This post was going to be about Cal’s Plumbing Video Tutorial – Minor Toilet Rebuild, and make no mistake: It would have been exciting as hell. But, let’s face it, when it comes to do-it-yourself projects, basic toilet repair takes a backseat to driving a car with your iPhone while standing on the roof! That’s …

J’adore France and the French people. But I’m pretty disappointed with Musee du Louvre, a free but painfully brief virtual tour of the famous museum. The app consists of four main sections. In Louvre: The Visit, you get a video tour of seven well-known areas of the museum, including The Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa. However, each “tour” lasts …

Welcome to today’s episode of Recycling Old PC Games for Fun and Profit. Our first contestant: Doom Classic, the first-person shooter that spawned a thousand imitators, several hundred ports, and one horrendous movie. Next up: Command & Conquer Red Alert, the real-time strategy classic responsible for a massive drop in global productivity. In my youth I was a tremendous fan …

In the classic Simpsons episode “Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?”, Homer’s long-lost brother Herb invents a baby translator. The baby cries, the machine announces its meaning (in Danny DeVito’s inimitable voice) in plain English. Seventeen years later, there’s an app for that. Cry Translator promises to identify the “five distinct cries” made by infants. In other words, you no …

iPhones may not have FM tuners built in, but they can do a damn fine impression of a radio. In fact, where public radio is concerned, an iPhone is even better than the real thing. Apps like NPR News and Public Radio Player 2.0, for example, let you tune into live streams from hundreds of stations and listen to your …

There’s a reason you always see coin-op racing games lined up two, four, or even eight in a row: It’s a lot more fun to race against live humans than AI opponents. Unfortunately, only a handful of otherwise excellent iPhone racing games offer multiplayer modes. And most of those limit you to local competition via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi–only a couple …

Boost your photography skills with Nikon’s free iPhone app. I’ve owned a dSLR camera for years, but it spends most of its time on Auto mode. That’s because I can’t wrap my brain around things like aperture priority, ISO, and f-stops. Unsurprisingly, most of my shots bite. I’ve tried reading enlightening books like How to Do Everything with Your Digital …

If you think Robocalypse is fun solo, try playing it online against live humans. Solitaire is fine once in a while, but usually it’s more fun to play games with other people. Same goes for iPhone games: There’s only so much mano-a-Bejeweled a person can take. Fortunately, there are some terrific apps that let you compete in real-time against other …

If you’ve never heard of Settlers of Catan, you owe it to yourself to read the Wired story, Monopoly Killer: Perfect German board game redefines genre. Then you owe it to yourself to buy a copy, as I did, and find two or three friends for one of the best board game experiences you’ll ever have. No friends? No problem: …

It’s not very glamorous, but this battery pack delivers iPhone power on the cheap. Meritline The older your iPhone gets, the worse its battery performs. Don’t blame Apple: it’s just the nature of rechargeable batteries that they wear out over time. Sadly, you can’t just swap in a new one–not without some warranty-voiding surgery. But you can plug in external …