Sweet! Slideshows are fun

In October of last year I was gushing about how cool WiFiPhoto is and how it’s the reason that I’ll never have to email a photo from my iPhone to my comp again. I still use it all the time, and I still love it enough to point out that it’s gotten even better than when I first got my greasy fingers on it!

Here’s the major stuff that’s changed over the past six months:

- Now you can adjust the quality of the images you’re transferring off the iPhone
- A slideshow mode has been added in case you’re more interested in showing off your pics rather than downloading them
- Landscape images are automatically rotated
- Option available to use cellular data network if wifi isn’t available

WiFiPhoto may not qualify as a “must have” app for absolutely every single iPhone user, but if you snap a lot of pics or do a lot of screenshots it’s incredibly useful to have around.

iTunes Link – WiFiPhoto
Version 1.2

Movies is an app I reviewed way back in March, and at that time it was called My Movies (here is the original review). I felt it was only fair to credit to the creator for all the hard work they have put in to make this app not only more functional, but more useful and attractive as well. In my experience there are very few apps out there that have updated as many times as this one and added as many features as this one has.

Most importantly, the stability of Movies has steadily improved with each update. Originally, working with MyMovies was a delicate operation; if I scrolled down too fast or pressed buttons rapidly the app was almost certain to crash. Unfortunately, crashes are not entirely a thing of the past, but they are much less frequent and consequently less frustrating.

The list of features has steadily grown since my first review.

• The first addition was the very important “lend” notation, so that I can keep track of who I lend my movies to (this was a feature this app definitely needed when I first reviewed it).
• Later came list view, which maximizes the name of the movie and minimizes the cover thumbnail.
• There are now additional sorting methods, such as by genre and rating.
• A wish list was added, and the ability to easily switch entries from the wish list to the main list once you purchase it.
• A backup and restore feature via FTP, as well as the ability to email your list.
• The very cool coverflow(tm) browsing, similar to what you see with albums in your music.
• Barcode scanning, which I cannot use since the iPod Touch doesn’t have a camera.

With this laundry list of features that have been added over the past 6 months, this is almost a completely different app from the one I originally used. It has become a handy way to keep track of my movies, especially all the ones I lend out. If anything is missing, it would be the ability to view all my “lend” movies at once, rather than sorting through my whole collection. If the past is any indication, that feature is likely to be coming in the future.

Let me close by congratulating Netwalk on standing by their product. There are many apps that I review which are quickly deleted afterwords, and this is one that I’m glad I kept.

iTunes Link- Movies
Version 1.8.2
Reviewed on: iPod Touch (2nd gen) OS 3.1.2

Here’s what you gotta do: get their app and email your favorite tip to competition [at] intelligentipublishing.com by way of the app’s built-in “email a tip” feature. The app costs $2 and there’s a good chance it’ll give you some new information even if you think you know *everything* about the iPhone. Here’s my full review from June this year.

Good luck!

iTunes Link – Tips & Tricks – iPhone Secrets

The folks at SHAPE Services keep on pumping out the updates and making their heavy-duty IM+ line of apps better and better! IM+ was originally reviewed here back in April when it was still on version 2.0 and now that we’re in the 3′s it supports Skype, sending video (3GS only, duh), has an in-app web browser, and does all kinds of Twitter stuff including link shrinking and retweets. Badaaaaaaaassssss.

iTunes Link – IM+ Push
Version 3.3

Earlier this summer I gave everyone a run-through of Tips & Tricks – iPhone Secrets, an iPhone cheatsheet of sorts. It lays out a whole mess of iPhone functionality that a lot of casual users are clueless on and a few things that even the most hardcore iPhone nerds probably don’t know.

Since then we’ve seen the release of the iPhone 3GS and the release of OS3.0, so naturally the folks at Intelligenti Publishing got to work and nearly doubled the number of geeky iPhone secrets from 38 to 70. They were even nice enough to label the tips with little icons that tell you if you’re looking at something that’s improved in 3.0, done differently in 3.0, or completely new in the latest iPhone firmware.

And for all the people who are broke as f (like me!), there’s also an icon that tells you if a certain function is 3GS only. Great idea – the last thing you want is to start beating your head against a wall as you look for features that your antiquated 3G just doesn’t have.

Intelligenti seems very committed to keeping Tips & Tricks up to date, plus it’s still only a buck (!) even after adding all that new content, so if you buy this app for yourself it could turn out to be the gift that keeps on giving as the iPhone continues to evolve.

iTunes Link
Version 3.0
Reviewed on my crappy old iPhone 3G OS3.0

This is the last batch of free LuckyWheel codes!

Thanks again to Drobnik.com for sharing them with everyone. Here’s my review of this game from a couple months ago.

Codes 21-30 are in the comment box!

Developers always appreciate feedback on their work, so whether you leave a comment for them here or in the App Store I’m sure they’d appreciate it.

Codes 11-20 are in the comment box.

Notice that LuckyWheel has only 13 reviews so far… I bet they wouldn’t mind if you posted your thoughts on the app in the App Store! hint hint :)

The folks at LuckyWheel have an update that’s gonna hit the App Store any minute now, so they’ve sent over a TON of free codes to share with the iPhone App Reviews audience!

There are 40 codes in all, and I’m going to break them up into 4 different posts in an effort to minimize the difficulty in finding codes that you can redeem successfully. It would still be super nice if everyone could leave a comment saying which code you took! Don’t gotta be fancy or clever, just say which number code you used. Please?

If you’ve never heard of LuckyWheel, I reviewed it a couple months ago… it’s a lot like Wheel of Fortune. It doesn’t have the same gloss as Wheel, but it’s still pretty fun and it features pass-n-play for when you’re with friends (something Wheel lacks).

Thanks a bunch to Drobnik.com for sharing the codes!! And for those of you who miss out on this code extravaganza, the game’s only $1 so buying it won’t break the bank.

Whoa dude, two updates in one week! This is an important one because when I reviewed IM+ a couple months ago I was grumbling that it didn’t support Skype. Well, now it does. And it supports Twitter. And it can provide your location, although in my brief experiment the accuracy was off by a few miles.

This is still a pretty big update, though, and here’s the official word from SHAPE Services:

The most important additions in IM+ 3.0 paid version are Twitter and Skype Chat. The minor changes include an ability to create own status messages including geo-status with current location.

IM+ 3.0 lite version’s functionality (lite version is coming soon) is also significantly expanded. Besides Twitter, we’ve added the following functions which previously were available in paid version only: Send photo, Send location and Send voice.

* Note: Due to technical reasons the version number in App tore is displayed as 2.2, though it is a major update 3.0.

Kind regards,
SHAPE Services
http://www.shapeservices.com/

IM+ may be pricey but that’s because it does that fancy thing where you can still receive chat messages even when the app isn’t running which dramatically raises its value for the super-wired. However, if you’re too broke to drop $10 on this app you can haul ass to the comment box and try to grab one of the free codes that SHAPE has very kindly provided!

Aaron Berk, creator of the infamous Wooo Button, recently used his magical powers to morph into an app-making machine called TightApps and his latest release is actually a major re-release of his formerly plain-jane bill splitter Separate Checks.

The newer, prettier, and more robust version not only lets you tabulate shared costs with excruciating accuracy, it also gives options for splitting checks either approximately or equally. If you’re splitting things equally you could probably get away with just using a plain old calculator, but the “split approximately” feature is awesome!! Instead of itemizing everything on the table which can be a huge chore, it provides cost sliders for each person who is sharing the bill. It makes splitting the check WAY faster than pecking away at the keyboard throughout dinner, and I think this feature alone is worth the dollar you’ll pay for this app. To see it in action just skip to the 8:00 mark in the demo video below. One thing I’d prefer, though, is for the sliders to work on whole dollar amounts since that’s typically how people pay for their share.

The new ‘n improved Separate Checks also allows you to save groups if you go out with the same losers all the time, and you can also save checks for future reference in case someone starts whining about paying more than their fair share. Unfortunately saved checks aren’t editable, but maybe this will be possible in a future release? If you regularly go to the same places with the same people this could save precious drinking time if you’re planning to hit the bars after dinner. And how about saving individual names that you can add to groups, just so you don’t have to retype them at every outing?

There’s always room for improvement in any app and Separate Checks is no different, but if you’re looking for a fast and flexible way to figure out who owes what then you should definitely give this one a try, especially if you’re always the one who has to play Banker when the check comes! It’s a well-documented fact that the Banker gets hosed pretty much every time a large group is involved, so this should be a dollar well spent.

Back at the beginning of February I reviewed a little app called Pocket God. You can take a look at my previous review here: http://www.iphoneappreviews.net/2009/02/08/pocket-god/. At the time the app held a lot of promise, but was not fully developed enough for me to really endorse. Since that time Pocket God has climbed its way up to become the top paid app in the App Store. I have become a big fan of this app as well, and eagerly wait for each new update.

The key to Pocket God’s success lays primarily with the steady updates. Updates have been arriving about once per week, and there have been five updates since I first reviewed Pocket God, hence my updated review. These updates expand the capabilities of app and broaden the experience.

The creators of Pocket God, Bolt Creative, have really taken a hands-on approach with their fan base. They have a blog (the Pocket Blog), a Facebook page, and an account on Twitter. All this allows them to keep users informed on updates and take feedback on ideas for future updates. As a result, they have developed a following I have yet to see with any other app. Check out the plushie made by one adoring fan:

If you are one of the few who haven’t taken the plunge and picked up this app, what are you waiting for? At $0.99 this app is one of the best bargains in the app store, and every subsequent update is included in that price. At the rate this app is expanding, I predict that the price will go up eventually, so now is the time. It is certainly not going to get any cheaper.

Look through the gallery below to see the updates that have come through since my last review. You can refer to my previous review to see updates that had come through before then.