Official iPhone and iPad APPS Discussion thread (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

THE APP STORE



This is the place to discuss your favorite iPhone and/or iPad Apps

 

[DaveF]

Angry Birds
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds-lite/id354139923?mt=8

In it's angry, but cute, little heart, this is a ballistics game. The first game of this sort I remember is Gorillas, from MS DOS. The point is to toss projectiles from here to there, and destroy your enemy.

In Angry Birds, the enemies are green pigs. They've stolen the birds' eggs. And the birds are angry. The pigs, of varying sizes, hide themselves in ridiculous fortresses of ice, wood, and stone. The birds, apparently flightless, and driven into a self-destructive craze, have you launch them by slingshot into the pigs' domains. Launch right, hit right, and you crash the buildings down, crushing the green pigs.

All throughout, the birds warble angry, cartoony epithets against the pigs. And if you fail to crush the pigs in a level, the pigs chortle at your failed efforts. And you try again.

I've played the Free version, linked above. And so has my wife. Now I'm 16 levels in to the paid version. It's a simple, addictive game. Each level so far is enough challenge to interest, but easy enough to be completed in five or so minutes, making each level a tasty treat and always leaving you wanting for more.

On top of this simple game of lobbing "balls" onto rickety "houses" is the marvelously cranky, cartoony, and absurd graphics and sounds of these birds and pigs. It's brilliant.

I have three minor critiques: I hope it is updated for the iPhone 4 screen. It looks good already, but has some jaggies that I think would disappear with a graphics update. Second, I wish the dashed line showing the previous launch trajectory was higher contrast: white dots on pale blue sky is hard to see. Finally, I wish I could zoom in a big closer for finer control of my slingshot.

So far, the quibbles are minor and the angry birds are great fun!

Try the free version: it's an amalgamation of all that the paid version has. If you like it, the $0.99 version is a good purchase.

 

[Sam Posten]

In rough order based on categories

Games:
Words with friends (send challenges to Kadath)
Orbital
Plants vs Zombines
Drop 7
Geodefense
GD Swarm
Fruit Ninja
Hook Champ
Battleship
Peggle
Cannabalt
Angry birds (and HD)
Book Worm
Pocket God
Dr. Awesome
Melon Golf
Quick Hook
Flame it
Gun Range (test your gyro)
Slayer HD

Music:
Bebot (the only music app you need!)

Utilities
Best Camera
Pandora
Shazam
Twitter
TomTom
Facebook

Books:
Kindle
iBooks
Marvel
DC
Comics

News/sports/other
MLB Baseball
Phone Flicks
IMDB
Netflix
Voices
PBJelly Time
Police radio
Angry Cat
Convert
Starmap Pro
Nasa
StopWatch

Specifically these are awesome for iPad and not referenced above:
Deliveries
Square
ABC
Epi
Brushes
Sketchbook
Star Walk
Zillow
Kayak
Pulse
Wired
Onion
Starmap HD

 

[TonyD]

I like angry birds but, it's too much like bloons.
In that game a monkey shoot pins or nails at ballons same as the birds flinging themselves at pigs.
the Slingshot needs to be improved, now as Dave said it isn't easy enough to control.

MLB is essential for baseball fans.

I have 385 apps, guess I'll look to see what are my faves.
ATT's app
bloons
bookworm
cardstar, put all your store cards with barcodes onto the iphone
coin dozer: pretty pointless but addictive
Daily mugshot: take a picture of your face every day
Comcast Mobile: controls your comcast dvr from the iphone
Doodle Bowling
Pocket pedia 2: dvd catalogue
Starbucks card: put your sb gift card on the iphone and use the app instead of the gift card
AOL radio find just about any local radio station or
search for your favorite specific station it probably has an app

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I like The Elements for the iPad. There's an iPhone 4 version that was just released, but the extra screen real-estate I would think is essential.

- Steve

 

[Ted Todorov]

MotionX GPS Drive HD Total life saver on our recent North Carolina trip -- I found the voice driven turn by turn GPS excellent, maps on the iPad big and easy to read. For $2.99 -- it rocked. Big caveat -- the voice part is a 30 day free trail -- after that you can do monthly or yearly in app purchases ($30 per year?)
A buy to keep option would be attractive, though for someone like me who only drives on trips, this might end up being a good deal. The maps are also not preloaded, so if you drive in a poor AT&T coverage are, this isn't the app for you. Again, an option to have full North American maps preloaded would be wise. But again, it is a great app -- and at $2.99 it is a low risk trail. And AFAIK it is the only iPad turn by turn app out right now.

Hulu's app is out. Not a Hulu person, so I have no comment on it.

 

[Dennis*G]

Kids and my favorite apps.

Sky burger
Babel rising
Bloons
Gti
Pandora
Fingerzilla
Valet hero

For the iPad

Netflix
USA today

Netflix
USA today

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Originally Posted by Ted Todorov
MotionX GPS Drive HD Total life saver on our recent North Carolina trip -- I found the voice driven turn by turn GPS excellent, maps on the iPad big and easy to read. For $2.99 -- it rocked. Big caveat -- the voice part is a 30 day free trail -- after that you can do monthly or yearly in app purchases ($30 per year?)
A buy to keep option would be attractive, though for someone like me who only drives on trips, this might end up being a good deal. The maps are also not preloaded, so if you drive in a poor AT&T coverage are, this isn't the app for you. Again, an option to have full North American maps preloaded would be wise. But again, it is a great app -- and at $2.99 it is a low risk trail. And AFAIK it is the only iPad turn by turn app out right now.

Hulu's app is out. Not a Hulu person, so I have no comment on it.

I own the iPhone 4 version of this app and it's terrific!!

BTW, you *can* get it to pre-load maps by going into "Map Settings" and telling it to "cache" the Maps onto your device. You can choose to store as little as 256 MB of maps all the way up to 2 GB. Then choose your destination and select "Simulate Trip Automatically" (NOTE that you can choose an 8X speed simulation.) At that point all the maps you need for that particular trip will be pre-loaded on your phone.

A note about pricing: After the 30 day trial is up you can continue to use the app without the "Live Voice Guidance Option" or you can purchase a 30 day package at any time for $2.99. You can also purchase a year package for $24.99. Considering that Tom-Tom charges $50 just for the app I consider these prices more than reasonable.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Some of my current "Fav" apps for my iPhone:

IMDB -- If you're a movie lover this is a *must have* app! It's *much easier* to use than just navigating to the site with Safari. And it even contains some unique iPhone/iPad features.

Bing -- It does a little bit of everything: News, Movies, Pictures, Maps, Weather, and more! Just check it out!

Angry Birds -- Loads of addictive fun!

Opera Mini Browser -- If you ever find yourself in an area without 3G you'll be happy to have this EDGE-optimized browser laying around.

The aforementioned GPS MotionX Drive -- In addition to its ability to provide great GPS voice instructions, also check out its PARK feature. It will literally walk you back to wherever you parked your car!

Instapaper -- Mark internet articles for later reading when you have time. It even formats the articles for optimal reading on the iPhone!

WunderRadio -- Listen to almost any AM or FM station anywhere in the world. And its been recently optimized for iOS4.

 

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by Joseph Bolus
I own the iPhone 4 version of this app and it's terrific!!

BTW, you *can* get it to pre-load maps by going into "Map Settings" and telling it to "cache" the Maps onto your device. You can choose to store as little as 256 MB of maps all the way up to 2 GB. Then choose your destination and select "Simulate Trip Automatically" (NOTE that you can choose an 8X speed simulation.) At that point all the maps you need for that particular trip will be pre-loaded on your phone.

This sounds very cumbersome. Do I have this right? To make sure I have all the maps for a trip to see family:
* I'd have to pre-plot every place I might visit
* Start the simulation of that 16 hours of driving
* Leave my iPhone alone to churn for 2 hours (at 8x sim speed) to churn through those maps
* Now I can take trip, but hopefully not deviate from plans and not experience any 3G outage on road

After using a standalone Garmin for two years with maps pre-loaded this sounds like a very bad way to design a GPS app . Is there no way to simply download the entire map and be done with it? And at $2.99 per month, it will cost more than the $50 TomTom in less than 18 months. Maybe this isn't meant for regular GPS users? /img/vbsmilies/htf/confused.gif

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Originally Posted by DaveF
This sounds very cumbersome. Do I have this right? To make sure I have all the maps for a trip to see family:
* I'd have to pre-plot every place I might visit
* Start the simulation of that 16 hours of driving
* Leave my iPhone alone to churn for 2 hours (at 8x sim speed) to churn through those maps
* Now I can take trip, but hopefully not deviate from plans and not experience any 3G outage on road

After using a standalone Garmin for two years with maps pre-loaded this sounds like a very bad way to design a GPS app . Is there no way to simply download the entire map and be done with it? And at $2.99 per month, it will cost more than the $50 TomTom in less than 18 months. Maybe this isn't meant for regular GPS users? /img/vbsmilies/htf/confused.gif

Dave,

The app will dynamically download the maps as needed if they're not already in the allocated cache area. But that will eat up some of your monthly AT&T data plan. The idea of using the "Simulated Trip" is to pre-load as much of the trip as possible while on WiFi.

The $2.99 is for any 30 day period of your choosing. It's not a monthly requirement. And that's for the "Voice Directions". The maps continue to work without the additional fee.

I believe all the GPS apps charge some kind of ongoing fee. The AT&T GPS app charges $9.99 per month ... and that's *every* month. You can't pick and choose which month you want.

BTW, since this app is now iOS4 compatible you can now play Pandora while Navigation is on. The "lady" fades Pandora (or iPod music) down when "she's" providing instructions!

In any event, I believe the app is currently on sale for ninety-nine cents and that includes a 30 day voice package. So you may as well check it out!

 

[Ted Todorov]

Joe thanks for all the info on the GPS!

Ostensibly stuff like TomTom does not have any ongoing charges although I think there are extras like live traffic. I'm also not sure how mapnupdates work, although MotionX definitely had a minor out of date mapnproblem.

 

[DaveF]

Thanks. That app is not for me. we use the gps regularly, even just around town, and can't imagine *not* having voice nav. That's just basic reqts for gps. I'm wary of trusting my GPS to having 3G service for directions. And the potential issues with chewing up my 200mb plan on a 600'mile drive isn't appealing. This doesn't sound like the right design for my uses. As for recurring fees, I'd rather pay the up-front $50 for say TomTom than pay the same amount over the next two years.

So I'm glad you reviewed this It saves me a buy that wouldn't meet my needs well.
I can see how the value if your "use case" matches its design -- particularly if you're an infrequent user or don't value voice directions as I do, or want a very affordable entrance into using a GPS app.

 

[TonyD]

looking for an app that catalogs comic books.

I have about 13000 books and I need to list them, if there is an app that will scan the book and put it in a list that would be great.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Originally Posted by TonyD
looking for an app that catalogs comic books.

I have about 13000 books and I need to list them, if there is an app that will scan the book and put it in a list that would be great.

Tony,

You can configure Filemaker's Bento database to do this for you. There are already hundreds of templates available for it and I would be surprised if a comic book cataloger wasn't already available.

I'm not aware of a already-built comic book scan option, though. Bento does include a scripting language which "exposes" iOS4 API's so I'm sure it's only a matter of time before that option is available.

Of course, since the iPad currently lacks a camera the "scan" option is definitely out on that device.

 

[Mike.B]

Here are some of my favorite apps (iPhone 4):

Non-games...

Push Gmail (a pretty decent gmail app that replicates the functionality of the website)
Todo (I've tried a few different to-do list apps, but I keep coming back to this one)
My-Cast (the best weather app)
Sportacular Pro (sports scores)
Collectorz Movies (for easy access to my collection)
Reeder (the best Google Reader app)
FlickStackr (I was using Mobile Fotos for the longest time, but recently switched)
Amazon.com (I oughta just buy stock)
CalenGoo (a nice way to access your Google Calendar)
Facebook (I don't post very often, but still like to stay on top of friends and family)
Dropbox (nice way to quickly access your dropbox files)
SplashID (this is more useful than I ever imagined, can securely store password, account #s, etc.)
iPhlix (Netflix queue management)
IMDb (wish you could rate movies and see your ratings though)
Bills and Balance Forecasting (I just discovered this, it's just perfect for tracking expected cash flow via upcoming bills and income)
Mint.com (I prefer using this on a computer, but still nice to access when I need to)
eTrade (nicely made, just wish I had more money to invest)
Sushimonger (mmm... sushi)
AT&T's myWireless (not the sexiest app, but can easily check usage and pay your bill)
Slacker (I like this better than the more-popular Pandora for streaming music)

Games...

Doodle Jump (so simple, yet so good)
Words with Friends (like scrabble)
Real Racing (a very nicely done racing game that takes advantage of the iPhone 4 capabilities)
Zombieville (side-scrolling zombie killing fun)
Gun Range (a basic gun range game, but one of the few so far that uses the iPhone 4 gyroscope)
Sudoku 2 Pro (it's just sudoku, but it's designed very well)
Project 72 (sort of like Doodle Jump, but instead of jumping you are a rocket ship in space)
Chess with Friends (from the makers of Words with Friends, but chess of course)
Motion X Poker Quest (a dice poker game)
Plants vs Zombies (a lot of fun, though not sure how replayable it will be after I finish the story mode)
Angry Birds (I don't love it as much as some, but for 99 cents it's hard to top)
Parachute Panic (land little people on boats while avoiding obstacles)

Edit: I forgot to mention Atomic Web Browser, which I love and kicks Safari's butt.

 

[TonyD]

Originally Posted by Joseph Bolus
Tony,

You can configure Filemaker's Bento database to do this for you. There are already hundreds of templates available for it and I would be surprised if a comic book cataloger wasn't already available.

I'm not aware of a already-built comic book scan option, though. Bento does include a scripting language which "exposes" iOS4 API's so I'm sure it's only a matter of time before that option is available.

Of course, since the iPad currently lacks a camera the "scan" option is definitely out on that device.

Thanks I looked aT that but cant figure out if i need the both desktop and the iphone
copies.
I did find one upload that someone made specifially for comics. I'm trying to get the free trial but haven't beed able to get the download link for that to work.

 

[DaveF]

Tap Tap Revenge 3

Pass.

I'd heard the Tap Tap games were must-have, the Guitar Hero of iPhone games. I finally launched Tap Tap Revenge 3, the free one with good ratings I first found, and within 10 seconds disliked it. I downloaded a few free songs and gave it a few more tries, and then deleted it.

It fails in one crucial way: no audio feedback on hitting or missing the "beats". In Guitar Hero, hitting the "notes" gives audio feedback with the song playing; missing gives jangled strings, bad notes, and decline in the musical quality. Not having that feedback destroys the game for me.

So I honestly don't know what the hubbub about Tap Tap is. I found it a terrible game with an obvious and killer gameplay flaw.

 

[DaveF]

I need a recommendation: a game like GodFinger or We Rule, but that runs according to my schedule, not expecting me to drop everything and play it on its schedule. And without constant pestering about "social". Nor the advertising. Anything like that? Thx.

And a good solitaire game for my wife.

Paid apps are OK.

 

[Sam Posten]

The best Solitaire app is for ipad: Solitaire Classics HD.