Stanza (Lexcycle)

Cost as reviewed: FREE

OK, I have to start this off by telling you I love to read and I love to have books. In my house we actually have a whole room set up as a library. Because of this, I always thought I would never enjoy an eBook. This app has changed my mind.

The last time I read an electronic book, it was on my Sony Clie PDA. It was okay, but it was really annoying to have to scroll down on each page. This app completely changes the approach. It takes all the text in your document and rearranges it into pages that fit on your screen rather than sticking with the original book’s page layout.  This way, when you finish reading one screen’s worth of text, all you have to do is “turn” the page to the next screen.  No scrolling up or down required.  In addition, the process of turning a “page” is awesome. You can either tap once at the edge, or you can actually slide the page across the screen, more like if you were turning a real book page.

There are a bunch of free books available to download. Plus you can import books from URLs, or from the standalone app that you can install on your mac or pc. It handles a long list of formats, including Amazon kindle files.

The only complaint I have, which has nothing to do with the app, is that eBooks are so expensive! I don’t understand why ebooks cost about the same as a paper book. They really need to bring the price way down.

Pick up this app! It’s awesome

Lexcycle Website

Cannon Challenge (Discovery Interactive Technology)

Cost as reviewed: FREE

Someone on my Twinkle feed yesterday told me I had to try out this game, so I did. I downloaded it from the app store and tried to play, but it crashed so I had to restart my phone (a process I try to avoid given how slow it is). This wasn’t that unusual so it didn’t bother me too much.

When it finished reloading I started the game. I did a lot of waiting though because the game is quite slow to load. Apparently this game is a simulation of what the army uses. I played through the first 7 levels (of 15) in about 8 minutes. The physics and graphics are quite nice, but it wasn’t very challenging. I had to stop at that point to do something else and I realized their was no way to come back tou it later. You either have to play through all 15 levels in one sitting, or you lose what you’ve accomplished. This is kind of a shame because, although the game looks and feels pretty nice, I don’t like it enough to sit and play through the whole thing very often. I came back later to play throughvthe wholebthing so I could do this review, and I couldn’t get it to run. I had to restart my iPhone again even though my other apps were fine. I don’t know if it was a coincidence or if the app isn’t stable, but it was a bit annoying.

I also noticed a couple other things htat bothered me. I couldn’t find a way to turn off the sound (or even turn the volume down). It doesn’t seem to be controlled by the iPhone’s normal volume controls, which is annoying if there are people around you. I also noticed that it never really got very hard. The best you can do to make it more challenging is maybe to time yourself to see how fast you can do it, or you can challenge yourself to see if you can hit all the targets in just one shot each. There doesn’t appear to be a scoreboard of any kind, so it makes it difficult to compare results.

This game looks and handles quite nicely, but it doesn’t have much replay value for me so I’ll probably delete it. Fortunately it was free so I can’t really complain too much. Also, to be fair, I should point out that I’m personally a pacifist and I don’t believe in fighting or killing, so it doesn’t really interest me to play a game that simulates a real (or imagined) weapon of war.

Cannon Website

Twinkle (Tapulous)

Cost as reviewed: FREE

For anyone who uses Twitter to follow friends or to keep people updated, you need a Twitter app for the iPhone. I found Twinkle because someone I was following started using it so I downloaded it. First of all, I really like the look of this app. It has a nice background image of stars “twinkling” in the night sky. In addition to that, the little text bubbles it uses to post tweets look really nice. I also like how those text bubbles are colored differently depending upon various things. For example, people I’m following show up in yellow while my own posts show up in gray and responses to my posts show up in purple. This makes it very easy to use.

In addition to simply showing tweets for people you are following, it also allows you to view messages from people within a specified distance (if you allow the app access to your location). This is a nice feature because it keeps those messages in a separate tab and you get to interact with people you may not normally have met. It is also nice to broadcast your location because then people near you can see what you’re up to. It also has a nice interface for private messages.

I do have some complaints about the app. I would like to see a way to search for users and then add them to your “following” list. If there is a way to do this, please let me know. I would also like to have a way to remove or revise posts after they have been submitted. There may be other ways to improve it, but overall I’m quite happy with how simple it is to use and how nice it looks. I have tried twitterific, and although it has a few more features, I tend to like the look and feel of Twinkle better.

Twinkle Website

Remote (Apple Inc.)

Cost as reviewed: FREE

Way before I got an iPhone I was dreaming of this app. I love music and I have always dreamed of having a music system throughout my house where I could basically send the same music all over the house. This process seemed incredibly daunting since it would include putting wiring behind the walls all over the house. There are drawback to this approach, like the wiring would be fixed in one place and you wouldn’t be able to take your system with you (easily) if you moved to a new house. These dilemmas got me thinking that it would be awesome to have a wireless system and it seemed like with wi-fi, which works so well for Internet, I should be able to set this up.

Well, when I really started getting into Apple products, I realized they have the Airport Express Base Station. This tiny device let’s you create or join a wireless network. The main feature that interested me, however, was the AirTunes feature where you can send music from iTunes anywhere on your network directly to the Airport Express. You can even use multiple Airports simultaneously from one computer. I picked one of these up and it works pretty well. You give up some reliability and audio quality by not using wires, but to me it’s worth it.

I quickly realized that the main drawback with this set up is that you have to adjust your music from the main computer where iTunes is running. The solution to that problem is this app. It allows you to easily control any iTunes on your network. You can set up which speakers it is using, you can browse and control music playback, and it even displays album artwork. I haven’t tried controlling an Apple TV with it but apparently that works really well too. You first need to pair the iPhone with each iTunes library you want it to have access to, but afterwards you have complete control over the iTunes library. Imagine the practical jokes you can play on someone if they don’t know you’ve paired your iPhone with their iTunes!!!

I’m loving this app and I can’t wait until I have my whole house set up with wireless speakers. It’s the pinnacle of laziness, but I prefer the term convenience!

Remote Website

Bubbles (Hog Bay Software)

Cost as reviewed: FREE

This’ll be a quick one, folks. I had to download this app just to see what it as like. The description says it is for entertaining your toddler. Basically all you do is drag your finger across the screen to generate various sized bubbles that you can then “pop” by tapping them. The bubbles make sounds and they are “pulled” down by “gravity.”

The application is very simple, but it is done well and is somewhat fun for anyone to play with once in a while. However, if I was trying to entertain a toddler I don’t think I would be using my precious iPhone to do so!

Bubbles Website

Writing Pad (ShapeWriter Inc.)

Cost as reviewed: FREE

I came across this application somewhat randomly. The description said something about typing with gestures instead of with the keyboard and I thought that sounded pretty cool. For those of you who have used the iPhone keyboard, you know it isn’t the easiest for typing quickly.

The main use of this app is to jot down notes. When you create a new note, it gives you a keyboard at the bottom of the screen. You can tap out words like normal, or you can use gestures. To use gestures, you drag your finger across all the letters of your word (in the appropriate order). You don’t have to worry about double letters because it guesses for you. It’s a little strange to drag across letters that aren’t in your word, but you get used to it.

Once you perform your gesture, it guesses which word you were trying to type based on popularity of words. It also gives you a list of other possible words to choose from. The algorithm seems to work well except when you are trying to type a complicated word. You do need to be careful that you don’t go all over your screen with your words. It seems to work best when you connect your letters with a direct line that is basically the shortest line possible between the letters.

Once you’ve recorded the note, your only option, other than saving it, is to email it to someone. Hopefully sometime soon Apple will make it possible to copy and paste from one application to another. That might make this app more useful if you happen to prefer it’s typing technique to the traditional approach.

Personally I find that Apple’s built-in word correction tends to accurately correct most of my typing mistakes so I can type pretty quickly using the standard keyboard approach. For those looking for another approach to taking notes or composing e-mail messages, this app might be a good option.

ShapeWriter Website

Speech Cloud Voice Dialer (Speech Cloud)

Cost as reviewed: FREE

I am horribly disappointed by the fact that Apple did not include a voice dialer for the iPhone. My past 3 cell phones had it and they were all free (or almost free). How do they expect people to be able to make calls safely while driving? Some may argue that you shouldn’t make calls while driving even with a headset, but sometimes I just need to quickly let someone know I’ll be late.

I started looking for apps that would add this functionality, although that still isn’t ideal. This one, Speech Cloud’s Voice Dialer, was the only free one I could find. I decided against paying for an app because I’m holding out hope that Apple will add this functionality in a later software update (isn’t version 2.1 coming out soon? Apple are you listening?).

With 493 reviews on the app store and an averge rating of 2/5 stars, I wasn’t really expecting much out of the app. The description says it will dial for you, but this is a bit misleading. The app WILL dial for you, but not using voice commands.

So, what this app does is let you search your contacts using a voice command. Of course, you have to first click on the app, then you have to hold down a button and say the name, so you do need to give the screen quite a bit of attention. Once speaking the name the app had no problem finding the correct entry from within my contacts, and quickly too. This is about the only thing the application does, but it seemed to do it well. You have to tap on the number you want to call for it to actually dial at this point.

So although this application might me improperly named, it IS currently listed at a version number of 0.9.5, so hopefully we can expect some additional features when it hits version 1.0. If you need a way to search quickly through all your contacts with voice commands, then this app might work for you. If you want a true voice dialer, I suggest either waiting for Apple to add this feature, or looking elsewhere.

Speech Cloud Website

UPDATE: Version 1.1.0 is out and there is an option for auto dial. You can set up a delay to give yourself a chance to male sure it’s the right number before it dials. I haven’t figured out yet how it chooses which number to use when a contact has multiple numbers. Now what I want is to be able to activate the speech lookup using my bluetooth headset.

Labyrinth Lite Edition (Codify AB)

Cost as reviewed: FREE

Labyrinth (by Codify AB) is a digital representation of that wooden game with a steel ball that rolls around while you tilt the board. I remember the first time I played this game. My family had just moved to Japan (it was 1986 and I was 4 years old) and there was a cafe/restaurant on the ground floor of our apartment building.

This cafe was a savior for us because they had some American foods like pizza and spaghetti. At the cafe they had one of these labyrinth games and I remember it being sooooo hard! It had ramps and really complicated patterns of holes. I used to get so frustrated by it but I was fascinated as well.

When I saw this game on the app store I just had to try it out, and it was free so I figured it was worth a try. The first time I played I was absolutely blown away. I’ve read some other reviews saying there should be sound and other things, but honestly, this game is amazing. I guess I had no idea the iPhone was capable of sensing tilt so accurately. The game’s settings menu even has a tool for calibrating your flat position.

One thing I will say about the game, though, is that the early levels are pretty darn easy and don’t offer much of a challenge. (There is an option in the settings to turn on a time limit, which would certainly make it more difficult.) A way to easily remedy this is to play the game as a drinking game with friends. A drink or two will definitely make the game more challenging! (note: please be sure you are using adequate iPhone protection before playing and drinking). For the non-drinkers out there you might try playing while on a bus or in a moving car.

Now, although I really love this game, I do have some ideas about how the developer could make this game even more amazing. For one thing, adding a “stats” page to display hi-scores (time to complete level) so you can self-compete would be awesome. If you could upload your scores to a website that would be cool (like xbox live?). This is something Apple could start offering if they really want to push gaming onto the iPhone. Also adding multiplayer would be AWESOME! Especially if they could do online multiplayer. Finally, I would like to see ramps in the game to add some difficulty to it. If this already exists in the full version, please let me know.

I’m pretty sure I will go ahead and buy the full version ($6.99), which apparenty contains over 500 levels.

Labyrinth Website