Is your stock portfolio diversified? Well… is it??!!

iTunes Link : rudiversified

On deck: Top Rated Apps (Productivity)

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Thank you Simone!

Please play nice and LEAVE A COMMENT telling everyone which code you took. If you get one, I’m sure the developer would also appreciate an App Store review!

1) ELPTAKAJWL6J
2) TLXKFEHELKLF
3) RKNK76P9E6MT
4) NHNNYMRPNHWA
5) 7JX6XAYYNXL4
6) RYEAYEHHPXY9
7) F3YN9P7AKY4A
8) LP99REKWYFT4
9) MRXPNMR3MNK7
10) E9JKLTRL3JAR

(I like it when developers pre-number the codes!!)

Instructions on how to redeem promo codes can be found here:

http://www.iphoneappreviews.net/how-to-get-free-apps/

You must have a U.S. iTunes account to redeem codes.

iFuel Pro is a tool that helps you track your fuel economy and it supports both miles per gallon and liters per kilometer.

iTunes Link : iFuel Pro

On deck: Lingerie Heaven (Lifestyle)

Last chance at Stock TickerPicker!

iTunes Link – Stock TickerPicker

On deck: gUnit – Unit Converter (Productivity)

“Now with an updated UI and more features like green/red candlesticks for better charting!”

If I had any money to invest I’d totally use this app!

iTunes Link – Stock TickerPicker

On deck: Stock TickerPicker, part II

I love sleeping in, but rolling out of bed at 5:30 pm really puts a cramp in my day! Oh well… my crazy sleep schedule has nothing do with price comparison which is what CompareMe is all about.

If you’re wondering whether that 40 oz. bottle of ketchup at Costco is really a better deal than buying smaller bottles at the grocery store, wonder no more!

iTunes Link – CompareMe – Shopping Utility

On deck: ZenDraft (Games)

Straight from MF: “Try Stock TickerPicker today to get real-time stock quotes, a watchlist, and technical analysis/stock charts! And if you like it, please write a review….”

You heard the man!

iTunes Link – Stock TickerPicker

On the block next is StockAdvisor from TradeOffNews and when a developer is asking $20 for an iPhone app, we sit up and listen to try and understand what that kind of outlay will get you.  As it turns out, that price covers more than just a piece of software but more on that later.  StockAdvisor is a stock investment tool that strives to simplify the process of poring over the deluge of daily data (hmm, alliteration FTW) surrounding the stock market by breaking it down into 2 easy to swallow chunks of value-add; alpha and beta opportunities.  An alpha opportunity is one that relates to a price decrease or negative market sentiment for a particular stock while a beta opportunity relates to a price increase or positive market sentiment towards a stock.  These opportunities are identified through a proprietary linguistic and analysis engine that combs through 1000′s of news sources so you don’t have to (for more detail on this check their website).  Each opportunity is further broken down into green, yellow and red to indicate the severity of the positive or negative sentiment (in that order).  So what you do is create a portfolio by entering as many stock symbols as desired.  A great dual purpose here is that this also serves as a quick and dirty version of the default Stocks app where you can see the latest market price data at a glance.  After that, the app simply goes to work being fed opportunities from TradeOffNews as long as it’s running (goes without saying that a data connection is required).  On the main data screen (where you’ll be spending all your time), all stocks are arranged in alpha order and beneath each symbol appear all opportunities in descending chronological order; newest at the top.   How many are stored per stock is one of the configurable options, the other being how often the app checks home base for new data.  Finally, you can email an alpha or beta oppportunity directly from the app, very similiar to how you send photos from the Camera Roll.

Let’s move on to the gripes and suggestions; not too many to report this time around.

Oddness:

• I was never able to add NBR (Nabors Industries Ltd) to my portfolio as the app doesn’t recognize the symbol.

Suggestions:

• Ability to reorder your portfolio as you see fit (just maybe I want to see ZMH before AMD)
• Ability to output your portfolio in a nicely formatted email would be awesome

This developer is not just sitting on its duff.  They maintain a blog about this app and have a roadmap for future improvements.  Most notable is the promise of push notification support when OS 3.0 hits which will give this app major legs.  So, getting back to the value issue mentioned at the onset, it’s important to keep in mind that $20 in the world of the app store is a monstrous price but in the big world of investment tools it simply is not.  In fact, to get any similar kind of aggregate stock info service would certainly cost you a subscription fee where as StockAdvisor is a 1-time shot with free updates (1.0.1 is in fact already submitted with 1.1 on the horizon).  Interestingly enough and notable is that they’re toying with the idea of a pro version that would do exactly that; add several more very high-profile data sources (such as Factiva and LexisNexis) to their analyses on a subscription-based model.

In the end, is this app worth $20 then?  Yes, I think it is and for the specific reason mentioned above plus IMO it’s a useful weapon to add to your investment battle chest.  Obviously it’s not for everyone and it’s important to restate common sense here in that you should never rely on one single tool to make your investment decisions; do your own research as much as possible and come to your own conclusions about what to do with your money.  StockAdvisor and any other apps like it are simply tools to help but not supplement your own stock investment decisions.

Version reviewed – 1.0.0
Reviewed on – iPhone 3G 8GB 2.2.1

Trip Cubby • Mileage Log may not be the sexiest app in the App Store, but if you spend a lot of time driving billable miles for work or plan to deduct your travel expenses at tax time it’ll probably get you hot the first time you use it.

Trip Cubby’s purpose is to log your road trips and every related penny that you plan to put on your expense report. You can classify your trips as Business, Charity, Medical, or Other, specify how much you get reimbursed for each mile, and add in a total for additional expenses if needed.

The first time you use App Cubby’s brainchild you’ll need to put in your vehicle’s mileage and set your expense defaults, but after that it’s all pretty automatic. When you finish a trip and input your ending mileage, that number gets remembered the next time you start a new trip. Time and date are also entered for you automatically when you start the trip and finish it by putting in the end mileage.

This app will work for casual users, but it’s clearly designed for heavy-duty drivers who put a lot of wear & tear on their personal vehicles in service to The Man. How heavy-duty, you ask? It features basic and advanced search! And you can tag your trips with keywords. If you have enough trips logged that you need advanced search, you’re spending a pretty serious amount of time in your car.

What, that’s not heavy-duty enough? How about exporting your trips to an Excel file? Yeah it does that, too.

I can’t say that I personally would pay $9.99 for this app because I only put about 5,000 miles a year on my ride, but if I was driving regularly for work and wanted to make sure I get back every cent the company owes me, I’d get this app in a heartbeat. The price might seem steep compared to most apps, but if you drive enough that you need it chances are it’ll pay for itself in due time. Plus, if you kiss enough ass with the accounting department, you might even be able to expense Trip Cubby’s cost. Go on, stick it to The Man! He won’t miss 10 bucks.

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.