Five Dumb Halloween Apps

BrianBoyd via Flickr

​From a $4.99 Mario Batali recipe app that'll inevitably result in a greasy screen, to the Hipstamatic indie-cam for a $1.99, the iTunes store offers thousands of apps to suit every demographic imaginable. And like a strip mall welcoming a temporary fly-by-night Halloween costume shop, developers tackle the holiday-specific cell phone apps market.

We compiled a list of five useless Halloween apps that'll add the extra umph missing from your boring, anti-festive smartphone.

Costume Idea App; $0.99 iPhone
The office costume party is less than a week away and the corporate internet restriction doesn't let you Google "clever halloween costumes" during business hours. The people at work are too busy planning their own costumes, they barely even talk in the break room--no one offers any suggestions. Don't sweat it, just let a cell phone pick your costume based on age and gender. There's even a category for couples too busy to brainstorm.

GhostCam App; $0.99 iPhone
What's worse, a person buying an app that mysteriously adds Casper to a photo, or the idiot that falls for the ghost-in-the-picture trick? How many times can that gag fool a person? Save the $1 and follow these easy steps for a DIY lesson on ghostly cell phone gags: (1) make sure the flash is on and (2) take a picture using the standard iPhone camera. Then you can tell people that the distracting glare is actually a ghost.

Boo! Happy Halloween; $5.99 BlackBerry
Coordinating a BlackBerry theme with a commercial holiday is about as cool as .gif files on Myspace profiles; only tween girls are allowed to do it. But if you're into replacing practical icons with spiderwebs and cartoonish devil faces, and feel the need to spend $6 on a theme that'll be outdated in two weeks and that very few people will see, happy downloading.

Phantom Solitaire; $0.99 iPhone
How are a friendly ghost, some bats, and a bunch of jack-o-lanterns going to make a game of Solitaire any more exciting? Download the free version and avoid being the only asshole playing Halloween solitaire in the middle of December. It's not like you leave the Christmas lights up thru Memorial Day, right?

Zombie Jackpot Madness; $0.99 BlackBerry
Slot machines are a casino's biggest money maker because the chances of winning significant cash is highly unlikely. But once in a while, a machine hits and a lucky person walks away victorious. Not the case on a BlackBerry digi-slot. Whether you spin a winner on the first try or it takes several hours to turn a fake-money profit, you're out $1, sucker.