blueSLR is a bluetooth accessory for Nikon DSLR’s that pairs with your iPhone to embed GPS information into your files as well as allow you to use your iPhone as a remote shutter release. The folks at XEquals sent me a unit to test out and share with you. To find out what I think, follow along after the break!

[blueSLR]

The hardware is very compact and doesn’t add much bulk to your camera. It plugs into the slot labeled “GPS” and blends in with the camera rather well. There is a small light for indicating bluetooth connection to your iPhone. Once connected, you can use the blueSLR companion app to send GPS data to your Nikon camera to geotag your photos.

The app is very simple and strait forward. Your GPS location information is displayed on the main screen as well as a shutter release button. You can also easily set a timer and tell the camera to take as many as 10 shots. If you only want to use blueSLR as a remote shutter release, you can simply disable the GPS function and save battery life on your iPhone. I’m hoping that a future update adds the ability to adjust camera settings like shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.

There are three blueSLR models that cover compatibility with the following Nikon DSLR models: D3100, D5000, D90, D3(S), D200, D300(S), and D700. At this time, blueSLR is not available for Canon cameras, but XEquals hopes to bring that functionality soon.

If you use a compatible Nikon DSLR camera, blueSLR makes an excellent addition to your camera bag and can be yours for $149.

I got a chance to look at the brand new version of LockInfo a bit early so I’ve put together my thoughts for you guys to check out while you (im)patiently wait for the public release.

For those of you that don’t know, LockInfo is a great little jailbreak app that makes up for the poor (read: lack of) notification system Apple has left us with under iOS. I wrote a LockInfo setup and walkthrough a while back and now we’re going to look at the newest version of LockInfo by David Ashman.

As you can see from the screenshot above, LockInfo has gotten a pretty big face-lift in 3.0. You now have the option to select different themes within the app. The themes provided are much cleaner than the add-ons in Cydia as well. As of now, you’ve got the option of classic, dark, light, and iOS. All of them look exceptionally good. I also like the fact that you don’t have to respring in order for a theme change to take effect. You do, however, need to exit out of settings.

Besides themes, you’ll now notice that LockInfo has added support for in-line images. When you receive a Facebook notification, the Facebook icon will appear in your notification feed. Same with Twitter, Boxcar, games, and pretty much anything you get notifications for. E-mails and texts also have in-line image support as well. It just makes the entire notification feed look more streamline. Less Windows today screen like and more iOS like. Along with in-line images, you’ll also notice that text will wrap instead of cutting off. Extremely nice for reading a whole text message from the lockscreen. Obviously longer messages or e-mails will cut off at some point, but the preview is significantly longer.

Another new feature is the addition of favorites which aggregates all your favorite contacts from your phone book into LockInfo. I honestly don’t know how I’d live without this feature after using it. To be able to just tap a favorite contact from the lock screen to call or text them is a breath of fresh air. It’ll aggregate all your favorites so all you have to do is swipe left and right in order to page through them, just as you do on your home screen already.

The settings panel hasn’t changed much except for the addition of themes. Everything will be exactly like your used to. It wasn’t a huge transition from the last version. All your current settings and tweaks should still be there when you upgrade so no re-configuring everything.

Overall, LockInfo 3.0 is an amazing improvement to an already great application. It’s obvious David Ashman has put a tremendous amount of work into making this version the best release of LockInfo yet. It’d be wise of Apple to take a look at programs like LockInfo and learn from them. LockInfo brings the iPhone to a whole new level of usability for me and bringing it to mainstream users should be inevitable by now. But if iOS 5 doesn’t bring a new notification system with it, I’ll be perfectly content with LockInfo 3.0.

LockInfo currently runs for $7.99 in Cydia. You can also follow the developer, David Ashman, on Twitter as well at @Stimpy5050.

To all you jailbreakers out there, let us know what you think!

Garmin just released StreetPilot for iPhone, the newest addition to their mobile line-up of GPS apps. The app boasts a lot of the same features nüvi owners already enjoy. StreetPilot has up to date map support for both the US and Canada. All maps and directions are pulled from Garmin’s servers so you can expect the same quality directions as a native GPS unit. Since maps are pulled from the server, the app only takes up around 7 MB of space on your phone. Hit the jump for a few initial impressions, some screens, and a list of features.

iTunes Link

I had some time to play with StreetPilot earlier today and found it extremely intuitive and easy to navigate. Not only that, the UI is nicely designed as well. I liked the layout of the weather portion a lot and I’m considering using it for weather too. Voice navigation worked just as you’d expect it to. I also tried out the pedestrian directions as well. It re-routed me on a shorter route that didn’t take one way streets into consideration. All in all, it worked well.

One thing I noticed while playing with optional settings was that the iPod controls need some work. I couldn’t always get it to add the correct songs to a playlist. And skipping a track didn’t always register and you’d have to push the on screen button again.

Holding down on any part of a map will bring up a pop-up menu that allows you to choose that location as a destination, find something nearby, save the location, or display the address. There are little shortcuts throughout the app that seemed pretty well thought out. I’m looking forward to using this app on our next trip. If you’ve picked this up, let us know what you think. If not, what’s your favorite GPS app?

For those of you still debating on GPS apps, here’s a list of StreetPilot’s main features -

Features include:
-Always up-to-date maps for the U.S. and Canada
-Voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions including street names
-Real-time traffic updates to avoid traffic delays
-Speed limits for most major roads
-Integrated Local Search
-Millions of points of interest
-Lane assist with junction view for complicated interchanges
-Address book integration to navigate to contacts
-Integrated iPod® music controls
-Multi-tasking on iOS4 for navigating while calling
-Current weather conditions and forecast
-Place calls directly from search listing
-Navigate in both portrait and landscape mode
-Easy to install with quick load times

The popular time-management game Smurfs’ Village recently updated to include Game Center support as well as more mini-games and quests. Here are the highlighted new features:

• Add friends via Game Center and visit their villages
• Play your Smurfs’ Village game across multiple iOS devices
• More story scenes and quests for every level
• Baby Smurf and Lazy Smurf (with a new mini-game) are now available
• Greedy Smurf’s baking game now gives gold as well as XP
• Jokey now gives Smurfberries in his daily gift more often
• Smurfberries are given for every level-up and shown on the level up screen

Of all the time-management games, Smurfs’ Villiage is my favorite. The storyline and mini-games adds a new level of enjoyment to the game genre. If you like FarmVille and We Rule, I recommend you pick this one up!

[Free - iTunes link]

DataMan for iPhone is a utility that allows you to monitor your data usage in a few unique ways that a lot of other data utilities don’t. The app not only monitors your network usage, it will also monitors your wifi usage. You can view your usage on a map and it will break out where you are using data and what kind of data you were using. For people who want to save a bit of cash and use a lower data plan, this may be an app you would want to check out.

iTunes Link

When you first launch DataMan, you’ll notice the app is dead simple to navigate through. The layout’s pretty intuitive and easy to use. You can enter your usage period (billing cycle) as well. For me, my usage cycle starts over on the 4th of every month, so I set it to begin on the 4th and end on the 3rd of the following month.

DataMan also allows you to set alerts for different usage levels as well. This way, the app will send you a push notification when you reach certain data usage levels. I also really like the map feature. It will link together all the different places you’ve used data. Not exactly a “needed” feature for most, but it’s certainly neat to see the trends and where you browse the most. The data will not only break up into a total amount, but into how much you’re using each day of the month. As you can see in the screenshot above, it also lets you know how much of that data is downstream and how much is upstream.

Some of my friends or family members are on 200MB plans with the iPhones and like to monitor their usage pretty closely. While AT&T allows you to check your data via text, their numbers are always a day to two days behind. Since DataMan monitors data as you use it, you’ll always know exactly how much data you’ve used in real time.

Pros

• Layout is easy to figure out
• Presents you with more information than most data monitoring applications
• Mapping data usage is a creative way to view your usage

Cons

• Sometimes push notifications don’t always come through, hopefully this is a bug that will be worked out in an update

Amplitube 2 by IK Multimedia is an awesome little app that allows you to convert your iPhone into a full on guitar rig. Their iPad version was recently featured in one of the new Apple iPad ads. The app has 3 versions currently – Amplitube Free, Amplitube LE ($2.99), and the full Amplitube version ($19.99). We are using the full version for this review to give you a complete picture of what’s available.

To use this app, you’ll need to purchase an iRig, which are currently priced at $39.99. You’ll simply plug your guitar or bass into the iRig which then plugs into your iPhone or iPad. The 3rd outlet allows you to plug into the audio output of your choice. We just used a standard surround system (receiver) for this review. You’re also free to use an amp or headphones, which can be great if you’d like to practice quietly. And hey, it’s a lot easier to carry around the iRig than an entire guitar rig.

iTunes Link

When you first launch Amplitube, you’ll see a plethora of different options. You can choose between different cabinets as well as add effects pedals. The full version of Amplitube comes with most of the effects pedals and tons of extras. You can also purchase more gear via an in-app purchase. We also purchased the four track recorder, which is not included in any version. We tested the iRig and Amplitube 2 with not only a surround sound system, but headphones as well. The results really were quite pleasing. In-app purchases are easy enough and add even more features to the app. They are also extremely reasonably priced when you look at what a new physical effects pedal would cost, for example.

This app is great for anyone who wants to learn to play guitar but doesn’t want to invest into a major setup right off the bat. It’s also great for professionals who may travel a lot and don’t want to always carry a full rig with them. The app also features basic tools like a built-in tuner and metronome as well. The song feature allows you to drop in songs from your iTunes library through file sharing. Then when you launch the app, you can play along with your favorite songs within the app. This is a great feature for wearing headphones and practicing when you don’t want to disturb anyone else.

The only down sides we noticed when testing this app was the cramped layout. I pulled my brother in on this review, as I do not pretend to be a master guitar player. He really enjoyed playing with this app and using it, but he was sometimes frustrated by the cramped layout. If you have an iPad that you carry around with you frequently, I’d suggest using Amplitube with the iPad over the iPhone. The layout is much more spacious and it’s harder to press buttons on accident. He would frequently hit the wrong tab along the top when trying to toggle between effects pedals or other settings. This is one thing I’d like to see some improvement on in the next iteration. Other than that, this is a great app and one I’d suggest any guitar player to look over. If you aren’t sure about buying an iRig just yet, check out the free version of the app and browse through what’s available first. It’s definitely a decent investment for anyone who wants to be more portable with their guitar or bass.

Pros

• Easy setup with iRig
• In-app purchase makes it simple to buy more effects on the go
• iRig and app are reasonably priced for what they offer
• The Songs option is a great feature that takes advantage of file sharing

Cons

• The layout on the iPhone version is a bit cramped
• The four track recorder is not extremely easy to learn, but once you figure it out, it’s a nice feature to have

Star Walk for iPhone is an amazing star gazing app that allows you to turn your iPhone into a digital planetarium. You can use the app as simply a reference app or as an interactive app as you’re star gazing. For iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS users you can use the built-in compass function to make the app even more interactive.

iTunes Link

When you launch Star Walk you’ll be asked if you’d like to allow the app to use your current location. Clicking yes will allow the live view feature to locate you and show you the part of the sky that is viewable to you.

iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS users can take this a step further. Simply point your iPhone in the direction you’d like the app to tell you more about. The app will also track any movements you make and change live view to reflect the part of the sky you are navigating to. This app is perfect for amateurs as well as professionals. I would have loved this app when I took an astronomy course in college (I probably would have paid a lot more attention). I’d highly recommend this app to any college or high school student taking an astronomy class.

The app also has a nice daily info page that will show a ton of information pertaining to your individual location including sunrise, sunset, length of the day, and moon phases. The app also shows information pertaining to other planets including sunrise, sunset, and the angles at which you’ll need to look from the horizon to see certain bodies (alt/az coordinates).

When it comes to the search feature, you’ve got tons of choices. Not only can you search constellations but you can search other bodies in the solar system, deep space objects, individual stars, and satellites. If an object is not visible from your location or at that particular time of day or year, it will be grayed out.

My absolute favorite feature of this app is the live view. It’s simply gorgeous and extremely intuitive. You can view the simulation or choose an option that utilizes the camera to show your actual sky with star charts over it so you can interact with the real sky.

iPad and iPod touch users are not left out. Star Walk also offers a gorgeous iPad version as well. You can use location based features while you are in wifi. When you’re not, you still have access to a beautifully put together reference app as well.

If you’re in the market for an awesome astronomy reference app, this is hands down the one you want. These are just some of the features that make this app great. And it gets better! The makers of Star Walk were nice enough to give us some promo codes to celebrate the release of Star Walk 5.0! Four (4) lucky readers will be picked to receive codes for the iPhone version of Star Walk. Simply leave a comment letting us know what you’d use Star Walk for and we will pick 4 of you to receive a copy free, courtesy of TiPb and Star Walk! Make sure you leave your comment using a valid email address as that’s how we will contact you to receive your code. (Promo codes only work in the US App Store, Apple’s rule, not ours!)

Pros

• Beautiful interface
• Live mode is extremely smooth and accurate
• Daily info is extremely informative and well laid out
• Easy to use for even the most amateur star gazers
• Great resource for students
• Integrated night mode is a welcome feature
• Picture of the day feature is a nice way to learn about different bodies in our solar system and beyond

Cons

• A better UI for search would be nice. The rest of the app has a great UI

Skyfire for iPhone is a web browsing application that converts Adobe Flash to HTML5/H.264 so you can view it on iPhone or iPad touch. Seeing as Apple chose not to implement Flash into iOS, a lot of videos on the web still can’t be watched on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Skyfire steps in to try and bridge this gap and while it’s a nice feature to have, but not always the best experience.

iTunes Link

While having access to Flash content may be useful to some, the overall process can be daunting. A lot of times, I found that the app would take a while to convert the content. If you are on wifi, the process seems to be a bit smoother, but on 3G it was definitely noticeable. I will give them a little bit of a break here seeing as they sold a ridiculous amount of copies and had to pull it due to their servers being overwhelmed. This may be part of the reason streaming is taking a while.

Either way – in my experience, once the content did stream, it seemed to be quite choppy and broken up. I’m hoping this is something that will get better as Skyfire adds more server bandwidth. A lot of the times I noticed the audio streamed pretty quickly but the video portion would struggle to keep up with the audio or fall behind. Seeing as viewing Flash content is the main feature of the app, I’m really hoping we see major improvements in the near future.

As for the rest of the app, I actually quite enjoyed using it as a browser. Settings will give you an option to browse privately, which is nice. It also gives you the option of desktop or iPhone mode. To me, this is much easier than having to toggle individual sites from mobile to desktop view. It will save you a bit of time and you can just switch with two clicks instead of searching a site to figure out how to toggle mobile views on or off.

Sharing is also easy within Skyfire – you simply click the little plus symbol in the bottom right corner of the screen and you can share directly through Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail. There is also a feature called Facebook Quickview which allows you to view your Facebook profile and stream from within Skyfire. It’s a nice feature but not something I really see a need for. I’ve never been a fan of the Facebook for iPhone app so I suppose having access to the mobile or desktop site in one click may come in handy here and there. It’s still not something I see myself personally using very often.

Skyfire also has a feature that allows you to search for video and content on any term you choose. When you click the search icon, it brings up suggestions of what you may search for based on the page you’re currently viewing as well. This is an extremely neat feature but sometimes it would throw out weird suggestions that had nothing to do with the site you’re browsing. If this feature is refined a bit more, I could see it becoming something I’d use frequently.

Bookmarks can also be added just like they can in Safari, so you should feel right at home if you’ve become accustomed to using bookmarks in Safari. It would be nice if your already existing bookmarks from Safari could be imported into Skyfire. Other than that, the overall browsing experience is great. I’m just not sure the main selling feature of the app is quite up to par yet.

Pros

• Great overall browsing experience
• Adds a bit more functionality than Safari currently offers
• Toggling between desktop and mobile mode is easy and more convenient than switching on individual sites

Cons

• Flash to HTML5 converting to streaming process can be quite daunting and slow at times
• Audio and video do not always sync up after streaming to HTML5
• Experienced a few crashes on 3G while trying to convert and stream video
• Search suggestions can be a bit off at times

MarkdownMail for iPhone and iPad allows you to write articles in the Markdown format. You’ll then be able to export the markdown in an email or send beautifully formatted HTML emails from the app itself. For those who aren’t familiar with what markdown is, let’s cover that first. Markdown is a markup language created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz. It’s extremely easy to learn and extremely convenient and efficient for publishing online. Markdown will basically convert your content into valid and properly formed XHTML. You don’t have to deal with HTML tags and code. Markdown will take care of that for you.

Read on for a quick walkthrough of MarkdownMail which is currently available for both iPhone and iPad.

[iTunes Link]

MarkdownMail is a very simple app that looks like a plain note pad at first sight. In reality, it’s so much more than that. I’ve actually started using MarkdownMail to write a majority of my content for TiPb. The language itself is extremely easy to learn. John Gruber has a Markdown Syntax guide on Daring Fireball that’s extremely easy to follow. It was only a matter of an hour before I was able to punch out articles in MarkdownMail on my iPad and publish well formatted articles without the hassle of writing in actual HTML. I’d highly recommend anyone that publishes frequently online to learn markdown, as it is much cleaner and makes editing dead simple.

As for MarkdownMail itself, you will basically type all of your content in Markdown language. You can also preview as you go. So if you aren’t sure of the syntax, try it and then preview. There is also a built in syntax reference shortcut that will take you directly to John Gruber’s guide online.

When you’re done writing content, you can choose to email the article as an HTML document, which is great if you’d like to send an email with bullet points or emphasis. I’ve used this feature for work emails and outlines. Alternately you can choose to just copy the HTML code to the clipboard and paste it wherever you’d like.

When publishing articles, I simply choose to email myself the markdown version. This way I can simply copy and paste it. Then all I’ve got left to do is embed images and video. It allows me to write wherever I want, whenever I want. One thing I do wish Markdown supported was accounts. It would be nice to sign in to an account within the app and have it bring in the same articles on my iPhone that I am working on from the iPad. This would give me even more freedom to write. It may be an unrealistic request but if it did happen, I’d be in markdown heaven!

Pros

• Dead simple interface
• Several export options when it comes to what you’re doing with your content
• Built-in syntax reference guide for the markdown language
• The app is a universal binary, so you can download on iPhone and iPad with one purchase

Cons

• Would be nice to see a way to sync your markdown content across devices
• Folders to sort drafts into categories would be a welcome addition

Zentomino for iPhone is an easy to play puzzle game and a great time killer. While the game may have a simple concept, some of the puzzles are not as simple to solve. To complete a puzzle, you’ll take Tetris-like pieces and fit them inside the puzzle designs without overlapping or going outside the boundaries. Drag pieces out of their places or back in, tap them while on the board to rotate them. Sometimes you’ll use all the pieces allotted to you, sometimes you won’t.

[iTunes Link]

When you first start the game, you’ll be presented with pages and pages of puzzles to take a stab at. What I really like about this game is that you aren’t forced to complete the puzzles in any specific order. You can flick through the pages and choose which ones you want to solve. Once you complete one, it will show the colored completed version as you scroll through. Get stuck on a certain puzzle? Click one button to take you back to the puzzle selection screen and take a stab at another one. You can always go back later and each puzzle should be as you left it.

Zentomino also links into Game Center. You’ll get achievements based on completing a particularly complex puzzle, which will then show up in your achievements. You can see your achievements within Game Center, or clicking a link on the Zentomino main screen will link into Game Center to show you them.

So if you’re looking for a good strategy or puzzle game, check out Zentomino and let us know what you think! They’ve also got a Lite version if you’d rather try before buying.

Pros

• Controls are easy to understand and fluid

• Lots of puzzle choices

• Game Center Integration

Cons

• Controls during game play to go back to main menu and reset pieces are a little small, making them bigger would make them easier to click on

YouTube Link

Tapatalk for iPhone is a perfect app for those of you who browse several forums (including our own TiPb Forums!).  We all know most forums have mobile versions, but sometimes the controls aren’t so intuitive, nor is the control.  Tapatalk allows you to connect remotely to your forums via the app.  You can then visit all your forums from the accounts tab.  From there you can choose which site you’d like to browse and connect to it.

[iTunes Link]

One thing that’s always kept me from browsing forums more often is mobile integration. It’s just not that great. Browsing forums has always been a more pleasant experience on an actual computer. With Tapatalk, I think I like browsing forums from my phone even more. The premise is simple, connect to the forums you’re a member of by searching for them. You can then log in to your account and it’ll bring over all the threads your subscribed to and even your private messages. Tapatalk supports most versions of vBulletin (most forums use this) as well as a few other types.

As of now, not all sites are supported as the administrator of the site needs to activate Tapatalk on their forums in order for it to pull into the app. In addition to TiPb Forums, Android Central Forums are already supported, I’d only guess the rest will follow. Most of the forums I’m a member of are currently supported. Activating Tapatalk is free so if you see a site you’d like to be able to browse via Tapatalk, shoot the admin an e-mail and ask them if they can add it to their site. The list has been growing everyday.

Once you’re inside a forum, you can do mostly everything you can do from a computer. You can quote people and reply simply by tapping on the post you’d like to quote and a blue quote box will appear, which you’ll click and it takes you to a user entry field. If you tap on one of your own posts, you’ll get a second option to edit your post.

Under the latest section within a forum, you’ll notice that your tabs will carry unread counts as well. Your participated tab is where you’ll find all the threads you’re subscribed to within that forum. The unread tab is simply a list of all the latest posts within that forum.

Your main sections are Network, Accounts, History, and Settings. Network will allow you to browse through categories of forums that are supported. I actually found a few forums I didn’t know about that I’ve now joined. The accounts tab will show all the accounts you are currently signed into. Tapping one of them will take you to that forum’s postings. History shows you a list of the forums you’ve visited recently. Settings is pretty self exclamatory. This is where you’ll be able to tweak settings such as link behavior, image control, and layouts. What’s nice about the setting app is if you aren’t sure what a setting is or does, they have notes telling you what enabling or disabling something will do which minimizes confusion.

My experience with the app has been overwhelmingly good. It’s incredibly fast and connects to forums almost immediately. If you’re on Wifi, it’s immediate. If you’re on 3G or lower, a page or account may take a second to load, but even on Edge, you’ll never wait more than a few seconds for something to load.

Tapatalk also offers a free version that is Read Only, meaning you can read posts but can’t sign in or post yourself. So if you want to check out the app before purchasing the full version, check out the read only one first to get a feel for it.

If this app eventually adds push for unread private messages and new posts in subscribed threads, that would severely minimize my e-mail clutter. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for that. But in the mean time, let us know if you’ve picked it up and leave your thoughts in the comments!

Pros

• Extremely easy layout to navigate
• Incredibly quick
• Integration supports with many blogs, and free for administrators to implement on any site supported
• Good tools for finding new communities
• Great user control within forums

Cons

• Push would be nice, but not a necessity in this kind of app. It would reduce e-mail clutter, which would be a nice plus.

Mirror’s Edge for iPhone by EA recently debuted in the app store. [iTunes Link]  This is one game I was pretty excited to get my hands on.  If you own an iPhone 4, odds are, you won’t be disappointed as all graphics are beautifully optimized for the retina display.  There’s also a version available for the iPad which clocks in at a bit higher of a price.  We’ll look at that version in a later review as well.  For now, click on through to read a full review and see tons of screenshots for the iPhone version!

The concept of Mirror’s Edge is quite simple. You play as Faith, a runner. Faith lives in a time period where the government controls almost everything and almost everything society does is under surveillance and scrutiny. You get missions, you complete them, without getting caught or hurt. If you’re a fan of V for Vendetta type concepts, you’ll probably thoroughly enjoy this game. A lot of you are probably already familiar with it from its console days.

The controls are surprisingly easy to use. To me, it feels like this game was always meant to be played on a touch screen. The swipes and gestures are almost fluid and they do exactly what your instincts tell you they should do. Swipe up to jump, down to slide (or roll when coming out of a long fall). Wall jumping is a simple matter of flipping up. Attacking is simply an additional swipe up, down, or to the sides. It’s extremely intuitive. The only bug I seemed to notice is sometimes when falling, when you swipe down to roll instead of hit the ground hard (which damages your health), it doesn’t always seem to work. I’d like to see that fixed in a future update. And one other thing, don’t know if it’s just me and something I’m not seeing, but I can’t figure out how to pause a level. If anyone else knows something I don’t, post it in the comments. The only way I know how to pause is to simply exit out of the game.

There’s no visible lag and the game loads incredibly quickly for the graphics being so intense. If you’ve picked this one up on iPhone or iPad, let us know what you think. I’ll be back with the iPad version soon!

Pros

• Stunning graphics on the iPhone 4

• Extremely intuitive controls

• Good sound effects and music

• Great story line

• Levels increase in difficulty at good increments

Cons

• Rolling out of a jump doesn’t always seem to work

• No native pause controls ?

YouTube Link

If you’re someone who likes to keep track of your statistics on Twitter, Birdbrain could prove to be very useful to you. I could see this app being helpful for companies who want to use Twitter as a marketing tool and track trends. On the same token, I could also see it causing problems where people now have a way of knowing exactly what users have stopped following them (let the Twitter fights commence).

When you open the app for the first time, it’ll grab initial info from Twitter. So at first, you can’t see past information such as the last 7 days or last 24 hours. When you open the app in the future, it will begin to congregate past statistics and show you the differences.

The overall layout of the app is pretty slick. It’s incredibly easy to figure out and very user friendly. One thing I wasn’t sure of was how the app loaded your statistics. I wasn’t sure what happens if you don’t open the app for a week or so? Are the 24 hour statistics still accurate or what is it loading it from? That’s what had me a little confused. It definitely doesn’t load your statistics in the background.

I could also see some users wanting push notifications. Getting push notifications for when users follow or unfollow you would be a nice added feature but that would require Birdbrain to poll the Twitter servers quite often in order to aggregate and push the information. I could see that being a little overkill. Personally, I wouldn’t really care to see notifications of when someone stopped following me, but I wouldn’t mind having notifications for when someone starts following me. Then I’d disable the emails Twitter sends me.  There’s also a mentions tab within the app, which will congregate all your mentions and keep a running total of how many times you’ve been mentioned on Twitter.

Overall, it’s a decent app that does what it says it will. If you’ve been looking for a way to monitor your Twitter statistics more closely, this app could be what you’ve been looking for.

Pros

• Nice interface

• Shows a nice amount of statistics

• Seems to be really accurate

Cons

• Push notifications would be a nice addition

• Takes a few days to start aggregating information

Tweetings for iPad is a relatively new Twitter client.  It comes not only for iPad, but iPhone and Mac as well (we’ll look at the iPhone version next time).  Tweetings is all around a very full featured Twitter client.  It has everything from unread tweet management, geolocation tagging, now playing, nearby tweets, and even push notifications.

Tweetings has also recently been updated to support iOS 4 and iPhone 4.  The update also fixed a couple bugs including one that really irked me — scrolling.  It only did it with certain themes but it was irritating nonetheless.  The problem seems to have disappeared since the update.

Read on for a breakdown, pics, and how you can win a free copy of Tweetings for iPad!

For the most part, Tweetings should be very familiar to you if you’ve used clients such as Twitter for iPhone (formerly Tweetie 2). Tweetings comes complete with pull down to refresh and even carries familiar UI elements to Twitter/Tweetie 2. To me, that’s part of what I really loved. The UI isn’t completely overdone. I’m a fan of simple and elegant; a streamlined UI is typically what wins me over. It’s typically the reason I’ve stuck with Twitter for iPhone, the interface and simplicity.

Don’t let Tweetings completely fool you though, it may look simple but it carries some pretty advanced features. It also has native push. I attempted to test this by keeping Boxcar active and the push for Tweetings. For the most part, it was touch and go. Sometimes Boxcar would chime in first, other times Tweetings would. I’m only going to assume this has to do with how busy both servers are at any given time. Either way, I’d call it a pretty fair fight.

From the screenshot above, you can see how Tweetings also has a feature that will allow me to combine two users timelines together. It’s very similar to a conversation type feature, but I somewhat like it better. Say I wasn’t sure what Leanna was replying to, well if she @ replied me with any tweet, and not that specific one, a conversation tool wouldn’t pick that up, where completely combining our timelines, I can easily read through and pick out what she was talking about. This to me is extremely useful and intuitive.

Direct Messages are also now grouped by user, which I prefer. No one likes scrolling through pages of direct messages searching for something. I believe this was implemented in the most recent update as well.

The iPad version also has a quickpost feature which I like quite a bit. It just brings a little box down and monitors your characters. If you’d like to attach a photo or other type of media, just go to the regular compose screen.

Clicking on a user’s display picture will also present you with a quick view of ways you can interact with that user, which I find extremely useful.

You can also click on the physical tweet to be presented with several more options including seeing that users profile, location, and of course, your combined timelines.

There’s also a lot of fun extras I found within Tweetings such as TweetCost, a spam reporter, and a block feature. You can also tweet now playing, which will probably be a fun feature for a lot of users.

Overall, I’d say Tweetings is an all-around solid choice. I experienced a few bugs here and there, but the developer seems pretty quick to fix them. He can also be found on twitter with the handle @Tweetingsapp. He’s very responsive to issues and questions. So if you’re in the market for a Twitter client or you’re bored of your current one, I’d have no issues telling you to give Tweetings a try. It’s very reasonably priced for what it is. If you decide to take it for a spin, or currently use it, let us know your thoughts in the comments!

[iTunes Link]

Pros

• Reasonably priced
• Tons of basic and advanced features
• Lots of extras
• Great developer support and frequent updates
• Available across 3 platforms
• Built-in push that actually works

Cons

• Experienced a few crashed in the iPad version
• Sometimes conversation view doesn’t catch everything
• Settings panel could be simplified just a bit, it could be a bit overwhelming to Twitter beginners

Give-away

Want a free copy of Tweetings for iPad? Just leave a comment below telling us what you want in an iPad Twitter client. What feature is most important to you?

(Reminder: Promo codes require a US App Store account — Apple’s rule, not ours! — and they expire. If you get one, use it quickly!)

[YouTube Link]

iMovie for iPhone 4 is a video editing application designed by Apple. iMovie is also the name of the video editing software included in iLife, which is bundled with every Mac. iMovie is only available for iPhone 4. (Don’t be sad, it needs the extra RAM and Apple A4 processing power).

As with most Apple products, iMovie is very easy to use and is fairly intuitive. If a tap doesn’t do what you want, a double tap will. iMovie can be used in either portrait or landscape, but landscape seems more natural for me.

While in editing mode, the top center of the screen shows your movies, the bottom of the screen has the timeline, and the sides of the screen have options: projects, upload media, upload media directly from camera, and play. When choosing media to add to your project, there are three tabs: video, photos, and music. Videos are listed in reverse chronological order, but photos are listed in chronological order. I find this annoying because it’s very likely that the photo I want to choose was recently taken and scrolling through hundreds a photos every time gets tedious. Not to mention, scrolling through photos is very laggy. This needs to be fixed.

Editing your movie is a breeze. You can drag clips around, trim the edges of clips, add titles, quickly switch between themes, and make minor edits to transitions. If there is a clip or photo you want to remove, just drag it off the timeline. There is one thing I want to mention about titles, however. They are very nice, but you cannot edit their length. Titles are automatically the same length as the clip you have the title attached to. Another simple feature that is missing is the ability to add plain text against a colored background.

Although there are a few little things missing from iMovie, I found it to be an excellent and quick way to edit a video. This is the first release of this app and I look forward to the changes that Apple may bring to it in the future. For only $4.99, iMovie is worth every penny.

Video and screenshots after the break! (To see a completed movie that was created with iMovie, check out my quick review of the iPhone 4′s camera)

Pros

• Very easy to use
• Comes with 5 themes: Modern, Bright, Travel, Playful, News
• Can add your own music or chose from Apple’s theme music
• Export as, medium (360p), large (540p), or HD (720p)

Cons

• Titles last the entire duration of clip, with no option to set the length.
• Cannot add more than one audio track
• Cannot split clips
• Must pan over images. Cannot have entire photo displayed in video.
• Searching through photo library has major lag
• Photos are listed in chronological order instead of reverse chronological order
• Cannot add a text slide

[$4.99 - iTunes link]

Apple has sent out a notice to developers advising them that the iTunes App Store has begun accepting iOS 4 binaries for submission and review:

Submit your iOS 4 apps for review so they can be ready for sale when iOS 4 is available to iPhone and iPod touch users. Make sure you have built and tested your applications using iOS 4 and iPhone SDK 4 GM seed, which you can download from the iPhone Dev Center.

Log in to iTunes Connect and upload your iOS 4 applications today.

iOS 4 is scheduled for release on June 21, once again developers aren’t likely to get much sleep, especially if trying to once again implement new features for a device they don’t have and can’t yet test.

(The effort is much appreciated.)

Pinball HD brings classic pinball arcade playing to the iPad. The graphics are beautiful and motions are smooth.

There are three tables included with Pinball HD: Wild West, The Deep, and Jungle Style. I find Wild West to be the least interesting table to play, but it will probably be great for a child who doesn’t need a complicated and involved table. The Deep and Jungle Style are much more detailed and require much more skill to get a good score.

Pinball HD can be played in 3 different views. Holding the iPad in landscape will display the full table from a perspective view (the front is bigger than the back). In portrait, you can either view the full table or play with a “flying-table” view. The latter view follows the ball around the table and zooms in even closer when the ball is doing something interesting like bouncing around a bunch of bumpers or entering a special hole. The graphics in “flying-table” are very impressive; however, I find myself getting a little dizzy when playing in this view.

If you’re a fan of pinball, Pinball HD will not disappoint. The physics are accurate and the gameplay is fun. For video and screenshots, follow us after the break!

Pros

• Beautiful graphics
• Realistic physics
• 3 tables
• 3 views
• Detailed instructions for each table
• Local and global high scores

Cons

• “flying-table” can make you dizzy and is the default view for portrait play
• Table instructions are busy and sometimes difficult to follow the lines

[$2.99 - iTunes link]

FlickStackr for iPad is a Flickr browsing application. The interface is beautiful, intuitive, and a pleasure to use.

With FlickStackr, you can browse photos on Flickr, even if you don’t have a Flickr account. If you do, then you can also browse your photostream, sets, favorites, groups, and contacts. FlickStackr also displays EXIF data, tags, and comments. The main feature that is missing from FlickStackr is the ability to upload photos. However, iPont promises to bring that ability in a future update.

In addition to the wonderful online photo viewing that FlickStacker brings to iPad, it also allows you to save photos locally for offline viewing. iPont calls this feature a “Stack”. You can choose any photos from Flickr to save to your stack. It only saves the actual images, however, not the EXIF data that’s associated with them.

FlickStackr is an excellent app for experiencing Flickr on the iPad, and for only $0.99, it’s quite a steal!

[$0.99 - iTunes Link]

Pros

• Browse photos from photostream, sets, contacts, groups, explore, or search
• View photos as slideshow
• No account required
• Support for multiple accounts
• Offline viewing in your “Stack”
• Wonderful interface

Cons

• Cannot upload photos
• Offline viewing does not include EXIF data

Video and Screenshots after the break!

(Hurricane for iPhone Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

Hurricane [$3.99 - iTunes link] is a hurricane tracking app for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Back when I lived in Florida, hurricanes were a yearly concern. Now that I am in Texas, they don’t play such a prominent role but they are still something to think about. Hurricane is an app designed to try to take away some of that concern.

I have actually had this app for well over 4 months, but I wanted to wait till the middle of hurricane season so I could see it in action. And let me say, the app generally performs very well. The app starts off with a screen where you can select Atlantic or Pacific hurricanes, and then gives you a list of the active storms as well as completed storms. When you click on a storm, you can look at the radar loop, projected path, tracking map, satellite images, and bulletins. All of this allows you to try to keep on top of these potentially devastating storms.

In addition, you can look a historical storms (from last year going back to 1851) and specific data feeds (like satellite images) from a variety of sources. For people with little hurricane experience, you can also see how hurricanes are rated on the Saffir-Simpson scale. While it certainly isn’t necessary, it would be nice to have some sort of hurricane checklist included (what to do, or not do, when one hits, for example).

Unfortunately, the app doesn’t provide any customization options. You can specify your location and only look at storms that may hit you. You can’t mark a storm as a “favorite” to keep close tabs on it. You don’t get push notifications when a storm status changes (or a new alert is released). These are all kinds of features that would put this app into an elite category. In addition, there is no ability to sort or search the historical data. I can’t look for all historical Cat 5 storms that have him Florida, for example. If I am curious about how frequently a specific area has been hit, I can’t only include storm that hit Texas. The historical data is nice, but in the present form it is a little unwieldy unless you know exactly what you are looking for.

Conclusion

As hurricane tracking apps go, this is a nicely designed app, giving you a lot of the pertinent and critical information. If you live in a hurricane prone area, it could certainly be worth the $3.99 price. However, the app is missing some features that would move it into a premium app category (which, I should note, I haven’t seen in other hurricane apps as well).

(In the interest of full disclosure, I received a promo code for this app.)

Pros

• Up to date hurricane tracking and projections
• Detailed data regarding hurricanes
• Historical data included

Cons

• No to choose “favorites”
• No push notifications
• No location based data
• No search or sort feature for historical data

TiPb Review Rating

Vine2Wine Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Overall I think this is a neat little reference guide. While you might find more information about each of the term on the Internet (and I’d like to see the option for more information on the grape varieties). I think this application handles the information very well and it’s quick and easy to use.

Vine2Wine is a wine drinker’s reference guide, whether you are a beginner wanted to learn the lingo or even for intermediates.

The app is simple. On the main screen you choose from three categories:

• Grape Varieties
• Wine terminology
• Wine Tastes

In the Grape Varieties list view. The different grape varieties are listed and depending on what type of grape it uses it is represented by a correlating purple of white grapes next to each variety. Also within the list view you have the phonetic pronunciation for the terms for quick reference. If you tap on one of the Varieties it will give you some information about it – such as color, flavors, & history.

Vine2Wine Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

As for the Wine terminology and Wine Tastes list views, each term is listed and a small part of the first line can be seen. If you tap on the term, rather than going to a new screen, the list expands to display the full text. I thought this was a really cool feature as it was quick and easy to navigate between the terms within the list.

All the lists are just like your contacts list in that they have the letter scroll bar on the right-hand side of the screen.

Pros

• Easy Navigation
• Interesting and quick navigation within terminology lists

Cons

• Not all the grape varieties have pronunciations
• No way to add notes.

TiPb Rating

Vine2Wine is available for $0.99 from the iTunes App Store.

The news used to be more simple. You had your choice of three major television networks, newspaper, magazines, or radio. Twenty-four-hour cable news was yet to come and the Internet was not even a glimmer in Al Gore’s eye. If the constant bombardment of information via satellite broadcast wasn’t enough to overwhelm the mere mortal, along came the Internet with the rise of blogging (ahem) and countless web sites feeding information. Something had to be done to make information easier to digest for the busy person on the go, and Spreed:News uses an innovative way to deliver it. Read on for the review!

What is Spreed:News?

Spreed:News

There are a variety of pre-set news sources to choose from, like CNN Top Stories, Blog Maverick, ESPN – Headlines, and People.com, to name several. The ability to customize the types of news and articles you are interested in is also a feature of Spreed:News.

Using Spreed:News

Also on the main page of the site is a “Customize” button. Tapping on it permits you to choose from several different categories so that each time you visit Spreed:News, you can select from sites and read news and articles that match your interests.

As I see it, there are three main benefits of using Spreed:News, and they are somewhat interrelated. First, it increases your ability to read faster. Second, it presents the information in such a way that, as you learn to read faster, you can digest larger amounts of information in shorter periods of time. Finally, it makes it much easier to read on a mobile device, like the iPhone. Although the iPhone sports a best-in-class Internet browser for rendering full web pages, it goes without saying that ALL mobile devices leave much to be desired for reading large amounts of information due to the small screen real-estate. Even the iPhone, with it’s expansive screen, benefits greatly from this eye-friendly presentation of information.

Once you have customized your interests and selected a news source, just tap on the stories that interest you, set your desired WPM, and start reading the word groupings as they flash in front of your eyes – it’s that easy. Or is it?

What’s It REALLY Like?

A Spreed:News user and fan, Michael, has put together a helpful video here, so I recommend you take a look so you can get a feel for how it works. Thanks, Michael!

The exciting thing about Spreed:News, aside from the obvious way in which it speeds up your ability to digest news and information, is the fact that the company is very responsive to user feedback and improvements are implemented all the time. Also, once you finish reading an article, you are presented with a screen with several options. Users can rate articles so you can see what is recommended reading and what isn’t, post the article on Twitter, send it to a friend, post it on Facebook, and leave feedback. Spreed:News is not only a great way to read information, but it’s also a great way to share the information with others in a variety of ways.

Final Impressions

It is challenging at first to get used to the innovative method of reading word groupings at a high rate of speed on your iPhone, but if you hang in there for a little bit, you will be rewarded with increased reading speed, surprising comprehension, and time savings in dealing with your daily information overload. I highly recommend you give it a try – at the low price of FREE, what are you waiting for?

RATING:

Jott (recently out of beta) is a way to take audio notes, then have them transcribed into SMS, email, or just a web note. This truly takes my Tungsten Audio recording days to the next level.

There are a couple ways to use Jott; either the iPhone application or via an 800 number. This review will focus on the use of the iPhone app., but will touch on different ways to you can access your Jott.

Starting out

Jott is a free service with optional paid plans that allow you to take verbal notes spoken into your iPhone and have them transcribed and placed in an online todo list.

After installing Jott, you will have to create an account. Jott gives you 3 levels of service; a free level which should cover most people’s needs, and two paid levels. The main differences between levels include the length of a recorded note and the ability to have these transcribed notes sent to you via email.

After you have logged in you can begin using Jott right away. The applications’ home screen has a visual recorder. Simply tap it to begin recording. The screen turns red on the top and bottom telling you that you have begun recording. You have 15 seconds to record your note. If you end earlier, simply tap the screen to stop. Afterwards you MUST stay in the application for your note to be uploaded to Jotts servers for transcription.

I’ve recorded a note, what next?

It takes a little time to transcribe your note; somewhere between 3 and 15 minutes. Afterwards, you note will appear in the “Notes” tab on the bottom of the application. From here, you can see the transcribed notes from today, yesterday, etc. If a note is not done transcribing, the software tells you to check back in a few minutes. You can tap any Jott to read it. Once you have read the Jott you can move it to a folder (your defaults are Home and Work), delete it, or mark it as “done”. You can also make a new list at any time by tapping Edit in the top left corner of the application. You can then move and organize your Jotts as needed.

If you prefer to type out a Jott, you can do that too by simply tapping the ABC icon located in the top right of the screen. Your typed note gets uploaded to Jotts servers along with your transcribed Jotts.

Conclusion

I like Jott a lot. It really comes in handy when you can’t type out a todo or reminder; Jott is there to save the day. The ability to use Jott as an actual todo list is quite helpful as well since Apple does not have any built-in software to accomplish this task. It is important to note, that once you have an account created, you can Jott by calling their 800 number and via the web and their Adobe Air application. Using these tools, you can access your Jotts just about anywhere. I have also been very pleased with the quality of the transcription. I speak relatively fast and Jott picks up most everything very well. Kudos to Jott!

If I had to find an Achilles heel with Jott it would have to be that in order to use the service, you really have to be online. So, for example, you are using this app with an iPod Touch and have no Wi-Fi, it is essentially useless to you. Once you record your Jott, Jott wants to begin the upload immediately for transcription. If you are using it with your iPhone, the fact that the Jott cannot be sent in the background can be quite frustrating as using an EDGE connection can take upwards of 2-4 minutes to upload. If you exit the app and come back, it starts all over again.

All in all though, this is a great app, especially since it is free. There are other todo applications out there, but they are just that, todo tools and they don’t really offer much in terms of voice note. If you are looking for a melding of traditional todos with voice notes, this is a great option. The todo functionality is not as strong as it could be, but it is enough for basic needs.

Ratings (out of 5)

• Look and Feel: 4
• Navigation: 5
• Features: 4
• Reliability: 4
• Overall: 4.25

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Take a note anywhere
• Touch or talk- two ways to enter data
• Many ways to access your Jotts

Cons:

• Uploading over EDGE is painful
• You have to stay “in the app” to upload
• 15 seconds on the free service might be too short for some

BONUS: Here is a video discussing how Jott works!

While Apple waits on manpower/priority celestial alignment to someday enable the long requested cut, copy, and paste functionality in the iPhone OS, Proximi’s MagicPad has decided to take multi-touch into their own hands, and provided something far more than what they describe as a proof of concept: a rich text editor which, a few limitations aside, brings Apple’s OS future very much into the App Store present.

Text Selection

Apple provides a user experience for insertion point placement that involves tapping and holding your finger down until a magnifying loupe pops up and lets you more accurately position the curser. To zoom in on a photo or fill the screen with a web element, Apple gives you the double tap. Many have wondered what an interface for text selection (the pre-requisite for Rich Text formatting and cut, copy, and paste) could or would look like — and some have even wondered if getting it “right” was what was delaying the functionality.

MagicPad combined the insertion point placement tap-and-hold with the zoom double-tap, to text select via double-tap-and-hold. And while it may not be what Apple will ultimately term “right”, could it be “right now”?

Read on to find out!

MagicPad’s text selection choice will likely be loved by some, hated by others, fill more than a few blog posts, and eventually either be copied or obsoleted by Apple (something the developers previously told TiPb they were very much hoping for).

Personally, I found it almost immediately usable, which is perhaps the most important factor for me. Nice touches include the ability to tap-and-hold to get the zoom loupe for insertion point, then tap-again-and-hold to activate text selection. Quick-selection works something like double-clicking on a PC to select a word: Tap-tap-hold-and-drag to highlight the current word no matter where the insertion point is (use the previous tap-hold-insert-tap-hold to select only part of a word). While it looks complicated when written out, it feels very organic. The nature of the loupe itself, of course, can make either insertion or selection tricky, but it gets easier quickly.

Rich Text Styling

Unlike the built in Notes App, in all its mono-sized, Market Felt ug-ness (seriously, does that font have something on Steve Jobs? Pictures? Video? What?), MagicPad allows expanded control over font face, size, color, and style/decoration.

Fonts

Selectable fonts include Serif (Times New Roman?), Sans Serif (Helvetica?), Marker Felt, Cursive (Zapfino?), Mono (Courier New?), and Type (American Typewriter?). While only a subset of the subset of fonts Apple includes on the iPhone, it covers the bases.

Point Sizes

Though not as fine-grained as a slider, button selectable sizes step from 14, through 16 and 24, to 36 points, which is a good mix given the 320×480, 160dpi nature of the iPhone’s screen.

Colors

Whether due to current interface limitations (the need for large, easy to tap buttons) or simple presentation realities (the need for consistent, matchable colors), MagicPad currently provides a restrained 8 color choices. Standard black is joined by red, green, and blue, and rounded out with preference towards the warmer orange, pink, violet, and capped off by gray. It’s not hard to imagine, however, that like early graphics programs, 8 will someday jump to 16, and perhaps even 32 or more.

Styles and Decorations

Though not all fonts support all styles or decorations, with MagicPad you can easily choose from any available bold or italic styling, or underline or strike-through decoration.

Cut, Copy, and Paste

What all iPhone owners have been waiting for, cut, copy, and paste functions as simply as simple functionality should. Once selected, a quick tap of the tools button brings up the same type of selector as the Rich Text formatting, with the choice to — wait for it! — cut out the selected text, copy it, or paste it in at the current insertion point.

Quibbles and Q & A

One problem that immediately jumps out with MagicPad was the lack of the auto-text completion that makes the iPhone soft/virtual keyboard usable in so many other apps. Brian Radmin from Proximi was gracious enough to answer some of our questions about this.

Is the lack of auto-correction a limitation imposed by the API given what else you were trying to accomplish?

Apple’s SDK does limit us from using the built-in auto-correct feature because of the way MagicPad needed to be developed.

We are in the process of building around this and definitely know how much utility the auto-correct function brings…especially to a text-editor.

So it’s something that will come in an update?

While our main focus was to create a working case implementation for our text-selection (and copy & paste) UI candidate, we are also working hard and committed to producing a great feature complete productivity app which includes auto-correction. We hope to have it in place for our next version.

Thanks Brian! Does that mean we can request “undo” as well? It sure would come in handy to roll-back some of our less considered stylings and pastings.

On the quibbles heap, rather than the built-in MobileMail App, MagicPad uses its own email server to send out MagicPad notes, complete with a CAPTCHA requirement. While a privacy policy and terms of use are prominently displayed along with the more common email fields, this seems like a less than ideal solution, and something I likewise hope is made obsolete in future releases of either the SDK or MagicPad itself.

Update: Brian let us know that yes, indeed “undo” is in the pipeline, as is CAPTCH-free email, though until Apple allows RTF via MobileMail, it will still need to go through Proximi’s servers.

Conclusion

As a proof-of-concept for text selection and thus, Rich Text and editing functionality, MagicPad is a big, bold step up onto Apple’s plate. A dare. Perhaps a double one. Not the final answer, but the only current one and while not everyone will agree with the implementation, the bottom line is it works as implemented.

As a Notes replacement, the extra features are great, if you can live without auto correction and the privacy/security of the built in MobileMail application. (And due to the SDK restriction on sharing data, we can’t mix and match the best of both apps either). The killer Notes app, however, will need to support syncing back to the desktop and cloud (ActiveSync or MobileMe), so until Apple pulls the trigger on that most basic of functionality, every note app will fall a little short.

Pricing and Availability

$3.99 via the App Store (iTunes Link)

Pros

• Working cut, copy, and paste on the iPhone, come on!
• Rich text styling
• Did I mention CUT and PASTE

Cons

• No auto-correction for spelling
• Uses 3rd party email server

Rating

4.5/5 (bonus points for sheer audacity).