Everyone loves a good laugh, though sometimes coming up with something funny or original can be a challenge. For my tween sons, the breadth of humor consists primarily of body parts, bodily functions, and silly quotes from movies. However, as we mature (hopefully) we would like a bit more substance and diversity in our humor. Enter iLaugh, the new App for the iPhone and iPod Touch that puts a database of over 50,000 jokes at your fingertips!
The Hype:
According to the iLaugh Web Site:
With iLaugh on-hand, iPhone and iPod Touch users no longer have to rely on their memories to come up with hilarious jokes at the office or social events – or even when needing something clever to say to begin a speech or presentation.iLaugh 2.0 puts a database of over 50,000 jokes at anybody’s fingertips and is loaded with social features such as voting, favorites and sharing via Facebook and Twitter.
With iLaugh, users have complete control over which jokes they want to read. The Categories feature enables users to only read the jokes that are of interest to them. Further, iLaugh 2.0 offers filtering options to screen out adult jokes or jokes voted down by the iLaugh community.
The Reality:
I didn’t laugh.
I am still not laughing.
Ah – now THAT is a good one.
OK, just to interrupt for a second, let me be clear. As of the 2.0 release, iLaugh – both the free and paid version – have no ‘offline’ mode. That is correct, you need to be connected to the internet on either the iPhone or iPod Touch in order to see any jokes.
I contacted the publisher and they said that they acknowledge that an off-line mode is not currently available, and that the developer is “thinking about it” and they are definitely working on “offline storage of favorite jokes”.
Sharing via Twitter. That is also quite cool – it is fast and easy.
iLaugh comes in two versions: a free ‘ad-supported’ version and a Premium version. The Premium version costs only $0.99, and removes the advertisements, and counts your up / down votes double.
I enjoyed iLaugh – it does exactly what it says it will do, providing you a ton of different jokes that you can filter and forward very easily. If you have a solid internet connection and are looking for a quick and easy way to get a laugh on the go, it is a great little app.
However, as I found out the very first time I tried to use it to show someone in my project group a joke, it fails badly when not properly connected to the internet. It this is an issue, stay away until they fix it! There have been numerous complaints about it on the App Store, which are justified – it should state very clearly that the product is non-functional without an internet connection.
Where to Buy: iTunes App Store Link – iLaugh
iTunes App Store Link – iLaugh Lite
Price: $0.99
What I Like:
– Nice collection of jokes
– Excellent Twitter & Facebook integration
– Ability to filter numerous ways
What Needs Improvement:
– No offline mode
– App Store listing doesn’t list Internet requirement