5 Questions for: Peter Bentley – The Undercover Scientist

In a regular series of short interviews, iPhone Kung Fu asks five questions to well-known iPhone users.

This week we’ve been chatting to Peter Bentley. He’s the author of The Undercover Scientist which is due for release in June. He’s an avid iPhone user and has even created his own very cool app called iStethoscope.

1. What is your all-time favourite iPhone application and why?

I have a habit of showing up 30 seconds before my train is due, so my favourite is an old app called Trains which is no longer available, but I think it’s still one of the best for UK rail times. I use it every day.

2. What feature would you add to the iPhone?

I would make the screen go from edge to edge, make it even slimmer, and enable better Bluetooth connectivity so we could sync without cables. I’d also remove all the Apple constraints on developers and allow users to vote whether they think an app should be removed from iTunes, rather than Apple making up its own rules and regulations to allow some apps and forbid others. But what do I know… I’m just a computer scientist!

3. What was the last played song on your iPhone?

Slip Away by David Bowie.

4. What image do you have as your iPhone background?

A weird abstract blue swirly thing.

5. What’s the strangest thing you’ve looked up on your iPhone?

When I was writing The Undercover Scientist on my MacBook out of Wi-Fi range, I sometimes needed to check some of the strange facts in the book. So I’ve looked up a million things – like the location of the Soap Woman, or the origins of the Pinocchio experiment. Most recently I looked up the origins of why we tend to have fish served in cafeterias on Fridays. I’m a curious person!

Here’s a little more information about Peter’s app:

iStethoscope is a free utility app in iTunes that allows users to listen to their heartbeats – medical doctors have shown that it works better than some existing digital stethoscopes on the market. Peter has begun working with researchers in the Medical School of the University of Minnesota on a professional version of the app that will help their research into heart conditions.