Category Archives: Books

Stanza Updates for the iPad

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Stanza’s Options and Reading Screen

Lexcycle, acquired last year by Amazon, released a version of their popular iPhone/iPod touch eReader Stanza for the iPad last week. Stanza was my eReader of choice on my iPhone and I’m thrilled it’s finally been ported to the iPad. It’s a terrific reader that’s compatible with a wide variety of different formats. Before Stanza for iPad was released, I used Calibre to convert my eBooks to iBooks’ required ePub format. Stanza allows users to read in a whole bunch of formats, and the 3.0 release adds PDF, DjVu, and Comic Book Archive support to Stanza’s already extensive library of readable files.

Stanza includes the most customizable reading interface I’ve seen on a mobile application. It allows you to customize nearly everything, from the page turning animations (a slide like the Kindle’s or a page turning animation like iBooks’) to the background and color of the text. Stanza really does make the experience all about the text – the user is able to customize everything about the way the book is viewed. Barnes and Nobles’ app was lauded earlier this week for including the same customization but their application locks you into using their bookstore. Stanza lets you load your own books onto the iPad or iPhone. It also, however, allows you access to a variety of other eBook stores directly from the phone.

Stanza’s Text Descriptions

Perhaps the application’s best feature is Stanza’s Detail views for text. Highlighting text using the traditional copy and paste mechanism in iBooks yields a tooltip that lets you bookmark (highlight) and look things up in the dictionary. It’s a more complicated scenario in Stanza but one that offers one additional option – the ability to share text on Facebook, Twitter, and through email. The detail view pulls up the paragraph in question in an iPhone-sized window and makes it easier to select text.

Stanza works perfectly with Calibre, my app of choice for eBook conversion. It now allows for a really simple workflow to get eBooks from the desktop to an iPad. It’s possible to move books by utilizing a computer as a wireless server, or by pushing them from Calibre into iTunes. It’s also possible to drag books into iTunes and into Stanza.

Stanza is the ideal reading experience, with customizable colors, animations, and more and compatibility with dozens of different formats. The Lexcycle team has succeeded in bringing the great iPhone app to the iPad and I, as an avid reader, am glad they did so.

FREE!

Stanza

+ Universal App – Designed for iPhone and iPad

Our Rating: ★★★★½ :: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2008-07-13 :: Category: Books

[ Stanza Updates for the iPad is a post from 148Apps ]


Doing Good Works – iPhone App Review

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Doing Good Works icon Doing Good Works iPhone App Review

Doing Good Works (Free)

Version – 1.1

Review – “Learn to be a better person with this free app!”


Doing Good Works 1 200x300 Doing Good Works iPhone App ReviewIf you’ve ever wanted to change things for the better, but felt powerless to do so, you might want to check out the Doing Good Works app for your iPhone. This app is a book that packaged into an easy to access app for free! It has some basic tools to help you navigate through it quickly, and it offers a link to their website where you’ll find more information about the book and it’s Author.


The app starts up pretty much instantly and offers a couple of different options at the menu screen that pops Doing Good Works 2 200x300 Doing Good Works iPhone App Reviewup. If you touch anywhere on the screen that is not a button you’ll start reading the book either at the beginning, or if you’ve been reading it before, at the place where you left off when you were reading it last.


In the center of the screen you’ll notice two small buttons: “Chapter Select,” and “More Info.” Touching the chapter select button will bring up a scroll bar at the bottom of the screen with a list of all the chapters that are available in the book. To skip straight to a chapter all you have to do is select it with the wheel and then touch the top half of the screen. If you touch the more info button you’ll shown a screen that basically directs you Doing Good Works 3 200x300 Doing Good Works iPhone App Reviewto the website for the book. You’ll find a variety of information, as well as find out how to purchase physical copies of the book if you’d like to give one to somebody you know.


The book reading interface is pretty simple, although it is a little different if you’re used to the interface of most book reading apps such as the Kindle app or the iBooks app on the iPad. Instead of turning pages from left to right, in this app you scroll down as you read the book. Something that is pretty nice though is that the book is separated into the actual physical pages of the book. In most electronicDoing Good Works 4 200x300 Doing Good Works iPhone App Reviewformats the “pages” are determined by what font size that you are reading the book at.


Another thing that I did notice is that, because the book is divided into the actual pages from the book, that the font is extremely small in portrait mode. Thankfully the latest update for the app will allow you to read it in landscape mode so that you can zoom in a little more on the text. It’s still a little bit smaller than I would have liked but it is definitely readable at this size.


Overall, the message of the book seems to be positive. It focuses a lot on taking an honest look at what you have and at what you can give easily without much effort. I have not read the entire book, but what I did read seems to be pretty on target. If you’ve always wanted to make a difference in the lives of others, but never really sat down and thought out how then what are you waiting for? Grab a copy of this normally $14.99 book from the App Store for free!

- David H.

Download Now!

Doing Good Works

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Developer – Multimedia Marketing LLC

URL: http://www.doinggoodworks.org

© 2010, iPhone app reviews. All rights reserved. An expedite fee may have been paid for some reviews. We work diligently to ensure that this does not affect the content of the review and strive to keep the journalistic integrity in tack. All reviews are the personal opinion of the reviewer.

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EW’s The Must List Review

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Developer: TIME INC.
Price: FREE
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPad

iPhone Integration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Re-use Value Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.22 out of 5 stars

IMG_0012I have a confession to make.  I love Entertainment Weekly.  I know, I know…there are more intellectually stimulating mags out there, and EW can occasionally hover a bit too close to the terrifying US Weekly and/or People magazine territory, but when it comes to learning about new books, movies, TV shows and more, it’s my go-to rag.

So, when an EW-branded iPad app showed up prominently displayed in the app store, I had to download it and give it a spin.  True to my fixation with EW, I was not disappointed.

At first glance, the EW Must List app seems incredibly limited.  Basically, it takes the two page Must List spread (which catalogues the latest music, book, film and, yes, app, “must-haves” for the week) and translates it to the iPad screen.  Seems sort of ho-hum, doesn’t it?  Fortunately, the developers of the app have harnessed theIMG_0015 power of the iPad display and used it to create a compelling product.  Yes, it looks just like the print version of the Must List (and it might even look a little better.  The iPad is just screaming for high color, dynamic content like this), but clicking on any of the items not only pulls up the blurb written by EW, but also links to, say, movie trailers, song samples, an artist’s Twitter feed or Facebook page, or purchase points like Amazon or the iTunes store.  While writing this review, I even looked at some past lists and quickly pulled up the latest info on the Scott Pilgrim movie, including the hyperactive trailer.  For a pop culture junkie, this is pretty close to nirvana.

As a final treat, users are allowed to add any item to their own Must List, an action accompanied by an animated star spritely hopping into the menu.  While this is just a simple variation on the classic wish list, a la Amazon, it helps generate further enthusiasm for the content while making users come back for more each week.

There’s no doubt that this is a simple and straightforward app, yet there are features I’d like to see in the future updates to the app.  Probably the first and foremost is some sort of social aspect.  It would be great to be able to see friends’ must lists, and even purchase items for them directly from the app. And while the Must List is a weekly tradition in the Entertainment Weekly print magazine, a twice a week Must List would not be a bad thing.  A week is too long to wait for the next Must!

If you always want to know about the next big thing a little bit ahead of the curve, EW’s Must List is a must have for your iPad.

[ EW’s The Must List Review is a post from 148Apps ]


Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece – iPhone App Review

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Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece icon Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece iPhone App Review

Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece ($1.99)

Version – 1.0

Review – “Fun strategy game that will stretch your intellect!”


My wife loves to play games on the internet. There are a lot Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece 1 300x200 Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece iPhone App Reviewof games that make you think of words, or piece things together, or find things out there. What Simeon Graham and Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece 2 300x200 Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece iPhone App Reviewthe Extraordinary Timepiece does is take a lot of those different game concepts, and tie them all together with a storyline. The end result is a creative strategy game that forces your brain to be firing on all cylinders!


The game loads up very quickly, and the main menu is very well done. It looks nice, but is extremely simple and functional. There is the option to start a new Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece 3 300x200 Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece iPhone App Reviewgame, continue your game if you have played it previously, open up an options menu, or view the games credits. The only “Option” in the menu is to turn the music on or off. While the music at the menu is alright, it does get a little bit old after a while of playing so it is nice to be able to turn it off if you want to.


Once you get to the actual game the first thing you’ll see is a pop up box that will start to tell the storyline of the game. The basic story is that a child named Simon Graham’s grandmother has been kidnapped and he has to find her! She’s left him clues along the way and so you’ll have to use your deductive reasoning skills if you want to rescue her!


I found some of the games to be easy to figure out quickly, while others required me to think about them Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece 4 300x200 Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece iPhone App Reviewfor a while until I was able to find a way to complete them. While most of them I was able to figure out without too much trouble, there were a couple that had me stumped for quite some time!


The controls are very simple. While they will change from game to game, you are given instructions that will make them easy to learn quickly. A few of my favorite games types in this game were the word puzzles, and the math ones. With that said, they’re all Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece 5 300x200 Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece iPhone App Reviewa lot fun. Although it definitely would have been nice to have some kind of a “hint” feature for when you get really stumped.


All things considered the only really negative things I have to say about this app are that the music gets old pretty fast, and that if you do get stuck on a puzzle for a while it gets boring fast because of the linear nature of this game. With that said, ifyou are a fan of puzzle games, this one will keep you busy for a long time! It offers plenty of variation in gameplay, and it has a lot of different puzzles. Simon Graham and the Extraordinary just entered the App Store yesterday evening, and it is just $1.99. So if you like puzzle games then what are you waiting for? Check it out for yourself in the App Store today!

- David H.

Download Now!

Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece, Book I

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Developer – The App House, LLC

URL: http://www.extraordinarytimepiece.com

© 2010, iPhone app reviews. All rights reserved. An expedite fee may have been paid for some reviews. We work diligently to ensure that this does not affect the content of the review and strive to keep the journalistic integrity in tack. All reviews are the personal opinion of the reviewer.

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Fun iPhone App for Kids: How to Train Your Dragon

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Fun iPhone App for Kids: How to Train Your Dragon

Price: $1.99  Score: 10/10  By M. SchustermanHow To Train Your Dragon- Kids Book HD

This app comes with a warning – if you let your child read this book, you may have a very hard time getting your iPhone back.

How to Train Your Dragon, a DreamWorks Animation hit movie, is available as an e-Book app for kids thanks to FrogDogMedia LLC.  One of the keys to designing an app that children will actually use and enjoy is simplicity, and thankfully, this app has just that.

Touch the icon and the app automatically opens in landscape mode (better for little hands, in my opinion). Cue the opening credits music! (And don’t forget the headphones if you’re out and need to keep the kiddo occupied.) All your little one has to do is tap play. To adjust the settings, there is a small “information” icon in the top right corner. You can turn the narration on and off, set the pages to turn automatically, and choose whether or not to include the highlighted text option.

The story itself is, of course, adorable, and the pictures that accompany the story are straight from the movie. The text appears at the bottom of the screen, and as the narrator reads out loud, the words are highlighted in chunks of phrases. This happens to be a proven way to improve reading skills, making this app more educational for kids than watching the movie itself. After a few watches, try turning off the narration to see how much your child can read on his own.

Even with the automatic page turn, your child can turn the pages back and forth with a swipe. Tapping doesn’t interrupt the story, however, so touching the pictures won’t be disruptive.

It’s educational, it’s fun, it’s guaranteed to keep your child occupied, and it’s only two dollars. I highly recommend adding this to your children’s app collection.

How to Train Your Dragon requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. A small fee was paid by the developer to expedite the publication of this review.

original2 300x200 Fun iPhone App for Kids: How to Train Your Dragonoriginal 11 300x200 Fun iPhone App for Kids: How to Train Your Dragonoriginal 21 300x200 Fun iPhone App for Kids: How to Train Your Dragonoriginal 31 300x200 Fun iPhone App for Kids: How to Train Your Dragon


SAS Survival Guide App Repackaged for a new Generation

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SAS Survival Guide App Repackaged for a new Generation is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

sas survival guide appSAS Survival Guide – HarperCollins Publishers has teamed up with Trellisys.net to bring you an iPhone app of…a book. Granted, it’s a classic, the distillation of the survival knowledge of 26-year Special Air Services veteran John “Lofty” Wiseman.

The entire SAS Survival Guide is here, covering Sea Coast, Desert Tropics, Polar environments, and even Urban disasters. You’ll find everything within the various chapters from how to make good guesses at weather by cloud formations, to how to navigate by the sun and the stars, to what amount of metal, brick, or wood will shield you from radiation. Chapters include First Aid, Hunting (yes, that means fishing and trapping too), Wild Food, and Camp. Essentials covers the materials you’ll want in your kit to prepare for the big adventure.

The SAS Survival Guide app also has some juicy extras not in the book, like a Morse code signaling device, a sun compass, and an interactive quiz. There’s also plenty of video of Lofty explaining how to make fire, build shelter, catch food, and generally get by in places you have no business being. (…)
Read the rest of SAS Survival Guide App Repackaged for a new Generation

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SAS Survival Guide App Repackaged for a new Generation |
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Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon

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Final Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon

Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon ( $2.99)

Version 1.0

REVIEW – ” Choose your own Adventure comes to the iPhone in a whole new way.”

Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon - iPhone App ReviewI remember the days when I was a kid and I would visit my grandmother and spend time reading old Choose Your Own Adventure books, I always thought they were immense fun. Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon is the second installment in the Fighting Fantasy series which is a choose your own adventure type story for the iPhone.

As one would expect this means that you are basically reading a novel and then being allowed to make choices about which way to go and what to do. Don’t expect great writing or even a great storyline but then that probably isn’t the reason why you would pick up this app.Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon - iPhone App Review

After a few rather tedious pages of intro you get into the point where you finally get to start making decisions. The decisions you make can affect your character’s health (which is chosen by a roll of the dice when you start the game), and they can affect what tools you have and what potions you have access to.

But deciding whether to go right and left or whether or not to drink the contents of a vial, is not the only interaction you have with this story. When you come across an enemy you get to do actual battle with them. This is done in the way you would with most tabletop RPGs, simply with you and you enemy rolling the dice in order to find out how strong your attacks are.

The game warns you that you might not get very far at first and that you might need to take a few tries to get through and survive the game. I so far have not died but that isn’t to say that my character did not take quite a beating, and currently there is no end in sight.

Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon - iPhone App ReviewThe great thing about this app is that there is immense replay value because even if you survive all the way through, there is usually a way to do it better, and even if there isn’t, it is always fun to see the ways in which your character can die.

I think this is a great way to encourage to encourage kids to read, specifically young boys. There is some violence but so far nothing that is really inappropriate for preteen or teenage children. Adults might have fun with the concept as well but the writing and the story could be better, but that isn’t to say that the Choose Your Own Adventure books were ever brilliantly written.

The story focuses on the main character (you) who has decided to enter the Trial of Champions for the mere fact that no one has ever survived and you are one cocky hero who thinks you can succeed over all others.

This is the second in the series but I was easily able to understand and get through the story even though I had no previous experience in the series.

Stephanie S.

Download Now!

Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Developer – Big Blue Bubble

© 2010, iPhone app reviews. All rights reserved. AppShouter LLC

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iPhone App Review: pocket story – The Boy Giant

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Being laid up with the flu this past week, my son and I have had a lot of opportunity to sample The Boy Giant by Allan Plenderleith. It is a charming tale of a huge boy that is lonely due to his massive size, but in the end manages to find friendship where he least expects it.

Features

One of the iPhone’s best features is its simplicity, and due to that simplicity its operation has been mastered by my four-year-old. He can unlock the phone to look at pictures, videos, play some games, and of course now has this story to access on his own whenever he wants. When I get home from work every day I lose my phone for at least the first ten to fifteen minutes while he checks the farm and reads The Boy Giant.

The app plays a little bit like a moving storybook, and if you choose to have the author read the story aloud it is almost like a little movie. The story will also bookmark itself if interrupted by a phone call or other non-toddler use of the phone. There is a settings page where you can turn on and off sound effects and adjust relative volume levels, and you can even select international versus US English.

Pretend this is animated.

My son immediately took to the story, and it wasn’t just the movie-like quality of watching the story unfold. Even when I read it aloud to him and turned off the sound effects,  he laughs at the same jokes every time.

Pros

The story itself is well-written and the author has a great reading voice. He’s calm and soothing yet lively and engaging, and tells the story well. The drawings are cute and colorful, and the story is a nice one with a good message and identifiable characters.

Cons

The only real drawback to this app is that I keep losing my phone so that he can watch or read the story.

If you’re looking for an alternative to games and movies on your iPhone to tide you over on a sick day or while having a long wait for an appointment, this is an excellent choice. Compare the price of this to the price of a children’s book and you’ll see that this is a great value and a great story.