The iPhone App Review : iPhone Application News & Reviews

Price: Free    Score: 9/10    By Michael Essany

It sounds like the object of a bad 1970’s dating game TV show. How much can we determine about someone strictly by their voice? Can you tell how old someone is just by listening to them speak? It’s certainly harder to do than it seems.

Fortunately for those who enjoy such guessing games, Storyboard Solutions is out with a new -- and free -- application that makes a legitimate game out of the guesswork.

“Who Said It,” which is now available for download, challenges your ears and provides “the perfect distraction while you’re supposed to be doing something worthwhile and constructive.”

While this application certainly won’t appeal to every sense of humor, it’s highly addictive and incredibly fun. How does it work? Hit the ‘Play’ button, listen to the voice, and then guess the age and sex of the person you hear speaking. After you make your selection, submit your answer with a touch of the screen and then compare your answer to the facts.

What’s really cool about this application is that it not only lets you play, it also provides for participation. “Who Said It” enables you to record your own voice and stats so that others can similarly make guesses about your age and sex. Taking the app to a whole new level is the competitive mode made possible by a point ranking system that lets you pit your voice recognition skills against the skills of others.

Sound cool? It is. Overall, for the amazing price of nothing, this thoroughly entertaining app -- if nothing more -- challenges us to listen better in life and, perhaps along the way, will improve our hearing skills. If you haven’t done so already, check out “Who Said It” and get guessin’ today.

Who Said It requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch.

Price: $0.99    Score: 9/10    By Michael Essany

If you dwell within or frequently visit the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, a new application from AppFury, LLC could very well make your trendy shopping experiences and exploits a lot more enjoyable and efficient. SOHOinmypocket is billed as an informational application aimed at giving SoHo visitors (both regulars and newcomers) all the resources, tools, and information necessary to function within 50 city blocks of the SoHo & NoLita neighborhoods of New York City.

A cursory glance at the app and its functions provides a clear indication of just how useful this $0.99 application could be, particularly when you take into consideration how many boutiques, restaurants, bars, and hotels you could easily get lost in if you don’t know your way around SoHo.

So what’s so cool about SOHOinmypocket?

• It’s the ultimate tour guide and map for anyone exploring SoHo
• It serves up comprehensive info on the massive territory that comprises SoHo and NoLita.
• It offers a categorized directory containing address, telephone, and website for each listing.
• There’s an interactive map depicting the location of all listings.
• It provides turn by turn directions to wherever it is that you’re going.

Best of all, SOHOinmypocket has one of those nifty “you are here” features so that wherever you go in SoHo, you’ll know exactly where you are and how far you are from your car, hotel, or the friends and family that may have left you behind.

Just as you wouldn’t want to check out SoHo without some cash in your wallet or plastic in your hand, SOHOinmypocket is a crucial must-have tool for any shopping or entertainment excursion in SoHo.

SOHOinmypocket requires iPhone OS 3.1 or later and is compatible with both iPhone and iPod Touch.

Price: $2.99    Score: 8/10    By Michael Essany

How many times in life have we found ourselves wondering what’s on the mind of someone close to us? Time and time again we find ourselves wishing and hoping to become mind readers. Luckily, where we fall short, a new application from The Par Group can pick up the slack for us in our incessant endeavors to figure out what others are thinking.

iPar MindReader, which has been released as a business iPhone app, is reportedly based on “Nobel Prize winning research.” While it sounds cheesy on the surface, the application derives its “powers” through scientifically proven methodologies capable of assessing other people’s points of view and capitalizing on those findings in order to decipher what a person is feeling and thinking.

While the iPar MindReader app likely won’t be used by magicians or mentalists in a Las Vegas stage act, it could be useful to those looking to gauge the moods and attitudes of others and, consequently, respond accordingly in certain situations.

What does iPar MindReader do that could be helpful to you?

• It identifies positive, negative or neutral points of views
• It assesses the degree of positive or negative thinking
• It provides examples of how to respond to attitudes and viewpoints

Is it legit? No one knows for sure. But a lot of folks (myself included) have had positive experiences with the app so far. Of course, if you have the app by now you may already know this to be true.

iPar MindReader costs $2.99 and is available now for download on the iPhone and Pod Touch from iTunes and the App Store. The application requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.

Price: $0.99    Score: 5/10    By Aricka Flowers

If you need a bit of a nudge to get into the Valentine’s Day spirit, one of the latest apps by Conduits Technologies might offer the kickstart you need. The iCelebrate – Valentine’s Day app takes the already high cheese factor of the February 14th holiday up a few notches because it’s only purpose is to play “romantic” music to the background of an animated scene.

iCelebrate – Valentine’s Day offers a choice of tunes streaming from an Easy Listening, Love Songs, R&B or Smooth Jazz Internet radio station. There are six colorful, animated backgrounds that you can choose from and enjoy as you listen to sappy, heartstring-tugging Valentine’s Day-friendly songs.  The backgrounds feature lots of variations of hearts and glitter, a gift box bursting with love and even a scene of a couple embracing on a balcony in the Big Apple. One possibly useful aspect of the app is that it counts down the number of days until Valentine’s Day at the top of the screen. This feature could be especially helpful to the guys and gals out there who typically forget about V-Day or end up feeling like the annual holiday was thrust upon them without warning.

If you’re not the overly-excited type when it comes to celebrating Valentine’s Day, then I’d definitely recommend you take a pass on this app because there really isn’t much to it. But if you are one of those people who tapes hearts to your house or apartment window on February 1st in anticipation of Cupid’s holiday, then I say iCelebrate – Valentine’s Day might just be the app for you.

iCelebrate – Valentine’s Day is compatible with iPhone and iPhone Touch.

Price: $0.99    Score: 7/10    By Daniel Bischoff

If you love going to clubs, but hating waiting outside of them, VelvetRope is the app for you.  As an app, Velvet Rope allows quick access to some of the hottest venues and events in Las Vegas, all at the tip of your finger tips.

VelvetRope first asks you for your name, e-mail, and phone number.  This information is used to make bottle-service reservations or to put your name on the guest list, well ahead of when you actually arrive at the nightclub or event.  After entering this information, the app explains that Guestlist Requests give you access to a shorter line and shorter wait time, and that clubs will prefer your request to involve both women and men.  ”Venues prefer even parties,” the app states.  Of course, even though you might have the VelvetRope app, some general rules still apply.

After entering your information, you can check out lists of both venues and events.  These lists have lots of information on the clubs and events, but remember, VelvetRope currently only has listings from clubs in the Las Vegas area.  Hopefully the developers will soon add support for clubs and events all across the country.

Looking at the venue list, you can see the addresses, phone numbers, and general information of each club.  You can check out the events specific to any venue and there are also buttons for adding yourself to the relevant guestlist and for reserving tables for your party.

The events menu button provides a list of all events currently scheduled for the next week and a half.  Selecting any one event will give you all the information you need in choosing where you going to go this weekend.

VelvetRope does a good job of what it has covered already, which is currently only the Las Vegas area.  As such, it might only do an iPhone user any good if they’re currently visiting the city and need help figuring out what they want to do and where they want to go when it comes to the night life.

At just $.99, and with other cities planned for future updates, VelvetRope is the perfect companion for a big weekend in the City of Sin.

Velvet Rope is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  It requires the iPhone OS 3.2.1 or later.

With thanks to developer Snow Storm Software, The iPhone App Review is happy to give away a massive 23 free copies of their new app Sinterra. Sinterra is a colorful strategy game – easy to learn, but hard to master. The promo codes below are redeemable on the US App Store only.

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Price: $0.99    Score: 9/10    By Lee Cash

Ask any self-confessed java-junkie what the worst thing is about visiting a strange town, and the most common response – maybe after “I don’t know where I’m going” – will surely be: “I don’t know where to get a good cup of coffee.”

Coming to our rescue, MagnoSphere Software’s latest app “Where Is Coffee?” attempts to mitigate such a possible caffeine drought by pin-pointing just where the best mug-of-joe can be found no matter where you find yourself.

The concept is quite simple, and is similar in practice to other social navigational apps that rely on user input to provide any real worth. App owners, after perhaps enjoying a particularly good brew or even just wishing to show their support for their favorite local barista, are invited to tag coffee establishments anywhere in the world with a rating and a few choice words. And if you just so happen to be in the vicinity of said establishment and are looking for coffee, you’ll be privy to a number of these first-hand recommendations.

Using your iPhone’s GPS ability and the power of community – not to mention some people’s almost zealous affection toward their favorite coffee-houses – Where Is Coffee? not only provides a great service, it’s a telling insight into the minds of fellow coffee-freaks. There’s a real sense of glimpsing behind the curtain after honing in on a stranger’s personal favorite bean-house and then partaking in what they believe to be the best coffee in town. And, of course, you can always add a retort of your own. What better way to enjoy your new-found coffee hang-out than by sipping on a (possibly) wonderful latte while confirming or disagreeing with another person’s opinion?

The interface is clean and easy to use, with a warm umber aesthetic that a coffee lover will find alluring and attractive with both satellite and normal map modes offered.

If there is one issue we can find at fault about Where Is Coffee? is its understandable reliance on user-generated content. So far there are over 23,000 coffee-houses and their kind rated, but if the app is to be a success, this database needs to flourish or the quoted locations become a mere rag-tag collection of possible iPhone-owning café owners flagging their own site as the best place around.

So, go buy it. If you’re into your coffee and are interested in what the best – and sometimes underground – java haunts are in your city and the cities you may soon be visiting, Where Is Coffee? is a godsend and comes highly recommended; especially at such an attractive price.

Where Is Coffee? is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch and requires OS 3.0

Price: $1.99    Score: 8/10    By Lara Vukelich

If you’re at a loss for what to say on a special occasion, Scribe! by Artmania aims to provide a solution. With letter and note templates in nine categories ranging from Love to Business, the app can help you pen anything from a harsh break-up note to a professional cover letter for your resume.

Within each of the nine major categories there are several subcategories. For instance, the Invitations categories is broken down into the subcategories of Birthday, Birth Announcement, Baptism, and Housewarming. Opening a subcategory will bring up a number of suggested letters/notes. Places where names and other details should be substituted are marked.

Scribe’s suggested notes go from the serious to the irreverent. A personal favorite of mine is in the breakup section. It says in part,  ”. . . when we were first going out everything was a lot of fun. Now I realize that I was the fun person – you are just a loser.”  You can also view the letters in French if you happen to parle Français, or if you just want to pretend that you do.

Once you’ve found just the right words to send your condolences or apologize to your significant other for some inappropriate behavior, you are able to open the template in your email (provided you have previously set up an email account on your iPhone) and make any alterations necessary. Then you can send it off to the recipient, or just send it to yourself to be copy and pasted into a word document later.

Scribe! is a quick solution for anyone who chronically suffers from writer’s block or is just unsure about how to phrase a note for a specific occasion.  The templates actually read pretty naturally, as opposed to sounding stiff or forced. Depending on how much time you usually waste searching for just the right words, this app might be worth the price at less than $2.

Scribe is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch and requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.

With thanks to developer Anthony Libby, The iPhone App Review is happy to give away a huge 20 free copies of his new app Color Blind Aid. Color Blind Aid provides people who suffer from red-green colorblindness with a tool that allows them to detect red and green in their environment. The promo codes below are redeemable on the US App Store only.

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Price: $4.99    Score: 7/10    By Anna Papachristos

Most of us take our eyesight for granted.  As long as we can see things clearly enough, whether naturally or with glasses and contacts, we rarely consider what it would be like to not see things for what they actually are.  However, for those who are colorblind, what you see may not always be what you get, which is where Color Blind Aid by iDisrupt.com comes in handy.

Designed to help those with red-green blindness, Color Blind Aid works with the camera in your iPhone to display real-time video of your surroundings.  Red objects will flash blue, while green objects will flash yellow as a way to indicate exactly which color you are looking at if colorblind.  Users can adjust the color-detecting sensitivity by using the color-coded sliders at the bottom of the screen.  This becomes useful when adjusting to differeing conditions, such as indoor or outdoor, as they fluctuate in vibrancy.

However, Tony Libby, who came up with the idea to create an app geared toward helping the colorblind, does not know anyone who is actually colorblind.  Libby took his idea and put it out there for the public and sales have been going better than expected, he said, especially internationally.  By getting his product out in the open, he hopes to receive feedback from actual colorblind users in order to improve his product according to their needs.

To help, up-and-coming artist Maxwell Farinato took Color Blind Aid for a test run.  As an artist, being colorblind can sometimes be a bit of a hassle when trying to find the right hue, and as an avid gamer, puzzle games often take the back burner because most require color-matching skills.  Libby’s intentions with Color Blind Aid are meant to help just this, allowing users to differentiate colors while shopping, play video games, or coordinate outfits.

For Farinato, testing out Color Blind Aid resulted in mixed feelings.  For instance, he made the observation that you need really good lighting in order to detect an objects color.

“It seems you need really good lighting or else it will not pick up on anything.  Sometimes, it even flashed specks of blue and yellow on things I knew were distinctly neither red nor green,” Farinato said.

While perusing Wal-mart, Farinato used Color Blind Aid up against a flower arrangement he knew was distinctly shades of red and green, yet no blue or yellow flashed.  However, when carelessly holding it face down toward the floor, yellow flashed despite the white surface.

“I turned up the sensitivity on both blue and yellow the highest it would go just to see if that helped, but instead it only made the colors flicker really quickly and suddenly when it did detect red or green, but it flashed so fast that I wasn’t sure whether blue, yellow or both were flashing,” Farinato continued.

“Despite all this, though, it worked beautifully in direct light.  I tested it on my friend’s red shoes in the sunlight and it flashed blue very clearly.  If it could just be fixed to do this in every case, I think it would be a great thing to have around,” Farinato concluded.

Based on his findings, it seems that Color Blind Aid holds much potential, and with the developer’s openness and willingness to accept feedback, this app surely has room to grow, but he needs users to help make it the best tool it can be.

Have you downloaded Color Blind Aid?  Share your input here or email iDisrupt.com with your comments.

Color Blind Aid requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with the iPhone only.