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iOS App Review: iStayConnected

Tuesday May 1 2012 2:42pm
Posted under iOS App Reviews • Tagged as , , • 1 comment

It’s time to look at another iOS app, and today’s review will be a very special one.

Several weeks ago I was contacted via Facebook by a developer asking me to write a post on his app. I declined (mainly because I dont believe in reviewing apps I’ve been asked to review, and I don’t want to feel obliged to pen favorable comments) and for the last few weeks I’ve been pestered endlessly by the developer over it. Supposedly he doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “no”.

However, I’ve finally relented, and here is a review of Raoul Shah’s app iStayConnected.

Category:Entertainment
Cost: Free
Free/Trial Version Available: N/A
Size: 6.0Mb
Developer: Raoul Shah
Other platforms: None
Device: iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
Compatability: Requires iOS 3.0 or later

iTunes Store Link

All apps are tested using an iPhone 4 32gb and/or an iPad 2 16gb, both on the Telstra network.

The App

iStayConnected is apparently an app that allows users to stay connected with what is happening in their world. Various stories are presented, sorted into a range of geographic categories. These categories are further broken down into topics.

What’s good?

The pleasure you receive when you delete this app from your device.

What’s not?

This app reeks of amateur developer, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was developed using sample code from a textbook or similar. Yes, it’s that bad.

Graphics used to represent categories appear to be nothing more than various items of clipart sourced via the first page of results from Google Images. There’s no consistency, and frankly, they look horrible.

News items are nothing more than latest articles from Yahoo, making me wonder why one doesn’t simply bypass the app and read the Yahoo website directly. Should a category contain no items, the user is instead told they have a problem with their Internet connection.

Final Comments

The app is free, and even at that price, you’re being overcharged.

My rating: 0 annoying idiots (out of 5)
Average user rating: 0 (as of date of this post)

Screenshots (click for bigger)




iOS App Review: Diptic

Tuesday April 24 2012 3:56pm
Posted under iOS App Reviews • Tagged as , , , , , • No comments

Another app review, and today I’ll be taking a look at Diptic, a photo collage creation utility.

Category: Photo & Video
Cost: 99c
Free/Trial Version Available: No
Size: 8.5Mb
Developer: Peak Systems
Other platforms: None
Device: iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
Compatability: Requires iOS 3.0 or later

iTunes Store Link

All apps are tested using an iPhone 4 32gb and/or an iPad 2 16gb, both on the Telstra network.

The App

Diptic is a simple iOS application that allows the user to create an assembled collage of 2 or more photographs, selecting from an assortment of layouts. Basic effects can also be applied to photos and the end result can be shared via email or through various social networking sites.

What’s good?

The most striking feature of this app is the user interface – clean, simple yet full featured. The creation process starts off with selecting one of the 52 default layouts, selecting the photos to be included (which can be from the device itself or imported from Facebook or Flickr) and running through any additional options such as effects and border styles. The collage is then created and able to be saved or shared with friends.

Although fully functional from initial purchase, a 99c in-app upgrade brings “expandable layouts”. The app is a little confusing as to what this is, but it seems to allow users to adjust the output size and other element dimensions.

For those who might be a little indecisive, Diptic features a random select option – it will choose either a random layout or random selection of photos (or even both), leaving the user to just apply effects and save.

One purchase also covers all devices on the same Apple account – iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

What’s not?

There’s really not a lot to dislike about Diptic – it does what it is supposed to do efficiently and easily. However, I do find that it’s a little slow to process and generate the final product – one collage on my iPhone took just short of a minute. I’m not sure if performance is any better on later devices such as the iPhone 4S or the new iPad, though I’d like to compare. This certainly is not a deal breaker, though, but may bother those who want their creation in a hurry.

Final Comments

Diptic is one of those apps that doesn’t actually serve any real useful purpose, but is fun if you like sharing your photos with the world. An easy to use and well designed interface means it’s simple to start creating in a matter of seconds. Often a single photo is not sufficient, yet with Diptic it’s simple to combine images to tell the story you want to.

Thanks to Toby the cat who agreed to model for the photographs used in this review.

My rating: 4 .5 disposable cameras (out of 5)
Average user rating: 4.5 (as of date of this post)

Screenshots (click for bigger)







iOS App Review: The Early Edition 2

Wednesday April 11 2012 7:21pm
Posted under iOS App Reviews • Tagged as , , , • No comments

The best thing about being sick and not at work is I suddenly find more time to write posts. Lucky you! So, here’s another iOS app review, and I’m going to try to get these done weekly like I did last year.

This week I’ll be taking a look at The Early Edition 2.

Category: News
Cost: $5.49
Free/Trial Version Available: No
Size: 48.2Mb
Developer: Glasshouse Apps
Other platforms: None
Device: iPad
Compatability: Requires iOS 5.0 or later

iTunes Store Link

All apps are tested using an iPhone 4 32gb and/or an iPad 2 16gb, both on the Telstra network.

The App

The Early Edition 2 is the second version of Glasshouse Apps RSS aggregator and reader.

For those who don’t know what RSS is, I’ll provide a quick run down. In the context we’re talking about, RSS is a feed of stories from a particular source, for example a website. Rather than visiting The Age, ABC News, Gizmodo and your favourite blogs individually, you can simply subscribe to their respective RSS feeds. An RSS reader checks the RSS feeds periodically to check for new content, and downloads anything new to your device.

RSS Readers have several advantages: first, it obviously eliminates the need to manually visit each website to check for new content. Secondly, RSS readers manage it all for you – they know which stories you’ve read, and only downloads and displays the new unread content. All feeds are in one manageable place that is updated on a regular basis.

A third advantage is that some websites have a choice of combined feeds or individual feeds. Let’s just say you want to download stories from the Travel section of The Age, but don’t care about the rest. It’s possible to just subscribe to that particular feed so that your reader isn’t filled with rubbish you don’t care about.

So that’s your quick 2-minute lesson on RSS, and The Early Edition 2 is one of the many RSS readers available.

What’s good?

The one striking feature of this reader that really stands out is the neat layout and effects – stories are automatically formatted to fit pages (much in the way a newspaper editor would do for a dead-tree edition), and page turning effects a la iBooks are standard. I’ve found that The Early Edition 2 is comfortable and easy to use in either orientation, although my personal preference is landscape.

Like a normal newspaper, feed articles are sorted into user-defined categories. In my case, I have News for articles from The Age and ABC Online, Technology for various tech-related sites, Blogs for personal blogs and General for anything else. It’s relatively easy to manage categories, and feeds can be added to multiple categories. For example The Age’s Tech feed can be added to both News and Technology if desired. Individual sections can be easily isolated, so if you only want to read the general news, it’s easy to just focus on that and come back to other sections later.

Multiple sync options are available, and it’s possible to sync daily, on launch or never (manual only), with an option to turn off 3G sync to avoid data usage. The app can also import feeds from Google Reader and it’s easy to share individual stories on various social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Somewhat impressively, TEE2 detected that I had the first version of the app already installed on my iPad and asked if I wanted to import my feeds – something certainly welcome given that the thought of tracking down and entering all those feed URLs didn’t particularly appeal to me.

What’s not?

In trying to take screenshots of the app to include with this post, I hard a hard time trying to track down the in-app settings. While it’s true that users are given a quick tutorial on how to use the app on first launch, I couldn’t remember how to access the settings and only stumbled across them by accident after 10 minutes (swipe downwards, for the record). Strangely enough, it’s possible to run through the tutorial at any time, but only if you can remember how to access the settings bar.

Although this is subjective, I personally preferred the layout of the first version where feeds were listed in a left column, and stories laid out on the right. Perhaps a toggle option here would be a nice addition?

Although font sizes are scalable to three levels, there’s no apparent way to change the font of text bodies. This is important to me as I have difficulty reading some fonts, and would like to see user-selectable fonts available. It’s not a dealbreaker, but would go in favour of it being a more user-friendly app.

Final Comments

Having purchased the first version of The Early Edition, I was somewhat disappointed with the response I received from the developers when I reported an issue. Their email brushed aside the issue, and instead pointed me to the new release, claiming it has been entirely rewritten and I should go purchase it NOW. While I agree the second release is a huge improvement, the first app still does it’s job, and I’d expect the developers to provide some semblance of assistance as opposed to using their support mechanism to drive sales.

The Early Edition 2 is worthwhile app if you’re serious about getting your fix of news that’s of interest to you each day, however I do question if it’s worth the $5.49 price tag ( I picked it up on sale for 99 cents). However, I’m probably basing that more on the support experience I had rather than the usefulness of the app itself.

If you’re after an RSS reader, this is probably the best bet for you.

My rating: 4 Page 3 girls (out of 5)
Average user rating: 4.5 (as of date of this post)

Screenshots (click for bigger)




iOS App Review: Infinite Flight

Wednesday April 4 2012 3:39pm
Posted under iOS App Reviews • Tagged as , , , , • 1 comment

It’s been a long time since I posted an iOS app review, and it’s mainly because I simply have not had the time to do so.

Anyone who knows me will know that I often play Microsoft Flight Simulator (and occasionally Microsoft’s operating system simulator Windows 7). A copy of Flight Simulator 3 came bundled with our first PC, a 286, and I’ve been playing it on and off ever since.

So, you can imagine I was quite excited when I heard a flight simulator had been released for iOS devices. That simulator is called Infinite Flight, and I’ll be taking a look at it today.

Category: Games
Cost: $5.49
Free/Trial Version Available: No
Size: 47.7Mb
Developer: Flying Development Studio
Other platforms: Windows Mobile
Device: iPhone (4 and above), iPad and iPod Touch (4th gen and above)
Compatability: Requires iOS 5.0 or later

iTunes Store Link

All apps are tested on an iPhone 4 32gb and/or an iPad 2 16gb, both on the Telstra network.

The App:

Infinite Flight is a basic flight simulator app for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch devices. A small number of aircraft are available, from a small Cessna up to the massive Airbus A380. At present two airspaces are open: San Franciso bay area and Southern Califormia, with a select number of airports for takeoff and landing.

The app simulates the basic flight and controls, but does provide some navigational aids to assist finding and landing at various airports.

What’s good?

Overall the app has been well designed – controls are generally easy to find and learn, and a tutorial is provided to help teach those who haven’t flown before.

The interface is well laid out, with throttle and rudder controls generally separate from other cluster options. A number of different configuration options are easily accessible to allow the user to set the experience they are looking for.

What’s not?

Right now there’s a fairly restrictive limit on the flight areas and airports that you can try out. I’m sure that more will be made available in the future, but it’s easy to become bored quickly.

Although I haven’t used it much on my iPhone, testing it on the iPad quickly became frustrating – the plane is controlled by tilting the device in the appropriate direction, and this means that trying to fly a plane is near impossible to play – handheld means the slightest movement triggers the comtrol surfaces, and flat on a table means youre constantly picking it up. Even so, I found that tapping the screen is enough to trigger the controls. The sensitivity can be adjusted to taste, but can’t be turned off completely.

Final Comments:

In summary, the app is probably one to avoid. It’s fun for the novelty factor and is an impressive show of what iOS devices can do, but quickly becomes frustrating and boring. Although I do concede that there is a limit to what can be achieved on handheld devices compared to desktop computers, there’s little in the way of objectives apart from flying around the sky.

I’m also somewhat wary that the development firm’s website is a Blogspot-hosted blog, and doesn’t really do much to promote professionalism.

The app is listed in the “Games” category – for what it is it probably should be under “Entertainment”, as there is nothing that actually resembles a game. Additionally the App Store listing claims it is compatible with the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd Gen, although further notes from the developer claim that this isn’t the case – so be warned there.

If you want to play a flight simulator, I’d say you’re much better off dropping $40 on a copy of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X and sticking with that.

My rating: 1.5 flamboyant flight attendants (out of 5)
Average user rating: 3.0 (as of date of this post)

Screenshots (click for bigger)






iOS App Review: Cartoon Studio Pro

Monday December 5 2011 2:35pm
Posted under iOS App Reviews • Tagged as , • 11 comments

Moving back to the weekly app reviews, this time I’ll be taking a look at Cartoon Studio Pro. A quick disclaimer first: I am friends with the developers and also a beta tester of the app. But no favours here!

I’ve also got 10 free copies of the app (courtesy of Bed and Dan over at HawksBed Studios) to give away. All you need to do is leave a comment on this blog post and I’ll pick the winners at random. Make sure you use a real e-mail address so I can contact you. Winners will be drawn this Friday evening.

Category: Entertainment
Cost: 99c
Free/Trial Version Available: Yes, Cartoon Studio Free
Size: 7.5mb
Developer: HawksBed Studios
Other platforms: No
Device: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
Compatability: Requires iOS 3.1 or later

iTunes Store Link

All apps are tested on an iPhone 4 32gb and/or an iPad 2 16gb, both on the Telstra network.

The App:

Cartoon Studio Pro is an app for creating comic strips on the device and sharing with friends via email, blog or social media. Combinations of backgrounds, characters and speech bubbles make up the cartoon which can be customised as required.

What’s good?

Cartoon Studio Pro is reasonably easy to learn, as there’s not a great deal to the interface. However, first time instructions are included, and it’s as simple as selecting a background, choosing characters and adding the appropriate text in the speech bubbles. Cartoons are saved on the device for later editing or sharing.

The app also provides full-screen iPad support, so with only a single purchase, a version is available for both your iPhone and iPad (if you own one of each!). Regardless of which version is used, the layout and interface is simple and refined, making it just as easy to create a cartoon on the smaller iPhone screen as it is the larger iPad.

The latest version allows users to create their own characters – done by taking or importing a photo and erasing the area around the person or object. This works quite well, but can be a little fiddly (users might find it easier import a character after some Photoshop editing instead, where possible). Custom backgrounds can also be imported, either by taking a picture of the current scene or importing a photo from the device. Once custom images are imported they are saved and can be used for any future cartoon. The app also allows the ability to search the internet for suitable images within the app.

If custom characters or backgrounds aren’t required, there’s a large selection of options available for cartoons. Some additional sets are available as an in-app purchase.

Once a cartoon is created it can be shared with the world via social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, posted directly to Posterous, Tumblr or WordPress blogs or shared via email.

Although a tad superfluous, Cartoon Studio Pro supports Game Centre achievements (on iOS 4.0 and above), with a small selection of achievements to work towards.

What’s not?

On both my iPhone and iPad I have experienced some freezing of the app from time to time, necessitating killing of the app in the multi-task bar. Similarly, I’ve also had it crash for no apparent reason, most often when trying to insert built-in characters in the cartoon. This is a fairly rare occurrence, but can be annoying having to recreate a cartoon from scratch.

I’ve also experienced some issues authenticating the app with Twitter – I don’t know if this is an issue with Cartoon Studio or Twitter itself. On occasion the app won’t post to Twitter, instead just timing out and giving no indication that an error occurred. This usually isn’t an issue, as a second attempt will see the tweet posted, but an error message would be a nice inclusion.

Final Comments:

For 99c, Cartoon Studio Pro is a reasonable investment, especially if you’ve got some hidden comic talent hidden away that’s bursting to get out (or, you just want to steal other people’s jokes and pass them off as you’re own). The faults with the app are minor annoyances which any patient person can overlook. For those not sure, a free version is available (link above) with some limitations.

Remember, to score a free copy of this app leave a comment below.

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