Voice morphing is becoming increasingly popular on the iPhone and iPod touch. With the built in microphone of the iPhone, IPhone 3G and 3GS, and now the iPod touch supporting mic input, developers are realizing there’s actually a market for mic-based applications. Yesterday, iPhone development studio Taptivate showed their hand with Voices. It wasn’t the normal app launch though, no, no. Far from it. The studio had partnered with both TapTapTap as their publisher, and MacHeist. Through something coined as a ‘tweet blast,’ Taptivate managed to create a huge buzz around Voices, and it’s currently sitting at number 14 in the iTunes Top Paid Apps chart after just 24 hours.

Following on from their award-winning conversion app, Convert .. TapTapTap add another string to their bow. This time though, it has nothing to do with mathematics. Ever wanted to morph your voice into different characters of varying hilarity? Voices takes your ordinary every-day voice and “tranforms” it into weird and wonderful one. Out of the box, the app comes bundled with 17 different voices for you to choose from. These include: Cyborg, Chipmunk, Exorcism, Dark Side, Vocoder, Cave, Guitar, Fun House, Vinyl, Helium, Reverse, Vintage, Megaphone, Canyon, Fan, Witness and Turtle. The app works just like a recorder, so you won’t find ‘Auto-Tuning’ technology here (I Am T-Pain for example), although one part of me kinda wished it did auto-tune.

Opening the app and you’ll be presented with that trademark sleek user interface we’ve all come accustomed to, from the likes of TapTapTap. Set out to a backdrop of a stage and red curtain, each of the voices included are displayed, with 9 on the first screen, and a further 9 on the next. To reach the other 9 voices you just swipe left to right – and visa-versa. To activate a voice just tap it. You’ll then see the stage is overcome by this old-type looking mic, ready for voice input. The only thing I didn’t like here was that recording starts immediately. As soon as the mic is extended to it’s fullest, the recording starts. I’d rather them of given an optional ’start on tap’ setting. Moving on ..

Once you’ve recorded your voice clip, and after conversion, Voices will play your clip back to you using this ‘tape-esque’ UI (it’s so nice!) so you can hear it in all its glory .. or in my case, not. From here you’ll have the option to play, rewind and fast forward the recording, as well save or delete your creation. Saving your recording will place it in .. your recordings panel. To open this panel, from the main voices screen, tap the little ‘tape’ icon labeled ‘Recordings’. Here’s were it gets interesting though. You can also share your clips with the world, either via Twitter, Facebook or Mail. To do this just tap ‘Share’ beside the recording you wish to share, and enter the required info. In the case of a tweet, the app will allow you to customize the tweet to your liking, before publishing – which I found crazy-great! Sometimes with these type of apps which allow tweets, they have these pre-defined non-editable tweets, and having the ability to edit these, really was welcomed.

Here’s a few recordings I made, and tweeted earlier:
http://voicesapp.com/1mxhyo / http://voicesapp.com/9qjfee

Summing up, as Voices is both gorgeously designed and offers a wide variety of voices, not to mention it’s very low introduction price of $0.99, it does seem to have struck a chord with the App Store crowd. Recording quality isn’t the best it could be, but considering the iPhone isn’t that good at recording anyway, it’s satisfactory. But it’s probably not the audio quality which will keep you coming back for more, if anything, it’s going to be Voices’ very beautiful and thought-out-to-the-last-detail UI.

I’m a pretty big fan of movies, but I am plagued with a horrendous memory. Some would say that my bad memory comes from a lack of mental stimulation, but I sort of doubt that. I’m so convinced that my poor memory comes from my inordinate computer use. I mean seriously, why should I remember anything in the world when Wikipedia can remember it for me? I realize now that this is a bad thing… you know, I might need to remember something someday, but I have an iPhone, and as an iPhone user, I’m allowed to have a crutch. In the name of coolness of course.

So back to my love of movies… I mean, that’s what this is all about really. I often find myself in situations where I start talking about movies, only realizing that I don’t remember a single actor, actress, plot point, or any idea really of what is going on. It usually takes people prodding me a bit… “remember that one with Stallone? The one with John Lithgow? Directed by the guy that did Die Hard 2? The one where he was hanging off mountains?” “Oh, Cliffhanger, yeah, that was a good one.” Now thankfully in this great modern age of smart phones, I can just whip out my iDevice and look up anything. There are plenty of apps that do this very thing, but this one seems to encompass everything… and I mean everything.

MovieDNA is basically just a web app that compiles data from Netflix, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Yahoo!, and YouTube into one ultimate Frankenstein app. Type in the name of a movie, actor, or director and you’ll get a bevy of information that will just about blow your mind. To test the app out, I went ahead and typed in Office Space, because it just happens to be a movie I’ve seen a couple of (way too many) times. The information provided is very nicely laid out on the screen, giving me every little tidbit that I could every possibly need. It even gave me some great YouTube videos that I would never have seen otherwise.

I did run into the problem where the Rotten Tomatoes reviews didn’t pop in, but the problem is almost fixed/being fixed, so I’ll let them off the hook for that. My other complaint with the app has to be the color scheme, which is truly dreadful. The app, including the apps icon, encompass just about every shade of pink and purple possible. Truly awful.

Other than that though, the information provided by the app is really great. There are two versions of the app that you can get, a free and a paid version, but both offer the same great information, but the free one has advertisements built in to subsidize the cost. I’d definitely recommend the app, particularly the free version, to any and all movie fans. Just make sure that your macho movie appreciating friends don’t see your pink screen… that would be a disaster.

I got a phone call from my dad the other night telling me about his new favorite website, RunPee.com. When someone tells you that their new favorite site is called Run Pee, you start to wonder what the world is coning to. Being the savvy businessman that he is, he told me all about how I should find something like this on the internet so I can make millions of dollars. Somehow this devolved into an IPO offering and making sure that I pay my employees their 410k’s, but at its core, he was right, this is a brilliant idea. The prostate enlarging, bladder shrinking generation of baby boomers just can’t sit through a whole movie anymore, and it’s not because they don’t like movies… it’s because they have to pee! Let’s just say that it’s really not a shock to me the home rental services such as Netflix are becoming popular with the baby boomer generation getting older.

Well, fortunately for the generation, Hollywood, and Mr. AMC (what kind of last name is that?), the guys and gals at RunPee solved the middle age moviegoing problem. What they did was to create a website with all the new releases that will be in the movie theaters, complete with points during the movie that you can go to the restroom. Every movie has some kind of slow, inconsequential part, and RunPee knows it. For a while there, moviegoers would have to go to the website to find out when the golden moments were, but now, as with everything else in life, there is an app for that.

The Run Pee Mobile app does exactly what the website does, but there is a bit of brilliance to it that I will get to in a bit. The basic layout of the app is simple; there is a list of all the new/newish releases in the theaters to choose from, either categorized by title or release date. By clicking on the film, you get a new screen that shows the approximate times that each break in action will occur, complete with a piece of dialogue that is your cue to leave. What’s neat is that while you are on the way back from the “oh so necessary” bathroom break, you can click on the dialogue queue and the app will give you a plot summary of what happens in the 3-4 minutes to leave. The app even includes a stop watch so you can time your bathroom breaks accordingly.

The brilliance of the app, which I was talking about before, is its color scheme. The background is completely black, with unobtrusive yellow and white lettering. None of the colors in the scheme would bother other moviegoers, making this app the perfect companion for the movies. Go ahead and open it up, nobody will mind.

If I were to improve upon anything in the app, I would increase the sheer amount of movies offered. Looking at the list, there are pee times listed for almost every movie, but quite not all of them. I was thinking about seeing District 9 today, and to my dismay, no pee times! Maybe the movie is so good that there are no breaks, but I sort of doubt it. Don’t fret though, I’d say that 9 of 10 movies listed are completed.

For $0.99, do your bladder, and the guy/gal next to you, a favor and get Run Pee Mobile. Nobody likes to see you squirm around holding it… nobody.

At first glance 32 x 32 reminded me of the Etch a Sketch Animator, an 80’s era off-shoot of the popular drawing toy. They both have a similar grid like interface for creating artwork and while 32 x 32 doesn’t animate your drawings, both allow you to design pixel art in much the same way.

After starting the program a quick tutorial explains how to use 32 x 32. You begin by dragging one finger across the screen to align the crosshair with a pixel, tap it with two fingers to fill it in, or continue dragging both fingers across the screen to fill in multiple pixels. To erase simply lift the two fingers up and bring them back down. This will change the crosshair from blue to red and then tap or drag to delete any filled in pixels.

The nice thing about 32 x 32 is you don’t have to be a fantastic artist to create some really cool art. The controls are intuitive and the interface is designed to not get in your way. There are five shades of grey to work with and even a paint bucket tool to speed up the process. I found it very easy to use and in no time I was making some cool little pictures. I had to laugh when I used the app to email some of my art to myself and they actually showed up as 32 x 32 pixel png files. They were just hanging out there in my inbox, like cute little icons. Once I realized that the artwork was eventually shrunk down, I knew that you could create some fairly intricate pieces with a lot of shading and detail in them. I’m curious to see what someone with some real talent can do with 32 x 32.

32 x 32 differs from traditional drawing apps in a couple of major ways. Designing with it is more similar to creating a mosaic or using building blocks than putting a pen to paper. You use the grid as a guideline to put pieces together rather than worry about drawing a straight line. The other difference is that 32 x 32 gives you a limited space to work within and forces you to be creative with your approach. When the Beatles were constrained by 4 track recorders they gave us Sgt. Pepper, what can you do with 32 x 32 pixels? Just think, this is how the original video game makers created Mario and others, so let your imagination fly!

I’ve spent a lot of time with Brushes, so I’m pretty aware of what’s capable in an iPhone art program. While I doubt anything you create with 32 x32 will get you a cover of the New Yorker, it can still provide you with hours of fun. This is also a great app to get for the kids. It’s pretty intuitive so they can enjoy themselves without getting too frustrated with the tools.

I had a lot of fun playing with 32 x 32. It’s never going to replace Brushes as a full featured art program, but it is a great niche app. It’s also nice to experience an app you won’t see copied over and over again in the app store. 32 x 32 is original and it does what it promises very well. If creating pixel art peaks your interest it’s a no-brainer to pick this up.

I’m not an overtly creative person when it comes to drawing and I think I’m a little vanilla in the way I see the world, but regardless, I enjoy apps on my Mac and iPod Touch that give me creative ability. Type Drawing is one of these apps that just looks like so much fun you won’t be able to help pick it up.

How it works
Type Drawing is a simple app to use. You choose a font style, size, background, enter some text, and go to work. There are varying levels of functionality within these options, but that’s it. You work with a gray scale of colors and can control transparency. There are only two screens for all of your settings and this makes the app that much easier to use. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on settings because there are a couple of screenshots below that explain everything.

What it does
You can see my examples in the screenshots included, but they’re really nothing exceptional. The really neat stuff is on the Type Drawing Flickr page. If you’re really into this thing, then you have to see the Type Drawing website. This is the same developer’s work and he wrote a version for the

Drawing with the iPhone app is really easy. After choosing a background and your type settings you just slide your finger around the screen. I managed to trace an image from my photo library, then change the background to paper so that it gives it the appearance of an original drawing. Others who are more creative will be able to bang out some really cool stuff.

As I drew with the app I enjoyed watching the way the text changes with the direction and speed of my finger’s movement. It’s a little detail, but moving your finger right to left writes backwards and upside down. If you make a turn the letters will flip over and around. This little detail in and of itself makes the app interesting to use even for the simplest doodles. I would say it’s as much fun to watch someone draw as it is to make your own work.

Likes
The two things that I enjoy about this app so much are: 1. it’s a powerful combination of text and drawing which gives a 1,000 word image greater depth. 2. the finished work looks edgy and not quite finished. There’s a rawness to the work which makes it more appealing to me.

Dislikes
I would really enjoy the ability to zoom and pan while I work on something. The iPhone screen is a small workspace and the extra control this option would give would be nice to see.

Conclusion
This is a great app. It’s so well designed and so simple there’s hard to find anything wrong with it. In fact, I think the developer should add a buck or two to its price because of its quality and history. It’s well designed, easy to use, makes some interesting art, and there’s even a bit of a community aspect with the website and Flickr groups. I’m pretty sure the kids would dig it too.

For .99 you owe it to yourself as an artist (aspiring or otherwise) to get this app. It will change your life. People will respect you. Your dog will play with you more. And your stolen iPod will mysteriously return. Seriously.

*the robot and dog drawing is from Explodingdog. This is one of my favorite artists and you can find Sam Brown’s work here.

If you’re like me and have a lot of conversations with people about movies and TV shows, you NEED Movie Genie. I’m constantly waiting for the long load times of IMDB on my iPhone to check who played in what, what year it came out, etc. IMDB hasn’t come out with an iPhone app yet, nor has it been nice enough to create a mobile site for people who want a little more speed on their phones. Movie Genie is a quick interface with IMDB, has a simple user interface, and a few cool features.

When you open Movie Genie, the app immediately opens the search screen – this is the kind of thing that I applaud developers for, it’s the simple things that help with speed that makes the great apps great. So right on opening the app you type in the movie your searching for, pick it from the list of search results, and start checking out the interface to IMDB. Instead of everything being in one long list, Movie Genie separates the movie details into “Details” and “Cast & Crew”. The “Details” section contains the usual quick stuff: release date, genre, plot, etc. Also certain things are able to be clicked, like Trivia and Goofs, so that you can go to a longer page for each of these features. “Cast & Crew” is obviously where you would find the director, screenwriter, other people important to the film, and the cast.

Not only can you access the movies on IMDB but also the actor/actress pages, also with a simple and speedy interface. For the actor/actress pages, instead of “Details” and “Cast & Crew”, “Filmography” replaces “Cast & Crew”. I love the idea of splitting the pages into two. Having the cast and an actor’s filmography at easy access at the top of the pages just helps to further increase the speed of the two most sought after details of a movie. When I jump on IMDB, the two most common things that I am looking for are who plays someone in a movie or what other movies someone played in.

Other than search, at the bottom are two other features that I think are great ideas: history and favorites. Each movie and actor has a star next the the IMDB logo on their pages. If you click these they add them to your favorites list (they add to the list REALLY fast). That way if there is a certain movie or actor that you’re constantly looking up, you have them on a list for easy access (thinking about speed again, applause). The history feature is self-explanatory, you can check out pages previously viewed – most recent on top.

Problems, Wishes, and Misses

Problems. Not a single bug or problem was found when I used this app.

Wishes. A lot of my wishes are promised in upcoming updates, see the list below. My favorites include trailers for the movies and landscape use. Here’s a small feature suggestion: save favorites to the iPhone so that they load even faster, I’m sure the amount of space this would take wouldn’t be much.

Misses. Everything in the app was fairly useful, nothing was without a point.

If you check out the app on iTunes, you can see that the developer is promising quite a few cool features in the update: display photos related to a title or person, better TV series support, trailers, full awards list, user reviews (Rotten Tomatoes, etc), and landscape use.

If you use IMDB a lot then this app is well worth $1.99. I’m going to start using it even when I’m already browsing the internet on my computer, the app is faster than going to the IMDB website.

About
I downloaded Star Radio Communicator and started it up. I flicked my wrist and/or tapped the screen to ‘open’ the communicator. I pushed the buttons and heard some beeps. I made a phone call. The phone rang. I spoke to someone. I hung up. I closed the app.

This is probably the hardest review I’ve had to write just because this app is so simple and does nothing other than makes some noise and gives you another interface to make a phone call from. I really don’t know what to say about it other than the following… Trekkies, navigate away.

Likes from the perspective of ‘meh’
I liked that the app worked. In spite of its lack of usefulness, the graphics are okay. The sound effects, while I didn’t get them, seemed to coordinate well enough with the opening of the screen or pushing a button.

Dislikes
I don’t get this app. I have a hard time wondering what a Trekkie would get out of this app. There’s nothing really useful or unique about this app. I think you can find a sound app, probably for free, that would give you a greater sense of Star Trek satisfaction than this app.

I showed it to my dad. He said, “How much does that phone cost?” I said, “$200 and up.” He said, why would anyone put that on a $200 phone?” I said, “I don’t know, it seems that someone likes it though because it’s doing okay on the App Store.”

I spoke with my dad four days ago. Since then the App Store has gotten more critical of the app with it dropping from 4.5 stars to 3. I’m guessing it will continue to fall as people open this app for the first time and say, “I spent a buck for this?!”

Summary
I’m pretty sure you can get something better from a dollar than this app. I’m not even the least bit curious to read about 1.1 that’s waiting for approval. I think this app is probably like something you could get from one of those toy vending machines at a grocery store. The excited 5-year old opens the new toy, breaks it, and cries. Except for the breaking part, you’ll probably cry after using this.

As everyone knows there are literally tens of thousands of apps out there for the iPhone, some of them are amazing products of people’s imagination that still have the ability to wow and amaze. Then there are others, like iFart Mobile, that try to be today’s whoopee cushion for the slightly less mature practical joker. For a cheap laugh these apps do have a place in the world but they’re usually a dime a dozen and frankly don’t stand to impress anyone and thats why at 148apps we usually don’t waste time reviewing them. For a long time we grouped The Moron Test in with these novelty apps but after a few weeks of floating around the top 5 paid apps we decided to go ahead and take a look at it. As it turns out I re-learned that age old lesson of not judging a book by it’s cover. I can’t group it in with the best apps ever but for a half hour of my life nothing else in the world mattered.

The Moron Test is a highly addictive time waster based on an old flash game that floated around the internet for quite a few years. It’s more or less a puzzle game that asks you what are seemingly simple questions but in fact are very tricky. Every time you get a question wrong it basically calls you stupid and makes you start the whole level over. Frustration and annoyance would seem inevitable but the brilliance of the game is that for some reason you become more and more dedicated to victory. I don’t really know why that is but it’s true, half the time when I lost I’d be punching my pillow but laughing at the same time. The catchy sound effects and theme music add to the light hearted feel of the game making it a very pleasant experience.

There are definitely some downfalls with the test though, biggest one to me is the game length. Unlike the original internet version that I remember playing for hours at a time without beating, this one only took me about a half hour of straight playing to finish. Part of this is due to the quick paced nature of the game but mainly from lack of levels. The good news is that the developer has already promised additional levels to come soon in an update and to keep adding them as he can.

So in the end it’s a 3 star app, but don’t let this deter you from getting it! It may not have the best graphics or even the longest play time…yet, but what it does have, if even for a short time, is the fun factor. Right now it’s selling for $.99 (developer says normally $2.99), and for a buck I say get it. What have ya got to lose? It can be your little dirty pleasure on your phone. Plus you can hand it to a friend and laugh at them when they get their own “FAIL!” message.

All too often, the simplest apps are pure genius. iNap@Work might just be one of them. Yes, you read the title right. This is an app for helping you to nap at work—assuming that you work in an office cubicle, anyway. By mimicking common office noises, it helps you catch a few winks undetected. Just watch out if the boss walks by; we’re not responsible!

If your workplace is staffed by lazy managers, you might just be able to get away with this. When you start up iNap@Work, you pick from a few standard sounds: typing, clicking, coughing, stapling, rustling papers…you get the idea. There are five categories of sounds; each one gets its own frequency slider, and there’s also an overall frequency slider. Tap the “Nap” button, and you’re set; the app starts playing the sounds, fooling your boss into thinking that you’re actually working on that spreadsheet or typing that memo like a good little robo-slave. There’s even an alarm included so that you can stop your catnap before suspicions arise.

Naturally, this won’t fool any decent manager for too long, but it might help you catch a quick catnap or two. And if your officemates have any sense of humor whatsoever, you can show it off for a few laughs; this is exactly the sort of novelty app that’s better shared than used. Enjoy—just remember that if you actually do get fired for sleeping on the job, it’ll cost you more than the app’s paltry $0.99 price.

Pocket God, the most underpriced application in the App Store. I say this because I honestly may have purchased it for $4 or $5 after playing it for a few minutes.

Have you ever had the urge to feed small villagers to sharks, order an army of red ants to devour someone, or punt a pygmy into a volcano? Pocket God is for you. Pocket God makes you the god of an island in which you can control the lives of the villagers who live on it. Is Pocket God a game? Not quite. There is no real objective to the app or an “end.” But with a recent update, the app has taken a bit of a step toward the game category and a little farther from the entertainment category, but I’ll explain that later. Exactly how do you control the lives of the villagers? I think this is a question that only pictures can do justice.

You can strike your villagers with lightning,…

shocking!

hot!

fishing...

celebration

shark bait

Probably one of the more interesting things about Pocket God is the frequent updates. Bolt Creative comes up with new “episodes” almost weekly. Episode 1 was in January and 18 is expected to be coming very soon. This app has progressively become better and better. If I would have purchased Pocket God near the release, I wouldn’t find myself as pleased with the game as I am. Some of my favorite features, I’ve just found out, were features added in recent update – the magnifying glass, red ants, and the T-Rex.

In the previous update, Episode 16: “The Tyrannosaurus Strikes Back!”, Pocket God allowed you to break the egg in Episode 15’s: “A New Home” map. This causes a baby T-Rex to pop it’s head out, followed by a much larger T-Rex to jump onto the island and start eating villagers. This is entertaining in itself, but Bolt Creative gives you the option to allow your villagers to fight back in Episode 17’s: “Return of the Pygmy.” This, on top of the god stat screen with achievements (more apparently to come soon, the only achievement I was able to receive is each time my villagers defeated a T-Rex), is that step toward a game instead of just an entertainment app. When you toggle on the spear icon, the T-Rex gets a health bar and by dropping the spear on the island into the hands of one of your villagers you can eventually make the T-Rex fall into the ocean. This may seem entertaining, but honestly I rather enjoyed just watching the T-Rex devour the village. It takes 10-11 spear throws to kill the T-Rex. Not only does this cause the battle to drag on but it is also extremely repetitive – you have to pick up the thrown spear each time and re-hand it to the Oog. This might be a fun update for someone who plays Pocket God all the time and is just DYING for something new, but I personally find the rest of the features much better than this new one.

The new update may not be the greatest, but the app itself may be the funnest thing I’ve ever done on my iPhone. You probably won’t ever see this happen from me again in a long time, but I was forced to give Pocket God five stars for everything – it’s just that amazing!

The next update had been confirmed as Episode 18: “Surf’s Up!”. Give me a mini game with a surfing Oog that has to dodge sharks and other obstacles and I’ll be happy – as long as when your Oog falls off of the surfboard some amazing and catastrophic death occurs!

Galactica is the sort of app that wouldn’t been seen dead on a Blackberry. The sort of app that the iPhone was made for. The sort of app that makes you wonder how anyone can ever settle for less than an iPhone.

Being a bit of an astronomy and sci-fi geek, I was instantly attracted to the name Galactica. Anything a bit spacey gets me excited. So, when I opened up Galactica I was pleased to discover an app which delivers a fantastic audiovisual experience and lives up to its expansive name.

Galactica is like an interactive version of the iTunes visualizer. Place your finger on the screen and streams of particles instantly burst forth from the point of contact. Drag the same finger and the the emanations follow your touch. Flick your finger across and off the iPhone and you’ll send a ball of effects hurtling to the edge of the screen. Double tap, and a pocket sized big-bang erupts, before hauntingly fading away.

Galactica is described by the developers as: …an ever-changing interactive toy that will relax, fascinate and mesmerize. There are no rules, no scores and no time limits; just endless possibilities.

Galactica is definitely relaxing. I know, because I field-tested it with my 1 year old girl. She was gooey eyed the moment I fired up the app and flipped a few particles about the screen. It kept her quiet and seemed to calm her down. Indeed, watching the effects play themselves out is mesmerizing – Galactica is the iPhone equivalent of the lava lamp.

Galactica joins the ranks of those casual but alluring apps, standing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Koi Pond and Zen Bound in its aspirations. In a world full to the brim with high-score egotism, and I-can-beat-your-ass aggression, Galactica is an excellent diversion.

Ease of on-screen interaction is paramount in an app like this – and Galactica gets it about right. As well as the double taps, drags, and finger flicks, multi-touch is used to invoke a magnetizing effect. Watching all you have just created imploding in on itself is fun and strangely rewarding.

The soundtrack, too, is one of those rare joys in that it adds hugely to the experience. Although MUSIC: OFF is one of the options in the settings panel, I can’t imagine anyone actually using it. It would be like watching a Bruce Springsteen video with the sound turned off – just plain wrong.

On the negative side, I would have liked to have seen more use made of the iPhone’s accelerometer. This could have added a different dimension to the experience – with, perhaps, a shake to mix up the effects, or a tilt to attract particles to one end of the screen.

Also, despite Galactica’s beauty, deep down some may find it a little vacuous: much like Paris Hilton. Some people will always remain unmoved by a Jackson Pollock painting, and, in the same way, Galactica may not suit everyone’s tastes.

But these are minor quibbles in an otherwise beautiful experience. I’d even go as far as to say that the iPhone should come with this app built-in, because its simplicity and beauty certainly ape many of Apple’s finest moments. Galactica will mesmerize, relax and fascinate you. And maybe, if you’re lucky, help you pacify small, excitable children.

I’ve always been interested in Sling Media and their Slingbox technology, so when I was offered the chance to beta test and review the SlingPlayer Mobile I immediately jumped at the opportunity. Thanks to some amazing contacts at DiSH Network and Sling Media, not only did I get a review copy of this app, but they also sent me a Slingbox Pro-HD box as well as provided me access to their test servers for the purpose of this review.

Slingbox connects to your current cable/dish set up as well as your internet connection, to allow you to stream that content directly to a device capable of receiving it. All current smartphones have a SlingPlayer app available for download at the same price that the iPhone app goes for. Unfortunately, the iPhone version is WiFi only, where the other versions allow connectivity over 3G. This makes it hard to justify the app at all, let alone to do so with a price tag of $29.99.

When you load up the app, you’ll have to either configure your Slingbox or simply sign in to your account once its already established. This process didn’t take to long and wasn’t difficult at all. Your account can be tied to multiple Slingbox’s (as was the case with the demo account provided to me by Sling Media), so if you’ve got more than one, you’ll have to then select which Slingbox to connect to. Once you’re done with that, the streaming video will start playing and you’ll be presented with a series of controls as well.

The controls are pretty straight forward. You’ve got Favorites, Remote, Guide, DVR (for those of you with DiSH Network boxes), Options, and Disconnect. Around this time is when I truly understood how the Slingbox works. It can only transmit what is currently being viewed by your cable/dish box, meaning that if someone is home watching that TV, you’ll have to battle them to change the channel or one of you will have to give in. The boxes even include a little transmitter that will send the IR message to the cable/dish box when you press the corresponding buttons on the app.

Favorites is a simple and easy way to select the channels you view the most often. You’ll be able to add and remove the channels and even have them displayed with an icon if that channel has one available.

Remote gives you quite a few options. You can access the cable boxes menu screen right from the Remote area, change the channel, and fast forward, rewind, pause, and play. There’s also the option to open a D-Pad control that lets you navigate around certain menus and even record.

Guide opens up the cable/dish boxes guide and provides the D-Pad controls over it. You can do page up and down just as easily as scrolling through each one individually.

DVR simply pulls up the DVR menu where you can control what you want to record and view what you’ve already recorded. Keep in mind, this feature is only available for those using DiSH Network’s Slingbox ready set up.

Options allows you to switch to audio only, drop to Standard Quality from HD, get help, change the orientation of your viewing between letterbox and standard, or change the device you’re currently accessing.

The D-Pad is how you control all of the menu’s in this app. I find this to be a grueling process as the response when pressing the buttons is so slow, it’s almost painful. At times, I almost wanted to change the channel on the TV just to make everything that much easier.

The quality of video was pretty good as well, considering that it’s streaming from your set top box. If you have the Slingbox Pro-HD and are using an HD set top box you’re going to get a better quality video then you would from standard box.

If you’re not familiar with the Slingbox, this app isn’t going to sell you on the product/service, especially with the WiFi only limitations imposed on this version of the app. If you already own a Slingbox or were thinking of getting one, you may find this app to be a pretty expensive novelty. After all, if you have a laptop or a netbook with you, you can tap into your Slingbox for free and enjoy watching it on a much larger screen. With a lack of 3G connectivity, this app is pretty much dead in the water.

Oh, and for those of you with Legacy Slingboxes, the app will work with your box, but there’s no support offered if you run into any issues.

When did FML become a word in people’s everyday vocabulary? I was at work the other day and someone dropped something really heavy on their foot. I was expecting a shriek, or a curse word, but the person angrily said, “FML!”. They didn’t say the words that FML stands for, they just said the letters F-M-L.

Concept
F-MyLife, if you haven’t heard by now, is a global phenomenon. People from all over the world read FMyLife.com daily just so they can laugh at someone else’s misery. Here’s an example of an FML post, just in case you have never seen one.

Today, I received my passport in the mail. They got my birthdate wrong. Then I picked up my birth certificate that I had sent in with the application. Turns out my parents have been celebrating my birthday on the wrong day for 16 years. FML

All FML quotes are in the same format, and afterwards people can vote on whether they “agree your life is f***ed” or if “you deserved that one”. The submissions, to my knowledge, are all user submitted and updated all day. Check out fmylife.com before you get the app, just to make sure if you like the humor. It’s probably not for everyone… just for most.

Functionality/Quality
The idea of the app is to merge the online website, fmylife.com, with an easier to access application on the iPhone. The formatting of the website, and the amount of time it takes to navigate around a website, was not conducive to mobile viewing, so a mobile app was the obvious next step for the site. The app itself is relatively plain, giving you just a screen that lets you scroll through FML posts. You can either view recent posts, posts organized into categories, featured posts, or you can shuffle posts (the shuffle feature was just added in version 1.5 and allows for you to “shake to shuffle”). From these screens, you can view posts organized by date, today, week, month, or all time. As with the website, you can still vote on whether or not the person deserved their fate or not, but unfortunately you cannot leave comments with the iPhone version.

Lasting Appeal
Unfortunately, at least to myself, FML posts get old after a few minutes. My issue with FML is that there is really no authenticity to the majority of the posts. For example, I just read a post a few min ago that said, “Today, I checked my facebook, and my wife of 5 years was listed as single. I then write on her wall that it is ok to announce to be married. She writes back saying that we have to talk and to come to the kitchen. My wife divorced me over facebook. FML”. You know, maybe it’s true, but I doubt it. It’s funny, but just like many posts on the app, it is hard to believe. So many of the stories are so far-fetched that I get bored reading them after a few minutes.

My other problem with the app doesn’t stem from the content that is there, but rather the lack of content. Some of the funniest FML posts on the website are quite crude and seem to be blocked on the app. I’m sure this has something to do with Apple letting the app into the app store, but it is rather unfortunate. Hopefully Apple at some point will relax their moral standards and let some of the funnier crude posts in. Even if you had to have a password and a birthday confirmation, I think that these posts would make the app immensely more popular.

Overall
For the price of the oxygen that you breathe every day you can get this app (it’s free!). There really isn’t any reason not to have this app on your phone other than the fact that you just may not enjoy the humor. For the money, or lack there of, I would recommend getting it, but don’t think that it will be perfect. I expect enormego to update the app throughout the following months to make sure the FML mobile experience is as functional and clean as their website is.

Wave & Show is a way to get someone’s attention across a room (or any space). Bright flashing big letters (caps but you can disable that) of your message are visible for quite a long distance. By typing a simple text message and waving it in the air in a downward to upward motion you can have your message read by the person opposite you. It is drawing upon the basic principles of persistence of vision that allows you to read the message written.

This app is really a communication system, but mostly its just a fun thing to try. It can be fun to use to send a message to someone who is not near you. I realise that it is just a fun tool to use, but I’m not sure it should be a paid for application. It really just does that one thing. (there is a lite version now available)

This app does what it says. It allows you to write a message ( a short one works best) and then through waving it in the air in a repeated and precise way, the other person can read what you have written. I tested this out on a variety of people all within different age ranges. You have to tweek the settings to get the best results, and maybe practice in a mirror because it can be difficult to read. The majority of people I showed did ask me to confirm the message, as they were doing guess work about what I had written.

Very simple to use, no learning curve. Upon launching the application it loads the information panel. Here it tells you how to get started which is useful. You then go to the main screen and click on the ‘i’ to edit the settings.

First field is to enter the text of your message. This is best kept to one or two words. Then you can choose if it’s capitalized or not. You can then choose the colour of your message (5 options) then there are sensitivity (of the accelerometer) settings and flash as well. The flash settings are described from the developers as :You can choose how often each letter flashes: x1 – once, x2 – twice, x3 – three times. We recommend to use the program with setting х2.

Possibly for this entertainment app it maybe doesn’t have much scope. This is in terms of once the fun factor has gone then what? This is similar though with many entertainment apps so if you like having an app that you can play with, show your friends and generally have a laugh for a little but, then yes get it. I do think maybe it should be free and they could just put an add on the instruction screen.

If you find yourself trying to get a simple message across a room (works better in dark conditions) then you should get this app. If it is just for a one off fun factor then its your decision. (You should maybe try the lite version and see how often you use it.)

As a long time user of DirecTV’s online services, I welcomed the addition of its companion iPhone app with open arms. And I will say, up front, that it does do what it purports to do: allow you to set one or more of your DVR(s) to record any number of programs remotely. This feature is useful if you are away from home and spontaneously decide to record something or if you do not have internet access to do it on the web (a DirecTV feature for some time).
After logging in to your account, the app loads in your particular channel set up; from here you can display your channels or all channels (not sure why you would want to do this though). You can browse 14 days of programming by channel or by show and from here can set your DVR to record a particular episode or an entire series. The user interface is intuitive, graphically pleasing and generally easy to figure out.
Unfortunately that is the extent of the feature set; you cannot otherwise manage your recordings. The ability to view the list of scheduled recordings and make changes (e.g. delete a recording) and organize channel or show favorites would earn this app permanent real estate on my phone. As it stands, the DirecTV iPhone app performs one function reliably and for free. You will need to decide for yourself if it offers enough functionality to warrant a download.

Developed by FireMint, published by iPlay, and in association with Universal Pictures Entertainment, ‘Fast & Furious The Game’ is the second installment in the franchise series. Unlike Pink Slip, this time you’ll find yourself blasting your way through the streets of LA, Mexico and finally the Dominican Republic. There’s no doubting this is the ’step up’ from Pink Slip we all needed, so lets dive straight into how the game plays out ..

For anyone not aware, Fast and Furious is a super-charged racing title based on the movie starring Vin Diesel of the same name. Using a ride of your choice you aim to complete missions and various types of races to gain respect in the underground (and mostly corrupt) racing league.

Racing Modes
Entering the game, one thing which did hit me was the sheer amount of different racing modes this game offers up. Unlike Pink Slip, there are many types of race to choose from, and from the main menu you’ll have access to four of them, including; Quick Race, Story Mode, Compete Online and Wi-Fi Multiplayer. The Quick Race option is an option you want to choose if you simply want to take a ride. There’s no plan, it’s a simple quick mode which throws you into a certain race. Tapping quick race from the main menu presents a further seven racing options, including; Road Race, Drift Race, Drag Race, GPS Race, Tunnel Run, Pursuit and Evade.

Here’s a break down of what each of those race modes actually mean:

• Road Race
  In this mode you will complete a standard race. Your aim?
  Cross the finish line first. Most importantly? You can pick
  your track.

• Drift Race
  Drift races are a race in which you aim to skid (or drift) all over the place.
  In this mode you have a set ‘target’ to reach. If you don’t reach the target,
  you fail to win.

• Drag Race
  Drag races are quite a bit different to drifts. In a drag race your thrown into
  a speeding ride. When the indicator needle turns green you have to switch gears.
  Fail to do so quickly, and you’ll stall your ride and lose the race.

• GPS Race
  Dont get too excited .. This mode doesn’t actually let you use iPhone 3G’s built in
  GPS module to race your friends – (although that would be pretty trippy). Instead,
  this mode uses the built in GPS unit in your ride, to locate checkpoints throughout
  the track. Cross the line first, you win!

• Tunnel Run
  In this mode you enter various tunnels. Your aim? Escape the tunnel before the timer
  reaches zero. Change gear when the needle turns green and hit warning lights when
  they turn green to navigation each junction.

• Pursuit
  Pursuit is just as it sounds. Your thrown into a pursuit featuring you,
  and a bunch of other rides. Your aim is to take down the target vehicles
  by ramming them off the road. Simply right?

• Evade
  Evade is again as it sounds. You are being pursued. They’re fast, but your
  smarter. Escape over the finish line before your pursuers completely destroy
  your ride.

Story Mode
So that’s quick mode out of the way, but what if your looking for a more ‘intense’ experience. You want to play the game for 3 hours compared to 10 minutes, right? Story mode introduces you into the world of Fast and Furious. With un-lockable achievements to be won, you complete missions in an effort to win status in the racing scene, and more rides for your lot. The missions you experience in this mode are just like quick race, only this time your actually playing to win something. The mode is split up into 9 stages with a major mission in each stage. Each ‘Mission’ you accept to take on will be given a set of ‘objectives’ you need to meet in order to unlock the next set.

See it in Action:

UI Basics / Visual Indicators
In-game the UI is basic. To the right of the screen you’ll find a distance gauge. This indicates how far you are from the finish line compared to your competition. You are marked as the red arrow, while your opponent sits in green. Top right you’ll find the amount of time you have already used, with the bottom right corner displaying the speed your racing at, plus offering camera view options.

Top left you’ll find your lap counter. Below this is your NOS canister. When this flashes, give it a tap. NOS is designed to give you a major speed increase at times when you require it. Finally in the bottom left corner you’ll find the pause button. The pause menu gives you a few different control options, including; Resume, Restart, Volume, Speed, Help and Main Menu.

Gameplay and Controls
Although a complex game in many respects, it’s control system is fairly simple. The game is controlled by steering and this is achieved using the device’s accelerometer. Some of you will be pleased to know that you don’t have to accelerate the ride yourself. Acceleration is automatic, which personally, I hate. It doesn’t matter where you are in the game, your always moving.

Tilting your device left and right will steer your car. In the case of cars with Nitro, tapping the Nitro indicator on the left hand side of the screen will engage the NOS. Remember that your indicator must show full and be flashing before you can use the feature. NOS will automatically replenish over time, but some cars take longer to replenish than others. To brake, simply touch anywhere on the main game play screen. A red light will show under your touch to indicate the brake is engaged.

Extras
As well as playing yourself, you can also let others in the world know how your doing. The game features two further playing modes; Compete Online, and Wi-Fi Multiplayer. In order to play online you’ll need to register. Don’t picture 27 fields. Registration to CloudCell’s servers takes all of 10 seconds, if that. Once registered you have two options; Race or Sync. Race is pretty obvious, but tapping Sync will initiate the app to sync your game data you’ve earned so far with the online server. I’m ranked 8570 .. yeeahh, steady on – I only got the game late last week ..

Things I’d like to see:

- Option to turn auto acceleration OFF

Overall
Fast and Furious is a very respectable racing title. With it’s console-matching graphics, game play extendability features, story mode, career, quick races and online modes, this game is a must for racing fanatics. Can’t wait for Need for Speed: Undercover? – This is sure to fill that gap for you until then.

I hope that most of you are finished with your taxes, but let’s face it: that deadline is always terrifying, no matter how well prepared you are. The fear of a “friendly” phone call from the IRS—politely informing you that the government needs to squeeze a few more dollars out of your sorry life in order to fund those bailouts—is never a fun one. How often have you wished that you could get your hands around the necks of those wretched tax collectors?

Voodoo Taxman is a gag app. Let’s establish that right away. The whole thing was obviously drawn in MS Paint, and there’s no purpose to it, per se. But when has that ever stopped anyone? Sometimes all you need is a bit of good old-fashioned stress relief, and torture is the oldest form of entertainment!

The app opens to a blank office-like environment, with a single odd feature: the “I <3 SATAN" sign. (I have to admit that I love the decor.) Wait a second (or tilt your iPhone), and the angry, glasses-wearing, stiff-necked tax collector himself slides into view, along with some money bags. Egads!

From there, you have a few options. You can shake your iPhone or tilt it to smash the taxman against the wall, or you can poke him in the face to break his glasses. Grabbing him by a limb and shaking will yield some money. That’s pretty much the extent of the app. The guy collects bruises and scratches as you abuse him (though, alas, there’s never any blood), and the money scatters throughout his tiny little office.

Sure, it’s a nifty idea. But it’s not as if this is a serious app, and the devs obviously didn’t shower their creation with loving efforts. As far as I can tell, multitouch isn’t supported. The sound effects, while amusing at first, are minimal and repetitive. The graphics are rough at best (MS Paint! The horror!) and the animations are jerky and awkward. To be honest, the novelty of “sticking it to the taxman” (to quote the iTunes description) wears off in about thirty seconds.

So, is this a funny idea? Heck yeah. Would I waste my money on it? Er, well…no. Just…no. Go get one of the other great apps on sale for a dollar. I’m sure you’ll find something (I’m thinking of Pocket God, if you want to fill that sadistic urge). In the meantime, have fun with those taxes!

Whenever I’m bored, the first thing I think of is roller coasters. Er…sure?

Okay, so maybe roller coasters aren’t the most common of diversions when it comes to iPhone apps, but surely some of you have played Roller Coaster Tycoon and the like. And, really, how much fun was it to watch the simulator spit out a first-person view of racing down your contraptions? (I know that that was the whole reason why I added all of those crazy corkscrews into my creations!)

AirCoaster 3D is, as you might have guessed, a 3D roller coaster simulator for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Open the app, and you’re presented with a few settings; hit “Start Ride,” and you’ll be hurtling down an auto-generated track, complete with loops, corkscrews, spirals, and gut-wrenching drops.

…well, maybe not that gut-wrenching. I didn’t get any feelings of vertigo myself, but it definitely is fun to watch the track buck and turn and fall. You can completely customize your ride, too. Besides simple settings that increase the amount of loops or alter gravity, you can build your own track up from scratch using the built-in track editor. For the ride itself, you’ve got plenty of choices: pick a “theme” (background), the sound effects (rushing wind, kids screeching, both, none?), and your position (riding above the tracks or dangling below). You can also toggle track styles (wood, steel) and switch to an overview of the track instead of riding it.

The real genius, though, lies in the community aspect. You can upload your tracks to the internet, and browse for others’ tracks for downloading. (Downloaded tracks are stored in a “My Tracks” tab.) It’s here that you’ll find the most ingenious designs: first, a track based on the Dow Jones from October of 2007 to March 2009; second, a roller coaster incarnation of the Apple stock, from January of ‘08 to March of ‘09.

Seriously? Talk about taking an overused phrase to the literal level! Riding the drops and dips of the stock market really puts some things into perspective…oh, who am I kidding? It’s just plain fun, if a bit sadistic. The Dow Jones actually has a surprisingly gentle slope, especially compared to the Apple stock, which might actually make you seasick. Besides the stock-coasters, there are plenty of other designs, too, so if you’re too lazy to build your own track, it’s always good to see what other people are concocting.

AirCoaster isn’t perfect, naturally. There are quite a few odd interface issues. For example, there’s a whole screen/tab dedicated to picking the background—is that really necessary? Also, the sliders on the main settings screen feel unresponsive. The simulator itself is fairly good, but the backgrounds aren’t overly realistic, and are often blurred in the “distance.” The track editor can be annoying to try and use; it takes a while to build a track and just feels clumsy. Finally, while all of the menus are displayed in portrait mode, the actual tracks ride in landscape mode.

The basic physics, though, are solid, and the noise of wind rushing past you coupled with other effects makes AirCoaster an effective simulator. Ultimately, whether or not you’ll like it depends entirely on how much you want to pretend to ride fake roller coasters; I doubt that it has much reuse value, and at the end of the day, it’s still just a simulator. But painlessly experiencing the stock market crash is still worth something in my book, and it’s good for laughs if nothing else.

Flixster was one of the first applications I downloaded for use on my iPhone and it remains one of my faves to this day. Recent feature improvements have made it an even better resource. I’m not a movie buff by any means, but the Flixster app embodies what most of us appreciate about having a smartphone–up to date information on the go.

With Flixster you can search and watch movie trailers from Flixster’s enormous online database. You can view listings from your local or favorite theaters and from within favorites you can call the theater, locate it on a map and share the information with friends. You can also view upcoming movie and DVD releases. Last night, I looked on Flixster to learn that Milk had been released on DVD 10 days previously and subsequently pulled into the local Blockbuster on my way home to grab it.

The newest app version can integrate with your Facebook account by utilizing Facebook Connect. The idea is to create more of a social aspect to rating movies and sharing the info with friends. While you can view movie ratings from the pros at Rotten Tomatoes from within Flixster, it’s often fun and helpful to see what “real people” think of a film before deciding whether or not to see it. Once you set it up, all of your Facebook friends who use Flixster are loaded into the app, along with their movie ratings; these show up as you search specific films or in your ‘My Movies’ section of the application. You can rate movies and create a wish list from within Flixster or FB and the information is then published within both applications.

Flixster is stable and the clips run smoothly, even over the cellular network. There’s really little to criticize here. The user interface is nice, the app doesn’t crash and it’s free. Give Flixster Movies a try. I bet you’ll like it.

This application brings art to your iPhone. It’s a version of the Jackson Pollock web application, and its fun to be able to paint like the master! You will find yourself showing people this application …and then, not getting your iPhone back because they want to keep painting.

This application essentially brings the website interaction to the iPhone platform. You have a white canvas and you paint onto it, all in the style of artist Jackson Pollock.

The reason why this is a good application is because it is interesting to make these pictures in his style. The application gives you several choices for painting. You can select random or from five pallets: Rainbow, Fire, Organic, Cool and Magic. The drips and splatters are fun to do and they change direction according to how you are holding your device.

Once you have created your painting, you can save it to your photos, which is great. You can also just shake your device to start a new one.

In addition, it supports the multi touch interface and you can use several fingers to apply the ‘paint’.

An email feature, so you can send out your pictures, would be a great addition to this app. In addition, sometimes when you go near the edge to apply paint, it clicks back to the help menu, which can be a bit annoying. Your image that you were working on is still there though, so you don’t lose any of your work.

“Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas” for iPhone from Memo Akten on Vimeo.

For the price of this application, I think it is worth a download because it is unique. It is also fun and you can create some pretty pictures. Additionally this app brings with it the “wow” factor of joining the group of applications you always pull out to show your friends!

A unique application to create fantastic poems. It gives you words taken from the works of Shakespeare, Ancient Mariner, Kipling and E.A. Poe. It then adds to the mix a feed from news and Digg. This allows you to create interesting poems which uses the words of past masters mixed with current trends. Poems can then be published to Twitter or using e-mail.

This application is great! Touch Poet really lets you have fun creating interesting poems. You can select which sources you want to use in your writing. There is a choice of Shakespeare, Ancient Mariner, Kipling and E. A. Poe. You can also select from news and Digg or add your own words to the poem.

The interface is really clean, echoing the recycling look of a paper bag. The reason why this application is great is because the isn’t a boring text editor. The words are written on little ’scraps’ of paper. When you click the small arrow for a new word it comes out at the bottom and you then just click it to move it into place. (It’s similar to when you get magnet packs of words to write something on your fridge.)

These small pieces of paper are really responsive and move smoothly along the screen. You simply place them in the order you want, and when they are matching up to form your sentence a blue line underlines the words. The words also turn blue themselves to acknowledge that they are part of the sentence. Even if you don’t actually create a poem with the words, its really fun to drag them around and move them around. Visually, it is a superb use of the iPhone and its capabilities.

A few things that might improve this would be the ability to ‘lock’ a word in place. Sometimes you hit a word too hard and a few go flying so you can loose what you had written. Also, it can be difficult to create something interesting if you have only one source selected so you should be sure to select a few.

I would like to see the ability to save my creation as an image rather than just the text, cause it looks so fantastic! I like the way the words are so physical and placed specifically that I would want to see it again. I liked the background a lot but some users love to customize everything and perhaps an inclusion of background choices may be nice for them. Also maybe when you send it to Twitter they should warn you that you have used too many characters and it won’t all be posted, just the first 140 minus the #poetry hash tag.

Overall this is a really stylish and unusual looking application with great function. You’ll find friends and family want to play with it, and may find yourself spending hours creating ‘interesting’ poems. Really innovative, well thought out and designed. It’s a keeper!

PicTricks is an image processing app for the iPhone. It can take a portrait photograph and add such items as new hair, a mustache, hat, and glasses to a person. It can also replace the background of a photograph with one of your choosing. Lastly, it can shrink a photograph horizontally, removing unwanted background elements in the process. It claims it can do all this automatically for you, although you can select various options and control aspects of it manually.

With PicTricks you choose one of three starting modes: Instant Makeover, Magic Resize, or Blue/Green Screen. Each of these has their own customizable options. Although you can take photos from within the app, you can also use them from the camera roll, or from the photo library. When done you save the resulting photo to the Saved Photos album on your iPhone. PicTricks never alters your original photographs in any way.

Instant Makeover lets you choose a starting photograph of a person, preferably a straight on head shot. You then either let the app randomly change the hair style, add glasses, facial hair, a hat, and a valentine’s day item, or you select each of those options yourself. You can turn each off if you wish, or select from a small number of available items. You then let the app render a new photograph. Given the right starting photo the result can often be hilarious.

The principle behind Magic Resize is that you might want to condense a scene into its most important elements. For example, maybe that photo you love of your dogs running in the backyard is spoiled by some unsightly mess that lies between them. With Magic Resize you can paint that area so its marked for removal. Once the app has analyzed the photograph, you can resize it horizontally so the elements are moved closer together. In the process of resizing the scene, the element you marked for removal is covered by the rest of the scene, but nothing is distorted. The result can be dramatic, with a scene that appears intact except its missing something you wished wasn’t there anyway.

Lastly, there’s Blue/Green Screen. This is the pickiest of the image processing modes. With this mode you choose a replacement background and the original foreground. It works best with a solid blue background in the original foreground picture but can often produce good results with others. You select the background color you want to replace and let the app do that for you. It can produce dramatic results.

All of these modes can work remarkably well, although they can just as often mangle images in unpleasant ways. While Instant Makeover is really a novelty with too few options (6 hair styles, 5 styles of eyeglasses, 6 types of facial hair, 4 hats/ears, and 4 valentine items), Magic Resize and Blue/Green Screen are truly useful and can produce fairly amazing results considering the low cost of the app.

PicTricks can create funny or interesting pictures as long as the photograph you start with meets the requirements of its internal algorithms. Like any image manipulation app, it requires time and effort to master, and will just as often frustrate as satisfy. It’s definitely worthwhile, although you can’t expect it to magically create great photographs every single time.

This application opens with ‘Latest’ films for the default screen. Two images from films are visible as well as the title of the third. This can be changed by clicking a small button at the top left of the screen, which compresses the information so you can view five at a time. The larger images however are a great visual. Beside the image is text information about who the main actors in the film are.

Also on this screen is an arrow – when clicked it downloads both a film clip and a trailer. Next to that is a star, so you can favourite the movie. The image is also clickable, and this launches it to nearly full screen.

There is a small indicator arrow to the right. This launches a further, more detailed information screen about that film.

Second screen in Trailers

• director
• actors
• genre
• rating
• studio
• release date

Below that are three buttons, and then two larger ones below that. The first takes you to the website (leads to Apple and a clip from the film). The middle button is so you can favourite the film (again) and the last one takes you to that movies website. Important to note that both of these links launches Safari which leads you to the information page / website about the film. This could have been better integrated by launching a browser within the application and then a ‘back’ button so you can return to what you were looking at. Having to leave and relaunch it is unnecessary and boring, and I would not use these ‘features’.

The buttons below those however are useful, one launches a youtube clip from the film, and the second plays the trailer (again from youtube). Those are the great features that you want this application for.

Below that there are five more buttons you can select. The first one, an ’s’ is a brief script detail all in text so you can read about the film. There is also a play button in the middle, which again is just duplication of the buttons above, and then a last one that launches email so you can send information about the film. (again causing you to leave the application)

Showing date view in Trailers

However – all of those options may be where the application is let down a little. There seems to be too much duplication of features on too many screens. I’m not sure why you need to have a ‘favourite’ button on both screens, and equally, the websites that launch safari (which isn’t a great feature) is also on both screens. Navigation along the bottom through clicking of arrows is also redundant as the swipe features work wonderfully. They should simplify.

Overall this is a great application if you enjoy finding out about the latest films on release. I found myself watching the trailers when I had some spare time. This made me what to see films that I didn’t think I would have been interested in, or known about. It’s also good if you are trying to tell someone about a film. You can just show them a clip from it, quick and easy.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/trailers/feed/ 2 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/trailers/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/entertainment/~3/XHZfvz8Fxkw/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/movie-brain/#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:47:57 +0000 Tom Hesser http://www.148apps.com/?p=3659

The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) is one of the few web sites that has missed the bandwagon of creating an iPhone engineered interface, either as a stand-alone app or Web 2.0 web site. This is a shame since using mobile Safari on the regular web site is torturous thanks to small type and a lot of information crammed onto each page. For iPhone/iPod Touch users looking for solution to their movie searching needs, Movie Brain rides in on a white horse to save the day!

Using an ingenious method of collecting data from a variety of internet sources to compile a complete self-contained database (see our audio interview with the developer for more details), the developer has created a speedy movie database in your pocket. The movie description, cast, and even the poster is available without any internet connection. To display additional details about each movie, Movie Brain offers to connect to the internet to retrieve data from NetFlix, IMDB, or the Rotten Tomatoes web site (movie reviews) in it’s own browser window so you don’t have to leave the app.

Movie Brain allows you to search movie titles, or for people’s names, such as the actors or director of the film. Once you get to the movie selection you want, you can then navigate to information about each person listed under the movie. If you want to bookmark your favorite movies or people for quick navigation, each entry has a heart icon which you click to put the entry into the list.

Being a cinema-phile, I use this app frequently, and it is nice to have a quick search available with easy to read results. I am hoping the developer add some additional features in a future release. I would like to see the ability to email or export the favorites list for sharing. It also seems obvious that you should be able to add a movie from your search to your NetFlix queue. Having spoken to the developer, he said he is considering it. It would also be nice to see some fun features that utilize some of the iPhone’s technologies, like shaking the device to bring up a random movie. Given that taking you to another web site for more details still brings up that site’s normal web page, it would interesting if there was someway to incorporate Instapaper support to read results later. These are just some ideas. The app is pretty indispensable as it is.

My Aquarium is a virtual aquarium. You drop dish, vegetation, and things like sunken ships into a tank and then watch the fish swim around in it.

The app gives you a big tank and the ability to stock it with a large quantity and variety of fish. You can also drop vegetation or objects such as sunken ships and divers into it. You can then move these around the tank. While you can pan around the tank so you can see all parts of it, you can never see it all at once. There is no zoom support, though you can view the tank in either portrait or landscape mode.

Adding fish or items to the tank is done through a button for each, and it just randomly adds them in. Two more buttons remove all of the fish or all of the objects. You can also click a button to randomly change the entire tank, and you can toggle between five backgrounds via yet another button. Last but not least, the toolbar these buttons appear on also gives you the ability to toggle sound on and off. This toolbar can be turned off and fades out so you don’t have to look at it while viewing the tank.

I suppose the intent of My Aquarium is to entertain you, which seems fine for a desktop application where power consumption is not a concern. In the case of the iPhone, though, battery life is of the utmost importance. This makes the usefulness of such an app suspect, and one wonders who would really want to spend time watching a virtual aquarium on an iPhone. If it at least let you disturb or otherwise “mess” with the fish, it could be considered a toy or amusement, but as it stands, it’s simply there so you can watch it.

Is My Aquarium for you? If you’re looking for a toy, this isn’t really it. It is strictly a simulated tank with a well working but limited set of features. If that sounds good to you, it’s inexpensive enough to experience.