Apple iPhone Apps | Gear Diary

New Potato TuneLink Home Wireless Streamer Review

Back in the spring of 2011, we reviewed New Potato’s TuneLink Auto Direct Connect Audio Solution for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (Read the review, here.) At the time it was the perfect solution for me since I didn’t have Bluetooth in my car; the TuneLink easily added streaming to it. I’ve since leased a car with all the bells and whistles and, as a result, I don’t need an after-market streaming solution. If you car doesn’t have Bluetooth you should check it out. It is simple to set up, it works great, and I really enjoyed my time using…

Game Diary, Reviews

Jumpster for iPhone and iPad Review

Type of app: Action-Platformer game Platform/where to buy: iPhone/iPad (Universal); available in the App Store Developer: Vogat / G5 Entertainment Description: Jump ship! As Jumpster, a cute little alien, is cruising through the galaxy, his ship is hit by a meteorite and springs a fuel leak! Poor Jumpster crash-lands on the planet Okadia and now needs to recover the lost fuel if he wants to continue his trek. To do so, he must tackle traitorous traps and ravenous monsters in his path. Features: 80 Challenging levels to overcome 4 Hostile planets to escape 42 Fancy costumes for Jumpster 10 Powerful…

Gear Bits, Music Diary, News & Features

iOS 6 Brings Loads of SIGNIFICANT App Updates

By now we all know the mantra – when there is a new iOS update, prepare for the onslaught of app updates. It used to be surprising … now it is expected. I have probably updated 100 apps on my iPad since last week. [Oh, and I should mention that I LOVE the in-place updating!] But while some updates are just bug fixes and iOS 6 compatibility, others bring entirely new functionality. Significant functionality. And the funny thing is that it is hard to know what changes are major or minor when you see a list of a dozen or…

Editorials

Is iOS 6 Setting Your World on Fire?

We were all super excited here at Gear Diary to download iOS 6! Some of it has been exciting, but on the whole we have some mixed feelings about how exciting this is … read on for our thoughts! Douglas Moran: Downloaded and installed iOS 6 onto my iPhone 4S. Not much to report so far–although THANK GOD Bluetooth is now on the top-level in Settings!–but I’ve noticed that *every time* I tap the “Genius” button in the App Store, uh, app, it crashes the app. Every time. Tried rebooting my iPhone, and no joy. Anyone else seeing this? Did a…

Reviews

Run Roo Run iOS Review

Type of app: iOS, Universal for iPad and iPhone Platform/where to buy: iTunes, App Store Developer: 5th Cell Description (from the App Store): Hop, skip and jump Your way across tons unique and interesting obstacles in the Australian Outback! Run Run Roo is a micro-platformer featuring single screen levels filled with unique, fun obstacles and easy to learn one-touch gameplay. Play for only a few minutes or a few hours; your journey to Sydney always picks up where you left off. Major features: Run Roo Run is a micro-platformer, meaning each level is a single screen. Make it across and…

Reviews

ShopShop for iOS Review

Type of app: iOS, Universal for iPad and iPhone Platform/where to buy: iTunes, App Store Developer: Nikolaj Schumacher Description (from the App Store): A shopping list. Simple. Free. Major features: This is a straightforward shopping list. It keeps a master list of items you add regularly, making it easy to rebuild shopping lists each week. It also lets you create multiple lists for different stores, offers Dropbox sync, and has a setting that prevents screen timeout (for those times you are shopping and referencing the phone repeatedly) Ease of use/Overall performance: This has a surprising number of features for a…

Reviews

Feeddler RSS Reader for iOS Review

Type of app: RSS Reader/News Aggregator Platform/where to buy: iPad and iPhone (universal app); available in the App Store Developer: C.B. Liu Description: Feeddler is a fast and highly customizable Google Reader client that stays perfectly synced with Google and presents RSS stories in an easy-to-read interface. Major features: Feeddler is great if you want a fast and simple RSS reader. You don’t get flashy Flipboard or Pulse style navigation, but you get all your news in one place with a clean user interface. It also offers a whole slew of options to share news via social media or push…

Music Diary, News & Features

IK Multimedia Releases Huge 2.6 Update for AmpliTube!

I was just going through and trying to finish up my hands-on review of the major updates in AmpliTube 2.5 and AmpliTube Fender 1.2, and I noticed that AmpliTube appeared in my App Update list … with even MORE content added! As always there is a great combination of fixes and improvements along with in-app purchases of new amp and effect models. My review will be updated to include the version 2.6 content as well when it is published! I was reading a history of bass amplification the other day just before the update came, and amongst the classic models…

Gear Bits

Pocket Informant Saves My Day

Ever have just “one of those weeks”? I have been having one. Between several work commitments, service appointments at my home, and some family and friend obligations, it has been a week of juggling appointments and rearranging schedules. Unfortunately, this week also highlighted my biggest complaint about iOS: iCal. I can’t stand that my only options are list, day and month. The lack of integration with tasks is also a pain. A busy schedule only highlighted these limitations, and made me realize it was time to bite the bullet and find a better option. Luckily for me, the good folks…

News & Features

Pogoplug – My Own Private Cloud With 1TB Online Backup

I am always on the lookout for simple and secure backup solutions and good methods for syncing personal files across multiple devices. I use Dropbox and Google Drive, but have always liked the idea of my own personal cloud solution for more confidential information. I have been using The free Tonido program on my home Mac, iPad, iPhone and Google Nexus 7 for a few months, and it has worked quite well. I have not purchased the Tonido Plug, but had been considering it for a few weeks until Pogoplug announced a great deal on the Pogoplug Classic device and storage….

Editorials

New iPhone and iPods Next Week? Or Perhaps iOS 6 Will Be the Biggest Star

Apple’s Special Event is scheduled for next Wednesday. At it, we assume, we will see the new iPhone (or whatever it’s called) and won’t be surprised if we see a new iPod lineup. We’re still hopeful we will see the iPad mini, but all indications are that Apple will wait a bit. After all, why would they announce two much-anticipated devices at the same time and, in the process, compete with themselves for attention. The iPhone 5, new iPod touch and nano etc are not, however, the reason for this post. No, this post is about the three features I’m…

Reviews

SwankoLab for iPhone Review

Unless I am taking a quick shot to show someone a random item, I never simply use my iPhone camera app and a raw photo. Every image taken is run through some application to reach my desired outcome. The iPhone has truly become a wonderful platform for amateur photographers. I think my love for photography stems from a young age when my father was into it and we even had a dark room at our print shop business. I can still smell the peculiar scent of the chemicals and see the red lights. The entire process always intrigued me. The…

News & Features

CVS Mobile App Update Brings Same-Day Photo Printing

Since last year when Walgreens (the pharmacy closest to my house) and my company’s health insurance provider failed to reach an agreement on prescription medication prices, I’ve found myself in a CVS pharmacy a lot more frequently. And you know, they’re pretty good places. I haven’t used them for much other than pharmacy purposes and picking up the odd item or two, but given the improvements they’ve just made to their mobile app, I may just start using them for photo printing. CVS’ updated mobile app will allow customers to print photos directly from their smartphone camera or their CVSphoto.com…

Editorials

The Best iOS Apps for Taking Notes

We’re back with another “Best Apps for…” This time out we’re looking at the Best Apps for Taking Notes… Judie: The built-in notes app is great for quick jots, but for heavier duties, I can’t recommend AudioNote highly enough! (iPad version here.) Dan: Judie, but there is no sync except over local WiFi with Audio Note? Judie: Dan, when I’m trying to listen to a lecture, meeting or in the middle of an important interview, the audio coupled with time-stamped (in relation to the recorded audio) is invaluable. It’s not that big of a deal to me to sync later. Chris: I use…

News & Features

Evernote Page Camera Turns Your Smartphone into a Scanner

Evernote has long let you snap a picture of a page of handwritten text and save it to your Evernote account. That has always been my fallback position when I was taking notes but had left my Livescribe smartpen at home. In addition, when I was in Washington last week I didn’t bring my Livescribe pen. Instead, I typed out notes during the sessions using my iPad and Apple keyboard while the voice note recorder in Evernote was also active. It worked great and I didn’t really miss the Livescribe pen. Last week Evernote went one better and, in the process,…

News & Features

Roamz 2.5 Makes Smart Social Search Smarter

Last month we shared our interview with Roamz CEO Jonathan Baruch. (Read it.) We also noted that an update to the ‘Social Goggles for the Real World’ app would be coming soon. Well Roamz 2.5 has launched and it brings some neat new features. As Baruch notes, “The new version of Roamz takes local discovery to the next level helping people find, discover and share great places and events around them.” The release goes on to explain that… Roamz’ new features make learning about exciting local events even easier. The update has a revamped interface with new search tiles, which…

Crowdfunding, eBooks, Reviews

Seven Poets and the Assassin’s Secret Is a New Kind of Novel

When I heard about the iOS app Seven Poets and the Assassin’s Secret, I couldn’t help but be intrigued. It is a unique, real-time serialized novel centered around a fictional terrorist attack on the Olympic Stadium in London during the closing ceremony. Content runs from August through October, when real-time serialization will end. Seven Poets tells the story of seven children who are able to escape the terrorists and their struggles to survive in a new and different world. The app, which features in-app purchases for each new portion of the story, went live at the beginning of August and…

Editorials

Gear Diary’s Best Apps for…Photography

With so many apps in the iTunes App Store it has become all but impossible to find the best of the best. To help you find the best apps we are beginning a series of posts highlighting some of the apps we personally use and rely upon. Our process is completely unscientific. We ask the Gear Diary team to list up to three apps in a specific category… something like “Best Apps for… Photography” and then collate the responses. Those that get multiple mentions go toward the top. So what are our favorite iOS photography apps? Camera+: It’s been at…

Reviews

Catapult King for iPhone Review; It Brings Tons of Fun

Many iPhone users have spent countless hours tossing birds at various structures in an attempt to defeat the pigs. While I do fall into this group, I have also taken a hiatus from the game series and have been searching for something fresh. Despite the change, the idea of tossing items to knock down things is still an enjoyable task. I recently found a new game that requires structures to be destroyed by flying objects and I am totally addicted. Catapult King allows users to go medieval on some castles in a fun, destructive game. Let’s take a look. Become…

News & Features

With Nuance’s Nina “When in Doubt, Just Ask Your Phone”

Between Siri, OS X Mountain Lion’s global voice recognition and Google’s voice to text not stinking on Android any longer, the days of tapping out your messages are rapidly coming to an end. Yes, voice recognition is becoming commonplace, accurate and fast. And more and more people are finding that it’s a great way to create text. (Hell, even Elana is using voice recognition on her iPhone.) But there’s more going on here than simple voice recognition. Siri, for example, is intelligent voice recognition – voice recognition that actually does more than simply create text from the words you speak….

Gear Bits, News & Features

Instant Business Card to Contacts Conversion with INTSIG’s CamCard App

If you’re a member of the professional world, you’re probably used to pocketing business cards like a pro. You slide them right into your pocket, only to fumble them out later for the information you need. It’s not a terrible system. If you’re a smart phone owner, however, you’ll know how time-consuming it is to manually enter business card information into your contacts. INTSIG’s CamCard app makes that process a lot faster and easier. Using your smartphone’s camera as a rudimentary scanner, the app targets the necessary information from the photo and converts it into your address book. The app,…