Not so long ago, I wrote a blog entry listing my favorite iPhone apps, one of which was called White Noise. I specifically mentioned that part of the reason I loved the app was because of how simple it was. Well, it’s not so simple anymore, and I can’t fathom why.

Original White Noise iPhone application

The White Noise application’s functionality – only functionality – is to play one track, looped, for a certain period of time.

The original design of the WhiteNoise application seemed to understand that, and made the app as easy as possible to use. As you can see in the screenshot, everything you need from the app is right on the main screen. You select a sound there, set the volume, set the timer, and off you go. The application also remembered previous settings and allowed me to select which sounds went on my main screen, which I liked. I opened the app and it would be good to go. It was, very literally, the perfect application. All it did was what it was supposed to.

New White Noise iPhone Application

This is the new White Noise application. For some reason, all functionality has been yanked off of the main screen and put behind various buttons. It’s not clear which button should be clicked for what (there’s no such thing as hover help on an iphone), nor is there any good reason to have such a blank, empty main screen. It’s a waste of valuable real estate.

Want to choose a noise? Go to the “catalog” button at the bottom of the screen to choose one. The app no longer remembers my settings, so I need to do this every night or else I’ll be listening to “Amazon Jungle.” Dunno about you, but that’s not relaxing to me. One click went to at least four.

Want to set a timer? It’s under the “Timer” screen, but the lack of a “save” button on that screen messed me up more than once. One click is now at least three, more if you’re as confused as I am.

What’s under the “Controls” button? It’s an app that plays a sound on a timer. What kind of controls does it need?? Oh, do I want to exit the app when the timer’s done. Well, hopefully I’m asleep, so I truly don’t care.

So unfortunately, here we have one of the best examples I have ever seen of overdesign. There is no reason all the functionality for this app can’t still be on the main screen, other than it’s not pretty. But who cares about pretty when all the app does is play a sound?

K.I.S.S. is a rule of product development that will never get old. Keep It Simple, Stupid. You don’t turn something that could be done in one click into three unless you’re adding something damn important to the process. The app doesn’t do anything more than it did the day I downloaded it: play a sound on a timer.

Developers, product managers, UX/AI folks – I recommend you all check out the application. There’s a huge lesson to be learned from it. Never detract from your core functionality. Hunting around menus just pisses off users. If you can keep everything on one screen, do it!!

Normal folks who just want a sound – I recommend you stay away from this one. It’s simply not usable anymore.

If anyone has another white noise app to recommend, I’d love to hear it. I’m definitely in the market for a new one now.

I have written this post a number of times now, but never published it due to my own silliness. See, I’m always discovering new applications, that’s part of the fun of the iPhone, and I never really wanted to put my foot down and say “this is my top list.”

So, this is a list of the 5 iPhone apps I use most often, and can’t imagine my iPhone without them….as of right now.

1) White Noise – I’ve used this app every single night since I got it. It has a bunch of different “white noises” it plays, I think the one I use is technically called ‘brown noise,’ but I love it. I’ve used a white noise machine for years, but have always hated trying to wake up in the morning with the machine still going (and there are studies now saying that any noise – including white noise – effects sleep negatively). With the app, I can set a timer and it’ll turn itself off once I’m asleep. I also have chronic insomnia, so for me, anyway, it’s also useful to tell me if I’ve been awake in bed for far too long. If the noise turns off and I’m still awake, it’s time to get out of bed for half an hour (I think my wacky sleeping habits could probably be a post in and of itself, I know they’re weird).

2) Flashlight (link to itunes) – Really. All this does is make your iPhone light up like a flashlight. For me, it’s handy navigating my apartment in the dark so as to not wake up or step on the cats. If you’re uber l33t, you can find a version of Flashlight embedded within Tweetie. Which takes me to…

3) Tweetie – My favorite twitter client so far. There are many, and which one I like changes regularly, but as of right now, I prefer Tweetie. The fact that it has a flashlight is a silly cute thing too.

4) Evernote – I’ve always been one for simple note taking programs, my main requirement being that it needs to sync between my computer(s) and my phone without me plugging the iPhone into the computer (I rarely do that). I tried a bunch of apps, but Evernote is absolutely the best (toodledoo would be my #2). It does exactly what I want – lets me type something in as a note on my computer, then turn around and see it on my phone (or on another computer). It’s more powerful than that, it does audio, images, to do lists, but all I want are text notes. And it’s fully cross-platform, with apps for both Mac and PC. The PC app also contains a little screen clipper thing that works like Grab does on a mac, I likey.

5) Taxi Magic – this one probably isn’t all that helpful to everyone, but for me, I love. This uses GPS to find taxi companies near your location, and, if it can, will electronically order the cab for you. According to the cab drivers, the call shows up on their end just like a regular dispatch.

6) ZumoDrive – This was supposed to be a top 5 list, but had to include this. ZumoDrive lets you store files on a “z” drive (or just upload to their website), and access them from anywhere. Like Evernote, it is fully cross platform (Mac, PC, iPhone, Web), and syncs without any effort on my part. I use it for basic file storage, but one of the cooler things it will do is play mp3’s stored on ZumoDrive on your iphone…all streaming.

I’m still hunting for a great calendar app and a great poker or hearts game, but these apps have transformed my iPhone from being just a phone to being a real handheld computer. Applications are what the iPhone is all about. If you own an iPhone and haven’t played with any applications, you’re truly missing out.

I am holding in my hand a coupon for one free Whopper, care of Burger King’s Facebook application (yanked by Facebook, as explained in a previous entry). The fact that I actually got the coupon is miracle enough – exactly how often do these things pan out – but the copy in the coupon is too cute not to share.

I don’t have a scanner, so my typing will have to do. It is the text that’s adorable anyway, the design is the same as the app.

As a reward for your steadfast loyalty, even when faced with the loss of your online friends, we have sent you this coupon for a free flame-broiled WHOPPER. May you enjoy each delicious guilt-free bite, knowing that had you not sacrificed your friends for this burger, they surely would have sacrificed you.

Really, really well done campaign. I couldn’t tell you the last time I went to burger king, but…hey Turtles – Burger King tomorrow??

I am sure that whoever came up with this will be creative enough to come up with something else…within the rules. I look forward to seeing what’s next!

A few days ago Burger King posted an application on facebook allowing someone to win a coupon for a free whopper if they removed 10 friends from their profile. The app would then notify the 10 friends that they had been removed, and give them a chance to install the app (and re-add the friends if they wanted) for their own free whopper. The app was subsequently pulled from Facebook for violating policy.

I obviously have a very skewed perspective on this, having worked heavily in policy enforcement just about everywhere I’ve ever worked, and specifically in application policy at MySpace, but I also think I have a very educated opinion as a result.

The app was a very cute, original idea, and I am one of many who installed it and removed friends for my free coupon (I’m curious to see if I actually get one). At the time, I was slightly uncomfortable with notifying people that I’d removed them from my friends list, but hey – I’ll take a free whopper.

Days later, Facebook pulled the application down for violating their policies. Of course it’s not ok to tell one user another removed them as a friend, that’s just asking for an argument to start “why’d you remove me, don’t you like me anymore?” It’s why people add friends on twitter, then mute them, they don’t want to offend anyone.  Violate policies, get your application yanked. Period. But…

Why was an application that violated policy live in the first place? There’s a pretty simple answer to that, and while I can’t claim I know it’s right, I’d bet that sales was heavily involved in this. The violation in this case was so egregious there’s no way people didn’t know it was violating policy (certainly, at some point, everyone everywhere has approved something to go live where they honestly missed a policy violation). But in this case someone specifically had to have said, “I know this is breaking the rules, but we should put it live anyway,” both on Burger King and Facebook’s side of things. People have let Burger King off the hook for this, but come on, they’re not stupid. I fully believe they were well aware they were breaking policy. It’s not a policy unique to facebook, after all, “don’t tell one user when another deletes them as a friend” is policy on pretty much every service on the internets.

The question for me, anyway, is why did Facebook take it down after allowing it to go in the first place. I personally didn’t hear any kind of outrage over the app breaking policy, most of what I read about the app was exceptionally positive. I really was waiting for some story somewhere to point out the very obvious violation in the application, but most people aren’t quite as much of a policy nut as I am. The media blowup didn’t happen until after Facebook pulled the Burger King app.

So…why risk the PR mess and yank the app? There’s something to this story that we don’t know, and I don’t know if we ever will. But I can’t imagine Facebook deciding to take the app down after it had received so much pickup unless something happened, somewhere. Someone realized it was violating policy, someone threatened them over the privacy issues, Burger King beat Facebook at foosball….something. Enough people had the app installed, and it had gotten so much press attention that there was no way it could be pulled without tons of people noticing.

Ultimately, I’m glad it was yanked, and don’t believe it should have been approved at all. Companies need very clear, very specific policies about this sort of thing, and they need to enforce them. I kind of equate “waiving privacy policy for dollars” to “bribing a cop to get out of a speeding ticket.” Wouldn’t you question why a cop let a guy go who was driving 90 mph, and ticketed you for driving 45 in a 40? There isn’t all that much difference in my mind.

Just play nice with each other. Sites need to make the rules clear, and developers need to follow them. I’ve had people say to me more than once “but the rules don’t apply to me, right?” Rules are rules, no matter who you are or how large your pocketbook is. Until everyone gets to that point (and facebook’s hardly alone at this), this is going to keep happening.