noteworthy apps - page 3

Hey, did you know that the Veronica Mars movie is out now? I didn’t until I saw it listed on HypeDrive. I’m not interested in the Veronica Mars movie, but good looking out, HypeDrive.

It’s an app that lets you keep track of all the movies, TV shows, games, and other projects that interest you. You can add them to a list to stay up-to-date, but that requires a login. If you don’t feel like registering, you can also just look stuff up, but it won’t save. You’ll have to write it down or something. Like a caveman.

Source:Hypedrive – Free | Hypedrive LLC

I know I don’t get enough sleep, but I’m kinda dumb, so sometimes I need to look at pictures to really put things into perspective. That’s where SleepBattery comes in. You tell it how old you are, and it suggests how much sleep you should be getting every night. When you go to bed, you tap a button, and the screen-sized battery begins to fill. When you wake up, you tap the screen again, and the battery begins to drain.

When it’s completely empty, it tells you to go to bed. And I probably won’t, but it’s nice to know the app cares.

Source:SleepBattery – Free | Max Haubold

Browsing the App Store can be a bit overwhelming. Which apps are new? Which ones are good? Are the paid ones worth paying for, or do they have a free, lite version that will work well enough?

Well, if you stop interrogating me for a second, hypothetical App Store shopper, I can tell you about this thing we do here.

Every week, we highlight some of the most interesting new apps and collect them here for your consideration. This time, our picks include a comparison shopper for books, a route-maker that factors in current traffic, and a couple things to keep your pictures nice and pretty.

Here you go:

It’s not likely that anyone consistently takes pictures that look like one of the supervillains’ hideouts in the old Batman TV show, but even a slight tilt can make a photo look strange. Orient is an app that will eliminate your photography’s chronic case of the skews by using your iPhone’s gyroscope to ensure that every shot you take is level and straight.

You can choose from a bunch of aspect ratios, and then Orient works almost exactly like your regular Camera app, complete with Instagram-style filters.

Just, you know. Straighter.

Orient: The Self Aligning Camera – Free | Ajit Katti

ETA is all about telling you how far you are from your favorite places. It’ll also point out which direction they’re in, in case you have to know that at all times.

But Maps will do that, too, so to distinguish itself, ETA lets you build up a list of your most-traveled spots, and it’ll tell you at a glance how long it will take to get there in current traffic. And with a couple taps, you can get directions from either your built-in navigator or Google Maps. And that’s really handy because I always like to know how far I am from sandwiches.

ETA – $1.99 | Eastwood

I love living in the future, but sometimes I feel a little spoiled. This app wants you to find useful things, but it thinks that your iPhone or iPad keyboards are just too hard to use.

Shot & Find is a visual-search app that lets you quickly search YouTube, Amazon, Google, Wikipedia, or Spotify just by snapping a picture of a movie, video game, or CD cover. It works really well, too. I did a YouTube search from a DVD, and it pulled up the trailer. A Wikipedia search from a 12-year-old video game also worked just fine.

The app’s effectiveness is almost as ridiculous as its premise, but you can’t argue with results.

Shot & Find – Free | Arctic Toucans

Now that you know where to find all those DVDs, video games, and CDs with Shot & Find, you might want something to read. All Librarist needs is an ISBN, a keyword, or a quick scan of a barcode, and it’ll let you compare prices from stores all over the world.

The scanning works really well, and it includes an impressive selection of stores to choose from. Now if only it actually had some way to give me more time to read, it would pretty much be the perfect app.

Librarist – Free | Droid Ltd

Admit it: You have trouble keeping your camera level when you’re taking a picture of an important document. And then the text looks all weird, and it’s embarrassing.

Alright, maybe it’s not super embarrassing, but it’s nice to avoid skewing anything if you can help it. With Photo Copy Level, you just place your iOS device against the thing you’re shooting and set the level, and then a handy circle tells you when you’re shooting straight. The upgrade unlocks features like an automatic shutter.

Photo Copy Level – Free ($0.99 feature upgrade)| Yaroslav Mironov

Admit it: You have trouble keeping your camera level when you’re taking a picture of an important document. And then the text looks all weird, and it’s embarrassing.

Alright, maybe it’s not super embarrassing, but it’s nice to avoid skewing anything if you can help it. With Photo Copy Level, you just place your iOS device against the thing you’re shooting and set the level, and then a handy circle tells you when you’re shooting straight. The upgrade unlocks features like an automatic shutter.

Source:Photo Copy Level – Free ($0.99 feature upgrade)| Yaroslav Mironov

Now that you know where to find all those DVDs, video games, and CDs with Shot and Find, you might want something to read. All Librarist needs is an ISBN, a keyword, or a quick scan of a barcode, and it’ll let you compare prices from stores all over the world.

The scanning works really well, and it includes an impressive selection of stores to choose from. Now if only it actually had some way to give me more time to read, it would pretty much be the perfect app.

Source:Librarist – Free | Droid Ltd

I love living in the future, but sometimes I feel a little spoiled. This app wants you to find useful things, but it thinks that your iPhone or iPad keyboards are just too hard to use.

Shot & Find is a visual-search app that lets you quickly search YouTube, Amazon, Google, Wikipedia, or Spotify just by snapping a picture of a movie, video game, or CD cover. It works really well, too. I did a YouTube search from a DVD, and it pulled up the trailer. A Wikipedia search from a 12-year-old video game also worked just fine.

The app’s effectiveness is almost as ridiculous as its premise, but you can’t argue with results.

Source:Shot & Find – Free | Arctic Toucans

ETA is all about telling you how far you are from your favorite places. It’ll also point out which direction they’re in, in case you have to know that at all times.

But Maps will do that, too, so to distinguish itself, ETA lets you build up a list of your most-traveled spots, and it’ll tell you at a glance how long it will take to get there in current traffic. And with a couple taps, you can get directions from either your built-in navigator or Google Maps. And that’s really handy because I always like to know how far I am from sandwiches.

Source:ETA – $1.99 | Eastwood

Browsing the App Store can be a bit overwhelming. Which apps are new? Which ones are good? Are the paid ones worth paying for, or do they have a free, lite version that will work well enough?

Well, if you stop interrogating me for a second, hypothetical App Store shopper, I can tell you about this thing we do here.

Every week, we highlight some of the most interesting new apps and collect them here for your consideration. This time, our picks include a granular finance system, an especially informative compass, and a really complicated camera.

Here you go:

Nobody hopes for a war or a natural disaster or an alien invasion from beyond the stars, but they like to know that if any of those things do happen their family will all be on the same page about where to go and what to do.

Emergency Plan helps out by keeping meeting locations, contacts, and even basic medical information all in one place so nobody has to dig or guess about anything while they’re running in a zigzag fashion down Main Street to throw off the cybertanks’ laser-guided heat rays.

Or if there’s like a tornado or something. Either one.

Emergency Plan – Free | Another Cup of Coffee

I don’t know who makes these rules, but apparently, “society” wants men to wear clothes.

But how does one decide which clothes to wear? Dapper wants to help. It’s a shopping app that collects items from several different stores and arranges them into categories like office, casual and active. When you see something you like, you can add it to your “Daplist” or put it in your cart. You can swipe left on items you don’t like and banish them to the Phantom Zone.

You can create an account to purchase right from the app, or you can just be one of “those customers” and nose around with no intention to buy. That’s what I do.

Dapper – Free | Dapper Shopping, Inc.

You’ve probably seen the do-it-yourself, social media comics called Bitstrips in your Facebook feed at one time or another, and maybe you want to see more, or you’d like to find some that might actually be funny.

Best Strips for Bitstrips can help: it only posts strips that pass muster with the moderators. You can rate what’s there and even submit your own for consideration, if you’re feeling confident and/or brave.

Or you can just keep taking your chances with the ones in your feed, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Best Strips for Bitstrips – Free | Echo Bay Apps

GyroScan is a little intimidating.

It works a lot like the panorama function on your iPhone’s camera, but you can capture a complete 360-degree image either horizontally or vertically by spinning in a circle or rotating your phone up or down. When you look at the instructions, it all gets very technical, but once you work with it for a little while — and maybe rig something up to keep your phone still — you can get some really good results.

You can also scan in “stereo mode” and make 3D pictures, but that’s just showing off, GyroScan.

GyroScan – $0.99 | Intelligent Gadgets

Alright, so your iPhone already has a compass built right into it, but if you want a little more information in your orienteering, you might want to look into this app.

In addition to the standard “North is over there” bit, DueNorth will also give you your latitude and longitude, and plunking your finger down anywhere on the screen will tell you which direction and heading you’re prodding. Plus, the display has a Night Mode, so you can figure out how to get out of the woods without every bear in the vicinity knowing that you’re lost.

DueNorth° Simple Compass – Free | Justin Mueller

It’s not likely that anyone consistently takes pictures that look like one of the supervillains’ hideouts in the old Batman TV show, but even a slight tilt can make a photo look strange. Orient is an app that will eliminate your photography’s chronic case of the skews by using your iPhone’s gyroscope to ensure that every shot you take is level and straight.

You can choose from a bunch of aspect ratios, and then Orient works almost exactly like your regular Camera app, complete with Instagram-style filters.

Just, you know. Straighter.

Source:Orient: The Self Aligning Camera – Free | Ajit Katti

Alright, so your iPhone already has a compass built right into it, but if you want a little more information in your orienteering, you might want to look into this app.

In addition to the standard “North is over there” bit, DueNorth will also give you your latitude and longitude, and plunking your finger down anywhere on the screen will tell you which direction and heading you’re prodding. Plus, the display has a Night Mode, so you can figure out how to get out of the woods without every bear in the vicinity knowing that you’re lost.

Source:DueNorth° Simple Compass – Free | Justin Mueller

GyroScan is a little intimidating.

It works a lot like the panorama function on your iPhone’s camera, but you can capture a complete 360-degree image either horizontally or vertically by spinning in a circle or rotating your phone up or down. When you look at the instructions, it all gets very technical, but once you work with it for a little while — and maybe rig something up to keep your phone still — you can get some really good results.

You can also scan in “stereo mode” and make 3D pictures, but that’s just showing off, GyroScan.

Source:GyroScan – $0.99 | Intelligent Gadgets

You’ve probably seen the do-it-yourself, social media comics called Bitstrips in your Facebook feed at one time or another, and maybe you want to see more, or you’d like to find some that might actually be funny.

Best Strips for Bitstrips might help; it’s an app that only posts strips that pass muster with the moderators. You can rate what’s there and even submit your own for consideration if you’re feeling confident and/or brave.

Or you can just keep taking your chances with the ones in your feed, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Source:Best Strips for Bitstrips – Free | Echo Bay Apps

I don’t know who makes these rules, but apparently, “society” wants men to wear clothes.

But how does one decide which clothes to wear? Dapper wants to help. It’s a shopping app that collects items from several different stores and arranges them into categories like office, casual, and active. When you see something you like, you can add it to your “Daplist” or put it in your cart. You can swipe left on items you don’t like and banish them to the Phantom Zone.

You can create an account to purchase right from the app, or you can just be one of “those customers” and nose around with no intention to buy. That’s what I do.

Source:Dapper – Free | Dapper Shopping, Inc.

Nobody hopes for a war or a natural disaster or an alien invasion from beyond the stars, but they like to know that if any of those things do happen their family will all be on the same page about where to go and what to do.

Emergency Plan hopes to do that by keeping meeting locations, contacts, and even basic medical information all in one place so nobody has to dig or guess about anything while they’re running in a zigzag fashion down Main Street to throw off the cybertanks’ laser-guided heat rays.

Or if there’s like a tornado or something. Either one.

Source:Emergency Plan – Free | Another Cup of Coffee

Browsing the App Store can be a bit overwhelming. Which apps are new? Which ones are good? Are the paid ones worth paying for, or do they have a free, lite version that will work well enough?

Well, if you stop interrogating me for a second, hypothetical App Store shopper, I can tell you about this thing we do here.

Every week, we highlight some of the most interesting new apps and collect them here for your consideration. This time, our picks include something to help you read that fine print, a handy money-tracker, and a shockingly comprehensive converter.

Here you go:

I’ve covered a few list-makers before, but this one just replaced Notes as my go-to item tracker.

It’s called UpWord Notes, and it is a simple but powerful app that lets you create, manage, and update lists with just a few simple commands. You can swipe left to make bullets and mark things as important, and you cross items off with a swipe to the right. Coolest of all, you can pull down, refresh-style, to remove all crossed-off items at once.

Plus it all syncs to Dropbox, so you can rest assured that you can always get your grocery list anywhere.

UpWord Notes – $0.99 | Lau Brothers LLC

It’s enough for some people just to plunk one value into a box and watch the conversion come out the other end, but we’re savvy here, right?

The newly released free version of Aperture Mobile’s Converta app thinks you are, and that’s why it actually bothers showing you what it’s doing. The free version calculates the equivalent values of angles, lengths, mass, temperatures, and volumes, and the $0.99 paid version includes things like illumination, radiation, velocity, and energy. You can also choose between a keypad and a clever gestural interface.

I’m not sure how useful the radiation conversion would be to most people, but it’s nice to know it’s there.

Converta – Free | Aperture Mobile

Sometimes, print is too small or your eyes get tired. Or you just want to see what something looks like really close up. Enter Zoomer, a simple-to-use, completely uncluttered app that lets you magnify things up to 10x just by swiping to the left. You can swipe to the right to zoom back out, turn on your LED flash, and even reverse colors to make things look all weird (it’s probably for night-time reading, but it does also make things look totally weird).

You can also use it to look at ants close up without accidentally setting them on fire. And I’m sure the ants appreciate that.

Zoomer – Free | LightBulbOne

Balance Book is a simple, easy, clean way to track your income and expenses on a daily or monthly level. You set up categories and assign colors to keep them straight, and then you just make entries based on how much money you bring in or spend. It automatically calculates your net values to give you an idea of where you are on any given day.

Now I know that I’m probably spending way too much money on sour bears. But in my defense, they are delicious.

Balance Book – Free | Tree Planet

Balance Book is a simple, easy, clean way to track your income and expenses on a daily or monthly level. You set up categories and assign colors to keep them straight, and then you just make entries based on how much money you bring in or spend. It automatically calculates your net values to give you an idea of where you are on any given day.

Now I know that I’m probably spending way too much money on sour bears. But in my defense, they are delicious.

Source:Balance Book – Free | Tree Planet

Sometimes, print is too small or your eyes get tired. Or you just want to see what something looks like really close up. Enter Zoomer, a simple-to-use, completely uncluttered app that lets you magnify things up to 10x just by swiping to the left. You can swipe to the right to zoom back out, turn on your LED flash, and even reverse colors to make things look all weird (it’s probably for night-time reading, but it does also make things look totally weird).

You can also use it to look at ants close up without accidentally setting them on fire. And I’m sure the ants appreciate that.

Source:Zoomer – Free | LightBulbOne

It’s enough for some people just to plunk one value into a box and watch the conversion come out the other end, but we’re savvy here, right?

The newly released free version of Aperture Mobile’s Converta app thinks you are, and that’s why it actually bothers showing you what it’s doing. The free version calculates the equivalent values of angles, lengths, mass, temperatures, and volumes, and the $0.99 paid version includes things like illumination, radiation, velocity, and energy. You can also choose between a keypad and a clever gestural interface.

I’m not sure how useful the radiation conversion would be to most people, but it’s nice to know it’s there.

Source:Converta – Free | Aperture Mobile

Browsing the App Store can be a bit overwhelming. Which apps are new? Which ones are good? Are the paid ones worth paying for, or do they have a free, lite version that will work well enough?

Well, if you stop interrogating me for a second, hypothetical App Store shopper, I can tell you about this thing we do here.

Every week, we highlight some of the most interesting new apps and collect them here for your consideration. This time, our picks include a sleeping aid for nerds, a clever alarm, and a way to avoid looking at other people’s lunches.

Here you go:

Developer Fixdit sees no reason why your nerd love should have to stop just because you’re unconscious. So now we have Hypersleep, a space-themed sleep aid that includes white-noise-ified versions of the engine noises of various science-fiction vehicles. You can nod off to the engine idle of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D or the background hum of the 10th Doctor’s TARDIS. Or some other equally dweeby drones.

And that’s where the Nerd Tax comes in: The default noise is free, but additional (read: recognizable) sounds cost $0.99 each. But I’m pretty sure that if the sound of Serenity’s engine will help you nod off, you’re willing to pay that dollar.

Hypersleep – Free ($0.99 for additional sounds) | Fixdit

My Smart Alarm wants you to be on time, but it also knows that you can’t just walk out the door looking like that. So it lets you build up a list of things you need to do to get ready (showering, shaving, impromptu Nerf-gun battles) as well as travel time. You tell the app when your event/appointment is and check off your pre-game tasks, and it will alert you when you need to start getting ready.

It won’t tell you if that outfit looks dumb, though; you’re on your own there.

My Smart Alarm – Free | Aliyu Odumosu

An official Metacritic app exists, but it’s pretty basic; it only shows you new movies. Metascore is also basic, but in a completely different way. It allows you to look up the Metacritic aggregate number for anything on the site, including movies, video games, TV shows, and music. You just type in what you’re looking for, and it gives you the number.

And when I say it gives you the number, I mean that it only gives you the number. You’ll have to go somewhere else if you want to read the reviews, but this is still a handy app if you’re just looking for a general rating.

Metascore – Free | Pinxit

Photo-sharing social apps like Instagram are fine and all, but most of them have one flaw: You can’t tell them not to show you pictures of people’s lunch if you don’t want to see them. Enter Just…, a quick-and-easy place to post and look at photos that asks you upfront what you want to look at. So far, it includes 11 categories including Automobiles, Cats, Dogs, and, yes, Food, if you’re into that.

It’s easy to put up your own work and like and share others’, and the feeds already have some beautiful pictures for your enjoyment.

(Apologies to Mr. Albano for the crop job up there.)

Just… – Free | FiveIron Software

We’ve already covered multimedia platform Narr8’s transition from iPad to iPhone, but this week, the company released a standalone app just for biographical comics about some of history’s great thinkers and doers. Biographics offers 13 “episodes” that offer tons of information about some fascinating figures. The first two episodes, which cover Nikola Tesla and Sigmund Freud, are free, and the rest are available for $0.99 each. Subjects include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Vlad Dracula, and Martin Luther King.

That’s a lot of ground they’re covering, there.

Biographics – Free | Narr8 Limited

I’ve covered a few list-makers before, but this one just replaced Notes as my go-to item tracker.

It’s called UpWord Notes, and it is a simple but powerful app that lets you create, manage, and update lists with just a few simple commands. You can swipe left to make bullets and mark things as important, and you cross items off with a swipe to the right. Coolest of all, you can pull down, refresh-style, to remove all crossed-off items at once.

Plus it all syncs to Dropbox, so you can rest assured that you can always get your grocery list anywhere.

Source:UpWord Notes – $0.99 | Lau Brothers LLC

Biographics — Books — Free

We’ve already covered multimedia platform Narr8’s transition from iPad to iPhone, but this week, the company released a standalone app just for biographical comics about some of history’s great thinkers and doers. Biographics offers 13 “episodes” that offer tons of information about some fascinating figures. The first two episodes, which cover Nikola Tesla and Sigmund Freud, are free, and the rest are available for $0.99 each. Subjects include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Vlad Dracula, and Martin Luther King.

That’s a lot of ground they’re covering, there.

Biographics – Narr8 Limited

Just… — Photo & Video — Free

Photo-sharing social apps like Instagram are fine and all, but most of them have one flaw: You can’t tell them not to show you pictures of people’s lunch if you don’t want to see them. Enter Just…, a quick-and-easy place to post and look at photos that asks you upfront what you want to look at. So far, it includes 11 categories including Automobiles, Cats, Dogs, and, yes, Food, if you’re into that.

It’s easy to put up your own work and like and share others’, and the feeds already have some beautiful pictures for your enjoyment.

(Apologies to Mr. Albano for the crop job up there.)

Just… – FiveIron Software

Metascore — Entertainment — Free

An official Metacritic app exists, but it’s pretty basic; it only shows you new movies. Metascore is also basic, but in a completely different way. It allows you to look up the Metacritic aggregate number for anything on the site, including movies, video games, TV shows, and music. You just type in what you’re looking for, and it gives you the number.

And when I say it gives you the number, I mean that it only gives you the number. You’ll have to go somewhere else if you want to read the reviews, but this is still a handy app if you’re just looking for a general rating.

Metascore – Pinxit

My Smart Alarm — Productivity — Free

My Smart Alarm wants you to be on time, but it also knows that you can’t just walk out the door looking like that. So it lets you build up a list of things you need to do to get ready (showering, shaving, impromptu Nerf-gun battles) as well as travel time. You tell the app when your event/appointment is and check off your pre-game tasks, and it will alert you when you need to start getting ready.

It won’t tell you if that outfit looks dumb, though; you’re on your own there.

My Smart Alarm – Aliyu Odumosu

Hypersleep — Health & Fitness — Free ($0.99 for additional sounds)

Developer Fixdit sees no reason why your nerd love should have to stop just because you’re unconscious. So now we have Hypersleep, a space-themed sleep aid that includes white-noise-ified versions of the engine noises of various science-fiction vehicles. You can nod off to the engine idle of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D or the background hum of the 10th Doctor’s TARDIS. Or some other equally dweeby drones.

And that’s where the Nerd Tax comes in: The default noise is free, but additional (read: recognizable) sounds cost $0.99 each. But I’m pretty sure that if the sound of Serenity’s engine will help you nod off, you’re willing to pay that dollar.

Hypersleep – Fixdit