1st Impressions

Suppose you threw a party and no one came. That’s my first impression of this free app. A social network only works if there are a lot of people on it. The fact that I was able to register with the login of my fairly common first name should have been a clue. Even if there were folks near me, the app seemed geared towards singles and “hooking up”. There wasn’t even a “married” option under marital status. I put this app in the dud category.

I love fractals. It is a hobby of mine. You can see some if my stuff at www.bit.ly/dag. iFractal satisfies that itch on the iPhone. There are competing apps out there, but none are better. The app has a very nice feature that allows you to not only share your art with friends, butvwith the “world”…every other app user. You can also download the ones that they have shared and exlore that particular location, zoom level, color palette, and so forth. You can modify these however you wish and share your image back to the repository. This app probably isn’t for everyone, but if you are artistic, you should try out this free app.

I took a $1 risk on this app because of the genre selection, and wish I hadn’t. I was excited to see the CMRadio feeds, but each told me that the feed was no longer playing. The local Atlanta weather broadcast was unable to connect. Another station I tried played a Live365 error. Local 911 only produced static, as if it were encrypted. Atlanta ATC did work, but I’m not going to listen to airplane radio for any more than just the novelty factor. Save your money. This one is a dud.

Ambiance is one if a number of applications that try to help you to sleep or concentrate by playing soothing sound loops. I have tried all the free ones and a couple of the other paid ones and the only one left on my iPhone is Ambiance. It is currently missing a couple of features that I enjoyed in Easy Relax Ultimate, but it has some unique features that make the switch worth it…and based on the attention of the developer to suggestions, I have a feeling that anything “missing” is just temporary.

This is probably going to be the longest review on this site, but the reasons to use this app over something similar need some discussion.

First, it comes with no built-in sounds, but access to a repository of hundreds (and growing) free sounds that you can browse, preview, and download. This means that you are not taking up your memory with sounds that you don’t like. And if you like a sound that you can’t find in the repository, the developer will add it for you. All you have to do is ask Future versions may even include an upload option.

Second, the app is available in multiple flavors. Besides the full blown paid version ($3), there is a free light version with some limitations (number of sounds), as well as a “classic” version. This classic version, free and available for a limited time, is the old pre-upgrade version added to the store to make some cry-babies happy. They didn’t like all the options and configuration of the upgrade, so the developer provided a solution for them. He’s that kind of guy. It is this kind of developer support (quick email responses, a user forum, frequent updates, etc) that really set this app apart.

Third, this app offers mixes and timers like others, but also offers playlists. Sounds can be assigned to categories and all the songs in the category can be played like a iPod playlist with each loop playing for a set period of time. Already a cool feature, future versions are expected to expand on this idea and allow for lists of mixes and such. This will allow for a sound “environment” that changes over a period if time. You could actually tell based on where (or rather “when”) you were in the sequence how long it had been playing and how much time was left.

I could go on and on about this app, but the best thing to do is to try it for yourself and check out the developer’s web site and user forum. You won’t be disappointed.

I would be short of honest though if I did not mention one thing. This app suffers from the ocassional crash. It is memory intensive and Apple is a but less than responsive about how the SDK doesn’t properly clean up memory. The developer is quite active in tracking this down though and each upgrade is better than the last (regardless of what the whiners say). Just do what I do. Use MemTool early and often and you should be OK. Even with the ocassional crash though, I still put this app above other apps of the same type.

MedTag is the perfect free app if you have medical issues, especially if they result in seizures, fainting, or any other condition that would make communication difficult. Personally, I don’t have communication issues as much as memory ones. I guess it would work in that condition too. It would be handy to hand to an ER doc so they could see all relevent info. The app looks pretty comprehensive. Maybe it will sync to Google’s online health database some day.

iFound is the best, most comprehensive, free app of it’s kind that I have checked out. It has some really nice features like ability to store and share locations and, something I was really looking for, subcategories for types of restaurants. For free, it is definately worth the download.

OK, so Amazon put out a Kindle app. I don’t read much, but I thought with all the buzz that I would try it out. Luckily, there are plenty of free books available.

Kindle has some really nice features. It auto-syncs with you purchases, has a full screen mode. The variable font size is nice. Overall it makes for an enjoyable experience. I can see keeping it on my iPhone for no other reason than the functionality it adds.

I have to say that if you really care about the unverfied opinions of people you don’t even know, much less care about, then this free so is for you. Personally, I am not going to waste my iPhone memory, let alone my time, on this.

It is kinds weird to blog about iPhone apps with an iPhone app with a screenshot that shows you talking about the screenshot, but that is what is taking place here. I blog about iPhone’s from my iPhone and nothing makes it easier than iBlogger. Setup was almost automatic. Painless is an understatement. If you have a blog and an iPhone, I would consider this a must have app. It even allows for blogging with an identified location.