(iXpenseit Forum Review by cjvitek. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

iXpenseit [$4.99 - iTunes link] for iPhone and iPod touch is a budget tracking app that has recently appeared on the iPhone commercials. It allows a user to track monthly and daily spending, breaking items down into categories, as well as allowing the user to see overall spending.

You start the app by entering various budget amounts for different categories. The default allows for a $1,000 monthly budget for all spending. You can also break down the budget into different categories: $200 for food, $50 for entertainment, $100 for auto, etc. This allows you to track overall spending as well as spending within each of the categories. (Interestingly, they have a specific budget for iTunes!!)

Once you have the budget set, you then simply start by inputting an entry everytime you spend some money. Went to the movies? Put it $10 for entertainment. Paid a $50 water bill? Put it in for utilities. Simply tap the “new” button on the main screen to input a new expense. Chose the category (like auto), subcategory (like gasoline), the amount, date, how it was paid (cash, debit card, etc), and the vendor. You can even include a little note for yourself.

As you spend money, you can track it with the “report” option. You can get a report on overall spending, or within a specific category. You can see reports as a bar graph, pie chart, a written summary. You can even export the data if you like! On the main home screen there is a “battery meter” showing your overall budget – you can see how much you have left, how much you have been spending per day, and so forth.

You have the option of searching for an item as well. Can’t remember how much you last cable bill was? Search for it, and you can see if your bill has somehow drastically increased (gotta stop watching those pay-per-view UFC matches!!). Or you can just browse through the calendar for the date the payment was made.

Various settings allow for different levels of detail in the budget, using a passcode, editing the various categories and sub-categories, and even importing data from a CSV file (via a wifi connection from your computer). You even have icons for the different types of expenses, so you can look easily and identify the kind of expense.

Conclusion

All in all, iXpenseit is a full featured budget tracking program. In some ways, it is almost too full featured. It you simply want to track spending, this app may be overkill. But if you want a detailed breakdown of where you money goes each month, I think this is the app for you. At $4.99, (make sure to list it in the iTunes category!) the price is reasonable for the number of features that is included. Because of the breadth of features that are offered, I give this app four and a half out of five stars, but make sure to spend the time to learn how to use it to the fullest!

Pros

• Nice interface
• Easy way to track spending and budget

Cons

• None, except maybe too detailed.

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: iXpenseit Expense Tracker for iPhone

(Settlers of Catan Forum Review by cjvitek. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

Settlers of Catan [$4.99 - iTunes link] for the iPhone. The long awaited game has made it’s debut…so how does it stack up?

Well, first off, for Settlers fans (like myself) who have been eagerly awaiting the game, it’s great to finally see it. This style of game lends itself to the iPhone IMO, and I am very happy to see on the quintessential “nerd” games on the iPhone. But having said that, this game is not a home run. It’s better than nothing, but there are some areas where I find that game lacking.

For a quick review (for anyone who doesn’t know what Settlers of Catan is, is a strategy board game where you goal is to amass a certain amount of points by building cities, roads, trading with colleagues, and using the games resources to your advantage. The game combines both skill and luck, and can be quite engrossing. I have played the online version (Java Settlers of Catan Ladder) many times, so I am sort of using that as my basis for comparison.

The games graphics are very nice. The board has a nice visual appeal, all the features of the game (the cards, resources, even the robber!) are rendered very nicely. However, it almost seems to much emphasis is placed on the visual elements, and the game play itself (both in terms of the iPhone speed, as well as the ease of accessing controls) seems very slow to me. You can control settings to turn animation off (for example) but it doesn’t seem to impact the overall game speed.

When it is your turn, the game uses a hexagonal grid system for your player controls – but this means that you have to navigate a couple of menus to get to some more common controls and features (like building a road). These controls are not customizable, so you can’t put frequently used features in the front. I would like to see some sort of shortcut system or method of speeding up access to some controls.

The game AI is interesting. I am still figuring out if the AI strategies that are employed are good – but I guess that means that they aren’t horrendously bad! Each computer player has different strategies, so playing against different opponents will result in different kinds of games.

One of the key features of the game is trading. I am not sure what causes an opponent to accept or reject a trade, but I haven’t gotten any of my suggested trades accepted….ever. Maybe I am always asking for too much, but it seems as if when I am offering a lot, someone would accept a trade I am suggesting!

There is an indirect multiplayer mode – multiple people using the same iPhone. This is okay, if you have some friends sitting around and have the inclination to pass the iPhone around. There are no options for playing over bluetooth, wifi, or the internet – hopefully at least the latter will be added in some future update.

You do have the option of modifying some game settings, such as victory points needed to win. A variety of other options (which I have never heard of) can be set – things like friendly robber, resource bonus, stacked dice, etc. There also is a nice tutorial for people who don’t know how to play. I would love to see the ability to set up different kinds of maps, and i hope to see some of the expansion sets available as well!

Conclusion

All in all, it’s great to see Settler’s of Catan make its way to the iPhone. While the game comes off as very polished, there are some areas I could see some improvement – most notably in speed of game play and the ability of wifi or internet multiplayer. It still is fun, however, and will remain on my iPhone for the foreseeable future. At $4.99, it’s not as cheap as some games, but for people who have been waiting for a while, the price is probably not a concern.

Pros

• Well, it’s Settlers of Catan!
• Nice graphics
• Multiplayer by “hotseat”
• Can modify game settings

Cons

• Slow gameplay
• No wifi/bluetooth/internet play
• Tedious to get to some of the controls

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: Settlers of Catan for iPhone

(Card Ninja Forum Review. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

Card Ninja – just the name conjures up interesting ideas as to what the iPhone (and iPod touch) game might be. As it turns out, the ideas may not be that far from the truth.

In Card Ninja, you are simply “flicking cards” to the appropriate goal post, based on color, pattern, or some combination of those. The flick motion is simple enough, using the same kind of flick that you do to scroll through your contact list. The cards are all set out in the middle of the screen, with goal posts are various locations (the harder the level, the more goal posts you have!). The goal is to flick them correctly (not just slide them over, you lose points for that), and keep you card count higher than the minimum number to advance to the next level. If your card count drops, the game is over.

The game is fun, and the flicking cards can be fun. I found after continued play, however, that my fingers started to get a little sore. So perhaps long term play is not a good idea – I would limit yourself to an hour at a time.

The game play, while not complicated, is engaging, and trying to speed up your reaction time (seeing the card, deciding where to flick it) can be a significant challenge. I found myself getting flustered a few times and that would just make the game worse – one mistake seems to compound on top of another. Adding in things like wild cards just makes it reach another level of difficulty.

Unfortunately there is no multiplayer. I can envision a great multiplayer version, with people flicking cards at each other trying to beat your opponent. You can compare high scores online, but there is nothing like a head to head competition to get the blood boiling…or bring out the ninja in you. They have updated the game in the past, so perhaps that would be coming out in a future version. There also is a free version to try before you buy, so give it a shot.

Conclusion

All in all, Card Ninja is an entertaining, unique kind of game that can pass away the time – if you have the reaction time and finger strength for it. The game is engaging and the upper levels can be a challenge. While there is no multiplayer, for $.99 it is a fun game to try, and I give it four out of five stars.

Pros:

• Interesting game idea
• Easy to learn and start playing

Cons:

• No multiplayer
• Finger gets sore

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: Card Ninja for iPhone

(iGo My Way 2009 – North America For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

iGo My Way [$79.99 - iTunes link] is the fourth turn-by-turn app I have reviewed. As with the other three, I have used the app around town as well as planning for a long trip (the same trip I have taken with the others). It generally suggested very reasonable routes, it had the vast majority of POI’s that I was looking for (in fact, I don’t recall a single instance where I couldn’t find something). So how did it compare in the long distance travel?

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a promo code for this app.

Let me start off by saying that I found the interface a little difficult at time. When you start, there is a screen with three main buttons and a map. Tapping the map at the top brings you to your current route and directions. The other three buttons are destination (to program a route), my route (for details on your current route), and settings. Maybe it is just me, but at times I found the layout a little less that intuitive. If I wanted to alter my route, for example, I kept going into “destination” instead of “my route”. While I am sure I would have eventually learned the different buttons, it didn’t strike me as the most obvious layout.

To program a route, you can go into desintation. From there you can select an address, a point of interest, a location on a map, of a list of favorites. In addition, you have your route history at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, there was no contact integration. I did find the interface for choosing a destination based on address to be very straightforward – you choose the state, city, street, etc. At any point you can go back and change any of the options. The POI database was very complete (as complete as any of the other apps I have seen), and choosing a point of interest was another straightforward process.

Once your route is calculated (based on preferences), you can make changes like selecting various route alternative. It includes shortest, economical, easiest, and fastest. One really nice feature is that it shows you the distance and the driving time for each of these, and you can select back and forth to see how they look on the map. I wish the display map had more details instead of just a red line showing your route – city names, highway names, or things like that would be appreciated. One nitpick – I had a default “shortest route” option selected. But when I compared with other routes, sometimes the fastest route was listed as many as 10 miles shorter than the shortest route (see the image below). Ummm…need to work on those routing programs!!

You can also choose to look at places around the destination, where it will give you a list of POI near your planned destination. Lastly, you can change any of your route settings (such as vehicle from car to taxi, bicycle, bus, etc). You can choose different preferences (avoid toll roads, avoid ferries) at this point as well. At any time, you can come back to the “my route” screen to get these options again.

Unfortunately, there were limited options to preview or browse your route. You couldn’t do anything aside from viewing a simple over view map – no listed directions, no detailed summary, nothing like that. There was an option to preview the trip, but it would simply plan an animation of your route – not something you had a lot of control over. You didn’t have any option of travelling “via” a specific road, highway, or city, so you couldn’t plan a multiple itinerary trip.

The settings button allows you to change default settings – sounds and warnings, regional settings, etc. Many of these are things that you only need to access once, but the settings also included the default routing options (route type, avoid/use highways, avoid tolls, etc).

When actually driving, I found the iGo app very good. The maps that are displayed are very detailed, to the point of telling you at times when you may need to switch lanes for an upcoming turn. The app (in general) avoids giving you specific distance estimates, instead telling you that you have “more than 50 miles to go” or “turn in more than 1 mile”. I found this to be beneficial sometimes (like when I am just starting a new leg) but at times I wish they gave me more detailed distance (like when I have five miles or less until a turn). Because there is no way to preview the direction in advance, you also can’t look ahead to see what you will do after the specific leg of the trip. You had limited option for data to display on the map – you could choose from distance left, time left, or ETA (or all three). There was supposed to be an option for an audible speeding warning, but I never heard anything so it was not very effective.

My biggest complaint with the app was starting it up. Multiple times, at least 70% of the time, the app seemed to “freeze” when starting. If I rebooted my iPhone and went right into iGo, I had no problems. But if I ran another app, ANY other app first (voice memo, iPod, anything), the app would freeze and not load about 70% of the time. I don’t know if this is a problem with my iPhone (it is jailbroken) or with the app itself. Right now I don’t seem to be having that issue – but it happened enough times, on multiple days to make it a major concern. I did get around this by installing backgrounder and having the app run in the background. Then, when I wanted to go back into the app, it was already running so I had no problems.

The app also seemed to lose the GPS signal more than any other GPS app I have. It usually found it again within a minute or so, but that didn’t happen to any other GPS app I have tested. The ETA’s seemed to be off for longer distances – at one point it said I had about 70 miles left, and the trip would take about 2.5 hours. Unlike some of the other apps, the screen blank was disabled, meaning the app stayed on even without me doing anything (which I think is good). And like some others, this app could be viewed in landscape mode (a big plus!).

Conclusion

All in all, while I felt the user interface was a little less polished than some others, the quality of the maps, the good POI database, and the options for trip planning were nice pluses for this app. However, the problems with the app starting up prevent me from giving it a high rating. This may be due to my iPhone, and thus may not be an issue everyone else is going to experience, so take that into consideration. But if I can’t even get into an app to run it, pluses (like good maps, nice options) and minuses (no contact integration, shortest route isn’t always the shortest) take a back seat. At $79.99, this is a pricey app, so caution should be used before purchasing (check others to see if they had the same startup issues). As it is, I give it three out of five stars – if I didn’t have the startup problems, I would probably give it three and a half or four stars out of five. (I welcome and will post any comments from the app programmers in response to this review)

Pros

• Very detailed maps
• Great side by side comparison of routing options
• Good POI database

Cons

• No “travel via” option
• Some problems with starting the app
• Route options aren’t logical
• Limited trip overview options

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: iGo My Way 2009 – North America

TwitBit 2.0 Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Surprisingly, nearly 3 months after iPhone 3.0’s release, there are only a few twitter applications that offer push notifications. Twitbit is one of them. Version 1.x wasn’t compelling enough for me to use as my primary client, but the latest 2.0 update is rather impressive and brings Twitbit up to par with other great Twitter clients. The design is clean and simple yet not lacking in important features.

The home tab displays both your timeline and mentions. Just select which you want to view from the top. To scroll up to the most recent tweet, tap the time in the iPhone’s toolbar. Tapping on a tweet opens a new screen with the Tweeter’s name and username, the tweet, and some options. The tweet is displayed in a chat bubble below the user and includes the date/time and what platform the tweeter posted with. If the tweet was a reply, “In reply to…” will be attached to the tweet and tapping this will bring up a nice conversation view (direct messages also have conversation view). The tweet screen also includes buttons to reply, DM, retweet, and mark as favorite. Tapping the forward icon in the upper right corner allows you to open the tweet with the built in browser or mail a link to that tweet.

As you navigate through screens, the button on the top left will be named after your previous screen. If you find yourself several screens deep through navigation, tap the home tab to quickly return to your timeline.

A user’s profile screen includes the standard profile information including the options to follow/stop following, block, and bookmark. You can also send a user a public or direct message and view tweets that mention them from their profile. When viewing your own tweets from your user profile, there is an option to delete.

The Search tab is where you go to search for tweets in all of Twitter or by tweets near you. You can save any search term to for quick access later. To search trends, tap the bookmarks icon and select the trends tab at the bottom. From the top you can select current, daily, or weekly trends.

Search for users in the People tab as well as find all the users you have bookmarked and recent profiles you have visited. Your own profile will be listed on the top of the bookmarks list in blue. You can easily rearrange the list order by tapping edit.

Twitbit supports the use of multiple accounts and the account tab is where you go to switch between users. Tap the arrow for an account to set your push notification settings and edit your services. Twitbit allows you to post pictures to TwitPic, Yfrog, and Flickr and videos (3GS only) to TwitVid, Yfrog and Flickr all of which need to be authorized separately. If you have an Instapaper account, you can authorize it to use with Twitbit as well.

For even more settings, visit the iPhone’s Settings app and tap Twitbit. From here you can choose to display full names or usernames, how many tweets to fetch (20, 50, or 100), whether to highlight new tweets, and whether to scroll to the top when loading new tweets. Retweets can be formatted as “… (via @name)” or “RT @name: …”, image upload quality set as low, medium, or high, and nearby search radius as 2 km, 10 km, 50 km, or 250 km. If you don’t want your links to be shortened, you can turn that off too.

Twitbit is great application, but does has some disadvantages. There isn’t a way to access a list of users when composing a tweet, Flickr uploads do not include EXIF data, and the push notification sound is Apple’s default Tri-tone text message sound. The good news is that the developers have let us know they are considering adding these features in an upcoming release.

Speaking of the developers, High Order Bit is already diligently working on 2.1 promising features like full landscape support and the ability to iterate through your timeline from the tweet view. They are also planning to utilize those Twitter API updates for native retweet and geotag support.

Conclusion

Twitbit 2.0 is an excellent Twitter client! Notifications are quickly pushed to your iPhone in under 2 minutes, the UI is clutter free, and performance is smooth and snappy. If you’re looking for a Twitter application with built-in push notifications, I highly recommend Twitbit. If you’re unsure about making a purchase, you can try before you buy! Twitbit Lite is available for free and has all the features of Twitbit “pro” except for push and Flickr uploads. If you do choose to download Twitbit, be sure to let us know what you think!

Pros

• Push Notifications for mentions and direction messages in under 2 minutes
• Upload to Flickr
• Built-in browser and map
• Bookmark users

Cons

• No access to users while composing tweet
• Flickr uploads do not include EXIF data
• Only one notification sound option

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: TwiBit 2.0 Twitter Client for iPhone

Tweetie 2.0 [$2.99 - iTunes link] is the second generation release of one of the iPhone’s most popular Twitter clients. According to developer Atebits, it’s also a ground-up re-write — it even has a snazzy new gray, single, cut-out bubble icon to prove it — the only thing 2.0 having in common with 1.0 being the name. I’d argue that point — they’re also both darn good Twitter clients, and they both share a price of $2.99.

That’s right. Since Apple doesn’t (yet?) provide a mechanism for upgrades (which to many developers means incentive and to many users means discount), and since in-app purchase can only add content, not replace an entire app, Atebits is packaging Tweetie 2.0 as a whole new app. And they’re charging the same price. In other words, whether you bought the first Tweetie or not, you’ll have to buy Tweetie 2.0.

Is it worth it? Let’s take a look…

Add Account

There’s pervasive landscape mode, so rotate between portrait and landscape as the mood strikes you. Once you’ve decided on your orientation of choice, you need to add an account, and Tweetie 2.0 supports multiple accounts, of course. There’s also a cog icon for Advanced options, where you can enter an API Root and Search API for Twitter proxy servers (if Twitter.com is not directly available to you).

Not something many users will likely have the need for, but great, specialized option.

Accounts

From the Accounts screen, you can select which account you want to access (if you have multi accounts set up), with Edit, Add, Settings, and Refresh buttons in the corners.

Settings lets you toggle Display Name between username and full name, Date Format between Relative and Absolute, and Font Size from anything between 13pt and 20pt.

Yes, Tweetie 2.0 has done the un-Apple and placed settings in the app, and not in Apple’s Settings app. We’ll leave the in-vs-out, settings-vs-preferences debate out of this walkthrough, just know where to go if you need to make changes.

You can choose your preferred Image Service from yFrog, TwitPic, TweetPhoto, Mobypicture, Twitgoo, Posterous, or img.ly, or set a custom option (by setting the image service API endpoint). Video Service options (for iPhone 3GS users) include yFrog and TwitVid. URL Shortening options include j.mp (bit.ly), TinyURL, is.gd, i.pr, u.nu, or Linkyy, or again, a Custom option. Read Later offers Instapaper or Read it later support.

Advanced Setting offer a host of additional configurations. Quote Syntax can be set to “…” -@user or “…” (via @user). Auto Rotate (the ability to rotate between portrait or landscape modes discussed above) options include Always, Compose Screen Only, or Never (would that Apple offered this system-wide on the iPhone!).

Enable TextExpander can be toggled between on and off, as can sound effects.

User Services can likewise be toggle for Tweet Blocker, Follow Cost, Favstar.fm, Favrd, and Tweeteorites.

API Keys are available for jmp login and key, and for Tagal.us.

There’s also an Install Safari Bookmarklet, which creates a browser link that you can use to send URLs from the Mobile Safari browser to Tweetie 2.0. (A webpage with full, step by step instructions show you how to set it up). It’s not as necessary post cut-and-paste in iPhone 3.x, but it’s handy.

All in all, an amazing array of choices and enough configurability to make a settings junkie very, very happy.

Timeline

Once you’ve chosen your account, Tweetie 2.0 takes you to your timeline, presented as a fairly standard list view of the tweets of all the people you follow. It’s also the first tab along the bottom of the app, represented by a word bubble which gets brighter, and gets a little triangular pointer on top, when active. Also, if you have any unread tweets, a small glowing dot will appear beneath the icon, much like how the Dock in Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard denote active apps. These indicators are consistent for @Mentions and Direct Messages as well.

Just like Apple’s Spotlight enabled apps, you can scroll up to reveal a search box. In timeline view, typing in the search box filters the contents of the tweets (i.e. typing in iPhone results in only tweets containing the word “iPhone” to show up).

Instead of a Tweetie 1.x-style refresh button at the top of the list view, Tweetie 2.0 uses something more fun, if less iPhone-like. Pull down even further, past the Spotlight box, and you get a downward arrow that tells you to keep pulling if you want to refresh. Keep pulling and then, spring-like, the arrow flips up and the text changes, instructing you to release to refresh. Boom. New tweets.

Like Tweetie 1.x, swipe a tweet and you slide it away to get quick access to several options: deal with links in tweets (which gives you additional options like Open, Mail Link, Repost Link, and Read Later), go to user’s profile, star tweet, and perform an action (like Retweet, Quote Tweet, Post Link to Tweet, Mail Tweet, and Translate).

Tapping on a tweet takes you to a view of only that tweet which includes information like full name and username, which client was used to post the tweet, and surfaced buttons offering the same options as the swipe detailed above. There are also up and down triangle arrows, like you get in Mail, so you can go to the next or previous tweet, saving you having to hit the Timeline (back) button, and essentially letting you browse in single tweet mode if you like.

Tapping on the avatar/name bar brings you to the user’s profile which adds in the Twitter user number (order in which you joined Twitter — i.e. @biz and @ev are early joiners and so have low numbers, most of the rest of us are not and so have high numbers).

On the right there’s a button to add the user to your iPhone contacts, (with the URL of their Twitter page, and their Bio as a note) or share that info like you would any iPhone contact.

The Profile page also shows the user’s Twitter bio, their location, and web site URL. Tapping on Location will open an embedded Google Map. Tapping on web will, of course, open an embedded browser and pull up the web site.

(And yes, I even like the pinstripes. They work. Apple uses them, and as such they do their job without drawing attention to themselves — which is a big part of their job. So I’m in the pro-pinstripe camp. There, I said it).

The next section shows the number of people the user is following, the number of followers the user has, the number of tweets the user’s posted, and the number of tweets the user has favorite’d. Tapping on any of those counters will bring up lists of the respective users or posts.

There’s a big Follow/Unfollow button for convenience (and you can choose to follow/unfollow from multiple accounts if you have them set up), and a services button which lets you access Tweet Blocker, Follow Cost, and Favstar.fm.

A More button lets you set Block Option and Notification Options (via Twitter’s built in SMS support — no support (yet?) for Apple’s Push Notification).

At the end, text informs you as to the user’s Twitter join date.

Along the bottom are icons for Profile (the page described immediately above), Timeline (a list view of that user’s tweets), @Mentions (a list view of that user’s mentions), and Favorites (a list view of that users Favorite’d tweets). Very convenient.

Mentions

Mentions functions similarly to the Timeline view, though of course is restricted to the tweets that contain your @username. Like with Tweetie 1.x, you can tap on @usernames to go to that user, on URL’s to open the URL, etc.

One element that’s been improved is reply chains. Now, when you tap on a reply, there’s an “in reply to” button beneath the tweet and tapping on that brings up a list view of all the linear tweets in that conversation. It’s not a very Apple-like button, mind you, and I raise that only because Tweetie has always been the most Apple-like of the Twitter clients for me, but it’s useful and it’s conceivable even Apple hasn’t figured out every usage case yet.

Direct Messages

Direct Messages also share much of the functionality of the Timeline view, though the “pull and release to refresh” doesn’t seem to be included here (and I’m not quite sure how to refresh that right now?).

Direct Messages are those tweets sent privately so only you and the sender can see them, and unlike the simple list view used for @mention reply-chains, these get the more chat-like bubble treatment. It’s an interesting visual differentiator, and the bubbles themselves make Apple’s look a little Aqua-dated.

Composing Tweets

There’s a nice, Email-style Compose button at the top right that’s consistent across all the major tabs — big points for that. Tap it and you get a writing pad view similar to Tweetie 1, but with a widget-ized character counter. The counter not only tells you how much more you can type before hitting the 140 character limit, but if you tap on it, it unveils a host of additional options: Camera, Photo Library, Geotag, Username, Hashtags, Shrink URLs.

Camera lets you take photos (or video on the iPhone 3GS) to add to your tweet, and Photo Library lets you choose from images already on your iPhone. Geotag adds your GPS location. Username and Hashtags bring up a search box that lets you quickly find other users or trends to add to your tweet. For example, if you reply to @friend1, and want to add @friend2 and @friend3, or #topic4, just search, tap, and it’s inserted at the cursor point. Shrink URLs will use your shortener of choice to compact a link and save you precious characters.

Other Twitter clients have had some of these functions already, but it’s great to see them implemented with Tweetie’s characteristic clean, simple interface.

Also, if you decide to Close a tweet without posting, Tweetie will now offer to let you save it to Tweetie’s new drafts manager, save it to the excellent Birdhouse app for further crafting, or to simply abandon it via Don’t Save.

Search

Search gives you the option to Search for content or username, and yes, you can save searches. Awesome.

You can also search Nearby (location based), which again includes embedded Google Maps with pins for nearby Twitter users. Tapping a pin brings up the user’s name, and tapping on that takes you to their profile page.

Also included on this screen is a handy list of currently trending topics on Twitter (no four letter words this time, luckily!)

More

More gives you access to your own Profile — and yes, you can now edit it right in Tweetie 2.0!

You can also get a list of your Favorite’d tweets, Go to User if you know a specific Twitter ID and you want to jump directly to that profile, and access the Drafts manager (which has a handy “send all” option).

Persistence and Offline Sync

If you’re using Tweetie 2.0 and you exit the app, it saves the exact state of the interface and the next time you launch Tweetie 2.0, it brings you back exactly to that state. So, if you were browsing your @mentions, you come back to those exact @mentions. Composing a tweet, you come back to that composition, already in progress.

It’s hard to express just how awesome this feature is, and other apps should adopt it immediately if not sooner. Yes, sure, it’s still not multi-tasking, but it makes the lack of multi-tasking far less annoying.

Equally awesome is that, if you’re offline for any reason (no WiFi or 3G/data available), Tweetie 2.0 will still let you go about performing actions, and will then send them to Twitter when you resume your online connection. Sublime.

What’s Missing

Yeah, no Push Notification. Atebits is currently happy with Twitter’s built in SMS feature, so it’s not on the current agenda. If you want Push Notifications, you’ll need a middleapp like Boxcar, or you’ll need to look elsewhere.

Also, while I personally never use them, there’s aren’t any themes yet for those who like to switch up their experience. No dark theme. No blubbly theme. No themes.

No group hacks either, though hopefully when Twitter rolls out Lists, Tweetie will add support in a future update.

Lastly, still no unread counts (like Mail’s little red dot that tells you how many new messages you have.

Conclusion

All the above, and we’ve only just scratched the surface of Tweetie 2.0. It’s an amazing upgrade, easily worth $2.99 for Tweetie 1.x users, if not more for new users. Either way, if you liked Tweetie 1.x, you’ll fine a whole lot more love for its bigger, better brother.

Bottom line — Tweetie 2.0 brings so much to the table, so simply and elegantly, and with such discoverability that it earns not only a high place among the iPhone’s crowd of Twitter clients, but among its apps in general.

As always, if you give Tweetie 2.0 a try, let us know what you think, and if you find any features we missed, let us know in the comments!

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App Walkthrough: Tweetie 2.0 Twitter Client for iPhone

(Goviko Navigator for iPhone Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

Gokivo [$4.99 - iTunes link] is the next GPS application in the increasingly long list of iPhone GPS turn-by-turn apps. First off, when I started the app, I got a little confused because it looks almost exactly like Google Maps (in fact, it may literally be the same). But the interface expands beyond Google Maps. When you put in a term for searching, you get an expanded list of options – including using local Yahoo lists, categories, your contact list, etc.

To use the app, you simply choose your destination (either as an address, contact book entry, local business, etc). From there you can choose to “Bo Navigate” (which is the Gokivo app). Warning – don’t choose “directions” – this is the Google map directions. I had a slight problem once where I went into “directions” and actually got into Google Maps, and I couldn’t get back to the Gokivo app. There are no settings initially to choose route types or preferences – those can be adjusted later.

The directions provided seems pretty straightforward. It didn’t have some of the features that the other apps has (like speeding warning) but it did have traffic warnings. You can also view standard options like ETA, distance to arrival, etc. The POI database appears to be based on local Yahoo data, so it is pretty robust. I put in some obscure locations and it was still able to find them with relative ease. The choice of routes was pretty standard, no real problems or anything, although as with all the apps the ETA was slightly longer than I have seen in reality.

You can review your directions before you take the trip, either in a list form or in a simulated trip form. It does have text to speech, so it reads the road names for you (a feature that I think is great). Because the maps are (seemingly) based on Google maps, there is little footprint on your iPhone. So you do need to have a phone (or internet?) connection to use the app – the maps aren’t stored on the device. You can also play your music while in the app.

The app use is very nice – the voice is clear, the directions are announced in plenty of time before the actual turn, and the map itself is easy to read. There wasn’t any option I could find to add an interim destination, but all destinations are saved in recents, so you can easily reroute yourself if you change your plans. The maps are very clean – not a lot of clutter making them very easy to read while using the app.

So let’s discuss the pricing plan, which has it’s plusses and minuses. The price is only $4.99, and this gives you 30 days of access. However, unlike the AT&T Navigator, you don’t automatically get rebilled for a new month. You can choose to purchase a new month, or you can wait until you need it again, then purchase a new month. Each month that is purchased is $9.99 [Gokivo has announced this will soon drop to $4.99 -- Rene]. This is, IMO, better than the automatic billing of AT&T Navigator, but ultimately I still prefer to have an upfront cost and not be billed every month. But if you would be using a GPS app sporadically, this may be an ideal solution for you – provided you will have phone coverage where you are going.

Conclusion

All in all, I think Gokivo is a strong competitor in the GPS turn-by-turn market, giving it’s variation on the monthly pricing scheme. I still don’t like the fact you need to have a data connection, and I found the menus to be a little difficult to use while in the car (unlike the apps that have very large, easy to hit “buttons”). But for people who will only sporadically use a GPS app, this might be a top solution. Combined with their use of Yahoo for a POI database, it holds its own in the market. For a $9.99 initial price (for one month, too bad they don’t give you two months or something to start!), I give it four out of five stars.

Pros

• Text to speech
• Simple interface
• Pay as you go
• In app song control
• Uses Yahoo for POI

Cons

• Pay as you go
• Buttons for in car use not intuitive
• Need to have data connection (maps no on device)

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: Gokivo Navigator Turn by Turn GPS for iPhone

DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition App Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition [$19.99 - iTunes link] is a “the next-generation cable release” for your Canon or Nikon DSLR camera. With it you can trigger the shutter as well as change multiple settings, see through your camera’s viewfinder, and view images directly on your iPhone.

To use DSLR Camera Remote, you will need a computer, a USB cable that connects your camera to your computer, a Wi-Fi network (internet connection not required), and onOne’s free DSLR Camera Remote Server software installed on your computer.

The home screen has a big window that displays a photo or live view and your camera’s current settings. The six settings in the center are the ones you can remotely change: aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, quality, and exposure compensation. Just tap the setting you want to change and list of available options appear. Below these you will see what focus and exposure mode your camera is set to (you cannot change these remotely). If you are using a mode that is partially automatic, then you will not be able to adjust all settings. For example, in the screenshot above, you can see that I’m shooting with aperture priority, so the shutter speed is grayed out. In the center of the bottom toolbar, you will see how much hard drive space is available on your computer. The bottom right corner is the fire button to trigger to shutter and the bottom left corner is where you go to access more options.

Before I used DSLR Camera Remote, I was concerned that there was going to be a bit of a delay between tapping fire and my camera actually snapping the shot as this would be a major problem when shooting subjects like children or pets. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there is no noticeable delay. This is of course only true when not using LiveView mode. There is a significant delay when utilizing LiveView because your camera must first exit LiveView before taking the shot – not a fault of the app.

In situations where instantaneous shutter releases aren’t necessary, LiveView is awesome. From the home screen, the app displays exactly what you’d see by looking through your camera’s viewfinder; rotate to landscape for a larger view. After taking the shot, the app will display the photo for a few seconds before going back to LiveView. There is not a setting to change how long you see the preview for. If you have your camera set to autofocus, tapping the LiveView screen will focus. (Note that LiveView is only available on cameras that support it).

With LiveView disabled, you can swipe through all the photos saved in the chosen folder on your computer. Double tapping the photo will zoom in. Zooming in is nice in theory, but isn’t implemented well. It zooms in quite a bit and there isn’t a way to pan around the photo or change the magnification percentage. It’s easier to walk over to the computer and view the image there. You can zoom while in portrait or landscape, but you can only delete a photo from landscape – just tap and hold. Also from landscape you can trigger the shutter and access options.

Options

The intervalometer lets you take up to 999 shots anywhere from 1 second to 1 day apart. After choosing the desired interval and number of shots, just tap start

DSLR Camera Remote makes it easy to auto bracket. You can choose an exposure increment of ⅓ or a full stop and a total range between ⅓ and 5 stops above and below your current exposure. DSLR Camera Remote does the math for you and tells you how many shots will be included in your bracket given your chosen settings. You can also choose to lock shutter speed, aperture, or ISO speed and the delay between shots from 0 to 5 seconds. Once you’re ready to shoot your bracket, tap start.

Burst Mode lets you shoot 1 to 12 shots at your camera’s fastest rapid fire speed.

When turning on Live Preview, you will be given focusing options to choose from. Your choices depend on which camera you’re using. Refer your camera’s user manual if you aren’t sure what the options mean.

Conclusion

DSLR Camera Remote really is the “next generation cable release”. It’s biggest drawback is that you must have your camera connected to a computer. Since an actual internet connection is not required, you can create an ad-hoc network with your computer and communicate with your iPhone that way. This is a great workaround to the Wi-Fi requirement, but still needs a computer. I did see a glimmer of hope on onOne’s website about utilizing 3.0 to increase functionality:

Several people have asked if they can plug their iPhone directly into the camera’s USB port and control it this way. This is something we are actively investigating, but until the iPhone 3.0 update, third party developers like us don’t have any way to communicate through the iPod dock connector. In the future we hope to be able to add this support, we will keep you posted. They haven’t said anything more since 3.0 was released in June, so I hope that this is something they are still actively pursuing.

Regardless, DSLR Camera Remote is an excellent application as is and well worth the $19.99.

Pros

• Remotely control many settings and shutter release
• Immediately see photo taken
• Look through your camera’s viewfinder with LiveView
• Supports 16 Canon and 9 Nikon models
• Intervalometer and auto bracketting

Cons

• Zooming in on photo is limited
• Must have computer to use

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition for iPhone

FoodScanner App Review by msbaylor. For more App Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

From the creators of the Daily Burn app & Occipital’s RedLaser technology comes FoodScanner [$2.99 - iTunes link]. If you have used DailyBurn before (or if you haven’t you should, but it’s not required to have an account to use the app), then you should know that tracking the foods you eat can become tedious at times, especially when you can’t find just the right food to enter into your Food Log.

Note: Review is for version 1.0 of app.

Well, FoodScanner simplifies the process, using Occipital’s RedLaser technology. So by using your iPhone’s camera, aim at the food’s barcode & violá, the app will make a beeping noise and load your results nearly instantly, you don’t even have to tap the annoyingly small “camera” button!

Sorry the image is blurry, hard to take a snapshot before the app picks up the barcode.

From there you can enter the food into your Food Log if you wish or you can view nutritional data for the product.

But let’s say the barcode that is scanned doesn’t pull up any results, well, you have the option to add the food to the database by adding the name, serving size, nutritional data & even a picture!

No barcode? No problem! Use a keyword to mind a food & it’s nutritional info. But wait there’s more! Not only is the product added to your database, but to the global one as well, so when they say “a database of 200,000+ items & growing” they aren’t kidding. My only concern is false information, so do make sure when adding the food to your DailyBurn journal, that the nutritional info seems right.

I was really impressed by it’s ability to take a picture of the UPC barcode. I first tested it on the 3GS, no problems, I turned out all the lights and was able to “scan” the barcode using only the dim light radiating off my computer monitor! I then picked up my old iPhone 2G. While yes, the camera does not have a macro lens, the outcome was nearly the same. It took a little longer for the barcode to register, but nothing I’d say I wouldn’t have expected given the camera’s specs.

Another thing to note is that the screen says “hold still” I literally sat down and “trembled” the iPhone 3GS it was able to pick up the UPC code (it almost seemed to pick it up faster…)

This application really starts off where the free DailyBurn app ends. I only hope that they at some point merge the two into a “PRO” application as having two application is mildly irritating, especially if you need the real estate on your home screen. Another thing I’d like to see in the app (if not a ‘PRO” version, then the ability to “switch” between apps with out having to go to the home screen.) Again, realize that you do not need a DailyBurn account to use this, but if you like tracking your nutrition, then I highly recommend an account & the free DailyBurn app. The app is starting at an “introductory price” of $2.99. I hope they don’t raise the price too much, as I wouldn’t want to pay over the $2.99, $3.99 would be the absolute max. This is a really great concept & awesome app; however, the fact that I can’t go back to simply view data on previously scanned foods is a little annoying.

Pros:

• Utilizes Occipital’s RedLaser technology
• quickly get food & nutritional info from the product’s UPC
• Add items to the database
• Optionally sync with DailyBurn account
• Works well on both the iPhone 3GS & iPhone 2G (from what I tested)
• Easy UI

Cons:

• Viewing previously scanned “today” objects, you cannot view their info.

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: FoodScanner Barcode Scanner and Food Tracker for iPhone

(Sygic MobileMaps US for iPhone Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

In the turn by turn wars, Sygic has entered the fray with their Mobile Maps US. They also have versions for a number of other countries. Like all turn by turn apps, this one allows you to create navigation routes, utilize points of interest (POI), and assists in the actual driving of the route by giving you turn-by-turn directions. So how does it compare? Read on to find out.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a promo code for this app.

First thing I want to say is I love the interface. Probably this was my favorite of all four apps I have tested so far. The buttons are clear and large, meaning they are easy to read and easy to selection. The options make sense (such as “route”, “settings”, “navigate to”). I never found myself trying to figure out what button I needed to hit.

The routing overview options are great – you can see the instructions, see the route as images, see a summary, see a demo of the route, and even show a large map with your route. Likewise, when choosing a navigation point, there are a number of clear options – point on a map, GPS position, city center, address, POI, etc. Unfortunately there is no integration with your iPhone contacts – something that I would consider almost essential for any turn by turn GPS app.

When creating a route, you have some nice options I haven’t seen in some of the other apps. You can choose shortest and fastest (pretty standard), but you can also choose economical, pedestrian, and bicycle. Unfortunately you need to choose these in the settings, and can’t adjust them on a trip by trip basis. You do have the option of requesting an “alternate route” once your route is created, but it will still use your existing preferences. You can also choose to add an intermediate point (travel via…) if you want to go by a specific city or town. You can also choose to avoid an upcoming segment (the next mile, the next ½ mile, etc). Unfortunately, you can’t do this in advance to avoid a specific segment of the trip, it only avoids the next immediate segment. Lastly, you can choose to avoid traffic delays, but I am not sure if this downloads actual traffic data, or bases it on travelling through a city center (or historical traffic data). I tried it a couple of times, but didn’t find any change in my planned route.

When driving, you can have a speed warning option turned on, that will warn you when you are going over a speed limit by a user-defined amount. There is supposed to be an audible warning, but I never heard one. In addition, the speed limits seemed somewhat variable – sometimes they were accurate, sometimes they were wrong, and sometimes they were missing. You have the option of defining some of the data that appears on the screen – ETA, distance remaining, speed, time remaining, etc. I like this a lot because it enables everyone to choose what information they would find most valuable. The driving interface is nice, pretty standard with views like “night time view”, and it can be viewed in landscape mode as well. The turn by turn directions are good, although it doesn’t read the street names (it does read highway route numbers, though). The voice also includes little qualifiers like “turn immediately” if you need to make a quick turn following another turn. I find information like this helpful when driving. You can also see the POI on the map as you are driving (and can choose which icons you are able to see). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anyway within the app to disable the screen off function, so my screen kept turning off as I was driving.

So those are some of the good features about the Sygic app. Unfortunately, there were two really big flaws that were glaring. The first is when it comes to routing options – the routing options make no sense. Just like the other apps, I used this app to plan a route from Edinburg, TX to Terlingua, TX. A trip that I know is about 600 miles. I choose the shortest route, and it had me driving up THROUGH San Antonio – adding about 100 miles to the trip. I tried to hit “find alternate route”, and it took me up through Fort Worth…adding another 150 miles to the trip. So if I followed these directions, a 600 mile trip would have turned into a 700 or 850 mile trip. It was only after driving for about an hour on what I knew was the shortest route (or at least a shorter route) that the app finally gave me the instructions I wanted (which was calculated out to be shorter than the 700 miles it had suggested originally).

In addition, if you go off route, rather than trying to calculate a new route based on your current location, it seems to try to only get you BACK on to the previous route. So this app was telling me, at various times, to take a u-turn, drive back another 15 miles to the point where I went off the planned route, then continue from there. If I cancelled that route and created another one, that’s when it would then give me the best route from my current location.

Lastly, the maps seem very out of date. One of the first things I noticed was that the map for my home town didn’t have my street on it. Now, my street is fairly new (within the past 5 years) so maybe that was a simple mistake. But when I was planning my trip to Terlingua, TX, Terlingua didn’t even come up as a town in Texas! So in addition to missing roads, the app is missing whole towns. This may not be a factor if you are living in a large metropolitan area, but if could be a concern if you are living somewhere less developed (or travelling somewhere like that).

Driving around town I had no problems with this app. It seemed to have most of the POI that I was looking for (although the database was a little bit lacking). It also generally suggested reasonable routes to take (even if they weren’t the exact same ones I would have suggested). The real problems with this app came with the long distance travel.

Conclusion

All in all, there are many things I like about this app, but in the end the two glaring problems prevented me from giving it a strong recommendation. This app may be fine if you live and travel only in large, well known areas. But if you plan to go to smaller towns or visit newer roads, you will have a hard time using this app. These facts, combined with a few other flaws (lack of contact integration, poor route planning) leads me to reduce the rating, despite the great user interface and some nice features and options I haven’t seen on other TBT apps. For $39.99 [on sale, typically $59.99], I would expect to get accurate maps and better routing instructions. Three out of five stars. (I welcome and will post any comments from the app programmers in response to this review)

UPDATE

I just received an email from Sygic – contact integration and text to speech (reading road names) are going to be in the next update.

text-to-speech, i.e. voice guidance announcing the name of the next street or road in North America, Australia and New Zealand, the ability to choose addresses straight from iPhone contacts and navigate to them, smooth fading out of the music playback before the voice instructions, enhanced GPS lock, smoother position display when moving on the route. Also, the navigation will automatically resume after completion of phone call, without the need to tap the ‚Accept’ button anymore.

Pros:

• Includes nice routing options
• Can avoid upcoming route segments
• Nice interface and customization options

Cons

• No contact integration
• Maps out of date
• Sometimes route choices are questionable

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: Sygic MobileMaps US