iPhone App Reviews

Free Codes: Descent

Tony Mei | Jul 5, 2010 Entertainment, Free iPhone Promo Codes, Uncategorized

User rating: (16 votes, average: 3.56 out of 5)

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Probably one of the most unique apps I’ve came across in a while, Descent is a freefall calculator able to offer “the most accurate possible representation of the time it would take to freefall to the earth’s surface and the speed you would be traveling upon impact”. Sweet.

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Tags: $.99, Entertainment, Free Codes

Holy Robinator!

Tony Mei | May 25, 2010 Entertainment, Free iPhone Promo Codes

User rating: (19 votes, average: 2.32 out of 5)

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I’m rather fond of cheesy little ‘shout a catchphrase’ apps, and there is no better way to end a Tuesday than to give out a bunch of free codes for the amusing Holy Robinator! by Little Bird Applictions.

Holy Robinator! comes with 60 wildly amusing “Holy” statements, all of them soundbites of classic Batman and Robin episodes. Ranging from “Holy contributing to the delinquency of minors!” (a personal favorite) to “Holy rats in a trap!” to “Holy schizophrenia!”, this app is chock full of giggle-out-loud sound bytes. Enjoy your Tuesday :D (Holy chocolate eclair!)

iTunes Link – Holy Robinator!

Tags: $.99, Entertainment, funny

Pen Pals

Jacob Jones | May 10, 2010 Entertainment, Social Networking

User rating: (24 votes, average: 3.08 out of 5)

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Dos Hombres introduces a relatively unique concept to the iPhone with the release of their app named Pen Pals. Like the name suggests, Pen Pals hooks you up with a complete stranger from another part of the world (more than likely you’ll be paired up with someone from the USA) so you can converse awkwardly about life in your part of the world. I say awkwardly because the majority of the messages I recieved were from guys looking to score and underage girls who were incapable of holding an intelligent conversation. A few messages I got read: “a/s/l” and “hi…!!!!!!11!!”.  A massive turn off if you’re the kind of person who wants to meet an interesting person and hold a decent conversation with said interesting person. I don’t blame the app though; just the people who use this app for stupid reasons.

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Tags: $1.99, Entertainment, Jacob Jones

SoundGrid

Brad H | Apr 26, 2010 Music

User rating: (15 votes, average: 2.93 out of 5)

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A few months ago a friend of mine sent me the you tube promo video for the Novation Launchpad for Abelton Live. The device is a controller for making beats and loops. I fell in love instantly and even though I’m not in the music scene I totally wanted one.

Now thanks to mifki and their app SoundGrid I don’t have to spend more than five dollars to have my own beat maker only iPhone. It’s no Novation but this thing is AMAZING. This app is by far the best music app I have played with. It’s easy enough to pick up right away and hammer out some beats, and the mixing options are there to get complex with your beats.

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Tags: $4.99, Entertainment, fun, Music

Q&F: QRANK

Brad H | Apr 7, 2010 Quick & Free

User rating: (11 votes, average: 3.64 out of 5)

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Are you smarter than your friends? Here is your chance to prove just that. Ricochet Labs gives us QRANK the daily trivia challenge game where you try to beat no only your friends but the rest of the world.

Every day you are given 20 questions of which you must answer 15. The questions are divided by difficulty, eight questions worth 100 points, eight questions worth 200 points, and four questions worth 500 points. Three of the questions have multipliers to spice things up.

Each day has four separate categories of questions ranging from entertainment to government.
When you play you will notice some questions have a leaf on the tile , this means it is a current event question.

If all that isn’t enough slap on a huge list of achievements to get you jonesing for your next QRANK fix.

My only complaint is the game uses it’s own system for achievements and friending people, I wish they had gone with a system like open feint or the plus+ network.
If you would like to test your wits against mine, and I’m not about to put out my personal email, post a comment saying add me and make sure you put your email where it asks for it and I will add you.

iTunes Link – QRANK

Version 1.0.0

Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS 3.1.3

Tags: Entertainment, free, fun, Games

How To Train Your Dragon- Kids Book

Brad H | Mar 28, 2010 Books

User rating: (6 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)

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When I was growing up my Dad would always read me stories at night before bed. I believe this played a major role in my love for reading even to this day. Now that  I have two boys of my own I have made it a point to read to them every night before bed. We have a decent sized collection of books to read but it seams like I just rotate reading the same five books. This is where FrogDogMedia LLC comes in with their iStory Time line of children’s books.

I was able to review the “How To Train Your Dragon” book. The book is based off the movie with the same name. The story follows the viking teenager Hiccup as he tries to make it in the world of brawn and muscle. Being a small lad he uses his brain power to invent tools to help him in the ways of dragon fighting. This puts him face to face with a dragon whom he befriends. Let the drama ensue. I wont go into any more of the story but be warned this book goes through the whole movie so if your worried about spoilers you might want to wait.

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Tags: $.99, Entertainment, good for kids

My Celebtwin

Brad H | Mar 12, 2010 Entertainment

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

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A while back I started noticing people changing their Facebook profile picture to a celebrity that they looked like. Some pictures were close and others were way off. This got me wondering what celebrities I looked like. No one came to mind so I gave up and went on with my day.  Little did I know that yes “there’s an app for that”. Ivango brings us My Celebtwin the app that uses facial recognition algorithms to match your face with a celebrities.

The app itself is fairly simple. You can either use an existing picture in your camera roll or take one in the app. Obviously you want to get a clear picture with your head taking up most of the space. Once you have your picture you choose your gender then send the picture to the servers, wait a bit and voila you have three matches. Here is where I had some issues. I couldn’t get any matches with the camera option, everything would come back blank. When I used a picture in my camera roll it would come back good about 90% of the time. This really hurts the app in my eyes because it’s all about going to a party or get together and seeing who your friends look like, and the last thing you want to do is take a bunch of pictures THEN opening the app and hope your picture as clear and aligned properly for the software to work.

I used the app on myself, my wife and my two sons. I wouldn’t say any of us look like any celebrities so I was very curious to see how it worked. My two boys and I did match one of the three celebrities so I am convinced that if anything the algorithms are consistent. So you might be wondering to yourself, Who does Brad look like? According to My celebtwin I look like (drumroll) Liam Neeson, Danny Materson, and Ryan Reynolds. I don’t think I look like any of them but maybe if you merged Ryan and Danny into one person then uglied him up a tad maybe that guy would look like me. Another fun thing to do is see what celebrity of the opposite sex you look like, definitely worth a laugh.

This app goes for $3.99 which in my opinion is way to much. Even if the app worked 100% of the time I don’t think 3.99 would be worth it. They do offer a lite version with only male recognition so go ahead and try that out for free.

iTunes Link – My Celebtwin

Version 1.3

Reviewed on iPhone OS 3.1.3

Tags: $3.99, Entertainment

World Cup Fixture

Brad H | Feb 5, 2010 Sports

User rating: (8 votes, average: 2.88 out of 5)

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GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAL

Football fans you have come to the right place. With the 2010 Fifa world cup headed this way your going to need something to stay informed and Colorme(beijing) Info Tech has got it covered. As a soccer fan living in the states it’s hard getting coverage of the sport on T.V. without buying special packages from the cable company. With the World Cup Fixture app I still wont be able to watch the matches but now I can stay informed on the big tournament.

The World Cup might be four months away but in the meantime the app keeps you up to date with news surrounding players, teams and anything else related to the Cup. There are two ways to follow the games, one is the calendar tab showing the date and time of each match, the other is the group tab which has each match listed in its appropriate group A through H. Both tabs have a results column that will show the final score of each game. Finally there is a knockout tree that will show the games leading up to the final match.

At $.99 this app so far has got my approval, its not too flashy, it’s easy to navigate and all the info has an easy to read layout. I say “so far” because we have to trust they get the info out to the app in a timely fashion and if the frequency of news articles that come out is any indication we have nothing to worry about. Also the iTunes page claims “other features coming soon…” so as long as that is up to par with the rest of the app we are good to go. The only thing I will warn you all about is the #4 Feature they have listed as Wonderful pictures, this isn’t a tab they have loaded with pictures it’s just part of the news feature if the article has a picture that goes along with it. As of today no articles have any pictures, not a deal breaker but a tad bit annoying.

iTunes Link – World Cup Fixture

Version 1.0

Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS 3.1.3

Tags: $.99, Entertainment

GQ | Feb 2010

Brad H | Jan 30, 2010 Entertainment

User rating: (8 votes, average: 2.25 out of 5)

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With the announcement of the iPad comes all the speculation on how we will consume media like newspapers, magazines, and books. As far as books go the format is pretty much fleshed out with digital versions of books available on many devices. Magazines on the other hand are few and far between. Condé Nast Digital has brought GQ magazine to the iPhone and iPod touch. I personally love a good magazine but no longer subscribe to any because I find it to be a lot of hassle in the digital world we live in today. My biggest question has been ” The magazine is made on a computer then printed onto paper so why cant I just get a digital copy page for page on my computer or mobile device.”

The GQ app doesn’t go so far as to deliver a magazine that I can flip through page by page but its a great start. All the content from the magazine is present; Cover page, articles, and pictures it’s all there. The main app menu is split up into sections of relevant articles. The articles are easy to read and have a font re-sizer to adjust the text to be bigger or smaller. If the article has pictures that go along with it, and pretty much all of them do, there is a button you can push to view the media as a slide show.Some of the articles are on the web site but with the app purchase you are given full access to all the articles as well as app only pictures that aren’t on the site. Here’s to you Miranda Kerr, nice photo set.

As far as who is this app for, I would say the casual reader of GQ. If your buying your magazine off the rack your going to save $1.50 by getting the app. If your a subscriber of GQ your going to spend three times as much for the app after a year. If you are a first time reader the app does give you a link to subscribe to the print magazine for a year at a dollar a piece.

With all that said, here are some things I would hope for the future not only with Condé Nast but all publications. I want the actual magazine on my device just as it is in print. I also would like to see a digital subscription, and don’t get me wrong I’m sure things on Apples side need to change for this to happen. All in all I am excited for the future of magazines in digital form and for the GQ app blazing the trail in this open frontier.

EDIT: It has come to my attention that when you go into landscape mode you get the page for page magazine to flip through, ads and all, just what I wanted.

iTunes Link – GQ | Feb 2010

Version 1.0

Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS 3.1.2

Tags: $2.99, Entertainment

Q&F: IMDb

Brad H | Jan 26, 2010 Entertainment, Quick & Free

User rating: (7 votes, average: 4.14 out of 5)

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“Remember that one movie with that one guy?” This actually came out of my mouth once. I like movies as much as the next guy but I just can’t remember important things like names and titles. Then there is the whole “He looks familiar what movie do I recognize him from?” No longer will these questions haunt me now that there is an IMDb app. Not only can you search IMDb you can check local show times, find out what movies are coming out soon, box office results, top 250 movies, a TV guide,  recaps of TV shows spoilers included, what stars were born that day, and more. So if your like me and your not a movie encyclopedia, do yourself a favor and get the IMDb app.

iTunes Link – IMDb

Version 1.0

Reiviewd on iPhone 3G OS3.1.2

Tags: Entertainment, free

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

Wind OS

Sara | Jan 3, 2010 Entertainment

User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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Wind OS is the first Windows emulator for the iPhone. “What is an emulator?” you may ask. Well, it is a program that tries to mimic the real thing, and this app does just that. Although this Bamboo Group app is a great emulator of Windows, it does lack some programs that you would expect from Windows.

Since it is only $.99, I thought it would probably just look like Windows and do little to nothing. I was wrong. It had an internet browser, a notes feature, and of course, Minesweeper. Although 2 of the 3 programs listed here already come standard on the iPhone, I found it cool that it put them there. Also, when you turn on the sound, you hear a cooler.

When I “booted up” the emulator app, I got a good laugh as while it loaded, it provided screens that looked like a computer booting up. It even had a page that said, “Wind OS loading” with a progress bar that looked like it had come out of Windows XP.

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Tags: Entertainment, fun, interesting