Everybody loves lists right, to a greater or lesser extent, the same can be said for movies. So how about an app that combines both! ToDo Movies for iPhone does just that in a single app the enables you to keep a simple list of all the movies that you want to watch.
Because this app has a single purpose the interface is very easy to use with a simple search feature to find you movies and then two lists, To Watch and Watched.
The search results are comprehensive and I’ve yet to be beaten in finding movies, even some obscure movies from my youth are listed thanks to the apps integration with the themoviedb.org which even provides a snapshot of information about each movie.
Once you’ve added a movie to your To Watch list you can share it via Facebook, Twitter, SMS or email and, once you’ve watched the movie move it to your watched list. You can even choose to show badges for the movies on your To Watch list so you have a constant reminder of how many movies you have still to watch.
The simplicity of the app makes it very easy to use and movies can be added and moved between lists with a couple of clicks. While the lists can be sorted based on release date, alphabetically and the order in which they were added it would be nice to be able to edit the order manually so that you could prioritize the order in which you want to watch them.
For movies that are yet to be released at the movie theatre yet you can also choose to be notified via push notification when it does happen.
There are apps out there that offer more functionality than ToDo Movies but if you want to keep things simple then you could download this app by spending 99 cents.
[rating: 3/5]What we like
What to know
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:
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I have owned every iPhone that has been released and while there has been an incredible change in the way things are done from phone to phone, one has changed very little and that is Safari. I have always found myself wanting more from my mobile browser and imagine my surprise when after years of waiting 360 Browser has brought me a refreshing and delightful experience. The features of this browser seem never-ending with file downloads, Firefox Sync, Multi-Touch gestures, customizable search options and many more. 360 Browser manages to add tons of features while keeping things manageable for even the most basic iPhone user.
One of the first things you notice about this browser is its sleek yet simple design. You are greeted with a tutorial that will help guide you through the basics and explain some of the features and how to access them. I found this helpful but I always like the hands on approach when trying to learn a new application.
The overall appearance of this browser was very impressive. You will notice that it appears as though any other browser that you would find on your desktop computer. There is an obvious blend of PC browser and mobile browser at work here. You still have a menu bar at the top of the screen with tabs below it and is accompanied by a toolbar at the bottom of the page that most mobile users will be familiar with. One exception will stand out, the 360 Arc button. To access the 360 Arc, you hit a button on the toolbar and a circular orb with several options appears in the center of the screen with loads of options. I was very impressed with the way this packs so many tools in a single button. The transition effects are also pretty clean and slick.
This browser takes the best of both worlds (PC & Mobile Safari) and puts them in one browser with a very clean shell. The browser sports the normal address bar along with your choice of search bar. The search bar is just another example of how customizable this browser is with choices of Google, Wikipedia, IMDb, Dictionary, eBay, Yahoo, Bing and Ask searches. Full Screen mode is pretty cool as well. I have found it to work quite well and really makes browsing much less painful. The overall use of this app is fairly similar to any other browser with exception to all of the added functionality of the extras. There are literally dozens of configurable pieces of this app to allow you to browse in your style.
The plug-ins for 360 Browser cannot go unmentioned. They bring an even greater PC browser feel to an already great app. The plug-ins can be easily downloaded from the settings menu and they even provide a brief description of what it is that they do. There are plenty of plug-ins to get started with and I truly hope they continue to develop these because it adds great value. Plug-ins that caught my eye were Firebug lite, Translate to English, Evernote clipper (I’m an avid Evernote user) and Clip Converter. There are plenty more where these came from, even social site share plug-ins for sites like Facebook. Firebug for example allows you “examine html, css and many other aspects of a website”, while Clip Converter brings “Flash to MP4 conversion” to 360 Browser users. As you can tell by these examples, the plug-ins play a vital role in adding even more functionality and depth to an already incredible mobile browser.
There are tons of features but I’d like to mention a few of my favorites. Download manager was something that I was skeptical about at first but after using it became one of the more intuitive parts of this app. I used it to download a PC application and it did so without issue. There is also a media player built in to allow if you should to download multimedia materials. 360 Browser also supports themes which allow you to literally “Bling” out your browser with a diamond covered theme.
One gripe I had about the themes in this app was that when I first set my eyes on the “Carbon” theme I wanted it. The problem you might ask? It was a $1.99 and the 360 Browser app is only a mere $0.99. This seemed a little strange to me that you would pay less for the application than the theme so I passed on the carbon fiber theme. You will notice however that you are given the choice of 4 extra themes, one of which is the Bling theme. Firefox Sync was very cool but tabbed browsing beat it out in my top three of extras. I forgot how much easier it was to used tabbed 
browsing as opposed to Safari’s click button and scroll method. It isn’t necessarily the time saved but the ease of use and the ability to do something that you have become so accustomed to on your home computer. The extras on 360 Browser really take it to the next level for me.
360 Web Browser for iPhone and iPad is worth every single cent you pay for it. For a under a dollar you can greatly enhance your browsing experience on your iPhone and even replace some applications you might use for downloading files. Be sure to give this app a chance and check out all of its features. At first glance you might think that this is just your ordinary browser but you must take a look under the hood of this highly powerful browser to get a better idea of everything you can do with it.
Pros
Cons
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Productivity
Updated: Jan 31, 2011
Current Version: 2.1
2.1 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
Size: 16.5 MB
Language: English
Seller: Saloni Srivastava
© 2010 Digital Poke
You must be at least 17 years old to download this app.
Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
As I write this review there at just 69 shopping days left until Christmas, by the time you are reading this there are probably even less! That thought sent shivers down my spine.
Coming from a large family with siblings that are all married and with their own children the gift buying process can be both tricky and frustrating. I’ve tried notebooks, spreadsheets and todo lists and while they all had something to offer they were all lacking in key functionality too.
This year however I have a new tool to track and manage my Christmas shopping and that is Gifts HD for the iPad, a gift tracking app that allows you to list, budget and track all your gifts in an easy to use iPad application.
Running the application for the first time requires you to set up a local user account with a name and password, this allows multiple users to use the application on a single iPad without divulging their present giving plans to other people.
Once this initial step is completed there are three tasks to be completed.
Adding these items is all done from the same screen making it a very simple process. You can either click on the add button to add the specific item or tap on the note in question to open it up in a larger area.
Depending on your process you may be in a position to add all this information at the beginning of the process or as you go, both work and you can also delete any of the items with a simple swipe of the item.
Once you start shopping you can combine the people and gifts and their current status of purchased, wrapped and even mailed. You can even add descriptions and where appropriate, tracking numbers.
Gifts HD developed by Jason Jardim is a slick to do list made specifically for the purchase of tracking Christmas gifts and it makes it very simple.
There are a few missing items that don’t really stop the app from doing what it’s supposed to do, but would take it to another level. It would be great to be able to import lists from other sources such as your contacts or other files. Also being able to edit multiple contacts or gifts at the same time would be a nice addition.
For those of you who like to be organized Gifts HD would be your perfect companion this festive season.
Pros
Cons
Reviewed on an Apple iPad
$4.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Productivity
Released:Oct 07, 2010
Version:1.0
1.0
10.6 MB
Language:English
Seller:Jason Jardim
© www.MacSpots.com
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later
Life Tracker HD is a beautiful application for you to track the milestones in your life and your future goals. Included in this is the ability to predict your life expectancy which while nice for me, apparently I have another 40+ years to live, I’m not sure how an octogenarian would feel if they were to try the app!
After a short overview of the application you get to enter your name and then you date of birth and nationality that is used to predict your life expectancy. Once you’ve added those few pieces of information you are launched into the main part of the app.
The main page of the app displays a large clock face but instead of hours and minutes it displays years and months, from the year you were born to your predicted death!
Adding milestones and or goals is as simple as dragging a pin onto the relevant year on the clock face. From there a new page opens up and you can pin point the date down to the specific day and month.
Also on this page you can add as much detail about the milestone as you like, from a simple headline to an essay, the choice is up to you.
This is all very simple to do, however the simplicity comes at a price. There’s no ability to add tags to group your milestones, no ability to add pictures or any other attachments and no way to format the text you are entering either which some what limits the options and the subsequent results.
Once you’ve added some milestones and goals, the difference between them simply being whether they happens in the past or will be happening in the future, they will all show up as dots on the dial. This is nice to look at but while you would think tapping on them would take you to the detail it doesn’t.
To view the entries you’ve already entered you have to scroll down to the milestone page which will display all your entries in chronological order for you to scroll through and re-read.
It would be nice if there were different options to view your milestones and even export them but sadly at present this is not the case.
You can set up multiple profiles so that multiple users can enter their life stories but is no substitute for the previously mentioned missing pieces.
The app looks absolutely beautiful and has great potential but until additional functionality is offered all the hard work of entering your data leaves it as nothing more than a great looking diary.
$3.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Productivity
Released:Sep 30, 2010
Version:1
1 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
4.2 MB
Language:English
Seller:Oliver Rozynski
© 2010 Oliver Rozynski
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later
If you are a Mac user (and have more than one computer) you will undoubtedly be familiar with Screen Sharing between machines. In a nutshell that is what Splashtop Remote Desktop does. Except in this case it is for connecting your PC to your iPad so you can use your iPad as a remote viewer and controller for your PC. Splashtop Remote Desktop for iPad works with Windows 7, Vista and XP.
Installation and setup of Splashtop Remote Desktop is straight forward. You download the app from the App Store to your iPad, and also download a client app from the developer’s (DeviceVM) web site. Once that second app is installed on the PC you should be able to connect from your iPad to the PC.
One feature which is going to make you either love or hate Splashtop is the way it shrinks your PC desktop to the resolution of your iPad’s screen. This means that you have a one to one pixel relationship between what goes on your iPad screen and the Windows desktop. 1024×768 may be a little small for many PC desktops these days. And certainly most older devices with a screen of that size are going to have some problems with the network traffic required to make a remote viewing app really zippy to use.
Personally I’d like to see an option in one of these kinds of apps that allows you to pinch zoom, or scroll around an oversized desktop. But practically most people will use this app the way that DeviceVM intend. And it is both fun, and a little unnerving to such a stalwart iOS / OS X user as myself to see Windows invade your iPad’s display literally from corner to corner!
You are basically viewing, and interacting with an image of your PC’s screen so you can practically do anything on your iPad now that you can on your PC. This includes word-processing, Web viewing, playing games, videos and even (shock horror) using Flash.
Unfortunately, even on my fairly beefy development PC there was still lag with video and gaming, and overall the usual lag you get with any network based remote viewing client affected the UI responsiveness slightly. But Splashtop is certainly usable. And better than quite a few of its rivals overall in the speed department. Certainly the ones I have tested to date.
I did try getting Splashtop to work with my copy of Parallels 4 on my development 17″ Unibody MacBook Pro, but the PC side did not want to play reliably. That would have been fun! And it may be that it is a problem in my version of Parallels, which is fairly old now.
The developers of Splashtop have put a fair amount of work into making the UI easy to use. There is a nice hint sheet which shows how to use some of the gestures you will be required to learn to mimic mouse controls via your iPad touch screen. Remember that in order to move a mouse around you are actually already “clicking” on the screen as far as iOS is concerned. DeviceVM have dealt with that adequately with various easy to remember gestures for tapping, holding and scrolling and so on.
DeviceVM have also added some special keyboard functions to the iPad’s on screen keyboard to add a few other essential controls that you need in order to fly a PC this way. But they could add more. My case is rather extreme as I am a developer. But I did have problems working in some of my usual software developing tools on my PC, via my iPad from my sofa.
It is certainly worth checking out the competition and then making a decision when choosing a Remote Desktop app. But this one does what it says on the box.
At $6.99 Splashtop Remote Desktop is a very fair price at the moment but, with the app slated to rise to $19.99 I would certainly advise people to shop around on this one at that point. Check features and choose the best one for you.
If the developers can address some of the speed issues with video and gaming, and provide a few more keyboard commands for more esoteric applications then it could stand out from the rest as an app of choice for this particular use.
Price: $6.99 (App Store)
Category: Productivity
Released:Aug 27, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.0.1.1
Size: 5.6 MB
Language:English
Seller:DeviceVM, Inc.
© 2010 DeviceVM, Inc.
Requirements:Compatible with iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later.
Live Notes is a colourful sketch pad, with a refreshing User Interface and a neat twist. Rather like the Live Scribe pen it allows you to take notes and record audio at the same time (There is no relationship between the two companies who make the pen and the app, by the way).
So, how does Live Notes stack up as an iPad productivity tool?
When you first launch Live Notes you are presented with a view similar to that which Pages uses, and giving you access to your documents so that you can administer them by scrolling between them. One of those documents is a kind of tutorial sheet, which is a nice informal introduction to the app.
Icons for drawing, writing, and so forth are unobtrusive and clear. Tool palettes are presented in rather pleasing looking windows which appear to be based on brown notebook back cardboard. The bright tool colors, brown popups and lined white paper all work towards making the app feel quite wholesome. Yeah, I liked that about it!
The ability to have an audio recording made alongside your typing or scribbling has many applications. The first that springs to mind is grabbing sound bytes in a lecture – but you’ll need to be close to the sound source to get a good recording. This is perhaps partly a problem with the iPad – but the app makers could have tried to boost the audio.
Another possibility, other than simply amusing yourself, is entertaining a child with a visual story. What this app does is give your iPad the functionality of a Live Scribe pen. But with the ability to draw shapes and hand-drawn notes, as well as typed text with various fonts, all in lots of bright colors.
Undo is more like working in a print layout program. Rather than undoing, you target sketch elements by holding them for a few seconds to bring up a trash option. This is fine, but it would be nice to have a more traditional linear undo option too.
In a similar fashion to Live Note’s undo, you can also tap parts of the sketch to hear audio from that point during the sketching / note taking process. Which is neat.
You cannot however, export your drawing and audio as one cohesive file. You can replay it on the device with audio and notes synced. But export options are only for PDF with no audio.
Overall though Live Notesli is a neat little app. Looks nice, and works well. If the developers at Humble Gaming Limited augment it by addressing the little niggles I have outlined it will then be a great little app.
Price: $5.99 (App Store)
Category: Productivity
Updated:Aug 19, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.01
Size: 3.1 MB
Language:English
Seller:Humble Gaming Limited
© Humble Gaming Limited
Requirements:Compatible with iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later.
Dribbble is a “show and tell” web site for designers and other creative types. The idea behind it being that you share sneak peaks of your current projects. Your peers will then give you feedback on your work, and you can respond in kind. Being invitation only Dribbble is chock full of arty people who want to be there, care passionately about design, and strive to produce work of quality.
Dunk is an iPhone based client which allows you to surf the timeline of recent Dribbble shots. You can also customise your feed so that you keep tabs on your favourite designers.
Being an app designed to showcase design, and good design at that, Dunk needs to work well and look good. So does it?
When a Dribbble user wants to show something off they produce a “shot”, which is a small screen image of their work. Typically a 400 x 300 pixels in size. Other users can then comment on that work, or fire a “rebound” back, which is another “shot” they created and is inspired by that idea. Yeah, you got it, the terminology is basketball based.
If you want to know more about Dribbble then you can visit their faq, here
But we are here to talk about Dunk…
In a word, the user interface of Dunk is beautiful. Its the kind of app Steve Jobs might use to demonstrate how good a GUI can be on the iPhone.
Dunk does all the things that you expect from a well rounded iOS app. Touch controls are intuitive, and tab and navigation bars drift in and out when needed. If you want to glide through Dribbble user’s shots then you are one tap away after app launch.
The entire Dribbble time line can be scrolled through by swiping from page to page, whilst artwork loads on the fly. It works in exactly the way that Apple’s own Photo app allows you to view images, but these are pieces of artwork loaded from the web.
To read comments, or find out other related info on the design on screen, you simply tap the bottom of the image and that info all scrolls up. It’s seamless. To keep moving just swipe forwards or backwards.
I have to admit to being quite professionally jealous of how well rounded Dunk’s UI by robocat is. Nice work guys.
You don’t need a Dribbble account to use Dunk, so if you are interested in the community and the concept give Dunk a whirl today. Its probably a must have app for designers on the move to keep in touch with a vibrant and growing community.
Price: $1.99 (App Store)
Category: Productivity
Released: Aug 06, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.0
Size: 12.2 MB
Language:English
Seller: icelantern
Copyright © 2010 Robocat
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.
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App Layout allows anyone to mock up iPhone or iPad User Interface designs on their iPad. You can then save the design as an image and share it with others. Is this something you might be looking for?
App Layout has hit the iTunes App Store at a price point which certainly makes it worth investigation. Similar packages are currently selling at around $9.99, compared to App Layout’s low $4.99 price point.
Do you get what you pay for? Or is this app a bargain? Let’s find out…
From my perspective as a developer I can see the appeal of having something that allows me to mock up app layouts when on the move. I may well fire up something like App Layout in idle moments when I don’t have a laptop with me that can run Apple’s development tools and I want to work through an idea. That could be an idea either for myself alone, or with a client in his or her office.
I have also dealt with some pretty awful hand drawn App Designs from prospective clients in the past. I am not sure if any app can “cure” people of bad design. But it can certainly give those who simply have problems expressing their ideas a useful framework to work within, and offer them the opportunity to meld their concept onto a mobile screen’s dimensions.
App Layout goes some way towards offering a solution to people in either of the two situations I just outlined. And at $4.99 it might even be worth a purchase if you have absolutely no idea what app design is and simply want to play at it!
But this app is not without its flaws. It is relatively new however, so I will be keeping an eye on updates in the future.
On the one hand having access to the majority of iOS User Interface elements in a mobile app is a great thing. But the ease with which we can put something together using them is what separates a truly great utility from an average one.
App Layout has a fun, informal feel overall. Even down to the hokey home grown music menu so that you can have some tunes playing as you design.
Initially accessing User Interface elements in App Layout is fun. You can swipe thorough a vast array of widgets and buttons, as well as fully blown iPhone or iPad screens. You then tap one to make a copy appear in your app design canvas.
You can then slide any chosen widget into position on a mockup device; iPad or iPhone. It’s at this point that App Layout’s limitations become clear. Selecting the user interface elements to put into your app layout should really be done by dragging them from the widget menu. Not tapping them to make copies appear on the screen in the top left hand corner, which can then be manipulated. It’s a small thing, but counterintuitive, and it makes your workflow more awkward then it needs to be.
Likewise scaling, or rotating elements should be done with multi-touch actions on those elements. Not by tapping buttons on a pop out menu. We are in 2010, and this is an iOS app after all Flicking forwards and backwards across a screen to find controls is not what good app design is about nowadays. People want to use their fingers to move, resize and rotate things on iDevices. So it is somewhat ironic that an “app design app” has these short comings. You can tell that App Layout has been designed primarily in a Simulator, and not on a device because it is mouse-centric, and not multi-touch-centric in many many ways.
When positioning items in your app mockup it would also be nice if there was a snap to grid option. Or if pieces would nudge up to one another when close together. Yes, that kind of option can be irritating. But it can also be a boon, particularly on a touch interface when it comes to positing things accurately, and neatly. It’s also a feature of Apple’s free desktop Interface Builder app, which I use daily, and Photoshop as well as most other design apps on the market. So I miss it terribly when it’s not in other people’s offerings.
It is also not possible to save an active project in App Layout. Something which necessitates you finishing a design and then saving it as an image, all in one session. You then don’t have the option to go back and work on that design again. Or to copy and fork it and try different concepts. More importantly you can’t suspend your work easily with the intention of coming back to it later. This last restriction makes the tedious nature of widget layout more frustrating. And beggars the question: What is the target audience for this app? If it’s for quick layouts then it needs a more intuitive and efficient user interface. If it’s for app designers then it needs options to save, copy and suspend work for later.
In short, App Layout is basically a painting app which uses iOS User Interface Elements as its brushes.
However, at $4.99 you cannot reasonably expect this program to offer all of the features of more pricey offerings, right out of the starting gate. Hopefully the developer is working to address these issues, and they will be forthcoming in a future update. I was just hoping for more – especially in an iPad app. I am certainly willing to take another look then.
It should be remembered that App Layout’s more expensive rivals are not perfect by any means either. And they should perhaps take note of the price point of this app, and worry that the developer might solve the niggles I have with it, and really challenge their pricing and market position.
In summary, at $4.99 App Layout is a cheap alternative to other more expensive app design options. But it is more of a hobbyist’s app than something a professional would use. And its a little too frustrating to offer to my clients to use.
Let’s hope the developer grows the concept.
Price: $4.99 (App Store)
Category: Productivity
Released:Aug 03, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.0
Size: 39.7 MB
Language:English
Seller: Jason Jardim
© www.MacSpots.com
Requirements:Compatible with iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later.
The best way to describe Calendars for iPhone and iPod Touch is that is it iCal for Google services. Aesthetically it is less garish than iCal. Which is a good thing. The colors used for the GUI tend to be less bright, and more pastel in shade. Functionality is almost the same as iCal. And graphically there is a little more glitz.
Calendars by Readdle is available for the iPhone, iPod Touch and compatible with the iPad.
Calendars fires up quickly, and offers a visual appearance which is more refined than iCal. It is very obviously modelled on a real world ring bound flip-over calendar. And all the rings and perforations in the pages are drawn as part of the GUI in a pleasing, and subtle way.
This attention to detail with the overall look made me wonder why the developers didn’t use Apple’s page flip animation for changing pages. That would have been a nice touch. Perhaps in an update?
Navigation from page to page is done by tapping right and left arrows at the top of pages, and again I wondered why Readdle didn’t get a little more creative here and allow us to swipe pages so that they flipped or rolled up and over.
Having said all that the functionality is quick, responsive and just fine in daily use.
To work with Google Calendars all you have to do is put in your account details and the app will sync with your online calendar automatically after you edit or create events, and on request. You can do partial updates and also full syncs. The latter taking a little longer.
You can add attendees to appointments, and also request SMS, email and on device alerts to remind you of upcoming appointments. The SMS alert only works if there is a number on file in your Google account.
Entering reminders, and appointments is simple, and employs the usual tumblers that we are accustomed to on the iPhone / iPod Touch.
Moving events around in Calendars is easy, and this is one of the nicer features. You can of course edit them manually using tumblers. But it is also possible to slide them around using drag and drop. In practise I found this worked most of the time quite intelligently. But occasionally when appointments overlapped I could get myself into a mess. But any confusion was soon sorted out with some more dragging and dropping.
When you change things the app will sync with Google if it has a network connection. This will sometimes cause the odd stutter in updates to the screen, or delays to information being updated. But nothing terrible.
Calendar is certainly a competent app. And I am the last one to argue that developers should be dropping their app prices. $6.99 is only the cost of a meal from McDonalds, after all. But when you can buy software like Apple’s iMovie for iPhone for $4.99, and there are other Calendar apps out there for less I think Readdle need to add some more pizazz to this app, or perhaps drop the price a dollar or two.
Still Calendar does what it says on the box. And quite well too. So certainly take a look if you are in the market for a Calendar app for your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Price: $6.99 (iTunes Store)
Category: Productivity
Updated: Jun 23, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.0.2
1.0.2 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
Size: 3.6 MB
Language: English
Seller: Igor Zhadanov
© 2010 Readdle Inc.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.
Makes Designing Your Dream Home a Breeze!
House makeover shows are huge on TV at the moment, they aren’t just on their own dedicated channels but are on the main stream channels too and that is simply because they are extremely popular. Hoping to catch in on some of that popularity are Black Mana Studios with their release of Home 3D which enables you to accurately create your dream home or your current home to plan your re-design.
All of this is planned out in 2D and then miraculously converted to 3D allowing you to walk around your ‘new’ home to get an accurate feel of how it would look producing some pretty good results.
You have to start from scratch when building your home, perhaps the inclusion of a completed demo home would have been nice to give you an immediate feel of how this look, and you can select some a pre-set range of room or name and create your very own. This is all very simply to do and you can add additional rooms and floors at the touch of a button. You can then add and position doors and before you know it you’ll be ready to jump into 3D mode to get a true feel of how your virtual home looks.
This is only the beginning though, you can then easily add, move and rotate furniture and appliances as well as add custom floors and wallpapers. There are many choices to choose from included in the app already but should you not find the perfect representation that you car looking for you can also purchase additional items via in app purchases.
While it’s relatively simple to build your 3D home they have provided 12 separate videos guiding you through how to manage each part of your build. Each of them are well presented as well and are certainly worth sitting through.
You can build your dream home in either landscape or portrait mode and also change any of the other settings to suit your own preferences. It’s also possible to export your finished work of art as a picture to your Photo Library or directly via email so that you can show off your plans to your partner, friends or real estate agent!
Home 3D is a really good app making home design a breeze and as it’s 50% off at the moment so if you are interested you should check it out now.
The Good
The Not So Good
Price: $4.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Updated: Apr 09, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.0.1
Size: 7.2 MB
Language: English
Seller: Black Mana Studios
© Black Mana Studios
Rated 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.
Finding iPhone games and apps based on your interest can be quite challenging as keeping a track of new releases every day is not an easy task. Apptizr is an ‘iPhone app recommendation service’ which uses proprietary algorithm to suggest app recommendations on the basis of your tastes. We covered Apptizr beta launch in November last year and gaveaway 50 invites codes to our readers.
You can sign up for this service for free at apptizr.com and discover apps and games you might love or download the newly released Apptizr iPhone app (iTunes Store, Free)
The app offers a great interface to recommend iPhone games and apps and you can customize the recommendations too. The proprietary algorithm learns more about your taste as you continue to marks apps as like/dislike. When we beta tested the web version we found that the results the service produced were in line with the options we chose. Although, almost all recommendations were already owned by us!
Apptizr for iPhone is free and definitely worth checking out!
]]> https://touchreviews.net/apptizr-iphone-app-store-genius-recommendatios/feed/ 0Many applications in the App Store these days are simply re-workings of the same things. iUmmm however is, as far as I can see, completely unique, for iUmmm is an application to help anyone and everyone improve on their public speaking and presentation abilities by rating you as you practice your speech or presentation and then report back on how you did, specifically in regard to the use of those vocal pauses that can bring any speech down to it’s knees.
The iUmmm application allows you to track up to 5 of what you consider to be you most frequently used vocal pauses such as “Ummm”, “Like”, “But” etc. and while it comes preset with 5 of them you can edit them to be specific to your needs.
Starting a session couldn’t be easier, simply add your name and a name for the event that you are practicing for and you are ready to go. At this point I have to admit I was getting ready to start speaking and see the application start counting my vocal pauses. Unfortunately I was to be disappointed as the is no vocal recognition going on here, instead the app relies on manual input to increase or decrease the number of times you say the specific words you are wanting to track.
This can work if you have someone else with you who is willing to listen to you make your speech numerous times but to try and count your words as you make your speech is practically impossible and therefore the app is truly only usable with two people. If you do find someone to use the application with, and remember everything is better in two’s, you can generate some good stats.
Each session can be tracked based by name and the specific event that you are practicing for and your results are stored for your future reference allowing you to track your progress and hopefully see a reduction in your errors. The reports could certainly be better. At present you will simply get a text based report on each individually tracked session. What would be nice to see is the ability to chart your progress so that you can see at a glance how you are doing.
Your practices can also be timed and this can be especially useful if you have a time limit to meet or if you have to time your speech to coincide with other events, Again, although the overall time is recorded in each individual report it’s not possible to visually track your progress in regard to timings either in graph form.
This app has so much potential but as it is the benefit is going to be limited, if the developers can add voice recognition so that the app can be used be one person and if the reports can be improved so that all of the stats can be plotted on a graph they could be on to a winner.
At just 99 cents (iTunes Link) it may be a good idea to get in on this app on the ground floor with the anticipation of even greater functionality in a future release. At present the app gets a 2.5 out of 5 but with the successful addition of both the previously mentioned additions it would easily double it’s current rating.
The Good
The Not So Good
Reviewed by: @CraigWillis
Expedited Review: Request received on Dec 30, reviewed on Dec 31
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Giveaway: We have 10 CopyTrans licenses to giveaway! Retweet this post with #CopyTrans4 hash tag included and leave a comment below with your First and Last Name (required for activating license) and you could win CopyTrans 4 worth $19.99
CopyTrans 4 [rating: 5/5]
If you manually sync your iPod library with many computers or just have a large collection of music which you want safely backed up then CopyTrans 4 is the perfect solution for you.
The music on my iPod is collected from various sources and is always on manual sync, in the past when I felt the need to backup iPod music back to iTunes on my computer I was out of luck as iTunes does not allow that. After, searching and trying various iPod backup softwares nothing seemed to work perfectly, sometimes the music info was missing and at other times I feared my iPod getting corrupted.
WindSolutions was founded in 2004 and have created the best softwares for managing, backing-up and repairing your iPod, iPhone/iPod touch. Their latest product to hit the market is called CopyTrans 4.
CopyTrans 4 is a simple iPod, iPhone/iPod touch music backup software with power packed performance. With one of the simplest installations possible and Smart Backup feature the software is ready to use without any settings to deal with. Before using CopyTrans 4 you need to make sure iTunes is not open or working in the background. Once CopyTrans 4 detects your iPod, iPhone or iPod touch it is ready to backup your music without you having to wonder where it will copy the music or if all the info will be backed up. In our case CopyTrans 4 successfully transferred 576 songs in under 10 minutes. It transferred the iPod music to iTunes while retaining the the album artwork, ratings and play counts.
Touch Reviews Highly Recommends CopyTrans 4
Price: $19.99 (Buy Now) (Free Version)
New in CopyTrans 4
iPod Transfer: Transfer Music From iPod To Computer
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We have been a huge fan of Tapbots user interface for iPhone apps. The fact that they can turn a simple concept of an app into a fun to use application while retaining the intuitiveness is very unique. Their popular converter app for iPhone called Convertbot (iTunes Link) set new standards for iPhone app design and once again they are ready to offer another powerful productivity app.
Pastebot for iPhone is a powerful clipboard app which keeps a track of what you copy and then offers various options to control the way you want to use the copied information. When Apple finally introduced the Cut, Copy and Paste feature in iPhone OS 3.0 and let developers use the API, we saw a few clipboard apps emerging and reviewed Scraps – clipboard repository but, Pastebot gives cut, copy and paste on iPhone new possibilities.
The app features basic image and text editing tools and folder creation to save your clips. If you own a Mac then you are lucky to use Pastebot sync, which keeps the data you copy on your Mac in sync with the iPhone app and exchanging data is as easy as tapping on an image or text.
Price: $1.99 (iTunes Link)
Checkout the detailed walkthrough video to learn more.
]]> https://touchreviews.net/pastebot-iphone-clipboard-app/feed/ 2In the car business or looking for your next ride? This application is for you.
VIN Hunter is a great solution to the problem of needing to decode and record vehicles without the use of the Internet. This means an inexpensive iPod Touch can be used as a powerful tool in the field without service plans or dedicated hardware. The detailed 150,000+ model database contains information on cars and trucks back to 1981 when the standardized VIN format was introduced. The database is updated as new vehicle models are released. With VIN Hunter you’ll always be up to date.
A fairly bold claim for an application weighing in at only 3.9 MB, but this application does indeed work offline providing you with a high amount of information about the car you are looking at, depending on its age as I found that a 1988 Ford Taurus didn’t offer me much more info than engine size and type, more modern cars did provide a high amount of information.
When you do have a car with lots of information various custom options are listed which you can tap to tick to match your record better with the car in front of you. Going even further on this front you can add notes and a single photo but not the license plate number, which I find a strange omission as two similar looking cars could easily crop up if you are fond of a certain modal and a license plate is easier to identify with than say the VIN number present that’s present on every record in the list view.
The best thing about this application is it’s use of the Internet. It has integration with CarFax providing you with easy access to records on the vehicles history, on tapping the history tab you are taken straight to their website in Safari, letting you either purchase the history or if you have a dealer account enter your account detail. However it could do with a built in web browser to tighten this integration and a function for dealers (in dealer mode hidden in your device’s settings) the option to store your account credentials to provide greater ease of access. It also has a “More” tab with a handful of related links such as review sites, ebay search for spare parts and a look up on nicb.org which checks the VIN you have entered for the car against their database to make sure it’s not been stolen or salvaged.
I would have liked to have seen the ability to store more than one photo, so say if you were a mechanic or valet you could document existing damage on receiving it into your care and prevent a disgruntled customer from pointing the blame at you. Normally I like developers to stick with existing design conventions but I think this application needs to buck the trend in regards to the keyboard it uses to enter the VIN. There is more than enough space available to let you have numbers above the standard keyboard and would save a lot of time flicking between normal and symbol/number view on the standard keyboard as symbols aren’t needed for a VIN. While the ability to email details about the vehicle you have decoded is appreciated it would be nice to be able to email singular records as well rather than sending your complete list.
The only size-able grip I can find with this app is it’s sluggish manipulation of camera images when taken in-app causing some erratic behaviour such as missing button bars and low responsiveness until you quit and start the application again and anything that is used for business should have a backup and restore function
Price $4.99 (North America only)
The Good
The Not So Good
VIN Hunter Screenshots
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Reviewed by: TylerDurdan
]]> https://touchreviews.net/vin-hunter-review-iphone-productivity/feed/ 0Take A Note is a versatile note taking application with direct access to your notes from any PC or Mac computer. You can browse all your notes as text, sound and image files, copy these files to your computer and even add existing text documents as new notes.
Take A Note has everything you need for your note taking needs on the go: four types of notes, custom categories, search, send by email functions and very nice custom made interface.
It is one of those applications which aims at providing value for money, functionality and easy to use interface.
This app is capable of taking notes in all forms: Text, Draw, Photo and Audio. Readdle has produced an amazing document sharing app like ReaddleDocs and now a Notes app which makes taking notes easier and manageable.
Take A Note has a very simple User Interface you have an option to Add Note, view Notes. Wifi Access, Search and a settings option.
Add Notes
Here you can choose the type of note you would like to create choose from Text Note, Audio Note, Draw Note or Photo Note. Text Note looks like iPhone’s native notes app with an additional option to categorize your notes in any any custom category. While composing your note you can also email the note you created within the app. With Audio Note you can record anything you would like to keep safe. Draw Note allows you to scribble anything on the screen with options to choose pen size, erase, email, add comments and categorize. With Photo Note you can choose any picture from your Saved Photos, Photo Library or take a new picture within the app, pan, zoom, comment and save your photo memo.
Notes
There are 5 default categories in which your notes are automatically sorted: All, Text, Audio, Drawing, Photo and then your custom categories. Each category shows the number of notes it has.
Wi-fi- Access
Take A Note uses WebDAV protocol and may be mounted as network drive. So, you can easily transfer your files from your iPhone/iPod touch to your computer. This feature also allows you to enable or disable password protection for Wi-fi access. With Wi-fi access Take A Note makes backing up and sharing your notes very easy.
Search
Search for the notes you created either by Title or Content.
Settings
Enable Password Lock for the app, change font settings, volume boost and Alphabetical Sort.
Take A Note is definitely a must have for all those who find themselves writing notes at random places and losing track of important information and on the other hand it certainly qualifies for professional use.
Price $4.99 Sale $3.99
The Good
The Not So Good
Perth, Australia – Pixelglow Software today launched Instaviz 1.3 – the latest version of the first and best diagram sketching software for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch – featuring major enhancements that make it even easier for users to share, collaborate and manage organization charts, flowcharts, mind maps and other diagrams. Instavue, the desktop companion to Instaviz, will now also be available for Microsoft Windows.
First released in December 2008, Instaviz has become one of the most popular diagramming software on the iPhone platform, with its simple sketch-to-create interface and deep feature set. Enthusiastic users have awarded the current version 4 out of 5 stars over 22 ratings in the US App Store alone.
Instaviz 1.3 now exports diagrams created on the iPhone to Microsoft Visio 2007, the industry standard diagramming software on the desktop. Users can now also email diagrams to other iPhone or Mac users with the tap of a few buttons.
“Instaviz is a whiteboard in your pocket, you sketch ideas there to show to others,” says Glen Low, author of Instaviz. “But our users have often asked for more ways to share their diagrams and continue their work on the desktop. Adding these new collaboration functions was a no-brainer.”
The new version can now import diagrams from web servers, including MobileMe iDisk and box. Third-party apps and websites can also open their diagrams in Instaviz, playing well with popular solutions such as myDBR and IdeaTree.
Nocsos myDBR is a web-based reporting system for MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server for easily building and managing a scalable reporting environment. “With myDBR’s built in iPhone and Instaviz support, it is now possible to do a real end-to-end solution for graphs,” says Seppo Laaksonen, CEO of Nocsos. “We at Nocsos find Instaviz an innovative product that really shows how things can be made easy.”
IdeaTree is a shared flow chart for ideas on the web. It allows users to work on graphs simultaneously with others while adding multimedia content. “By adding the ability to export to Instaviz, we instantly gained a very easy-to-use portable environment. IdeaTree users can now add to projects on the go, capturing additional ideas as they occur,” says Ron Newman, founder of IdeaTree. “This is what computing should be about, capturing the human moment.”
Instavue is the sidekick of Instaviz on the Mac OS X platform. Instavue users can quickly extract their Instaviz diagrams by simply selecting them from their iPhone and iPod Touch backups, then exporting or printing them.
Pixelglow Software has now ported Instavue so that Windows users can also share their diagrams. Instavue for Windows features 12 different bitmap and vector export formats, including VML and EMF (Enhanced Metafile) images for inter-operation with Microsoft Office 2007 suite.
About Instaviz
Instaviz is an iPhone and iPod Touch application that turns roughly sketched shapes and lines into beautifully laid-out diagrams. Instaviz uses Recog, a new shape recognition engine based on advanced fuzzy logic and trained on over 2,500 sketches drawn by real users. Instaviz also uses Graphviz, the industry standard for automated graph layout, representing over 20 years of AT&T research work.
About Instavue
Instavue is a Mac and Windows application that extracts the Instaviz diagrams from the user’s iPhone or iPod Touch backups. The user can then choose to print the diagrams or export them to any of these vector and bitmap formats: BMP, EPS, GIF, Graphviz, JPEG, PNG, PostScript, SVG, TIFF, Visio VDX or VML. Mac users can also export to these additional formats: JPEG2000, OpenEXR, Photoshop, PDF, Quickdraw, Silicon Graphics or TGA. Windows users can also export to the EMF (Enhanced Metafile) format.
About Mydbr
myDBR is a web-based reporting system for MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server for easily building and managing a scalable reporting environment. myDBR’s automatic layouts save time and money and allow fully dynamic reports. myDBR also supports free linking of reports together, producing full report browsing result for the user. myDBR supports a full range of features including tabular data, complex charting, Graphviz graphs, Google maps and an API for extension. myDBR offers an optimized interface to major mobile platforms including iPhone, Symbian and Android.
About Ideatree
IdeaTree is a shared flow chart for ideas, a visual wiki, a concept mapper. It allows users to work on graphs simultaneously with others while adding deep content in the form of slides, audio, spreadsheets, formatted text and page links. Users can assign project teams to individual graphs, make tunnels between graphs, vote on solutions, and much more. It gathers the knowledge together in one place and gives users a stage.
Pricing and Availability:
Instaviz 1.3 is available from the Apple iPhone App Store for $9.99 (USD). Instavue for Windows is available to download for free. myDBR is available at the myDBR website. IdeaTree is available from their website.
Pixelglow Software synthesizes disparate ideas into simple and intuitive working software solutions. On the Macintosh, Windows and web platforms for over 12 years, Pixelglow Software works with clients ranging from small firms to multinationals like WorleyParsons, AT&T and Autodesk. Their Altivec-optimized SIMD toolkit macstl is well-regarded in numerics and high performance computing circles since 2003. Their port of Graphviz to Mac OS X took two prizes in the Apple Design Awards 2004: Winner for Best Open Source Product and Runner-Up for Best New Product. In 2005, Apple invited Pixelglow Software to tour Australia and New Zealand to demo new features of Mac OS X Tiger during their WWDC roadshow. Copyright 2009 Pixelglow Software. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Computer in the U.S. and/or other countries.
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Tallies goes beyond traditional counters by storing a complete history of each tally’s activity. Watching your coffee intake? Tracking attendance? Keeping an eye on inventory? Tallies is a great way to keep a daily log.
I think this application is so complete that it would be hard to suggest anything it doesn’t have or going to have. This application is essentially a virtual chalkboard which I think is the perfect way of presenting such an app, just because it’s virtual doesn’t mean it can’t mimic real life, however I think the dots representing how many swipe-able tally screens could be moved onto the wooden border mimicking small holes would fit in better with the theme rather than reducing the size of the slate to accommodate the standard style as seen here.
Each tally is very customizable, with editable name and unit name, start and ending count and how much each mark is worth in positive and negative figures. While customizing your tally you will also find options to file the current session, erase current session and erase both current and filed sessions along with the simple delete this tally option. This moves us on to the History option which shows you a history of each tally and also an option to view all tallies together in one list. A little niggle I have with this is when you choose to change which tally is viewed, the scroll wheel interface is perhaps a bad choice because as you scroll through your (ever growing) list if you pause to take another swipe it will take that as your selection and load it up. Something else I would like to see here is an export option so you can store and use your data on your computer.
The final tab to talk about is Organize, here you can add and delete tallies and change the order they appear in on the Tallies screen, and quickly select a certain tally should you have a large amount stored in the app.
Price $1.99 (sale price, previously $2.99)
The Good
The Not so Good
Touch Reviewer: TylerDurdan
Promo Codes
RT this post and any one review under “Electronic Arts” Category to win this app.
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App Description
iToony allows you to decorate and share your iPhone photos quickly and easily. iToony uses simple gestures. Want a speech bubble? Draw a circle. Want a caption? Draw a straight line. Swipe with two fingers to undo mistakes.
– Quickly turn your favorite snapshot into a comic
– Annotate photos with bubbles and captions
– Draw, sketch and decorate in many colors
– Move bubbles and captions around the photo
– Flickr or Picasa support for sharing
– Browse/decorate your Flickr and Picasa photos
– Save to your library for more sharing optionsWith iToony, you’ll be an iToonist in no time!
What’s new
– fixed fuzzy image when saving to library
– fixed dragging tail problem
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]]> https://touchreviews.net/itoony-iphone/feed/ 0Instaviz is a highly detailed and very easy to use graph sketching app.
• Sketch out a rough shape. Instaviz magically transforms it into a neat ellipse, circle, rectangle, square, diamond or triangle.
• Sketch a link between two shapes. Instaviz quickly redraws the graph with the most pleasing layout.
• Scroll the diagram by dragging with two fingers.
• Zoom in and out by pinching with two fingers.
• To edit the label, color or style of a shape or link, double-tap on it.
• To change the shape, sketch the new shape over the old one.
• To delete a shape or link, tap on it and shake the iPhone.
• To export the graph, double-tap on the graph background then choose Export Graph. You can export the diagram to box.net, iDisk (MobileMe) or any WebDAV server, in DOT/GV and PDF formats.
• Instaviz uses Recog, a new shape recognition engine. Trained on over 2,500 sketches drawn by real users, Recog uses advanced fuzzy logic to recognize what you just sketched in a split second.
• Instaviz uses Graphviz as its automated graph layout engine. The industry standard for automated graph layout, Graphviz represents over 18 years of research work at AT&T and won two Apple Design Awards in 2004.
Instaviz makes graph sketching a fun experience by utilizing iPhone’s revolutionary multi-touch interface and accelerometer. It can be used for sketching mind maps, concept maps, semantic networks, org charts, flowcharts, social networks or genomic hierarchies and more.
Create detailed graphs by simply sketching a rough shape and Instaviz will recognize it and draw an ellipse, circle, rectangle, square, diamond or a triangle for you. Linking two shapes is as easy as sketching a a line between the two and delete a shape by simply taping it and shaking your iPhone. .
UI of Instaviz is very clean as it recognizes gestures to either Scroll, Zoom or Edit. Editing options include Node Settings and Edge Settings (Label, color, style, Border, Thickness, Corner and more.)
Instaviz is highly useful as it offers a range of exporting options after your desired graph is ready. Exporting options include box.net, iDisk (MobileMe) or any WebDAV server, in DOT/GV and PDF formats.
I highly recommend Instaviz for all those who are looking for an easy and highly customizable graph sketching app!
Features: - 2 modes: Simple and Complete - supports 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50 & 60 frame rate - converts between timecode and frame - Swipe Backspace - history - offset utility - duration utility - TRT (total running time) calculator - gorgeous & very intuitive interface
This app provides a very simple and well structured interface to work with Time Codes and frames. iTC Calc supports most of the standard frame rates including 24fps, 25 fps, 29.97 DF and many more.
iTC Calc gives you an option to choose the between two modes:
iTC Calc Version 1.1 supports a very useful feature called Swipe Backspace which enables the user to delete the last digit entered or clear the whole screen.
With the latest update iTC Calc offers great value to its existing features making it one of the best Time Code utility apps!
Price $9.99
Promo Codes
To win this app you need to join iTC Calc User Group on Facebook (Click Here) and leave a comment below saying “I have joined iTC Calc User Group on Facebook.” It’s that simple!
iTC Calc Screenshot
