1st Impressions

Other than the background graphic, these two apps are virtually identical. Enter the baby name and due date, or the couple name and wedding date (and hopefully those dates are not the same), and it does a countdown for you. These are pretty significant and are difficult to forget, but I guess the countdown could be usefull if neither you or your partner were keeping track in your head. For me though, the app was too focused on a single event. I would have preferred a single app that kept track of birth dates, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and other events with appropriate backgrounds or user selected photos and titles. The ability to use the next event as your wallpaper would be a nice addition as well.

If you ever wished you could play “Dear Abby” or wanted answers to critical problems from total strangers with unknown worldviews, then this app is for you. It wasn’t really my cup of tea. Based on a lot if the questions asked, the app seems to have a concentration of young users. Not really the pool of wisdom that I would normally turn to if I needed advice. On the other hand, maybe some adult advice to questions like the example I posted might just help. I would suggest the ability to request advice from specified genders and age brackets might make it a but more relevent. I already know what people me think. Being able to specify a target group to get advice from would give this app much more power.

As much as I like the app, Religion is a case of a party that just doesn’t quite get started. It is basically a religion oriented chat room. It is wonderfully executed, but without a lot of activity, it has limited use. It’s a shame really. I’ll pass for now, but will likely revisit this app later to see if it has more interaction.

Tripulator is a budget tracking tool. Think of it as an electronic version of an envelope system as endorsed by folks like Dave Ramsey. Within a “billfold” or “envelope”, you can set up an opening balance/budget, and individual expenses that deduct from that. Amount remaining is calculated for you.

I think the application could add some things that would make it much better though. My suggestions would be to default entries to two decimals, display of a grand total of budget and remaining funds, ability to transfer between “envelopes”, reocurring transactions, and an optional password for the privicy conscious. It’s perfectly usable as it is though, and I plan on using it on a trip next week after clearing out the dummy data I entered for testing purposes. I look forward to seeing how this app develops.

This is the perfect tool for the couch potato. You will never need to wade through pages of the guide in order to find the next new episode of your favorite show only to loose it in all the details. This app not only shows you what and when, but also all the details of the episode. I am not sure where the app gets it’s data, but I will enjoy it as long as it lasts.

This is one cool app. It’s basically a multi-layered multi-color digital spirograph. Everything from the width of the pen to the number of loops can be configured by increasing or decreasing the shown value by tapping the left or right side of the screen. When you get a design you like, you can save it to the background and add something new on top if it.

There is a free version you can play with, or a Pro version available for $1.99. It adds a lot of additional functionality like ability to save your designs so you can share them our use them as wallpaper. For some examples of what this app can do, check out the Trochoid Pro Gallery.

If you like math, fractals, or any kind of computer generated art, check out this really cool app. It’s a keeper.

I’ve had PDA’s since the very first 500k US Robotics “Pilot”…even before the became “Palm Pilots”.  One of the first applications I look for on a PDA is a nice Bible program.  Depending on the platform I was on, I usually ended up using BibleReader from OliveTree or MyBible from Laridian.  For the iPhone though, there is really no contest.  BibleReader is the only way to go.

BibleReader is a free download from the iTunes store, or you can purchase it with a favorite translation.  The free version comes with two of the free translations.  It has several Bibles available for free on their web site (over 25)…along with a huge library of devotionals, commentaries, cross-references, Christian e-books, and so forth.  Other translations and books come at a cost, usually in the $15-$25 range depending on the size and liscensing involved.  Once purchased online, the iPhone app “syncs” with your purchased library and downloads the purchased books (or any of the 80+ free ones) directly to your device.  OliveTree has over 250 total iPhone resources available.  No monthly subscriptions.  No need to find a wi-fi or 3G signal in your church.  It’s all on the handheld once it is downloaded.  And navigation could not be simpler.  Tap “verse”, the book, the chapter, and the verse.  Four taps and you are there.

BibleReader has bookmarks, word search, and a history pane of what all verses you’ve visited in which translations.  Future versions will include verse highlighting and personal notes.  The most recent version added the ability to open two books in a split screen.  For example, you can have the ESV Study Bible in one pane, while the other holds the NASB with Strong’s numbers and popups to the Hebrew and Greek words and their definitions.  In other words, the study notes are not tied to the translation it came with.  Here is a short video that gives you a little flavor of what I’m talking about with study notes and split screen.  In case you haven’t guessed yet, this one makes my Must Have list.

This app is a very feature-rich and complex budget and expense tracking program. If you are looking for a simple checkbook, this isn’t it. It tracks transactions in cash accounts as well as assets and liabilities with support for multiple currencies. Detailed reports and graphs are also available. My personal finances are too simple to justify this $10 app, but it has great reviews on iTunes and you would be hard pressed to find a more complete financial app. While I may end up using something simpler, I am at least going to go through the training profile tutorial to see if I can make it work. I really do like the graphs and recommend this app to anyone interested in knowing everything about their finances and financial worth.

Special thanks to Jerad and The App Podcast for the promo code for this app.

RemindMe is a cool little utility that creates wallpaper for your lock screen with reminders on them. As I use IntelliScreen, this app provides limited benefit for me. If you don’t jailbreak your phone though, it could be of some use to you. The text is customizable, and so is the color of the note and theme in the background. It does a good job of what it does, but I would think it would be a better value at $0.99 instead of the current $1.99.

Special thanks to Jerad and The App Podcast for the promo code for this app.

This $10 app is probably great for musicians, but a waste of memory for anyone else. It has a few instrumental songs and let’s you mix the volume of different instruments so that you van play along with your own. It does a good job at what it does, but I see limited demand for it. If you are a musician, I would highly recommend trying the free lite version first. If not, you are probably better of checking out some of this developers other apps (like Conumdrum).

Special thanks to Jerad and The App Podcast for the promo code for this app.