Pros:
-Easy to use
-Quickly scan barcodes
-Ridiculously accurate
-Find “local results” for a product
-Detailed search results
-Reviews from http://alaTest.com
-Food allergen info (if scanning foods)

Cons:
-Mobile websites do not format correctly (e.g. Amazon)

I have found this nifty application very handy when it comes to buying gifts or just comparing products.

The application, when it starts up will display all your previously scanned entries.

If you tap on the lightning bolt icon at the bottom, it will start of your camera and will have a noticeable  set of brackets in the center to align the barcode. The brackets turn green (like in the first photo) when it recognizes a barcode & then will make a “ping” sound and automatically load information/prices about the product from Google & The Find as well as any local results it might find in your area. Another nice ‘local’ thing when scanning books is it can see if your local Library has it is well.

If you are in a hurry and you want to scan multiple barcodes and then just see the results later, there is a way of doing it. When you load up the scanner, there is a small “switch” in the bottom-right-hand corner. Switching it to “multiple” will allow multiple barcode scans without returning to the results page after each single scan. Tap on “done button to view all the scans your just made & tap each barcodeo load the results.

Looking back at the “home” view – you scan history, you have the ability to star certain results, delete results, mass delete & even email the list along with a .txt file of just the bar code numbers. This export feature is great if you have another software program that can use this file.

Just in case you cannot scan the barcode, then there is always entering the barcode number directly.I’ve found that the scanner doesn’t do very well on very small barcodes, so entering manually is the way to go.

Before the 2.7 Update, I found that if you scanned a barcode that was not found, the you were out of luck. However, now it seems that you can add a photo to the barcode to their global database for the company to check and see if they can match the product with the barcode.

Overall:

I find this application very easy to use and quite nice to have along for the holiday shopping season. The only thing I really would like to see – Amazon.com loading in mobile form. I believe they actually had this at one point, but it no longer works. If you scroll through the results, you might find Amazon.com in the results & view the web page, but it won’t be iPhone formatted The price listing are quite nice especially when comparing products. The new addition of adding photos of the product  with an unknown barcode, product reviews, food allergen look up & the local library’ search really make this app a bang for your buck… erm…. 2 bangs for two bucks If you are a bargain hunter, this is definitely an app for you.

4.5/5

$1.99

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Pros:

-Works with 25+ services
-Each services are colored for easy viewing
-Large font of “days remaining”
-Quickly view details about your package
-View map location of your package
-Rename packages for easy viewing
-Sync packages with server

Cons:

-No “easy way” of getting push notifications
-2-button press to add new (one less button tap would be better).

$2.99
4.2/5

Delivery Status touch, a package tracker is a pretty cool application. The ability to track all your packages in transit is quite nice, rather than having to go from one app (UPS) to check one package then switching to the another app (FedEx) to check another package.

Adding packages to your track-list is quite easy to do. You will have to tap the “edit” button in order to make the “+” appear so that you can add a new package. I can’t say that I am a big fan of having to tap on the edit button to add a package, having the “+” sign in addition to the other buttons would be nice.

In adding the new package to your list, just add the service, a name you want to call it, and its tracking number. The add-screen also has a “history” item list if you want to choose from it; however, I am unsure as to why its there. I figure once you track a package, that’s it. There nothing more to track. I may be wrong here, but it seems a little redundant.

There are a significant number of services to choose from, even international services are trackable. The following is a list of supported services as pulled from their website:

Writing Toolkit is an app that helps aspiring writers organize their ideas, helps spark new ones, and gives the user the ability to explore different types of plots and settings, as well reminds us all about simple and complex English terms used for writing.

I was a bit skeptical of this one at first, but it caught my eye because I write short stories, and am always looking for a way to help organize my ideas better.  And to my surprise, this app works for people on all levels of writing, and could actually help kids in their writing for classes.

Sometimes I have trouble thinking of scenarios for my stories; this app has a scenario helper, as well as a button for places, and can give you interesting random, albeit sometimes strange, scenarios.  Or you can write your own and save them as ideas for later.

Do you have difficulties thinking up names and occupations for your characters?  This app has the option to help generate random names, as well as let you create your own and start a character list complete with a small ‘roll’ or bio area.

There’s also a note area for when you’re out and about, away from your computer, where you can title and write ideas for your story and save them for later.

Do you have trouble with big flowery descriptive words?  The dialogue button gives you quite a few words with a ‘normal, loud, questioning, or soft’ description.  My only problem here is that there isn’t a short dictionary meaning for these words, so if you aren’t a walking dictionary, you may have some trouble knowing what some of them mean.  There’s also a list of prepositions for all of you non-English majors out there, you may have problems remembering what in the heck prepositions are for, or why you even need to know what they are for that matter.  Just remember the rule, don’t end your sentences in a preposition!!

If you’ve completely forgotten English terms and punctuation, the Toolkit has buttons to lists that describe all the various mysteries of things like commas and adverbs.  “I like the definitions, they’re lovely.”  Can you pick out the comma and the adverb?

The average iPhone user probably has little use for an app such as this, but for all the help it can give a struggling student, or an author with writers block, this app does wonders.  I can even listen to my playlist while in the app.  Which means I can write, listen to my favorite music, and look up what a participle is all at the same time.  Sounds like a typical night for a student to me.

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Pros:
-Unlimited sources to be checked (as many RSS feeds as you want etc.)
-Notification response time is very reasonable.
-100 free notifications (before “unlocking” the application)

Cons:
-App navigation could be better
-Notifications appear in app all bunched up, no way to mark as read.
-Must edit settings in a browser. (opens op Safari.app)
-No RSS feed search

FREE

[iTunes Link]

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.

The app itself is quite simple. The main page consists of all the notifications you have received to date & the settings page, which allows you to check latency, to test sending push notifications to yourself and to show you which services you have enabled.

My main issue with this app was determining how to enter my feeds & Twitter searches so that it would send me the notifications. I ended up doing a Google search for the company and finding a login page (that I first registered for) and logged in to be able to edit my notifications.
I really don’t understand why they couldn’t add a button in the settings pane that opens up an IN-APP BROWSER! Mind you, the website is mobile formatted; however, the blanks you type into are not, so it is a bit catty-whompus.

Right now I have about some 30 feeds that Notifications checks for me and one Twitter search. While their website states that the notification come instantly, I noticed that it can take from instantly to 15 minutes before you receive notification. A nice little feature I noticed on the web was the ability to open up a pre-selected iPhone Twitter app when you received a Twitter notification.

Overall, the service is great. If you are looking for a solid RSS application with PUSH, then this is NOT the app for you. If you don’t care much about the app itself & its UI, then you should be just fine purchasing this app. The one main thing I’d really like to see improved is the app itself – to have the capability to marked notifications as read or unread & the ability to sort into categories would be an added bonus.

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Cons:
-Remote server can be tricky to set up as Port forwarding doesn’t work on all networks
-Smaller, less resourceful computers, will not be able to run the software.

Again setting up the iPhone local and Internet connection are easy to setup. At one point I had an issue where I couldn’t get one of the servers to show up under local network & I had to enter my IP manually to get it to work.

The flow of the program is easy to navigate – you have your servers, then your file listings. You also have the option to set a password for your server to keep other out.

It seemed no matter what type of file I had, I was always able to see a screenshot next to the name whether it was converted or not.

In viewing details about the video, if it’s not in iPhone readable format, the app can either convert it for you (you can go about other things & come back to it later) or you can use the “LIVE conversion.”

When the videos convert, you’ll be left with a duplicate video file on your computer – the converted file, which is nonce to keep around other than being capable of streaming the video. Another thing you can do is add the video to iTunes and even to an optional playlist.

One of the things that really caught me by surprise was the extensive compression & ratio settings. You can even create multiple presets (ones for Edge & 3G connections) and set a default preset.

I never had an issue once I figured out the right conversion I wanted to use (the medium default preset worked out well for me to start with). I even made different conversion presets depending on what type of connection I thought I’d have.

Lastly, that other thing that caught me off guard was that the app has the ability to stream files remotely (via 3G/Edge) rather than just your local Wifi. Imagine instead of waiting tediously for a video to download from the Internet, you can leave your computer, check you iPhone, convert it and view it on-the-go!

Overall, this is absolutely an amazing concept & app, I surprised Apple/AT&T didn’t block this one. On a side note, I’d have to say – if you need a video converter & you “happen” to have an iPod touch or iPhone, for 3 bucks to have a well created video converter is a steal!

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Pros:
- Accurate
- 6 calculations/ readings
- Nice graphical battery meter

Cons:
- One battery color.
- No UI options

4/5

myBatteryLife does exactly what it says it does- tells you your iPhone battery life based on your hardware. MyBatteryLife, I believe, is the simplest application I have seen. The app displays multiple calculations regarding your battery – Remaining Talk Time, Internet on 3G, Internet on Wi-Fi, video playback, and audio playback.

The application also has a cool looking graphical battery meter that makes it easy to quickly reference. The calculations are large enough to see easily.

My main complaints are the fact that there isn’t any sort of options in charging the color of the battery. I’d also like to see multiple graphical meters that you can choose from. Also for the battery that is there, as it depletes it would be nice to have the color charge (eg. Battery at 20% – battery color is red, at 10% it blinks, etc.)

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Cons:
-Not a very appealing wallpaper is created
-No wallpaper editor
-Error issue in form (see below to get around it)

This App has two rankings:

For concept & service:

5/5

For app execution:

3/5

The best way to not lose you iPhone, is to not misplace it… That being said, (and not very well,) what happens when you lose your iPhone? Is it gone forever? Did you leave your name & number on the screen for someone to contact you? Why should they return it?

These questions have probably crossed your mind at one point or another. Well I have found a possible solution. This past week the developers of the Lost Phone Recovery App (Rewarding Return LLC) contacted me notifying me of their new iPhone application.

First, let me go into what their service does. They help you get your iPhone back to you in the event someone finds your lost iPhone. Basically the screen shot above is self explanatory, but I’ll go into it none-the-less.

The app generates a code specifically for only your iPhone. The code is then inserted into an iPhone Wallpaper like the one above. You then set the photo (saved to your photo reel) as your wallpaper.

The Finder contacts Rewarding Return via the website on the wallpaper or the toll free number. Rewarding Return then has the item shipped to them for verification. They then ship the item back to you, and your reward to the finder. (Yes, I said reward. I’ll explain later.) Rewarding Return pays for all the shipping costs and makes all the arrangements. So yes you saw the “Reward” part…. The thing is why would anyone want to return you iPhone? Keywords: “REWARD IF FOUND.” They say you should still a minimum of $20 as the reward, I did $30.

Now let’s return back to the app itself. Now, the application itself is mainly for registration, creating your ID number & creating a background.

When you open the app, you have the option to Register of Login:

When you register, it’s very simple, basically just complete the form & submit (you’ll also choose a pin number to login with within the application):

If you go to login, simply type in the pin you registered and you can choose the update your info and/or download you wallpaper again.

Issues with app:
The only real issue I encountered, was when I was entering my address into the field & I tapped on submit, it told me to make sure all fields were filled. I noticed that the Address line 2 was blank, I don’t have info for that line, so I just added a ” ” (space) and the form submitted.

Another thing I ran into, not really an issue, but rather a lack of a feature. When you background is created it looks likes the first screen shot above – not really appealing & individualistic, so it would be nice if the information was an overlay for a picture that you could import. In other words – a wallpaper editor would be nice to have.

I ended up sending my wallpaper to GIMP and editing it into a background (I’ve included how to do this after the review). So if you know photoshop or how to use GIMP, then with a bit of cutting & pasting you can have your wallpaper good to go! Here’s the one I did:

If you don’t know how to use a photo editor or don’t really wasn’t to deal with all that, then, when setting the wallpaper as you background you have the ability to reposition the wallpaper. I dragged mine down, so that the info was toward the bottom rather than in the center of the screen, like so:

Overall:
I think this is a great idea, and for only $7, it can’t be beat. Yes, there are other applications that can actually locate your iPhone, but how are you going to get it back? Also another thing I’d like to note – it would be nice if they could assign you an actual sticker as well (after all they do sell them), so that you could stick it to the back of you iPhone, since knowing me, by the time someone finds it, the battery might be dead… But I do recommend this application for anyone looking for a “little more protection.” [$6.99 - iTunes link]

Creating your customized background:

1. Export the wallpaper with the code on it to your computer along with any photo you wish to use as the background. I just used a photo I had taken with the iPhone camera as my background. I used GIMP, so directions will be that way.
2. I opened up the ID photo and cropped it down to just the badge info, I then re-sized the image to 350×115. I then used the paint tool to paint the rounded corners to “square-corners”
3. For my final background, I used a canvas size of 400×533, I then copy & pasted the badge into the main image. I positioned it approximately 107 pixels from the bottom and 24 pixels from the left & right sides of the canvas. The space on either side will likely be cropped once it is set as your wallpaper. And the space at the bottom is for the slide-to-unlock bar.

If you have any questions, sound off in the comments.

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Pros:
-Multiple backgrounds
-Add photo as background
-Numerous “stickies,” “miscellaneous objects,” & “Comic Bubbles” to choose from.
-Multiple colors, sizes, and fonts for text.

Cons:
-Cannot re-size stickies
-Cannot add a photo as a “sticky”
-No script-style fonts
-When “flipping” through each sticky, it slides from one to the other a little slow.
-Cannot save sessions.

3.7/5

Stick It is probably the best “Sticky” application I have seen for the iPhone. I initially cringed at the thought of doing a review for a “Stickies” application, as many of them are CrApp, but this one sticks-out way ahead of the competition (pun intended.)

When I first began the application, a bubble in the upper-left corner told me to add a new note by tapping on the “+”. I thought  – this was a nice addition to help the user to get started. In the “add new sticky” screen, you have three categories to choose from – Notes, Comic, & Misc.

You can flip through the notes by doing the flipping motion with your finger as if you were viewing photos. You then double tap on the image to use it. I found this a bit on the slow side as I wanted to quickly get to one of the stickies at the very end. A tiling view option would have been nice, tap to enlarge & double tap to use.

The blank note will then be placed. You can tap on and drag it into the place you want. You can tap on the round blue Icon to edit the text in the note or tap the red circle (X) to delete the note.

When editing the text, you’ll notice that you can change the font & size;

the color; and of course the keyboard. The one thing I felt that was missing in the editor were fonts that were themed with the notes. For instance, for the worn looking note – it would be nice to have a “handwritten” or “script” font.

Another nice feature – is the ability to customize he background. You can use a photo, a solid color, or one of the built in backgrounds (a fair number to choose from).

When you are all done and satisfied with your layout, you can tap Preview to see how it will look.

And then you can export the photo to you photo reel.

Overall I really liked taking this application for a spin. Like I said before, this is one of the better Sticky apps that I have seen. While yes, is does have some issues, the app show promise and offers a nice interface to work with. Another thing I’d like to not and it initially confused me – when viewing a preview of your background, you actually have to tap on the slide bar to exit the preview. I think it would be better if it was just a single tap anywhere on the screen & not have the animation either. Overall very well done.

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Cons:
-Takes quite long to update currencies at app start up (quicker in airplane mode, due to currencies not updating)
-“Wheel” ‘clicks’ into place rather than smoothly rolling.

4.5/5

$0.99

Overall:
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.

The sleek interface is what really makes this app so nice. This has to be the coolest working Conversion app for the iPhone. The “wheel” that takes up the main part of the screen can be rotated to set the conversion type:

• Angles: Degree, Radian, & Grad
• Area: Square Meter, Square Centimeter, Square Millimeter, Square Mile, Acre, Square Kilometer, Square Yard, Square Foot, Square Inch
• Currency: Australian Dollar, Brazilian Real, Canadian Dollar, Swiss Franc, Danish Krone, Euro, Pound Sterling (UK), Japanese Yen, Mexican Peso, Swedish Krona, US Dollar
• Length: Foot, Meter, Inch, Centimeter, Mile, Kilometer, Nautical Mile, Yard, Millimeter, Foot+Inch
• Mass: Milligram, Kilogram, Pound, Ounce, Gram, Stone, Stone+Pound, Metric Ton, Pound+Ounce
• Power: Watt, Horsepower, Kilowatt, BTU/Minute, Foot-Pound/Minute, Foot-Pound/Second
• Pressure: Pound/Square Inch, Centimeters of Mercury, Inches of Mercury, Kilogram/Square Meter, Pascal, Atmospheres, Bars, Pounds/Square Foot
• Speed: Miles/Hour, Kilometers/Hour, Knots, Miles/Second, Miles/Minute, Feet/Minute, Feet/Second, Kilometers/Minutes
• Temperature: Celsius, Kelvin, Fahrenheit
• Time: Second, Millisecond, Microsecond, Nanoseconds, Year, Week, Day, Hour, Minute, Hour + Minute
• Volume: Cup, Teaspoon, Tablespoon, Cubic Feet, Gallon (UK), Quart, Pint, Ounce, Cubic Meter, Gallon (US), Liter, Milliliter, Cubic Centimeter
• Work (Energy): Kilogram Calorie, Foot Pound, Newton Meter, Joule, BTU, Erg, Watt Hour, Calorie
• And more…

Once you have rotated the wheel to the type/category, then you tap on the bottom left button and you use the “wheel” to select the specific conversion unit, take the center blue button, “ok” and it locks that unit in. This unit is the unit you are converting from. The other black button is the unit you want to convert to. You repeat the same process of locking in the unit.

By tapping on the top “number screen,” this opens up a keypad so that you can type in the amount you are converting from. The application has a live update, in which the app auto converts as you type the number into the app. Tapping on the “number screen” again brings back the conversion “wheel”

You can tap on the center wheel to switch the units if you need to.

By tapping on the “i” icon you can view the Settings which allows you to turn the sound on or off as well as the choice of viewing the Demo (which is quite a nice feature in the app).

Issues:
-Would like to have the “wheel” spin more smoothly, rather than “clicking” into place.
-Not as common currencies are not available in the app. (exe.: Argentinian Pesos or Chilean Peso)

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Pros:
-Easy & Simple UI
-Up to 3 lines of information
-Colors of text & bar blend in with standard iPhone theme.
-Choose whether your info is at the top of bottom.
-Ability to customize font color of size

Cons:
-Horizontal photos are cropped and stretched

4.6/5

Overall:
I think this is a handy application to have. I’d really like to see the ability to choose whether you would like to crop horizontal photos or have them centered. I can see this application staying on my iPhone for a little while, then being deleted, only to be resurrected when I want to change my wallpaper.

The application itself is very simple.

When you first starts the app, you enter your contact info (Name, Phone, & e-mail). While it asks you for these things, I suppose you could enter any information you wanted to in the blanks. However, the first line will be a little bigger than the rest of the text. The color and the font of the text can be changed later.

This screen will not appear again, unless you tap the edit button within the app.

In the main part of the app, you select a picture from your photo roll (or take one with your camera). Then you select whether you want your info to appear just below the time (Top) or right above the slide-to-unlock button (bottom.) Next you can set the size of the font and the type of font.
You also have the ability to change the color for each line of information. To view all the different colors, merely scroll through them like you would with your contacts. Then you can either preview your image or save your wallpaper. Photos are saved to the camera roll. The app also provides instructions on how to set your wallpaper in case you’re unsure on how to.

That’s it! That’s all that is to it. It’s a very simple app and very
easy to use.

Issues:
The app stretches, centers, & crops horizontal photos to the screen rather than centering them, like they appear in the camera roll

NOTE: You might notice that I have icons in-line with my text on my wallpaper. I used the emoticons-keyboard to get these.

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You can view applications by release date/new (paid or free); price changes; Updated apps, or you can view apps by category (via new-free, new-paid, price change, or Update)

*Note: I feel that I need to say this as I noticed numerous low ranking in the AppStore. Many people might find this application much like AppSniper, while it’s not my goal in this review to compare the applications, I do feel that each app has it’s pros and cons and that one app might fit some, while the other might fit another audience.

The application may take anywhere between 5-10 seconds to load depending on your connection. Te app will automatically open on the “What’s New” Tab. If you select the option to pick between paid or free in any of the tabs you might see red images with question marks appear. These mean that the image is still loading or there was an error in loading the thumbnail.

I really enjoyed the layout of the list of application. In he default view, it lists the app badge icon, the title, its category and price.
Under the price changes tab, you don’t have the category in the list view, but you do have the price change – exe. $3.99 -> $4.99 . You also have an image that can easily be identifiable by the the color correlating to the price change – red = price increase & green = price decrease. You also have the percentage of change.
Under the Update tab, the listing view looks much like the “What’s New” Tab
The “Categories” tab lists all the different categories, upon tapping on the category, you’ll have the list for that category and 4 sorting option (listed above).

Layout in viewing an Application’s details:
Tapping on an app in the list view will display the details for the application. It was take anywhere from 5 seconds to 10 seconds to load the details depending on your data connection. This layout is what really make this application differ from AppSniper.

You have details, and screenshots. The details page is basically split up into 3 parts – part one is the header which includes the thumbnail, the title, the category, price, developer, release date, size, and version, and compatibility. The second part has the details. Now the details section is a bit odd to me as it is like it’s own screen within a screen, in which it has it’s own scroll bar.

Part 3 are in-line thumbnails which is a nice addition. I don’t like having to hit another button just to wait for the screen shots to load (such as in AppSniper,) I personally like AppShopping more so than any other application due to the information it has in-line.

Issues:
When tapping on the category, the category does not always highlight and therefore, it is hard to discern whether on not the category is loading. Also after the category list loads and you tap on another filter, the thumbnails do not load. However there seems to be a work around (but there really shouldn’t be) if you scroll through the list, the images suddenly seem to load. Another thing I noticed was that in the app details view, the description is a bit odd to view and can be hard to navigate past the description. I’d like to have all the text in-line with everything else, not just in it’s own little “box.”

Overall:
I like where this application is going and I really prefer it over AppSniper as I don’t do much snipping but mainly to see what’s new in the AppStore. I would like the see a Watch List/Favorites List of something of the like. I think this application has several filters and lists to satisfy any new-app-craving (or older apps too) person.

Pros:
-Numerous lists and filters to choose from
-In-line picture viewing

Cons:
-No search function
-No wish list (favorites)
-Details scroll area is awkward
-Hard to scroll past details
-Details text is a little small

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