iPhone App Reviews

Theme Park Madness

Sara | Jan 9, 2010 Games

User rating: (3 votes, average: 2.67 out of 5)

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Every summer, I would go to my local theme park and see tons of teenagers controlling the rides. I often wondered what it would be like to be a ride operator.

This game by Movile finally gave me a chance to become a ride operator. Okay…I didn’t actually get to control a real roller coaster and get paid, but this game is still fun! There are two simple controls: touch the left part of the screen to deccelerate and touch the right side of the screen to accelerate. You get to travel around the world and can earn achievements for each roller coaster.

When I first tried this game, I thought, “How hard can this be? All I have to do is hold down the accelerate and watch the graphics of the ride!:D ” I was wrong. These roller coasters have sharp drops, sudden hills, and lots of loops. I would find myself going at a nice speed, and suddenly I would find a sharp drop. BOOM!!! Next thing I know, I see my passengers have deployed their parachutes (apparently, the theme parks I work at give all passengers parachutes) and are safely floating to the ground.

I found this game very addictive and very fun. One of my favorite parts was the achievements. Some of the achievements are Speed Demon, Grabbing Air Time, and No Brakes! No Brakes was the hardest to earn because you can’t deccelerate at all, or else you don’t get the achievement. I  liked the backgrounds for each city because they represented each city very accurately (I loved Washington D.C. because the roller coaster passed the White House:-) ).  At $2.99, I found this game a bit pricey, but there are 18 levels, so I guess that justifies the price.

Overall, this is a fun game to play on your coffee break or during lunch. Get this app and see if you are a good ride operator or not. I know I’m not. :lol:

iTunes Link – Theme Park Madness

Reviewed on iPhone 3GS OS 3.1.2

Version 1.1

Tags: $2.99, fun, Games

Outside

Michael E. | Jan 9, 2010 Weather

User rating: (5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)

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Let’s face it- there are a ton of free and premium weather apps available in the App Store.  The sheer amount of information they manage to cram onto a screen can be absolutely mind-numbing.  And some of them are a little…um…dare I say it?  Unattractive.

Don’t get me wrong, all those weather details are nice to know, but they aren’t especially important to me most of the time.  Personally, there are only three questions I have about the weather at any given moment:

• What is the current temperature?
• What can I expect for the day to bring, weather and/or temperature-wise?
• What can I expect for the next few days to bring weather and/or temperature-wise? 

Outside is a weather application that successfully manages to combine simplicity and utility while answering those three basic questions.  No more, no less.  Plus, it’s pretty.  So pretty that you’ll find yourself checking the weather far more than you usually do, just to admire its attractiveness.  I sure did.

But Robocat’s Outside is more than a pretty face.  You can swipe through current weather and future forecasts, each offering a distinct ‘out of a window’ visual graphic of what the conditions are at the moment or soon will be outside.  Outside also includes many of the details we love to see in a weather app, including humidity, cloud cover, wind direction, UV index, and sunup/sundown times.

You can set push notifications (30 days of push notifications provided free, additional 90-day blocks available through .99 cent subscriptions per notification type) for a variety of conditions such as rain, high UV, cold weather, and t-shirt weather.  The notifications are customizable, meaning that you are able to set temperature and time of day criteria for your alerts. 

You certainly don’t need the notification alerts to use Outside, but they do enhance it.  Keep in mind that there is an added cost to receive notifications beyond the initial 30-day offering.  Additionally, you cannot set or receive severe weather alerts and it does not offer radar maps, animated or otherwise.  Perhaps those features will be offered in future updates. 

Outside is a welcome addition to the weather app world, though the $2.99 price tag is a little steep.  Nevertheless, this app will help you to make the most of the weather no matter what it throws at you.

It’s also very pretty to look at.

iTunes Link – Outside

Version 1.0

Reviewed on iPod Touch 3.1.2

Tags: $2.99

iSpy

Sara | Jan 9, 2010 Games

User rating: (3 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)

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I remember playing this game when I was young. Of course, this was before the invention of the iPhone. I would sit in the car with my siblings, and my parents would yell out a random item. I raced with my brother and sister to try and spot the item first. Whoever spotted it first would get to choose the next item to try to find. This killed lots of time on car journeys.

This app those exactly what my parents did, except it makes it more fun. You can have up to four players. You put the iPhone within tapping distance of each player and choose if you are playing in the countryside of the city. It then presents you with a picture of something to look for. Whoever finds it first, gets to tap their name. The good thing is, that you can choose for it to change the picture if no one can find it in 1/2 minute up to 5 minutes. There are also two game options. Option one is a timed game where you try to accumalate the most points before time is up. Option two would be for a longer game. You try to reach the set points amount first. You can make the amount 5, 10, 15, or even 50 points!

The game presents you with pictures of anything from a bird to a blue car. It is definitely a great game to let the kids play on those “neverending” car journeys. It also stops them from saying, “Are we there yet?’ every 2 minutes. :) My favorite part about this app is the simpilisticness. It doesn’t have complicated set up and is easy enough for your five year old to get the game started so that you don’t have to take your eyes of the road or your hands off the wheel.

This MicroApps game may be small memory space wise but is definitely a huge investment if you want to keep your sanity on car trips. :D And at $.99, it isn’t a budget buster, so pick up this app today!

iTunes Link – iSpy

Reviewed on iPhone 3GS OS 3.1.2

Version 1.1

Tags: $.99, fun

App Vault Pro

Sara | Jan 9, 2010 Utilities

User rating: (5 votes, average: 3.20 out of 5)

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When you see the name of the app, you know that it has to be good. I have seen many apps that claim to do lots of things, but I believe this app is the best. It packs 24, that’s right 24 apps into one package. It doesn’t just have boring stuff that you know you won’t use but unique things I haven’t seen elsewhere.

First of all, it has a date calculator that tells you things like how many days are between a certain date and certain date, exactly how old you are, and what day of the week a date is on. It also sports things like price comparison (see if buying one brand in a certain size is better than the other), the Bible, and an alarm clock.

My favorite part about this app is the weird and interesting apps. There is iPlasma where you can be mesmerized by a simulate plasma in anything from fire to liquid gold. The Guitar Machine shows you how to finger chords, has a metronome, tunes strings, and has a tuner, which makes this sub-app a 4-in-1!

The most unique app in my opinion is the Parking Buddy app. Parking Buddy uses your iPhone’s built in function to locate your spot on the map (in your case, where you parked your car) and use it to place a point on a map. Say you are in a big city and park your car in a paid parking spot and walk to some shops. When you finish shopping, you can just open the app and press “Locate You Car” and you will get directions back to where you parked! Pretty nifty huh?

Overall, this app is great for packing everything you need from the normal tip calculator to the not so normal iPlasma. So check out this $.99 app by C3 Software today (it’s on sale, normally $2.99, so get it fast)! :)

iTunes Link – App Vault Pro

Reviewed on iPhone 3GS OS 3.1.2

Version 1.2

Tags: $.99, interesting

iBacon

Sara | Jan 9, 2010 Games

User rating: (3 votes, average: 2.33 out of 5)

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I have always loved the smell of bacon and the sound of it sizzling in the pan. When I saw this app, it brought me back to the days when I would have a big test in school, and my parents would make me all the bacon I could eat.

iBacon is a great app for the bacon fanatic who wishes they could cook bacon everywhere they go. True, you can’t actually eat the bacon, but who doesn’t like that sound of the bacon sizziling in it’s own grease in a pan (Of course, unless you are a vegetarian, then I totally understand why you would hate theat sound) ?

When I launched the app, I was met with a cute drawing of a pig in a chefs hat; I found this funny and ironic at the same time. I loved how they used actually loop videos of bacon sizziling to simulate that you were cooking the bacon. If you leave the bacon without flipping it for a while, it might burn or grease might splatter. You can also flip the bacon by selecting it, and you will see a video of your bacon being flipped. This G-Monkey Production did a great job of incorporating realisticness with ease of transition from bacon-cam to a real-life video.

My favorite part of the app was to eat my bacon. You got to tilt your iPhone/iTouch towards your mouth and the bacon magically disappears into your stomach! Be sure to turn your volume up because at the end, a guy says, “Mmmmm bacon!” This app is great for showing to your friends and saying, “I bet your iPhone can’t cook bacon!”

Overall, for $.99 this app is a great conversation starter. So, if you are a bacon fanatic like me, be sure to check out this app.

iTunes Link – iBacon

Reviewed on iPhone 3GS OS 3.1.2

Version 1.1

Tags: $.99, fun, interesting

Family Feud

Sara | Jan 8, 2010 Games

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

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It’s time to play Family Feud!!!!! I have always loved watching this show on Saturday mornings. The unique game play, funny answers, and catchy theme song just drew me in. Naturally, I had to review this Ludia app based on the game.

This game did not disappoint. It is set up where you have 12 families to beat in single player mode, and in party mode, you get to play human vs. human instead of human vs. computer (party mode actually seems to be only two player mode, not really a party mode).

The set up of the game is just like the actual show. You are presented with a survey question and can buzz in to answer. The game is somewhat easier because you get to type your answer, and as you type, it presents you with suggestions (if your answer isn’t a suggestion, it most likely isn’t on the board). I found the choice of survey questions to be large. After playing for several hours, I hadn’t found any repeat questions.

I really like the graphics for this game. The stage for the game is exactly like the one on the tv. You get to customize your character too; as you advance through the game, you unlock more clothes for your character. I loved the clothes choices because I was able to make a character that looked exactly like me :D .

The only problem I had with the game was that it crashed a few times and froze. I know that this can be common with apps and games, so this didn’t bother me that much.

Overall, this game has everything: enough questions, great graphics, fun gameplay, and great clothes for customizing your character. This game only costs $2.99, and I highly recommend it.

iTunes Link – Family Feud

Reviewed on iPhone 3GS OS 3.1.2

Version 1.0.1

Tags: $2.99, fun, Games, interesting

Metronome TS

Sara | Jan 8, 2010 Music

User rating: (2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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A metronome. It is a musician’s best buddy when wanting to succeed in being on beat. As a band geek who loves my saxophone dearly, I had to test this app out. It seems that every band geek and band director has some form of a metronome on their iPhone, so that you don’t have to always remember your physical metronome.

I have tried other metronomes before and must say that this one by Thezi Studios definitely out-performs my other ones, even my actual metronome, which cost $20! What will $3.99 get you in this app? First of all, you get a metronome (who would have thought :D )! This metronome is one of the best I have seen in the app store boasting a BPM count (for you non-nerds this is the beats per measure, or the number of counts per measure) of 30-250! And you don’t have to scroll from beat count to beat count; you can enter it with a keyboard entering feature too! The upbeats can be set from 0-19. The best part is the counting of what gets the upbeat: you can choose from the simple quarter note up to a very specific sixteenth rest, sixteenth note, sixteenth rest, sixteenth note! For all of you singers, there is a feature where you can choose a song from your iPod library and have the metronome running with that. This app will also save your previous tempos and let your group them in specific “folders”.

What made this app great was that not only was it a great metronome jam packed with features, but it also has a tuning fork. You just choose your concert pitch note (for C instruments, that is the note you normally play), and boom! You’ve got a concert pitch to tune your instrument or everyone’s instruments! At $3.99, this app is definitely worth the price, so if you need a new metronome that will definitely exceed your expectations, look at purchasing metronome TS!

iTunes Link – Metronome TS
Reviewed on iPhone 3GS OS 3.1.2
Version 1.5

Tags: $3.99, cool

Q&F: Kideos

Brad H | Jan 7, 2010 Entertainment, Quick & Free

User rating: (3 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)

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If you have little ones like I do then Kideos might be for you. Earlier Media brings the aggregation of kid videos to your device.

I don’t have the time to comb through YouTube for kid videos so I was hopeful for this app. The app does do just that, it just does it in a very poor way. The videos are supposed to be organized by age groups but every video seemed to have the tag for 0-2 and not every video was geared for a kid of that age. The categories tab has a large yet redundant list to choose from , and the Wiggles section has zero videos. So why have that as an option? To top it off I can’t ever seem to get through more than 3 videos without the app crashing.

Great concept, bad execution. I’ll keep the app until the next update in hope of some major bug fixes.

iTunes Link – Kideos

Version 1.0

Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS 3.1.2

Tags: free, good for kids

App Sale: Finger Physics

Michael (Admin) | Jan 7, 2010 App Sale Alert, Games

User rating: (2 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)

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Finger Physics is on sale for free – normally $.99

Fans of physics-based stuff like Ragdoll Blaster and iChalky should definitely check out Finger Physics! This is a super-frustrating physics game where your job is to solve puzzles that use the magic of the accelerometer to piss you off, I mean, challenge your intellect.

Btw, if anyone knows how to “construct a stable building” on the first “Lawn mode” level, I’m all ears! See, that’s how stupid I am… I can’t even get past the fifth level without using a lifeline. (p.s. somebody might post the answer in the comments so if you wanna figure it out for yourself don’t go there!)

PressOK says the free giveaway is one day only so you better get on it if this is your thang.

iTunes Link – Finger Physics

Tags: physics, puzzle

WTF: Pocket Performance Review

Michael (Admin) | Jan 6, 2010 Entertainment, WTF?!

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

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'Bad news, gotta send you to the unemployment line, yo'

Pocket Performance Review is on sale for free – normally $.99

Don’t be shocked if you see Michael Scott using this app in a future episode of The Office! Pocket Performance Review is a collection of executive decisions that are vocalized by 12 different personalities that run the gamut from a typical office chump (Mr. Littleman) to a gangsta (Master B) to a granny (Nellie). You can change the names of the personalities if you want, and by either shaking or selecting the various recordings you’ll be able to tell people that they’re fired, laid off, outsourced, taking an unpaid leave, and numerous other types of bad news. It’s not all bad, though, as Back Pocket Software also threw in a few positive messages to tell your minions that they’ve been given a raise or been promoted.

Shaking your iPhone or hitting the “Perform Evaluation” button will select a random message, and you can rig it to land on the evaluation of your choice.

Pocket Performance Review is a joke (literally) and I think it has high potential for being the source of your next office prank if you feel like getting creative. It’s nice and polished, and for the time being it’s free!

iTunes Link – Pocket Performance Review
Version  1.1
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1.2

Tags: funny, practical joke

App Sale: Let’s Golf!

Michael (Admin) | Jan 4, 2010 App Sale Alert

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

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Let’s Golf! is on sale for free – normally $1.99

Notice something different here? That price image above looks weird, and I’ll get to why in a minute. What you need to know right now, though, is that this kickass golf game is free! Gameloft has “lite” versions for just about all of their games, but this is the full version.

Let’s Golf! is remarkably similar to Hot Shots Golf which you might have played on Playstation or PSP. The graphics can get a little choppy at times, but this game still rules and features Instant Play, Tournament, and Multiplayer modes that support pass ‘n play and wifi. If you like humiliating your friends get them all together, download this game, and try beating each other’s asses!

Now back to why the price image looks odd… for some unknown reason, Let’s Golf! isn’t showing up in App Store searches. Only the lite version is showing up, so the only way I know to get this game is to download PandoraBox first (yes it’s free), look for Let’s Golf! under the On Sale tab at the bottom of the screen (or search for it), and then tap the FREE button which will take you to the App Store page where you can install it. Seems like a big hassle for getting this game, but PandoraBox is great too… where do you think I keep finding these app sales to announce? 8)

Update: Looks like they fixed the problem and Let’s Golf! is finally showing up in the App Store again.

iTunes Link – Let’s Golf!

Tags: $1.99, 3D

Kevin Smith

Brad H | Jan 3, 2010 Entertainment

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

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*Warning* Youngsters and Faint of Heart go ahead and skip this one.

The app is rated 17+ for infrequent mild alcohol, tobacco, drug use or references. Frequent/Intense profanity or crude humor. Frequent/intense mature/suggestive themes. If that alone didn’t cause you to rush over and purchase the app, read on.

Kevin Smith: Director, Actor, Comedian, Podcaster, Author and if that wasn’t enough you can now add app to that list. Developers Denvog created the all access pass for everything Kevin Smith. If Kevin Smith was involved with something you can be sure it’s available here. This feature rich application is a must have for all the Smith fans out there, and if you’re not that familiar with Smith this is a great way to get acquainted with his work.

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Tags: $.99, Entertainment, mature