Date from Hell? There's an App for That!

You thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to go on one eensy weensy date with Mr. X. It's only one date. How bad could it be? Awful. Abonimable. I'm-throwing-up-a-little-in-my-mouth and would rather be forced to wear turquoise overalls and sneaker heels than continue another minute on this date!! Well, there's an app for that! Actually, there's two. Depending on the psycho level of your date, you'll either need Fake a Call or the YWCA Safety Siren.

Fake a Call

This app is brilliant. In prehistoric times, before going on a date where you really weren't sure about the guy, you'd ask your girlfriend to give you a getaway call 15 minutes in. With this app, you don't have to bother your girlfriend, you just set up your phone to give you a call! You can either set a timer to call you in X number of minutes, or set it up to call you at a specific time. The ringer and the picture that displays when the fake call comes in are customizable, and to make the app more believable, you can select from nine voices to start talking when you answer. If you can't think of what to say back to the voices, you can also choose from nine scripts to play when you answer the phone. You just need to repeat what the voice says!

This video gives you an idea of how it works:

The app is $0.99, but a free version is available with ads. The description on the App Store gives some other creative ways to use the app, for example, faking a call from your husband/mom/child to get out of work, or pranking your friends into thinking a celebrity is calling you! I'm a really bad liar so I don't think I'd be able to pull this fake a call thing off, but I'd sure try if I was on a date from hell!

YWCA Safety Siren

This app is for more serious situations where you're in danger and need help. Again, in prehistoric times, I remember my mom would sometimes carry around (and to my horror, force me to carry around!) those personal alarms, where if you'd pull the string, it would sound an alarm. It was exceptionally nerdy and I cradled the thing like an egg to make sure it didn't sound accidentally! This app is the 21st century version of the personal alarm. Upon pressing the "siren"  (a large pink button) a loud alarm will go off - just make sure your sound is at maximum volume so people can actually hear it. You can also activate the siren by shaking your iTouch or iPhone. At the same time as the siren goes off, an emergency email is sent to a pre-set SOS contact with approximate coordinates and places an emergency outgoing call to a pre-programmed number (for iPhones).

The Safety Siren is offered in English and French and also offers health and safety information geared towards young women on dating safely and health topics. It also features links to YWCAs across Canada as well as health and crisis resource centers.

While in a real emergency situation, the YWCA Safety Siren would be a bit cumbersome to get to since you'd have to pull out your phone, press the app and then the siren, you never know when it might come in handy.  I've already downloaded it for my iTouch. This video gives you a quick idea of how it works: 

Through Apple's genius invention, we now have a solution to an age old problem: horror dates. Thank you Mr. Jobs!

All she needs to know for now! ;)