You can download it from Apple, via iTunes, from here.

VLC in my opinion is a must have media player on any platform. So I am particularly pleased that the cool geeks over at VLC central have updated it for more of Apple’s iOS based devices.

Are you excited that VLC is now an iPhone and iPod Touch app? Have you tried it out yet? Let us know in the comments.

Just under two-thirds of the total apps in iTunes are paid apps. Games still come a close second to Books as the most downloaded media both having a smidgen under 17% each of overall downloads.

One thing worth considering is that this figure is not necessarily showing us the whole picture. Although it is probably a good estimate, there are a lot of apps which have been in the App Store, but have been taken off sale. However, as a counterpoint to that, this most recent survey data, collated by Mobclix, does not take into account many apps sold outside the US.

The Android Marketplace is fast on the heels of the App Store, now reported as having over 100,000 apps.

Both marketplaces are set to grow further as we get closer to the end of the year but the Android Marketplace is expected to do so more, as a shower of new Android tablet devices hit highstreet shelves.

Will Android Apps overtake those of iOS in 2011? When will the App Store hit 1 Million apps? 2011 or 2012? Have your say in the comments.

If you watched the iPad keynote last month you know one of the application demoed for the new platform was called Brushes. Brushes allows the user to make artistic creations using their fingers instead of a mouse as they might do on a personal computer. Although Brushes for the iPad is still at least another month away, there is one application available now for the iPhone that replicates much of the demoed functionality. That application is ArtStudio by Lucky Clan.

Features:
– 25 brushes including pencils, brushes, eraser, smudge tool, bucket fill (simple and smart mode), glow, tube, airbrush and many more…
– advanced settings offer 8 different parameters and real-time preview for all brushes
– simulated brush pressure
– line smoothing, antialiasing, zooming with filtering
– 3 drawing modes: free draw with smoothing, free draw without smoothing, lines

There are a lot of basic drawing and coloring applications in the App Store but ArtStudio is certainly not one of them. One of the hallmarks of a good utility application like ArtStudio is that it provides as little or as much is required by the current user. If someone is just interested in some basic features for doodling while they wait in line, the program’s advanced features shouldn’t stand in the way of that. If the user is a skilled graphic artist that needs a lot of advanced features, they shouldn’t have to hunt through the interface to find them.

ArtStudio has a very clean and welcoming interface that doesn’t stand in the way of the creative process. When you open the application you are presented with a white blank canvas. The toolbar is very cleverly hidden at the bottom of the screen. To open it you click the arrow in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

When I first opened ArtStudio I expected the limited functionality I had seen in other drawing and coloring applications. I was happily surprised. You will be as impressed as I was with the range, depth, and selection of options available. This feels and operates like a professional app. It also includes several tutorials on how to draw various subjects using ArtStudio. I think what impressed me the most was the crispness of the application. Some drawing applications feel very clumsy when you’re drawing with your fingers. ArtStudio feels crisp and professional, like you’re really using the tools in question.

I would heartily recommend ArtStudio for anyone from the professional artist, to the casual doodler to someone looking for an application for an artistic child. All will find it easily enjoyable and fully featured. ArtStudio is a must have for your digital easel.

The Good:

• Fully featured
• Well designed interface
• Crisp, professional feel
• Broad appeal

The Not So Good:

• A sync feature that allows for the direct transfer of creations to a computer would be a nice addition

Reviewed By: Erin Peterson

ArtStudio In Action

Price: $3.99 (iTunes Store)
Released: Feb 10, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.0
Size: 1.3 MB
Languages: English
Seller: Sylwester Los
© Lucky Clan 2010

I read an interesting article yesterday in the New York Times. The main crux of it was that despite over 140,000 apps in the App Store, the majority of iPhone users generally stick to 5 or 10 applications they like. They equate it to cable TV subscribers who have hundreds of channel choices and end up watching the same line up.

Although the Times article tended to draw the conclusion that the phenomenon revolved around people’s tendency to stick with what they know, I would also suggest another element at work. It’s long been known that discovery is one of the shortcomings of the App Store. Despite many of the efforts to improve the situation, finding applications can sometimes be a hit and miss operation. The number of iPhone recommendation applications is a testament to that. So how could discovery be improved? I would suggest two ways.

The first would be to create discovery categories that aren’t based on either downloads or earnings. The Top 25 category is merely based on popularity (downloads) and I haven’t ever really figured out the demographics for the Featured categories. The addition of Genius capabilities was a good start but personally Genius doesn’t seem very . . . smart . . . to me. If Apple could figure out a way to suggest applications to me based on an aggregate of what I own versus just a one-to-one comparison, that would be a good enhancement. Showing an intersection between popular apps and the categories I own would be interesting too.

The second would be to add a social element to the feedback system. Currently the five star rating system is notorious for its ability to be gamed. Since anyone can leave a rating for any application it should come as little surprise that a less than reputable developer might do a little astroturfing for their own application. Instead of a five star feedback system I would suggest more of a Digg-style interface. Applications could be “dug” up and down much like items are on that popular web site. One of the best things about Digg is its ability to expose otherwise unknown items around the web. If the same could be done for apps, it would surface and expose many more of the wonderful apps that would otherwise languish in obscurity.

The App Store is one of the major reasons the iPhone is winning the smartphone wars. Its also one of its bigger weaknesses. With the number of apps set to explode again with the introduction of the iPad, it’s time for Apple to shepherd discovery and recommendation from its infancy to adulthood.

What do you think? How could Apple improve the application discovery and recommendation process? Should they be content to leave it to third party apps or should they take the lead? Leave us a comment below.

By: Erin Peterson

I’ve mentioned in other reviews that I’m a bit of a weather nerd. Put some cloud animations and temperature variation charts on an app and usually I’m good to go. Imagine my disappointment then when I ran across Climate Wise – Winter Edition. Not only did it not feed and nurture my inner meteorologist, it was of little practical use as well.

Climate Wise provides winter-specific meterological data for the Continental United States. The main interface is a Google Maps overlay with a search box. To find data for a location you can either search using the city and state or by zip code. To find data for your current location, tap the location icon in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Once a location has been acquired, the familiar Maps pin icon will drop into place. Weather data is accessed by tapping the pin. The weather data provided is a series of three windows with average information for January, February, and March.

I understand that Climate Wise is not like other weather apps as it doesn’t actually display a weather forecast. Climate Wise is focused on providing statistical information, that much it makes very clear in its App Store introduction. Unfortunately, the statistical information provided doesn’t relate very much to winter weather information I’d be interested in. There is no mention of average snowfall, wind speed, or wind chill to name three much more winter related statistics. And although the developers promise future releases with international information, it currently only tracks the Continental United States. I am sure there’s international winter-specific statistical information available. The lack of even North American information leaves a big hole in the application that needs to be filled. Climate Wise may not aspire to being a weather forecast application and that’s fine. However, if you’re going to provide statistical information you should provide statistical information that’s as relevant and broadly-based as possible.

I had very high hopes for Climate Wise – Winter Edition and it didn’t deliver on any of them. The interface is good and it delivers a limited set of information specific to the US. If either of those things interest you, get this app.

The Good:

• Good interface
• Information if you’re in the US

The Not So Good:

• No international information
• Not enough winter-specific information
• Not fully featured enough

Reviewed by: Erin Peterson

Price: $1.99 (iTunes Store) as of 28 Jan
Reviewed Version: 1.0
Size: 0.3 MB
Seller: Climate Source Inc.

The great thing about most iPhone utility applications is that they take one function and perform it well. Instead of having an application that tries to be many things to many different people, iPhone apps are usually very focused on a singular task. Tip Sheet for iPhone is no exception. It is one app you’ll want to have in your arsenal.

Tip Sheet is mainly aimed at service industry workers. Using an easy to understand interface, Tip Sheet allows you to break down your tips on a per job basis. Inside of each job, tips are tracked by pay periods. The pay period is just a start and end date which is fully customizable. Days are added to each pay period and this is where you add cash and credit tips and hours worked. If you entered an hourly wage amount when setting up the job and enter the hours worked on the day entry screen, Tip Sheet will also track your hourly wages as well. All of these tasks are accomplished through the familiar iPhone interface elements.

Tip Sheet also provides a nice little statistics package for tracking the recorded information. The Daily Summaries screen breaks down averages of cash, credit, and total tips per day per job. The Overall Summary screen displays averages, minimums, and maximums for hours worked. money earned per hour, cash tips, credit card tips, and total tips per job. The Year to Date Summary screen displays the total amount of money earned to date.

I really liked Tip Sheet as a utility application. It provides a lot of function in a small and easily used package. It was obviously designed with its intended market in mind and doesn’t distract from its main purpose with useless bells and whistles. Although it was designed with the service industry in mind, anyone who has to keep track of hours and wages on their own would find this application useful. Freelancers especially come to mind as a target group although I am sure there are many others.

Tip Sheet doesn’t really have any shortcomings as is but I would suggest one addition. Desktop integration through perhaps a web interface would enhance the usefulness of this application. Allowing the user to enter information on the web or in the app and having it sync between them would give the user options for data entry without always tying them to their iPhone.

Tip Sheet is a must have application for the service worker, freelancer, or any job that requires tracking wages and tips. Make it part of your app arsenal today.

The Good:

• Easy to use interface
• Great statistics
• Useful to more than the target market

The Not So Good:

• Desktop integration would be a nice addition

Reviewed by: Erin Peterson

Price: $1.99 (iTunes Store) as of 17 Jan. Lite version available.
Reviewed Version: 1.6
Size: 0.4 MB
Seller: Rick Friele

Kayak.com has long been a premiere destination for travel services on the Internet. Unlike some sites, Kayak is not a travel service in itself but rather an aggregator of other services on the Internet. Kayak provides the capability to search through other offerings through one, simple interface. The Kayak First Class Flight and Hotel Search application for the iPhone brings the same great web site functionality to one great app. It is a one stop shopping experience if you’re travelling anywhere in the world.

The Kayak application is divided into nine categories: Flights, Hotels, Cars, Trips, Buzz, Airlines, Feedback, Preferences, and Help/FAQ. The core of the application are in the Flights, Hotels, Cars, Trips, and Buzz areas. Searching for a flight, hotel, or car is quick and easy through a very intuitive interface. Searches are fully featured and I easily found items that met my criteria without much fuss or hassle. Travelers, would-be travelers, and those stuck frantically looking for a flight in an airport will appreciate how quickly the interface allows you to hone in on what you’re looking for.

Also included in the application are two of Kayak.com’s more powerful features, Trips and Buzz. The Trips functionality gives the user an interface for centralizing all aspects of the their trip. Itineraries, travel plans, and notes about your trip can be set up through Kayak.com and accessed through the application. Flight delays and statuses can be also be forwarded to your phone through SMS or e-mail. The Buzz functionality provides the user with the best upcoming flight prices between two points and trending for the next 30 days. Useful information for planning a trip.

Additional application areas include the Airlines screen which lists the phone number and web site of all major airlines, the Feedback screen which allows the user to provide Kayak feedback on their application, the Preferences screen which allows you to set application preferences, a help screen in the Help/FAQ screen. If you’re not flying in or to North America, you might want to check out the Preferences screen. Kayak.com is selected as the default Kayak site and all prices are listed in US dollars. On the Preferences screen you can change the Kayak site to one of the many worldwide sites and the currency to one of the major world dollars. Booking through a local site may save you a few dollars and viewing listings in your native currency can certainly save you the hassle of working out exchange values when booking.

All in all, the Kayak First Class Flight and Hotel Search application is a well thought out and useful application. The interface is intuitive, it provides all of the functions I would expect in a travel aggregator and search application, and has a few added extras that differentiate it from other applications. The only major issue I found with the application was in the actual booking of a flight, hotel, or car. The application itself does not provide a booking interface. Instead, the user must navigate the Kayak.com web site in Safari or by calling. I like mobile Safari as well as anyone who uses an iPhone but complex forms can be a bit hard to navigate on the small iPhone screen. It seems to me that if Kayak is going to take the time to create a great app for finding and planning travel they would add booking functionality as well. This would be a welcome addition to an already great app.

The Kayak iPhone application comes in two versions; the Flight and Hotel Search free version and the First Class Flight and Hotel Search. Pay the $1.99 to receive the full version of the application. It is well worth it.

The Good

• Intuitive interface
• Powerful searching capabilities
• Trip and Buzz sections are welcome additions

The Not So Good

• Lack of in-app bookings hurts the application experience

Reviewed by: Erin Peterson

Price: $1.99 as of 11 Jan (iTunes Store)
Version reviewed: 2.1.1
Size: 4.1 MB

Don’t just see the sights, learn something about them too.

‘Visit Paris’ is the first application to let you explore Paris through videos on an iPhone or I Pod Touch. Relive in pictures the building of Notre Dame cathedral, or the last days of doomed Queen Marie Antoinette. The new price allows you, as a special offer, to access the application’s 50 videos until the end of the year.

Combining some of the iPhone’s most prominent features is Visit Paris which has a video library of tourist attractions on a map of Paris and adds GPS to the mix. This is designed to let you walk around the city of love, spot an attraction and watch a video about it before venturing further if interest grabs you. Thankfully you don’t have to be in Paris to do this as should the GPS function find you outside of Paris when you run the app it will, rather oddly, ask you if you want to visit from a distance. The reason I find this odd would be the fact it’s a yes/no question and should you tap no it will simply quit to the springboard, which raises the question why would you want to run the app if you didn’t want to visit from a distance?

Keep in mind, those looking to save cash on roaming charges, while videos are downloadable from just about anywhere but keeping your iPhone in airplane mode as you walk around the streets of “pari” will disable GPS. While nothing to do with the developer, this knowledge isn’t as common as you’d think and a message when running the app with airplane mode turned on couldn’t have hurt rather than leave the user scratching their head.

A lot of thought has been put into the interface, as you’d expect from the platform but this goes a step further with some free thinking away from your standard fare. You have 1 screen divided into 3, at the top is part of the map of Paris (stored locally) towards the bottom is a list of available videos and between them is a search box letting you filter the video library in the same way as you would your address book. Tapping the map shifts the video library down and off the screen and tapping the search box would bring the keyboard up, however to bring the library/search up from the map view requires a tap of the Eiffel tower button in the bottom left corner.

Content here is king and with 49 videos that vary between 15-30 seconds and 5 minutes I certainly want to see more. Going more in depth into larger places like the Louvre, maybe even proper tours using the same GPS, Map and Media combo. I would also love to see a ‘pin where I’m staying feature’ so you could plan your own tour and find your way back again should you get lost, something that’s easily done in the massive city of Paris.

While this app is a great idea and a benefit to those exploring Paris I feel there is so much more potential to be fulfilled than what is already here.

The Good

• Great combo of iPhone features
• Online library of videos…
• …That are downloadable

The Not So Good

• Needs more content
• Untapped potential
• Needs a few warning messages

Reviewed by: @TylerDurdan

Price: $1.99 (free version available) as of Jan 07, 2010 (iTunes Store Link)
Version reviewed: 1.6
Size: 5.9 MB
Seller: Les Routes du Reve

The app features more than 1200 mathematical formulas, tips, figures and examples of equations and concepts.

Some of the new features in Math Ref V2.2 are:

New Sections:
–Chemistry
-Interactive periodic table
-Probability and Statistics

Algebra:
-More functions
-Help on graphing functions
-Solving perfect squares

Differentiation:
-Functions and derivative tests
-Typo fixing

Integration:
-Integration by partial fractions
-Typo fixing

Table of integrals:
-Typo fixing

Discrete:
-Typo fixing

Vector Calculus:
-Differential Geometry

Physics:
-Quantum mechanics
-Navier-Stokes equations
-Friction term added to Bernoulli Equations
-Sonic velocity
-Added precision to constants
-Typo fixing

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Screenshots

Photo Philter Phun

With the new iPhone 3GS and it’s upgraded 3 mega-pixel camera, not to mention the auto focus feature it’s little surprise that more and more people will be using their iPhone as their main camera and with more pictures you are going to want to do more things with them and this is where Photo Philter Phun aims to help out.

PPP (Photo Philter Phun) lets you apply 20 different filters to any photo you’ve taken on your phone or for that matter transferred to your phone from your PC, downloaded from Facebook, Twitter, Safari or any other place you can imagine, if it’s on your iPhone you can apply the filter. The fact that you can apply the filters using any picture means that PPP can also be used with the iPod touch.

Applying a filter is easy, select a picture, choose the filter and preview. Applying the filter can take anything from a second to 5 seconds and the more filters your apply the longer it will take. As easy as it is to apply the filters you can also easily undo the changes using the Revert button so playing around and testing is pretty easy. You can only apply a filter to the whole picture rather than specific areas but as simple as it is that doesn’t really matter.

Depending on the picture the filters that you apply can range from the sublime to the ridiculous and some are definitely better than others with my favorites including the Oil Painting Effect, Negative Image and Sharpen Image, the last of which doesn’t add any fancy effect but can certainly right many wrongs on photo’s that are a little too fuzzy for their own good.

Once you are happy with your creativity you have a few options of what you can do, save the updated image to your camera roll, upload to Twitter or publish to Facebook all of which can be done at the click of a button.

At 99c you can’t really go wrong with this app and while there are other apps that will allow detailed editing of your pictures this is a quick and easy way apply a range of cool effects.

The Good

• Quick and easy filter application
• Easy share option via Twitter & Facebook

The Not So Good

• Filters can take a while to apply
• Can only apply filters to the whole picture
• Detailed editing not possible

Reviewed By: Craig Willis

Who hasn’t lent someone something? Who hasn’t borrowed something from someone? I think that covers everyone doesn’t it? Well if it does, and if you do either a lot, then Mooch!, not to be confused with Mooch, could be just the app for you as it allows you to simply keep track of what you’ve borrowed and what you’ve lent and to whom. Helping you keep track of everything and making sure that you don’t become know as a mooch!

Getting started is as easy as clicking on either the ‘I Borrowed’ or ‘I Lent’ button. From there your options are the same. If it’s cash then you can simply enter in the amount add the contact from your iPhone/iPod touch Contacts to whom you lent to or borrowed from and click save. With the lending and borrowing of money Mooch! will also give you an overall balance meaning that if you lend someone $20 and then borrow $25 it will give you a balance showing that you owe them $5.

Mooch! iPhone

If it’s an actual item that’s being traded you can even add a photo of the said item and categorize it into one of six groups. The groups do cover most items that you’d want to trade but it would be nice to have the ability to set your own categories too. Notes can be added to any item too.

All your traded items get listed on the home page by contact so you can easily see at a glance who owes you what and what you owe other people. It’s also easy to edit and ultimately delete any item once it’s be returned to you or you return what ever item it is you’ve borrowed, so keeping your items up to date and is easy.

Once an item has been returned you can mark it as returned and if you haven’t received back something that you sent out some time ago then you can use the inbuilt reminder option that will send the person an email with a friendly reminder.

If you do a lot of borrowing/lending that you could do a lot worse than purchasing this simple yet effective application especially as it’s on sale for just 99c at the moment.

Price: $.99

The Good

• Easy to add new items
• Keeps track of balance by contact
• Add picture of items

The Not So Good

• Unable to edit categories

Reviewed By: Craig Willis

Mooch! Promo Codes: Guess the last character and win!

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More and more companies are sending out documents in PDF format these days and with the iPhone also being used as a professional device having a good PDF document reader for it makes complete sense.

When you initially launch PDF Expert you are presented with a User Guide for the app in PDF format, (what else!) and to get an idea of what this app will do for you not only can you read this guide but just opening it starts you off being able to use some of it’s functions.

The documents will display in both landscape and portrait mode. Landscape will allow you to read the document easier while in portrait mode you can view full pages, in full color, and access the menu items. And it’s these menu’s options that really bring this app to life.

First up is the search option which works excellently, simply enter the word you wish to find in the search box at the top of the page and after it has finished searching, which took only a matter of seconds for a 100 page document, you can the move though each of the found words using the arrow keys.

Copying the text of any document is easy too. After selecting the copy option a block is highlighted on the page which you can resize and move by simply touching the screen. Once you’ve highlighted the text you want you simply tap the Copy button and that text will be available for you to copy into any other application. Other options include Bookmarking, very important especially while ready large documents, Go to page which does just what it say’s and an email option that allows you to forward your PDF doc to someone via email.

The display of the documents is clear and easy to read and zooming utilizes the standard touch screen controls making it very intuitive to navigate around. If you receive password protected documents then PDF Expert can handle those too. It’s not limited to PDF documents either as it can also view MS Offics, HTML and txt files too.

The best feature of this PDF application for me though was the ability to drag and drop files to my iPhone and have them directly appear within the PDF Expert document. This means all the files I download to my PC can easily be transfered to my iPhone quickly and easily over the wifi network by simply entering setting up the iPhone in your Network Places. And don’t worry if you’ve not done that before because the applications steps you though it and you will be up and away within a matter of seconds.

PDF Expert is a one stop shop for all your PDF needs so if you use your iPhone/iPod Touch for work and/or handle a lot of PDF documents this app is a must for you. If you’re quick you can get hold of it for just $3.99.

The Good

• Easy PDF Bookmarking
• Ability to open password protected PDFs
• Searches and navigates large files easily

The Not So Good

• No menu’s in landscape mode

Reviewed By: Craig Willis

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