10 iPhone Apps That Need a Push to Use the Accelerometer

There's no denying that the iPhone owes a large part of its success to the swift, rabid adoption of the accelerometer by the vast majority of the App Store’s 65,000+ apps. With an array of uses far beyond anything Apple ever dreamed possible, iPhone’s tilt controls have sparked a revolution of their own and raised the bar for mobile apps across all platforms.

Of course, there are plenty of apps out there that limit their accelerometer use--or ignore it completely--but who are we to judge? It’s not like we spend our days trolling the App Store just so we can boil down tens of thousands of games and utilities to 10 or so that we think need improvement.

So, here’s our list of 10 or so apps that we think need improvement:

Eliss

A crude, deceptively confounding game of wits and reflex, Eliss already makes fantastic use of iPhone’s multi-touch screen for an innovative head-scratcher that’ll leave you downright loopy. But we can’t help but wonder how much better it would be with a little help from the accelerometer. We’re already pinching and nudging to move, split and combine planets to fill randomly forming squeesars--and with so much happening in such a confined space, we’d like to be able to spin and tilt our phone to get a better handle on things. 

Koi Pond

A classic from Day One that showcases everything great about the iPhone’s responsive technologies, but after all these months, we’d like to shake things up--literally. Sure, it’s fun to tap the screen and watch the water gently ripple, but wouldn’t it be fun to really put a scare into the fish, Pocket God-style? 

Touch Physics

Another puzzler that differentiates itself from the pack with creative flourishes, Touch Physics gives new meaning to thinking outside the box, but curiously leaves the accelerometer out of the equation. We certainly don’t want to upset the integrity of the game, but we wouldn’t mind having a little say over how our shapes fall and tumble. 

Notes

With OS 3, Apple has finally expanded its note-taking app beyond simple note-taking, but it can still use a few more bells and whistles before it’s our digital pad of choice--like, for instance, a flip function. Instead of pressing the plus to open a new page, we wish Apple would let us shake to turn the page, like we would with a spiral steno book.

Maps: Street View

Better than TomTom, 411 and Hagstrom all rolled into one, Maps has gotten us to dinner on time, saved us from having to pull over for directions, and found the nearest In-N-Out for a late-night burger fix, but there’s one thing it can’t do: street-view compass mode. The G1 Android taps into its own accelerometer to create a "live" street view that rotates your position with each step. Of course, the iPhone 3GSs new Compass app does the same ting from the main Map map, but we still hate iPhone being one-upped by G1.

RunKeeper

If you’ve got a 3G or 3GS iPhone, RunKeeper is the mac daddy of exercise apps. Built exclusively for GPS equipped iPhones, devotees swear by RunKeeper’s ability to record duration, distance, pace and speed, but we’d like to see the app expand its horizons and allow for accelerometer tracking so all those early adopters can get it on the all the fun, too. Plus, it would be great to see our acceleration rate as we run, bike or get shot out of a cannon. 

SpinArt

One of the cooler drawing apps to grace the iPhone, SpinArt lets you create Jackson Pollock-style paintings and then spin the crap out of them until they’re little more than random streaks, spots and drips of color--that look surprisingly like Jackson Pollock paintings. Twirling our masterpiece with our fingers is fun for sure, but spinning like a top would be way more satisfying. That is until you fall down dizzy and lose your lunch all over your iPhone.

FuguMaze

Like Doom without all the monsters and weapons, FuguMaze throws you head-first into a randomly generated maze and challenges you to find your way out the other side. We’re pretty sure it can be done, but it’s no walk in the park, especially with a perplexing set of controls that sidesteps the perfectly logical accelerometer in favor of a small circle that controls your forward progress. We’re not sure it would be any easier with tilt controls, but we’re nearly certain it would help us stop bumping into the walls.

Monopoly

We know Monopoly already uses the accelerometer to shake up the dice, but there something missing from the iPhone version of the Milton Bradley classic: destruction mode. When things aren’t going our way, we’d like to shake up those houses or hotels and basically ruin everyone else’s fun. Why shouldn’t Monopoly on iPhone end the same way the board game does?

Peggle

We were hoping once we mastered the ball-bouncing game there would be an exclusive iPhone level that allowed us to tilt the iPhone to control the ball. Sure it goes against the entire game's gameplay, but couldn't they have thrown us a bone.We're not asking for the whole game, just one measly level. Or maybe you get one shove per level. Sort of like a pinball game.