Overall, Fight Time is a very handy app to own for anyone who’s a practicing mixed martial arts or fighting student. It’s very to use and gets the job done.

The times are tough, which means many are looking for ways to save their money and reduce their costs. One way to reduce your costs is by avoiding those hefty speeding tickets. While you should always drive as carefully as possible, it’d be nice to have a way to avoid some of those unnecessary tickets. A few years ago, you could just pick up a gadget to help you avoid tickets. But these days you can get the job done with iPhone apps such as Trapster Speed Trap Alerts.

It’s so easy to go over the speed limit when you are driving. Whether you are trying to get home faster, beat the traffic, or get to your meeting a few minutes early, the last thing you want to deal with is a speeding ticket. Trapster’s iPhone application lets you avoid those tickets by mapping out speed traps in real time. The app comes with a database of 1 million traps to help you stay away from trouble. What’s nice about this app is that it is community driven. So users can rely on reported traps by others and even rate them.

I found Trapster to be very easy to use and effective at the same time. The app can help you get around those trap areas and even get push notifications when the app isn’t running on your iPhone. All in all, a great app to save yourself some money on the road and reduce your speeding tickets. It’s a free app too!

Rating: 8.5/10

Rocket Downhill Penguin is one of the more popular games available for iPhone. The game is designed for those who look for challenging and fast paced games to play on their phone. Your goal is very simple. You have to work your way through challenging courses and pick up goodies to avoid getting frozen. The game doesn’t make you smarter, but it surely entertains you.

The concept of the game is pretty simple. You are going down the slope, and you want to pick up as many goodies as you can. Of course, you don’t want to hit the trees. The more goodies you pick up, the higher will be your score and the more bragging rights you will have over your friends who happen to be playing the same game.

The game is designed to give you as much fun as possible on the go. The controls are pretty straight forward. You can tilt to left or right to control your penguin. You can collect hot cocoa for energy and medals to extend your energy. If you pick up enough of them, you can achieve invincibility.

The game used to be a bit difficult to control in the past, but the latest updates seems to have solved that. The controls are much more player friendly, and the game continues to improve with regular updates. The game doesn’t make you smarter, but it is a lot of fun and very hard to put down. Fun for down times.

Rating: 8.3/10

The iPhone has revolutionized various markets and has changed the way we go about doing things in our daily life. iPhone apps certainly make getting things done much easier and fun.The field of astronomy has benefited a lot from the emergence of the iPhone as well. There are plenty of cool applications that enable beginners and advanced astronomers have more fun with the sky and explore things in a whole new way. Vinmeen is one of those apps. It’s a powerful application that makes stargazing a piece of cake for amateur astronomers.

Sometimes you just want to see a specific object in the sky. After all, watching the same bright objects in the sky without knowing what they are or what their characteristics are is not much fun. This app not only helps you find your favorite objects in the sky, it also helps you become a more seasoned astronomer by providing the  information you need to go stargazing like a pro.

The app automatically calculates your location by using iPhone’s GPS. You can then use the app to track your favorite objects in the sky. It even provides you with directions to help you find objects in the sky. You don’t even have to know what you are doing or know anything about the object you are seeking to find it with this app.

While Vinmeen is designed to help beginners watch the sky more effectively, it has enough features for advanced astronomers as well. The Sky View feature is very interesting and brings a whole new meaning to watching the sky on a phone. I would like to see more objects added to the app’s database, and it’d be nice if more information is provided on constellations, stars, planets, and their moons.

Vinmeen is very easy to use and very well designed. It’s pretty affordable considering what others charge with similar types of apps. Worth a look if you are a fan of astronomy.

Rating: 8.1/10

Disclosure: review copy provided.

People have been taking diaries since probably when they started writing. There is something gratifying about writing one’s memories and feeling at a moment and reviewing them later. It’s true that people have been doing diaries less and less. With all the modern tools available today to get the job done, there is no reason to stop your diaries if you still enjoy writing them. My Diary is one of those tools. It’s a handy iPhone application that lets you record your notes and view them later without having to worry about others getting their hands on your private notes.

Whether you want to take personal notes or record your memories, you can get it done easily with My Diary. The interface is intuitive and the app is very easy to get a handle on. I also like the fact that the app makes it easy to organize my notes. Paging by months makes it easier to manage your notes and record your notes more effectively.

As you can see in the above screen-shot, you can lock down your diary to make sure it doesn’t find its way to others’ hands. You can also mail out from the app, which is pretty much a standard feature in iPhone apps these days. All in all, My Diary is a simple to use application that makes recording your diary a breeze on the go. It’s very straight forward and gets the job done.

Rating: 8/10

So you want to listen to radio on your iPhone? Maybe you just want to beyond what’s being offered in the U.S. and listen to radio channels from around the world. Spark Radio is a cool streaming app for iPhone that gives you access to over 10,000 radio stations from around the world. That includes music channels, news coverage, and even talk radio shows. If you have run out of music to listen to on your iPhone, Spark Radio opens lots of new doors.

Unlike a lot of radio apps that come with convoluted interfaces, Spark Radio is very easy to get a handle on and makes it easy to find new stations to listen to on the go. Spark Radio comes with 8 graphic visualizers, which is a plus if you are into visualizers. What I like about this app is the fact that you can search for content by keyword or location. If you have the URL of the program you want to listen to on your phone, you can choose to enter your URL into this program.

Spark Radio is the first and only GPS-capable radio app that we have tested. The app helps you find local stations to listen to on the go by using your GPS co-ordinates. It also allows you to listen to radio and surf the web at the same time. It has a social aspect to it as well. You can join Spark Radio community and find out what others are listening on their phones (using the Globe Navigator feature). Rating stations is possible as well.

What’s most exciting about Spark Radio is the fact that more stations are expected to be added to the app soon. The app itself has a very intuitive interface and is very easy to work with. The GPS feature was not expected but a very good surprise. If you are looking for more audio content to listen to on your iPhone, Spark Radio is a must have.

Rating: 8.5/10

I don’t know about you, but I can’t go a day without using a To-Do list. Some people are better than others in remembering what tasks they need to accomplish each and every day. In general, using a to-do list makes people more productive and enables them to get more done with forgetting those easy-to-forget tasks. We have tested plenty of productivity applications on iAF in the past. Most t0-do applications for iPhone enable you to manage your lists as you would on a notebook. They certainly make the process much more convenient, but there is nothing innovative about that approach. ToDo Map is a different kind of task manager. It takes a graphical approach to the whole process to help you keep your eyes on the ball and become more productive.

Creating and managing tasks with ToDo Map couldn’t be any easier. You can define the type of task, level of priority, and even categories for your tasks. As you may have suspected, you can customize the categories, so the app is pretty flexible in that regard. If you can’t remember when your tasks are due, you can always set reminders for your tasks.

The app supports an unlimited number of files and can work offline as well. So you are not dependant on our wireless connection to keep managing your tasks on the go. The review mode is certainly interesting and can give you a good idea what’s on your plate.

Colors and graphics can help you better manage your tasks. This app takes advantage of both to help you prioritize your tasks and get more done on the go. If you are tired of those regular task manager apps, ToDo Map is worth a look.

Rating: 8.2/10

Whether you are a business owner hoping to keep track of your expenses more effectively or an individual hoping to stay on budget, you always want to use expense tracking tools to keep things less painful and stay on the right track at all times. iExpense Tracker is a handy iPhone application that lets you do just that. It keeps track of your expenses and helps you stay on budget at all times.

Businesses do need to keep track of their expenses not only to calculate their taxes but also figure out which expenses they can do without. By adding and tracking expenses as they happen, your business can save time and spend more time developing new products.

Individuals can get a lot of value from iExpense Tracker as well. Not only they can add their items to the app easily, they can get a summary of daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly expense break down on the go. Costs can be put on a pie or curve chart to help users better understand their expenses.

All in all, iExpense Tracker is a solid iPhone application for anyone who wants to track expenses on a daily basis. It’d be nice to have more ways to export these reports and even print them in business format. Nevertheless, tracking your costs with this app can save you a lot of time and effort and help put you on the right track.