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One of the things I love about having my iPhone on hand is that I’ve always got a calendar with me. But I’ve always felt like using the stock Calendar app was similar to using a public restroom: I’m in and out and doing my thing as quickly as possible. I don’t want to spend a lot of time in there. It got a little better with the iPhone 5′s taller screen, but it’s still not great.
There are a lot of great calendar alternatives available in the open market. In fact, we’ve reviewed some great ones here at AppStorm, including the popular Fantastical, which blew our minds with its natural language processing. Recently though, I’ve had the opportunity to test Horizon, a great calendar app with a gorgeous interface that combines weather, natural language processing and your upcoming events. Read on to find out why this app could be giving Fantastical a run for its money. (more…)
The more that I use my iPhone, the more that I believe that I can do just about anything I need to on it if I really force myself. Developers are creating apps that are making it easier for us to use our device to not only play games, take photos, or listen to music, but it is also becoming more of a productivity tool. The one thing that I have said about having an iPhone is its convenience to do something right then and there. I don’t have to go and find a paper and pen or I don’t have to have a computer with me; I always have my device with me which gives me the opportunity to use it to capture all kinds of things.
One tool that I’ve been very excited about checking out is CheckThis, which lets you easily create simple websites that you can share and interact with others. It’s like a canvas on your iPhone that lets you do a variety of things and then share it with friends who can comment on your activity. I was able to use CheckThis on the web and I really liked what they did there, so I was even more excited to hear that they were coming to the iPhone. (more…)
If you were to ask multiple Android Jellybean users what their favorite Android feature is, the smart bet is that most would say Google Now. As a non-Android user, I’ve had little hands-on experience with the feature, but it’s not from a lack of want. I’m a die hard iOS user, but I’m also a very emphatic user of Google’s services (Gmail, search, Google Docs, Chrome).
So imagine my surprise (hint, it was very) this past Tuesday morning when I learned Google Now had arrived on iOS by way of the Google Search app. Having lived with this much touted service for a handful of days now, getting to chance to experience what it really has to offer, it’s time to determine if Google Now has lived up to the hype. (more…)
Last week, a friend of mine wanted me to text his girlfriend in a pinch. I said it would be no problem and was about to send her a text. I rarely text her, so I wasn’t surprised when my friend asked if I had her number. I said I did, but I was wrong. She had changed her number a couple months prior, so I had to adjust her information in the Contacts app on my iPhone before sending the text.
How many times have we all encountered that situation? It’s a giant pain. I have no way of knowing if all of my contacts in my phone are up to date unless they change their Facebook information because my iPhone has access to that. But even if they do make their phone number available to their social network, that does nothing for me. IOS wisely doesn’t automatically update contacts based on Facebook information (although it does link the contacts together, but that’s a different matter). And what if my friends move and the address I have on hand changes? Or they get a new their personal email address? These are the problems Addappt, a contact manager with (what I’ll call) simple social integration for iPhone, attempts to fix. (more…)
Over the years, the iPhone has evolved enough that I can use it as my go-to camera for both pictures and video. With my wife being a photographer and a toddler that my parents want to see in photos, I have learned that there is never a bad time to snap a picture or capture a video. There are a variety of apps out there that I can use to do this and easily send them off to my family. But most of the popular apps out there usually do one thing well: they either are great for pictures or video, but not necessarily both.
For the past couple of weeks I have been trying out Qwiki, which combines both video and images that you take on your iPhone and gives you the freedom to create a cool looking slideshow. It gives me additional capability beyond just taking pictures and video, and I can now edit them and then easily send a slideshow to my friends and family. Let’s take a look at it more and so I can explain to you what I mean. (more…)
Once in a while, an app comes along that’s so cool and does what it does so well that John Gruber writes about it on Daring Fireball. Usually, he knows what’s good. One of his more recent picks was Photolettering. The iPhone-exclusive app is really simple: Take a picture or use one of the shots in your library and touch it up with some great typography and a couple simple filters.
I’ve heard of apps like this before, but Photolettering is supposedly the simplest one in the business. What makes this app work so well? How easy is it to use? Read on to find out. (more…)
Let me get one thing straight: The last thing that the world needs is another minimalist weather app. Honestly, take a quick look at the App Store and tell me the Weather category isn’t a little overcrowded. It used to be that weather apps were made for pretentious snobs who wanted to be able to tell their friends that the wind wasn’t just a little strong — “in fact, it’s blowing 55.3 km/hr northeast and it’s coming from the coast!” But maybe that’s overkill. Maybe minimalist weather apps have their place, because there’s something to be said for getting only the information that you need.
With that in mind, the most recent minimalist weather app to really trend the charts is Conditions. The basic idea is that Conditions only gives you the information that you need to get through your day: Temperature and, of course, current weather conditions. Can an elegant design outshine apps with more information? And more importantly, should it? (more…)
There are enough third-party task managers available for iPhone that it could be totally possible to review a new one every week on AppStorm. I’ve used a lot of different task managers in my day; as a writer, I’m a professional procrastinator and need help to keep my life organized (I’m a total stereotype). That’s why Finish appealed to me: It was made by two high school students, the only existing demographic that can procrastinate more efficiently than a freelancer. Finish claims to do things differently than other task managers to help beat your procrastination, and that’s a claim worth investigating. (more…)
The way television is delivered to customers is slowly becoming archaic. Previously, in my old apartment, I was forced to use a small cable company to deliver my television entertainment. The company provided high definition but that was about all of the extra features it offered. They did not provide any extra features like viewing content on my iPhone or scheduling digital video recordings(DVR) through a website. Recently I moved into a house and I decided to try satellite. After comparing services I decided on Dish Network and their Hopper DVR
While Dish Network may not be perfect, I have been happy with their service and the Dish Anywhere app. It allows Dish Network subscribers to view featured content, browse the guide to see what is on, schedule and maintain DVR events, and also view live TV and DVR events with the optional Sling Adapter. Keep reading past the break to see if the Dish Anywhere app has been a welcome addition to my change in TV providers. (more…)
Looking for a fun and effective tool to teach you a new language for free? Duolingo is a little app with big goals: teach users a new language and use this data to translate the web. The interface is a game with levels to pass, points to earn and other users to compete against. Currently the app offers courses in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and English, with more to come.
Learn a new language while standing in line, riding the bus or during your lunch break with an app that uses pictures, audio and text delivered in short lessons. Keep reading to find out more about the most unique language tool in the app store today. (more…)
