Last month BlackBerry (formerly known as RIM) announced that it will release a multi-platform version of BlackBerry Messenger, adding support for iOS and Android. BBM has been hugely successful messaging service with over 10 billion messages sent per day with 60 million monthly active users.
BBM on iPhone will compete with Apple’s own iMessage and other popular instant messaging services like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The release date for BBM for iPhone hasn’t been announced yet and it’s availability is likely scheduled for later this summer.
BBM set the standard for mobile instant messaging with fast and reliable service and an added layer of engagement with delivered and read statuses. You’ve shared with us your stories about how BBM has kept you connected when it mattered most to you. Upon release of the multi-platform BBM service, you can broaden that real-time connection to friends and colleagues on other supported mobile platforms.
Yesterday, Salshgear was first to spot a tweet from T-Mobile’s twitter account that announced “Great news – BlackBerry Messenger will be available to download on iOS and Android from June 27th!”. That tweet was later deleted and when BlackBerry PR was contacted by Mashable they confirmed that the release date was incorrect.
While there have been reports that BBM will be available to iOS and Android on June 27, this is not accurate,
A multi-platform BBM client on iOS and Android will fuel the growth for the instant chat messaging service. The first version of BBM on iPhone will include the following features:
– The immediacy of BBM chats
– Multi-person chats
– Voice note sharing
– BlackBerry Groups, where BBM users are able to set up groups of up to 30 people and share calendar, photos, files and more
Since, Apple allows messaging services other than iMessage to be available on the App Store, the approval process shouldn’t be an issue for BlackBerry.
]]> https://touchreviews.net/tmobile-tweets-incorrect-release-date-bbm-iphone/feed/ 0
On Tuesday, Google updated its Google Maps for iPhone application for the first time since its release in late December. Google developed its own Maps application for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch after Apple removed its native Google Maps app, opting to create its own solution from the ground up. The app, which has been updated to version 1.1 adds new features such as Google contact integration, and local business search.
Google contact integration allows a user to quickly pull up names and addresses for family and friends and to map out driving, walking and transit directions to those locations. Local business search is also crucial for users of the app, who will now be able to quickly search for restaurants, bars, cafes, gas stations and other businesses. Users can then click on one of them and get any of the three types of directions.
What’s New in Version 1.1
– Search your Google Contacts; sign in to have your saved addresses show up when you search for friends and family by name.
– Quickly search for local places by selecting popular categories such as restaurants, bars, cafes, gas stations, etc.
– Choose between Kilometers or Miles for your preferred distance units.
– Note that some features may not be available in all countries.
Google’s Maps for iPhone is one of the more stable options for a iOS mapping solution, particularly because Apple’s own Maps can be faulty and some of the other recommended are cluttered with social navigaton features. Google also has a reputation as the leader in maps app, and introduced a clean iOS app focused solely on directions, contacts of the user, and searching for businesses. The Google Maps for iPhone update is now available on the App Store for free [Direct Link].
{Via MacRumors}
]]> https://touchreviews.net/google-maps-iphone-update-adds-google-contact-integration-local-business-search/feed/ 0
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: Play at Home with Daniel is the rather long title for a new universal app from PBS Kids for preschoolers. As a father with a two year old daughter this app was a perfect excuse to spend some time with the two things I love, my daughter and my iPad.
My daughter loves my iPad and so getting her to take a look at a new app wasn’t difficult and while she hasn’t seen the original Daniel Tiger show before she was instantly engaged with the app as it launched.
The app is split into four distinct areas and accessing them is via four large buttons with images of the four areas on them for easy identification. There is the Doctor, Bedtime, Bathroom and Sticker Book all with there own set of activities and interactions for your child to interact with.
When playing as the doctor with Daniel as the patient you’ll get to interact with Daniel as you give him a jab, check his heartbeat and check out his tongue by dragging the instruments to him from the side of the screen. You can even give him a sticker to show what a good tiger he’s been!
On in the bathroom you can help Daniel brush his teeth, wash his hands and flush the toilet while in the bedroom you can walk through the steps to help Daniel go to sleep including giving him his blanket & teddy, turning off the light and signing him a lullaby. All of which can be done by simply tapping on the screen.
This is the one complaint that I have about Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and that is there is a combination of controls, some just require a tap, while others need a tap and drag and this inconsistency can prove a little frustrating at times.
The final location is the Sticker Book where your child can interact with the four environments and create their own stories by placing virtual stickers all over the screen. These stickers include all of Daniels’ friends, furniture, artifacts, animals and other items from Daniel Tigers world.
Sticker placement is remembered as you navigate between the various scenes but the only option you have if you want to redo something is to erase everything and start again.
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: Play at Home with Daniel is a fun and engaging title for your younger children to play with. It’s easy for them to navigate and to control and what’s even better is that the audio isn’t going to drive you as the parent around the bend!
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: Play at Home with Daniel is a universal app and is available for $1.99 in the app store now.
[rating: 4/5]
For those of you that have downloaded any of the Disney Storybooks before you know that you are in for a treat as they bring the books to life on the iPhone and iPad.
Across the 28 interactive virtual pages of the book you can either read the story, have it read to you by the narrator or record the words and have those played back. This is great for your children to practice and listen back to their reading of for a parent to ‘virtually’ read the book to thier child when their not around.
Each page is beautifully illustrated, animated and can be interacted while the narration is clear and easy to listen too.
The storybook also includes additional activities including a matching game, 6 puzzles of increasing difficulty, 6 paintings and a talking Dory which acts similar to the talking animal games that are available.
At $6.99 it’s not cheap but it is an engaging way to re-live the Finding Nemo story.
The Finding Nemo Interactive Comic re-tells the story of Finding Nemo in a panel by panel comic book. You can either have the panels automatically appear or tap and swipe the screen to move through the story.
For your creative children you also get a step by step guide to how to draw the four main protagonists and you can either draw them directly onto the iPad or use the skills you learn and draw them elsewhere too.
Finding Nemo Interactive Comic is a universal app and is available from the App Store now for just $1.99
]]> https://touchreviews.net/finding-nemo-storybook-deluxe-interactive-comic/feed/ 0
A morning does not start off well without my daughter starting the day with 20 minutes of Mickey Mouse Club House so when I received Minnie Bow Maker to review I knew that I had the perfect person to help me review it.
The premise of Minnie Bow Maker was ideal too, my daughter already enjoys building cookies, cupcakes, popsicle and many other items on her iPod touch so making bows should be just what mouse ordered!
The first thing to be noted is that Minnie Bow Maker is much more than just a bow making app, it’s also a storybook, fashion show and photography app and they all compliment each other beautifully.
Beautiful is how the app looks too, the full Disney polish has been applied to this app with high quality graphics, all the appropriate voice acting and music that children know and love. They will feel perfectly at home in Minnie Bow Maker and that’s even before they’ve started!
The first of three options is Story Mode where you can join either Daisy, Millie and Melody or Cuckoo-Loca along with Minnie and help design a bow for the disney characters. You can read along with the sub-titles or just listened to the voice acted dialog as you have to make a bow for the different characters for a special event.
The story mode doesn’t take long to play though but it’s a nice compliment to the main bow making part of the game and it also lends itself to the Big Bow Show part of the game as its the creations that you’ve created during story mode that can be viewed during the Bow Show.
Making the bows themselves is a three step process, first you choose your material, then the color and then a pattern before finally choosing the style of bow that you wish to make. At that point you get to drag the material to the bow making machine before turning the handle to see your creation drop out.
You then get a chance to select who should wear your bow, you can choose Minnie of course and place the bow atop her head which is cute, however it’s more fun to add the bow to a photo of someone by either selecting a picture from your camera roll or by taking a picture. You can then resize and position the bow to display on the picture. Both options allow you to output the results to either your camera roll or out via email for all to see!
The only downside to the app, although only noticed by me and not my children, was the sluggishness of the app which was running on my iPhone 4S.
If you’ve got a young daughter who’s into her cartoon Disney characters then she’ll certainly enjoy this, although even though it’s a universal app the $3.99 price tag puts it on the expensive side compared to other iOS apps that could entertain your children.
[rating: 4/5]What we like
What to know
On Thursday, Google announced that they are bringing their popular Chrome browser as well as their Cloud service, Google Drive to iOS. Following the announcement, Google released an iOS app, condensing a number of features from the full sized browser and packing them into the app. Some of the main features brought over include incognito mode and tab syncing across devices.
The browser, although being entirely developed by Google still relies on Apple’s WebKit-based engine, which is required by Apple’s SDK. Google Chrome for iOS seems like the perfect addition to Apple’s successful iPhone, however, according to a report from NextWeb, the one setback of the app is that users cannot use Google Chrome as the default browser on the iPhone.
The biggest hurdle that Chrome features, of course, is that it cannot be set to be the default browser on iOS devices, a capability that Apple also reserves for Safari. So, while you can use the browser to your heart’s content, it will not be the default handler for any URLs clicked. That’s a huge hurdle to overcome.
Google’s Chrome Browser is great for users that also use the Chrome browser on their computer and want an easy way to transfer their bookmarks or want to be able to access their computer settings on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Alongside the Chrome browser, Google also released a Google Drive app, the cloud service the company introduced several months ago. Both the Chrome browser and the Google Drive app are currently available in the App Store.
{via MacRumors}
]]> https://touchreviews.net/google-introduces-chrome-browser-google-drive-ios/feed/ 1
When Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion recently the questions were about why and how much and it was easily argued that it was about the user base rather than the technology.
That’s not to say that Instagram isn’t a great app, it is, but there are better apps out there and Wood Camera for iPhone is certainly one of them, do read on though and I’ll tell you why.
Lenses are one of the main things users of camera apps like to use and Wood Camera has 23 of these, they’re your standard lenses but something that is unique about them is the ability to take pictures with the filter enabled. This can save you a lot of time if you have a lot of pictures that you want to take and add lens effects too.
Applying filters is just one of many adjustments that you can make to your pictures with 17 different textures, 12 frames and my favorite features of the vignettes which enables you to highlight specific areas of the photographs.
All of these features come with the ability to apply how big the effect is via a slider which puts you in control of how your photographs looks. Applying all of these features is easy to do with all the options available along the bottom of the screen.
You can also easily take a quick full screen view of your creation via a switch at the top of the screen and from a technical perspective Wood Camera will import your iPhone 4S pictures at the full 8 mega-pixel resolution to ensure that your pictures can look as best as possible.
Of course it’s no good creating this these pieces of art if you can’t share them with the world and there are no shortage of options there either. All of the major social networks are there from Twitter and Facebook to Flickr and even Instagram as well as to your camera roll or via email.
One final nice option is the ability to have Wood Camera launch to the photo taking screen meaning that it can be a true replacement to the stock camera application.
So if you are one of those people who wasn’t happy when Instagram were brought by Facebook or are just looking for a great camera / picture editing app then Wood Camera for iPhone could be just the app for you and is available for $1.99 from Apple’s App Store.
[rating: 5/5]What we like
What to know
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/wood-camera-review/feed/ 2
AppCubby have a range of handy apps available and they have released an update to one of these in the form of Launch Center Pro. While I use the word update this is not in the sense of an update as you may expect from an iPhone app as this is a completely new app so if you already own Launch Center you’ll need to purchase Launch Center Pro again. (You can read the Developers reasoning here.)
With that controversial point out of the way lets move on to the app itself which provides a start menu like interface for all the activities that you do frequently from launching apps, texting, calling, emailing, searching the web and more, you can set all of these actions up and customize them to meet your specific requirements.
One significant change with the pro version of Launch Center is how it looks which sees a significant improvement from its previous incarnation. From the polish of the app icon to the new grid layout the whole application looks like it’s just come out of a car showroom as it glints and gleams as you drill down through the activities that you want to launch.
When you first launch the app it will already be setup with default actions which include the ability to turn on the camera flash as a flashlight, toggle the brightness, search google and dial a contact to name but a few. It’s in the configuration of the app where you can personalize your requirements is where Launch Center Pro starts earning its stripes.
The first thing you’ll want to take advantage of when you start customizing Launch Center Pro is the use of Groups for while the initial grid is set to 4 x 3 squares to set to your own actions the use of Groups open up an additional 12 actions spots for each of the initial 12. Now that adds up to a lot of shortcuts which may defeat the purpose of the app in the first place but it’s a nice option to have!
Setting up your actions is easy, after going into edit mode, (there’s no wiggle here!), you can either edit an existing action by clicking on it or tap an empty one to create a new one. From here, after selecting to create an action you can choose from one of the common or installed actions before getting the option to customize them even further.
The level customization will depend on the action, for example if you have Tweetbot installed you’ll be able to choose from launching the app, tweeting, tweeting a specific username, launching a profile or searching, while choosing the Music app only provides the ability to launch it. This is not a limitation of Launch Center Pro however but more how any given app allows it to integrate.
Not only can you set a multitude of actions but you can also set the color of the icon and select one of a plethora of images to identify your icon, similar to the images you can have if you have Emoji enabled for your txt messages.
With your shortcuts all setup you can start using Launch Center Pro for what it was intended for, launching actions. Once you launch LCP you simply tap any shortcut and the associated action will launched, while accessing shortcuts that are part of a group requires you to tap and hold and then drag your finger to the shortcut you wish to launch.
There is also the ability to schedule actions which works more as a reminder than anything, rather than actually launching the requested action they launch an alert that will enable you to launch the action, kind of scheduling lite! This limit appears to be more of a limit of the Apple approval process than anything else however.
Once you’ve been using LCP {$2.99} for a few days consistently you’ll wonder how you’ve lived so long without it, even more so if you are a heavy user of the iPhone with a lot of apps as Launch Center Pro will do away with your need to remember where all your apps are.
[rating: 4/5]What we like
What to know
The digital era has signaled the end of many companies, newspapers are the ones bearing the major upheaval as people change the way they consume their news but another industry that is having to re-structure is the paper diary and planning industry as the number of people who have diaries and paper calendars continues to reduce.
One company that is looking to adapt to the changing market is Parker Planners who not only continue to sell the paper variety of planners but have now launched an iPhone version of their planner and for a paper company moving into the technology space they’ve done a pretty good job.
The default view of Parker Planner when you launch it displays not only the day’s calendar but also your todo list and a notes section to jot down ideas that come to you during the day. This is a lot of information to fit onto an iPhone but it works well and gives you instant access to all your key daily information.
The navigation bar across the bottom of the screen give you quick access to 5 different views of your information, you can see your calendar in week and month view as well as the default day view, while there are also links to page views of all of your tasks and notes.
Navigation needs to be easy and intuitive with any calendar app and Parker Planner certainly meets those requirements. Swiping left and right across the top of the screen will jump a day forward and back, while taps of the screen will enable to to edit existing items or add new tasks, notes and meetings.
The week and month views are possible the weakest part of Parker Planner but then again considering the constraints of the limited real estate it’s never easy to get a week or month’s worth of data on to it.
Both these views do give you easy ability to navigate and view large amounts of time/data though and at any time a quick tap of any date will bring up the day view that will show all the data that you need. From all screen though you can quickly jump back to today or any given day using the Today and Jump To buttons.
The calendar integrates seamlessly with your iPhone’s calendars and if you sync your iPhone calendar with your Google calendar or Outlook it will automatically sync with Parker Planner in both directions.
Tasks and notes don’t synchronise with any desktop view though which would have been nice, there is also no iPad version of the app yet and it would be great to see what they could achieve with the additional real estate that the iPad offers.
One of the best things about Parker Planner though is the price point. At $2.99 it’s clearly cheaper than many of the alternatives and works great as a single place to manage your life.
[rating: 4/5]What we like
What to know
There appears to be a new darling of the iOS world, certainly according to Twitter at least, and that is in the form of Clear, a brand new ToDo management app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
As with all good apps it launches with quick 7 step overview of the app that gets you started and gives you the tools to explore the app. Clear for iPhone also starts you off with 7 items that help train you on how to interact with them.
Swipe left or right to delete or complete a task while you can pull down on the list or pulling apart to add a new task to the top or in the middle of your existing items.
There are 3 levels to the app that you can drill through. The uppermost level includes the settings, tips & tricks and themes which will come back to later. From this level you can drill down to your lists either by tap the list bar or by swiping up on the screen.
The same can be done to access the individual items in the list, either tap them or swipe up on the screen. After just a few minutes on the app it all becomes very intuitive and you’ll find it becomes second nature in next to no time.
As mentioned previously Clear also has multiple Theme’s installed including a bonus one for those of you who have Tweetbot installed, and after all why wouldn’t you? The default theme is called Heat Map and your items are prioritized using color, The darker the red the more important the task is and as you re-order them by tapping and dragging them up and down the screen the color is updated too.
As I am colorblind I always get a little concerned when ever an application uses color as a navigation tool. However, because each of the themes simply uses different shades of the same color it works perfectly, even for those inflicted with color site deficiencies!
It’s the simple things that make Clear for iPhone {$.99} so easy to pick up and make it so usable, such as the fact that if you create a list or item that is blank it will automatically delete it and the fact that there are multiple ways to navigate the app.
Clear is not going to be for you though if you want to track large tasks as each item can only be 28 characters long and there is no ability to add notes. Not that it ever claims to be such a thing, it’s just worth noting that Clear is going to help you manage the little things in life and not projects!
But it’s that simplicity that makes Clear for iPhone so great, adding, clearing and deleting tasks has never been so easy and enjoyable, you’ll end up creating tasks for yourself just so that you can complete them!
What we like:
What to know:
Commit is a simple app that helps you with committing to something. Features are not what this app is about. Its about committing to something and tracking it to provide motivation. The idea is to keep track of how well you are doing on your commitment.
The simple interface of Commit for iPhone is what makes it so appealing to me. When I think about committing to something, the trouble I have is staying motivated. Commit aids in this process by tracking just how many days you’ve done what you’ve committed to.
Commit’s alerting system reminds you to track or do the task that you have committed to do which is great. The process is as simple as typing in what you want to commit to and you have the option to set up a reminder. Commit will ask you if you have done what it is that you have committed to and if you have you click “Yes”, the end. This is clutch in that when you’re 
committing to do something everyday, you don’t want to have to commit to a multi-step task to track that you did it. You need something as quick as putting a check mark on a sheet which is what Commit does.
As I mentioned before, this app is not going to wow you with the features. It is going to seem dead simple and that’s the idea. Commit will give you an app to check commitments that is easy to pop in and pop out of without getting distracted. I have committed to things like writing a review a day and changing at least one of my newborn son’s diapers a day.
[rating: 4/5]
What we like:
What to know:
Gallery
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/commit-review/feed/ 0
Time Warner Cable, one of the largest cable service providers in the United States introduced its iPad app last year. The TWC TV app allowed subscribers of Time Warner Cable’s service to control their DVR via the app and even allowed customers to watch live television through the app, as long as they were connected to the same WiFi network.
On Friday, TWC announced that they are making the application, previously only for the iPad, available to the iPhone and iPod touch. Customers can now do everything from watching live TV, managing their DVR and changing channels on their set-top box.
If you are a Time Warner Cable video subscriber, the FREE TWC TV app turns your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch into another TV screen and lets you watch selected live cable channels while in your home, through your wireless home network. Watch Bravo from your bedroom, take Food Network with you to the kitchen or catch up on CNBC news from the breakfast table.
Time Warner Cable currently offers over 196 channels through the app, although many of those will be based on location and availability in certain areas. The updated TWC TV app is now available on the App Store for free and is available as a universal app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch [App Store Link].
{via iMore}
]]> https://touchreviews.net/time-warner-cable-expands-ios-app-include-iphone-ipod-touch/feed/ 2
Google’s Orkut social networking service has finally received an iPhone app. On Wednesday, Google introduced Orkut for iPhone, allowing users of Google’s social networking site, access the service on the go.
The official Orkut app for iOS connects you to your friends and family. Now you can send scraps, see your friends updates, upload photos and browse your friends albums anywhere you go. Never miss a conversation again because you are not in front of your computer: get the free Orkut app and stay connected.
- Update your status
- Check your scraps and messages
- Reply to your friends birthdays
- Check your friends updates
- Browse your friends profiles, scraps and photos
- Take new photos and upload them directly to your Orkut albums
- Share your life anywhere, anytime with the people you care about
Although not as popular as Facebook, Orkut as gained a large amount of users from Brazil and India, with almost 80% of its users residing in those two countries. Orkut is also used in countries where Google+ is not available.
Google+ is currently offered in the United States, and with Facebook leading the way, Orkut is still lagging behind in international markets. Orkut for iPhone is now available in the App Store for Free and utilizes all features of the desktop version, similar to Google+.
{via iMore}
]]> https://touchreviews.net/google-launches-orkut-iphone/feed/ 0
ParkBuddy Review: Who hasn’t gone somewhere, whether it be a concert, sporting event or to a mall to shop and forgot where they parked? ParkBuddy is an app that looks to remedy this problem with an easy to use interface.
ParkBuddy keeps things very simple while providing all of the necessary features that one might want when trying to remember where they parked. When I used to go shopping with my mom, she would always forget where we parked and I’d have to intervene and remind her. I often thought, what would happen if i wasn’t here, this is where ParkBuddy saves the day.
The true beauty of ParkBuddy is in the simplicity. You launch the application. You are greated by a few choices: select mode of transportation, if you’d like to take a picture, take notes and finally “Park”. I selected “Car”, took a picture of my parking spot, wrote down the parking spot number and then hit “Park”. When I hit “Park” it takes my latitude and longitude and stores them for when I return. You’ll then see the “Current Parking” screen which allows you see all of the things you have input into the app for your current parking spot.
When you select “Return”, you will see a map that shows where you are in relation to your parking spot. Two options appear that allow you to “Navigate To My Vehicle” or delete this parking instance. Selecting the navigate option will take you to the Maps app and give you directions on how to get back to your vehicle and all of the optional routes. I thought this was very nice especially for those who live in metro areas. As you can tell, the app give you three main options on how to track where you park but I think its the only three you might need and they are all rolled up into one app.
I used the app today at a local park and it was great. It was dark so the picture I took was not very useful and the parking spot doesn’t have numbered parking slots so the mapping feature was my saving grace but the same could be said for the other two features in other situations.
I am going to be gifting this application to my mom and my wife as an early Christmas present so I don’t have to worry about them getting lost when they go to the mall anymore.
What we like:
What to know:
Gallery
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/parkbuddy-review-iphone/feed/ 0
Twittelator Neue Review: Anyone who spends any amount of time with Twitter Apps on a iOS device is bound to have come across the name Twittelator before through their various incarnations of their Twittelator apps. Now though they have a new bow to their quiver with the introduction of Twitterlator Neue for the iPhone.
Setting up your account is as simple as entering your Twitter username and password and within seconds you’ve be seeing your timeline in Twittelator Neue clean, clear and fast interface.
The main timeline flows beautifully up and down the screen in both vertically and horizontally and also includes some simple, subtle yet effective animations when you refresh your timeline or fully load the inline displayed pictures, yes, that’s right, inline displayed photos.
This is one of the best features of the application. Any tweet that includes a picture will display a slice of the image below it. This image will also scroll as the timeline scrolls and then by tapping it the image will open up full screen, it works great.
You can also turn on a feature where the profile image of all the Twitter ‘celebrities’ will also show in the same way, however if you follow a lot of them it will bet very repetitive and unnecessary.
The other great feature, that in my opinion every Twitter app should include, is the inclusion of Tweet Marker which lets you synchronise your timeline between devices. This is invaluable if you use Twitter across multiple devices, as long as all the apps use Tweet Marker of course!
Scrolling between your Timeline, Direct Messages, Mentions is just a swipe away as they appear as multiple panels that you can slide between. You can also add additional panels to your time line such as Searches or Lists and swipe between those too.
All the normal features are included including the ability to post to multiple Twitter accounts at the same time and Facebook but it’s the small things that really impress me about this app such as the subtle sounds as you navigate around and the animations that give this app a real professional feel to it.
Unfortunately for me at least there is one major omission from this app that will probably prevent it from being my goto Twitter application and that’s push notifications. For me these are a requirement, I want to know immediately I’m responded to or I receive a Direct Message and so without that I’m always going to have to keep a Twitter app on my iPhone that provides that.
With all that said though I won’t be deleting Twitterlator Neue from my iPhone, it’s speed, sleek design and in-line pictures make it just to good to give up.
If you want to find out more you can head over to www.twittelator.com to watch a video of the app or get it from the App Store here for just $1.99.
What we like:
What to know:
Gallery
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/twittelator-neue-review-twitter-iphone/feed/ 0
DerManDar Panorama Review: I’m a big fan of panoramic photographs, there is something so engaging in the results that they can provide, especially with outdoor views of beautiful scenery. This has always been available via third party apps, or now via unlocking of the hidden panorama feature in iOS 5, and now there is a new app to the party in the form of DerManDar Panorama {$1.99}.
The DerManDar Panorama app is a partner application of of the DerManDar website and the app allows to both take panoramic photo’s and enables you to directly upload your results to the DerManDar website or view the pictures that others have uploaded.
The great thing about this app though is how simple it is to take panoramic photographs. Launching the app takes you directly into picture mode so it’s quick to take pictures. From there it instructs you to hold your device vertically and when you have done that the start button becomes available.
From that point on it’s a simple task of rotating your phone to bring the two onscreen markers together, each time that they do a new picture will be taken and this is repeated until you’ve completed a complete 360 or you click the finish button.
Once you’ve finished the process the pictures are instantly converted to a panoramic photo and if you’ve completed a full 360 set of pictures they will be stitched together to produce a picture that you can spin around in both directions.
The onscreen marker does a great job of showing you your progress and whether you are still holding the phone at the right angle and both of these factors are key in producing great panoramic shots.
Once the picture has been taken you can either choose to save to your device or discard it and start again. Any picture that you save to your device can then be shared via Facebook, Twitter, Email and to your Picture Roll. The best results though are if you upload the picture to the DerManDer website which will allow you to share it with the world and provide a full 360 rotation of the picture.
Not only is this app a lot of fun and produce great results but it would be great for real estate agents who would be able to provide great 360 degree shots of the rooms in a house.
DerManDar Panorama is available in the App Store now for $1.99 and comes highly recommended for everyone with an iPhone.
What we like:
What to know:
ICanSeeThem – change your friends into Monsters Review: As far as photo apps go I Can See Them {Free} for iPhone is pretty good especially at this time of year where Halloween is just around the corner and people start to think spooky thoughts on how they can scare themselves and the friends.
Well, ICST (iCanSeeThem) does just that while keeping you and your friends front and center as it converts photographs of people into spooky, gross and stomach churning movie posters focussing on the horror genre.
There are four factors that can effect the end result of you picture, 6 masks, 12 colors, 7 effects and 6 frames meaning that the is a potential of over 2,500 creepy combinations and you can either use an existing picture from your photo stream or take a brand new picture with the inbuilt camera. Unfortunately however there is no front facing camera option so taking a picture of yourself in the app is not easy.
Applying the effects is easy to do, whether that be by selecting each effect individually or by tapping through the randomized options the images come thick and fast in their haunting glory.
Some of the effects are better than others but they are always accurately placed across the face especially if the phone is clear and the face is facing forward as instructed by the application.
iCanSeeThem may not have that much life after Halloween but while we’re here it’s pretty good fun.
What we like:
What to know:
DebtMinder Review: A simple app that that gives you a clear view of your debts and a plan or two to pay them off.
Sometimes the simplest approach is the best and this is what DebtMinder {$1.99} excels at. It asks you to enter basic information for each of your debts: balance, interest rate, starting date, and minimum payment. By doing that for all of your debts, you are then ready to start developing a payoff plan. Decide on a total monthly payment and choose between two strategies; highest interest rate or lowest balance.
Once you’ve set your plan in place, the app will split your monthly payment among your debts and determine when each of them will be paid off. DebtMinder also displays the total interest you will save by sticking to the plan. It tracks your progress over time and helps you see that you’re making a difference.
DebtMinder works in conjunction with another app developed by return7, Bill Minder. A common account will allow information to be shared between the two apps. Data from DebtMinder can also be exported as a CSV file or backed up using email.
This app is not for financial professionals; there’s not a lot of fine-tuning possible. But that might be the best part of DebtMinder. It takes virtually no time to set it up (if you have the information together) and the limited choices keep you from playing mind games with the plan. Set it up and stick to it. Always a good plan when it comes to finances.
What we like:
What to know:
Gallery
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/debtminder-review-debts/feed/ 0
Vocabador Review: Engaging yourself or your children in learning with their iOS device when the alternatives are Angry Bids, Flight Control or and one of 1,000’s distractions is a pretty steep task. Vocabador may be about to change that though as it challenges us to increase our vocabulary by battling it out with 12 masked wrestlers.
There are two parts to this app. First there is the training side where you can review over 400 words split into easy, medium and hard categories, or as this is a wrestling game categorized as lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight. Each word is presented in flash card format with the word on one side and the details of the word on the other side which you can flip by simply tapping the screen.
Once you feel that you are ready you can pit yourself against the 12 wrestlers as they challenge you to pick the correct definition from 4 possible answers. This isn’t as easy as it sounds especially as you are up against the clock so it may take you a few times to beat some of the bigger wrestlers that provide the sternest of challenges, and 4 wrong answers will get your metaphorically thrown out of the ring.
The game is beautifully presented and is easy to navigate whether you want to simply use the flash cards for learning, challenge the wrestlers or both everything is easily accessible and slick.
It would be nice if you could play previously completed challenges without have to reset all your progress and for households where multiple users share a single iPhone/iPod touch the ability to have multiple profiles would have been nice.
Vacabador {$1.99} is one of the most fun and unique ways to increase your vocabulary and will help both young and old alike.
What we like:
What to know:
Gallery
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/vocabador-review/feed/ 0
Tweet Speaker Review: Twitter is taking over the world, and if not the world then certainly some people’s worlds, me included! But while I’m never too far away from my Twitter stream there are times when I have my hands full, when I’m driving or doing housework for example. Well now there is a viable solution to this issue in the form of Tweet Speaker from App Cubby.
Tweet Speaker is very simple, it simply reads your Twitter stream to you. Starting off you need to sign into your Twitter account, it also handles multiple accounts, and you can then either choose your timeline, mentions or one of your Twitter lists, with one of those options selected the Tweets will be loaded and you then have multiple options.
If you like you can simply read your Tweets, scrolling left and right, you also have the ability to reply, favorite and retweet. The main feature however is activated via the Play button at the bottom of the screen. Pressing that button launches the app into action and the Stephen Hawking like voice will start reading your tweets to you. It’s a little odd to hear it to begin with and the translation is not always on the money. If you are finding it difficult to understand the voice you can slow it down, or speed it up, as appropriate.
The voice will include the name of the person that is tweeting, recognizes re-tweets, replies and links which puts everything in context, it works well and can be very funny hearing your tweets read out to you, especially when it gets some of the pronunciations wrong!
The app will also output to Apple TV if you want your tweets spoken out-loud to everyone and the final option is to choose a different voice. Unfortunately there are no other voices to choose from at present but the fact that the app is ready to accommodate them is a great sign.
Tweet Speaker supports Tweet Marker too so if you utilize this feature as I do via Tweetbot and Twitteriffic then this is a great addition to ensure that you don’t have to re-read, or in this case listen to, tweets that you’ve read before.
When you initially launch the app and haven’t registered your Twitter account yet you can access a News stream of the latest breaking news which is nice, however this is not accessible once you’ve registered your account. It would be nice to be able to access other people’s public lists, timelines and trending topics. The other option I’d like to see is the ability to have it automatically read your tweets when new ones arrive, at present you have to manually refresh and hit play again.
Overall though Tweet Speaker is a great app that presents your Tweets in a new and unique way and I can’t wait to see what new features and voices are provided with future updates.
Tweet Speaker is available in the App Store now for the iPhone at just $1.99.
What we like:
What to know:
PassPath Review: A simple app for iPhone that does one thing and does it exceedingly well. If you have a need to keep photos secure, PassPath is your app.
Personally, I can only think of a small number of scenarios where this level of security would be required (e.g., proprietary info, legally important photos, sexting), but if you fit one of the scenarios, this app is the best I’ve seen.
PassPath’s biggest selling point, and one they should capitalize on for other applications, is the security lock to open the app. The 12 billion possible combinations should do the trick for most folks. Using a 3×3 grid of dots, you drag your finger to draw a line, or any pattern of lines, between them. Your unique pattern, which can be as short/long and complicated/simple as you choose, serves as your password. This may or may not be easier to remember than a regular password, and it’s probably harder to write down. But it is much, much harder for an intruder to guess.
Once in the app you can create albums and add photos to them. You can import photos from your iOS photo gallery or take new ones right from the app using the native Camera application. These photos are encrypted as they are saved to the albums. Once in the app, photos can be saved back out to the Photos app or emailed to others.
PassPath has a nice industrial look to it that constantly reminds you that this is a heavy-duty security app. You’ll have no chance of confusing it with less secure options. The interface puts the icons in the corners and they are easy to identify. Getting around in the app is simple enough, partly because there aren’t a lot of features to complicate it.
PassPath is a bit of a uni-tasker. It does one thing (secures your photos), but it does it well. If you have need for protecting your photos from prying eyes, this app will serve you ably.
What we like:
What to know:
Gallery
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/passpath-review-iphone-secure-photos/feed/ 0
VidRhythm Review: A great music app to create mashups of your own voice and video using some preset themes and music selection. With a group of friends this could be a whole lot of fun.
VidRhythm {$1.99} is actually pretty simple in concept. You choose a piece of music and then a theme. The app then asks you to record both your voice and some video simultaneously. There are prompts to tell you what sound or word you should record. It’s really slick in that it automatically stops recording after a second or so, you don’t have to push the button. It usually asks for a handful of recordings, so it doesn’t take long to get those entered. You can re-record if you need more than one take.
When you’re ready, press the “Make Video Music!” button and the magic happens. Your sounds and images are treated to a techno-DJ mashup. It’s not a simple playback of your recordings. The audio is set to the rhythm and the video dances along too. Video windows open, divide, grow, rearrange, etc. like any good music video. You have to see it in motion to appreciate it. Each of the themes has a background that the video resides on that keeps it pulled together.
While it was easy to take video of the dog and say the letters D-O-G-S for the dog theme, there’s nothing stopping you from substituting your own ideas. Where it asks you to say D-O-G-S, you could say G-A-M-E if it suited you and you could shoot video of the football team instead (especially if they’re having a losing season).
This would be a great app to use with a gathering of friends. They could each provide one of the audio/video clips to be mashed together. It would be a group project. Or you could each individually make a video and share it amongst the group as the app can automatically upload to YouTube or Facebook. Or, if you prefer, you can simply save it to your camera roll to keep for yourself.
If you want to make short, simple mashups quickly, this could be your ticket. VidRhythm for iPhone and iPad is an app that will spark your creativity. By the time your video is done playing you’ll have ideas for the next one you want to do.
Pros:
Cons:
Gallery
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/vidrhythm-review/feed/ 0
Budget with Back in Black Review: This app is a fantastic way to take control of your expenses. Simple. Principled. Easy.
Budget with Back in Black for iPhone is a personal finance app that excels in putting things in black and white. This is your income. These are your expenses. These are your goals. Here’s what’s left to spend. A perfect blend of simple logic and a right-between-the-eyes dash of reality.
Opening the program brings you to a screen with four bars on it: Income, Fixed Expenses, Goals, and Spending. Once you’ve added a bit of data to the program you’ll also see a tally of dollars spent and dollars remaining. In addition, there’s a button to quickly take you to the screen where you can add new purchases. And if you have any reminders active, they’ll appear at the bottom too.
The Income area is as expected. Enter the type of income, the amount, the date, etc. Fixed Expenses are also pretty standard issue: type, amount, date, repeat frequency, reminder, and category. There’s even a place for notes, which could be used to add info such as grace periods or office hours for payments that need to be dropped off in person.
Goals are where Budget with Back in Black really starts to set itself apart. You are able to set either closed- or open-ended goals. Savings or an emergency fund might be an example of an open-ended goal, they have no end date. A wedding or vacation planned for a specific date, however, would be closed-ended. Closed-ended goals can really make clear what’s possible and what’s not. And all goals have a nice tracking screen so you can feel good (or not) about your progress.
Once you have set all of that, what’s left is Spending. You can set up budget amounts for categories in Spending and track your purchases throughout the month. A status bar will indicate how close you are to staying within your means. As time goes on, a screen with monthly totals will be displayed and let you know when you had good months and when you had bad months.
With all this information in the app, you’re going to want to have it backed up. Back in Black makes that easy. You can back up the data in one tap. You can restore from a specific backup if you need to go back in time. You can also email the backup file to yourself for safekeeping. And if you should need it you can email it back to yourself to import back into the program.
The only things that Budget Back in Black is missing in my opinion is an area for Irregular Expenses, which should be part of any good budgeting plan. Perhaps this could be done under Goals, but it’s deserving of it’s own space. The other thing that would be nice is a web/computer interface. However, that might be pushing the boundaries of what the developers intended, so It’s really not fair to call that a deficiency.
I have to admit I’m tempted. I already have an integrated financial system that I’ve been using for years and it would be hard for me to break that habit. But Budget with Back in Black has enough features, and enough truth, to make me consider running it alongside. If you’re looking for an app to help you stick to a budget, this app might be just what you need.
Pros:
Cons:
Gallery
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/budget-with-back-in-black-review-recession-iphone/feed/ 1
Flava Review: The app is a combination of scrapbook, journal, and calendar all in one. It gives you a place for everything and keeps everything in one place.
Consider this app an Internet-connected, multimedia diary and you’ve got the general idea. You can write notes, take pictures, mark locations, tag books and music, and link to websites all within Flava. It sorts your entries with a timestamp and organizes them on a calendar.
The interaction with the app is intuitive. You have a set of icons to choose from when you wish to enter new information: Text Only, Camera, Album, Places, Music, Books, and URL. Select one of those and you go to an entry screen specifically designed for the type of information you wish to enter.
Flava ties into both the Photo and iTunes apps on the iPhone for pictures and music. That means you can either take photos with the camera or select an existing one from your photo gallery. You can have some fun with photos too by adding stickers and captions to them. Music is selected from your iTunes library and you can add comments here too. There’s also a button to link to YouTube from the Music screen. This does a search on YouTube and finds videos related to that song. And it plays them without leaving the Flava app.
Flava is a great concept that could be used in a lot of contexts. While it’s a bit skewed toward the cutesy, it would prove useful to travelers, students, and professionals, for example. However, it has a few shortcomings currently that hold it back a bit. It desperately needs a search function. Capturing this information is only half the picture, finding it again is the other, missing, half. In addition, it could really use a movie link similar to the books tie in. And the fact that the Places feature was essentially non-functional at the moment also needs to be addressed. There was a Next button on the maps screen that didn’t appear to be working.
With a few bug fixes, Flava would be a great app. With some additional features it could be awesome. It’s your choice to spend the $0.99 now and hope for the upgrades or hold off for the time being and wait until it’s a little more well-developed.
Pros:
Cons:
Gallery
]]>
https://touchreviews.net/flava-review-iphone/feed/ 0
Shuttervox Review: The app allows you to take pictures without having to touch of any the camera controls. Instead it will listen to your voice command and take the picture when you say. Perfect for when you need both hands to steady your device.
Shuttervox is set up so that when you say the word ‘Cheese’ it will take the picture. To set it up at first all you need to do is tap the little headphones in the centre of the screen. When you do this it then tells you it is loading the speech engine ready and a red button will show. When this button goes green and it says ‘Listening for keyword’ you are ready to take the pictures.
You postion your device ready for taking the photo and simple say ‘cheese’ when you are ready to take the shot. Shuttervox then listens for the command, if it hears a word but doesn’t recognize it will tell you and listen out for the word again.
When the app finally recognizes your keyword it will then take the picture. Once that happens you can add a title and then share either via Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, send via email or just copy to the camera roll. Then you just start the process again with your next picture.
I found that the app didn’t recognize the keyword a lot of the time. Whether this is down to the tone of your voice I am not sure. I had to make sure I said the word in a certain way before it would take the picture and even then I had to say it four or five times before it did. If this happened when I was out and about in public, I may start to feel a little frustrated!
There are currently two versions available. The lite version just has the one keyword available and the paid version lets you have up to four different keywords. Which is handy if you really don’t like shouting ‘cheese’ out all the time!
Pros
Cons