Archive for 'Uncategorized'
January Relaunch!
Posted on 20. Oct, 2010 by iPhone App Reviewer.
Plans for relaunching iPhone App Reviewer are being put into place, come January 2011 major steps will be taken to bring iPhone App Reviewer out of hiatus. Additionally, launching of a sister site, Android App Reviewer is being planned. We will be expanding our reviews into iOS 4 on the iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as iOS 4 on the iPad. The staff at iPhone App Reviewer are all very excited and we have a lot of work to get done! Stay tuned.
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Inside iPhone: How the “tilt” controls work.
Posted on 02. Jun, 2009 by iPhone App Reviewer.
So you’ve played racing games like Asphalt 4 and Phaze (my new favourite iPhone addiction), you’ve browsed the web on Safari and flipped your screen; but how does this amazingly fun element to the iPhone work? Well to start, it’s not really “tilt” controls as you hear quite often, and probably read in descriptions of iTunes app pages, it’s actually an electrical sensor called an accelerometer [wikipedia link]. More precisely, a triple axis accelerometer. You might recognize that word, you got it, it’s the same sensors found in the Segway, Wii and many other modern wonders.
Figure 1
An accelerometer uses tiny weighted springs which pressure or other sensors read their level. Gravity will push each axis’ spring which is loaded with a specific mechanical resistance. The iPhone then reads the levels of each sensor to find out what direction the iPhone is facing, how fast it’s moving, and what angle it’s tilted at. See Figure 1 for a small diagram on how this works. Anyways, by reading different combinations of the axis’ values, the iPhone’s firmware can then send presets and exact information to applications.
Figure 2 - Image from and owned by Spark Fun (http://sparkfun.com)
Even though this may sound like a complex process, the hardware inside the iPhone can process it in milliseconds. And yes, this works the exact same for the iPod Touch. You can see a picture of what an accelerometer looks like (probably not the one in the actual iPhone) in Figure 2. Hope you enjoyed the post!
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Editorial: Icons, people, icons.
Posted on 24. Apr, 2009 by iPhone App Reviewer.
Readers of iPhone App Reviewer know that I end most of my reviews with a “Further Improvements: Note to the Developer!” section. Well something has come to mind that iPhone application developers need to know. Being an app reviewer I have to track websites and the app store to find the latest and greatest apps. When a company contacts me about reviewing an app there’s one huge factor to my decision, first impression. So we have to look at what makes up a first impression, the main thing, especially when looking at a group of apps, is the icon.
Here at iPhone App Reviewer we have a weekly app bonanza. This is a post containing intersting apps that have been released to the App Store this week. How do I find these apps? I scan pages upon page of applications on tracker sites such as AppShopper to find the apps. When I’m scanning a group of a couple dozen applications, it’s the applications that pop out at me that I’m even going to look at. Like an employer looking over resumés, he or she spends only a couple quick minutes looking at the paper, the only ones that will get consideration are the ones that pop out and spark the reader’s interest. The same goes for iPhone applications.
Take a look at Figure 1. These icons are pretty dull, out of all the apps I look at a day, are any of these going to take my interest instantly? Do you really think I’d consider emailing or phoning up the developer inquiring about their app?
Figure 1 - Some dull icons
These apps all are minimal insuccess. Apple recently announced it had reached over one billion app downloads, with this they made a page stating some of the most successful apps of all time. Look at Figure 2, and look what these apps have in common, they all have an eye catching logo icon graphic. This means that they attracted the public’s eye and thus sold more copies.
Figure 2 - The top apps of all time, look at their icons!
There’s quite a few independent “indy” developers out there who have learned the iPhone SDK, Cocoa and Objective C programming, bought their Mac computer and spent long caffiene-filled nights programming their app. It could be a great app but at the end of it all, they simply pull together a quick application icon graphic thus lowering the initial appeal, this might stop a ton of potential customers from even clicking on the link to the application. As a final statement take a look at Figure 3, in this upcoming weeks Weekly App Bonanza I chose the app Flu Fighter out of many, it caught my eye when I was scrolling down the page of new apps.
Figure 3
Remember, it’s all market psychology.
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App Giveaway
Posted on 18. Apr, 2009 by iPhone App Reviewer.
The winners will be emailed soon with their promo codes. Due to a mishap with the first batch of promo codes it might take a little while. Sorry about this, 42 of you have won as promised!
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Mini Robotics
Posted on 13. Mar, 2009 by iPhone App Reviewer.
This is a personal hello from the lead reviewer here at iPhone App Reviewer. We’ve been busy lately! With what? Glad you asked, I run a robotics team called Mini Robotics. We compete in the FIRST competition and we’ve made it to the Atlanta Championships. This is the ultimate event for geeks, many of which have iPhones or iPods! If anybody out there is wishing to help sponsor please email minirobotics@gmail.com for details and a sponsorship brochure! You’ll be joining the following sponsors who are helping out!
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Free Apps Worth Downloading
Posted on 22. Jan, 2009 by iPhone App Reviewer.
There’s one good different between Mac’s and PC’s. PC’s come with a bunch of crap freeware software that you’ll end up uninstalling after 30 days or whatever. Mac’s however come with lots of useful quality software made by Apple for Apple computers. Apple is good at this, and all of it’s products should adapt this nature. The iPhone/iPod Touch alone does, but unfortunately in the App Store there is a lot of useful free apps and we need to know which ones to filter out! So, I’ve compiled a list of free apps that are actually worth downloading and that you might even use on a daily basis. Enjoy!
- fring [iTunes Link] – For being a free app, this chat Instant Messaging app is a keeper. Supports everything from AIM to Skype and everything in between. Before I got BeejiveIM this was my chatting app for the iPhone and boy did I love it. Highly recommended to anybody wishing for a free chat application to use consistently on the iPhone/iPod Touch.
- Google Earth [iTunes Link] – Not a replacement for the Maps app built into iPhone OS but still a useful little app. As a google product it is, naturally, free.
Units [iTunes Link] – A great little on-the-go utility for when you need a quick conversion (in my opinion, we wouldn’t need these apps if people just used the metric system like all good Canadians 
)
- What’s On TV [iTunes Link] – You’re sitting in work just looking forward to going home and relaxing in front of the TV, if you’re going to daydream, you might as well see what will be on when you get home anyways.
- Backgrounds [iTunes Link] – Although iPhone’s and iPod Touch’s using the standard firmware (non-jailbroken) only get one place to put wallpapers (unlock screen) this app will let you choose from thousands of beautiful wallpapers. If you like that check out iphoneappreviewer.com’s iPhone Wallpaper Gallery
- I Can Has Cheezburger [iTunes Link] – If you’re a fan of the web empire I Can Has Cheezburger (FAIL blog, lolcatz, etc…
then you’ll love this app. It’s now part of my daily comic roundup!
- Wordpress [iTunes Link] – For any blogger using wordpress this app is essential. Allows multiple blogs, local drafting for offline editing and more. It’s a lifesaver for mobile blogging!
- Tap Tap Revenge [iTunes Link] – Tap Tap Revenge is your Guitar Hero addiction on the iPhone/iPod Touch. With around 50 songs and 4 difficulty levels this game is perfect for killing time.
- Twitterrific [iTunes Link] – In my opinion, it’s the best free twitter client on the iPhone/iPod Touch
- Wikipanion [iTunes Link] – We all use wikipedia, it’s my favourite resource (will besides Google’s infinite wisdom ). Wikipanion is a mobile wikipedia viewer for the iPhone/iPod Touch
- Ustream Viewing Application [iTunes Link] – If you use ustream.tv and want to look at live feeds on your iPhone, this is for you!
- Pandora [iTunes Link] – One of the most popular online radio’s comes to the iPhone! Unfortunately, Americans only
- Facebook [iTunes Link] – A mobile facebook app jam-packed with features and an amazing user interface. Still not full blown facebook though.
- Topple [iTunes Link] – From the genius creators at ngmoco comes a game that fully demonstrates the iPhone’s capabilities.
- iBowl [iTunes Link] – iBowl is the perfect app to show off to your friends. Use the tilt accelerometer controls to bowl!
- Movies [iTunes Link] – For the movie lover, this is a complete movie time lookup app.
- Sol Free Solitaire [iTunes Link] – Sol Free Solitaire is my absolute favourite solitaire app on the iPhone/iPod touch, (besides the expanded version of it). That being said this is no ‘lite’ version, this is full-blown solitaire peoples!
- Shazam [iTunes Link] – Shazam is one of the more famous iPhone apps, it recognizes any song you hold up to the microphone.
- Remote [iTunes Link] – An app to control iTunes from your iPod! Made by Apple itself.
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