Recent Articles
Countdown™
Tanya Dracolakis | Jan 16, 2012 Lifestyle Leave a comment
Countdown™ ($0.99) by Bas du Pre
Available on iPhone & iPod Touch
Countdown™ is a new app that … counts down to things. Why confuse prospective consumers with punny names that do nothing more than mislead and force a reading of the app description? It’s great that the developer mentioned further features are in the woodworks for next month. As for now, Countdown is a fairly adequate 1.0, but perhaps not yet worth the 99 cents.
After downloading the app, you open Countdown to find a streamlined UI consisting of two buttons and a blank space where countdowns will eventually end up. The “+” button adds countdowns and selecting “Edit” updates preexisting ones. The best feature includes the ability to add a photo to the countdown item – either extracted from the internet as you input text or uploaded from the device. Once the photo-customized item is created the option of sharing on Facebook appears, which is great. However, there is no option for Twitter, Tumblr or any other social media application. Interactive features such as photo customization and sharing online show potential that will hopefully be actualized for Countdown’s next version.
Magic101
Michael (Admin) | Jan 16, 2012 Lifestyle Leave a comment
Magic101 ($free) by Angelo Oddo
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Somewhere in the deep recesses of this thing I call a brain, I like to imagine a world where I’m surrounded by adoring women who ooooh and aaaah as I wow them with amazing magic tricks peppered with bits of irresistable charisma… and then I wake up and realize that I’m about as charismatic as a canker sore.. but for whatever reason I still want to learn how to do magic!
Magic101 is a collection of videos that teach you how to pull off 12 beginner-level magic tricks. Each trick comes with a written explanation, a video that shows the trick being performed, and another video that explains how the trick is done. More magic tricks can be bought through the “magic store” where most tricks cost $.99.
Wopple
Michael (Admin) | Jan 16, 2012 Games Leave a comment
Wopple (free) by Panabee Media LLC
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Wopple bills itself as the merging of “America’s most popular TV game show” with “the most popular mobile word game”. I’m taking that to mean it’s a cross between Wheel of Fortune and Scrabble or, as most people know it these days, Words with Friends. Wopple is definitely modeled after Wheel of Fortune and not much else, so if you’re looking for a kinder and much gentler version of Wheel then you’re in the right place. As far as similarities to the “popular mobile word game”… uh, sorry guys, not seeing it!
So like I said, this is like Wheel of Fortune but it’s waaayyyyy easier and not nearly as exciting, partially due to the fact that the computer is dumb as dirt. Your mission is to solve word puzzles that come from categories like Food or Celebrities, and in typical Wheel fashion you can buy vowels and guess at consonants. There’s no wheel to speak of, just some randomized cards that determine how much “bamboney” you’ll earn if you guess a letter correctly, and unless you’ve got the IQ of a doorknob you’re pretty much guaranteed to win every time.
Hatchi
Tony Mei | Jan 14, 2012 Games 1 Comment
Hatchi ($0.99) by Portable Pixels
Available on iPhone & iPod Touch
Tamagochi were cheap, electronic toys popular in the 90′s. It’s basically a battery-powered keychain pet game. To prevent your little pixel based buddy from dying, you have to feed, bathe, and play with the thing constantly.
If you know what I’m talking about, you’re probably feeling nostalgic and/or bitter right now. I know I was obsessed with my little critter. Once, I forgot to take him on vacation and cried the entire car ride (RIP Flippy). Tamagochi is some serious stuff.
Hatchi bills itself as the app store’s first Tamagochi emulator. That’s right- you can relive the joys and pains of your childhood for only $0.99. The artwork is the same retro black pixels. Everything is done by pushing a button. You can only ‘lose’ if you don’t check on your creature frequently. The app can send notifications, in case I feel like being woken up at 3AM being told Henry is bored or hungry or smelly. In that way, it’s like owning your own pet.
Me Red: The Ultimate Adventure
Tony Mei | Jan 13, 2012 Games Leave a comment
Me Red: The Ultimate Adventure ($0.99) by Playcompass Entertainment
Available on iPhone & iPod Touch
iOS action games are a dime a dozen. I can only take so many $0.99 rehashes of tired concepts before I throw my iPhone into a lake and start beating people with a large ax. By all accounts, I should hate Me Red. For some reason, I don’t. So what makes Me Red unique and why am I hopelessly addicted?
Me Red: The Ultimate Adventure is a runner or platform jumping game. You control an endlessly running red blob. Jump with your left thumb, attack with your right. Watch out for enemies. If you die, too bad, start over. There are dozens of games like this languishing in the dark recesses of the app store, each with varying levels of suck.
But Me Red stands out. Start up the app and you’re thrown into a cute, quirky introduction. The graphics and soundtrack are bright, colorful, and happy- perfect contrast to my dark New England winter. Controls are responsive; animation is smooth. Everything is structured and polished. For a game by an indie developer, Me Red is seriously impressive. It’s looks are on par, if not better than, some of the top action games in the Apple app store.
Some award-winning plot development right here
iSo Kingdom
Tony Mei | Jan 12, 2012 Games, Uncategorized Leave a comment
iSo Kingdom ($0.99) by Zleepy Ztudios
Available on iPhone & iPod Touch
Solve puzzles! Battle monsters! Solve more puzzles! I hope you like solving puzzles, because there’s a lot of them. A clever mix of a puzzler and an action/adventure game, iSoKingdom makes some advances in uncharted territory.
iSoKingdom is based around the concept of an isometric puzzle. You get a complex 3D shape and must deduce the 2D images of different sides. It requires a fair amount of spatial reasoning and patience, and is something you’d expect to find on IQ tests and brain teaser books.
Since I have the reasoning skills of a plant, I didn’t plan on doing so hot. Thankfully, the app foresaw my incompetence, and provided a thorough tutorial. Needless to say, after completing a few puzzles, I was hooked. After a few hours, I wouldn’t be surprised if my IQ doubled.
Photogenda
Michael (Admin) | Jan 12, 2012 Productivity Leave a comment
Photogenda ($1.99) by AwakeningIdeas
Available on iPhone only
A whole mess of these replace-your-contacts apps have marched through my inbox over the past couple of years, but I’ve ignored them all because I didn’t really want one… until now. Maybe it’s my old age catching up with me, or the fact that I’m super popular and have to sift through billions of contacts in order to find my drinking buddies, but for whatever reason I suddenly feel the need to have shortcuts to certain phone numbers.
Photogenda does this by showing me the photos associated with contacts instead of the typical line-by-line list that Apple’s default iOS provides. Show names or don’t show them, it’s the pics that count. If your contact doesn’t have a photo then Photogenda asks you to specify gender and then spits out a generic icon in place of the absent photo. Sounds good right? Yeah it is… mostly.
Liquor Cabinet
Joel Madison | Jan 9, 2012 Lifestyle 2 Comments
Liquor Cabinet ($1.99) by Lavacado Studios
Available on iPhone & iPod Touch
Every new year I make a promise to myself to drink more, but not being a big drinker I never know what to drink. I’m always asking people what to drink and trying new drinks in order to find “My drink”. This app might just be the app to help. Oh yeah, I also like having lots of booze in the house. So, this is an App that can take what you already have laying around, waiting to be drunk, and help you make a nice cocktail. Or tell you what you should get to make the cocktail that you want. It’s really very handy with a built in shopping list and some nice visual ads.
It’s laid out like a virtual liquor cabinet with bottles on shelves etc. It keeps track of the booze, the mixes, the other stuff like bar fruit. I used to live on bar fruit. Okay so the only pain part is the initial adding all your stuff into the app. Then I guess if you drink a lot you need to add and subtract all the stuff. If you have a big bar where things get lost in the back or your have lots a parties this could be the app for you. They have an extensive list of brand name booze in the data base but could add some more. There were a few big name brands that I had that the app didn’t support. In that case I just put in the generic “Vodka” and that worked fine. Cheers! I’m off to make an “Old Fashion.”
Asteroids 2012
Tony Mei | Jan 8, 2012 Games Leave a comment
Asteroids 2012 ($2.99) by SKAPP Enterprises
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Asteroids is a pioneer video game, classic staple on old arcade boxes and computers. Zoom around in your spaceship, shoot asteroids, and dodge threatening flying particle chunks. Now, Asteroids 2012 hopes to revamp this arcade classic by bringing in a graphical overhaul, a variety of ships and weapons, and a full 3D space-combat engine. Does this iPhone remake stand up to the popular arcade classic?
Asteroids 2012 lends an strong first impression. Graphics are sharp and cartoony, fully optimized for HD space glory. Navigating around the clever space station home screen is easy. There’s variety of game modes, ranging from the wave attack campaign to a mini-game where you fly across the galaxy looking for secret (guess what?) asteroids. Spend money on upgrading your weapons or unlocking shiny new ships.
XLCamera
Tony Mei | Jan 6, 2012 Photo & Video 1 Comment
XLCamera (0.99$) by Maksym Tsanko
Available on iPhone & iPod Touch
According XLCamera, you can enjoy better “pictures at low light with much better quality.” This sets off alarm bells immediately. I’m skeptical of any app that claims to boost your iPhone camera’s picture taking ability. Does XLCamera live up to it’s hype, or does it fall short like dozens of other photo apps?
Let’s look at technique behind XLCamera’s photo enhancement. XLCamera uses two-step process to brighten and enhance dark images. There’s a ‘torch’ function that toggles your camera flash to stay on. An additional a built in slider adjusts images by tweaking with color saturation and hues. The slider doesn’t make images magically brighter, but increase the warmness and blurs the sharp edges associated with flash night-photography.
PhotoSync
Michael (Admin) | Jan 5, 2012 Photo & Video 2 Comments
PhotoSync ($1.99) by touchbyte GmBH
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
I just made the leap back to Mac after about 13 years of suffering with PCs! Thank you, thank you… please hold your applause. One of the first things I did after firing up my shiny new MacBook Pro was to go hunting for apps to install (yes, PC users, Apple also has an App Store just for Mac users), and I grabbed PhotoSync right away because I’m constantly moving photos off my iPhone to use on my desktop computer. In the past I’ve always relied on WifiPhoto to do this job but I wanted to see what, if anything, PhotoSync could do better.
Bottom line? PhotoSync does *almost* everything better, and it does way more! I still plan to use WifiPhoto for getting screenshots off my iPhone (I’ll explain why later) but if you’ve got a Mac (or PC) with PhotoSync installed and an iPhone or iPad with PhotoSync installed, the whole thing is just ridiculously easy. The desktop app isn’t mandatory, but it’s free so hey why not.
So far I’ve only moved photos back and forth between my iPhone 4 and MacBook… that’s right kids, file transfer here swings both ways… but you can also send your photos to other iDevices, to Dropbox, to a whole bunch of social places like Facebook, Picasa, and Flickr, and you can even go with FTP if you’re a SuperNerd.
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