It’s hard to imagine that something as simple as an app that speeds your dialing, emailing and texting could be fun, but that’s what Smallrock Software’s Gesture Dial is.

Here’s how it works: Assign a unique gesture — by swiping your iPhone’s screen — to each person in your contacts list. You can use different gestures for speed dialing, emailing, texting and Web pages. With a flick of the finger and an “abracadabra,” for effect, the iPhone is at your command.

For example, you can assign a corner-to-corner gesture for Mom, a side-to-side one for Dad and a wiggle-waggle for your significant other.

What I found fun was coming up with gestures that represented the people I telephoned most often. Let’s see, does so-and-so get a corkscrew because she’s dizzy or should I use an L for her first name?

I can see how this app would be useful to send a message to a friend when you’re supposed to be captivated by the boss yammering about “paradigm shifts,” “leveling the playing field,” and “win-win situations.”

For myself, Gesture Dial would be most useful for when I’m driving. I could make a call without having to actually look at the phone, which is what I do now. It’s a wonder why I haven’t run over any new mothers pushing baby carriages across busy intersections.

Gesture Dial is easy to use and the help docs are handy if you need them. You can set a time delay for dialing if you’re worried about accidentally calling the wrong person so you have enough time to abort the call.  You can set the threshold of the gesture — meaning just how close to the original your swipe must be to initiate an action. You can also turn on/off calling, texting, emailing and Web page access.

It’s a creative use of some of the iPhone’s slickest features.

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category: Utilities