Tag Archives: review
TapScanner – iPhone App Review
TapScanner ($1.99) Version – 1.0 REVIEW – “Check prices and share products with your friends with TapScanner!” If you’re a regular at AppShouter you’ve probably noticed that I’ve already reviewed several bar scanning apps in the past. So what, you might ask, is different about TapScanner? Well I’m here to tell you that it’s all about the networking! While RedLaser has already established itself as a leader in this category of apps, TapScanner is attempting to take that winning formula and add both a new interface and an easy way to interact with some popular social networks! One of the things that I was impressed with is that the interface of this app is extremely polished for a newly released app. The graphics are all simple and yet at the same time very smooth looking. When you open this app up for the first time you will be asked to register with the TapBase website. Some may see this as an intrusion of privacy but what it’s for is the social aspect of the app, and all they ask is for an email address and password.
Full StoryDrivers Ed – iPhone App Review
Drivers Ed (Free) Version 2.2 REVIEW – “Study for your driving test, or simply brush up on the rules of the road!” Being prepared for that first driving test can be stressful but Drivers Ed gives you access to all the important information that you need to know. This app includes over 300 questions that you are likely to encounter and they cover all the information that all drivers need to know.
Full StoryArtStudio – iPhone App Review
ArtStudio ($3.99) Version – 1.1 REVIEW – “An app that will wet the appetite of any budding artist!” I have downloaded many “paint-like” apps in the past. Some of them have been pretty fun, but very few if any have managed to be easy enough to use for actual artwork. ArtStudio is an app that not only is easy to use, but has a depth that will satisfy the appetite of even the most particular artists! Some of the artwork that has already been created with this app is quite remarkable, and at the same time the interface itself is simple enough for children to use! When you open the app the first thing you’ll see is a quick overview of what you’ll find in the app. This screen only shows up the first time you open the app and once you get past it you’ll be presented with a blank canvas! The interface is amazingly intuitive. If you touch in the upper left corner the app will perform an “undo” and if you touch the upper right corner it will “redo.” If the menu bar is hidden touching the arrow in the lower right corner will open the menu back up on the bottom of the screen. The menu itself is extremely simple. There are 7 different options that include everything from different “brush” styles to image effects and even a “lesson” area where you can actually learn to draw through an interactive tutorial! The truly great thing is that while it is easy to touch these menu buttons and access your different “brushes,” colors and even “layers” if you touch and hold on any of those buttons it will bring up an advanced menu with all kinds of customizations! I never thought I’d see the day that I was using my iPhone to create and manage “layers” and even create transparency! The brush customization is equally amazing. It not only allows you to control the size of your brush strokes, but the type, shape, fade in and out and even the opacity of them! Also included in this menu is an easy to use “smudge” brush to blend colors together! With the depth of tools available in this app wouldn’t it be great to be able to touch up your photos without transferring them to your desktop? Well you can because this app includes quick and easy import and export features. You can even send out pictures directly via email if you like! Even if you’re not an amazing artist, it’s easy to improve your photos with the built in effects such as “Blur,” “Sharpen,” “Black White,” and even “Emboss”! With all the great features and the smooth integration of this app it really is hard to find downfalls. One thing I did notice though is that there is no way I can see of drawing with shapes like in a lot of other paint programs. If you want to draw a circle, or a rectangle you’re just on your own with this app. With that said, most serious artists probably would not use those tools very much anyway. More likely they would be using the more advanced brush strokes and the blur capability to shape their drawings All things considered this app is probably the best art/photo related app that I have used on my iPhone. The developer has done an excellent job of adding lots of in depth features and customization, while at the same time still making it simple enough for anyone to use. Whether you are a serious student of art, or you just want a good tool to touch up your photos with, I would highly recommend ArtStudio. So what are you waiting for? Grab it for just $3.99 in the App Store today! - David H
Full StoryThe Extraordinaries – iPhone App Review
The Extraordinaries (Free) Version 3.1.1 REVIEW – “Now you can volunteer anytime anywhere, even if you only have a few minutes!” There is little doubt that we are all busy and sometimes it is hard to make that extra effort to help out in our communities. But the great thing about The Extraordinaries is that volunteering is now right on your iPhone, and you can help out your community in a matter of minutes.
Full StorySpanish Armada – iPhone App Review
Spanish Armada ($1.99) Version –1.1 REVIEW – “A great old classic brought to life!” I remember when I was little playing battleship with my brothers and sisters. The game has been a classic board game for decades. It was even more exciting when they released electronic games that had sound effects and that kept track of hits and misses! Well today I’m happy to be giving away a promo code for a battleship-like game called Spanish Armada by Orient Maple! So stick around for the end of this review where I’ll be giving you information on how you can enter to win! If you’ve never played a game like this before the basic concept is that each player hides 5 ships somewhere on their grid? Once both players have hidden all their ships you then take turns selecting squares on your opponents grid to attack! This game breaks up the action with a couple of different ways to play as well. In the options menu you’ll find the option to select “Volley Shot” or “Salvo Shot” mode. In volley shot you take turns shooting until you miss. What this means is if you strike on of your opponents ships then you get to go again until you miss! While on the other hand, salvo shot gives each player the same amount of shots that they have ships left.
Full StoryMixologist – iPhone App Review
Mixologist ($.99) Version 2.0.2 REVIEW – “Get recipes to thousands of drinks so you’ll never go thirsty again!” We’ve all been at that point where we just can’t think of what to order so we rely on our staples, the same drinks we always stick to because we know how to order them. Mixologist changes this problem, by simply adding the types of ingredients you want to use, you can have the app create amazing drink ideas that you will love
Full StoryiOverTheNet – iPhone App Review
iOverTheNet ($1.99) Version – 1.1.1 REVIEW – “Fast paced volleyball action on your mobile device!” There are tons of apps available in Apple’s App Store, but unfortunately it’s not always that easy to find a game that feels new and is a lot of fun, but this game does just that! While there have been lots of sports games in the App Store, there have been very few volleyball games. This game takes you right into the action as you travel the world competing in beach volleyball! The game loads quickly and takes you to a main menu screen. The background music here is descent, typical upbeat sports music. It does get a little old after a while, but is also easy to turn off by either putting your device on vibrate or by turning it off in the “Setup” menu. There are a couple of other options available here like the ability to change the camera view and your player name. One thing that I think a lot of people will notice quickly is that there is only one difficulty setting. The reason that I think people will notice it is that this game is very difficult when you first start playing it. I would highly recommend that everyone check out the tutorial video that is available because it does a good job of visually illustrating how the controls work. Without the video it is definitely not easy to figure out. Once you are ready to get started there are two modes of play. “Single Game,” and “World Tour.” In the single game mode you get to choose a city to play in and your opponent, while in the world tour you will play several games, moving from place to place and playing different opponents. You’ll notice that there are quite a few teams to choose from and even more destinations to play at.
Full StoryCryptoPix – iPhone App Review
CryptoPix ($0.99) Version – 1.0 REVIEW – “Have fun sending cool messages to your friends!” I love cryptograms and so when I saw this app I knew it was one that I needed to try out! CryptoPix is an app that will take any text that you type and create a cryptogram from it. What is a cryptogram? A cryptogram is a series of pictures, math references and letters that spell out a phrase. Sometimes you have to think out of the box to figure out what they’re saying though! Whether you’re wanting to send a cheesy love message, or just funny messages to friends this app can be a lot of fun! I’ll say this up front, while you are able to text these messages directly to friends, the pictures will not show up in the actual text message. Instead it will send them a link to go to where they will find their message! This is just fine if the person you are sending them to has a smartphone and can check it out right there, but a lot of people just have regular cell phones so this won’t do them any good unless they’re sitting in front of a computer. With that said this app is a lot of fun, and you can also choose to send the messages just to their email! When you open up CryptoPix the main screen has a text box at the top where you will type the message you want to send. If you’re not very creative they’ve also supplied some “Sample Messages” to choose from using a select box below the message box.
Full StoryiGovernment – iPhone App Review
iGovernment ($1.99) Version – 1.0 REVIEW – “A great way to keep your eye on what big brother is up to!” Today I’m proud to be bringing you an app that will allow you to keep up with what’s going on in all aspects of the US government! iGovernment gives you access to information via RSS feeds on all kinds of things from breaking news to individual areas of government such as the courts, defense and the treasury. If you’re at all politically minded be sure to stick around and check the end of this review to see how you can have a chance to win a free copy of this app! When you open up iGovernment you’ll start out on the “News” page the first time. This page will have some general headlines and breaking news about what’s going on currently. Touching any of the stories will take you to a full screen view of that story with a simple menu at the top of the screen. You can scroll through the story and read it or you can quickly and easily skip to another story using the arrows in the menu at the top, open the story on its full page in Safari or send a link to it out on Twitter! The browser interface is very smooth and works well. If there are links in the post that you are viewing, touching them will open them up from within the app instead of opening Safari, which is nice. Another great thing is that if you click any links within the document it will load the mobile version of the site if one is available. This helps the pages to load much more quickly than if you were viewing the full website, and makes the look and feel of the app much cleaner! At the bottom of the screen you’ll notice a menu with several different options. The ones that will start here by default are “Pictuers,” “Videos,” and “Search.” These default buttons can be switched out with any of the other categories that you will find when you click on the “More” option in the bottom right corner. Here you’ll find pages dedicated to the White House, Congress, the Courts, Defense, and a whole host of other areas in government! In the upper right corner of the “More” screen is an “Edit” button. Touching this button will bring up a page full of different main pages that you have to choose from. From this screen you can then touch and drag any four icons that you want into the default menu bar at the bottom of the screen! Is health care of particular interest to you? How about the Treasury or Energy? Whatever your interest may be it is simple to put them just one click away with this app! Probably my favorite feature, although I did like the bulk and quality of the stories available, is the video that comes in this app. The videos are mostly from Youtube but are so well integrated into the app that you would never even notice it. It’s the things like this that really make this app feel like a premium app, it just works! Now I’m sure that a lot of people have skimmed through to get to the part where I mention getting this great app for free, am I right? Well if this is an app that interests you then all you have to do is two things to enter! (1) Follow me on Twitter at Twitter.com/iHayward. This is to make it easier for me to contact the winners when the contest is over. (2) The second thing is that you need to tweet the following message, “@iHayward Win a free iGovernment app for iPhone and iPod Touch and experience the easiest way to keep up on the issues!-“. That’s it! I will go through all the entries and select the winners next week, Thursday the 11 th . In the mean time feel free to read through the review and comment with any questions that you might have! - David H.
Full StoryGibson Learn & Master Guitar Application – iPhone App Review
Gibson Learn & Master Guitar Application (Free) Version – 1.1 REVIEW – “An awesome free app for the budding musician in you!” I’ve reviewed several applications in the past that have different tools for musicians. While every once in a while you find a diamond in the rough, a lot of the free ones just don’t measure up. Well if you’ve been waiting for a high quality free app with features such as a digital tuner and chord reference chart then look no further! This app sponsored by Gibson and Legacy Learning Systems is both free and extremely useful! The app is fairly basic, but is just as beautiful as it is useful. The interface is full of classic Gibson decorative work. When you open it up it starts out on the “Tuner” screen. The tuner is probably the best feature of this app. By default it is set up as a chromatic tuner, meaning you can tune to any note that you wish. If you’d like to be able to tune an instrument quickly to a specific tuning there are several other options that you can choose between by touching the “Mode” button in the lower left corner. Along the bottom of the screen you’ll notice a menu with several buttons to take you to the other areas of this app. The next option is the “Metronome” button. The metronome is extremely easy to use. It has a “Start” button, a wheel that you scroll to set the speed, an option to turn the sound on and off and a button to change the time signature that it is in. The metronome is quite accurate and useful because it not only gives audible cues but clear visual ones as well! The next option in the menu is the “Chords” screen. This screen will give you a quick list of how to play a bunch of different chords. If you are a beginner you will really appreciate a quick access chart like this, but if you are not you probably won’t find any chords that you haven’t played before. Unfortunately there is not a way to see chord forms in different positions on the neck. With that said the interface is simple and the visual representation is nice. Of the rest of the features in this app, my favorite was the “Lessons” screen. This screen will give you quick access to some free tips. Some of the tips are aimed more at beginners while others will show you how to do more advanced techniques to help you find that sound you are looking for! There is also an ad at the top of this screen that will take you to the Legacy Learning Systems website for learning and mastering guitar. The system is a well known one, and if you enjoy some of the lessons/samples that you get for free in this app then it may be worth it for you in the long run! To sum it all up, while this is obviously a shameless plug for Gibson and also for Legacy Learning Systems, it offers some great tools that are hard to find elsewhere for free! Trust me, I have tried quite a few “free” tuning apps and found that most of them worked very poorly/not at all. If nothing else this app is worth it just for that functionality alone! With that said, whether you are a novice or an expert guitarist this is one free app that you really shouldn’t pass up. So what are you waiting for? Check it out in the App Store today! - David H
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