Reviews
The iPhone, iPod touch and iPad all make great music players. You can sync music to them from your computer as well as download music directly from the iTunes store. You can now even stream music from your iTunes collection via iCloud/iTunes Match. While this is all great for getting music into the devices and listening to it, there really isn't a built-in way of getting music out of the devices. This is where Song2Email comes in. While I certainly don't advocate stealing or sharing music illegally, there are times where you may want to get a song from your iDevice to another system and you don't have access your iTunes library.
Song2Email let's you email songs from your iDevice
Song2Email performs the basic task of letting you choose any of you songs and email them to any email address you want. You can choose one song or multiples songs and email them via WiFi or 3G (20 MB Limit). The App is Universal so it works on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. This is one of those Apps that has a simple function and it does it very well. I wish that there was more that I could go on and on about, but there isn't. It works!
You can get Song2Email for $0.99 here from the 
A week or two ago Google made everyone jump for joy when rumors surfaced that a Gmail App was close to being released for the iPhone just to let them down with a bug that made the App unusable from launch. They immediately pulled the App from the App store and have been reworking it to get rid of the bug. a couple of days ago they released the "fixed" version, fulfilling what we've all been asking for since the launch of the iPhone; push for Gmail. I have been using the App non stop with my Gmail account for two days now, and I am happy to report that they have done a pretty good job.
Functionality
The iOS Gmail App is very similar to the web version of Gmail so it will feel very similar to those of you who use the web version. Opening the App displays the first 20 messages in your inbox, with a "show more messages" button at the bottom to display more. New messages have bold text, while read messages are a light grey. Just like on the web version of Gmail, there are check boxes next to each message allowing the user to select multiple messages for different actions ( deleting, moving to a folder, etc.).
A left to right swipe, or a tap of the menu button displays familiar folders, filters, and menus. Any folders that you may have created under your Gmail web interface will appear within this menu. Drilling down into the folders and sorting your content is easy and intuitive with this App.
Searching your content is simple with a tap of the hourglass in the top right corner. This icon is directly to the left of the new mail icon in the right corner. One notable function of this App is the attachment of items to mail. Unlike the native mail App on both the iPhone and the iPad, to attach an item to a Gmail email you must click the paperclip icon within a message. This will allow you to email that item (photo, pdf etc.).
Push
If there is one thing that I wanted this App for over anything else, it is PUSH messages. I know that there has been a hack out there using enterprise server to get Push for Gmail on the iPhone, but this is truly an integrated, working package. The Push works really well. I did a few tests and messages seem to come through faster on my iPhone than they do on my web account. Push is the biggest plus side of this App in my opinion
Something I'd Like To See
If there is one thing that I really, really want to see, it's support for multiple accounts. I currently have three Gmail accounts, so I picked the one that I get the most incoming mail on to use with the Gmail App. Google Says that there are improvements and added features on the way, including multiple account support.
The Bottom Line
Besides the initial bug contained within the original release of the App, this is a great first offering. I really hope that they continue to build on this and offer multiple account support in the near future.
You can get Gmail for the iPhone and iPad from the iTunes store for free here:
Everyone knows how much I like learning Apps for my children. I'm constantly writing about, and recommending the best ones to you guys. Every now and then though I run across a children's App that has no real intellectual value, but is still good for the kids. Santa GPS is one of those Apps. This App is all about keeping the magic of Santa claus going with the kids, and having a good time. Of course, it does a little more than track Santa, which makes it my favorite among these Apps.
Track The Fat Guy
Santa GPS uses your location to tell you exactly how far away from the North Pole you are currently (this of course is where Santa is currently toiling away on all of those toys for the kids). Of course when Christmas eve arrives his location will change as he makes his rounds. To display where Santa is, the App has a little picture of Santa's workshop at the top of a world map on the tracking page. When he starts his trip, a little Santa "S" appears and moves around the map. This is always fun for the little ones to watch as Santa visits all of the little boys and girls around the world. On top of the tracker, there is count down clock to Christmas Day so the kids know exactly (down to the second) how long until Christmas.
Of course what's Santa without a wish list? Let your children type out their letters right within the App. When they're done, they can send them to Santa via email (Santa is up with the times you know)…
Keeping Up With the Latest Elf News
Want to keep tabs on what's going on at the Elf Workshop? Of course you do, and so will your kids. The Elf blog is a great way to keep up with all of the happenings at the Toy Shop.
Naughty or Nice?
This is a great little addition to the App, and for me really puts it over the top. A built in, naughty or nice meter. I put my twins in there, and every day they work towards moving that needle to the "nice" side. If they start acting up, I just get out the iPad and say "should I move towards the naughty side" and they straiten right up. Seriously, it's a fun little addition to the App, and something my kids like to see. It completes the whole experience.
Bottom Line
This is a really fun, really easy to use, well made App that the kids will love. If you have children that believe in Santa, you need this App.
Get Santa GPS for the iPad for $1.99 from the iTunes store Here:
Get Santa GPS for the iPad for $.99 from the iTunes store here:
Not too long ago I became fed up with the price change with a certain other movie service that shared the same color as today's featured App so I switched services (for my physical dvds) and started using Redbox. Immediately I went looking for a Redbox App because I didn't want to be one of the thousands (if not tens of thousands) of people that stand there staring at the box as they try to decide what they want to rent. I wanted to be able to browse, locate, and reserve my movies directly from my iPhone on the go. With Redbox for the iPhone I can do that.
Function
This App obviously is designed to aid users of their service so it isn't going to do much beyond that, but as long as it preforms all of the tasks to make renting movies from Redbox easier and more enjoyable, it has done its job. The first thing that I wanted to be able to do with this App is browse and search the different movies contained withing the boxes. As you can see from the image, the movies are broken down into popular categories to help you easily navigate to what you're looking for. Also included is a search option. Have a title in mind already? Go to the search bar and type the name in to instantly show that movie.
The second thing that I wanted to be able to do was read the plot, know the run time, and find out who was in the movie. I don't always want to know these things, but there are a lot of times that I do, Redbox has you covered. Do all of these things with ease as soon as you find the title you're looking for.
Third (and most importantly) I wanted to be able to find out which locations had the title that I was looking for. I don't want to drive to my favorite (and closest) location just to find out that the movie I want isn't in stock there. With Redbox for the iPhone you can not only see what locations have it, but you can also reserve it! That's awesome! No need to worry that someone else is going to get there and rent the latest Carebear before you can make it to the box (If you have little kids like me, you know this isn't a good situation). Redbox has you covered.
Bottom Line
This may seem like a one trick pony, but what it does, it does well. I really enjoy the Redbox service and this App makes that service that much better. My only gripe is that there isn't a native iPad App, but for something like this, the scaled up iPhone version works just fine.
You can get Redbox for the iPhone from the iTunes store for free here:
I've seen several weather Apps for iPad, but I have to say that I haven't seen many as beautiful and elegant as Aelios Weather. Aelios Weather has a simple approach. You have a metallic Swiss watch looking dial that covers a map of the world. You can pan and zoom to any location you want, tap the Location icon for weather of your current location or simply type in a search for a specific city. As you pan around the dial will auto lock onto the large cities in the area. Once you lock in on a location in a moment or two you'll see 24 hour forecast. Use your finger to turn the dial and you'll see the 7 day forecast including highs, lows, precipitation, and winds. Each icon has subtle animation that you don't even notice at first, but once you do, you'll find yourself starring at them for a few moments. I love the animated lightning/storm cloud. You also get the current time, date for the location you're viewing. Aelios also lets you choose your choice of weather provider. It defaults to AccuWeather.com.
If you're looking for a full-blown weather App with Radar maps, videos, etc. then this one is probably not for you. However, if you're looking for an elegant, visually appealing way of checking the current conditions as well as forecasts for just about any location in the world, then Aelios is your App. I'd love to see the ability to add a list of favorite locations or at least a list of recent searches.
You can get Aelios for $4.99 here from the
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If you're anything like me, you're busy. As busy as I am I don't want to spend my time searching through all sorts of sites looking for the latest news that interests me. Admittedly I really like the Zite iPad News Reader App on the iPad platform. I have been hoping for an iPhone version to read my content in both places but unfortunately they haven't launched the iPhone version yet. With no iPhone version, I started using News360 to keep up with the latest news and headlines.
Features You'll Love
News360 is a feature rich App that provides thousands of different content sources from which to pull its content. One of the biggest, and best features contained within News360 is the manner in which it figures out what you want to read. Sure, you have the option to manually select the content that you would like to see. News, Auto, technology etc., but the developers have come up with a much faster way to get deeper integration with what you really want to read about. You are presented with the option to connect to multiple sites where you already have accounts to let News360 search for the content that you prefer. The options are Facebook, Google+, Evernote, Twitter, and Google Reader. News 360 searches through each of these services to find exactly what you are interested in and provides like content. In a few seconds it does automatically what it would take literally hours for a user to do manually. It's a real time saver.
Another feature that I really like on News360 is the offline content feature. Save articles to read later even when you're offline. News360 saves the article to your (free) News360 account and to all of your devices with the App installed. This is great for when I don't have a signal, such as in an airplane, a subway, etc. Speaking of the News360 account, it allows you to sync your preferences and content selection across all of your platforms. This is a really nice feature. Sign up once, on one device to setup your content, then just sign in on your other devices to transfer your content to them. Very seamless, very easy.
Topics are broken down into sections, Gadgets, Software, Computers, etc. Under each section there are multiple stories presented for each topic. The topics are totally customizable by the user. For example I didn't see an "iPhone" topic after the initial automatic content loading so I added my own. If there is one area where News360 falls behind it is in this category. I searched for "iPhone Apps" but got a "no results found" message in return. Also under my user generated iPhone category there seems to be less stories than in the other automatically generated sections. This I found to be a little limiting because these are topics that I am quite interested in.
The bottom line
For all around information on most any subject, News360 does a great job. It allows you to sync and read the same content no matter what mobile platform you are on, and it is user customizable. To me this makes News360 a staple in my News Folder on both my iPad and iPhone.
You can get News360 for the iPhone from the iTunes store for free here:
You can get News360 for teh iPad from the iTunes store for free here:
There have been a few reports going around lately about people having problems with battery life after upgrading to iOS 5 or to the new iPhone 4s. While I haven't had any real issues myself with the iPhone 4s, it's great to know whether or not if an App has run a muck and is chewing up system resources. One sign of this is if your iPhone or other iDevice is all of a sudden warm to the touch. This usually means that the processor is working overtime. When that happens you can try things like quitting some of the Apps running in the background or a simple reboot of the device. However, I would like to do more than just solve this problem temporarily, I'd like to know which app in particular is causing the problem?
System Activity Monitor shows what's going on in real-time
This App is similar to the Mac OS Activity Monitor in that it shows you in real time which apps or processes are running and more importantly which ones are running with high amounts of processor time. If you're not playing a game or doing something else that would task the processor then your device should be running with the majority of the processor count in "idle." If it's not, you can quickly identify which App or process is causing a problem.
I highly recommend System Activity Monitor as a troubleshooting tool!
You can get System Activity Monitor for $0.99 here from the
The alphabet is the core of the English language. Reading and writing start with knowing each and every letter, how they sound, and the words that they're associated with. This is why it is so important to teach the alphabet to our children at an early age. Any App that helps do that, and keeps my 5 year old twins interested at the same time catches my attention. AlpaTots does just that. With the interactive activities attached to each letter, and the alphabet sing along, this is a great App to help in the learning process.
Keep It Interesting
Keeping a child's attention is one of the hardest things to do. My children (they're 5 years old) have the attention span of a gnat. They don't stay tuned in to any one thing very long. Even TV doesn't put them in a trance like it does some other children. AlphaTots manages to keep their attention for a long period of time; sometimes as long as an hour. This may not sound like a big deal, but it is an accomplishment for my children believe me. The way this App does it is by offering so many different "things to do" within it. Each letter has an activity attached to it. This means that there are 26 different "things" for my children to do which keeps them entertained. Each activity is associated with the particular word that they chose to represent that letter. For example, U is represented by the word "unlock". For this they show a chest and tell the children to unlock the chest. To do this they have to line up the shapes in three separate wheels (similar to a slot machine). This keeps them doing something fun, and also helps with shape identification and matching! This isn't a new concept within children's learning Apps, but the simplicity and effectiveness is second to none.
The ease of use is found throughout the App. The letters are easy to navigate to from the home screen. Advancing to the next letter after completing the activity is intuitive and simple, and there are words of praise throughout the entire process.
The Alphabet Song
When I was a little kid, no one thing helped me learn my letters more than the alphabet song, as I'm sure it has helped millions of others. Knowing this, AlphaTots included the alphabet song into the App. Tapping on the music notes in the lower right hand corner of the screen brings up a new screen that not only plays the alphabet song, but also displays the letters as it sings it to your child. My children can sing the song word for word, but they still enjoy this feature of the App and play the song at least once every time they are using the App.
The Bottom Line
You can't go wrong with a children's App that not only teaches your child the alphabet, but helps them enjoy the learning process while they're doing it. This App will help your child learn their ABC's very, very quickly.
You can get AlphaTots for the iPad from the iTunes store for $1.99 here:
You can get AlphaTots for the iPhone from the iTunes store for $.99 here:
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's pretty easy to find Twitter and Facebook integration just about everywhere. iOS 5 even has Twitter integration built-in and I don't think there's a social media friendly App out there that can't post to both of these main stream social networks. However, there's a fairly big new kid on the block called Google+. Google+ started out as kind of a private/public beta. You could only get in if someone that was already in invited you. Now it's open to the public and its numbers are rising. I have almost as many Google+ followers (over 13,000) as I have Twitter followers and that's pretty impressive since the site has only been open to the public for a short time. With so many people now on Google+ I want to be able to post status updates to all 3 networks. Sadly there are very few options for going straight to Google+
iStatus+ does all three
There is an App that can post status updates to all three social networks at the same time. iStatus+ has a simple interface that allows you to log in to all three networks (and stay logged in). Once you log in you can pick and choose which of the networks to post to or do all three at once. It has native Google+ support in that it even brings up your Circles to choose from before you post.
This is GREAT, but there is one major thing missing. While it's great to be able to post to all three at the same time, I'd also like to be able to post the same photo to all three at once. iStatus+ currently only does text. There's no photo posting to any of the networks from this App. Granted it would be a little more challenging to post photos to Facebook and Google+ because you'd have to have Album support, but it can't be impossible. The only other thing I'd like to see is the ability to post a status update to a Facebook Page. Currently the App can only post to your Wall. It would also be great to have a native iPad version.
Other than that it works as advertised and is the first App that I've seen that can do all three networks.
You can get iStatus+ for $0.99 here from the
