App Review: iVoiceDialIt

Submitted by Chris on December 18, 2008 - 3:23pm
Rating: 
1.7

iVoiceDialIt from VoiceIt Technologies is a premium voice-controlled dialer for the iPhone available in the App Store for $9.99. The app's minimal design makes it one of the safer voice dialing apps on the market.

It is very convenient to use while driving as you can use it without paying much attention to your iPhone. The interface boasts a large 'action' button in the center that you press to initiate a voice command. Another alternative is to simply shake your iPhone and then speak the name of your contact.

App Review: eWallet

Submitted by Chris on December 17, 2008 - 3:04pm
Rating: 
2.5

eWallet is a powerful and secure password manager for your iPhone. Use it to store all your passwords, sensitive information or private ideas. What makes eWallet so attractive is its polished finish and intuitive interface. The app provides 256-bit AES encryption for all your sensitive data and you can apply a limit to the number of password entries and specify the length of time for which the app should be locked. You can also set the app to lock when inactive for a certain period of time.

Inputting data in eWallet is quite easy, however, the app confines you to a particular hierarchy of wallet > category > card. Thus you can't simply add a card in a wallet without assigning it to a particular category. So much for not being organized! The smart data fields help to speed up data entry but can be improved. For example, when you select to enter an account number, the default entry type is text when it should be numeric.

RemoteTap: Control your Mac from your iPhone

Submitted by Chris on December 17, 2008 - 12:30pm
Rating: 
3.35

With more than 12,000 apps already in the App Store (and counting), sometimes great apps can get lost in the crowd and easily slip by even the most attentive eyes. Such a fate befell RemoteTap by ReadPixel; an app that allows you to control your Mac from your iPhone. This is truly unfortunate not just for the developer, but more so for the end users who have really been missing out. RemoteTap may very well be the most powerful utility available for the iPhone!

Now, the other VNC-based clients available for the iPhone (Jaadu VNC and Mocha VNC) are great, but when it comes to features and functionality, they honestly don't stand a chance against RemoteTap. Set-up is very easy. First download the server software to your Mac's preference pane from ReadPixel's site, set a password and go ahead and enable it. Launch the RemoteTap on your iPhone. If you're on the same wi-fi network, hit scan, select your computer and enter the password. Voilà, you now have full control of your Mac from your iPhone. Now this really isn't anything groundbreaking as the other apps offer a fairly easy set-ups also.

Hands On The Noel Collection Metallic Series

Submitted by Chris on December 16, 2008 - 11:36am
Rating: 
2.5

So what are you getting your iPhone this Christmas? If you're still haven't made up your mind, you might want to consider the Noel Collection Metallic Series Case from More-Thing. These cases are perfect for the holiday season and will offer some serious protection for your iPhone. 

The cases bring a sort of sophisticated air to your iPhone 3G that will certainly turn a lot of heads this holiday. Note that this is not a full case but a simple snap on that goes on the back of the iPhone. You thus have access to all your ports, speakers, microphone, camera, and sensors. Currently, More-Thing is offering a free Mirror Screen Protector and logo protection film with each case. The cases come in 4 amazing colors: Aluminum, Rouge, Dark gold, and Royal Blue. The Aluminum (which by the way is in limited stock right now) looks really slick on the white iPhone 3G with the matching aluminum logo! The Dark Gold is spectacular on the black. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the Noel Collection is all beauty. As a case, it is very sturdy and offers really good protection for your iPhone! Last week, while coming out of a car, my iPhone fell on to the asphalt (To my extreme horror!!). The Noel Case took all the damage and left the iPhone unscathed ;o) !!

iPhone Racing: Raging Thunder

Submitted by Chris on December 16, 2008 - 10:40am
Rating: 
2.5

Many fans have been raving about how awesome Raging Thunder is since it hit the App Store a few months ago. We finally got some time to play around with Polarbit's hyped racing game for the iPhone. The game is a pleasant cross between a fun happy-go-lucky Crash Bandicoot and a hardcore racer like Asphalt 4. 

The graphics are not great, but they are OK. To be fair, the game is only 2.6 MB, so we really didn't expect extraordinary graphics or a long gameplay. You can choose different cars and tracks but again, they are pretty limited. As you win races, you can purchase more cars or upgrade the one that you have. During races, you have skulls scattered on the road which will slow you down (but not the AI) and lightning bolts which will give you a boost, so watch out!

Microsoft debuts on the iPhone with Seadragon

Submitted by Chris on December 15, 2008 - 6:36pm
Rating: 
3.35

Well, it seems that even Microsoft cannot resist the mesmerizing lure of the iPhone. Ok, fine. It was bound to happen - we're really happy to see Microsoft making software for the iPhone. On Sunday Microsoft graced the App Store with its first app - Seadragon. This gave the first hint of the possibility of a Mobile Office in the works for the iPhone. Seadragon allows you to view super high resolution images on your iPhone and the ability to zoom in to incredible detail. The app comes with some image samples, but you can log into your Photosynth account or pull more images from an RSS feed.

The app is superfast and really smooth! It's the kind of App that you show off to your friends and wait for the Wow. (Hey, didn't Microsoft have a Wow ad campaign? Too bad it wasn't the iPhone)

Seadragon is designed to provide next-generation visual experiences, regardless of the size of the screen, size of the file or speed of your network. It's already available on a number of platforms, including Microsoft Surface, and in Photosynth and Silverlight. Now we're bringing that same graphical smoothness right to the iPhone in your pocket.

The app is available for free in the App Store, check it out! To get a vague idea as to what deep zoom looks like, check out the series of pics. Welcome to the iPhone Microsoft!

 

Seadragon Seadragon Seadragon Seadragon Seadragon

 

App Review: Wordbook

Submitted by Chris on December 15, 2008 - 5:23pm
Rating: 
3.35

In my opinion Wordbook by TransCreative Soft is comprehensively, the most well designed dictionary application available for the iPhone. It has all the elements that you look for in a great iPhone app and is a truly outstanding reference tool. Wordbook is packed with features and you will really enjoy using it.

First let me say, that Wordbook has a well designed icon! From the onset, you can tell that the developers were very meticulous in the app's design. The UI is very elegant and straight forward. At the bottom of the app you will find the following links: Featured, Favorites, Search, Definition and More. The featured list has 7 words that you can set to change daily, every time the app is launched or when you shake the iPhone. It is a really cool way of building not only your vocabulary but your knowledge base in general. If you like a word and want to bookmark it for later use, add it to your favorites panel. If you didn't remember to do this, no worries, just browse through your history and retrieve it.

App Review: Zagat To Go '09

Submitted by Chris on December 12, 2008 - 1:02pm
Rating: 
2.5

Zagat is a popular ratings and reviews guide for restaurants, nightspots, hotels and attractions in hundreds of cities worldwide. Handmark Inc. has brought the 2009 catalog with over 40,000 entries to the iPhone with their app Zagat To Go '09. For our review, I had a chance to take it for a spin and tested in in 7 different cities across 3 different states. While it was very effective in helping to find hotels and restaurants, we were disappointed in the lack of features and the user interface.

The interface is clean but not very intuitive. The globe icon does not immediately indicate that it will bring up your location preferences. Also, if you navigate to the maps app from Zagat To Go '09, the app quits completely and does not remember where you left off. Features such as 'Browse Locations' should be brought down to the main page and not be integrated within search settings. When I wanted to browse for hotels in Jamaica for example, this was the path: Globe Icon>Browse Locations>International Locations> Jamaica>Negril (Checkmark)>Back Button-International Locations>Back Button- Browse Locations>Back Button-Change Location>Back Button-Zagat To Go>(Location is Updated)>Select Hotels>Select All> Then I could finally see some results! Enough said :( 

App Review: Newsstand

Submitted by Chris on December 11, 2008 - 10:55am
Rating: 
2.5

The iPhone is a great device to access your favorite RSS feeds on the go, and many developers currently offer different apps to achieve this. It is always a pleasure when doing reviews to find apps where the developers employ creative ways to make them unique. OMZ software, the creators of Newstand have done just this by using the concept of a simple RSS reader and wrapping it in a truly sophisticated user interface and packing it many features. 

Newstand has an easy-to-use and intuitive interface with lots of eye candy! What you'll love most about it is how quickly you can access all the various features. Simply tap the 'Unread' or 'Flagged' button at the top of the app and you can view articles from all your various feeds marked accordingly. You can quickly edit your feeds and arrange them in hierarchies within Newsstand.

Pastebud: Copy & Paste between Safari & Mail

Submitted by Chris on December 11, 2008 - 7:28am

As you probably know by now, Apple does not offer copy and paste for the iPhone - it just hasn't reached the top of their priority list of things to do! The developers of MagicPad have come up with the best implementation of the feature so far, however it is is limited to only the app itself due to SDK restrictions. Many developers are trying both legal and illegal means of circumventing these restrictions to bring this much desired feature to the iPhone.

Jed Schmidt, creator of Pastebud has found a way to legally implement copy and paste between Mobile Safari and Apple's built in Mail apps. The service comes in the form of a cleverly developed webapp using a combination of "javascript and bookmarks".