Reviews
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.
I started using CrashPlan as my cloud backup service in January of this year. I'm a bit of a backup freak. I have multiple backups including Time Machine, clones and lastly cloud backup for disaster protection. I always felt that a backup located in the same place as the computer offers no protection in the event of a disaster such as flood, fire, theft, etc. I went with the unlimited Family Plan and have multiple computers backed up to the service. While CrashPlan has always offered the ability to access your backed up files via their website, now they've introduced Universal iOS Apps that allow you to access your backed up data from anywhere you are from your iDevice.
Complete Access To ANY of your Files from your iDevice
Since all of my computers are being backed up to CrashPlan, this App means that I have access to ALL of my files now from my iPhone or iPad. If there is a document that I left on my computer (and it's been backed up to CrashPlan), I can access that document, view it on my iPad (if it's in a compatible format) or simply email it to someone all from within the App. CrashPlan takes advantage of the "Open In' command to say open a RAW file in an App like Photogene or open an Excel file in Numbers. Image files like JPGs can be viewed right in the App. Once a file is downloaded into the App it remains local and available offline until you remove it.
It works great! My only complaint is that there is no preview to the image files BEFORE you download them. In my case, say I have a folder of 100 JPGs and I want a particular one, they will be listed by name, but I'll have no way of know which one is which unless I know the names. This means tapping on and downloading each one until I find the one I want. Otherwise, this App more than meets my expectations and it was a pleasant surprise to see it released.
You can get CrashPlan for FREE here from the
While it's pretty easy to look at a nutrition label on a food package, you not only have to know what you're looking at but you also have no way of knowing which one is better for you unless you manually compare the two. Fooducate Plus aims to make this process as easy as scanning a UPC label. Instead of having to decipher those crazy ingredients Fooducate Plus gives you a simple letter grade. The lower the grade the worse the product is for you. This is cool, but what makes this feature really sing is the ability to scan two products and have it compare them for you. This way you'll know at a glance which one to keep and which one to put back on the shelf. Even if you don't have a second choice in hand, Fooducate Plus can recommend alternatives right in the App. No further scanning necessary. There's even a social aspect to it that allows you to "Like" or "Don't Like" a particular item. The likes for a particular product are displayed as well.
I can't really find anything wrong with this product functionally. I love the fact that you get a nice box shot of the product, but I would like to see the text in a slightly larger point size. Other than that, I give this App two thumbs up.
You can get Fooducate Plus (ad free) for $3.99 here from the
You can get Foodcate for Free here from the
Special thanks goes out to my buddy Dave Marra for this App suggestion!
I travel for a living and many times I get to see some really cool places and scenery. While I often share photos online and via social media sites, it's great sometimes to send someone a physical postcard. As a photographer though I like to send my own photos and not the ones off the rack. I've reviewed Apps in the past that let you do this from your iPhone, but this new one adds a few tricks. Postcard on the Run let's you snap a photo (or choose an existing one) with your iDevice, compose a message, choose a contact and then pay a small fee (postage and printing) to have the card sent directly to your contact's physical address. That's what they all do! However, I like a few things that Postcard on the Run does that the others don't do. First off it lets you sign the card with your finger or stylus which is a nice touch. Beyond that you can change the font and color of the text in your message. Lots of formatting options. Lastly the thing that intrigues me the most is the ability to include a small map of where you are at the time you compose the card. I love Apps that can use Location Services for stuff like this and this is really a nice touch.
How does it work?
After you build your card in the App, you can then pay by credit card the one time charge to print and mail that card. I did a test and mine came to $1.49. I like that they don't make you buy a quantity of stamps/cards up front. You pay as you go. My test card came back and while the printing was decent, the image was a little dark. This is not uncommon with digital prints, so you may want to adjust your images to be about 5% brighter before you put them in the App. My only other complaint is that while the geotag feature is cool, you can't use it after the fact. For example, my test was with an image from Russia. However, I was at home when I did the test. The map in the app indicated my current location at home and not the one in the photo. From what I understand is that developers can't access the geotag info a photo after the fact and while this may be true, it would be nice to have to option of specifying where the photo was taken in the absence of current location info. A simple drop a pin on a map would be better than your current location or nothing at all. Otherwise, Postcard on the Run is a great way to send real postcards from your iDevice.
You can get Postcard on the Run for free here from the
I'm a TV fan. I have quite a few shows that I like to keep up with, so many that I don't have time to sit down and watch them all . Until now, I have relied on my Slingbox and home DVR to keep up with all of my favorite shows. Now, with the recent update to the NBC iPad App I can watch FULL episodes whenever I want!
The Basics
From a major corporation like NBC, you expect a quality App. I expect to have a schedule to see all of the upcoming shows and their times. NBC gives you 7 days worth of show times in the schedule in an easy to read and understand format. You would also expect quality show descriptions from an App of this caliber. NBC has you covered with descriptions, episode guides, video clips, and photos of EVERY show.
Full Episodes!
With the most recent update to the NBC App, you now can view not only video clips for your favorite shows, but FULL episodes for every show on the App. This is a really nice feature that has been a long time coming. On the main splash page of the App you are presented with the most popular Full Episodes of the last few days. Full episodes for specific shows are accessed by accessing that particular show's page under the "Shows" button at the top of the screen. The shows load quickly and playback is smooth without jumpiness or hesitation. Overall, the Full Episode feature is a quality experience.
The Bottom Line
This App is perfect for anyone that loves programming from NBC but doesn't have time to sit and watch all of their favorite shows when they actually air.
You can get NBC for your iPad for FREE from the iTunes store here:
Recently I reviewed a new business card reader by Readdle that uses OCR to translate the picture of the business card that you take to text. OCR is not perfect and therefore will usually require some manual checking, verifying and corrections. These corrections are made by you, a human. What if you could hand a stack of business cards to your Administrative Assistent and have him/her enter them for you? If you've got an Admin, then you probably can. For the rest of us it's up to us to get our Contacts entered on our own. One of my readers suggested that I take a look at CardMunch, so I did.
CardMunch uses humans 
The big difference between CardMunch and all the other Business Card Reader Apps is that when you take the picture of the business card with CardMunch, it uploads to a LinkedIn powered service that employs real human beings to transcribe the business card, proof read it and then send it back down to your iDevice with a push notification to let you know it's done. Best of all it's FREE! Wow! Once you upload the photo of the card via the App it can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes on average to get the transcribed card back. However, in every one that I've tried to date they have come back 100% correct requiring no further editing on my part. You are required to have a free LinkedIn account to use the App. Since the cards are being transcribed by humans it doesn't matter how complex the card is in terms of hard to read graphic backgrounds that would confuse the OCR based solutions. Once you get the transcribed card back down into the App you can then choose to add it to your iOS Contacts or just keep it in the app. Bonus Tip: When you turn your device to landscape orientation it gives you a cover flow style view of all your scanned cards. Cool!
Sounds great! What's the downside?
While this is very magical and seems perfect, there is one bit of concern and that is that you are submitting your business cards/contacts to a 3rd party. This may be a concern to those who have Privacy issues in general.
You can get CardMunch for Free here from the
Here in Cincinnati, it's hard to be a NFL fan… Really hard… But we do the best we can to support our Bengals. Even as hard as the Bengals make it, I still like to follow what's going on around the NFL, particularly our division. Thanks to the NFL, we have NFL '11 for the iPhone and iPad to handle all of our Professional football needs. Like any App developed by a major entity (think Facebook, MLB, Twitter, etc.) expectations were high for me when I downloaded NFL '11 and it didn't disappoint.
Tons of Features Packed into One App
I don't know about you, but the first thing that I want to see when I fire up any sports App is the current score for my preset favorite team. As much as I hate to talk about what I don't like in an App almost first in the review, there is only ONE thing that I don't like so I hope you'll forgive me .
I'd really like to see the ability to have more than one favorite team (especially on the iPad). I have a few teams that I follow, so it would be a nice inclusion. Okay, done with what I don't like, on to what I DO like, which is everything else! The ability to set your favorite team is there, and when you launch the App that team's current score and live game activity (if a game is being played) shows up immediately.
Beyond your favorite teams, there is a scores section that shows the scores for the rest of the NFL. Tapping the game time to the right of any game brings up one of my favorite parts of the App, the alerts box. Inside of this box you can tell the App to alert you when the game Starts, there is a scoring play, highlights happen, when the quarter is over and what the score is for that quarter, or when the game is over and what the final score is. All of these alerts are sent via Push so you never miss an important event in your selected game!
Of course like you would expect there is a news section showing you not only the entire league news, but also an option to quickly see just your favorite Team's news. There are lots of times when you want to quickly see what's happening with your favorite team, this makes it easy!
Personally, I don't get into Fantasy football. My brother (and I think half of the rest of the US) however really gets into it. NFL '11 has you covered. At the bottom, one of the main tabs is Fantasy 2011. From here you can log in to your fantasy league and… Do whatever it is that you do in Fantasy football.
Not to be forgotten there are options to see the schedule for the rest of the year for all of the teams, highlights, video clips, and photos from that week, buy tickets, shop at the NFL shop, and visit the about section for the App.
Keep Up With All of the Scores and More
If you are an avid football fanatic, or just the casual fan, get NFL '11 to help you easily keep up with your favorite teams and the rest of the league on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
Get NFL '11 for the iPhone from the iTunes store for Free here:
Get NFL' 11 for the iPad from the iTunes store for Free here:
Just last month my Twins went to their first day of kindergarten. For the last two years they went to preschool 3 days a week (which they loved) but I don't think they were quite prepared for school "every day". My daughter (who is quite opinionated to say it kindly) announced after her second day that she was tired of going every day and that she was just going to go three days a week like last year. I chuckled and told her that she should probably get used to it because she has about 16 more years of school before she's done. Since my first day with my iPad I have tried to find Apps that not only keep my children's attention, but also help prepare them for school. Anything that can give them an advantage, or edge in the learning department, I downloaded. Not too long ago I was presented with Measurement HD for the iPad. Like any App to help my kids, I ran through all of the features myself to see if it was a good quality App or something that was going to just confuse them in the long run. I was delighted with what I found. This App not only teaches measurement in the form of length, but also volume, time, months, and scale! And it does it in a way that really keeps their attention. If you have a child in the Kindergarten or 1st grade range, this is a must have App.
Five Sections
As you can see, there are five sections to chose from with really good graphics to entice the kids. Crazy Clock, Scale Tale, Fill Me Up, Long and Short, and Action Month. Each has it's own set of graphics, and lesson to learn, and each is just as good as all of the others at teaching that lesson.
Long & Short
I'm going to start with this section because it's right where my twins went to first. I'm not sure what drew them to this section first, but there was no doubt which one they wanted to play. Long and Short the child is given a choice of two pictures. The pictures are of items that they are familiar with; Fish, trains, pencils, etc. They are asked to chose which is the longest or shortest. This question comes not only in text form but audibly as well. When the child chooses correctly the pictures is sprinkled with what I would describe as golden sparkles indicating that they chose correctly. A new set of pictures is then placed on the screen and the process starts over again.
Crazy Clock
Crazy Clock, is a pretty fun game, and a really good way for children to learn their time on a "traditional" analog clock. The children are presented with a statement such as the one shown. "I go to playschool at 8 in the morning" They are then asked to move the minute hand until the time is correct. As you can see the "8" is circled to help the children figure out which number they should be on. The clock works just like a real analog clock. As you move the minute hands the hour hand moves. They don't move independently of themselves. This means that the child has to spin the minute hand around past the 12, 2 times to get the correct time. When they do, a loud bell and a congratulations message are heard. This particular game has helped my twins learn their time on an analog clock in about 2 months.
Scale Tale
Scale Tale incorporates a really hungry alien holding two food items in his/her hand. The children are presented with a question as in the other games. In this case, which item is heavier? If the child chooses correctly, the alien eats the food and makes a "yum" sound. It's a great way to help children understand scale with visual support.
Fill Me Up
What I really like about Fill Me Up is that it's a little more interactive than the other games. First the child has to drag the liquid to the containers to "fill them up". In the example above it allowed me to drag three glasses of water to the large jug, and two to the smaller jug. Once that was completed, it then asked me which jug held more water. This game is a really, really good exercise for children to grasp volume. I really think that is has helped my children with the concept.
Action Month
Last but not least is Action Month. This particular game asks the child to drag the letters to their correct place in the name of the month. There is an outline of the month to help the child place the letters correctly. Once all of the letters are placed correctly the name of the month is said, and a little helpful saying about the month is said aloud to help the child remember.
Great Learning Tool
As with all of the Apps that have come from PunFlay, this App is a wonderful learning tool that really helps your toddler/young child's developmental skills. I have seen the effect that it has had on my two 5 year old's in just the short amount of time that they have been using it and it's remarkable.
You can get Measurement HD for the iPad from the iTunes store for $1.99 here:
When Adobe released the Creative Suite 5.5 updates Photoshop remained at CS 5. However, it did get one new capability in a free update and that was the ability to allow other Apps to remote control Photoshop. These Apps can be on iOS Devices, other mobile devices or even other Apps on your computer. Don't worry, this feature has to be enabled and it's password protected. Also the user has to be on the same WiFi/network as you. With that said, my buddy Brian Maffit (After Effects Guru) has helped develop this new App that allows you to use the camera on your iDevice and send the image wirelessly directly to Photoshop CS 5.
How does it work
After setting up Photoshop to be a server (a simple process) and putting your iDevice on the same network, you fire up the Acquire for Photoshop App on your iPhone, 4th gen iPod touch or iPad 2 and snap a photo with the App. If you like the photo you can send it directly to Photoshop and it will open in Photoshop right before your eyes. The image comes over at full resolution and pretty instantly. Once in Photoshop you can do with it whatever you like. The big plus for me is that it can also send over screen shots taken with your iDevice. Since every review I do here has a screen shot, it makes it very easy to get them from my devices over to Photoshop to include in the review. It's also important to me that the photos are still saved on the camera roll of the device too.
See it in action here:
The Bottom Line
This is a good use of Photoshop's new open/remote controllable architecture. My only small grip is that this isn't a Universal App. Yes, it works on the iPad 2, but I'd like to see it full size on the iPad without screen doubling. Otherwise it rocks!
You can get Acquire for Photoshop for $1.99 here from the
Most anyone that follows us on here knows that Terry and I are both avid photographers. We both take photographs for fun and professionally, so any time that a quality photographic App comes along we're all over it. When I heard last week that Kelby Media Group (the guys behind NAPP, Photoshop User TV, etc.) had an App dedicated to learning lighting coming out I knew that it would be something I was interested in. I expected it to be a quality App just because I know the quality of all of their other products, but I was absolutely blown away by the time and effort put into making every detail of this magazine amazing.
It's All In The Details
So what makes this digital magazine do different from other digital magazines offered on the iPad? The details. On the first "From The Editor" column Scott Kelby (the editor) talks about how he sat down with his team and said that this was going to be different from any other digital magazine. He wanted it to look and FEEL like a real magazine. He even goes on to say " If we have to teach people how to actually read it, we've failed". They excelled. Light it Digital Magazine really does feel like a real magazine. The pages are turned just like they would be on a real magazine. Zooming in to make the text larger is as simple as double tapping or pinching to zoom. EVERY portion of the magazine works in both horizontal and vertical orientation. Video plays smoothly and is great in quality. I especially like the table of contents and the ability to tap any place in the magazine to jump directly to that page. Photographs preform just like you would expect. you can double tap them to snap to full screen or you can simply pinch to zoom just as you do the text. The magazine really "gets out of the way" so you can enjoy the content.
The Content
So what good is all of this seamless wonderful design without quality content? The guys over at Kelby didn't fail to deliver (Do they ever?). There are multiple articles from tons of great names in the industry. Zack Arias, Jeremy Cowart, Frank Doorhof, etc. There is a great gear guide showing you the essential gear that you can't be without. One of my favorite sections of the opening issue is the "Behind The Lens Interview" with Joe McNally. Joe is one of my favorite photographers of all time and who I owe a large part of my style and technique to. This is a video interview where Scott Kelby interviews Joe on all sorts of small flash tech and questions. And of course there's a great article from my buddy RC Concepcion talking about stuff for beginner's. All of this and more! I can't stress enough how good the quality is in the content of this App.
So What About the Cost
The Light It Digital Magazine App as well as the first issue are free! To download the magazine you first have to download the App which acts as a "magazine rack" of sorts. You then download the individual magazine through the App. The premier issue is free! Each additional issue (there will be 8 a year) will cost $2.99. This is really a value. For all of the great information you get, you would easily pay twice that at a news stand. There is no subscription required so you can pick and choose which issues you want, however I'm going to bet that you'll want them all just like me. A quick note on the download speed of the issues. Because of the quality of the photographs, the issues are a little on the large side so the issues may take 10 minutes or more to download on a broadband connection. Be patient, it's worth it.
It's for Photographers, by Photographers
I can honestly say that the guys who put this magazine together are all avid (and quality photographers). Each of them has a real passion for photography and will provide you with the best lighting information that you can get anywhere. My only real gripe is that Brad or Scott hasn't asked me to do an article yet . Other than that, this magazine is perfect.
You can get Light It Digital Magazine for your iPad from the iTunes store for free here:
