App Review: CleverMedia’s Free Style
Justin says...
on Feb 24th, 2010 @ 6:29 pm
Basically it’s a puzzle game where you move your game piece over red tiles and turn them green. You do this for each row while avoiding the X (landing on X ends the game) which moves around on the row randomly. Once you have no red tiles left you navigate your way to the passage to the next row. The puzzle itself isn’t all that challenging…it’s more of just moving back and forth and making sure not to move to a spot if there is an X on it. I think the game would draw me in more if the puzzle was less random and more pattern based to make more educated moves…maybe there is, but I don’t see it.
If you are looking for a quick game to kill some time it fits the bill, but it’s not as engaging as some other puzzle games. I couldn’t see myself sitting down and playing this for hours on end, but as this game is rated 4+ and has the fun music aspect I do think a younger audience may enjoy playing it more than I did.
Thanks to CleverMedia, Inc. for providing us with the app for review.
View on iTunes Web
Price: $0.99
Review: Voiis Wireless Music Gateway… music in a stream…
Chiyin says...
on Dec 9th, 2009 @ 4:47 pm
Recently, I got the opportunity to test the Voiis Wireless Music Gateway (thanks to Mobile in Action for sending us a unit) and I have to say it’s pretty good.
Basically the Voiis is a Bluetooth enabled device that will let you stream music from or to the unit. You can connect the unit to a device and send the music to a pair of wireless headphones or you can do the opposite and send the music to the unit and play it through a stereo system.
For testing I set it up to stream music to a stereo system. The tests consisted of connecting the unit through Bluetooth to an iPhone and an iMac. Both setups were fairly easy once I knew what I was doing, there’s only 1 button on the unit, so everything is done through pressing and holding down the button (make sure to read the instructions).
First, I tested connecting to an iPhone. Once paired the Voiis appears as an output device on the iPod App. Very straight forward.
The second test is where I found the Voiis most useful. I have a fairly sized music library on my computer and being able to play that in a stereo system without a bunch of cables running from my desk to the sound system is great. The setup was simple, just like any other Bluetooth device pairing. With the Voiis paired and connected, it shows up as an Audio Device in the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar, which makes it easy to switch back and forth with the internal speaker.
This test also let me check the range of the signal, as my computer is in one end of my home and the stereo it connected to was in the other with a few walls in between and it performed fairly well, only dropping out once or twice.
Sound wise it was OK, it’s definitely not for audiophiles, but that’s the case with any Bluetooth stereo device.
For everyday use this is perfect for anyone with a large music library and a decent stereo system. And considering the price (from $40 – $70 depending on the vendor) it makes for a very nice stocking stuffer 
Review: Cable Jive duraSync … how tough is your cable?
Chiyin says...
on Nov 17th, 2009 @ 4:03 pm
A while back Justin had some troubles with his iPhone USB cable breaking and apparently he was not the only one. The folks over at Cable Jive also experienced the same problems but instead of replacing theirs with a standard cable, they created the duraSync, a tougher cable that would not suffer the same tearing as the original.
How tough is this sync cable you ask? Well, our friends at Cable Jive sent us a sample to test it out…
The first thing we noticed was how much thicker the cable is. It has a thick rubber outer layer and a tear resistant inner shielding. The ends are also a lot tougher than the standard ones, the product description says there is a double layer protection on them, I didn’t try to pry them open to find out though, so we’ll take their words for it.
Function wise there’s not much to say, it works just like any other sync cable. Connect your device and it syncs.
To find out how tough the cable really is, we ran a few tests. First we tried pulling it, which didn’t do anything as the inner braided shielding is designed to keep the cable from tearing. Then we tried crushing it in a car door. We were actually able to charge the iPhone while the cable was caught in the car door. And for good measure we decided to run it over with a car. And guess what? The cable still works.
Now the question is, do you really need a cable this tough? And would you pay $20 for it? Personally I don’t think it’s necessary. For my daily use this cable would be overkill, especially when I can get a replacement cable for a fraction of the price. But if you live or work in a rough environment then it would probably make more sense. Overall this is a very well built cable that certainly lives up to its name, but at this price I don’t think it’s for everyone.
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Apples & Oranges, Reviews, iPhone Accessories, iPod
App Review: PushGmail … know when you’ve got gmail
Chiyin says...
on Oct 8th, 2009 @ 6:06 pm
Push notification for Gmail is something that a lot of people wanted ever since the launch of the iPhone and the answer to that came a few weeks ago with Gmail introducing Google Sync. This new product from Google allows you to connect to your Gmail inbox, contacts, calendar and get push notification for new messages, appointments, etc. Everything everyone wanted.
So, what does this have to do with PushGmail(iTunes link) you ask? Well, Google Sync uses the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Protocol, which is essentially like connecting your iPhone to an Exchange Server. And as we all know, the iPhone only allows 1 ActiveSync connection, so what do we do if we are already connecting to an Exchange Server and we want push for Gmail? That’s where this app comes in.
In essence the app does what the name suggests, it notifies you when you get an email in your Gmail inbox. The setup is fairly simple, just type in your account and password and that’s it, you are all done. You’ll get a pop up alert when a new message comes in. The only other option you get is how to view the message when you press the “View” button in the pop up. You can either view it in the app, which basically is the mobile version of Gmail, or you can set it to open the Mail application. However, there’s one flaw with the second option, whenever you click on view instead of opening the actual message it will open the app to the edit new email screen, which is very weird since what you want is to read the new email and not write a new one.
Anyways it does what it’s supposed to… Just close the pop up alert and then open the Mail app directly… and for $0.99 it’s not that bad…
App Review: AppCritics… See what other people are saying…
Chiyin says...
on Aug 26th, 2009 @ 12:22 pm
With so many apps available in the store, how do we decide what to spend our hard earned cash on? Most of us will surely rely on the reviews left by fellow users in the App Store, but most of the time there will only be one or two reviews for any given app. Is that a good indication as to the quality of an app? For all I know it could be written by some friend or family of the developer. But what if we have a way of seeing what people are saying about an app across all the app stores in the world? That’s where AppCritics (iTunes link) comes in.
AppCritics basically taps into iTunes App Stores around the globe, grabs app reviews and puts them all in one place. With App Stores currently in 62 countries this gives you a lot more feedback at your fingertips.
For the most part the app works great but it does have its shortcomings. The interface is nice and very easy to use. The ability to translate a single review (or all of them) with the touch of a button is a neat feature and it works very well. Now, getting to the reviews is where it falls a little bit short on execution. In order to get to the reviews you have to search for a specific app, that’s fine and dandy when you already know what you are looking for, but not so much when you are just browsing around to see what’s new and cool. Perhaps the developer can include something akin to the App Store’s “Featured” and “Top 25″ sections in an update?
As it is right now, AppCritics will be most useful to developers wanting to see what people around the globe are saying about their apps. For the rest of us it won’t be that useful until sections for “Top apps” or “Featured” apps are added.
App Review: iMetal, only for iPhone 3GS
Justin says...
on Jul 17th, 2009 @ 5:29 pm
Earlier today I brought up the fact that iMetal (iTunes Link), one of the first (if not the first) iPhone 3GS only app has been released. I honestly was expecting the first 3GS only app to be something taking advantage of the faster CPU and extra RAM, but turns out it was the compass.
iMetal uses the magnetic dector/compass in the iPhone 3GS to measure the surrounding magnetic field. When a metal object is near, this magnetic field changes and iMetal will alert. Impress your friends with your iPhone’s incredible hardware capability.
Only works with iPhone 3GS.
It is an entertainment app so I didn’t really have my exceptions set that high, but it actually kind of works. The biggest downside is that you practically have to be touching the metal object for it to work. It did not work on keys or other small objects. It did work on a pair of nail clippers…most of the time, but it never failed when hovering over my unibody MacBook.
So if you are into gimmicky entertainment apps, this is for you! A lot of other apps in this category are 100% entertainment with no link to reality, but this one is different in that it actually does detect magnetic fields…as long as the phone is within an inch of the metal that is.
View some screen shots of the app
