Valentine & Love C@rds
Michael (Admin) | Jan 20, 2009 Utilities
User rating: 
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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This app is called Love C@rds today, but its name will soon be expanding to “Valentine & Love C@rds” since Valentine-specific templates are going to be added before February 14th.
If you would like the chance to win this app (and others in the future), join my Facebook group which I’ve cleverly named “Win free iPhone apps“. Hot Chili Apps has generously donated 15 promo codes which I’ll be distributing to random winners every day for a week starting on February 1st.
I said it when I reviewed Halloween C@rds, I said it when I reviewed Christmas C@rds, and I’m gonna say it again for Valentine & Love C@rds: Hot Chili Apps knows their stuff. I’ll confess that I haven’t tried every single iPhone greeting card app out there, but I’ve tried a few and I think it’s very safe to dub this C@rds series the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion. It’s that good.
As with the other themed versions of this app, you get to choose three different types of card templates: Pattern, Picture, and Photo. Pattern is mostly stuff that fills the screen with… well… a pattern or graphics of some sort, Picture is a collection of templates with photographic elements, and the thing that kicks the most ass is the collection of Photo templates that allow you to incorporate your own photos into your greeting card.
No matter which template you choose, text is about as customizable as it can get. You can add as many different lines of text as you need which means you can get creative with fonts, text sizes, colors, and positioning. Drop shadow is optional, and text is moved and resized with that two-finger maneuver that most of us iPhone geeks have grown accustomed to by now. The only obvious thing that’s missing is text wrap, so if you’re writing your boyfriend a long, weepy note you’ll have to hit “return” in the text editor where you want line breaks to occur. A way to automatically align my text horizontally would also be welcome, but unless you’re constantly creating greeting cards it’s probably not an issue.
Photos are also super easy to handle. When you place a photo into a Photo template, you can scale and resize any which way you damn well please with that same two-finger move that you use for text. It’s all incredibly well done and easy to use.
As of today this app includes 15 Pattern templates, 14 Picture, and 16 Photo templates for a grand total of 45… and since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, Hot Chili Apps will be adding even more templates before February 14th. Some of those new templates will be Valentine-specific, so if you buy the app today don’t be disappointed at the lack of “Happy Valentine’s Day” stuff! I haven’t seen them, but I know they’re coming.
As greeting cards go, Valentine & Love C@rds absolutely rules and I think it’s worth every penny of the $1.99 asking price. If you’re just too broke to spring the two bucks, join my newly-minted Facebook group and hopefully you’ll win a copy!
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- Add a photo, write a note, and send it to everyone you want to get naked with
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- Jessica Alba is my Valentine, she just doesn't know it yet
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- Text options are awesome, but they can't save you from the beating this note will surely result in
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- You can create your own custom colors, and lots of them
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- The text color picker has plenty to choose from
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- Me, a hopeless romantic? Umm hopeless yes, romantic not really
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- This is gonna go over really well with the Mrs.
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- If I ever get a valentine like this I'll assume I'm being Punk'd
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- My true feelings always come out in the fine print
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- The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the way to a woman's is through gentle threats on her life
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- The settings screen isn't sexy but it provides the right options
Tags: $1.99, greeting cards, valentine's day
Dog Whistle
Drew Grgich | Jan 20, 2009 Utilities
User rating: 
(9 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)
(9 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5) Loading ...
Ah – the joys of childhood. Your first time burning paper with the rays of our nearest star and a handy magnifying glass…your first time viewing the forbidden joys of an R-rated film. . . and your first time using a dog whistle to annoy the hackles off man’s best friend. Of course, nostalgia colors a man’s perception and what seemed cool when I was a boy is pretty boring now. Today, kids have much more exciting things to do with their idle time. They can throw a CD in the microwave, download things I’d never dare dream of from the Internet . . . but what’s this? They can use their iPhone or iPod Touch as a dog whistle to annoy canines? This I gotta see!
The mad genii at Augware have released their new app for the iPhone/iPod Touch upon an unsuspecting world and it is a fairly fun little application that does just what it sounds like — create a noise that only those with four legs and Alpo-breath can hear. This app, conveniently known as ‘Dog Whistle‘, is $.99 and is available for download now.
The interface of ‘Dog Whistle‘ is pretty simple. A large button at the top produces a sound when tapped. Two sliders let you choose the Frequency of the sound as well as the pattern. Frequencies range from approximately 1kHz all the way up to 20kHz. Patterns range from a single tone all the way to an oscillation that range from 200 to 1000 Hz. There’s a sound meter to let you know when sound is emitted — even it is beyond human auditory range and a ‘bark threshold’ setting that lets the device automatically emit sound when a threshold is reached.
I used the dog whistle I bought as a child to make my dog cock its ears when I blew the whistle. I’m pleased to report that Augware’s Dog Whistle had the same effect on my loving pooches who no doubt are still nursing a headache from the inaudible racket I was making. It is also fun to adjust the sound to just within human auditory limits to see how long it takes to annoy your cube mates.
Trainers could — in theory — use this app in coordination with standard training to get their charges to respond to auditory commands. For example, they could train the beast to perform a trick when one burst is made or sit with two bursts.
In all, this app is definitely worth the shekels if one either has canine interests at heart or for the sheer novelty factor. I found a new way to connect with both my dogs — who were on the whole not pleased — and my childhood. Now to throw some CDs in the microwave . . . .
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- Nothing beats a good slow beep.
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- Pure tones are for . . . well, purists.
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- Fast beeping is for giving your dogs a headache.
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- A fast oscillation is for giving your co-workers a headache.
Tags: $.99, Dog Whistle, Drew Grgich, pranks
Gemlogic
Chris J. | Jan 19, 2009 Games
User rating: (2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5)
(2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5) Loading ...
Finally, I get to review an app that will stay on my phone after I finish the review! Gemlogic could easily be summed up as an updated, feature-laden version of the classic game of Bejeweled. The objective remains the same: try to connect at least three gems to score points. The game modes will change how you can move the gems and how the gems are connected to make combos.
The “Gem Mode” menu allows you to select how you want to move the gems. On easy mode you can move gems anywhere on the grid, medium limits to horizontal and vertical lines, and hard mode limits gem movement to one space in any direction. Each of these game modes has three “Logic Modes” as well. On beginner mode gems need only be grouped together, intermediate mode requires diagonal connection, and veteran mode means that gems must be connected in straight lines.
When you start the game, you will be presented with a 3 X 3 grid of gems. Don’t write this game off yet, because as you score more points the grid becomes larger up to a maximum of 8 X 8. Along the way you’ll also see more types of gems show up as well.
Watch the waterline in the background, it will steadily rise as you play unless you continue making combos. If it rises all the way to the top you lose. When things get to frustrating for you, simply shake your iPhone to rearrange the gems randomly.
What really takes this game beyond the standard puzzle game is the multi-touch capability. You can move two gems at the same time to set up combos or try to set up longer chains. Unfortunately, this feature becomes a lot more difficult to use as the grid becomes larger and the gems smaller.
There are plenty of other features that enhance the game as well. The beach-themed graphics are beautiful and mesh together well with the game design. The gems themselves look nicely realistic and yet are still easy to distinguish from each other. For those who love achievements there’s a generous list to work on. The competitive gamers will appreciate the online scoreboards as well.
If you want to try out this game before spending the $0.99, there is also a Lite version available for free.
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- The first menu specifies how you move your gems.
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- The second menu specifies how combos are made.
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- This is only the beginning.
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- Just warming up...
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- Have you got the stones to make it this far?
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- All bow before the awesomeness of my 13x combo!
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- Something to call Mom about. She'll be so proud!
Annual Bible 1.0
Chris J. | Jan 19, 2009 Reference
User rating: (4 votes, average: 1.50 out of 5)
(4 votes, average: 1.50 out of 5) Loading ...
The Annual Bible is a simple program to organize Bible reading into daily readings. By following the readings described on each day, you can read through all of the Old Testament once and all of the New Testament and Psalms twice in one year.
The app itself is simple to use, it keeps track of the date for you. It also looks nice, with a picture of a sunset for the background. It has the familiar dials in case you want to change the date. If you want to pretend that it’s January 19th, 2037 and you’re reading the Bible in your rocket car feel free to change the date, but the reading will stay the same.
On the downside, the picture interferes somewhat in reading the lowest line. Also, the app does not allow any customization of your reading plan (i.e. if you wanted to take two years instead of one). There is also no way to check off the readings that have been completed. The app does not contain a version of the Bible itself, so you would have to carry a Bible or download a Bible app to go with it.
Overall, the program does not seem to be worth the price, since a Bible reading program can be found at any number of locations for free. If you absolutely must have a Bible reading program on your iPhone, then this isn’t a bad way to go.
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- Go ahead, change the year. The reading is the same.
Pip
Swain Valasek | Jan 19, 2009 Games
User rating: (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...
With Pip from Mystery Coconut LLC, you can craps yourself. Sorry but I just could not possibly resist that one. Note this is not a dice-crunching app for spitting out reams of statistics but rather virtual dice in your pocket, literally. You get a standard 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 20-sided die set and you can select as many as you want to get things rolling (you had to have seen that one coming too). When I say as many as you want I mean you can keep dragging out dice until your iPhone is on its knees screaming for mercy and smoking out the speaker hole which is obviously not recommended as you might hose the app and have to reinstall. If you can get past the desire to feel live dice in your hand, this app completely eliminates the need to have a physical set of dice (beyond some crazy 1-off custom dice I reckon). Personally I think it’s a terrific idea and not only is it a creative use of the iPhone, it’s absolutely sure to impress anyone present when you whip this out on game night. The dice textures and sounds here are ultra-realistic and the physics of the dice collisions and interaction is simply astounding to watch in action (you can even end up with cock-dice!). Ok you get the idea of what it is so here’s the lowdown on the features that make it so cool.
- Up to 10 dice sets can be saved (even after the app is closed) and it works like the pages of the iPhone springboard
- Shake to roll all dice at once or hurl a single die into the others with a flick
- Tap to lock 1 or more die and prevent them from rolling
- Nifty slide-out ‘drawer’ holds the dice selection and retracts neatly out of the way when you’re ready to roll
One suggestion is to let us somehow name the saved dice sets, such as ‘D&D lucky 20′ or ‘Yahtzee’ or whatever.
Granted this is not an app most folks would use every day but it is an app you could justify making a permanent home for on your iPhone because you just never know when you need a little chance in your life. This is a slick, polished app that does exactly what it advertises and then some as it manages to turn watching dice roll into something fun in and of itself.
The author is very cool and allowed me to poke around with the latest beta build of soon-to-be-released v1.1 and after playing with it I can seriously recommend this app people. Check these awesome new features:
- Double-tap to roll if you don’t feel like shaking the phone, perfect!
- Single-tap dice in the tray to change color, sweet!
- Double-tap the screen with the tray open to automatically clear out all dice (great for weenies like me who drag out too many dice just because you can)
On top of that add some streamlining of the user interface and a couple bug-fixes regarding sound and this is one GREAT app!
I showed this to an old D&D buddy I work with and he was positively giddy over it and spewing compliments. Don’t be swayed by what the ‘iTunes economy’ might say is a steep price for a dice app. This is what app-making on the iPhone is all about, true dedication to putting out quality software that is actually worth some of your hard-earned money.
Version reviewed – 1.0
iTunes music supported – yes
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- Ready to take on the world!
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- You can see at the bottom this the first of 3 saved dice sets
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- Ok seriously don't do this just because I did, just don't...seriously
Tags: $2.99, dice, Games, Pip, Swain Valasek
Flower Club
Chrisa | Jan 19, 2009 Entertainment
User rating: (2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5) Loading ...
For my first iPhone App Review, I decided I’d try something girlie, since I think women are underrepresented in techie-type review blogs like this one. Anyway, as a broad myself, I was intrigued by the idea of, as the developer put it, finding the florist within, so I gave Flower Club from Orchard Party a go. And I found out something about myself – I don’t HAVE an inner florist. Or, if I do, this app frustrated the crap out of her.
Flower Club does let the user arrange three different types of flowers in one of several vase options, along with greenery and other flotsam and jetsam. But the flower choices are very limited – red rose, purple tulip, or yellow daisy. And don’t try and create yourself a dozen red roses – only five flowers per vase allowed, no matter the vase you choose. That frustrated me the most. I mean, come on, women want a dozen roses, people, not one in a bud vase! Getting one rose in a bud vase either means you’re in high school, or the dude who gave it to you lives with his mother.
Once you create an arrangement, you can save it to the gallery. Then the next bit of frustration kicks in. When you view your gallery, your arrangements are all there, beautiful and blooming. Select one and - low and behold – it’s closed buds, waiting to bloom. If you want to see your arrangement blooming again, you have to “water” it, by clicking the water icon over and over and over and over and over and…you get the picture. And if you have more than one flower in your arrangement, you have to water each one individually. They don’t all bloom together. Finally, if you water them enough (it took me 38 “clicks” to get a three flower arrangement to bloom)to get them to bloom, when you leave the gallery, they bud up. You have to water them all over again to see them in bloom the next time you visit the gallery.
Even at $0.99, Flower Club was too pricey a club for me. If I could have saved images of my arrangements to my iPhone photo gallery so I could email them, I might have liked this app more. But sticking a rose in a bud vase and incurring carpal tunnel syndrome to get it to bloom just didn’t do it for me.
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- The menu is pretty.
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- The directions were to the point and included icons, which I liked.
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- The default arrangement.
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- That's it for your flower choices. Slim pickens.
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- Yes - the gallery is always sideways.
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- WTF? Wasn't this arrangement in bloom?
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- 18 clicks later, one flower blooms. Bitchin.
Tags: $0.99, Entertainment
Coming Soon: Free iPhone Apps!
Michael (Admin) | Jan 19, 2009 Website Stuff
User rating: (No Ratings Yet)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...In the very near future I’ll be doing the first of what I hope will be many iPhone app giveaways!
Hot Chili Apps, the maker of Halloween C@rds, Christmas C@rds, and several other kickass greeting card apps, is graciously donating a bunch of copies of their very Valentine-esque “Love C@rds“. If you’d prefer to put mustaches on an ex’s photos than get all mushy, Brian Cantrell has also thrown in a few copies of his “mStache” app which I’ll be reviewing soon.
The app giveaway will run from February 1st – February 7th, but you can enter now simply by joining my newly-formed Facebook group. That’s all you’ve gotta do… join the group and you’ll be eligible to win! Plus you’ll be eligible for all future app giveaways.
If your name comes up in my random drawings I will give you a “promo code” which is a secret code that app developers can use to pass out free copies of their stuff. All you have to do is redeem it in iTunes and the app downloads automatically, ready to jump onto your iPhone/iPod Touch the next time you sync.
What are you waiting for?! Join the Facebook group and you’ve got a shot at winning! And if you don’t have a Facebook account yet, just sign up. It’s free. And it’s time to come out from under your rock.
Note that the Facebook group is different from my Facebook page.
Q&F: Concert Vault
Michael (Admin) | Jan 19, 2009 Music, Quick & Free
User rating: (6 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
(6 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5) Loading ...
FREEBIRD!!!! Admit it, you used to yell it every time you drove to a concert in your Camaro with your jeans jacket and Bic lighter. And you had a huge mullet. You used to be COOL! But you still dig live music and that’s what Concert Vault is all about: live recordings of mostly long-gone, but often legendary, music acts.
You won’t find anything made this century in the collection of concerts that Wolfgang’s Vault has put together, but if your radio is always tuned to the local classic rock station you’ll probably get a lot of listening time out of this app. Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Crosby Stills & Nash… that’s the kind of thing you’ll find here. There’s even some 80s rock including Motley Crüe and Bon Jovi! And Rick Astley (huh?). And for you Deadheads, there’s a LOT of Dead available, over 20 live shows. Sorry, no Phish. And if you’re looking for Cheap Trick’s “Live at Budokan” you won’t find that either because most of the shows available seem to be from more obscure dates, but they’re still quality shows all the same.
You have to create an account which can be done in-app, but after that you’re looking at a pretty good collection of live concert recordings. You can mark concerts as Favorites, search artists, browse several different categories, and there are even a few “radio stations” that are really just big playlists of stuff you probably haven’t heard in many years. Apparently you can also create your own playlists, but I can’t seem to figure out how to do that.
Concert Vault is different from other internet radio apps in that it’s truly a “vault”, kind of like your iPod… if you find something you like, you can go back and listen to it over and over again, and it’s always there. Depending on your tastes the music selection might seem limited, but even so there’s plenty to like about this app, and the price is right! Go get it and start rocking out. Now.
A lot of Concert Vault's artists are dead or retired, but a few are still kicking
Tags: free, internet radio
2079
Swain Valasek | Jan 17, 2009 Games
User rating: (4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)
(4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5) Loading ...
The iPhone receives another winna and it’s called 2079 from Eric Tong. This fast-paced game will make you realize you no longer have that 17 dex you once took for granted (c’mon who really had a natural 18). The goal here is to stay alive and shoot everything that moves while obtaining as high a score as possible. You do this by piloting your spaceship with the accelerometer and shooting in any direction with an onscreen D-pad. This is a very nifty control scheme and gives me daydreams about the possibility of Robotron or Space Dungeon (for the true old-skoolers) on the iPhone. Getting back to the review, unidentified powerups appear randomly and you have to shoot them several times to see what they are then cruise over them to activate. A limited quota of ‘blasts’ will clear the screen of enemies with a shake, perfect for rushing out to grab powerups. The longer you stay alive the harder it gets until you’re eventually obliterated in a cloud of fail and can then see how you rank on the global scoreboard.
This excellent shooter does a whole lotta things right, let’s see:
- Global scoreboard
- 2 camera settings for a zoomed-in (nice as you can appreciate the gfx) and fully zoomed-out experience
- Accelerometer calibration available at all times via an onscreen button
- Starts easy and gets very challenging in true arcade fashion
- Well-drawn graphics, nice fx and butter-smooth gameplay
- Can resume from interruption (call coming in, putting phone to sleep)
- Nicely implemented pause function (dim icon ever-present onscreen)
- Thoughtful and consistent UI throughout
Gripes and suggestions…hmm thinking…not much as this game is quite complete. Shooting was a bit of a problem as I often died in a frustrating fury while madly trying to get my ship to shoot in the right direction. You have to be fairly accurate in pressing a narrow ‘ring’ of activation within the d-pad to fire in the expected direction as presses just outside or inside this sweet spot yield unpredictable results. Perhaps this could be tweaked a little for large fingers. I did eventually change my style of play to focus more on watching my finger on the D-pad to compensate and this improved my scores greatly at the expense of a bit of immersion. Even so, venturing away from the sides of the screen Rambo-style was always instant death for me so best to stay along the edges and just dart out for the powerups. Oh here’s a suggestion, please save our name so we don’t have to re-type it for every score we want to submit. That’s about it gripe-wise as this arcade shooter delivers sights, sounds and action by the truckload, oozes professional polish and is hella fun! Perhaps best of all you will want to keep this game on your iPhone, a fairly rare quality on the app store these days!
The author promises a new game mode and option for left-handers (like me!) in a future update so clearly there is devoted support of this app which is a win for users. Other touches showing the author is passionate about this game that did not go unnoticed: the animated starfield on the title and game screens, the way the credits button caroms around when you tilt and the ’babyv on board’ sign that swings along with tilt in the credits. Good stuff.
Version reviewed 1.0.2
iTunes music supported – yes
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- A+ for presentation
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- Props where due
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- Fully zoomed out mode if you simply must see everything at once
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- Normal zoom where utter panic can rightly ensue
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- Sweet triple-shot powerup if I can bungle my way over to it
Tags: $1.99, 2079, Games, shooter, Swain Valasek
Home Run Derby
Swain Valasek | Jan 16, 2009 Games
User rating: (2 votes, average: 2.00 out of 5)
(2 votes, average: 2.00 out of 5) Loading ...
Sa-wing battah! Ah, classic home run-hitting action on the iPhone; like apple pie and sunshine it’s always good. Tim Jensen’s Home Run Derby gives us an exclusive contest of home run slugging, which means don’t confuse it with a full-on baseball game. We have some very nice animations for the pitcher and batter but rather bland graphics for the stadiums, of which there are 3 to choose from. A nice feature present here that I’d like to see in more games is a mute button onscreen at all times. There are 2 modes of play: basic batting practice where you just swing for the fence until you go numb and home run derby where you try to outslug the (unseen) AI through 3 rounds to reach an underwhelming victory screen.
I had fun with this game; it’s definitely cool to slug home runs and Home Run Derby gives you that straight up, albeit with nary a bell or whistle.
There’s a few gripes and suggestions I could make and since that’s what reviews are for here they are:
- No way to save derby progress if you exit the game
- No global scoreboard
- No music (come on, at least give us a few bars of take me out to the ballgame and the classic dunadadundadunnnnnn CHARRGE thing or Rock n Roll Part 2
- Inexplicably you can’t change your name, you’re just ‘Player 1′ (lame)
- A bit too easy even on hard setting
- If you reach the target number of homers in derby mode it’d be nice to have the option to just skip to the next round if you want
- One thing I have to give special mention to is the game’s actually suggested method of playing which is by swinging your phone like a bat, Wii-style. To me this is wicked-dangerous since if your phone were to slip from your hand it’s bye bye iPhone, among other risks. The other method of screen-flicking is superior IMO and keeps your iPhone cozy and safe.
Version reviewed – 1.01
iTunes music supported – yes
iTunes music supported – yes
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- Right there in black and white
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- Cool 3 stadiums, shame they look so similar
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- Gimme the ole peppa!!
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- Major wood, a 540 ft blast into the parking lot!
Tags: $0.99, baseball, Games, home run derby, Swain Valasek
Snowflakes
Swain Valasek | Jan 16, 2009 Lifestyle
User rating: (No Ratings Yet)
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It doesn’t snow where I live but hey now I can have snow anytime I want! Snowflakes from Peerium Inc allows you to enjoy watching snow fall on your iPhone until you are awash in joy. Tap once to create a snowflake, drag to create a stream of them then tilt to change the point of gravity as they fall…and that’s it. Much like Zen Garden, this app does exactly what’s advertised and nothing more. A little more effort could make this fun, for example allowing some snowflakes to stay on the screen and let a shake function like a snow globe. How about a mode where snow just continually falls to some relaxing music that we could zone out to? Heck I might just hang mine from the Christmas tree if it did that; be quite a conversation piece that’s for sure. What about a hi-res window frame with random snowfall so I can hang my iPhone on the wall and try to convince my kid that it’s a real window and it’s actually snowing outside? As with Zen Garden, I could only recommend this were it free.
Version reviewed – 1.0
iTunes music supported – yes
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- Here's how it works
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- No two are ever alike?
Tags: $0.99, casual, Lifestyle, relaxation, snowflakes, Swain Valasek
Zen Garden
Swain Valasek | Jan 16, 2009 Lifestyle
User rating: (No Ratings Yet)
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All those little sand gardens you see in cubicle farms the world over are a thing of the past, thanks to the magic of the iPhone! Well, sort of. Zen Garden from Peerium Inc allows you to get metaphysical in the sand with the best of them. You can draw with a finger, swipe with 2 to ‘rake’ or shake to clear. The graphics are realistic so it looks just like interacting with real sand. That’s unfortunately about it though and since there’s nothing else here to engage you and no configurable options, it’s more like etch-a-sketch than a transcendent experience.
Add an ambient music track, soothing sound fx, some rocks to arrange and maybe even a trickling fountain and you’ve got something neat that could compete with the likes of Koi Pond. That said, this app does exactly what’s advertised so I can’t fault it but as is, I could only recommend it were it free.
Version reviewed – 1.0
iTunes music supported – yes
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- That's right people, it's SAND
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- Free this app, it's trapped behind a dollar
Tags: $0.99, casual, Lifestyle, relaxation, Swain Valasek, zen garden
