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.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
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.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
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:
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:
Friday, January 6, 2012
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!
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!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
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.
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