Lately, there has been a lot of fuss regarding who is the best around the mobile phones market - Blackberry, Symbian, Window Mobile, Android or iPhone. So far, iPhone has been considered the leader concerning the applications subject, having the largest market and a huge fan following. A single store - AppStore - makes the search for applications simple and it presents competent descriptions for the developers' products, so the user's perspective is enlarged. When Apple announced the App Store on iTunes there was great excitement over the enormous potential it would offer both the developers of the apps and the end-users. As a result, when the store officially opened, the iPhone apps that were available ran the gamut in quality, price, and topic. It is understandable that choosing reliable apps that are easy to use and actually do what they say they do can be an overwhelming dilemma. It's important to keep a few key requirements in mind as you choose apps for your iPhone or iPod touch such as: features, interface, graphics, stability and program size. The most popular category by far is Games, followed by Entertainment and the third most popular category is Books. Now, the interest is towards the best iPhone apps and below is reviewed one of the most entertaining apps which is surely worth your time and money.
oRemote
This is an application from the Entertainment category for network control of devices that use eISCP protocol including most network-enabled Onkyo and Integra AV Receivers. Using this app, you can fully control your receiver without having to turn on the TV. Certain menus and submenus such as Setup and Keyboard Entry are not supported by the OEM, therefore cannot be performed by oRemote.
Some of the app's best features are:
- easy configuration and setup, the application auto-detects your AVR and sets itself up
- controls sources for all zones
- zone controls for all supporting zones including power, volume, and source selection
- controls playback of built-in tuner, USB sources, iRadio, DLNA and Windows Media
- you can select iRadio presets and listening modes
- display of audio and video source
- display of media playback on screen - there's no need to turn on the TV
- displays of menus for media playback
In the app's description on iTunes the supported models are also presented and there you can find more details about this application.
Robert Worne promises to respond personally to any questions regarding product compatibility.
World Mobile News
Using this application from the News category you can get the latest and quality news articles and analysis from BBC on your iPhone and it works even if you don't have Internet connection or poor 2/3G reception. It presents an easy way to browse BBC News articles from all around the world under different categories offering true offline browsing experience. It's based on image slide show and all you have to do is click on the image to read the whole story. You can also get quick access to your favorite news category. It's good to know that this is not an official BBC application and the news content is served from bbc.co.uk.
Odina Software makes innovative iPhone applications such as BBCReader and iGeoJournal which brought all essential parts of iPhone components into one application: map, camera, note and recorder, all in one place.
My Movies for iPhone Pro
This application allows you to catalog your entire movie collection from an online data service containing data for over 350.000 DVD, Blu-Ray and HD DVD titles from various countries. My Movies for iPhone Pro requires you to create a user account, or log on to an existing My Movies account to be able to use the program. With My Movies for iPhone Pro you can keep track of movies you own, of the ones you previously owned or the ones you wish to purchase. The Binnerup Consult crew promises to help in case of problems, saying that the quality and stability of the application is their top priority.
The application's features include:
- adding titles by barcode, title search, manually or scan barcodes with the camera on your device
- report the missing titles in order to be created by the staff
- viewing movie trailers in the collection
- filtering the titles by type, genre, group, watched status, parental rating, production year, running time, personal categories or online status
- sorting the titles by title, collection number, rating, running time, production year, release date, parental level or added date both ascending and descending
- viewing movie details including synopsis, cast list, audio tracks, subtitles
- full screen image
- viewing actors and directors with photos, biography and list of titles the person stars in
For more details of the My Movies for iPhone Pro check out the application in AppStore.
Angry Birds
Angry Birds applications belongs to the Games category and the story goes like this: "The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the Birds' eggs. Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs' fortified castles".
Angry Birds features hours of gameplay, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. It features 225 levels, leaderboards, achievements. In version 1.5.0, the creators introduced the Mighty Eagle downloadable content. If you get stuck in the game, you have the opportunity to purchase a can of sardines, which you use to lure out the elusive Mighty Eagle. It also includes all new gameplay goals and achievements. Read more about the game and download it at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds/id343200656?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2.
Xmas PhotoBooth
PhotoBooth is an entertaining photography application which you can use to apply hundreds of special effects on your portrait photo and obtain crazy pictures. You can also add text effects and speech bubbles similar with the ones used in comic books; you can also tag your photos, add dates or memos or just add funny speech bubbles, transforming your photos in one of the funniest photo albums. All you have to do is load a photo from your phone's library and play with the special effects. You can also easily send a visual message, impress your girlfriend/boyfriend with a loving visual message or wish everybody Happy Holidays with a custom made E-Card, just like the app's description says.
Application features include the following:
- Christmas Effects
- Speech Bubbles
- Evil Elf Effects
- Animal Effects
- Funny Faces Effects
- Clown Effects
- Zombie Effects
- Pirate Effects
- Crazy Looks Effects
- Horror Effects
- Style Effects (Glasses, Sunglasses, Hats, etc.)
- Venetian Effects (Venetian Mask, Feather Masks, etc.)
- Violent Effects (Bruises, Scars, Cuts)
- Body Effects (Mustaches, Beards, Eyes Mouths, Tattoos and Piercings)
You can add and delete the layers very easily, resize the special effects to fit perfectly and rotate the effects to the right angle so that your photo will seem as real as possible. You can add as many effects as you want. When you're done styling your photos you can just save the pictures into your phone and send them to all your friends and family using Facebook, Email or MMS. You can post the picture on your Facebook Wall with the integrated Facebook function. It will also automatically create your Facebook Photo Album for you with one click.
Xmas PhotoBooth combines the fun of adding special effects to your own photos with a friendly interface and it's surely worth purchasing. As shown above, the PhotoBooth app has a high-quality feature-set as the first sign of the developers' commitment to their product. As crucial as the app's features is also the interface - which is an easy-to-use one, unlike other similar apps using difficult or confusing interfaces. The controls for the PhotoBooth application are easy to understand and simple to use without requiring a lot of additional direction from the programmer. It really doesn't matter how neat the idea behind the app is: if you struggle with the interface, you're not going to use it. The graphics are the eye-candy for this mobile app and the visually appealing program increases its value as well as shows off the beautiful touchscreen of the iPhone.
All of the previously mentioned pieces are important and desirable in a quality app, but stability is the key to the whole operation. If the program continually locks up your iPhone or iPod touch causing it to freeze or restart, it's certain to be discarded rapidly. The PhotoBooth app does not have this kind of problems, stability, therefore is not an issue.
The final element to consider in an app is program size. Since you can't add additional memory to your iPhone, it's important to manage the amount of memory an application requires. Again, PhotoBooth does not have issues regarding the size matter, its size being 14.4 MB.
In conclusion, this photography entertaining application is worth your time and money, and you should give it a try.
-Rada Mateescu, content provider for AppCoreMedia
