Archive for category iPhone App Reviews

Review: FantasyMonster (Best of iPhone Apps)

Jun 10

Posted by Alan in Best iPhone Apps, iPhone App Reviews, iPhone Fantasy Sports Apps, iPhone Sports Apps | 1 Comment

FantasyMonster ($3.99, link) is an app for accessing your Yahoo! Fantasy teams (supports baseball, football, basketball, and hockey) on the iPhone, and the best toward that purpose we’ve seen yet. There are other Yahoo! Fantasy iPhone apps available, including MyFantasyTeams and the official Yahoo apps for Fantasy Baseball and Fantasy Football, but FantasyMonster is the best of the bunch by a long shot in terms of usability and legibility. A free lite version is available as well.

While other fantasy apps are adequate enough to check your weekly scores, they aren’t good for serious editing of your team. Tasks such as complex lineup changes or scanning and picking up free agents is frustrating to the point of being undoable.

But FantasyMonster utilizes drop-down menus and vertical scrolling to make it easier and more comfortable to parse information. While viewing statistics on the iPhone’s 3.5-inch screen can never be as comfortable as a larger desktop screen, FantasyMonster handles the necessary compromises well. In short, it makes editing fantasy teams viable on the iPhone for the first time.

I’ve always liked the drag-and-drop interface of the official Yahoo Fantasy sites, and FantasyMonster uses it too, allowing you to drag and drop players into qualifying starting positions or to the bench. It’s pretty surprising that Yahoo’s official apps lack this feature, but FantasyMonster has it. Drag-and-drop makes lineup changes so much quicker than the html-based checkbox method used in other apps.

Stats are quite legible—the app doesn’t try to squeeze everything onto the iPhone’s small screen at once (a flaw of the Yahoo apps). Instead, FantasyMonster utilizes side scrolling so you can comfortably swipe through and view a player’s complete stats.

News headlines are shown in a scannable list form, and tapping on them reveals the entire article in a drop-down, which you can tap again to collapse. Player news, MLB headlines, injuries, and scores can be viewed in this way. It seems the developer has studied good iPhone design techniques and has implemented them into the app.

Another area where all the other fantasy sports apps failed was with the process of scanning and adding free agents. Any fantasy player knows that free agents and the waiver wire is the most important part of fantasy sports. FantasyMonster, with its readable text and stats, is the first app with a usable interface for scanning, sorting, and adding free-agent players.

There are a few things we wished the app handled better. One particular annoyance is how it displays messages (or doesn’t) with the loss of an Internet connection. In one particular instance while viewing player news, a lost data signal meant an error screen taking over the entire screen. I could no longer read player news, despite the fact the info had already downloaded. Likewise, while trying to log in, the app asked me to reenter my login information, while the real problem was that there was no Internet connection.

Conclusion

FantasyMonster is the most usable app we’ve seen for managing your Yahoo! Fantasy sports teams on the iPhone. It offers solutions for the limitations of the iPhone’s small screen and makes editing your team, parsing lots of stats, and picking up free agents doable for the first time.

FantasyMonster is a $3.99 download in the iTunes App Store.

Review: NDrive USA, $2.99 GPS Nav App With Offline Maps

Jun 7

Posted by Alan in GPS navigation, iPhone App Reviews, iPhone GPS, iPhone GPS Navigation Apps | No Comments

NDrive USA (link) is a surprisingly good and full-featured GPS app that gives you 2.5 GB of offline maps for only $2.99. The catch? There isn’t one other than a below average user interface. It’s quite a bargain, we think.

NDrive USA is a not a slick or polished app. Its biggest flaw is probably its clunky interface. Those who own a Garmin might find the menu system and method for entering addresses familiar: you don’t simply enter in the entire address on one screen, you narrow it down from big to small, going from state, to city, to street name, to house number—all with separate screens. I’m sure there’s a logic to doing it this way, but I found it quit the chore until I had some practice.

The maps are clear, detailed, and easy to read, and are comparable to those in much more expensive apps. The maps can be viewed in both portrait and landscape (landscape being our preference).

One of the app’s missing features is that the voice navigation does not say street names. Instead of saying “Turn left onto Lake Shore Drive,” it only says “Turn left.” This invites more glances at the maps than we’d like for safety reasons, but better than having no voice instructions at all.

Supports both portrait and landscape modes.


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App Review: Pastebot, Excellent iPhone Clipboard Manager

Mar 2

Posted by Alan in iPhone App Reviews, iPhone Apps | No Comments

Pastebot ($2.99, link) is probably the world’s best designed clipboard manager. It’s clear that a lot of thought and refinement went into making the app. Even though the audience who requires its features is likely narrow, the app is currently the best way to store and manage chunks of text and move them in and out of the iPhone’s clipboard.

At the core of Pastebot‘s functionality is a simple action: open the app and whatever is in your iPhone’s clipboard will be automatically stored in the app. From there, you can name, organize, and edit the entries for later use.

The app can store plain text and images (but not both at the same time). It offers some basic texting editing of entries as well as advance features like find-and-replace, auto wrapping with html code, even translation (requires Internet connection).

Pastebot can work in conjunction with a free desktop app, Pastebot Sync (Mac only), that allows users to move text and images from the desktop onto the iPhone using a home WiFi network.

The app is not only for storing clips but recalling them as well. Tap any of your clippings, and a “blue light” will appear signaling it is in your iPhone’s clipboard. You could use this feature as an easy way to store and recall form letters or logos.

Overall, the app is incredibly slick, with nice animations and sound effects for the various features. Best of all, it’s incredibly easy to use (simply open the app!), with the app’s most important feature up front, and the multitude of complementing features supporting it underneath. Recommended.

Pastebot is a $2.99 download from the iTunes App Store.

Review: ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner (Best of iPhone Apps)

Feb 8

Posted by Tanya Menoni in Best Free iPhone and iPod Touch Apps, Best iPhone Apps, Shopping Apps, iPhone App Reviews | 2 Comments

When we reviewed the top 3 barcode scanners including Shopsavvy back in December, we were somewhat disappointed in the test results. Each performed well in a certain area, but none provided the complete picture, namely both quick scanning and solid price search results. We’re happy to say that due to a recent update, ShopSavvy‘s (free, iTunes link) scanner has improved dramatically to the point it’s a clear winner, and we have added it to our list of Best of iPhone Apps.

ShopSavvy is one of those apps that just makes your life a little easier, especially if you’re a big shopper or bargain hunter. Say you’re at the store shopping for a new speaker dock for your iPhone. You find one you really like, and you want to buy it today, but you’re not sure if the store has a good price. With the ShopSavvy app, you simple scan the products barcode using the iPhone’s camera and get a list of prices from online retailers for comparison purposes.

One of the things we liked about Shopsavvy over the better-selling RedLaser app is that, in addition to prices from dozens of online stores, it provides prices from Amazon.com. Anyone who shops online knows that Amazon is a great weather gauge for prices. RedLaser does not include Amazon.

The ShopSavvy iPhone app has other neat features that make it a must download. Some results have accompanying product reviews so you can check on quality. The app offers a Wish List where you can save items for future shopping. Another feature is Price Alerts, where you can set a low price and be alerted when a product dips below that threshold.

To scan an item, you launch the app and tap ‘scan,’ which opens the iPhone’s camera. Position the guides over the barcode and hold still while the app scans. I was surprised just how quickly and successfully ShopSavvy can scan barcodes. It takes literally seconds in most cases.

The app functions best when pricing items commonly available online like media (books, video games, cds, etc). We tested the app in an auto-parts store, a major electronics retailer and a bookstore, and ShopSavvy offered results for just about everything we threw at it. Once it identifies the barcode, the product page pops up with reviews and online prices. If you’re having a hard time scanning the barcode, you can also manually enter the UPC number.

The app is not perfect. We were somewhat disappointed in results for grocery items. I scanned a bunch of food boxes at home, and it either didn’t recognize the barcode or didn’t have a corresponding product page. The developer claims that “at the end of the day, price comparison on bottled water isn’t important,” but I disagree. Another problem was that some of the prices in the search results were “false positives,” showing expired deals or weird eBay prices that weren’t accurate. The app also has a problem scanning barcodes on curved surfaces.

ShopSavvy will also show local prices for products if they are available, in addition to prices from online retailers. These feature is probably great for people in large cities, but it had few local prices for my small town, which is understandable. According to the developer, ShopSavvy works best on the iPhone 3GS, which has an auto-focusing camera. However, I tested the app on a 3G with good results, especially in stores. At home, just use good lighting (the brighter the better) and don’t expect much success with food items. My advice: try it out in a store first to appreciate how well it works.

Conclusion

ShopSavvy is an impressive app that works incredibly well. I found it especially useful for books. If you come across an interesting book at the bookstore, you can scan it and read reviews, and you’ll have a record of it if you decide to buy the book later. While I would appreciate more grocery coverage, I’m not going to knock them for that—the true value of this app is in high-value comparison shopping. Needless to say, I wish I had this app when I was Christmas shopping, and it earns a spot on our Best of iPhone Apps list. Highly recommended.

ShopSavvy is a free download from the iTunes App Store.

Review: HootSuite iPhone Twitter App

Jan 15

Posted by Tanya Menoni in Social Apps, iPhone App Reviews, iPhone Apps, iPhone Twitter Apps | No Comments

HootSuite is a popular web-based Twitter client that bills itself as the “professional” choice for advanced Twitter users. In December, the site launched the Hootsuite iPhone app ($1.99, iTunes link). Since this app wasn’t around when we put together our top 5 Twitter apps, we decided to take a look to see if this new app can outdo some of our old favorites.

The HootSuite app integrates with the web-based version, so you can import your information and accounts. If you don’t have an account, you can create a free one right in the app. You don’t need to have a HootSuite account, but you’ll want to create one to take advantage of all the app’s features. HootSuite includes support for multiple Twitter accounts.

The setup process is quick and easy, and the interface is well designed. HootSuite compiles all of your essential Twitter data under the ‘Streams’ tab in one easy-to-read list. From here you can access your mentions, DMs, sent Tweets and home feed. You can also swipe through each page if you prefer to navigate that way. Overall, I found the interface easy to navigate and didn’t find any areas that made me question their design decisions.

Tweets are displayed in a clear format, and pictures load quickly. There are some other nice touches that I appreciate. Your home feed automatically refreshes when you scroll to the top, and when it does refresh, it takes you to the top of the feed so you don’t have to scroll up through hundreds of tweets. You can view the top trending topics, in addition to a brief blurb on why that topic is trending. Useful information, especially when you’re trying to figure out why everyone is tweeting #getwellgaga.

Where HootSuite really shines, however, is in its statistics tracking. As far as I’m aware, this is the only iPhone Twitter client that can track stats directly within the app. The only bummer is that you have to use HootSuite’s ow.ly link shortener for this functionality to work. So if you’ve used another link shortener like tinyurl or bit.ly, you’ll only be able to track stats going forward.

Even so, the stat tracking is stellar. As long as you shorten your links with ow.ly, you can see how many people click on each link you tweet. You can also break it down to clicks per day, and the app displays a graph of this data. If you use Twitter for work or business, this is simply invaluable and something you won’t find in other Twitter apps. In addition, you can schedule tweets for later, which is another nifty feature.

However, the app still needs a little work. It crashed on me a few times, usually when I tried to access my stats page. While HootSuite does integrate with your Twitter lists, the process to add them to your feed is a little time-consuming. There are also no conversation histories, which is a feature I really enjoy on other Twitter apps.

Conclusion

HootSuite is pretty impressive, especially for a debut app. They have a few kinks to work out, but I’m convinced that this will be a real contender among iPhone Twitter apps. As of now, Twitterrific, TweetDeck and Tweetie 2 are a little more polished, but HootSuite still earns a recommendation. If you use Twitter for business purposes, you should check out this app for the statistics tracking alone.

HootSuite is a $1.99 download from the iTunes store.

Best (and Worst) iPhone Greeting Card Apps

Jan 5

Posted by Tanya Menoni in iPhone App Reviews, iPhone Apps | No Comments

We wish there was a standout app for greeting cards, but the current crop is less than impressive. While a few are adequate, most are downright awful, with lame cards that look like they were created by a fifth grader. Even though some of these apps are free, the cards are so poorly designed that you still wouldn’t want to send them to your friends. Fortunately, there are a few apps worth a download – here’s what to look for (and what to avoid) when shopping for an iPhone greeting card app.

American Greetings

The American Greetings app (free, iTunes link) has a solid selection of card genres to choose from, including Holiday, Birthday, Thank You, and I’m Sorry categories. You can also create your own card using custom backgrounds, text, and your own images. The app’s greeting cards are delivered via email, and although the designs are pretty basic, both the app and cards are free. Compared to other greeting card apps currently available, American Greetings is by far your best bet. Recommended.

Overall rating: 7.5/10
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The iPhone App Show: DocScanner Review (Episode 34)

Dec 21

Posted by Lane Fournerat in iPhone App Reviews, iPhone App Show, iPhone Videos | No Comments

This week on the iPhone App Show we take a look at DocScanner ($8.99, iTunes link), which is an excellent app that turns your iPhone into a document scanner. It allows you to photograph docs and save them as a JPG or in PDF format. Supports multipage documents too.

If you like this video and app review, check out more episodes of The iPhone App Show. Also check out my blog, LaneVids.com.

Review: Christmas Tree Decorator iPhone App

Dec 17

Posted by Tanya Menoni in 99-Cent Apps, Seasonal iPhone Apps, iPhone App Reviews, iPhone Apps for Kids, iPhone Christmas Apps | No Comments

christmastree1

There are some iPhone apps that I just don’t get, and Christmas Tree Decorator ($0.99, iTunes link) is one of those apps. It’s a standard ‘decorate a fake tree’ app, and while I love the holiday spirit embodied in this app, and despite its popularity in the App Store, I found it kind of pointless and boring, really.

christmastree2

Christmas Tree Decorator has a very simple premise – decorate a blank Christmas tree with your choice of 36 ornaments, tree toppers and lights. It’s hard to classify Christmas Tree Decorator as a game because there’s really no goal. I guess you could say the “goal” of the app is to move the ornaments and lights into position on the Christmas tree so it looks nice. The ornaments include large bulbs, candy canes and spiral glass ornaments. There are also six different colors of lights.

christmastree3
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Review: Christmas Music iPhone App

Dec 14

Posted by Tanya Menoni in Seasonal iPhone Apps, iPhone App Reviews, iPhone Christmas Apps, iPhone Music Apps | 1 Comment

christmas1

If you’re looking for the perfect music playlist for the holiday party, NuTsie’s Christmas Music app ($1.99, iTunes link) aims to satisfy with preselected playlists stocked with thousands of holiday hits. While this app is the perfect accompaniment to the holidays and can simplify that moment when it’s time to bust out some Christmas music, the price is a little steep for an app you’ll only use a few days of the year.

Christmas Music is a streaming music app (no music is stored on the iPhone, so it requires an Internet connection) that includes 16 playlists, including Top 100, Christmas Oldies, Rockin’ Christmas, Country Christmas and Classical Christmas. There’s also a playlist of children’s holiday songs.
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Review: Top 5 White Noise Apps for the iPhone

Dec 11

Posted by Tanya Menoni in Apple iPhone, Best iPhone Apps, iPhone App Reviews | 3 Comments

If you’ve ever tried to study, read, or fall asleep in a noisy place, you know how frustrating it can be to concentrate on the task at hand. White noise and relaxation apps can help you block out annoying outside noises, but they’re also useful if you just need some help relaxing at the end of the day. The iTunes App Store has a plethora of relaxation apps, and these are our picks for the best white noise apps.

1. White Noise

whitenoise

The White Noise app ($1.99, iTunes link) has 40 sounds to choose from, including popular favorites like beach waves, crickets, thunderstorm, city streets and more. The app also includes more obscure sounds like air conditioner, vacuum cleaner or hair dryer. I’m not sure who would want to listen to those, but they’re there if you want them.
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