JSmith here doing a guest review of Pudding Monsters for iOS. It’s easier to show you this game than explain it. Check out this video:
Pudding Monsters for iPad 
Pudding Monsters for iPhone
Reviews
As a fashion photographer I’m more sensitive to nails, accessories, makeup and hair than the average guy. While I don’t necessarily study these things, I do listen to the models and am starting to develop an eye for this aspect of fashion. Recently I came across the App Stylish Nails and could immediately see the benefit to models or anyone else wanting to do a fancy nail job. This Free App does a very nice job of visually showing you not only hundreds of nail designs, but also the step-by-step video tutorials on how to do them yourself!
The nails are organized by category. The videos appear to be streamed into the App via YouTube so this means you’ll need a data connection to watch the tutorials. I was surprised by how detailed the videos were. You can even mark the ones you like as Favorites to be able to get back to them quickly.
If you’re into doing your own nails and want something beyond the French manicure, then you should definitely check out the Stylish Nails App. Even if you aren’t into doing your own, this App would serve as a good reference to take to your professional nail tech to show him/her what you want done. I’d love to see an iPad native version.
Here at Best App Site we like to pick the BEST Apps for iOS. However, the “best” App today may not be the best App tomorrow. My favorite QR code scanning App has been Scan for quite some time. It works as advertised. However, yesterday I happened to be browsing Apps on the App Store and saw that QR Reader for iPhone was in the top downloads and had a very high rating (rare since people are quick to give a 1 star rating if they don’t like the icon of an App). I downloaded it and immediately saw why it was getting high praise.
Yes it Scans QR codes, but…
QR Reader for iPhone launches fast and is ready to scan a QR code. That’s key as if didn’t do that then it wouldn’t be much use. Once it scans the code it takes you to the site or content of the code. It also adds it to the history so that you can get back to it later. You can also bring up codes that you’ve photographed with your camera App. That’s nice for those times when you have a code in your camera roll that you photographed perhaps when you were offline or received from someone via email. Where QR Reader excels is that it not only scans QR Codes quickly but it also lets you create your own QR Codes and share them! I was blown away by how well this feature was implemented. You can create QR Codes from URLs, phone numbers, Text, GEO locations, email addresses, VCards, SMS, Events and it even has preconfigured social media ones for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype, Foursqure venues, YouTube, App Store, Android Market, and more. Not to mention PayPal payments. Once you create your code you can share it via email, Messages, Twitter, Facebook, Save to Photos or Print.
The Bottom Line
QR Reader is AWESOME! They also have an iPad version that I just saw as I was writing this review. Not sure why they didn’t do a Universal App (other than to keep the app small and fast), but they both are free. Speaking of FREE, they have ads in them. However, if you want to remove the Ads you can do a one time in-app purchase for $0.99 and the ads will be history.
QR Reader for iPhone
QR Reader for iPad
or get the Premium versions without Ads directly:
QR Reader for iPhone (Premium)
QR Reader for iPad (Premium)
Every now and then I come across an App that seems to good to be true. Cycloramic is PURE GENIUS. This App uses vibrations to rotate your iPhone while recording video so that you get a 360° view. I just could not believe that it would work as well as it did. I downloaded the App, took my iPhone 5 out its case and stood it up on the coffee table. I tapped GO and to my amazement the iPhone started rotating counter clockwise while shooting video. It stopped in the same spot that it started in and there was my video in the Camera Roll ready to go. While it claims to work with any iPhone from the 3GS to the iPhone 5 the main thing that you’re going to need is an iPhone that can stand up without falling. I’m not sure how that would be possible with a 3GS? Nonetheless it worked great on my iPhone 5. Rather than take my word for it I recorded two videos:
The 1st video is the one that Cycloramic took
The 2nd video is one that I took with iPad mini so that you can see the iPhone 5 rotating as it was shooting the video above
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If one turn is not enough you can set it for 720° (2 turns) or 1080° (3 turns)
The Bottom Line
This may not be an App that you’ll use every day, but hands down it’s one of the Best Apps of 2012. It shows how developers can think outside the box and using features of the iPhone in ways other than they were initially intended. Look forward to our Best of 2012 list coming soon.
I love shooting wirelessly from my Nikon DSLRs to my iPad or iPhone. Recently I upgraded from a Nikon D7000 to a D600 as my travel body. The D600 has an optional wireless adapter affectionately call the WU-1b (see my review here). With this module attached to your camera it creates an ad-hoc WiFi network that you can join via your iPhone. Once you join it you can use the Nikon Wireless Mobile Adapter Utility to either wirelessly transfer the images to your iPhone as you take them or use the App to do a Live View right in the App and fire the shutter remotely.
The App works, but…
While the App works as advertised, it’s pretty bare bones. While in remote mode you do get a Live View of the what the camera is pointed at, but you have no control over the camera’s settings. Tapping on the screen allows you to focus on the subject and then you fire the shutter. Once you do, the shot you just took will be recorded to the memory card AND wirelessly transfered to your iPhone. It will be placed right on the camera roll and therefore available to any of your Apps. You have the option of emailing, sharing on Twitter or Facebook or opening an image in another App directly from the Nikon App. This is all great, but it’s missing a few things. First and foremost there is no native iPad version, which is a shame as the larger iPad display is perfect for reviewing shots (it would also be nice to see it optimized for the larger 4″ displays on iPhone 5 and iPod touch). The shots coming in from your camera don’t display until they are all done transferring and you tap the grid to see them. In other words they don’t display one by one as you take them. The good thing is that the transfer speed is pretty good and actually faster than I expected it to be.
The Bottom Line
This “utility” is just that, a “utility”. No real bells and whistles and is designed to serve a purpose. It’s a FREE App and there’s not much to complain about for free. If you’re looking for more, then you should check out Shuttersnitch. It works directly with these Nikon Wireless Modules and offers a host of additional features not the least being that it’s a Universal App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
