The Taller iPhone 5

So this is not practical at all but it is funny.  I'd love to have it for the tape measure and guitar apps.

Lesser Known but Valuable iOS 6 Features

Newly Installed Apps with Banners 

It's been a little less than a week since iOS 6 was released and already much has been written about it's major features, such as Passbook, turn by turn navigation in the new Apple Maps, Facebook integration, and shared photo streams. But there are 200+ features, according to Apple. What are some of the less advertised, but still valuable ones?  Here are some that I found useful:

App Store

Now when you download a new app from the App Store or update an existing app, you don't get kicked out to the home screen. In fact, you can see the progress of your download in the App Store.

Once you've downloaded an app, you can even launch the app from within the App Store.

New apps that you download are shown on the home screen with a "New" banner over the upper right corner until you open them for the first time. If you download a lot of apps (for example when they go on sale for free), this is very handy, especially when you come back to an app a couple of days later and see that you haven't tried it out yet.

The Fantasy Football Secret Weapon on Your iOS Device

What if there were an app for your iPhone or iPad that would give you a diverse set of very timely news and opinions that were relevant to your fantasy football strategy. What if this app gave you the latest news regarding injuries, who is playing well, who is struggling, who is likely to start, and how contract negotiations are going with that hold-out player.  What if this app gave you news so up-to-date that, while you were watching one game, you knew about how players in other games were performing?

That app exists and it is not what you expect. In fact, it's not even one app, but it is, in fact, a whole class of apps that basically do the same thing. These apps are all Twitter apps and here is a good run-down of the best ones.  (I personally use Echofon.)

Track Your Walk, Run, or Bike Automatically on Your iPhone

I mainly walk and lift weights for exercise.  I track my exercise in Fitocracy on my iPhone to help keep my motivated (and at a much less detailed level in LoseIt!, to help me track calories). Even though these apps are easy to update, I found myself wanting to track how long, how far, and where I walk, without having to enter data in yet another app. This is the niche that RunKeeper fills.

RunKeeper takes all the work out of tracking walks, runs, hikes, or bike rides. I simply launch the app, click the Start Activity button, and start walking. RunKeeper uses the GPS to track my walk automatically, including total time, total miles, current pace, and average pace.  It even gives me a breakdown by mile. If I want, I can see where I've traveled as a route on the map.