iPhone App Reviews

Video Star

Clint | Nov 15, 2011 Photo & Video

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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Video Star ($.99) by Frontier Design
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Move over Rebecca Black cause there is a new star in town! Video Star is an amazingly simple app that allows users to create their very own fan-made music videos filled with special effects, editing tools and a streamlined utility to upload the finished video to YouTube, an email account or to your iTunes account.

I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical of Video Star before I tried it out, but when I finally found time to play around with it, my kids and I ended up having a blast. In fact, I shot a music video of Radiohead’s epic song “Creep” which I planned to share with my readers, but I regrettably deleted the video by mistake.

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Tags: $.99, good for kids, Utilities, Video Editing

Convert Any Unit

Jason O'Donoghue | Oct 31, 2011 Utilities

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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Convert Any Unit ($0.99) by Convert Any Unit by Cider Software LLC http://www.cidersoftware.com/

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

I have a confession to make. I love unit converter apps; perhaps even as much as I like calculator apps, so I’m always keen to try out new ones when given the chance.

Convert Any Unit is a sleek minimalistic app, sporting a brushed steel finish that’s straightforward to use and has 24 categories of units, covering over 3600 different units.

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Tags: Converter, Utilities

Acc Calculator

Jason O'Donoghue | Oct 30, 2011 Utilities

User rating: (4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)

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Acc Calculator ($0.99) by Digital Mind Co., Ltd.

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Carrying out a search for the word “calculator” on the App Store brings up 6601 results (for iPhone apps alone). It’s safe to say that the market is pretty crowded out there. So when we were asked to review Acc Calculator, I was wondering whether or not the app could make a big enough dent to get noticed.

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Tags: Calculator, Utilities

Q&F: Ad Hoc Helper

Tony Mei | Jul 1, 2010 Quick & Free, Uncategorized, Utilities

User rating: (9 votes, average: 2.89 out of 5)

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For the low, low price of free, this can all be yours!

Being too lazy to find my iPod Touch’s UDID* by manually plugging it into iTunes, I stumbled upon Ad Hoc Helper, by Erica Sadun. This no-frills utility basically snatches up some info about your device, such as your device name, model, system version, memory, free space and UDID and automatically pops open Mail so you can get that info where it needs to be.  While this not be necessary for everybody, Ad Hoc Helper an awesome way for you to quickly get info about your device, and I recommend you scoop this app in case you’re ever in a pinch.

*A 40 digit serial code unique to your iDevice. Useful for app developers who are beta testing, debugging or adjusting their app. More info here, at TUAW.

iTunes Link – Ad Hoc Helper

Tags: free, Utilities

Make Dice

James | Feb 18, 2010 Utilities

User rating: (9 votes, average: 3.56 out of 5)

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Sometimes the easy decisions are the hardest to make. Sometimes the hard decisions are even harder to make. That’s why sometimes, you need dice.  Complete and utter randomness can make a daunting task into a relatively simple one. That’s right, there is no need for you to worry your pretty little head over these things. Let the dice decide for you.  The problem is that nobody, with very few exceptions, carries dice around in their pocket at all times. If you’re looking at this site though, you probably carry around an iPhone or iPod touch at all times. The developer hnm has created an excellent, simple application that will make the rest of your decisions for you.

Kidding aside, this application really does have a ton of uses. It allows you to bust out a set of dice at any time. Did you lose the dice for your favorite board game? Of course you did, everybody has. Well, pull out this handy app and you’re set. You can choose between black, white and wooden six sided dice.  The dice are easy to add to the board as well as take away. Give the device a shake and the dice tumble about the screen using realistic physics. If you get tired of shaking the device, you can just press a button instead.  My only real gripe would be that you can only roll three dice at a time.  At this point, I can’t think of a reason to roll more, but I’d like to think that I could.  The background table that the dice roll around on can change colors or be set to a picture from your photo album. They even make little clattering noises as they roll around like real dice but you can turn this off if you want. Make Dice is very customizable.

The biggest customization would be the ability to “make” your own dice. You can literally type whatever you want onto the sides of a die, save it and then roll to your heart’s content. This process is simple and fun. This feature makes it easy for us to decide who will go pick up the dry cleaning, what we’re having for dinner or what movie we’re going to watch.  The best part is, nobody can really be upset by the result, because it’s random. Well, I suppose they could still be upset, but they’re just sore losers.

It is a simple app, but it works great.  Make those old broken board games work again. Make better (or at least more fun) decisions. Make randomness a part of your life.  Make Dice.

iTunes Link – Make Dice
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3GS OS 3.1.3

Tags: $.99, Utilities

App Crate

Michael E. | Jan 24, 2010 Utilities

User rating: (5 votes, average: 3.60 out of 5)

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The Boy Scouts of America have a motto nearly every adult male knows by heart.  The motto?  Be prepared.  Although I was never more than a Cub Scout myself, I’ve always admired that motto and, whenever possible, tried to live my life according to it.

One of the easiest ways to be prepared in life is to own a Swiss Army knife.  There’s just something about a Swiss Army knife and its many uses that I find comforting.  An iPhone or iPod Touch with its many various applications is a kind of technological Swiss Army knife capable of performing a number of different functions.

But is there a multi-function knife for the iPhone or iPod Touch?  Actually, there is, and it would have to be Ryan Bertrand’s App Crate.  This one app houses 33 different applications, any one of which you could find in the App Store listed at a price similar to or much higher than the current sale price of this one.  Think about that: over $30 worth (if not much, much more) of applications available to you for less than a dollar.

I know what you’re thinking: what exactly would I be getting for .99 cents? 

Facebook and Twitter updaters, Notes, Voice Memo, Fake Call, Fake SMS, RSS Reader, Flashlight, FullScreen Private Web Browser, Battery, Multi-function Camera, Battery, Random Number Generator, Bubble Level, Light Strobe, Tip Calculator, Password Generator, Altimeter, Metronome, BMI Calculator, Emoji Enabler, Task Timer, Parking Spot Locator, Periodic Elements Listing, and 8 other applications.  Granted, a few of them will only work on the iPhone and not the iPod Touch (e.g, Camera, Walk-N-Text, Teslameter, etc.), but even taking those  into account, I found myself very impressed with the extensiveness of offerings.

And at its current .99 cent price tag, App Crate is irresistible.  The applications worked well for me and I didn’t experience a single crash.  So if you’re in the market for the Swiss Army Knife of iTunes Apps, App Crate will definitely give you the most bang for your buck. 

AppCrate 

Version 1.1

Reviewed on iPod Touch 3.1.2

Tags: $.99, Utilities

Q&F: My Attorney

Tony Mei | Jan 2, 2010 Quick & Free, Utilities

User rating: (2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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Injured on your Caribbean vacation? Whip out that trusty iPhone if you don't remember what to do.

The My Attorney App supplies information and accident guideline checklists, all leading the wallets of prospective customers to the service of good lawyers.

I don’t have any immediate usage for this app (I don’t really hope I will need a lawyer any time soon), but the My Attorney App does provide a useful, everyday and free service. And, most importantly, the phone number of a lawyer (especially helpful after that long night at the bar).

My Attorney is on my cell phone – Is it on yours?

iTunes Link

Version 1.01

Reviewed on iPod Touch 3.1.2

Tags: free, law, lawyer, Utilities

Signature

Chrisa | Aug 11, 2009 Utilities

User rating: (3 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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I don’t text message a lot.  While I type 96 words a minute, I still fumble when I only have 140 characters at my disposal.  My kids text me all friggin’ day long, but I can’t seem to get my idea across in that small amount of space.  I started  Twittering though (follow me), to see if I can get the hang of it, and now I hear that teens don’t twitter.  I guess I’ll never be able to speak to my teenagers again.  I’m all broken up about it… 

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Tags: $1.99, email, Utilities

iLove Travel – Packing

Chrisa | Mar 27, 2009 Travel, Utilities

User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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Have you seen the movie, “As Good As It Gets” with Jack Nicholson?  It’s the one where Jack plays Melvin Udall, a writer with severe OCD, but learns to overcome some aspects of it due to the love of a Brooklyn waitress and a gay neighbor.  He got nominated for an Oscar for the part.  Anyway – I like to think there’s a little obsessive-compulsive in all of us about certain aspects of our lives.  For me, it’s travel.  I travel quite a bit for business, yes, but when I travel for leisure, it’s more stressful, because I have three teenagers to pack as well as myself.  Not to mention a husband who has a short-term memory issue that I think is chromosonal in nature.  I call it X-Y Chromosone Poisoning, and its symptoms also include not being physically capable of asking directions, and not being able to watch TV without the remote firmly grasped in his hand.  I think he passed it on to my son.

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Tags: $1.99, Travel, Utilities

Lifecards

Chrisa | Mar 17, 2009 Photo & Video, Uncategorized, Utilities

User rating: (20 votes, average: 3.05 out of 5)

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I’m a fan of postcards.  I collect antique postcards from places I’ve lived, and I still send postcards to friends and family when I travel, especially if I can find one that is either really beautiful or really corny.   So I like the idea of being able to create a postcard-type image and email it from my iPhone to people.  That way I can take a crisp picture of something beautiful or corny in my travels and send it while I’m still standing in front of said beautiful or corny thing, complete with personalized message (i.e. “the weather is here, wish you were beautiful.”). 

Lifecards from Vivid Apps offers all the promise of creating electronic postcards, with none of the joy of easily creating and sending something you’d be proud of. 

There are 20 nice backgrounds and several different layouts to choose from.  You can import a picture from your photos and resize it, rotate it, and position it easily.  But that’s where the ease stops.  Choose the text box on the template to add your text, type in what you want, then use the tools to change the color of the font or resize it.  Maybe.  Sometimes it takes you back to the text entry screen, no matter how many times you choose the tool for font color or size, sometimes you can size the text, sometimes you can’t.  It’s as buggy as my garage in mid-summer.  Save the image and come back later to edit it?  Forget it.  You might as well start again.  You can’t choose a new image, and the text editing bugs are still there in all their defective glory. 

After you create your card, you can save it to your image library, and then, of course, email it from there or use it as wallpaper.  But the resolution of the photographs is somehow degraded in the translation to a Lifecard, and then one of the great things about the iPhone camera – it’s resolution – is lost. 

I checked the developer website for signs of a new release – this is version 1.0, after all – but there was no clue that an update was coming.  That being the case, I’d definitely recommend holding on to your $2.99 until they work out the bugs.   If I was Vivid Apps, I’d make this free until I got this stuff worked out.  It’s got a lot of promise, but it’s just not usable in its current version.  Close, but no cigar.

Tags: $2.99, Photo & Video, Utilities

CalcConv

Lee | Feb 18, 2009 Productivity

User rating: (22 votes, average: 2.68 out of 5)

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CalcConv by Mobilissimo is an interesting and handy tool. I have been playing with it for the past week. Its starting point is the basic calculator, very similar in look and feel to the Calculator app that comes with the iPhone/Touch. That calculator covers the basic and scientific calculator.

CalcConv begins to shine when you go beyond the calculator features to the conversion features. The conversions range
from temperature, to acceleration to taxes (yes taxes: US or Canada. Nifty). First impressions. I like having this with me. I like to know it’s there when I need it. My most likely uses include currency exchange, sales markups or markdowns, cooking, volume and length. There are 25 categories in version 1.3. 

When I first got the app, there was a bit of a problem with changing the units, but an update quickly took care of that. Now there are very distinguishing up/down arrows in each corner and a nice big space in the top middle for changing conversion units. I also found it appealing that results flash up as you are inputting data, real time calculations. The only thing is that you have to adjust your attention if you are only using it as a calculator because the last conversion data remains on the screen as well. Once you do a calculation or two, that’s easily ignored. 

RPN calculators are quite numerous in the AppStore. This feature is available in CalcConv. I’ve never done math calculations in this manner on a calculator, so I had to spend a little time on Wikipedia learning about this methodology. For those inclined, my understanding is that RPN allows more efficient data entry. I can logically follow it, but for some reason, it seems a new trick this dog can’t handle right now. So I stick to the old (inefficient) way for now.

That aside, I had another conversion application before this. It quickly lost its spot to Mobilissimo’s CalcConv.

Tags: $0.99, Converter, Productivity, Utilities

Craigster

Chrisa | Feb 14, 2009 Utilities

User rating: (6 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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I LOVE Craigslist.  I started using Craigslist back in 2000 while I was one of those dot-commers in San Francisco.  Really, I was!  I still peruse Craigslist for collectibles, pets, announcements, stuff I’m looking for, etc, almost every day.  And no, I don’t use the personals, get your mind out of the gutter.  Ok – I read them sometimes, for fun.

I love this application from Visceral labs as much as I love Craigslist.  It’s truly Craigslist for the iPhone.  You can do everything – search any Craigslist city, browse all the categories, search the entire list or just a category, post a listing, and even email a listing to a friend.  You can save favorite searches so you don’t have to re-enter them every time.   If there’s an address on the listing, you can open a Google Map of it, right from the app.  The only thing that you bored psychos with too much free time on your hand can’t do with this app is flag entries for removal.  And that’s NOT a criticism.  I’d be happy to see that go away from the actual Craigslist.

Now, it wouldn’t be one of my reviews without at least a little criticism.  So here it goes.  I confused the hell out of myself when I first downloaded Craigster, because the icon name and the name on the splash screen says “CraigsPal”.   Maybe it was the martinis talking, but it took me a day and a half to figure out if I’d installed the right app or not.  Craigster is only $0.99, and if you’re a Craigslist regular, it’s a must have.

Tags: $0.99, Utilities