iPhone App Reviews

HOYLE Video Poker

Michael (Admin) | Sep 18, 2009 Games

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

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If you have a deck of cards in the house there’s a good chance the box says “Hoyle” on it, so it seems somewhat fitting that their legendary name is now stamped on an iPhone video poker game.

There are tons and tons of casino games in the App Store, and if video poker is your thang then you should definitely be giving this app a closer look. As you’d expect with just about anything produced by a major household brand, HOYLE Video Poker oozes quality from the moment you start it up and the whole experience is just as good as if you were pumping quarters into an actual video poker machine.

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Convert

Michael (Admin) | Sep 18, 2009 Business

User rating: (1 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)

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Unit converters aren’t even close to sexy which is why it’s been over a year since the last one I reviewed, but some are definitely better than others. Polar Bear Farm’s very creatively named Convert is simple… it’s elegant… it’s shiny… and DAMN it’s expensive!

Even Polar Bear Farm acknowledges that the $5 price tag is pretty steep, so in their iTunes description they implore you: “Don’t defile your beautifully designed iPhone or iPod touch with substandard, poorly implemented, ugly software”. Ha, I like it! If only all developers thought the same way.

If you look past the price, it really is a nice app that converts everything from length to mass to currency to angles to you-name-it, and it’s dead-simple to use. The calculator number pad could use a C button for clearing the display, but other than that it’s solid. If you only need area, length, and mass (weight), then the free version will do ya just fine. If you need more and absolutely refuse to defile your iPhone, drop the 5 bucks and then figure out how much you just spent in over 40 different countries.

iTunes Link – Convert
Version 1.6.1
Reviewed on iPod Touch 2nd Gen OS3.0.1

IAR’s 6 Random Freebies

Michael (Admin) | Sep 18, 2009 Random Freebies

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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Hey it’s finally Friday and today’s round of untested free crap is all GAMES! Screw productivity, let’s have some fun.

Fling! by CandyCane: I think a lot of developers like to announce fake “sale” prices for their apps, but this one looks legit. Fling! is normally $2 but it’s free right now and looks like a quality time-waster, so grab it for nothing while you can!

Volkswagen Scirocco R 24H Challenge 3D by FISHLABS: Yes, this game is all about product marketing… but it also looks like it has tons of potential to be a fun way to snag some free Fahrfegnugen or whatever you call it.

A Quest of Knights Onrush by Chillingo: Control one badass knight wearing a manhole cover over his face as he battles the oncoming horde!

SPACE DEADBEEF by I.D.P.: This game was actually reviewed back in December of last year, but the name is funny enough and the game is good enough that it’s worth mentioning one more time.

PapiMissile by Sunflat: If you’ve been around the App Store for long enough you already know who Papi is… this time around he’s in a Missile Command-like situation where he has to shoot down incoming rockets. Papi always keeps it super simple but everyone seems to like the red ball guy.

Blackjack World ♠ Monte Carlo by Candywriter: I doubt it’s better than Avalinx’s 21 Pro, but if it even comes close then this should be a freebie worth installing!

WTF: Pretty Poo

Michael (Admin) | Sep 16, 2009 Entertainment, WTF?!

User rating: (5 votes, average: 4.40 out of 5)

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Pretty Poo is the exact reason there’s a WTF category on iPhone App Reviews!

Digital Mint has created a cartoon piece of poo that doesn’t like flies, but flies like poo, so it’s your job to keep the flies away by shaking your iPhone or blowing on the mic. Flies go away, poo is happy, but naturally the flies come back for more, circle of life, rinse and repeat.

I’d like to tell you that there’s more to Pretty Poo than that, but that would make me a big fat liar! The developer bills Pretty Poo as a “designer app” so I guess it’s meant to be appreciated more for style than substance. I’ll admit that this is a nicely assembled app despite the laughably stupid premise… makes me wonder what Digital Mint could do if they were to venture beyond the limited realm of cute & quirky.

iTunes Link – Pretty Poo
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1

Tags: $.99, funny, weird

WTF: Me & My Grandparent GOLD

Michael (Admin) | Sep 16, 2009 Entertainment, WTF?!

User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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First of all, lemme just say that I’m not laughing at old people here! Parents and grandparents and other wrinkled folk are A-OK in my book and I mean that in all sincerity. In the past 18 months I lost both of my great aunts who nearly hit the century mark (the older one made it 99) and I truly miss them, and I truly truly wish I could have sent them some greeting cards from Me & My Grandparents GOLD because they would have gotten a good laugh out of them!

Some of you will think I’m crazy or just plain mean for poking fun at this app, but Mobile Champs has produced 30 of the gooeyest, gaudiest, most over-the-top expressions of Love any human has ever come up with in the history of written schmaltz. The wording of the default greetings is both flowery and bizarre, and to top it off they’re adorned with rainbows and hearts and fairies to make the experience complete.

Me & My Grandparents isn’t horrible in the functionality department, but it’s not good either. The icons used for navigating are kind of cryptic, text editing is somewhat limited, and photo handling is extremely limited. All of that will be forgotten, though, when you start sending these unintentionally funny greetings around and get an inbox full of LOLs and WTFs in return.

iTunes Link – Me & My Grandparents GOLD
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1

Tags: $.99, funny, greeting cards

C@rds Master

Michael (Admin) | Sep 16, 2009 Utilities

User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Let’s see… I’ve gushed about Halloween C@rds, Christmas C@rds, Love C@rds, and Frame C@rds. Can you tell that I like this series of greeting card apps?

Hot Chili Apps was kind of ahead of the App Store’s development curve when they released their first C@rds apps last year… in-app purchasing wasn’t possible until just recently, so they released each version of their app one by one and if you bought several of them it meant having several different app icons to access them all. Now that in-app buys can be made, they’ve released C@rds Master which provides a complete preview of each C@rd set’s templates and it also includes two working templates from each set that you can use right away.

At first glance you might think this app is just a ploy to sell more C@rds, and selling is definitely part of the plan here, but it also lets you consolidate all of the C@rd sets you’ve already bought into one place! Sweet.

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Tags: $.99, greeting cards

Crasher Squirrel

Michael (Admin) | Sep 15, 2009 Photo & Video

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

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When I spotted Crasher Squirrel my first instinct was to put it under the WTF category because I thought it was just gonna be stupid, but as it turns out it’s stupid and well done and it’s even mildly amusing so I’ll spare it the WTF label. Crasher Squirrel is basically a poor man’s version of Hendrik Kueck’s Juxtaposer, but instead of mashing together two photos you’re just slapping a squirrel onto your pics.

There’s nothing terribly fancy going on here, but United Playcos did a nice job of making the squirrel move and resize with two-finger gestures and you can also erase/unerase squirrel parts as you see fit. This last bit is important because erasing portions of the squirrel does a lot for integrating the furry little guy into photos in ways that are a lot funnier and more creative than if he’s just standing there in the foreground like an idiot.

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Tags: $.99, funny

Tight Apps Code-O-Rama, Part II

Michael (Admin) | Sep 15, 2009 Entertainment

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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The second installment in the TightApps giveaway!

Wooo! You is for screaming Wooo at your friends (they also need to have Wooo! You or Wooo Button installed), and Booty Gong is for sending out an SMS alert a Push notification when you score some delicious booty.

iTunes Link – Wooo! You
iTunes Link – Booty Gong

POV: MonsterABC

Michael (Admin) | Sep 14, 2009 Education, POV

User rating: (4 votes, average: 3.25 out of 5)

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* “POV” (Point of View) is a new feature that we’re testing out *

MediaBrand’s rating: 8.0
IAR’s rating: 7.0

Women tend to run away screaming when I approach and that makes it hard for me to reproduce, so in order to test drive MonsterABC I recruited the help of Ella, a sassy little four-year-old whose parents I’ve known since my first day of college back in the stone ages.

MediaBrand‘s app is a colorful learning tool that provides alphabet practice for toddlers by providing a word and an illustration for each letter as well as each word’s spoken pronunciation, plus there’s a fill-in-the-blank section where the child picks the missing letter in words like “kite” and “umbrella”. The spoken parts sound like they’re voiced by a child (good move!) and the artwork is top-notch, so I think it’s fair to say that MonsterABC has a lot going for it. It’s simple, it’s glossy, and it was able to hold Ella’s attention for waaaay longer than I was predicting.

There is, however, one major part of MonsterABC that Ella’s parents weren’t at all crazy about…

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Tags: $.99, good for kids

TightApps Code-O-Rama

Michael (Admin) | Sep 14, 2009 Entertainment

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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The fine folks at TightApps are about to release new versions of Wooo! You and Booty Gong, so they’ve sent over a truckload of codes for each! They literally backed a truck into my driveway and dumped promo codes all over the place. LITERALLY. This place is a mess!

I haven’t tried Wooo! You yet, but since Wooo Button was one of the first apps I ever reviewed I may have to give it a try.

If you miss out on this batch, fear not… more are coming tomorrow!

iTunes Link – Wooo! You
iTunes Link – Booty Gong

Holochess

Michael (Admin) | Sep 11, 2009 Games

User rating: (3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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I like when developers get all inventive and crazy with their game ideas! There are already plenty of entries in the match 3 and shmup genres, so when MeYuMe came up with Holochess I got kind of curious.

As the name implies, Holochess is kind of like chess with its wacky rules and strategic play, but it also looks very cartoony and you get to blow up your opponent’s pieces which are both nice bonuses. The board bears some resemblance to the Dejarik game that Chewie plays with R2D2 on the Millenium Falcon (do I really need to name the movie?), and Dejarik happens to be one of the two sets of rules – Courtier being the other – that Holochess comes equipped with.

Courtier starts you off with six pieces and the object is to capture the other guy’s King, just like in normal chess, and pawns are eliminated by double-teaming them on either side. Dejarik starts with four pieces and there’s no King, so you have to win by eliminating pawns with diagonal moves or by lining your pawns up in a neat little row on the board’s center ring.

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Tags: $1.99, strategy

IAR’s 6 Random Freebies

Michael (Admin) | Sep 11, 2009 Random Freebies

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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Normally this bunch of apps is untested free stuff, but I’ve actually tried a couple in this round! I have three fantasy football leagues on Yahoo (I know, you’re sick of hearing about them) so that one’s a must-have, and I tried out JellyCar back when it was in the Top 25 Free list. I haven’t had much time yet to play with Yahoo’s app, but JellyCar is definitely worth trying.

JellyCar by Walaber: This one used to be in the Top 25, but it’s still free! Very cool and very frustrating game.

Yahoo! Fantasy Football ’09 by Yahoo!: If you’re playing fantasy football on Yahoo! you just gotta get this app, no question about it

Qik by Qik, Inc.: For 3GS users only, Qik is for shooting & sharing videos via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, SMS, email, and maybe a couple of other methods… I dunno, I’m still stuck with a 3G!

Have2P by AT&T Interactive R&D: When you’re sliding into first and your pants are about to burst… you know the next line, right? Have2P is for finding a place to do your business. Probably awesome if you have kids with badly-timed bladders.

iCandyPix Sexy Pics + iCandyPix Vol. 2 by Keyvisuals: Normally I wouldn’t bother with bikini apps, but this one lets you stick the girls into your own photos! Haha, pretty funny.

9/11 Numbers by Stalefish Labs: I saved this one for last because it’s such a downer, but it’s also appropriate since today is the eighth anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center in NYC. It spits out various numbers and statistics related to that very, very bad day in 2001