B.S.Meter
Ian Hicks | Jul 23, 2009 Entertainment
User rating: 
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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This is the type of app that has always made me crazy. It’s the type of app where I know I’ll never use it more than 20 seconds at a time, but still may be worth some home screen real estate.
To be quite honest I never thought I would actually use it. That was until today, when I was out at lunch with a friend of mine. He was telling me some bogus story about how he really was going to pay me back for lunch this time. Not that I really cared, but I thought I’d use this B.S. Meter as a fun way to call him out on it. So I pulled out my iPhone and told him, “Would you like to try telling that to the B.S. Meter?” So as he told me why he really would pay me back, this time with the B.S. Meter out, he listened to it beep faster until the unmistakable “Moo” sound of a lie. Read the rest of this entry »
Double Feature: iButterToast and iJog
Michael (Admin) | Jul 22, 2009 Entertainment
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This is Part 2 of my fact-finding mission for that plucky reporter who’s investigating oddball apps, and this time around I’m asking the codehounds to promise to post a comment with your thoughts on the app in exchange for the promo code!
So are either of these apps really worth your time? One of them has you buttering a piece of virtual toast with your finger and the other is literally a finger treadmill. Huh?? Well believe it or not, I kind of like buttering the toast! If there were a Hall of Fame for the Dumbest iPhone Games of All Time, iButterToast would be a first ballot shoo-in, yet I actually had a little fun trying to butter the toast in record time.
iJog, the finger treadmill, isn’t what I’d call “fun”… tedious is more like it… but it really is a workout for your fingers.
PurityRing
Ian Hicks | Jul 22, 2009 Lifestyle
User rating: (1 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)
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It is rare that an app comes along so ridiculous that you look at it and can’t help but laugh. Purity Rings are a controversial method of trying to get teens and young adults to not have sex, as instituted by several Christian religions. PurityRing, is a hilarious iPhone app which ports this concept into the digital world. Read the rest of this entry »
Tap Tap Revenge: Coldplay
Ian Hicks | Jul 22, 2009 Games, Music
User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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In all honesty I have never been able to get into the Tap Tap Revenge series by developer Tapulous. Pretending to play a fake guitar on your TV is one thing, but I felt downright stupid tapping to music on a 4.5” x 2.4” screen. However, when I saw this game paired with the name Coldplay, I was ready to give Tap Tap another shot. What I ended up finding was that once I gave it a fair shot, the game is actually fun in its rhythmic tapping of a screen. If Tap Tap Revenge: Coldplay can please me, this game will be sure to please Coldplay and Tap Tap fans alike.
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Q&F: Taco Bell Why Pay More! Shaker
Michael (Admin) | Jul 21, 2009 Entertainment, Quick & Free
User rating: 
(4 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)
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This is another one of those apps that newspaper reporter is asking for feedback on (see Knock on Wood)… not sure why because the Taco Bell Why Pay More! Shaker doesn’t seem all that odd to me, and it’s actually kind of useful if you’re broke as hell and looking for some grub.
What you do is input how much cash (or pocket change) you have on hand, hit Submit, and then give your iPhone a good shake. After a couple seconds the Taco Bell slot machine thingy will present you with meal options that fall within your budget and it even counts how much change you’ll have left. What it doesn’t count is sales tax, but I think that could be chalked up to the app’s assumption that you know if you live in a state where food is taxed. After all, you’re just poor, not stupid!
This is brand-marketing at its finest and since it’s well-executed I really don’t mind it at all. The Hyperfactory Ltd. did a nice job on the app and now, once again, you have a chance to make yourself heard in the comment box! Remember, an actual newspaper reporter is reading this. Go on, try the app and be as witty as you can be.
iTunes Link
Version: 1.1
Reviewed on: iPhone 3G
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- If you can't afford to eat at Taco Bell you should be applying for food stamps
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- Yo quiero Taco Bell
Tags: free
Q&F: Knock on Wood
Michael (Admin) | Jul 21, 2009 Entertainment, Quick & Free
User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
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Knock on glass, I mean wood
If you’re ridiculously superstitious you might actually like this “app”. Notice that I put “app” in quotations… it’s only an iPhone app in the sense that you can download it from the iTunes App Store and put it on your iPhone! Oh yeah, and it was also one of the first apps available when it was released nearly a year ago on July 27th, 2008.
When you launch Knock on Wood, you see a photo of a piece of wood. Tap the wood and you get a nice knocking sound, kind of like you just knocked on wood in order to double-jinx whatever stupid jinxy thing you just said, ie: “gee I hope I don’t get mowed down by a bus today.”
The only reason I’m writing about this hilariously stupid “app” is that a newspaper reporter asked me if I could help her round up some opinions on this and several other oddball App Store entries. If you’re game, please try it out and post your thoughts in the comment box! Who knows, you might even get quoted in the article. Come on you fame whores, you know you want to!
iTunes Link
Version 1.0
Reviewed on: iPhone 3G
Tux Rider World Challenge
T.J. Brumfield | Jul 21, 2009 Games
User rating: (2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5)
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Tux Rider World Challenge is an interesting app on a variety of levels. I immediately gravitated to it because I know it is based on an open source game, Tux Racer. Tux Racer itself has passed through many hands over the years, which is part of the beauty of open source software. When one developer stops updating a title, the source code (or instructions to make the program) are freely available for someone else to pick up and continue. And over the past nine years, that is precisely what has happened several times with Tux Racer.
That also means that Tux Rider is open source as well. You can go to Barlow Software’s website, download the source code, and release your own modified version so long as you also release your version as open source. It isn’t very effective to have two active forks competing though. Any new features you developed, the original would be able to integrate when you released your source code.
Ranch Rush
T.J. Brumfield | Jul 20, 2009 Games
User rating: (6 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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My mother is addicted to playing Farm Town on Facebook these days. As I was downloading Ranch Rush from FreshGames, my thoughts immediately turned to games like Farm Town and Harvest Moon. Both those titles have mass appeal, but I find playing both to be a chore. Thankfully Ranch Rush turned out to be a different kind of beast.
Sure, this is a farm simulator in the strictest sense. You plant crops, harvest them, and run a farm. However gameplay is not open-ended, nor very time consuming. The story of the game centers on Sara and Jim, who have eight weeks to save their business. Sara gets the idea of starting a farmer’s market to raise the necessary funds. If she can’t raise the money in eight weeks, greedy developers take over Jim’s Flower Nursery where they both work.
Tags: $1.99, Games, simulation, T. J. Brumfield
32×32
T.J. Brumfield | Jul 20, 2009 Entertainment
User rating: (5 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)
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When I saw this app in the review queue, I immediately sent an email back to Mobeen Fikree (developer at Caffeine Monster Software), saying that with 32×32, they had developed an app specifically for R. Stevens of Diesel Sweeties fame. This is certainly a niche app aimed at likely a small audience.
One might wonder then why I would review it for this site? It is entirely possible that most of the readers who read this review decide this app isn’t for them. Honestly, I’m fine with that. If I only reviewed the most popular apps, I wouldn’t be helping anyone discover newer or lesser-known apps farther down in the App Store rankings. Also, my job isn’t simply to tell you whether or not I liked something. I try to provide you with in-depth descriptions that better enable you to make a decision for yourself if this is something you’d enjoy.
EffectsLab
T.J. Brumfield | Jul 19, 2009 Photo & Video
User rating: (5 votes, average: 4.40 out of 5)
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This review is also due to a request. My wife wanted me to find her a good photo app for adjusting images on her phone. This site has reviewed apps like LOMO Camera and ToyCamera, which are designed for a very specific purpose. I’ve also come across a few designed more for entertainment purposes, transposing part of your picture with another image. What she wanted was something practical. The iPhone doesn’t have a flash. If she is taking pictures with her phone, she wants the pictures to turn out well.
Christopher Comair’s EffectsLab comes to the rescue. EffectsLab adjusts images. There are no toys or gadgets. There are no extraneous bells or whistles. There isn’t even a splash screen. You open the app, open your image and adjust it. Perhaps the app won’t wow you over with splashy graphics or polish, but this swiss-army knife of image filters gets the job done when it counts.
Tags: $1.99, Photo & Video, photo editing, T. J. Brumfield
Shuffle Ball
T.J. Brumfield | Jul 19, 2009 Games
User rating: (2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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I remember fondly my youth as I would pour over Nintendo Power magazines while drinking Jolt cola and watching Alf. Okay, looking back it doesn’t seem nearly as awesome. But in those days I often played computer and arcade games that featured simple vector graphics aping at 3D. Some of these games were supposedly 3D versions of pong, or table tennis, where I’d hit a ball (often an ugly vector creation) with my neon-colored paddle, bouncing it to a computer opponent. Homestar Runner’s Strongbad Zone plays upon this if you are curious what I’m talking about.
Ibis Inc. also recaptures that classic look and feel with Shuffle Ball. We live in a retro-generation where everything that was deemed no longer cool is suddenly cool again. So certainly there is an audience for older gamers who want to revisit their youth, or younger gamers who are curious about these so-called classics us grumps can’t stop yapping about.
Tags: $0.99, Games, T. J. Brumfield
Screenplay
T.J. Brumfield | Jul 19, 2009 Productivity
User rating: (16 votes, average: 2.94 out of 5)
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Black Mana Studios managed to find a worthwhile niche where no app currently existed and deliver a solid first offering in Screenplay. As the name suggests, Screenplay allows you to edit screenplays on your iPhone/iPod.
A writer on the go could simply jot down notes with the built-in notes app. If they have the new 3.0 software, they can also record voice memos. So where does this app fit in?
