Converter for the iPhone/iPod Touch

How many times do you find yourself in need of a quick conversion, whether it be currency exchanging, meters to feet, Celsius to Fahrenheit, lbs to kilograms? Or maybe you just want to know how many drams are in a pinch? Er what? The Converter application for the iPhone and iPod Touch offers so many different units to converter to and from that I spent half my time testing it exploring new units of measurement that I’ve never even heard of.

All things considered, a program that offers such a myriad of measurements may suggest a cumbersome interface, after all there are 17 categories alone from which you can select a multitude of different units. Those categories are: Area, Clothing, Currency, Data Storage, Energy, Flow, Fuel Consumption, Kitchen, Length, Power, Pressure, Speed, Temperature, Time, Torque, Volume, and Mass. However, this program offers a simple, streamlined approach. From the main screen you select a category from a list (which also offers easy to identify icons), then a unit to convert from and a unit to convert to. At the base of the main screen is your standard calculator interface from which you enter the amount you want converted. There is even a sliding scale for precision, which adjusts how many decimal places you want the conversion to be accurate to.

Now, I know it’s difficult to get excited over such a simple utility, but that’s the greatest strength of such an application: its simplicity, which adds to it’s practicality. Though it may not be an exciting game, it is very handy. And who knows, maybe it’ll settle a few bar bets too.