MouthOff, ustwo

The fun with MouthOff starts with the icon on your phone: Unlike the usual "tile-shaped" look and feel, the designers of this game have cleverly used the color scheme to make it appear as if there's a little alien creature peaking at you from in between the other icons. It makes it very easy to find, and my daughter giggles whenever she sees him. Click on our friend Mr. Spaceman and the phone immediately launches a home page, in horizontal mode (holding your phone sideways). Your choices are "signature mouths" or "original mouths;" click on one and you are presented with an illustrated gallery of tiles.

But what a weird gallery!! It's made up of 25 mouths. A tooth-filled shark mouth, like you found with Bruce in Little Mermaid, a jowly dog mouth, a mouth that looks like it's a set of false teeth, a robot mouth that looks a bit like Bender. But then the magic begins: choose one, hold it up in front of your mouth (facing outwards) and start talking. The mouth moves along with your words. It's inexplicable, and hilarious. I had to pry my phone out of my daughter's hand, as she sat in front of a mirror, trying each one and singing a little song. It's also the first app that made my husband laugh, which gives it a gold star in my book. Finally, this is one of those apps that showcases the iPhone's endless lists of random functions (linking sound to action) and is just plain fun. People are even making videos of themselves using the phones; that says it all really doesn't it? http://tinyurl.com/yeuosa5

You'll like it because: It really is funny, and the "mouths" cover an extremely creative range of options.
Too bad: The joke gets old eventually.

iPhone Apps users gave it 3/5 stars
Cost: Lite version for FREE, full version for £0.59

Ages: All ages.

iClean, Xtremize Software

This is one of those apps that proves that Kids Think Different(ly). My daughter and her friends think iClean is the funniest thing in the entire world - they have designed dances around it and play it endlessly, singing along with the tunes. Why they love it, I couldn't say. What is it? That's a bit simpler.

It's basically just a bunch of videos of real animals - a crew of "screen cleaners" including dogs, cats, and one drunk-looking hamster - licking a glass wall, so it appears to be "cleaning" the iPhone screen from the inside. Each animal has its own music-to-lick-by theme music, which spans a wide range (salsa, vaudeville, blues, and my favourite - the Hamster Dance for Stitch to lick by).

What are they putting on the glass to make those animals lick it so blissfully? Who thought this idea up? Why is it still entertaining after 74 viewings? We may never know. But it kept my daughter giggling and entertained for almost a 1/2 hour on a busy highway, so as far as I'm concerned, it was money well spent.

You'll like it because: Well, you won't like it, but the small fry will, which is the whole reason anyway, isn't it?
Too bad: Good luck getting "I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart" song out of your head. Ever.
iPhone Apps users gave it 2.5/5 stars

Cost: £.059

Ages: All ages