Free App Store Review VII: The Epic Edition (Part 1)
Posted by Eric March on July 31, 2008 at 12:03 am
I think I may have to start doing this column thrice weekly, because since Saturday there have been a dozen hogsheads worth of new freebies to check out. (That’s three and a half metric buttloads for those of you not up on your weights and measures.) Some of it is even pretty good! But I’m not even kidding when I speak of the sheer number of apps that have been released since Saturday. There are 5 new pages of releases and updates in iTunes, and 36 new releases (and a couple of updates whose releases I think I missed so they will be treated as new releases.) So I’m breaking this down into two parts so that it doesn’t require three miles of scrolling to get to the bottom.
On with Part 1!
Developer: Palringo Limited
Category: Social Networking
Palringo Instant Messenger is, as you have probably guessed, a multi-messenger app. In itself that’s nothing particularly special; it does have support for a nice array of messenger services, including AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo!, Gadu Gadu, ICQ, Jabber, and Windows Live Messenger. Palringo Instant Messenger’s hook is that it appears to log in to all of your configured services simultaneously and treats your individual contacts from each messenger as one big contact list, allowing you to send messages to anyone on any supported service, or even send bulk messages to multiple recipients across different services simultaneously. Palringo also supports SMS text messaging, picture messaging (for those services that support it), and voice IMs (also for services that support it). Palringo claims to be easy on your data plans, sipping bandwidth as conservatively as possible. The description claims that just one megabyte is sufficient for Palringo send and receive the equivalent of 4,500 SMS messages, 32 picture messages, or 15 mintues of voice messages. (Given, of course, an average length of message and size of pictures, which are not shared and so don’t mean much.) Nevertheless, it appears to be a pretty good IM client, all things considered, and it’s free, so it’s worth a trial at the very least.
Developer: HappyAppy
Category: Entertainment
It’s an accelerometer-based Magic 8 Ball, though HappyAppy says that this is the best Magic 8-Ball for the iPhone, apparently because when you shake it, the answer fades in and stays there until you shake it again. You know, this kind of reminds me of something, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…
Developer: Eric Redmond
Category: Entertainment
Oh, yeah! This. This is another Magic 8-Ball, which makes brilliant use of the accelerometer by letting you shake your device while the answer fades in and stays there until you shake it again. Okay, enough snark — actually, this one is graphically superior and features the 4-sided answer pyramid that floats in real Magic 8-Ball, thus making it more authentic. What really makes this a tad more amusing is that you can change the look of the ball from the standard black to a gold “bling-ball,” a smiley face, or enable fullscreen mode. You can also choose from a set of alternate answers, including “zen,” “weird,” and others. Unfortunately, it puts the settings in the iPhone/Touch’s Settings app rather than keeping them as a local menu. I almost want to stamp FAIL on this one and move on, but as magic 8-balls go, this still has the others beat. I just hope magic 8-balls don’t become the new Flashlight apps.
Developer: Frederic Bayle
Category: Sports
Another app whose description is entirely in another language — in this case, français. It makes me want to Judo Chop Chop! Okay, so maybe it’s forgiveable for this app, since it’s only available in French. I’m going to guess that this is a Judo scoring app that lets you keep track of match scores. Of course, it could also let you keep track of how many things you’ve chopped up with your Macbook Air. Hooray for versatility!
Developer: Thomas Herzog
Category: Utilities
Zapper is a feature-rich network-based remote control for a Linux-based Video Disk Recorder. (I assume that’s Linux geek for PVR) It allows you to connect to said VDR via Telnet, whereupon it will send SVDRP commands to the host running the software. It seems to feature quite a few options, including a scheduler, timer, channels menu, system setup menu, audio settings menu, and access to your recordings. It also seems to be able to allow you enter custom commands. While the app is feature-rich, it seems to be aesthetically poor. For some reason, the primary-coloured buttons all have a canvas texture applied, which kind of makes it look like it was designed for a Geocities page circa 1997. But it’s the functionality that counts, right? And this app seems to have it.
Developer: kelko
Category: Utilities
TouchClock seems to be some kind of work timer, allowing you to time certain tasks. It allows pausing for breaks, and can break any given task down into sub-tasks with their own timers. A log is kept of your timers so you can review them later on. It took me 2:32 to write this. 2:33. 2:34…
Developer: 360mind
Category: Books
I think this may be the first free eBook. Though it’s not an eBook per se — that is, it’s not in a format intended to be read by another eBook app. Rather, it is its own self-contained eBook. A children’s book at that, one which follows “a restless shadow on a nighttime adventure.” The book is presented as a series of graphic panels on a grid. Panels are read by tapping on a square to zoom it in to full size, and tapped again to return back to the grid — something the developer calls “zoom narrative.”
Developer: Rove Mobile Inc.
Category: Business
Taking a page from the Motorola book of naming conventions, PCMobilizr is a remote access app that lets you connect to your home PC from anywhere over WiFi, EDGE or HSDPA. Note that this is not based around the VNC protocol, so you can’t use any old VNC server. Instead, it works much like the Go To My PC service, where their system acts like a proxy between your home PC and the iPhone or Touch. Ostensibly, this sort of method is employed because it’s almost a no-brainer for the end user to set up, making it simple to configure and use. PCMobilizr is a two-piece suite consisting of the iPhone client (what we’re talking about here) and PC server (an “agent” they call it). Naturally you need to sign up for the service, too — and that’s where the catch comes in. The service is free for the first 30-days, but if you wish to continue using it after that period, it’ll cost you $9.50 a month. (No, I don’t know why they picked such an odd sum.) If you aren’t particularly technical of mind and need to be able to access a remote PC on a regular basis, then this service might be for you. Otherwise, I’d stick with a more standardized VNC app.
Developer: Craig Otis
Category: Productivity
Here’s a task manager for people who hate task managers. It’s simple and effective and helps you organize your daily life in a way that’s easy to swallow. It has a clean, well presented interface, supports prioritizing, setting due-dates, colour-coded tasks, and even features “smart groups” that allow you to group select tasks into one bundle. It has some nice features, but it’s nothing complicated and it’s easy on the eyes. A future version will allow wireless syncing.
Developer: Gareth Townsend
Category: Navigation
Here’s a simple app with one specific purpose: It will use Location Services to determine your current whereabouts (accuracy dependent upon the services available in your device) and send to someone via E-Mail as a Google Maps link. Nothing more, nothing less, but one of those simple “hey, why didn’t I think of that?” apps.
Developer: Arboretum Software LLC
Category: Navigation
Here’s a simple app with one specific purpose, and no, I didn’t accidentally copy & paste twice, but I won’t fault you for thinking it, because I had to look at the App Store twice. Sure enough, there they were. Side-by-side, simultaneous releases with the same name and precisely the same purpose written by two completely different people … in alternate universes, each unaware of the other, yet their lives, irrevocably entwined, are connected by a mysterious, unbreakable thread that passes through … The Twilight Zone.
Developer: Eurocenter
Category: Games
Graal Zone is the first massively multiplayer online arcade battle for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Create or join a team or play You Against The World as you go up against hundreds of other players in an epic war game for the ages. Weild laser guns, pistols, grenades, and more to take down the enemy as you travel across the map in search of blood and glory. Graphically, Graal Zone is pretty simplistic, opting to go for a very cartoonish motif that looks more like it was designed for the Super NES or Sega Genesis than a more modern platform, what with its simple colours and tile-based graphics. That’s not necessarily a criticism; I dig vintage, though it comes off here looking as though the design was the result of a lack of better artistic talent rather than a deliberate attempt at retro chic. (Check out the awkward perspective on the lamppost in the screenshot, for example.) However, this is still a preview of the game that seems to be in its final beta stages; the game isn’t officially rolled out ’til August 10th, and will come in two flavours: This free version, and Graal Zone+, a pay version of the game with more weapons, driveable vehicles, and the ability to start a new game with heavier firepower.
Developer: Raizlabs Corporation
Category: Social Networking
I’d like to be able to say that this has something to do with a moron who obsessively updates his exact whereabouts to everyone in his friends list … actually, come to think of it, I probably can say that. GPS Twit is a location-aware Twitter application that is capable of updating your current global coordinates whenever you make a post, so the world can know exactly where you’re being a twit.
Developer: Francisco Adarve-Martin
Category: Lifestyle
Lifestyle? I guess. Anyway, Girlfriend Caller has one function: It dials your girlfriend. No word on whether it hits on her or checks out her rack when she’s not looking, but it will keep a log of how many times it has dialed her number. If that’s not enough to convince you, there’s a helpful list of reasons you should use Girlfriend Caller (also referred to as “Sweetheart” in the description and screenshot), such as “fastest dialing possible,” “safest dialing possible when driving,” and “You can’t take a restraining order out against a piece of software.”
Developer: Masayuki Akamatsu
Category: Utilities
The description is in Japanese, and my Kanji is a little rusty, but I think it says that this application will using the iPhone’s tamagoyaki (rolled omelet) to point me in the direction of the nearest sea otter if I poke the center of the compass with angrily intent for a free. My translation might be a little off, though. Oh! Wait, no, actually, it says that this will use the current time of day along with your current latitude and longitude (via GPS) to tell you which direction you are currently facing by seeing where your shadow is cast when you point a finger straignt down at the center of the compass. Or something. I’m not sure why you wouldn’t, y’know, just use the GPS like it was intended to be used, but I guess if you’re somewhere that you can’t get a 3G or EDGE signal, this is kind of your Wild Wilderness Survival Kit method.
Developer: Agile Web Solutions
Category: Productivity
1Password is a secure password application for websites you have an account with. It will let you store the web URL, your login and password, and give you access to them like bookmarks that will automatically log you in. It uses the iPhone 3G’s hardware-accelerated AES encryption algorhythms for high-powered security, and features a two-layered unlock code and master password system to ensure that your information is kept safe and secure, even if you lose your phone. Of course, if you forget your unlock codes and/or master password, you’re screwed. Nevertheless, it will also sync your data wirelessly and securely with 1Password for Mac, a commercial app that’s available separately. Note that the iPhone version of this app is free only for a limited time, so grab it while you can.
Developer: Sven A. Schmidt
Category: Sports
Here’s one for you runners out there. Pacemaker is a simple app that lets you choose a distance run and enter your expected finish time for that distance. Pacemaker will then calculate your expected finish time for other distances. The trick here is that it doesn’t simply factor the times out based on your numbers. It will also attempt to take into account that your pace will tend to slow over longer distances as you become fatigued, this providing a more realistic (albeit still synthetic) estimate of the completion times for long distances. Note that for the most part, Pacemaker uses the metric system, but it does provide a helpful 1 mile marker for people who don’t live in the US.
Developer: Mantis Bible Company
Category: Reference
Oh, I get it. Mantis. Because mantises “pray.” Clever. I guess we shouldn’t bring up that whole sexual cannibalism thing the females of the species often engage in. That would just be disturbing. But this is about bible study, not the weird and wacky world of entomology, and Mantis Bible Study aims to give you the best tool money can’t buy to study the scripture. With a list of features as wide as the part in the Red Sea, Mantis Bible Study is ideal for both the casual reader and the full-time student or pastor. Containing the full text of the KJV, you can jump from verse to verse with the quick-click history, easily pick out sections with the quick reference chapter and section headers, quick searching, a range of study tools, including the ability to write inline notes and highlight passages, multiple available translations with the ability to see multiple translations of the same passage, and more. If you’re a student of the Christian faith, this is the app you’ve been looking for.
Aaand we’re done with part one. I’m sorry to leave it at such a cliffhanger, but I had to cut it off somewhere. Tune in tomorrow to find out where that wormhole led to, why the replicator keeps dispensing Gary Coleman, and whether Captain Montalban will finally discover the coordinates to the mythical upholstered planet of Corinthia.
(roll credits)
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Posted in Application Related, Entertaining, Free App Store Review, Gaming Related, Productivity Apps, Round Ups, app store, iPhone 2.0, iPhone 3G
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August 1st, 2008 at 1:32 pm
hey, thanks for reviewing my app! at first it got listed under “entertaiment,” leading to some awful reviews (those poor people expected a fun game, and instead got some weird story). now it’s properly in the book category, so i’m happy. this is a first for me, but i hope to make more, and to keep working with the developer i hired - he was so helpful.