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Virion SD: Fight Viruses and Race the Clock
Virion SD: Fight Viruses and Race the Clock is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Price: $.99 Score: 7/10 By M. Schusterman
The problems I had with this game weren’t so much the game itself, but the lack of instruction and intuitiveness, which is quite contrary to how it’s described. Virion SD, designed by Stigmergy Games, is supposed to be a game in which you fight off a mutating virus. What it comes off as is more of a timing game that isn’t quite as challenging as I’d hoped.
The app opens to three players numbered 1-3, which you can change and upload a personal picture to. Tap one to see the selection of levels, all of which are locked but the first. Tapping that first level takes you to an image of a brain divided into sections. Tap the first to start.
What you’ve got is a globe with one arm, and later, many arms, sticking out of it. The end of each arm has a certain shape. Various pieces fly randomly around the screen, which have shapes that fit the arms like puzzle pieces. Tap a shape to freeze it, then line it up with the arm (which is moving). Once you’ve got all the arms lined up with a piece, tap the globe and the arms sort of suck the pieces in. Depending on the level, that could be the end, or you could be faced with more arms.
The music is thumpy and interesting, but the graphics are the same for each part of the brain, and I lost interest quickly. What frustrated me was that I had to research outside of the iTunes page and the game itself to learn how to do certain things. For example, there’s a time limit on each level, but no exit or pause button. I thought there was none, and the only option to stop was to exit the app. Then I read on the Virion “Hints” page that you can quit (not pause) a level by swiping five – not four – but five fingers on the screen. I’ve never encountered an app with a five finger swipe, yet no four finger swipe, and it strikes me as very counter-intuitive.
Something else I wondered was what was the point of having a timer if I never know how many legs are going to keep sprouting out of the globe. Once you’ve successfully lined up pieces with the arms, a number briefly appears in the center of the globe. It turns out this number tells you how many legs are left – something that is not actually explained within the game.
Overall, it’s not a bad game, and there are a lot of levels. However, I don’t feel it delivered the tension and excitement promised, and it was a bit confusing in the beginning.
Virion SD [iTunes link] requires iPhone OS 4.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.
Play Traditional Bilboquet on Your iPhone
Amuse (or Frighten) Your Friends with iSnuggle
Amuse (or Frighten) Your Friends with iSnuggle is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Price: $.99 Score: 9/10 By M. Schusterman
I have to admit that testing out this app tried my ability to remain objective as a reviewer. This is simply because while I wouldn’t ever use such an app myself, I’m positive there’s a market for it, and it’s really well done.
iSnuggle, designed by teatime media, is every bit as cuddly an app as you’d imagine, right down to the musicbox music and smiley flowers on the main menu. When you tap “Message,” the app automatically generates a random background, character and message. You can tap the buttons at the bottom of the screen to choose a character, a new background (including ones from your photo album), a new message, and a font and color for the text.
It’s worth pointing out that you can’t type in your own text on the picture itself, although you can add a message to your email or text. Here’s a sample of the pre-made messages your snuggly picture will include:
- Let’s go for a deep sea snuggle!
- I play for Team Snuggle!
- You’re my snuggle biscuit!
- Come fly on my snugglerocket!
- Happy Snuggleversary!
Make of those what you will.
After getting your message and image together, tap Share and you can send it via email or text, or share on Facebook or Twitter. I tried them out and had a few friends ask if I was on drugs, which I’m assuming is the typical response to receiving a message with a mouse standing in a baseball field asking you to make some snuggle rock.
The music is interesting and made me laugh – it changes from the musicbox tinkles to something that’s a bit heavier later. In the gallery, accessible from the main menu, you can read the bios of each and every character, check them out in different scenes, and see your own message creation history. There’s also a few characters you can unlock after sending a certain number of messages from the app.
Like I said, I can’t say I’d use this – but I’m not a texter, and I Facebook update rarely and use Twitter to chat only occasionally. If you love sending silly messages and emoticons, iSnuggle takes that to another level. It’s well designed and does exactly what it claims to do.
iSnuggle [iTunes link] requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.
Spiromatic – iPhone App Review
Improve your iPhone Pictures with ProCamera
Improve your iPhone Pictures with ProCamera is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Price: $2.99 Score: 9/10 By M. Schusterman
I like to keep my reviews free of hyperbole – unless, of course, I’m trying to make a joke, which usually doesn’t go well – so I would never say that an app turns your iPhone’s camera into something as powerful as a digital SLR. I know what those cameras can do, and to have that on a phone is simply not (yet) possible.
I’ve checked out a lot of camera apps, and in the end, for one reason or another, I just resort to using the camera as is on my phone. But Pro Camera, designed by daemgen.net, has moved on over to the first page of apps on my screen.
What I love about this app is that it caters both to those who have a decent understanding of photography, and those who just want to enhance the iPhone’s camera. The app opens straight to the camera itself, but you can tap “Pro” in the bottom left and find a user guide in Settings to get some help. You can zoom in and out either by tapping the zoom icon in the bottom right, or by pinching. Tap the timer icon to set a timed shot (you can change the number of seconds in Settings as well). And the center icon is the anti-shake feature – find your shot, tap it, and the iPhone will take your picture the second you’re holding the iPhone perfectly still. (This is the best option when you’re zoomed in on something.)
For simplicity’s sake, you can tap anywhere on the screen to take a picture. By tapping the “Pro” icon, you can switch to the video, go to your photo album, and add or subtract the compass and other grids to help you find your focus and level the shot. Inside the albums, you can view your photos and get width and height info, email the full-size photo, or activate the photo studio, which allows you to adjust the photo settings and add effects.
It sounds like a lot – and there’s much more – but the fact is this app is very easy to use. If you’re interested in getting better shots with your iPhone camera, this one is three bucks well spent.
ProCamera [iTunes Link] is compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Requires iPhone OS 4.0 or later. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.
iCademy: New (and Old) iPhone User Manual
Vegans and Carnivores Alike Can Save Betsy
Vegans and Carnivores Alike Can Save Betsy is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Price: $0.99 Score: 9/10 By M. Schusterman
For fans of iPhone games that use the tilt and accelerometer features to play rather than traditional controls, Save Betsy is a quirky twist on a familiar theme.
Designed by Hairy Monster Studios, this pro-vegan – or anti-vegan? It’s hard to say – game puts you in control of Betsy, a very worried looking cow trying to escape a charbroiled fate. She begins on the ground in front of Vegan Meat Co. and makes her escape in a very un-cowlike way – leaping up and up on the levels stacked in the sky.
You can control which direction Betsy jumps by tilting the iPhone side to side, and speed her up or slow her down by tilting back and forth. For fans of popular games like Doodle Jump, this is old hat. But because not everyone is familiar with such games, I think a short tutorial or line or two of instruction would help new users pick this up a little quicker.
Of course, there are obstacles and there are weapons, all with the same sort of sick twist that seems to be the theme of the game. Grills and meat grinders await for Betsy to make one wrong pounce, and the results ain’t pretty. Likewise, if Betsy falls to the ground she makes quite a bloody splat. However, there are also bales of hay you can use to hide her in, and she has the power to shoot what I’m going to pretend are clumps of dirt at her grinding nemeses.
One level, but there appears to be no limit to how high you can go. The “fun facts” you get (which you can disable in Options) are amusing as well – now that I know how many “squirts” are in a glass of milk, I’m finding it slightly less appealing.
For $0.99, this is a good one that will probably keep you entertained for a little bit longer than you initially think.
Save Betsy [iTunes Link] requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.
SoftAirKombatTeam Attempts Map Creation
SoftAirKombatTeam Attempts Map Creation is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Price: $0.99 Score: 4/10 By M. Schusterman
Due to a lack of information in English about this app online, I have to confess I’m having a difficult time figuring out SoftAirKombatTeam by Giovanni Romano. I believe I understand the purpose; a GPS mapping app that allows you to create personalized maps to help you find places, remember spots for later, etc.
The actual design and look of the app is nice, and appears to have had some thought put into it. But I’m just not sure if the problem I’m having is that there’s a lack of instruction and clarity in how to actually use the app, or if the app itself is not working.
It opens to a screen where you are supposed to enter an “Identifier” (the name of the map) and a “Description” (details of the map). I did so, then hit “Create.” The app did find my longitude and latitude after a few seconds, but next to “Altitude,” it simply said “Wait….” And wait I did.
I didn’t move (as per the app’s suggestion) but the altitude was never recorded. I tried tapping “Fix” beneath it (the only option to tap at that point) and it just brought me to a search screen that said something about “Select Custom Miniature.”
I returned to the main menu and selected my “map” (although I never actually saw a map) and tapped “Nav.” (for navigate, I’m assuming). I was greeted with a green compass and the instruction to “Wait….” Which I did, again, to no avail.
Again, I’m not sure if the app simply wasn’t working or if the lack of instruction on how to set up a map meant I missed a step somewhere. Either way, I can’t say this app is easy to use, and seeing as the support page isn’t helpful to English speakers, I can’t recommend it.
SoftAirKombatTeam (iTunes Link) requires iPhone OS 4.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.
Find Your Way Out: PoiPoi in Maze
CineCrop – iPhone App Review
Calculating Priorities: Balance Your Life App
Calculating Priorities: Balance Your Life App is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Price: $3.99 Score: 6/10 By M. Schusterman
I believe I understand the intent behind Balance Your Life App, by Mirko Paschke – it’s supposed to be a statistic-based representation of how you value things in your life so that you can make adjustments and assessments based on logic.
I’m more prone to judging these things based on emotion, but they can be fun to play with. However, the set up of this particular app is a little clunky. It opens to a blank page, where it’s easy to figure out how to add an “Area.” Because I wasn’t sure what an “Area” was quite yet, I chose one from the template selections. The pre-chosen “Areas” include education, friends, family, health, hobbies, job, love, etc.
After choosing the “Area,” you can enter the “Start points.” Here I became confused again, because there’s no scale. I could enter, 10, 25,430, or even 198,473 – actually, you can seemingly enter an infinite amount of numbers. So for my first “Area,” which was family, I wasn’t sure what to enter. I chose 10.
You can also either use the little image that comes with the “Area,” or choose your own from the photo album, which is a nice touch. Tap “Save” and that “Area” appears on a list with the number of points you chose, along with the percentage. So my family section with 10 points was 100%. I added friends and health and gave them 20 and 15 points correspondingly, so my three “Areas” were weighted at 44.44% (20 pts), 33.33% (15 pts), and 22.22% (10 pts).
That all makes sense, but again, what does it mean? The only other option you have is to tap the “Time for Experience” icon in the bottom left, which just generates a message saying that in fourteen hours, you will be able to assign points to your “Areas” for today’s experiences.
And sure enough, every day all of your points are open for reassessment, and of course you can add new “Areas” anytime. Like I said before, this would be more of a game for me rather than something I would take seriously, but even if it’s just for fun, I’m still unsure about the set-up. It’s something like a calculator dressed up with images and labeled with your priorities in life. At a cost of $3.99, I’m not sure I can recommend this one.
Balance Your Life App (iTunes Link) requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.
Get Faces for Your Contacts Fast With My Face
Get Faces for Your Contacts Fast With My Face is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Price: FREE Score: 9/10 By M. Schusterman
Having a picture that corresponds to everyone in your iPhone’s contact book is a cool feature, but few people take the time to actually load those pictures in. My Face, an app designed by Paragon Services, Inc., aims to make the whole process much simpler.
The upside: After you enter your info and load your own picture, your work is done. And the process doesn’t take long at all; when you open the app, go into Settings and enter your phone number, initials, country and carrier. Tap “Choose My Picture” to either take a pic of yourself or select one from your photo album, then back on the main menu, tap “Upload My Picture.” To ensure no one else uploads a photo assigned to your number, My Face will send you a text with a link you must tap to confirm. After that, your picture is up and you’re done.
Another plus: You’re in control of what picture is assigned to your contact information in other people’s phone books.
The downside: Of course, the only way the pictures will pop up in your contact book is if your contacts are also using the My Face app. But honestly, I hesitate to call that a downside; this app is free, it takes half a minute to set up, and after that your picture is automatically in your (My Face using) friends’ iPhones, and vice versa.
Something I think is important to point out is that this app is independent of social networking sites – I admit that when I saw the name, I thought it had something to do with Facebook, and I dislike apps (or anything) that make me register with my Facebook or Twitter info. My Face doesn’t do that – your phone number is all you need.
You can use the “Tell My Friends” to email a little info and link about My Face to your friends, an easy way to get them in the loop and start seeing their smiling faces on your phone when they call. Considering it’s free and simple to use, I highly recommend downloading this one!
My Face [iTunes Link] requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.
