Archive for category iPhone App Reviews

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 require 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 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
Read the rest of this entry »

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, iPhone App Reviews, iPhone Apps for Kids | 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
Read the rest of this entry »

Review: Christmas Music iPhone App

Dec 14

Posted by Tanya Menoni in Seasonal iPhone Apps, iPhone App Reviews, 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.
Read the rest of this entry »

Review: Top 5 White Noise Apps for the iPhone

Dec 11

Posted by Tanya Menoni in Apple iPhone, Best iPhone Apps, iPhone App Reviews | 2 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.
Read the rest of this entry »

Review: Groups (Best of iPhone Apps)

Nov 24

Posted by Alan in Best iPhone Apps, iPhone App Reviews, iPhone Contacts App | 4 Comments

Mass Emailing with Groups iPhone App

Groups ($4.99, iTunes link) is an app from Guided Ways Technologies that lets you to create, edit, and delete groups of iPhone contacts, something you can’t do with the iPhone’s default Contacts app. You can then use these groups in useful ways such as sending group emails or organizing your contacts by upcoming birthdays. Want to email your entire family about your upcoming vacation with a single tap? Groups is an app for that.

Groups iPhone App Contacts Organization

I found Groups a pleasure to use. The app has a beautiful, intuitive interface that Apple should take note of for their own Contacts app. Perhaps the best example of the app’s slick design comes when adding a contact to a group. You hold down your finger on a contact for a heartbeat or two to make a Rolodex card icon appear. You then drag and drop the card into any group to add it. It’s a quick and simple way to organize your contacts.

Groups iPhone App Contacts

The groups you create with the app are added to the iPhone’s default Contacts/Phone apps, which in turn means they’ll sync and backup to iTunes, Address Book (for Macs), and Outlook (for PCs). You can color-code each group’s label to make them stand out from each other and add a colorful look to the app.

Groups App Group Options

Groups iPhone App Smart Dialer

Groups also comes with a smart dialer (the developer calls the technology Callway). The smart dialer searches through you contacts as you punch in the digits (or the corresponding letters, depending on what your goal is). Once you narrow down the list to find your desired contact, you tap the contact to dial.

Groups also has a feature called smart groups that works a lot like iTunes’ smart playlists. With smart groups, you can automatically create groups using parameters like area codes or whether or not the contact has an email associated with it. For example, you can create a smart group that will tell you what contacts have birthdays coming up in the next 30 days. Every time you open that list, it repopulates with the nearest birthday showing first. Pretty cool.

Groups App Edit Groups

There aren’t many downsides to the app other than it’s a bit of overkill for the purpose of creating groups of contacts. But on the other hand, the app is so well designed, it could replace the iPhone’s default Phone app for making everyday calls. It offers everything the iPhone’s Contacts app does, including the ability to create new iPhone contacts.

Conclusion

Groups’ quick, slick, and powerful interface makes it an excellent solution for creating groups of contacts on your iPhone and could even serve as a replacement for the iPhone’s default Contacts/Phone apps. The most obvious use of Groups is as a solution for mass emails, but it’s also a good way to organize and clean up your contacts using features like smart groups. Overall, we found the robustness of the app’s feature set to be impressive, and we highly recommend the app.

Review: Scanner 911 iPhone App

Nov 11

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

scanner911

The Scanner 911 app ($0.99, iTunes link) provides access to police and fire radios across the country, including some big organizations like the LAPD and NYPD. The app must be doing something right, as it is currently listed in the top ten on the top 100 downloads list. If you have a hankering to listen to (usually boring) police transmissions, this app is certainly worthy of a recommendation.

Scanner 911 includes a good number of police and fire channels, with more added frequently. Within the app, you can record live broadcasts, find a nearby station using the iPhone’s GPS and save frequently used channels to your favorites. When you first log in, you can choose from a list of stations organized by state or use GPS to find stations near you. There’s also a top 50 list of the most popular and active stations.

scanner9114

In addition to a popularity bar, Scanner 911 also clearly displays whether the station is active or offline. I used GPS to find my local county sheriff, opened the station and… nothing. It’s not the app’s fault, but I guess my local sheriff isn’t very busy. I finally did hear a few transmissions between deputies and the dispatch, but it was hardly exciting stuff. The vast majority of the conversations went like this:

Officer: 1015. I’ve got Central.

Dispatch: 10-4.

And that was it, which kind of makes me wonder why police scanner apps are so popular — most of the time nothing exciting is going on. Thinking I would get more action from a big city police department, I switched over to the LAPD.

Scanner9112

Their transmission was certainly more active, but you’re still listening mainly to static and beeping. Once you actually get someone talking, it’s sometimes hard to even understand what they are saying. I couldn’t connect to the NYPD’s station because of some sort of connection error, even though I had a strong Wi-Fi connection at the time.

Scanner9113

San Diego’s police and fire station was the most interesting I found. I listened to conversations about a DUI accident (in which the driver hit three parked cars, but fortunately no one was injured) and a suspected burglar in someone’s backyard.

Conclusion

If you want a police scanner app, you should definitely take a look at Scanner 911. It has an easy-to-use, polished interface and all the features work as they should. For the most part, connecting to each station is quick and painless, although that will vary based on your signal strength. The app is definitely worth $0.99 if you’re into this sort of thing. That said, I still don’t see the attraction of police scanner apps. Unless you’re a serious police or crime buff, there’s really very little of interest going on.

Scanner 911 is a $0.99 download from the iTunes App Store.