All Articles by Matt Sawyers

App Review: Air Video for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Fri, 12/25/2009 - 15:56

(Air Video for iPhone Forum Review by msbaylor. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

I was quite surprised when I found Air Video for iPhone [$2.99 - iTunes link] was available in the App Store and was even more blown away with what is said it could do.

Video Streaming: Watch videos from your computer, over the air, on your iPhone or iPod touch. No need to sync with iTunes or transfer files.
Live Conversion: Convert video from a non-iPhone friendly container like AVI or MKV, or codec like XviD or DivX while you're watching. No need to convert-

iPhone and iPod touch are very picky about the video formats they can play. Normally this means you need to convert the entire video before you can watch it. This can easily take an hour!

But would it live up to it?

Besides downloading the iPhone App, you'll need to download the program for your computer (for PC & Mac OS X 10.4+). Neither app/program will work without the other. The iPhone app is basically a front end (UI) to the computer program.

App Review: Notifications for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Sat, 12/05/2009 - 09:42

Notifications App Review by msbaylor. For more App Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Notifications [$2.99] for iPhone does just what the name suggests -- hooks into Apple'I've never regularly used an RSS reader, because I would add a lot of feeds, then when I'd open it, I had all these things to read and that little number badge would be in the hundreds staring at me from my springboard. I happen to be one of those people that if there's a number badge on an app, then it needs to be resolved immediately. So I deleted the app. Resolved, right?!? Not exactly what should be done...

Getting back to the app - The resolution to my issue was using the Notifications app. This allowed me to set up certain RSS feeds to be checked and Push notifications to be sent to me. Notifications doesn't only do push for RSS, but Twitter, Gmail, and if you know how to code, then these are some bits of code that you can utilize on your website. So the app applies to both beginner & advanced iPhone users.

Quick App: CraigsMobileList for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Sun, 10/25/2009 - 13:01

Recently, I have been doing some freelance job hunting and I've found CraigsMobileList [$0.99 - iTunes link] to be quite helful in sifting through the craigslist search results.

The app also allows you to bookmark searches, post ads, favorite certain results and set filters for your searches. Also, you can keep a recent city search list (helpful if you are looking state-wide results.)

If you're an "usual" on Craigslist, then this app if for you!

App Review: FoodScanner Barcode Scanner and Food Tracker for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Sun, 09/27/2009 - 13:20

FoodScanner App Review by msbaylor. For more App Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

From the creators of the Daily Burn app & Occipital's RedLaser technology comes FoodScanner [$2.99 - iTunes link]. If you have used DailyBurn before (or if you haven't you should, but it's not required to have an account to use the app), then you should know that tracking the foods you eat can become tedious at times, especially when you can't find just the right food to enter into your Food Log.

Note: Review is for version 1.0 of app.

App Review: Star Walk for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 11:03

Star Walk App Review by msbaylor. For more App Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Star Walk [$4.99 - iTunes link] is the best star-gazing application I have come across for the iPhone. Many of the features found within the application cannot be found in any others! This is one of the best developed and executed applications I have seen to hit the app store.

App Review: Groovemaker Music Creation for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 22:06

GrooveMaker Forum Review by msbaylor. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

The GrooveMaker Apps are a new way of creating great music on the go. Intermediate users of electronic music creation will find this app on top of their best music creation apps for the iPhone.

NOTE: This review is a blanket review for all the apps in the GrooveMaker series, having beta tested them all, they all operate in the same basic way (the main difference is the sound loops included in each version). Current versions include:

GrooveMaker FREE [Free - iTunes link]
GrooveMaker Club [$4.99 - iTunes link]
GrooveMaker House [$9.99 - iTunes link]
GrooveMaker Hip-Hop [$9.99 - iTunes link]

App Review: AutoStitch Panorama Maker for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Fri, 07/10/2009 - 06:49

AutoStitch Forum Review by msbaylor. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

AutoStitch is the only application in the App Store that gives the ability to stitch multiple rows of photos in any orientation in creating your panorama, meaning you don’t just get the normal one row, 360 degree view that Pano or the Panorama apps produce.

I was completely taking off guard when I found how utterly simple it was to use the application! Literally you “select & stitch” that all you do, no take one photo, stitch, take another photo, stitch, etc.

App Review: MYST for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Sun, 05/17/2009 - 20:31

MYST Forum Review by msbaylor. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Note: I did not review this quite as in-depth as I normally would as I felt that reviews regarding Myst are all over the place and I would be just be repeating what everyone else says, so I just commented on the port itself.

For those of you that do not know what Myst is, it is a port of the old Myst computer game. Myst is an adventure puzzle game in which you are attempting to find your way off the island, or rather attempt to figure out how all the things around you work.

Having played the original Myst, the iPhone version is just like it. It consists of multiple 3D still images that fade from one to another depending on the area of the screen you touch.

App Review: Convertbot Unit Converter for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 07:25

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

ConvertBot is by Tapbots - the developers of WeightBot and for those of you that love the way the application operates, this one will not let you down.

This is probably the sleekest conversion application I have seen with its cool animations and sounds. However, the only issues I ran into – it takes longer than I thought the program should take to load. At first I believed that it was the app itself checking an Internet connection to update the currency conversions, but when I put my iPhone in Airplane mode, it took just as long. But it is a good thing to note that even though the currencies could not update, the program is still usable.

App Review: ReaddleDocs for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Sun, 04/12/2009 - 14:44

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

ReaddleDocs is a document viewer that basically covers all the ways of getting the document onto you iPhone – so there is no way that you cannot have your documents on hand.

When you purchase ReaddleDocs, you also receive 512MB of storage space on their server. This allows you to upload any documents to the server via any browser and then sync them with you iPhone via any data connection (EDGE/3G/WIFI).

When you tap on the “Online” tab, you select the server you want to connect to and then you have the ability to sync with the server so that any new documents that you have retrieved via the iPhone will backup to your server and vice versa.

Besides using your Readdle Storage space, you can also connect to your MobileMe iDisk or connect to a WebDAV enabled server.

App Review: Vine2Wine for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Sat, 04/04/2009 - 18:12

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.

Forum Review: Meditate Now 2 for iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Sat, 03/21/2009 - 19:22

Meditate Now 2 Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Meditate Now 2 is an application that contains a series of audio clips that capable of helping you alleviate stress and allow you to relax. The audio is narrated by Stin Hansen, whom is an extremely experienced speaker and an award wining meditation expert. Her voice is absolutely perfect for this type of application. Most of audios range from about nine minutes long to about 15 minutes long (with two exceptions being at three & five minutes)

Forum Review: Illuminations for the iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Sun, 01/25/2009 - 09:32

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

Illuminations is developed by Killer Robots and is an interesting shoot-em-up type game. It is based around the idea of a firework show. You have to shoot rockets that come up from the bottom of the screen in order to make them explode, if you miss too many, then the show is over for you. You also might find enemies that might spawn at random to keep you from “giving a good show,” these also must be eliminated (and added to the show).

Forum Review: Bugz for the iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 08:00

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

Bugz has to be one of the most entertaining games I’ve played (and really the only one I’ve completed all the levels on).

Forum Review: Wanted for the iPhone

Submitted by Matt Sawyers on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 16:00

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

Wanted is a simple picture editing application that turns a picture of a person into a wanted poster. The poster can then be printed out onto a piece of paper for the office. Don’t worry the output file is much larger than a normal iPhone picture.

The app begins with a menu and “wild-west” type music. You have the option to turn the music on and off as you wish. I found listening to the music relevant to the app, but turned it off after awhile.