Prepare for a trip With Packing Pal

Posted on January 19, 2012 by root

Category of the app: Developer: Hindsight Labs
Version: 1.0.0
Price: $2.99 [iTunes link]

When preparing for a vacation to another town or even another country, we must run about the house searching for the necessary stuff to pack. There are so many things that have to be done at home without even counting other important tasks like issuing an insurance policy, picking up clothes from the dry cleaner’s, buying a new and bigger suitcase, etc. The application known as Packing Pal will help you manage all of your packing and your to-do list before a trip. That is, if you are ready to spend 3 bucks for such an app.

To start using Packing Pal, you must create a packing list for your trip. This is probably the most boring stage since you must then fill in the created list with tasks, events, and stuff to do. However, some standard tasks can be sorted out and included from the app’s built-in catalogue. You can always add any tasks that are absent from the catalog on your own. All you need to do is add things or tasks to the list ( for example, to pack 2 pairs of your favorite pants) and then choose the category and, if necessary, the subcategory and type a few notes. However, making notes within this app seems a bit unnecessary since you can’t view them while checking your lists. To look through the notes, one needs to select the edit menu for a certain item. What is the purpose of using these notes at all?

After filling in the list, you will begin to notice that it is getting easier to pack clothes and complete tasks. For instance, when you put a hairbrush into your suitcase, check this item on your list. The scheme is similar to the iOS 5 reminders. A user can also choose to indicate that the item has been taken care of, whether by deleting the checked item off of the list or simply by checking it. The first option appears to be handier; you simply check the item, and it automatically disappears. There are also other features such as the List Status displayed in the main menu. When you have a 100% checked-off list, you can relax at last.

The application is worth trying, especially if you like making plans and keeping your tasks and belongings organized. However, the price is a bit higher than one may expect from such an app. The developers overestimated their tool by setting the price to $2.99. This is quite an unusual move for a distributor who is a new player in the App Store. The maximum price for such an app is usually about $0.99.

Pianorama: Check Out the First Piano-Based Radio

Posted on January 12, 2012 by root

Category: Radio
Developer/Distributor: Pianorama.ru
Version: 1.0
Price: Free [iTunes link]

The music produced by the fortepiano is undoubtedly wonderful thanks to its unobtrusiveness. Not without reason, many movie directors use this kind of music as a background soundtrack for their films. Piano music can serve as a background tune for practically any occasion.

The Internet radio station Pianorama was launched with the purpose of letting you enjoy quiet piano tunes.

This application has only one button: “Play” and only one scroll box: “Volume.” One music track after another is streamed directly via the Internet.

We wish we could end this review here on a happy note. Few drawbacks of Pianorama, however, prevent this review from finishing with a happy ending. First, in landscape mode on the iPhone, the piano keys are hidden in the background. The user has to see an absolutely pointless picture due to this drawback. On the iPad, however, this is not a problem.

If you are using AirPlay along with the app, expect to encounter this problems as well. Take a closer look at the blue icon next to the volume scroll box:

Pianorama is usually recognized by the iOS devices as a full-range music application. This means that you can control its playback from the main panel, and there is multi-task support in the locked screen mode, but…

… if you press “Stop” while application is running, all of the keys on the locked screen and panel will stop working. Pressing “Play” will not fix the problem either. The only solution is to launch the audio stream in the application again.

Some people will also not like the lack of information about the currently playing audio track, but you should not expect much from an unlicensed app. The titles of tunes and their artists can be found on Shazam or SoundHound.

Muud.io – Choose Music Reflecting Your Mood

Posted on January 10, 2012 by root

Category: Music
Developer: App Sandwich
Version: 1.0.8
The full version price: $3.99 -> $0.99 [iTunes link]
The demo version price: Free [iTunes link]

Without a doubt, the following situation is common for everyone: with 1 or 2 GB of music uploaded onto your Smartphone, you find that you can’t listen the tunes you actually want to hear on the way to school or work. You can’t simply enjoy listening to music and have to take the phone and manually skip through songs on the playlist. Why do people behave in such a way? Sometimes a person who is still half asleep does not want to hear cheerful rock songs early in the morning. To prevent such scenario, you can use the next unique music application when you need to skip past the unwanted tunes.

It is obvious that we press the “Next” button while sorting through the music playlist because of changes in our moods. If you wake up every morning with the same mood and don’t change the order of the songs in the playlist, then you will surely enjoy hearing the same old songs every day. However, most music lovers have quite fluctuating tastes. That is why there is a need to customize our uploaded playlists according to our current mood and to be safe from a boring routine. This is the time when you can take an advantage of Muud.io, which works as a music reflector of your mood. This app helps you to set up a music playlist according to your mood. Did you wake up fresh and in a good mood? Awesome, choose a playlist according to your cheerful mood to start the new day in a positive way.

The app consists of two modes: the audio player and the playlist editor. First, we will focus on the second option. Before you are able to create “smart” playlists, the app will require some time to scan your phone’s music library and define the emotional tone of all uploaded tunes. Such scanning is required each time you upload new tunes. After this scanning is complete, the application is ready to pinpoint songs that reflect the user’s mood. The next step is to press “+” to create a new playlist and choose one of the music moods. At the corners, you will see emoticons depicting four different mood. If you do not want to listen to music associated with only one emoticon, pick a few smileys to create a mixed playlist. Using the upper scroll box, you can edit the playlist chosen by the app by deleting or adding songs on your own.

After creating a mood-reflecting playlist, the app will start to play the songs using the built-in iOS player. You see, Muud.io is just a complex addition to the standard features of the built-in Music App. That is why all created playlists can be played and edited even if Muud.io is turned off. By the way, if the application has picked an upbeat song when you chose the angry or sad emoticon, you can point out the wrong choice using the joystick, and the app will avoid placing this song in the wrong list in the future.

As expected, you cannot guarantee that all automatically selected tunes will fit the chosen mood theme. Do not expect to get a thorough playlist where all of the tunes will suit your current mood. However, if your Smartphone’s music library is huge and varied, accuracy can be achieved with the proper music selection, especially if you manage to cope with the scroll box. During such experiments, I managed to reveal one of the hidden uses this app offers. In case you need to look for the proper soundtracks for home videos or presentations, you can upload a lot of different songs to Muud.io’s library, and a few variants will be quickly and automatically selected for your project. The main trick is to avoid uploading only songs of one particular genre or adding the tunes of few particular artists.

This application is an interesting tool for the built-in iOS player, but you must have a diverse music collection with several genres of music for it to properly work. Muud.io can also be very handy when you need to choose the songs for video reviews or presentations. Surely, not all selected tunes will fit the particular project, but it will be easier to choose from the selected tunes than to search for the best song among hundreds of tracks.

Home Design 3D – Create the House of your Dreams!

Posted on December 7, 2011 by root

Good day, dear friends. Let’s suppose that you belong to the group of people who can hardly imagine the final result of their work after doing the house or flat over. Or maybe you are one of those guys who want to refurnish or rearrange the items in a room but do not know how to cope with such task. Or perhaps you just need to present your architectural project at work. In each these cases, you can take advantage of the Home Design 3D application.

When opening the application, the first thing that you will notice is the tutorial mode where each option is demonstrated in details. Let’s examine the key features of this application.

The main idea of the application is to create a so-called 2D scheme or project, call it as you like, and then to experiment with its design and edit it using the options of the 3D mode (there are two such modes, by the way).Start with drawing the walls or, to be specific, the rooms, doors and windows. It is worth noting that, during the creation of the sketch, the virtual room’s length and width are immediately displayed, as well as its area (at your request, this option can be disabled). The thickness of the walls can be also changed. The doors and windows are selected from a huge catalog designed to suit every taste; they come in both plastic and wood and are available in different colors and shapes. However, while I was creating a plan of my apartment, I couldn’t find the proper window design because the program does not include tricuspid windows. There is also a huge selection of floor and wall designs offered.

At last, after drawing the scheme of your flat or house, you can furnish the room with furniture and other objects. The furniture is divided into the following categories: living room, bedroom, and bathroom. All of the items can be transformed by editing their width, length and their angle of rotation. After this final stage, you can see the final result of your design project in the 3D mode. As I have mentioned before, the program provides two 3D modes. The first mode is a usual 3D scheme of an apartment with the pretty standard camera angle view (like in the Sims), and the second mode is sort of the walking tour around your virtual apartment. It is worth mentioning that both of these 3D modes helps to estimate the interior and design in its own way, so you can edit the project taking the view from a few different angles into consideration.The program also comes with a few complete apartment projects that can be used as the basis for your future scheme, for example, if you plan to build a house. Speaking of the house design, the program has a sufficient number of staircases, but there is no support for the multiple-story projects. I think this feature will be added during the next update.

There is another area where the program is lacking – if you want to save your project, you will need to have the paid version. This version also contains more items to furnish a virtual apartment.

To sum everything up, I would like to emphasize that it is better to use Home Design 3D as an iPad application. The interface is very convenient; there is no any discomfort involved in using the main options. The application works practically flawlessly as a high-quality and professional 3D design tool.

Pros:

The tutorial mode is included.
The interface is intuitive and user-friendly.
All projects can be saved and then edited on a PC.
All design elements of the app can be edited.
There is no need for an Internet connection to run the app.

Cons:

The full range of options is available only in the paid version.
You will not be able to create a virtual room with semicircular or slanted corners.
You will also not be able to design a multistoried house.

Title: Home Design 3D

Price: $5.99

Magisto: Helps You Make better Video Clips

Posted on November 19, 2011 by root

Category: Video editing tool
Developer: Sightera Technologies
Version: 1.1.3
Price: Free [iTunes link]

At CES 2012, a new video-editing tool for Smartphones was presented to the public . This was Magisto, an app that is capable of creating an interesting movie using home videos in a completely automatic way.

According to the application’s developer, Oren Boiman, 99% of YouTube users are not even able to cope with the intuitively friendly iMovie application when they need to edit home videos. That is why most home video collections are rather boring. Magisto is a quick solution to this problem.

To start, you need to download the free version of the application from the App Store to your iPhone and sign up on Magisto.com.

Then, select the video clips made with the built-in iPhone camera, set the music track (choose one of the tunes offered in the app, or upload your own tune), and click “Start.”

During the next 10-15 minutes, you can drink coffee. Your iPhone will transfer the videos to the web server where they will be combined into one movie that will appear on your account page. A notification will be sent to your email as well. The movie can also be uploaded to your Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube page.

There is a video presented by the developers of the application showing how the application works.

By the way, you can create such movies based off of your videos via the web interface on the Magisto site.

In September, 2011, the Magisto app project received $5.5 million from the Hong Kong-based venture fund , Horizon Ventures. I would not be surprised if the project gets another investment within the next six months because that is that main reason why developers go to CES.

Pros:

You get an interesting movie as the final result.
There is no need to bother with video editing on your own.

Cons:

The original sound of the video clips you use cannot be played.
The conversion is too slow (although, you can buy a paid version to prevent waiting).
The maximum resolution is only 360p.

It is too early to give any rating points to this app because a lot of changes are still going to be made in the future.