Recent Articles
Art Coloring Book
mackb | Mar 8, 2012 Games Leave a comment
Art Coloring Book (.99) by Singlespeed Software Development
Available on iPhone & iPod Touch
This is the world’s easiest colour book to be used on an iDevice. My young boys took to this instantly and got it right away. I didn’t have to show them a thing. Once they figured out how to change pencils, they were off to the races and did several pictures in no time. Now they fight over it so I have to put it on both of their iPod Touches. The bottom line…..
Mozaikr
mackb | Mar 8, 2012 Photo & Video Leave a comment
Mozaikr (.99) by Singlespeed Software Development
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
Boy is this app in the wrong category! This should be in a category of its own: Photo Collage Art. And mis-named too! “Collage Art” or “Collage Your Pics” would be better!
It is nice to be surprised once in a while. This is not like those disappointing apps that claim to create an artistic piece from your photo by only applying an effect filter to the photo. No, this app creates a painterly work of art by collaging pieces of existing art photos or your own photo roll on your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
It looks chunky at first until you blow it up to see what the new picture is made up of. So…
Hey, who wants to win a $100 iTunes gift card?
Michael (Admin) | Mar 8, 2012 Website Stuff 1 Comment
Hey you nerds! If you want a shot at winning a $100 iTunes gift card all you’ve gotta do is guess who the Final Four will be in the NCAA Men’s March Madness basketball tournament and then guess the winner!
Here’s what you do:
1. Like App Newsfeed (http://www.facebook.com/appnewsfeed)
2. Go to the contest event, attend it, and post your guesses.
You do NOT have to guess everything correctly to win. The winner will be chosen by adding up the seed numbers of the correct teams you picked. A very clear example is available on the event page.
You’ve got NOTHING to lose, and it doesn’t matter if you don’t know the first thing about college hoops! So-called “experts” get out-picked every year by complete buffoons. :)
3/12/2012 Update: We just posted the 2012 March Madness Bracket
mSecure – Password Manager
Michael (Admin) | Mar 2, 2012 Productivity 3 Comments
mSecure – Password Manager ($9.99) by mSeven Software LLC
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Without a password manager on my iPhone I’d probably be perched up in a bell tower with a rifle. Yeah, forgetting login information drives me THAT crazy, and with literally dozens of logins to remember it’s pretty much mandatory that I have a password manager installed. I honestly don’t know how people live without this kind of thing.
Back in the day I was using Memengo’s Wallet Pro, and I thought it was awesome. It wasn’t long before I dropped Memengo for 1Password Pro because I loved their two-layer security thing, but something about it has always felt a little incomplete.
mSecure doesn’t do the two-layer security, but it does do several things that 1Password Pro doesn’t, and this was enough to convince me that it was worth spending 90 minutes this morning manually copying records from 1Password into mSecure. The two don’t produce compatible backup files so switching is kind of a pain in the ass, but given how much I rely on password manager apps it’s kind of worth doing.
Deal or No Thanks
Michael (Admin) | Feb 20, 2012 Games Leave a comment
Deal Or No Thanks (free) by Razmobi
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Ahh yes, the time honored tradition of the blatant game show ripoff… I love it! Obviously modeled after Deal or No Deal, Deal or No Thanks puts you in the hot seat, except in this version Howie Mandel isn’t there to annoy you to death with his need to state the obvious every five seconds.
For those unfamiliar, here’s how the game goes: You can win anywhere from 1 cent to $1 million. You pick a briefcase that contains a secret dollar amount, and then you start opening other briefcases that tell you how much is NOT in the case you picked. You want the briefcases you’re opening to have small dollar amounts in them. The “Banker” will periodically make offers to buy your briefcase based on the dollar amounts that remain on the board, and if you say no to all of his offers then you win what’s in the case. It’s a guessing game based on the process of elimination.
Archery Star
Michael (Admin) | Feb 20, 2012 Games 1 Comment
Archery Star! (free) by Doouky
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad
I honestly haven’t played any other archery games on my iPhone, but a quick scan of the App Store shows a whole mess of titles that come up when you search “archery”. So how does Archery Star! compare? I have no idea. Like I said, haven’t played any others. What I can say, however, is that Archery Star! is competent in a very barebones kind of way, and I’m ashamed to admit that I kind of like the creepy yet somehow mildly hot archer girl who never blinks.
You draw Creepy Hot Archer’s bow by pulling down on a star icon, and then you move it around to aim. The action can be a little awkward at times, but it works. Release to fire your arrow, but don’t forget to compensate for the wind which changes with every single shot. Try to get all 20 of your arrows off before time runs out.
A quick note about the video below: I’m seeing none of the customization in Archery Star! that this video shows! The only options panel this game has is for facebook/email/rate, so maybe there’s a much fancier version of this game that’s already been developed for Android…?
Top 25: Tom’s Love Letters
Michael (Admin) | Feb 14, 2012 Entertainment 1 Comment
Tom’s Love Letters (Free) by Out Fit 7 Ltd.
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Tom’s Love Letters is currently #18 in the Top 25 Free section in the App Store
Well, it’s Valentine’s Day which means that IAR is obligated by federal law to review something that’s at least a little mushy. Tom’s Love Letters is part greeting card sender, part cat-lover cuteness, and part Valentine song jukebox all rolled into one, brought to you by the makers of one of those “talking cat” apps you’ve probably seen in various corners of the pop culture universe.
Tom’s Love Letters is really just an animation of two hairy kitties who, with the tap of a finger, will share a nice feline smooch. Forget that the ostensibly male cat has no visible genitalia (I guess cats just aren’t that hung), it’s a sweet moment to be cherished by crazy cat ladies everywhere. There’s a music button that will toggle you between three different pop-ish songs (one can be heard in the video below) and blessed silence, and another button will let you tap out a message of kitty love on one of several different cat scenes that can be emailed, facebooked, or sent via MMS.
BugMe! Stickies Pro – Ink Notepad & Alarm
Clint | Feb 9, 2012 Business 2 Comments
BugMe! ($2.99) by Electric Pocket, Ltd.
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
You really ought to see my office right now. I’ve got paper shuffled everywhere and sticky notes from well over a year ago plastered all over my monitor, desk, wall and every other available piece of office real estate. Needless to say, organization has never been my forte. My boss, bless his heart, tried to help me in this area by sending me to one of those sacrosanct “Franklin Cover” classes. I probably followed their method for a good 24 hours before I was back to my old routine, clutter and chaos. Don’t get me wrong, I am good at what I do, but I understand that it stresses my partner’s out when they see my lack of organization at work. The thing is, paper is not my friend. As a lawyer the thought of throwing away an important piece of paper paralyzes me to the point where I have become a de facto hoarder of tens of thousands of pages of loose paper, 99% of which should be either shredded or thrown away. As a result, one of my many new year’s resolutions is to go totally digital, and that includes you: annoying yellow tangible sticky notes.
BugMe! has been described by the developer as “the quick and easy note-taker and reminder for your iPhone. You can jot notes, ideas and errands on the fly. Sharing notes is easy, by email or Twitter, or save notes as little Stickies to your iPhone Home Screen as an “in your face” reminder!” So how does it far? Pretty damn well, actually!
Top 25: Ski on Neon
Michael (Admin) | Feb 9, 2012 Games, Top 25 Leave a comment
Ski on Neon (Free) by Esoteric Development
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Ski on Neon is currently #1 in the Top 25 Free section in the App Store
Yes I know… Ski on Neon is a stripped down clone of Tiny Wings. Press and hold to to make your little skier guy tuck and gain velocity while going downhill, release to let the momentum launch him uphill and into the air. So it’s not too original… but it’s fun as hell!
If you’ve never played Tiny Wings, this is a game of timing. Each time your skier goes airborne you need to try and get him to land cleanly on a downhill slope so that the forward momentum continues to build, and if you stink it up by making (or just letting) him land in a bad spot then you’re faced with the somewhat painful task of trying to regain speed with incremental jumps. If you manage to string together four good jumps in a row without hitting a hill the wrong way you’ll get a nice speed burst that temporarily turns you into an airborne comet-looking thing.
Speedway 2012
Michael (Admin) | Feb 8, 2012 Games Leave a comment
Speedway 2012 ($1.99) by Caps Off
Available on iPhone & iPod Touch
Imagine you’ve got a motorcycle and you have a chance to race it around a dirt track. Sounds good, right? Now imagine that your bike can only make left turns. Uh… WTF? And welcome to Speedway 2012.
I understand why Caps Off decided to make this game’s motorcycles a left-turn-only deal. It makes for a simple control scheme, and it also allows for four different people to put four different fingers on a single device and race against each other. That’s all cool and whatnot, but this thing really takes some getting used to. Tap once to get your bike going, and from then on you tap and hold to make your left turns. It’s easy in theory, but after smashing into the wall 50,000 times it’s really gonna piss you off.
Bulbs&Wires
sierra.baril | Feb 7, 2012 Games 1 Comment
Bulbs and Wires ($0.99) by handsmade
Available on iPhone & iPod Touch
Bulbs&Wires is a puzzle-solving game with a simple objective: connect all the bulbs. Each game begins with a single lit bulb that attaches to unlit bulbs via one or more wires, thus lighting those up as well. Once you have a completely bright network of bulbs, you win. At first, I thought I’d get tired of this pretty quickly but discovered there are seven levels of difficulty, ranging from not too hard to borderline insane. In the easiest mode, you have under twenty bulbs to connect. Once you get to the hardest level, it’s over a hundred.
BirdieBoy
Michael (Admin) | Feb 3, 2012 Games Leave a comment
BirdieBoy (Free) by Jonas Bager
Available on iPhone & iPod Touch
I confess. The only reason I gave this app a try is because the icon is so dumb it’s funny! A badly drawn bird and a crying kid with a bird sitting on his head… it screams campy.
The game itself could be described as a little campy, but mostly it’s just dumb. Tilt your device left and right to make BirdieBoy move, and your goal is to catch the badly drawn birds that are falling out of a nest, onto a trampoline, and hopefully into the basket on poor BirdieBoy’s head. There are eggs that occasionally fall from the sky, but as far as I can tell they only result in “slow” or “+1″ which gives you a bonus life. Lives, marked by the BirdieBoy heads at the top of the screen, are lost when you fail to catch a bird.
As a casual game it’s not very original, but I do like the crying kid and the terrible artwork for their sheer camp value, and the campiness is further supported by the Atari 2600-era background music and sound effects.
Should you buy BirdieBoy? YES, but only if you’re a blood relative of BirdieBoy or a close personal friend of Jonas Bager.
(4.81 out of 5)
(4.20 out of 5)