9 iPhone Apps for the Recession

We think the iPhone’s as handy a little smartphone as there is — the cool factor is way high — but in the time of the Recession, it’s missing a few app options. Here are nine we’d like to see.

iGrovel. Tracks and calibrates the frequency of suck-up, work-begging emails that you send, according to annoyance indicators like keywords in replies or lack thereof from assigning editors.

Execu-Stalker. (Originally released as FuldWatch) This GPS-enabled app tracks the whereabouts of executives who are in the news and not in prison. Former Lehman C.E.O. Dick Fuld is shopping at Whole Foods? Guess that whole Lehman-implosion thing wasn’t that bad!

Egg-X-Utive. An add-on to the Execu-Stalker app, allows users at any moment, from their iPhone, to notify and send egg throwing and pie-to-face volunteers to meet and humiliate corrupt former executives in public. Premium version: Matches egg/pie preference to the executive.

iPhreelyDrink. Knows where you are and alerts you to nearby locations serving drinks gratis—coffee, cocktails, beer or wine. Application also detects other iPhreelyDrink users, allowing you to avoid networking in a budget-challenged community.

RipItOff. A digital directory of sites offering films, music, games and software for free, or “review purposes,” along with legal advice (organized by state) to help the budget-challenged pop culture freak ward off RIAA and MPAA lawsuits.

Daily Excuse. A daily feed of rationalizations and one-liners that the jobless can use to answer the question: Why haven’t you landed a new job yet?

Gigster. This social networking app connects overqualified workers with budget-impaired employers who don’t offer benefits or full-time work.

Shrinkdeals. A location-based directory of licensed therapists or graduate students in top-tier psychology programs available for emergency, recession-based, meltdown moments. Therapists in this directory specialize in treating the unemployed and uninsured.

CouldBeWorse. A massive multiplayer mobile game where people submit their personal stats—how long they’ve been out of work, how much their rent costs, how many nights in a row they’ve eaten ramen for dinner, etc.—to rise to the top of the recession slagheap. Each week, CouldBeWorse offers to hire the “winner” for a creative, full-time with benefits position at their rapidly-growing tech startup, then rescinds the offer blaming the economy, and sends the winner, a $5 Starbucks gift card instead.

--Posted by Lora Kolodny, RecessionWire.com

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