The iPhone App Review : iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad App Reviews

The iPhone App Review : iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad App Reviews

Epic Sax Guy Gyrates on Your iPhone

December 22nd, 2010

michelleschusterman

Price: $0.99 Score: 7/10 By M. Schusterman

Not familiar with Eurovision 2010? It’s a music contest that saw the beginning of a viral phenomenon known as Epic Sax Guy, leading to thousands of Facebook fans and plenty of YouTube remixes. This app, designed by I’M Software Studio, is one such remix.

Epic Sax Guy opens to a repeated shot of the man himself (who used to be known as Sergey Stepanov and is a member of a Moldovan band known as “SunStroke Project”) gyrating away to a loop of the main sax riff from the song. Down at the bottom are five icons, showing Stepanov in different poses. Tap them to change the video loop, although the audio riff never changes (and gets old fast).

The video loops include Sax Guy’s famous gyration, a little Elvis-inspired twist, his fist-pump and what looks to be the end of the son, wherein Sax Guy strikes what is indeed an epic pose. You can also choose an option to view all four of these on a continuous loop.

I suppose my question would be why on earth would you want to do such a thing. If you’re a fan of the original viral video, I guess this app would qualify as entertainment, although it should be noted that it runs eight measures of music repeatedly and does not feature the entire song. But if you just can’t get enough of that lick and those gyrating hips, why not give it a download.

Epic Sax Guy [iTunes Link] is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.

FleetMaster: Sink Battleships on Your iPhone

December 21st, 2010

michelleschusterman

Price: FREE Score: 10/10 By M. Schusterman

Fans of the classic Battleship game will want to get their hands on this freebie immediately. FleetMaster, designed by Digital Future, is every bit as addictive as the original Milton Bradley game.

FleetMaster gives you the option of playing “solo” versus a computer, or playing online with others through GameCenter. Once you begin, your subs and ships appear on the grid one at a time. Tap any place on the grid to place your ship there, and tap the rotate button in the corner if needed. If you don’t care where your ships are laid, tap “Auto Place” and the app will do it for you.

A wheel at the bottom shows how many shots you get, starting with five and working down to one. Tap once on a grid space to focus a compass on it, then double tap to fire. If you hit a part of your opponents ship, there’s a satisfying little explosion. If not, you just get a splash.

When you sink your opponent’s vessel, a message appears letting you know which one, and they’re tracked at the bottom of the screen so you can strategize.

For a free game, the graphics and sounds are really fantastic. I found myself putting off my review just to go back and play again and again – if you enjoyed the original Battleship game, I highly recommend checking FleetMaster out.

FleetMaster [iTunes Link] is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.1 or later. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.

Captcha the Game Creates Quite the Confusion

December 21st, 2010

A. Papachristos

Price: $.99 Score: 5/10 By A. Papachristos

Anyone who has ever entered personal information online or purchased items from the Internet knows that CAPTCHA codes work as a safety measure to protect your online identity. Captcha the Game by Hint Solutions takes such codes and turns them into a game that tests your ability to decipher such text.

When you begin, you will find an intuitive main menu featuring four buttons – Play, Leaderboards, Achievements and Help. The Leaderboards connect to Game Center, allowing you to compare your high scores with players worldwide. Achievements, of course, marks all the milestones you have reached during game play, while the Help button attempts to explain not so much how to play the game, but the concept behind Captcha codes themselves.

You see, CAPTCHA, which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, protects websites against bots by presenting distorted text that only humans can decipher. This way, users can hopefully rest assured that any information they enter on such a site will be safeguarded. However, the Help section goes on to describe the Google ReCAPTCHA process, which recognizes text found in old books that have yet to be digitized.

Unfortunately, this guide still leaves users entirely clueless as to how to play Captcha the Game and what their ultimate goal may actually be. After tapping Play, all I found was a screen presenting me with a CAPTCHA code that I needed to input correctly, and having done so, I was simple faced with CAPTCHA code after CAPTCHA code, wondering when the actual game was going to begin. Sadly, it seems that this repetitive, unpleasant task reflected the game in its entirety.

To make matters worse, at one point, I realized I had tapped the wrong letter after I hit enter, yet the application claimed I was correct. Finding this odd, I purposely typed incorrect letters just to see how Captcha the Game would react. I exchanged T’s for Y’s and A’s for Q’s and found that the application approved of my submissions despite the fact that I knew the letters were definitely wrong. With this inaccurate system and the lack of any real game or purpose whatsoever, I cannot help but wonder if I’ve completely overlooked the entire premise, or if this truly is all that Captcha the Game has to offer.

If you’d like to test out Captcha the Game for free, you can download the lite version here.

Captcha the Game [iTunes Link] requires iPhone OS 4.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.

Find Worthwhile iPhone Freebies with Free-App Hero

December 20th, 2010

A. Papachristos

Price: $1.99 Score: 9/10 By A. Papachristos

With an innumerable amount of applications flooding the iTunes App Store daily, users depend on sites such as ours to guide them in the right direction so they do not waste their money. However, a great many of these applications are free and plentiful, dozens offering the same basic service.

So how does one differentiate between those that simply waste space and those that uphold their promise? Well, Free-App Hero by Herosoft Ltd can do all that sifting for you. Free-App Hero, designed by professional game reviewers, updates users on the best free games applications in the App Store, eliminating the headache of trying to determine their worth yourself.

Free-App Hero presents an exceptionally simple interface, providing two lists of free applications. One offers the names of what they deem to be the top 100 free apps overall, labeled as their Permanent list. Ordered from most recently released to the oldest, all of these games are permanently free, unlike some that are only free as part of a short-term promotion. The Recent list focuses on free applications that have just been added to the store that are also worth a try. Each listing features a short review that provides the basic information you need to make a judgment call. If you think a particular game will be a great match, use the link at the bottom of the screen to go right to the App Store to download the app immediately.

Though game likeability is certainly subjective, Free-App Hero does a wonderful job of leading users in the right direction so they no longer have to waste time wandering through lengthy lists of games that might please them. They do not just search for any game listed as free and add it to their list. Instead, they are exceptionally thorough, playing each one themselves and writing a little something on each. (Sure, their application isn’t free, but anyone who puts so much time and effort into something would probably charge more than $1.99, so consider this a bargain.) This way, unnoticed applications that get lost in the shuffle will have a chance to shine.

Best of all, Free-App Hero makes sure to exclude free games that are only lite versions of their full-version counterparts and those apps which are only free because they are cluttered with advertisements. (The ad issue is another reason why you must pay for Free-App Hero, but you do get what you pay for, so enjoy!) Like a tour guide, Free-App Hero will surely provide the best information possible for an informed decision.

Free-App Hero [iTunes Link] requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.

AutoRobot TD – Defend and Defeat is Arcade Style Tower Defense

December 17th, 2010

Campbell

Price: $0.99 Score: 9/10 By S. Campbell

Developed by Mobile Force, AutoRobot TD – Defend and Defeat is a newly released arcade-style tower defense game for iPhone. Autorobot TD combines bright, old-school visuals with exciting strategic gameplay.

As with other games in the genre, the aim of AutoRobot TD is to protect your tower from an onslaught of enemies. As your foes emerge from the ‘green’ tower, they follow a one-way track towards the ‘red’ tower. As commander, it’s your job to prepare defenses by positioning a number of weapon installments across the map. You get 10 lives to begin with, which you lose one at a time everytime an enemy breaches your defenses.

There are two game modes, Arcade and Endless. The Arcade mode features 60 different levels, each with a time limit to victory. As you progress through the levels you gain access to weapon upgrades and new defenses which can be employed to increase your chances of survival. Endless mode pits you against a never-ending army of enemy forces and the game continues until your defenses are overwhelmed.

AutoRobot TD also features 2-player multiplayer, allowing you to go head-to-head with a friend via BlueTooth or WiFi in both arcade and endless modes. A rockin’ soundtrack and OpenFeint integration for scoretracking and leaderboards round out a very solid offering for fans of tower defense games.

AutoRobot TD [iTunes Link] is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.

Filamente for iPad Provides On-the-Go SharePoint Access

December 17th, 2010

Campbell

Price: $6.99 Score: 8/10 By S. Campbell

Developed by Aircreek Inc, Filamente for iPad is a versatile client for handling SharePoint tasks on-the-go.

Microsoft SharePoint is a powerful tool for collaborating, file sharing, and web publishing but there are limits to what you can achieve on SharePoint via Safari, which is where Filamente for iPad comes in. To get started you simply add a SharePoint site from within the app, indicating where appropriate your site URL, username and password.

With Filamente for iPad, you can manage all of your SharePoint sites and subsites, with support for SharePoint 2007, 2010 and SharePoint Online. You can also create ‘Favorites’ lists, which bring together data from multiple SharePoint sites and saves a lot of time. Access from your device is secure via HTTPS, with support for SSL certificates.

Filamente enables you to upload documents and other files to SharePoint, search and edit existing SharePoint data and email it to yourself or a colleague. You can also view Microsoft Office Suite documents (.xls, .doc, .ppt etc) as well as other formats (PDF, text) from within Filamente, adding to your ability to achieve multiple tasks from within the one app.

A 16-page user manual is included with Filamente, which details adding/editing/deleting/sending list items as well as all manner of folder, document and photo management.

If you use SharePoint for business, at $6.99, Filamente for iPad is a great value client for mobile access to all your data.

Filamente for iPad [iTunes Link] is compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.