Category Archives: iOS Apps

Fieldrunners 2 and Fieldrunners 2 HD On Sale

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I’ve been hearing good things about Fieldrunners since shortly after it first came out for iOS, but never purchased it. Earlier this year, Subatomic Studios, the developers of Fieldrunners, released a sequel to the popular game. Fieldrunners 2 has received good reviews as well, but I hadn’t bothered to buy it either. That changed today when Fieldrunners 2 went on sale for $0.99 (iTunes link). Fieldrunners 2 HD, the iPad version, is on sale for just $2.99 (iTunes link). I’ve been playing this game for the last few hours and I’m hooked. If you’re looking for a game to kill some time during the holiday season, or any time really, this is a must purchase. It’s a great Tower Defense game!

iTunes Festival In Progress

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If you love live music, do yourself a favor and grab the iTunes Festival App now. In case you’re not familiar, the iTunes Festival is a concert series sponsored by Apple in London beginning in 2007. The 2012 lineup inclues acts like Usher, Band of Horses, Norah Jones, The Killers, Mumford & Sons, and many more. You can stream the concerts live or watch them after they have completed. You can view the shows in iTunes, via an iOS App, or via the iTunes Festival icon on the Apple TV. The shows are absolutely free to view!

App Review: NBC Tour de France Live Mobile

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Every July I spend three weeks glued to my TV watching the Tour de France. I started watching the race, as many Americans did, when Lance Armstrong ruled the event in the early 2000′s. Despite his absence from the race, I still enjoy watching it every year. The strategy, mountain top finishes, bunch sprints, and the scenery keep me coming back.

Since I cut the cord last year, I didn’t have a way to view the Tour this year. As with most things these days, there’s an app for that. I purchased the NBC Tour de France Live Mobile app (App Store link). If you’re outside the United States, you may need to search your local App Store to find the proper app for your country. The NBC Tour de France Live Mobile app is universal so one purchase is good for all your iOS devices.

The app layout is very easy to navigate. Lining the bottom of the app is the basic navigation including Video, Standings, Riders, Photos, Stages, and a few more. Standings includes both stage and overall results for the 5 classifications (Team, Individual, Sprint, Climbing, and Under 25). The Riders section contains the most basic of information about the riders, while the Photos section has some good pictures of before, during, and after each stage. The Video section contains highlights of the stages, recaps, interviews, stage previews with Bob Roll, and more.

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Easily Add To Your Netflix Queue With QueueUp

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For the past several weeks I’ve been using a great iOS app called QueueUp. Just as the name implies, the app is great at queuing up things. In this case, it’s your Netflix queue.

When you first launcqueueup1.jpgh the app, you’re asked to sign in with your Netflix login. Once you sign in and allow QueueUp to access your account, you are taken to a simple search box after the app syncs your current queue information. Begin typing any movie or TV show into the box and click the search button. You’ll be presented with a beautiful list of results.

From there you can add to your queue or see additional information about your selection. If your content is available to stream, you’ll be shown two buttons to add to the queue of your choice. The red button adds the selection to your disc queue, while the blue button adds it to your instant queue. On the additional information view, you have the choice to add the selection to the top or bottom of your disc queue. After adding something to your queue, the app refreshes to show the remove button instead of the add button.

Essentially, that’s the extent of QueueUp. If you’re thinking that QueueUp sounds simple, you’re right. But that’s also the beauty of the app. QueueUp is a relatively simple app, but it performs that job incredibly well while looking great. Like a Brazilian super model walking down the runway, QueueUp makes something look simple and beautiful.

I’ve found myself using QueueUp quite frequently as movies or TV shows pop into my thoughts. Since Netflix removed the ability to add items to your disc queue from their iOS app, QueueUp has become my go to app for adding items into my Netflix queues.

If I could make one improvement to the app, I’d like to see a proper queue management feature. While you can add and remove items from your Netflix queue, your can’t reorder them or see them all in a list form. The app does exactly what it says it does, so this is a feature request and not a criticism of the app in its current form. The developer, Patrick Burleson, told me he has plans for additional features, but he’s keeping them a closely guarded secret for now.

QueueUp is developed by BitBQ and is available from the iOS App Store for $1.99. If you are a Netflix subscriber and frequently add items to either your disc or instant queue, I recommend giving QueueUp (iTunes link) a try.

Google Voice Returns To The App Store

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After a long hiatus, Google Voice Apps have returned to the App Store. In the span of less than 48 hours, not one, but two Google Voice Apps are now available for purchase.

GV Mobile, one of the original Google Voice Apps has returned as GV Mobile + (iTunes link). Sean Kovacs, the developer of GV Mobile +, says it has been approved by Apple and is still propagating through Apple’s servers. As of this writing, it’s still not available in the US App Store. Sean will be giving away promo codes for GV Mobile + on Twitter and if #gvmobile trends on Twitter, he’s going to set the price to free for the night. GV Mobile + is selling for $2.99. You can follow Sean on Twitter, @seankovacs.

GV Connect (iTunes link) went live Friday night and currently costs $2.99. If you’re an international user, there seems to be a known issue with some Google Voice accounts and GV Connect. The developer, Andreas Amann, is aware of the issue and hopes to have a fix soon.

Apple seems to be loosening their App Store restraints with the reintroduction of Google Voice Apps in the App Store. It’s great to see GV Apps return and I look forward to trying them out as I have a Google Voice number now.

Scoutmob: Save Cash While Dining Out And More

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My wife and I enjoy eating out a few times a week. We aren’t crazy spenders when it comes to eating out, but during a typical week we eat out between 1-3 times. We have a handful of restaurants we visit and rotate visits between those choices. After a while though, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut of visiting the same places. Scoutmob allows us to try new restaurants and save a little cash in the process.

Scoutmob is similar to Groupon in form, but functions a little different. Both Groupon and Scoutmob allow you to experience local restaurants and businesses at a discount, but unlike Groupon, Scoutmob is completely free to use.

Each day, Scoutmob has a different daily deal. You can visit the Scoutmob website and enter your mobile phone number and you’ll receive a text message with the deal information. The deal is good for about 3-4 months, after which it will expire and you cannot use it. You can only claim the deal if you visit the website and enter your mobile number during the time the deal is being offered; unless you have an iPhone. If you have an iPhone, you can download the Scoutmob iPhone App and you can see all current deals (ones that have yet to expire) and there is no need to “claim” the deal.

Using the deal is simple. If you have the text message, just show the text message when you pay and your discount will be applied to your bill. I’ve never used the text message method, but I imagine you have to delete the text message on the spot to prevent reuse. If you have the iPhone App, just open the App, select the deal, and click the “Use This Deal” link. The App will verify your location and then just show the screen to the server.

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I’ve used the Scoutmob iPhone App about 3-4 times and have never had a problem getting the discount. The first couple version of the App were horrendously slow, but those problems were fixed some time ago. My only wish for the App would be a way to hide deals I know I’ll never use. Scrolling through the deals can take a while, and having the ability to hide unwanted deals would be a time saver. A simple hide flag would be fairly simple to implement, and a button to removed the “hidden flags” would be a great way to get any accidentally hidden deals back.

Scoutmob is currently offering deals only in Atlanta and New York, but are looking to expand to other cities. The handful of cities they are expanding to next are listed on the Scoutmob homepage. Sign up to be notified if you want to know when they launch in your city. Scountmob is completely free to use, and I highly recommend it.

Easily View Wikipedia with Articles

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I use all of Sophiestication Software’s apps (CoverSutra, Groceries, and Tipulator). When I found out that Sophiestication recently released the Wikipedia app “Articles,” I had to try it. I am very pleased with it.

The look of Articles is reminiscent of Mobile Safari. The interface includes a progress bar, back and forward, bookmarks and history, and page selection. Up to 9 pages can be opened at once, which is 1 more then Mobile Safari.

Articles remembers the last Wikipedia page that was accessed from the last session, as well as the position left off while reading it.

The bookmarks section includes bookmarks that can be organized into folders, recent history, a link to a random Wikipedia article, as well as a map showing nearby links. Recently viewed are saved for offline viewing

Wikipedia articles are displayed nicely. Clicking on a picture zooms into it, and after loading the picture can be saved or copied. Separate windows are used to open tables, graphs, and extra information.

28 different languages can be chosen to search from, including French, Spanish, and Chinese.

There are a few things I did not like about Articles. There is no way to quickly go to a section. Any section must be scrolled down to. Also, there is no queue.

Even with these flaws, Articles has shaped up to be a great app. Articles is available for $2.99 (iTunes link) for iPhone OS 3.0 and above.