FiatLux review

LET THERE BE LIGHT! This is both the English translation of AbySoft’s Latin-ized utilities app and what you can shout upon launching the app, for it will shine its light upon thee. Yes, you inferred correctly, another flashlight app. But lo, what’s this? Background colors other than white? Say it isn’t so! (This app is best used with high Brightness settings. And in the dark.)

FiatLux possesses a super simple set-up: just tap the “i” button down at the bottom right, and voilà, there are your app settings on a pop-up smaller than half of your device’s screen. The slider controls the brightness of the screen. Drag it to the right for maximum brightness and to the left if you prefer darker illumination. Below that are five buttons that control the color that the screen will turn. The first one gives you a standard flashlight-white, then come the three primary colors: red, green, and blue, respectively.

The last button is arguably the best option of all: rainbow. Tapping on it will bring up a color shift mode, in which an entire gradient of color is used, fading from one to another. A personal tip from me to you? When in this mode, set a clear bottle of water on top of it–better yet, use one that’s been frosted over from condensation–sit back, and enjoy the do-it-yourself light-show. Then just to one-up yourself, you can borrow some more iPhones or iPod Touches with FiatLux and repeat with the water bottle; feel free to set them all up in a formation. It’s great fun to try to sync them so that they’re doing a wave of color. You’re welcome.

FiatLux boasts an amazingly tiny 0.1 MB download, and is apparently easy on the batteries as well–a commenter on the AppStore spoke of using FiatLux as a flashlight for three days when their electricity was out due to a natural disaster (YMMV). If you’re using it as a nightlight, however, please be sure to plug it in to a power source first, as it automatically avoids standby mode. It is effortless to use and program, but I wouldn’t mind more options. More colors to choose from, perhaps? Or maybe control over how long the color shift mode has before changing colors. Otherwise, FiatLux does the job pretty well, and can be oddly engrossing if you let it be.

AppSafari Rating: 4/5

AppSafari review of FiatLux was written by Julie Guan on October 3rd, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Free, Fun, Utilities. Page viewed 3865 times, 1 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.