Some Filipino and Asian-centric apps for your iPhone

We now focus our eyes on some low-profile releases by Filipino developers or some Asian-centric apps. Just a teeny collection. Hell, maybe I could get this going on a regular basis?

Supermarket Manila

#1 on the Philippine App Store charts for paid apps, this game has a polish to it. The premise here is that you own a supermarket, and that you have to manage it. I know, it's a bit of a rip-off to games like Diner Dash, but hey! It looks like a decent rip-off with a Filipino flavor, I'm guessing. It costs $1.99.

Philippine Travel Guide

The Philippines has its own wonders and sights. So why not get yourself a mobile travel guide while you get out during summer?

You don't need an Internet connection, either. $0.99 on the App Store.

CX Mobile

Bring a football spin to your average travel guide with Cathay Pacific's CX Mobile.

It gives you everything you'd want to know when traveling to Hong Kong- probably a location you'll be going to when talking about going abroad- and it has Google Maps support. Ooh, it looks like a great companion to the free Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook! It costs zilch.

TVU Player

iPhone gets live TV! And many Philippine channels work best. You can't watch on landscape though.

The thing is that you can only run this under Wi-Fi, but with my tests, I never got anything to really run. Just a loading screen. Still, several reviews state that it works, and many of the working channels are Asian. For me, at least.

Classical Philippines Radio

This free app gives you all the folk songs you want. Although they're not my cup of tea, I know that some people will want this.

Wonder how old and classic this throwback iPhone radio station gets? Does it still have Pilita Corrales in there somewhere? Or is it purely songs of the Paruparong Bukid variety?

Filipino Phrases: How to Argue, Use Slang, and More!

It's an almost 1200 word list of Filipino phrases fit for daily use.

Unfortunately, the page says, the "argument" part only reaches to "bwisit". Will it cause an uproar if they included other... "phrases"? Maybe in a tiny scale, but otherwise, no. This app is more aimed to people who want to LEARN the language. It costs $3.99.

DianHua

Ever encountered a Chinese word that you found foreign and that you want to get a translation without having to resort to the Internet nor a bulky dictionary? Well, look no further than the free DianHua Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary! It has saved my ass a couple times.

Wan Nian Li Chinese Calendar

Want to specifically know when the Mooncake Festival comes? Well, a Lunar calendar does that job for you. There are many, I know, but I randomly picked this one. :p

That's about it, I guess. Tune in next time, if there is a next time.

Mac Oddsomeness: Word of the Day

Here's another feature I'll probably start maintaining: Mac Oddsomeness. What is it? Well, it's all about the oddness of some Mac features that end up extraordinary (or just really fun). And no, it won't be a weekly thing.

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What's the first thing you'd want to do when you get a computer? PERSONALIZE! You instantly connect to the Internet and then take hours picking the perfect wallpaper, and looking for a great screensaver to download.

Windows and Mac aren't different in those fronts at all, but when you talk about the pre-loaded screensavers the two operating systems come in with, Macintosh outshines Windows not just aesthetically, but (fun)ctionality-wise.

Meet the "Word of the Day" screensaver. While the Macintosh comes preloaded with even more interesting screensavers (which I'll cover in what might be later editions), this one works right out of the box without the busywork. It doesn't even have to be connected to the Internet to work, because OS X already comes with a Dictionary application built-in.

Now some of you may think: that's lame. It is because its purpose is to only show a person a word that they might already know (or don't know), which is also the beauty of it. I mean, who wouldn't jump at a chance to impress (err...) peers with quirky words?

It's nearly useless, it's odd, and it's fun.