The Gimp 2

Now if you know me, you know I'm a sucker for a good deal.  I'm talking about low price high quality.  You just can't go wrong with big project FOSS when you want a good deal.  Free to me as in "free nuts" and free to use as in "free speech", and programmed by people who not only know what they are doing, but in many cases have created the standards.  Since my first bit of free candy I've loved free things, and the FSF has treated us all VERY good in the past 2 decades.  The GIMP stands for "The GNU Image Manipulation Program" (it used to be project, but these sorts of things change), and as we all know GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix". Anyway it's time to get this going properly before I start spouting off more about my love for FOSS or,which would be much worse, expounding on the great (if short) history of GNU, and GIMP.

GIMP is an image manipulator, or rather an image editor.  Not just any old image editor, it's a full featured image editor, whose rivals would be from big companies like Adobe and Corel.  I'm not going to compare this to other image editors, you can find lots of those types of reviews all over the place.  I'm also not going to be able to go thru all it's features like I do when I review smaller apps. What I will try to do is explain what sort of things it's good for.  Photo editing and drawing are right there at the top of the list, but I also use it for my pixel art, and digital scrapbooking.  There's filters you can use to do all sorts of things from noise and blur to rendering clouds and applying new art styles.  Layers, history, and colour management are all there too.  I've said this before to other graphic designers (Adobe lovers the lot of them): "There is not a single thing you can with Photoshop that you can't do with GIMP."  to which most of them ask "What about actions?"

Anyway The GIMP 2 passed mustard.

http://www.gimp.org/

Steam (iPhone)

So like everyone else who plays steam games on pc and owns an iPhone I signed the petition to get friend chatting on the iPhone.  Fortunately for all of us Valve decided to give way more than just chat.  You can browse groups, see friend activity, browse the Steam Catalog (a.k.a. Store), your wislist, fill up your cart, checkout and have the game ready for you at home, and use the steam store search.  Oh, yeah and there's steam news, store account info, app settings and a way to log out (either for security or cause you share your iOS device).

I'd like to go through each and every section but I'm not prepared to type 12 paragraphs.  My most used features are Friends, Catalog, Cart, and Search.  Friends works much like your friend list on the desktop Steam (Mac or PC), it lets you see who's online, playing what, and chat with them.  Catalog is essentially store.steampowered.com built for the iPhone.  Cart is your shopping cart, you need to go in here to pay for your purchase that you got from either Search or Catalog.  You can use all the same checkout methods as when you are on your computer, and when you do finally get back to it you can download the game there.

Now I do have to say that it isn't seamless with the desktop app.  Chats do not propagate across, and sometimes when you exit the app, chats will pop up as notifications, and sometimes they just don't.  I'd like to say it's stable, but my copy has crashed just before checkout, and then I had to start over searching for my game again.  Not a big problem, but occasionally annoying.

Passed mustard.

Skyrim Alchemy (free version) for iOS

You can find the app on iTunes store, or by following the link on the app's blog: http://skyrimalchemy.blogspot.ca/

This app lets you try new and different alchemy recipes without wasting your in game ingredients. Now this app has a very simple User Interface and trust me when it's this type of app the simpler the better!  You can select a single effect, then choose two ingredients from the filtered lists accessed by the silver buttons saying "Select Ingredient", and then one more ingredient whose effects match either or both of the first two ingredients.  It will also tell you what effects that potion will have if you were to make it in game.  I find it VERY handy when I'm trying to track down that one perfect potion, or just to avoid negative effects on positive potions by changing ingredients (I don't spend any perks in my alchemy constellation in game, even though I try to max out my alchemy skill).

Also there is a secondary function where you select two effects and it gives you a list of possible ingredient combinations to give you those two effects in a single potion.  Be warned though, cause the second effect list isn't filtered like the ingredient lists are in the primary screen.  I have found a few effects that would be nice to have together, but just won't go together.

I have one issue with it (and it's a minor issue): I want the buttons to be bigger!  It's not that I don't have any dexterity in my fingers, it's just that I like a little wiggle room and padding when the only UI shown is a few buttons.  I'm not saying the screen needs to be filled with them, but 5 to 10 extra pixels bigger each would be nice.

So does it pass mustard? yes
Should you buy the pay version? well if you have some money left over on your app store card it'd be nice to support the author, but there's no added incentive past "Disable ads" to go pay.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Official World Interactive Map (iPhone)

It's crap.  The visuals are cartoony, the free version only shows holds, the extra content (and there's a lot) costs $0.99 for every single unlock!  Are you kidding me?  15 unlocks, all $0.99 or you can buy the whole lot for $9.99, but I already downloaded the app for free, why do I have to pay!?? and the worst part is trying to add a pin to the map.  touch pins, touch add pin, touch map where you want the pin, see a big white box with only a done button on it, click done, oh where's the pin? zoom in all the way, oh, I think it's that little tiny red ball there... STUPID!!!   I'm guessing that the big white box is so you can type something in it, and pins do keep after you turn off the app, but it's just so unwieldy.  there's a button on the start screen that lets you download all the maps at once, taking up 970MB of space on your iPhone and easily that much bandwidth.  I've tried this app without an internet connection, and it works, but only up to a certain level of zoom, because for high zoom levels it has to download a new map from the internet.  Because of this.... let's call it a zoom threshold.... and many other things (like a lack of help or usage instructions) I'm going to say that Prima Guide's Skyrim Official World Interactive Map for iPhone does NOT pass mustard.

Breakdown:

• is it a map? yes
• So is it interactive? yes
• does it work on my iPhone 3GS? yes
• Does it show where you've been in skyrim? You can tell the app what places you've discovered, but only if you've payed for everything, the free one only gives you the different hold cities.
• Does it show dungeon placements etc.? yes if you pay for them
• does it make noise? yes, but you can turn that off
• is there a search funciton? yes but to find anything that's actually hard to find (i.e. not hold cities) you'll need to pay for content.

My final verdict is that if you want an interactive map that already has everything on it, there's a free one at UESP.net based on google's tech:  http://www.uesp.net/maps/srmap/srmap.shtml and it'll work on your iPhone's browser, so it's easily better than this app, even though you need an internet connection to use it.

The Simpsons Tapped Out

Electronic Arts. Okay now that you are done booing at the world's largest video game producer, check out this iPhone game: The Simpsons Tapped Out.  It's a village building game with a Simpsons twist.  It does have some connection issues when you use EA's Origin service to connect to your friends.  When I say some connection issues I mean if you like to play weekends and super late night you won't be able to, cause it won't connect after midnight or during a Saturday.  Works gorgeously every other time though.  I just love it.  All the most memorable landmarks from Springfield USA are in it.  Like the Kwik E Mart and Krusty Burger.  You get a whole bunch of characters too like Homer, Lisa, Ned, Apu, Krusty, and Milhouse (that's as far as I've gotten so far).  I'm currently working on getting enough moneys (in game currency) to buy the School.  There's also magic donuts that can speed any action up quickly.  They cost real money, so don't go spending all the free ones you get right away.

Passed Mustard.

Real Steel

Boxing movie, but with robots.  Check out IMDB or Amazon for plot synopsis.  I loved it, and so did my girlfriend.  So it Passed Mustard without a doubt.

Google AdSense

Now I have used AdSense on my blogs, in fact I've even blogged about getting it and loosing it.  I must say that it's an ingenious way to make money for practically nothing, but for those of us that have be suspended from further use, it can be rather frustrating.  For instance I no longer have AdSense, and so I no longer profit from any ads you may see on this or any of my other blogs.  My only way I'll profit from a reader right now is if they decide to ChipIn and send me some money.  Now while it was active, I had clicked on a couple AdSense ads because I was curious what they were about, and if there was any merit or connection to this blog.  Turns out even one click from yourself can get you banned from AdSense for all time.  So that's it, no more AdSense, no more free money from Google.  I can't even do any of those get rich quick schemes you see all over.

Anyway this is a review site, and I can't just leave you without any reviews.  So, it was actually nice to be able to see not only click traffic, but where the clicks came from and what sort of things were getting clicked on.  It showed all sorts of handy things like balance, $ per click rate, and a list of all enabled websites and blogs.  I believe there's a newer layout now, but the old one was pretty clean and easy to use much like the new blogger experience and all the other Google page re-designs to make everything look more like Google+.

Does not pass mustard, because it penalizes the curious, with no forgiveness.  You may not agree with me on this one, and that's ok, just don't think you can change my mind on it.

Chip in

This is a mini-review of www.chipin.com.

Creates an event to allow others to "Chip in" and help pay for things.  Chip ins are sent directly to your paypal account using the e-mail address you used to sign up for paypal.  It's very handy, works every time, and I've been using it for years already.  If you want to see how chipping in works, just click the orange Chip In button on the right.

Passed Mustard!

NOTE:  The whole chipin.com website was closed on March 7 2013... Don't bother with this any more, the review has been downgraded to "doesn't cut the mustard".

Mr. Bounce (from Pixelate)

I'm talking about the Chrome app Mr. Bounce from Pixelate.  Essentially you have to break bubbles with a little bouncing square.  You can control how high and which way it bounces depending on where you move the dotted line and the paddle.  You can also slow down the ball for a short time.  With such a simple interface, and easy to learn design I say it is one of the more addicting games made for chrome.  I wouldn't say it's as necessary to have as Angry Birds or Google Calendar, but it deserves a hard won spot on my second page.  Passed Mustard.

Also can be found for iPad and iPhone for $0.99 on iTunes, or the "LITE" version for free.  It's a little more complex to play, with a screen region to push for slo-mo, but still passes mustard.

Microsoft OneNote

When I saw the request for this app (here) to be reviewed I was very loathe to do it.  So it'll be a small review.  First we'll start with the screenshots:

 Look at this a loading screen to start.

 Now a login screen hmmm... what's my Windows Live ID

 Oh guess that's wrong, better try again.

 Ten seconds after login

 30 Seconds into login

 OK, so now what?

 Let's try this button and wait 10 seconds.  (it actually took 20)

 Right here we go... I think I'll leave it blank and see what I typed before.

 oh yeah

  So that's what the clock does.

Anyway as you can see I did not enjoy playing with this app.  It's slow on the iPod 2 and seems so totally redundant to me that in the 18 months it's been on my iPod I've used it twice.  Once to say "I want to kiss Christina" and the other time to do this review.  It takes so long from touching the app icon on springboard to actually typing a new note to yourself, that you probably could have found a pen and paper and written the note by hand.  Oh and I forgot to tell you that you have to have a connection to the internet to even use the app so it's totally useless in the grocery store, at 7-11 and on the front porch.  I'd say this app does not pass mustard.  In fact I'd say "DON'T GET MICROSOFT ONENOTE IT'S A WASTE OF TIME!" to everyone I meet.

Shazam

Shazam is one of the ubiquitous apps on iPhone, and I've tested it on both my iPod Touch 2nd Generation and this borrowed iPhone 3GS I've unlocked to work on Solo.  Of the two devices I've tested it on I feel that it works much better on the 3GS with the built in microphone than it ever did with this plug in gadget I picked up from dealextreme.com for my iPod.  If you don't know yet, Shazam identifies any music that is playing.  Now it does have some limitations, for instance you can't just hum a tune and it identifies it for you.  Also if you are having a hard time hearing the song there's a really good chance that Shazam can't hear it either.  There is a small list of impossible to identify songs, and I haven't found any commercial songs that it can't identify.  I have found that there are songs it won't identify, and wouldn't you know it these are the same songs I've been having trouble with tagging.

There is also a facebook tie in to compare songs with your friends and a few other features that I haven't fully explored either.  Mostly because all I want to do is identify the song, check if I can buy it on iTunes, and save the result for later if I can't.  It does that just fine, and there's even a cloud element to it that lets you see the songs you've tagged on all your devices.  This same cloud feature will e-mail you from time to time.  I find this feature VERY annoying because I only use the app once in a while, and an email a day with the exact same content just is not my idea of fun.

The discover tab is interesting, but redundant with the iTunes store's discover features. And there is practically no reason to go into the settings tab, unless you want to tie Shazam to your Facebook account.  There's other settings in there, but I found no practical need of them for day to day use.

All in all the iPhone app passes mustard, and it works with well with my iPod Touch 2 if there's a microphone attached.

Just as before, I forgot to take screenshots until after I wrote the review, so here they are now:

Zinio

reviewed on iPod 2 and Web browser.

Zinio is one of those few all-encompassing type of apps.  It's got something for every device, from web site services to blackberry and iPhone and even iPad apps.  I wanted to find an app for someone that will let you read magazines on an iPhone, and I found Zinio. At the center of the Zinio universe is the magazine store on it's website, which for a store site, it's pretty clean and easy to navigate.  I was more than a little surprised that it not only had some of my favourite magazines (PC Gamer, Maxim and Everyday with Rachel Ray) but also some other favourites too like Elle and Lou Lou and quite a broad selection of Spanish and Japanese language gaming magazines.  I assume that there's just such a showing on the many many other genres in the list, but I didn't check them all.  All in all a good store, so that Passed Mustard.

On to the iPod app, but first some background:  The app is free, the magazines aren't.  Signing up for Zinio (which I did yesterday) gave me $25 in Z-Bucks the very next day.  I'm not exactly sure if this was a timed promotion or a reward for signing up.  The e-mail it came in mentioned that it was loyalty credits, so make your own decisions about it or try it out to find out for yourself, it's free to sign up.  This brings us to the web based library.  Also a nice simple design, with great big thumbnails for each of the magazines you own, only problem I have with it is when you click on the magazine, a new window opens up that covers your screen entirely.  I'm really not a big fan of this, I'm a multitasker I want to read the magazine in the same window I was using.  What if I was also watching a youtube video or wanted to look something up that is in the magazine.  I'm not saying it isn't beautiful, just not my style.  Web Library doesn't pass mustard for me.

The app itself has a nice simple  design, with 3 tabs on the bottom, "My Library", "Shop", and "More"  Library will give you the magazines already on your device, along with magazines you have yet to download.  Shop brings up a search bar and a list of categories, much like the website will give you.  More will give you a chance to change your password update you on the legal notices, sign out of your zinio account, restore itunes purchases and turn on/off wifi auto-download.

Actually getting in to read a magazine on the iPod took me a few minutes, since I've got "low space" even with 2 GB free on it.  While you are reading the magazine (in my case PC Magazine) there is a "Downloading xx%" notice across the top of the app with a little back button at the left, while individual pages are presented in the main window, and a small status bar across the bottom that gives you a thumbnail view, a list view and previous next page buttons.  While waiting for my magazine to download my iPod locked twice.  You can slide your finger across the main window to change pages smoothly, or use those next and previous page buttons.  Turning the iPod sideways (I always try volume buttons up first) gives a two page view.  For broken up articles, there's a text button that shows up on the status bar that will allow you to read an entire article in its entirety (hee hee hee) as simple black on white text.  This view allows you to increase and decrease the font size, and the envelope button on the top right will let you e-mail the article to a friend (or yourself you friendless person you) using Apple's own mail app.  Sideways flip works in text mode to, and the "Page" button on the status bar will take you back to the pages.  Only thing left to test is pinch zoom.  Works in page view with a bit of a load lag because of resampling the page, while you can only use the coarser increase/decrease font size buttons on the text view instead of pinch zoom.  I like this solution a lot.  iPod App definitely Passed Mustard.

Overview:
Web Store: Passed Mustard
Web Library: Didn't pass mustard
iPhone app store: Passed Mustard
iPhone app reading: Passed Mustard.

Overall: Passed Mustard!

As requested: SCREENSHOTS!

Sorry about the lack of posts

I've been a little busy with Christmas and my birthday so haven't watched anything much at all.  I've been so caught up in Christmas shopping that I didn't buy any new B-Movies, and since they weren't on my list (yeah right like anyone else I know would buy me B-Movies) I didn't get any either.  I've been playing Skrim, and loving it.