''Is there a word for someone who blocks themselves from accessing everything work-related, leaving them only with Twitter?'' That's the question I asked shortly after blocking myself from everything Ars in an attempt to test out SelfControl, a simplistic (if not strict) distraction-blocking app for the Mac. Created by ...

iPhone forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski, who recently released the AMBER Alert for iPhone app, has a new app designed to help keep deleted data from being recovered from your iPhone. Called iErase, the app ''zeros'' all the free space on your iPhone and makes sure trashed files stay, well, trashed. The iPhone, like most ...

If flying a paper airplane to catch floating paperclips sounds like an appealing way to waste some time, then Paper Pilot for the iPhone is the game for you. In this first-person flier, you maneuver your aircraft through a variety of rooms, trying to catch each waiting paperclip. Catch it and it explodes for your pleasure. This ...

There's nothing worse than getting home from the grocery store and suddenly realizing you forgot something you needed. For those of us who aren't accustomed to making lists, it happens frequently. Paper and pen are so passé, though. Groceries, an iPhone/iPod touch app from Sophiestication Software, aims to remedy the problem ...

Imagine a game where you're the sadistic god of a very small island. You can create animated people at will and then torture them to your heart's content. Feed them to sharks, strike them with lightning bolts, throw them into a nearby volcano (it's actually an acquired skill) and, if you feel especially generous, feed them by ...

The third-generation iPod shuffle is here, and not a soul saw it coming. (These days, that's a rarity.) Apple's new buttonless wonder has been making waves and ruffling feathers in the days since its introduction, so we took some time with it to really see whether the hype—and the hate—was warranted. Unlike the ...

A year and 5 months after releasing iWork '08, Apple finally updated its productivity suite to version '09. Keynote 5.0, Pages 4.0, and Numbers 2.0 all sport some refinements, but this time around iWork isn't joined by a new family member. Apple touts an enhanced template chooser and more ways to share for all three ...

The awkwardly-named 10 Balls 7 Cups provides a virtual skee ball experience on the iPhone. Like its real-world counterpart, you try to amass points by rolling balls up an inclined platform and bouncing them into a series of cups. Cups that are smaller and harder to reach offer higher point scores than the ones that are larger ...

Cooking Mama is one of those love it or loathe it phenomena. It's a cooking simulator that I believe debuted on the Nintendo DS before making its way over to the Wii and, now, onto the iPhone. Cooking Mama is built on working your way through series of minigames all centered around cooking tasks. You may debone a chicken or ...

This may seem like somewhat of a stretch, but I'm going to go ahead with the analogy anyway: GarageBand is the multi-function printer in the third-floor office that is iLife '09. With the addition of yet another feature, the '09 iteration of Apple's music-making app has become the ugly, multi-purpose mess that is today's ...