iPhone App Reviews

Tipulator

Michael (Admin) | Sep 30, 2008 Finance

User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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Damn, and I thought there were a lot of lighters in the App Store! There are OVER 30 tip calculators out there. OMG. A bunch are free, but most cost at least $.99.

When faced with the choice of getting an app that’s free or a similar one that costs money, I generally advise getting the free one. The only problem with this strategy is that the old saying “you get what you pay for” is usually true and free apps don’t always measure up to their non-free counterparts.

Tipulator, “the fun tip calculator”, falls under the pay-for-me category. For a buck you get a nice interface and almost every option you could possibly need when deciding how to reward your server’s efforts (or lack thereof).

The process is pretty simple: enter the check amount, select your tip percentage, and Tipulator will tell you how much to tip and what the grand total is. If you can’t stand odd numbers on your credit card statement, there are options for rounding things up or down plus you can also split the check between up to 25 people. And there’s a little bonus… if you don’t get a mint with your check, tap the peppermint for a little surprise. I guess this is where Tipulator earns its “fun” title.

I really like the round-up/round-down option, and the check splitter is great. The only thing tap tap tap didn’t build into Tipulator seems to be sales tax which I’d really like to see in a future update. After all, true cheapskates know that tips should be calculated on the pre-tax total. The simplicity of including tax in the tip amount is nice, but having the option to consider sales tax would make the app truly complete.

So should you pay $.99 for Tipulator? Well… if you’re gonna pay for a tip calculator, pay for a good one. You really can’t go wrong with Tipulator and, if you’re in the habit of tipping arbitrary amounts, this app could potentially pay for itself in one use.

Tags: $.99

Skizzle

Michael (Admin) | Sep 29, 2008 Games

User rating: (6 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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FO’ SKIZZLE MAH NIZZLE!! Sorry, it just had to be said. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system…

Skizzle is pretty cool. It lets you turn any photo into a puzzle, and as an added bonus you can “share” that puzzle with your friends who will have to solve it (using Skizzle) in order to see the picture. Ah, very clever way to get more Skizzlers! But since I don’t have any iPhone friends who bought this app (and I don’t feel like trying to make them buy it) I’ll just have to stick to talking about the non-sharing aspects which are still great on their own.

Sharing aside, with Skizzle you can choose a photo from your camera roll, take a new picture, or grab one from the in-app Google Images search tool. Once you’ve made your choice, Skizzle will chop it up and scramble all the parts. Now your job is to reassemble the photo by dragging the tiled pieces into their proper places.

I love the Google Images thing. Maybe you don’t want to use the pics on your camera roll, or maybe you just want something more challenging… after all, reassembling a closeup picture of a bowl of fruit is probably a lot harder than putting your mom’s face back together.

I did a number of Google Image searches and never got more than 20 results back, but I bet that’s by design and I don’t really mind the limit. The point of Skizzle, after all, is to have fun solving photo puzzles rather than browsing the 142,000 results you would normally get when you look for “hot cheerleaders”.

Another cool feature is the ability to change the difficulty of the puzzle after it’s created. You can also cheat by peeking at the photo in its original form, and there’s a timer at the top of the screen just in case you want to get competitive. One thing Skizzle doesn’t have is a global scoreboard and I suppose that’s because no two photos are exactly alike, but I think a cool thing for the future would be a place where people can share photos publicly and post their record times. This way, lots of people could solve the same puzzles and compete on a per-photo basis.

Sudo Labs, LLC has done a really nice job on Skizzle and for $1.99 it’s not a bad way to occupy yourself on your daily commute. Even better, use it to keep your hyperactive kids occupied! A few pictures of Barney the Dinosaur could buy you a lot of peace and quiet if there’s a reward for completion, ie: dinner. :mrgreen:

Tags: $1.99, photos, puzzle

Lightsaber Unleashed

Michael (Admin) | Sep 29, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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I never got a chance to play with Ryan Youngman’s iSaber before George Lucas squashed his little Star Wars iPhone tribute. It sucks that they pushed him out of the App Store, but at least they were kind enough to put together a worthy replacement.

TheMacBox’s version of Lightsaber Unleashed is exactly what you’d expect it to be, plus a few “brand” upgrades that were no doubt ordered by George’s marketing goons.

Open the app and tap the lightsaber, you get the trademark Jedi weapon with the accelerometer-driven humming and clashing noises. Tap a button for some dramatic Star Wars music to set the mood for your iPhone battle, and tap another button to go fullscreen. It’s all nice and well-done, and except for the music it’s probably identical to what iSaber was.

The upgrades come in the form of tie-ins with LucasArts’ “The Force Unleashed” game that’s just been released on pretty much every game platform in existence, iPhone included (duh!). Tapping the character icon will give you a choice of dueling as any one of these Force Unleashed characters: Darth Vader, General Rahm Kota, The Apprentice, Shaak Ti, and Maris Brood. Unfortunately The Apprentice is some Jedi guy, not Donald Trump.

I confess that I don’t know jack about The Force Unleashed so I’m assuming that, along with Vader, The Apprentice and Brood are also bad guys because all of their lightsabers are red. Shaak Ti’s is blue and Kota’s is green, so… good guys get the pretty colors? Anyway, on the choose-your-character screen you can also hit info buttons that give you both a bio and a picture of the character. Nice touches, but make no mistake… it’s all in the name of marketing.

If you have this app and haven’t tapped around the stars surrounding the lightsaber yet, give it a try and you’ll get a little surprise – there are two stars in particular that you want to touch. Whee!! It’s an Easter Egg. Happy hunting.

Naturally LucasArts is really, really hoping this free lightsaber will make you want to buy the iPhone version of The Force Unleashed for $9.99 (they try to sell it to you when you open the app) but even despite the marketing ploy Lightsaber Unleashed is cool and should satisfy hardcore Star Wars Geeks everywhere.

Tags: free, useless

An easier way to find reviews

Michael (Admin) | Sep 28, 2008 Website Stuff

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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Bukkake!

Michael (Admin) | Sep 27, 2008 Website Stuff

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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I typically only post things on this site Sunday-Thursday, but right now I feel the need to share this pic because I think it’s funny. I took it with my iPhone, so if you’re looking for relevance there it is.

If you don’t know what a bukkake is, you probably don’t want to. However, if you have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge of all things sick and perverted, you might want to consult Wikipanion.

My dog Terry didn't write that in the concrete and neither did I (although I wish I had)

Bright Lights

Michael (Admin) | Sep 26, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (6 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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A while back I wrote about an app called Light Show. At the time of my review, it was kind of messed up but it was the only pocket Lite-Brite around.

Bright Lights is the latest entry in the battle for Lite-Brite nerds. It doesn’t have quite as much space for placing colored pegs, but overall it’s nicely put together and should do the trick if you need to relive this part of your childhood.

These are the colors included with Bright Lights as of today:

• Blue
• Brown
• Green
• Orange
• Pink
• Purple
• Red
• Turquoise
• White
• Yellow

Tags: $.99, artistic, classic, good for kids

Virtual Zippo® Lighter

Michael (Admin) | Sep 25, 2008 Lifestyle

User rating: (7 votes, average: 4.14 out of 5)

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I just got done bitching about an app called Lighter because the developer is planning to charge for it after the free trial is over. It doesn’t look like Moderati is planning to charge for the Virtual Zippo Lighter… my guess is that Zippo already paid them plenty to engineer this exercise in brand marketing… so I’ll be far kinder here.

Simply put, Virtual Zippo Lighter totally lives up to its name. I’m not saying this just because it’s free forever, I’m saying it because it’s 100% true. You open the Zippo by shaking your iPhone or swiping in an upward direction on the screen. Sorry, a quick tap doesn’t work here. Why? Because it doesn’t work in real life!

Once the Zippo is open, a swipe downward on the wheel will turn it to ignite the flame. The flame, which is completely true to an actual flame from this type of lighter, even responds to accelerometer movements as you tilt your iPhone this way and that. Shake or swipe right/down to close the lighter and admire the steel-cased handiwork Zippo is famous for.

Not only is this an awesome lighter simulation from top to bottom, even including the way a Zippo sounds, Moderati also gives you no less than 20 different Zippo models to choose from by swiping through the selections across the bottom of the Customize screen. Plenty of different styles are represented, ranging from basic chrome for people who think they’re classy to “anarchy” for weird emo types to bling and guitars for the rockstars of the world.

If you want a lighter for your iPhone and a crappy Bic won’t cut it, get this Virtual Zippo. It’s a no-brainer. And if you’re close enough to the stage you might even get a shoutout from the band.

Tags: free, strictly visual, useless

Lighter

Michael (Admin) | Sep 25, 2008 Utilities

User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)

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I’m feeling kind of ornery today, so I’m gonna rip on an application just for existing. Normally I wouldn’t do this to a free app, but according to Chillingo Ltd’s description for Lighter, the free deal is a “special introductory offer – free for 1st week!”

So how much are they going to be charging? 99 cents? Two bucks? Three? Man, I really hope it’s not three.

By my count, there are at least ELEVEN lighter apps out there. Many are free and the others are priced at a semi-reasonable $.99 for those who like to flush good money down the toilet. Any “lighter app” that charges more than that should be booted from the App Store on grounds of attempted price gouging and insulting the intelligence of iPhone users.

Lighter is, itself, an app that isn’t bad for lighter junkies. It offers three types of lighters: Bic, Zippo, and the fancy kind you “slide” open to ignite. The flame animations are nice, except for the Zippo flame which looks nothing like an actual Zippo flame. What, you think I’m being overly picky? It’s my right… nay, it’s my duty… to be picky here. Remember, this app will eventually cost money! Apps that are indefinitely free get a pass. Apps that are “free for 1st week” do not.

Chillingo admits that there are problems with Lighter crashing and they’re planning to fix this with an update, but even after that happens I still say it’s a tragic waste of money to pay for this kind of thing.

If you insist on having a lighter on your iPhone, please do the smart thing and get Lighter while it’s free or get some other free one – there are plenty out there, like this kickass Virtual Zippo.

Let’s challenge developers to spend their time developing apps that are actually unique rather than encouraging them to play copycat. The iTunes App Store is cluttered enough as it is.

(stepping down from my soap box now)

Tags: $.99, free, strictly visual, trial period, useless

PapiPole

Michael (Admin) | Sep 24, 2008 Games

User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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It’s a well-known fact that Papi likes to jump, and here’s another bombshell: Papi also loves catching falling hamburgers with his red, bulbous head! He hates spikey orbs falling from the sky (don’t we all), but hambugers are just super.

Sunflat stuck Papi on a pole like a big red lollipop and your mission is to keep him from falling over or getting too abused by the spikey things raining down from above. Keeping Papi upright is easy in theory, and I think most people have, at some point, already done a similar balancing act in real life by trying to balance a baseball bat (or an umbrella, or a big stick) on your face. If it’s falling left, you move left, if it’s falling right, you move right.

If Papi takes too many hits or falls over, you’re dead and the hamburger party is over. Like PapiJump, PapiPole is incredibly simple and strangely addictive, partly thanks to the online leaderboard that provides the extra motivation to become a PapiMaster. And the big bonus is that Sunflat, having learned a few lessons in the recent past, and has put in a pause button and one-tap game re-play. It’s always nice when developers listen to feedback and remember to incorporate it in subsequent applications.

Final verdict? If you like PapiJump, chances are you’ll be a fan of PapiPole, too.

Tags: free, simple

Dactyl

Michael (Admin) | Sep 24, 2008 Games

User rating: (3 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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Dactyl, according to my quick Googling, is a fancy word for finger. It’s a really simple app and it’s kind of fun in an annoying way until your Dactyl’s tip goes totally numb from frantic tapping!

The object of the game is simple: when a bomb lights up, touch it to prevent it from exploding. Miss one and it’s Game Over. Your finger will inevitably get in the way of seeing where to tap next since the bombs light up at random all over the place, but I suppose that just comes with the territory.

There’s really not a lot to say here except that it’s a well-done iPhone app that, despite its short shelf-life, is worth trying out. You can turn the sound on/off with a single tap and you can also clear the scoreboard, both of which are nice features. Maybe Mauvila Software’s next version could have more bombs on the screen and let you type more than five letters on the high-score board, but I’m becoming increasingly loathe to criticize apps that are both free AND good, so we’ll just leave it at that. Try it out.

Tags: free, simple

SpinArt

Michael (Admin) | Sep 23, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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You long to be an artist. You have all this pent-up creative energy bubbling inside you, and you desperately want to unleash it upon the world, but there’s one tiny problem: you are a talentless loser!

Apparently Brian Smith feels your pain. He created SpinArt which gives pretty much everyone, monkeys included, the ability to splatter out some pretty cool abstractions on a spinning canvas. Just swipe your finger to set the canvas in motion, choose a color and a brush (splatter) size, and start plying your craft.

It really is that simple. With the canvas spinning, you can hold your finger in one place to make circles, you can drag it outward from the center to make spiral lines, and you can make up any number of other maneuvers that capitalize on the canvas rotation. Or you can just do your thing on a still canvas if circular motions just aren’t your style.

SpinArt is a nice app that I think a lot of people will have fun with. You can save your finished work to your camera roll and your work is always saved if there’s an interruption but, like most iPhone apps, I suspect it’s a work-in-progress. Here’s my wishlist of features for future updates:

• Undo
• Select canvas color
• Import image
• Non-splattering brushes
• Maintain canvas spin rate (so that it doesn’t slow down)
• More colors
• Reposition canvas (so that circles can be made in other areas)

You’ll undoubtedly be pining for Undo in short order, but even without all of these features I think SpinArt is worth $1.99, especially if you have kids who like to play around with your iPhone. You’ll enjoy it, but the young ‘uns will probably have a blast with this app.

Tags: $1.99, artistic, good for kids

Crossy

Michael (Admin) | Sep 23, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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I just added up the category totals in the iTunes App Store and there are currently 3,772 applications available. Buried in that mountain of software is Crossy which I’m pretty sure has been around longer than most of those apps, yet it’s only been reviewed 19 times.

I don’t know why I never bothered to download it before… I guess I’m just not a huge fan of apps that don’t actually “do” something… but there’s something strangely appealing about Crossy. It’s a “snowglobe” for your iPhone and comes with a tranquil mountain scene set against a giant Swiss Flag backdrop. Swiss crosses gently rain down from the sky like snowflakes and will change direction based on how you’re tilting your iPhone, kind of like a real snowglobe.

A nice feature that Vayen built into Crossy is the ability to switch out the Swiss mountain scene with a photo from your camera roll. Just tap the camera icon, select a photo, and let the snow-crosses wash over you forever and ever and ever. If you’re an idiot like me and choose a photo of raw meat as your backdrop, you can always revert back to Swiss tranquility by tapping the refresh icon at the bottom of the screen.

Crossy is simple, free, and well-executed. It’s a gift. Go on, try it out.

Tags: free, strictly visual