1st Impressions

Allergies is a $1.99 app in the iTunes store that is a must-have for those of us that suffer from things like the pollen season that can be measured in inches here in Atlanta.  If you and the term “outdoor” are not a good mix, then this is the app for you.  It downloads daily levels from the internet (specifically AccuWeather.com) that shows the levels of pollution, mold, weed, grass, and tree pollen in the air.  Daily reports of these conditions can also be emailed to your inbox each day.

As useful as this application is, I would really like to be able to touch each measured category and have it show the actual level (like pollen count) for the day as well as a graph of what it has been like over the last week and/or month.  Here in Atlanta, a “high” level is a very relative thing.  Anything over a count of 120 is considered “extremely high”.  Yet there are times each year when we exceed 2,500 to 3,000.  So being able to track this at a deeper level of detail would be great.

Overall though, this app provides a nice “misery index” for those suffering from allergies.  It gets a thumbs-up.

Quick News is my new Must-Have $0.99 application. It is a basic interface to ten mobile-friendly national news sites. A default can be chosen, and selections can be made from TV networks, cable news networks, national newspapers, and news services. A little bit for everyone.

I have one suggestion that would make this app perfect. I would love for it to use your local location and include the closest local stations in the mix as well. I prefer to get my local news from local sources. One other thing they could add is links to audio versions of some of these sources.

Even without these wish list items, it is a great and simple app that will stay on my iPhone for some time to come.

Lifecasting is the new name for a really cool app formerly called FunSlides. In fact, the app icon and main scren still use that name. If you like to share photos, this app has a feature set that you are definately going to want to check out. What it does is allow you to create stand-alone slide shows with optional narration from either stored photos or your iPhone camera. The standard mp4 format file can then be viewed on your iPhone, emailed, copied to your computer via wifi, and even uploaded directly to YouTube. Lifecasting offers a lot of functionality for a small $0.99 price. An excelent bargain.

If the iPhone is not your first trip around the PDA block, you need no intruduction to QuickOffice. And the version for the iPhone does not disappoint. It lives up to every expectation. The ability to have Word documents and Excel spreadsheets on the iPhone is great. I uploaded a 60-page document and a 1MB spreadsheet with thousands of formulas in it, and it handled it with no problem.

While it doesn’t natively sync to your documents folder, there is a really slick web browser interface for uploading and downloading files over Wi-Fi. You can also email local or remote files, drag and drop files to your iPhone as a mounted drive, and access what you have on MobileMe.

I’ve only scratched the surface of what this app will do. It is a $20 app and I recommend a visit to the QuickOffice.com web site for all the details.

Pro Camera has been a review that was a long time in coming.  But, as they say, good things come to those that wait.  In short, this app is a Must-Have if you use your iPhone camera much.  Like other of my Must Have apps, this is how Apple SHOULD have done it.

Pro Camera has some awesome features.  First, it cleans up your memory to speed up performance if you are running low on memory.  Once the application starts, the first thing you notice is the “level” indicator in the middle of the screen that uses the tilt sensor of the iPhone to show you when your shot is lined up level.  Can’t tell you how many recent vacation photos had to be edited because my other digital camera (definitely not the photographer!) took crooked photos.  Pro Camera fixes that problem.

You can quickly take a photo by tapping anywhere on the screen.  Once taken, a preview is shown and you can choose to save it or discard it.  If you choose to save it, it becomes a background process and you can continue to take another photo.   If that were not all, it also has an image stabilazation feature.  Touch that icon and as soon as your iPhone’s accelerometer shows no movement, it snaps the photo.  The included self-portrait mode lets you get into the photo as well.

All in all, it is a wonderful app.  Definitely worth the $2.99 price tag considering all it does.

Actions is more than a To-Do list. It is a task manager. And it is EXCELLENT! Not only can tasks (or “actions”) be assigned to project lists, but you can also them to a “context”. The context can be a location or something else. And, as you would expect in a quality app of this type, start dates and due dates for each action can me set. Basically you get a lot of the power of a project management system without the confusing complexity.

Actions also adds a goal of creating a “chain” by linking each day in which you complete a task. This graphical reminder, along with the numerical icon indicator of due tasks, really helps with the procrastination issue. Not only does this $9.99 app make it to my Must Have category, but it also gets moved to my main screen.

My recommendations are few. I’d love the ability to trigger an action context based on GPS location or wi-fi connection. Ability to prioritize actions and link an action to a contact would be nice additions as well. Finally, it would be nice to be able to sync the actions to a desktop and/or online version. But don’t let the “could be better” suggestions distract from the fact that it is a wonderful and fully functional app right now. I’m just excited about where this app may head in future versions.

iRealSMS is what Apple should have included in the iPhone to begin with. When you get a text message, it pops up and allows you to respond without leaving your current application. If you need to contact someone while you are playing a game or something, you can’t launch the app with the volume up button. It searches your contacts as you start typing their name. Once you select one, you can choose to either send them a message or call them. It even counts down your remaining characters as you type out a message.

iRealSMS has its own message database that allows for searches and storage of messages in folders (including drafts and templates) as well as landscape mode. It also allows you to save a sender to your contacts. You can also select to use the default Apple app for messages if you prefer. An unread message count can be displayed in the status bar as well as the app icon. If you don’t need all the features of iRealSMS, there us a iRealQuickSMS version that just contains the QuickSend and QuickReply features. I’ve used both and believe both belong in the Must Have category. If I had one suggestion, it would be to add the character count to the QuickReply box like it is on the QuickSend box. I believe that to be scheduled in the next release though.

Both iRealSMS and iRealQuickSMS require a jailbroken phone. They are 9.99€ and 3.99€ respectively and are available via Cydia. The program also work in a demo mode. A full feature list and community forum can be found at irealsms.com.

This program does a great job of tracking illnesses and doctor visits for the specified person. You can enter pain level and temp for each day, but in this world of micro-managed medicice, I am not sure if this is frequent enough. And while there is a note field for each day, I think it really needs more when it comes to the patients overall medical condition prior to the current illness and how the curremt illness is impacting that. In other words, I see limited benefit for those with complex medical issues. I guess to me it send like overkill for those with rare things to track, but not complex enough for those documenting lots of issues that impact each other. It’s a great first start for those needing more complex medical event documentation though.

Like the cruise app I just reviewed, this app finds some of the cheapest airline fairs from your local aiport to different areas of the world. If you choose a port city, it would be nice to incorporate that in with cruise availability as well. Overall though, the app does a great job at what it does. Perhaps they could do something similar showing open seats on planes for those that travel stand-by and/or work for the airlines.

This app is perfect for finding the great cruise vacation at a great price. Tell it your party info, date of vacation, desired ports of call, days at sea, and so forth and it finds all the best deals from you. Adding in the functionality of acsuster app that does cheap airline tickets from your designatedvairpirt and you’d be all set. As you can see with thevexamples I posted, it wouldvtakeva lotmore rrffott to come to these fimdgs
Online without a lot of on-hold time with an agent whould findbyou the safe fairs. The nenefitbi see to this app isvrhat youncam call the travel agent and spend a lotbless time on them. I would love the ability to compare particular findings and have that sent by email. Overall though, the app does a very google job at delivering just what it promises