The Iphone Blog

Archive for December, 2009

After much clamoring and begging from everyone who owns an iPhone, Apple finally released a Genius tool for finding apps on the iPhone in September. Like its predecessor for music libraries, Genius is supposed to make recommendations for downloading other apps based on the user’s currently owned apps. Even though it’s a step up for surfing through the thousands of apps in iTunes, it’s not as helpful of a tool as it could be.

Enter: Appsaurus. The new “thesaurus for iPhone apps” helps those in search of apps find them with customized searches and also with an amazingly efficient favoriting and recommendations feature. The developers of a small start-up have been working on this app for much of 2009 and finally released it this past Monday. And after using Appsaurus for just a few days, I can confidently say the app is going to help iPhone users start the new year off in a more efficient, streamlined way (when it comes to finding apps, anyway).

(Full Review After Jump)

Explore

The main feature lauded within the app is the “Explore” feature, which recommends apps based on your previous picks. You have to spend a little time starting the app out, training it, if you will, before the magic really starts to happen.

Appsaurus shows a list of five apps for you to choose from. Tap the arrow on the right to see more details about the app, then make your selection of which app on the list appeals to you more by tapping it. This brings you to another list of apps that Appsaurus would recommend for you, based on your previous choice. The more “exploring” you do, the more accurate the recommendations are to what you’re looking for.

Although I don’t think this is the most amazing part of Appsaurus (we’ll get there in a minute), I was incredibly pleased with the recommendations the app gave me, based on my selections. Although a lot of the recommendations were for apps I already have (talk about accurate, right?), a lot of the apps that I ended up interested in were ones I hadn’t heard of, and I immediately downloaded them from the App Store (Hint: You can do this by tapping the link in the app details in Appsaurus). There were a few instances when I didn’t see any apps that appealed to me, so I used the “Nothing Here?” option to tap out and reload a new list, even though this isn’t encouraged (the pickier you are, the more difficult it is for Appsaurus to give your accurate recommendations).

Also within the Explore tab is the option to “favorite” or “block” certain apps from your recommendations. If you see an app that you never want to see in your list again, swipe that app to the right and you unveil a star icon and a skull and crossbones icon. Tap the skull and crossbones to “ban” that app from your views.

Favoriting apps while you’re exploring also helps Appsaurus get very specific with your app recommendations. Tap the star icon to favorite an app, and the app will then show up in your Favorites tab.

Favorites

When you add an app to your Favorites list, Appsaurus then gives you the option to select that app and see more apps like that specific one. When I asked to see more apps like my “’stachetastic” camera app, Appsaurus pulled up a list of camera apps similar to that one.

This list was again pretty accurate in finding me what I was looking for in a camera app, and this feature could come in very handy for getting down to specifics in app searches.

Appsaurus doesn’t sync the apps you already own to the app, so you have to manually add any apps you have and like to your Favorites list if you’d like recommendations based on them. It’s a fairly easy process with a search tool in the Favorites tab, but it’s also tedius and unnecessary. Thank goodness the developers have said an update to let users sync downloaded apps is coming soon.

Custom

I said earlier that the Explore feature isn’t the most amazing part of the app—that’s the Custom feature, which gives iPhone app enthusiasts exactly what they’ve been missing from the App Store all these years: an efficient search tool that lets you get specific. Really specific.

Appsaurus provides you with a few examples of some customized searches you can do for apps (<$2 Music Apps, Chess Games, Free Apps), but by adding a new search, you can find just about anything you’re looking for. Tap the “+” button at the top right corner of the screen, then give your search a name. You can select criteria by categories (the same categories App Store uses to sort apps), maxium price, and keywords. I went with a Twitter Client search, and although it took a little longer than I anticipated to come up with results (the rest of the app runs very quickly), the recommendations all fit my criteria.

This customized search feature is something that could very well change how app users view the iPhone app experience, as well as even the iPhone. Many of us can’t stand to go through the torture of sifting through trashy apps to find some quality apps that fill all of our needs and wants, but this feature in Appsaurus seems to cut out the middleman (iTunes?) to finally give us what we’ve been needing from the App Store since its inception.

Recap & Conclusion

Price: $0.99

Released: December 28

Our Grade: A

I was a bit skeptical about how different this app would be from the App Store’s Genius tool, but I was pleasantly surprised at both how easy it was to “train” Appsaurus to understand what I liked and also how fantastic the recommendations were, in return. Not only does the app do its job of recommending you apps based on your taste, but the recommendations all seem to be quality apps that have been screened or reviewed by the developers themselves. Being an app reviewer, the customized search feature is going to be a lifesaver for me, but for the everyday app user, it’s still going to save the day when the App Store starts giving you grief. Save yourself some time (and some money, instead of buying apps that don’t work) by downloading this immediately.

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This is kinda cool! The official LEGO photo app takes your photo, and then turns it into a mosaic, made up of 1X1 Lego bricks. It’s cute, fun and free (iTunes link). Though we’d love to see it give you a list of which bricks you would need to recreate the the image yourself. Maybe have it tie in to Lego’s custom store, so you could just upload the image, and it would offer you the option to buy a set of bricks, which then get delivered to your house. Christmas shopping for next year? Done!

Of course what we all really want from Lego is an official virtual environment to play with the bricks on our phones.

[Via Gizmodo]

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Remember how AT&T promised tethering would come to the iPhone this year? By my watch, they have 11 hours and 25 minutes to make this right, before America first enters the new decade. Or do AT&T just live on a different time scale to the rest of us? After all, they did say MMS would come by the end of summer, and then rolled it out in September. Maybe tethering will finally land in June, and AT&T will pat themselves on the back for a job well done, and go about charging us $30/month for it. Or whatever horrific cost they’re planning on throwing our way.

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Britons can now keep a tab on how much alcohol they are drinking, courtesy of a free smart phone application.

The free iPhone application was launched by public health minister Gillian Merron Monday as the festive party season gets under way.

The device which can be downloaded onto smart phones like the iPhone, will allow users to see how many units of alcohol there are in their drink, keep a running total of their consumption and get personalised feedback on their drinking habits.

Studies have shown that people underestimate how much alcohol they have drunk on a night out and may exceed the safe limits without realising it.

Recommended limits are two to three units a day for women – the equivalent of one medium to large glass of wine – and three to four units a day for men – a large glass to a glass and a half, or two pints of beer – with at least two alcohol-free days a week.

Drink-driving during the festive season is a major public health concern in Britain.

The number of people killed from drinking and driving fell from 560 in 2006 to 406 in 2007 and those seriously injured from 1,970 to 1,760 during the same period.

…

The app is available from iTunes and www.nhs.uk .

[via Thaindian News]

Get a Free iPhone 3GS! Yes, that is correct! Why pay for one when CNN, BBC, NBC, and other news sites have proven this system LEGIT. Get it the simple way …. straight to your doorstep! Not interested? Then maybe get a Free PS3!

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Employing Hope, the iPhone application from Biblica, provides encouragement and tips in an easy-to-read format for those out of work.In this struggling economy, headline after headline echoes what many already know—finding work is an uphill climb. For those in the hunt, bills stack up and tensions rise with seemingly no relief on the horizon. It’s a time of hopelessness for some and even depression for others.

Employing Hope, a no-cost iPhone application by Biblica, looks to shine a ray of light into the lives affected by the faltering economy through thought-provoking, biblical insight as well as practical suggestions for improving employment prospects. With design by ImageStudios, the single-page devotionals are easy to leaf through and provide at-a-glance inspiration with a scriptural perspective on unemployment.

“We are experiencing an economic crisis unlike anything most of us have been equipped to handle,” said Biblica Outreach Director Sues Hyde. “People need hope and encouragement to remain emotionally and spiritually strong in these tough times. Our hope at Biblica is that they’ll use these resources and find them helpful, and that they’ll feel comfortable sharing them with others in similar circumstances.”

[via PRWeb]

Get a Free iPhone 3GS! Yes, that is correct! Why pay for one when CNN, BBC, NBC, and other news sites have proven this system LEGIT. Get it the simple way …. straight to your doorstep! Interested? Then find out how to get a Free iPhone 3GS!

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Written by By CAMILLE SWEENEY
A dermatologist in Houston has bypassed the hand-held gadget and tried to harness the power of in-office acne treatments in a more familiar form: the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Original story at

NYT > iPhone
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GearShrine: Apple iPhone.

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Written by AJ Glasser
Usually the best gifts we get for the holidays are the ones we buy for ourselves. In my case, this would be an iPhone.

Here's what I'm thinking:

On that note and as my fourth choice, I'm keeping my eye out for Plants vs. Zombies on the App Store in January 2010.

Original story at

Kotaku
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GearShrine: Apple iPhone.

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Written by scottbourne
ProCamera, on the other hand, is just a more advanced interface for the basic iPhone camera, but it adds very nice features like: bubble leveler, grid lines, touch anywhere to shoot, anti-shake, self-timer, compass, and full-res zooming (albeit still a digital zoom with interpolatio…

Original story at

Photofocus
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GearShrine: Apple iPhone.

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According to FoxNews, sources inside Apple have confirmed what’s being called a “big” event for January 26th. Of course, nothing official yet from Apple, but there is not shortage of buzz surrounding a possible iTablet/iSlate announcement.

The source adds that the event will focus on the “mobility space”. Of course, that could be a new iPhone. What are you hoping, wishing for from this late January Apple event? Let us know in the comments or in our iPhone forums.

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Foxnews is also reporting the January 26th Apple event, with the belief that the tablet will be released that day. Their source says the event will be with regard to “mobility space”.

Kai-Fu Lee, the former head of Google China made a Chinese language post about the tablet recently (seen here, via Google Translate), in which he likened it to a “large iPhone”, which will cost less than $1000, have a 10.1-inch screen, and video conferencing abilities. He’s also claiming that Apple will sell an astonishing 10 million units. The stats sound about right, though this is the first I’ve heard of video conferencing, but that would make it a useful business tool. But $1000? That’s the price of a MacBook. For someone looking for an intermediary device halfway between an iPhone and a laptop? At that price it might be just too much. The article does mention “communications chip”, so will we see carrier subsidies on the tablet? Maybe that will drive the price down a bit.

[via MacRumors]

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