iPhone App Tips and Reviews — Reviews of the best iPhone apps

Wikitude app coming to iPhone soon

by Mickey on August 26, 2009

One of the hottest category of apps we’ll see in the next year are is likely the Augmented Reality apps. These are programs that allow you to look through your camera, and see the world beyond it with information overlays on it. The possibilities of these kinds of apps are endless.

One of the first big AR apps due to come out for the iPhone is called Wikitude. They just released version 3.0 for Android today, and promise an iPhone app soon.

Here is their promo — slick, but superficial:

And here is a short demo of their app on Android to show how it works:

This app will allow you to log in using your Google, Twitter, Yahoo or OpenID account, after which you can add/edit content. It should be pretty slick.

The app is due to launch after the iPhone 3.1 firmware is released, likely in the next month or two.

Share and Enjoy:

{ 1 comment }

Chase Bank fully native app

by Jeff on August 25, 2009

The new Chase Bank app is great. From the main screen you can access account information, find atm/branch locations, and contact Chase. Once you sign into your account, you can access all your accounts that are linked together online such as checking, savings, credit cards, and even mortgages! From each account you can schedule credit card or mortgage payments and pay bills with the touch of a button. You can transfer monies between accounts also. Over all, this is very useful tool for the on-the-go person who needs account access at the touch of a button.

Share and Enjoy:

{ 0 comments }

Chipotle app finally returns to the iPhone

by Mickey on August 25, 2009

Back in January of this year, Chipotle released a pretty sweet iPhone app — you could order food right from your phone. It seemed slick, but was removed from the app store just a few hours after it was released. They had hoped to bring it back out in a few weeks, but it didn’t make it until today — seven months later.

Still, it’s been worth the wait. If you enjoy Chipotle, the app is pretty slick. You can order your food on there, customize it with various toppings, and pay for it using a Chipotle account that is tied to your credit card.

TechCrunch has a more lengthy review of the app, or just check out the screenshots below.

Share and Enjoy:

{ 0 comments }

Evernote 3.1 released

by Mickey on August 24, 2009

Evernote 3.1 for the iPhone has been released, and it’s a very nice upgrade. The update officially includes:

Massive speed improvements!
- Speedier snapshot note creation
- Much faster searching
- Clip web pages from the built-in web browser
- Add Evernote email address to iPhone contacts
- Manually sync your notes any time
- Lots of bug fixes

The part I like the best is the “speedier snapshot note creation”. I take a lot of snapshot notes, and it was always very slow. I can confirm that it’s much faster now.

No big new features here, but it’s a great little update to get!

Share and Enjoy:

{ 1 comment }

Wikipedia’s First App

by Jeff on August 20, 2009

Wikipedia is finally stepping into the App world with their own application for the iPhone. After looking into it and seeing all it offers, it doesn’t seem that great. The app isn’t much different than the mobile website that they offer. It does offer a history search however, which is convenient when trying to reference an old search. The only other benefit to having the app is direct access from your home screen instead of going to your bookmarks (if you had it bookmarked to begin with). Over all not a very impressive app but not bad for just getting into the app scene for the iPhone. You can check out the differences in the mobile web page and the app below.

Share and Enjoy:

{ 0 comments }

NFL 2010

by Mickey on August 19, 2009

Billed as the “first full featured football game to enter the App Store”, NFL 2010 is a solid first entry. The controls take a bit of getting used to, but work fairly well. There is a full season mode, nice playbook, and a variety of stadiums.

All in all, it’s a solid game. Madden is due to come out fairly soon, so it’ll be interesting to see how the two stack up.

Share and Enjoy:

{ 0 comments }

Discovery Channel 1.0

by Mickey on August 18, 2009

The Discovery Channel has just released their own application today, aptly called “Discovery Channel”. This app features video clips, quizzes, photo galleries, program schedules and various other things.

Sadly, the app doesn’t include full episodes for most shows — just a link to iTunes where you can buy the shows.

Their full press release is below:

Discovery Communications, (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) the world’s number one nonfiction media company, today announced the launch of the Discovery Channel App on the App Store.

Bringing fans greater access to their favorite programs, the Discovery Channel App features a robust collection of video clips from the network’s most popular shows including: Emmy(R)-nominated MYTHBUSTERS and MAN VS. WILD as well as DIRTY JOBS, TIME WARP, DEADLIEST CATCH, CASH CAB and SHARK WEEK.

“Consumers are increasingly looking to enjoy their entertainment while mobile and our new Discovery Channel App offers the ultimate on-the-go fan experience for iPhone and iPod touch,” said Doug Craig, senior vice president, Digital and Home Entertainment, Discovery Communications. “We are excited to bring viewers another compelling option with which to experience our high-quality content and satisfy their curiosity in way that fits their lifestyle.”

In addition to video, the Discovery Channel App offers a collection of quizzes, photo galleries, programming schedules and updates from Discovery News, as well as the ability to share favorite content via email and to save favorites to easily watch over and over again. The app also offers links to the iTunes Store where Discovery offers a selection of full-episodes of top rated programming for purchase including SHARK WEEK, MAN VS. WILD, MYTHBUSTERS and more.

The Discovery Channel App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

The Discovery Channel App follows the success of Discovery’s Cannon Challenge App, a non-line-of-sight targeting game. The Discovery Channel App is available within the Entertainment Category and the Cannon Challenge App can be found under Games. The free app was designed and built by mobile video leader Rhythm NewMedia.

Share and Enjoy:

{ 0 comments }

Civilization Revolution 1.0

by Mickey on August 17, 2009

Not sure whether or not to get CivRev? I’ll make it pretty easy for you:

If you’ve played and enjoyed a previous Civ game, you’ll love it. The graphics are great, the controls are solid, and it’s a well-built title. It’s a bit expensive ($9.99 right now), but not too bad. Plus, there is a free version available.
If you’ve never played a Civ game, this might not be for you. The turn-based action can feel a bit stale, but the feeling of nostalgia can help overcome that for people that grew up with Civ.

There are a few minor bugs that I expect will be fixed soon (badly mis-matched battles), but it’s a fairly polished app. It runs well, and it hasn’t crashed on me yet.

Best of all is the free “lite” version that is available. The lite version is a very complete game by itself, and will be more than adequate for most users. If you find you need a bit more, then the $9.99 price isn’t a very big deal.