Author Archive
For a long time, I have had my eyes set on getting Articles, a gorgeous app that allows you to browse Wikipedia in a little more user friendly fashion on the iPhone (and iPad). For various reasons I've never gone ahead and done it but when they had a sale a while ago I couldn't resist.
Articles let's you as I said, browse articles on Wikipedia in a better user interface. Instead of the incredibly annoying mobile version of Wikipedia you get an app which is cleverly designed just as Safari is itself. This means that you can have multiple tabs of Wikipedia searches open at the same time something which is quite useful.
Searching is very easy and the results come back in a nice display. One major gripe I have though is that the useful table of contents isn't available in Articles. Personally I use this all the time to find out where to go in an article or if the article is worth reading. If this isn't there, much of the usefulness has been lost.
On a positive note it will easily share articles via mail as well as bookmark them to its own built-in bookmarking system. Changing between different languages could also be made simpler by only showing the languages an article is available in.
While the app is gorgeous there are a few major flaws to it that stop it from becoming a true wikipedia website replacement, which is sad because it looks so nice. However, if you want an app that displays wikipedia results slightly better than the website, go for it!
As every year, Apple has decided to have their 12 Days of Christmas from today and on. Make sure you download their app and check it every day for new free stuff (music, apps etc.).
First out today is Coldplay's live-EP, recorded live (no kidding!) during the iTunes festival in London this summer. Nobody but Apple knows what is going to be available tomorrow, but don't forget to open the app tomorrow and find out.
NOTE: This app is only available for European stores and as an addition this year, Canada. If you use the US iTunes Store, this app is not available for you.
I’ve never understood much of the problem with finding your car in a car park until I was visiting in the US a couple of weeks ago which was my first time having car while over there. Long story short, I now completely see how you can easily loose your car in the car park. Enter Parkbud, a gorgeous application that does two main things: Keep track of how long you have paid and where your car is.
Since I’m a sucker for a good UI, the app rates pretty highly from the start. However, setting the timer can be slightly confusing at first with a difference between time left and when the reminder alarm will go off. It is fully possible to have paid for 5 minutes and set the reminder to go off in 45 minutes. Not very good! There is also no simple way (that I have found) to quickly erase a time if you want to delete it.
Adding your car to the map is very simple and done via the touch of one of three little buttons. You can then easily get directions to the car from where you are using the built-in GPS. Should GPS not be enough for you, you can take a snapshot with the camera to remind yourself exactly how it looked where you parked (or perhaps what your car looks like if it is a rental car).
In the end, Parkbud is a nice application and worth the slight cost if you find yourself not remembering where you park now and then. Having the app on the phone is certainly nice, knowing that it is there when you need it.
A couple of days ago OmniFocus was updated to its latest version, adding support for amongst some other things, Siri. Not having an iPhone 4S myself, I can't judge how well it works, but the idea appeals to me a lot.
Being able to through Siri create a new to-do item, on the go, without having to touch my phone really makes Siri become more of my personal assistant.
All Siri-created to-do items are saved to your inbox just like any quick entry items would have been. You can then choose to file them under projects and contexts just like you would any other item.
Additionally, OmniFocus has fixed a few bugs and changed the way items are sorted in Forecast mode, displaying inbox items at the top followed by other due items.
As usual, this version of OmniFocus is available as a free update that can be downloaded from the
. If you don't have the app already, it sells for $19.99.
Truth to be told, I haven’t been a very active IM user on my iPhone or iPad. This is partly because the apps have been rather ugly and that it drains battery life a lot and fast. Plus, it just hasn’t been that useful. A while ago I found Verbs, an application that is just gorgeous and since I’m a sucker for beautiful apps, I downloaded it.
The interface is as said really beautiful. It takes the iOS style and uses it all the way but with a different color scheme which looks slick, modern and clean all around. There is really not much more to say about the Verbs UI design. Well done designers.
Functionality-wise, it supports a few types of IM networks, specifically Google Talk, AIM, MobileMe (now iCloud) and Facebook. If you are an MSN user or wants it to support Skype chat, you are out of luck. However, using either of the above networks, you get a nice app. You can easily select contacts from your buddy list, see their status and chat with them. Switching between multiple windows can be done by going to a window overview mode, or by simply swiping back and forth between the screens.
If you get the $0.99 version there are a few things that you will not get. These are available through an in-app purchase and enables Push Notifications, persistent connections (keeping you logged in for 7 days) and also saves battery life by routing accounts through one internet connection. If you use IM a lot, you definitely want to consider getting the Pro version for an additional $4.99, which I still think is an excellent value. Even with just the $0.99 version, you get an app which functions well and is gorgeous.
It is here. After a long time coming, Facebook has finally released their native iPad app which comes as a universal bundle. If you are not familiar with the terms, this means that the current iPhone app is now updated to allow support for iPad. Just check for updates in iTunes and version 4.0 will include the iPad app and the updated iPhone app in one. Although there is a lot that has changed in the iPhone app, I’m focusing on the iPad app today.
Interface
While using a browser and the normal Facebook version has been OK, the interface of the new iPad app far exceeds what you previously have been able to get using any official or third-party solution. They have clearly spent a considerable amount of thinking when designing the interface because it looks gorgeous and functions really well. Facebook has always put out great interfaces on their mobile apps at launch but then been far to slow to update the app afterwards. Glad to see they are not disappointing when it comes to the interface. We’ll just have to wait and see about the updates, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
It Lacks Features…
First thing’s first. There are some good things. It has become very easy to access your different pages and groups from a nice navigation menu that slides out when you swipe your finger across the screen. Additionally, accessing photos as well as games has become very easy, something Facebook themselves are touting with this app. Unfortunately, the app clearly lacks features! As an example there is no sharing from the iPad app, only commenting and liking. There are other small features here and there that makes the iPad app (and the iPhone app too since it looks and functions the same) just a dumbed down version (albeit good-looking) of the website. It is unfortunate that they have decided to leave just a little bit out, instead of adding it too. After all, we are talking features that Facebook are highlighting well on the main site.
Conclusion
Facebook has come out with a great app and there is no reason not to get it and play with it. It far exceeds any other option in terms of looks and apart from opening the Facebook site in your browser, it beats the other options in functionality. It would be great if they tried to match the features found in the iPad app and on the site, especially given how many use the iPad as their “main Facebooking device”.
When I last year penned the review for Gowalla 3.0 I really liked the changes and the considerable update to the interface. Back then, it felt like it was a major upgrade to the whole platform. Well, this time around they are going further at Gowalla, releasing both the 4.0 version of the app and their website itself and there are a lot of news.
Interface Update
This is an update that once again features a re-design of the entire app interface. With the shift that Gowalla is making to become more of an experience network, helping you to see and find new things in new cities, this was certainly necessary. As much as the interface is stylish and visually beautiful, they are making it much harder for me to just check in somewhere and use Gowalla as I have always used it: Sharing where I am if it is important across my social networks.
Guides
Gowalla has introduced city guides for a lot of cities in the world (don’t just think New York and San Francisco, yours is probably there). These guides basically contain a list of spots that they suggest that you go to. My guess is that this list is based, apart from the featured spots, on frequent check-ins by Gowalla users. The next time I go to visit a new city on vacation or have a few hours to spare when somewhere on business, I am sure to give Gowalla a chance to see how well it works to experience something new based on the spots that they suggest in the city guide and the already present lists.
Conclusion
I am torn. Part of me really likes the new Gowalla while the other part of me just don’t get it. I have a hard time with the fact that they have made it harder for me to check in to a spot, add a comment and share with friends on Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. Instead, the focus on their new stories, while good for the site in general, just takes too much away from me personally. It’s a free update and you should update regardless of what I (or you) think about it since it also contains bug fixes and general improvements as all updates do. If you don’t like the new version, there is always the option of switching to Foursquare instead.
It is always nice to be able to participate in online meeting from wherever you are on any decide that you are on. The GoToMeeting app allows you to attend a GoToMeeting meeting or a GoToWebinar webinar from your iPad or iPhone. The application allows you to join and participate in a meeting. You will be able to see what is being shared as well as the attendee list (if the presenter has made that available). A major disadvantage to the GoToMeeting app is that it doesn’t offer the ability to host a meeting directly from the app. Joining a meeting works perfectly, however running one is impossible. Part of this reasoning might come down to the fact that GoToMeeting is, unlike Acrobat Connect, geared towards sharing your screen and to the far extend your webcam. Neither of these have up until very recently made much sense on an iPad (screen sharing is just not possible). Now that Apple has added a camera to the iPad 2, I want to see this app updated to support it.
Conclusion
If you participate in a fair few number of GoToMeeting meetings I would definitely get this app. Having it adds the opportunity of not having to sit in front of your computer to participate in the meeting. The app however is nothing that should make you think about switching from another online meeting provider.
Today I felt that it was time for a game and to have some fun. Tiny Wings is one of these small games with a simple game play idea which gets very addictive. The game objective is very simple. You have a little bird (with wings so tiny that it cannot naturally fly) that you are going to get as far along the course as possible before the sun sets. What’s stopping you? The course is all full of hills that you must utilize in order to get the bird to fly.
What you do is utilize gravity and enable more gravity to get the bird to come down in just the right place to get the power from the half-oval hill down and up. Obviously for a game, objectives are added that makes it more interesting and challenging to play. Such ones can be reaching the clouds a certain number of times, or doing X amount of perfect hill slides. The game objectives will in turn give you a better nest, basically their way of saying a better score multiplier. It can therefore be not only fun but beneficial to try and reach the objective to upgrade as this makes it easier to get a higher score each time you play. Unfortunately there is no multiplayer mode available which is what I would definitely like to see. Being able to play against friends either on a local network or better yet, through game center and have their birds flying in the same game window would be an absolute killer feature.
Conclusion
It is very hard to put the fun of Tiny Wings into words. Given that it’s just one of these addictive games which keeps you just wanting to continue playing, it is well worth its low price in the app store. The graphics are very well made and makes for an enjoyable play.
Before I get in to this review, let me state that OmniFocus is available on the Mac, iPhone and iPad. Because of the different layouts in the iPhone and iPad client, I have chosen to review them separately. For a few years, I have been using Things as my todo list. Only recently, I have begun looking at a system which is slightly more powerful, offering more advanced sorting of tasks etc. OmniFocus lets me do this. Firstly, OmniFocus on the iPhone is very neatly designed using tall the common iPhone User Interface Elements that we are all so used to by now. They have quite successfully managed to cram (and I mean cram in a positive way) most of the features from the Mac app into the iPhone. As a result of this, the app features all projects, contexts and custom perspectives that you’ve set up. Additionally, you get a few extra features on the iPhone such as the forecast view and the nice Map view. You link a context to a pin on a map and you will be able to see, graphically, how far you are to this context where you can do your tasks.
Conclusion
Overall, OmniFocus for iPhone is a brilliant app if you require a feature-rich system that allows you to do a lot of managing with your actions. Naturally, the app shines when you are using it together with OmniFocus on the Mac (with which it syncs over the cloud for free) but can be used nicely by itself, maintaining the high-performance environment.
OmniFocus for iPhone
OmniFocus for iPad
