Since the iTunes App Store launched two months ago it has amassed a collection of over 2,000 different applications in every flavor imaginable, from the bizarre to the indispensable.

Because there is such a huge variety of apps now, you can find all sorts of unconventional things that expand the usefulness of your iPhone or iPod Touch in awesome and unexpected ways.  Here’s ten examples of tool-like iPhone/iPod Touch apps that should give you an idea of what I am talking about:

A Level

You may remember this one from Ben’s article about it.  Using the accelerometer built into the iPhone/iPod Touch, A Level gives you a virtual level complete with calibration capabilities and a ruler to make it as accurate as possible.  A Level costs $0.99.

Tape Measure

This one has a slightly misleading name, but it’s still an awesome app.  It won’t allow you to take small-scale measurements like the size of a room in your house, but it will measure approximate distances on a larger scale; for example, if you want to measure a good-sized lot or figure out how far your house is from the supermarket as-the-crow-flies, Tape Measure can do it for you.  It can also give you your current elevation, latitude and longitude.  This app is most useful on the iPhone 3G because it relies heavily on GPS–a feature that is missing from older iPhones and the iPod Touch–to perform its measurements.  Tape Measure costs $0.99.

Units

- Have you ever found yourself in need of a currency converter?  Or maybe a temperature converter?  How about converters for area, energy, time, length, weight, speed, pressure, volume, volumetric flow, power, or data storage?  Or maybe you just want to know how many kilowatt-hours are in 1500 calories (apparently the answer is 0.0017445).  Units lets you convert all of these things quickly and easily; in seconds you can find out how many grams there are in a long ton, how many watts there are in ten horsepower, and lots more.  It even comes with a short (ok, very short) ruler for small measurements.  And the best part: it’s completely free.

RulerPhone

Here is one of the coolest apps I have seen so far on the App Store.  Rather than sticking a short ruler on the screen (like the one in Units), RulerPhone measures objects in a clever way: you stick a driver’s license (or similarly sized object like a business card or credit card) next to whatever it is that you want to measure, take a photo of it, point it out on the screen and let RulerPhone do the rest.  The app compares your driver’s license to the size of the object that you’re trying to measure and tells you how big it is.  To see it in action, check out this YouTube video review of the app from the iPhone App Podcast.  RulerPhone costs $2.99.

Seismometer

This is a simple app that does exactly what it sounds like it should do: record vibrations and movements.  Using the accelerometer in the iPhone and iPod Touch, Seismometer measures even tiny vibrations and draws the results on a rolling scale just like a real seismometer.  It is so sensitive that it can pick up footsteps from across a room.  The basic app is supposed to be free with an option to buy a more feature-rich version for $0.99, but currently the basic app costs $0.99 due to an error.  Hopefully the pricing gets fixed soon!

AWG Convert

Any electrical engineers out there?  This app takes the American Wire gauge numbers that are used to express diameters of electrical wire and converts them to imperial and metric units to simplify measurements into more familiar terms.  For example, 30 gauge becomes 0.01″ or 0.255mm.  The app even provides a life-sized representation of your selected gauge on the screen so that you can compare diameters between the wire you’re holding and the gauge you have displayed on-screen.  And just like Units, AWG Convert is free!

myLite

myLite Flashlight and Colored Strobe is a simple-but-effective app that includes some fun perks.  Many people use the backlit screens on their cell phones and other portable devices as Flashlights, and myLite capitalizes on the large, bright displays of the iPhone and iPod Touch by filling them with nothing but clean white.  In doing this, the app causes your device to output as much light as it possibly can to make it the most effective flashlight it can be.  myLite also includes a color slider and an array of different strobe light effects that can be used to draw attention to yourself in an emergency (or just to annoy your friends).  But wait, there’s more!  Have you ever found yourself strangely compelled to wave a lighter in the air at a concert even though you don’t smoke and have no reason to carry a lighter?  myLite has you covered with the “Rock Concert” option, which displays a virtual lighter on screen for your concert-waving pleasure.  myLite, like Units and AWG Convert, is 100% free.

TyroTuner

Roving guitarists, rejoice!  This is an interesting app that helps you tune a six-string guitar easily.  You just select the string you’re trying to tune in TyroTuner and then play the string on your guitar.  TyroTuner listens in through the iPhone’s microphone and then tells you whether you need to tune up or down.  It’s accurate, and even better, it’s convenient; now you can carry a tuner with you wherever you go, enabling you to tune a friend’s old guitar (the one that’s been shoved in the closet for a decade) at a moment’s notice, or simply make quick adjustments to your own guitar while you’re out and about.  It’s worth noting that this app requires a microphone and will not work on the microphone-less iPod Touch.  TyroTuner costs $2.99.

Recorder

Here’s one that’s fantastic for students and businesspeople who want to record lectures and other discussions.  Recorder uses the iPhone’s microphone to record voices and sounds, and it can do so for hours at a time if you so desire.  What makes this app really stand out is the fact that it lets you send your recordings to anyone by transferring the files over a wifi network or simply attaching them to an e-mail.  Know someone in class who is out sick and missing an important lecture?  Record it and e-mail it to them.  Like TyroTuner, Recorder won’t work on the iPod Touch.  It costs $0.99 right now, but the description suggests that the price might go up in the future.

GasHog

Last but not least is GasHog, a tool that helps you track your car’s fuel economy.  Chances are you’re looking for ways to save money on gas, because who isn’t nowadays?  When you fill up your tank, you enter your odometer reading and the price/amount of gas that you bought into GasHog’s log.  As you continue to enter fill-ups over time, GasHog evaluates how much mileage you’re getting out of each gallon of gas.  Armed with this information and GasHog’s handy tips for improving gas economy, you’ll be able to watch how much money you’re spending on gas much more precisely than you can without a log.  Heck, GasHog even costs significantly less than a gallon of gas at only $0.99!  Remember when gas was less than $0.99?  I sure don’t.

So there you have it, ten apps for the iPhone and iPod touch that are (mostly) tool-like.  As time goes on you can expect to see the App Store grow exponentially, and there will probably be even more apps that bring tool functionality to iPhones and iPods.

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