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

Hurricane [$3.99 - iTunes link] is a hurricane tracking app for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Back when I lived in Florida, hurricanes were a yearly concern. Now that I am in Texas, they don’t play such a prominent role but they are still something to think about. Hurricane is an app designed to try to take away some of that concern.

I have actually had this app for well over 4 months, but I wanted to wait till the middle of hurricane season so I could see it in action. And let me say, the app generally performs very well. The app starts off with a screen where you can select Atlantic or Pacific hurricanes, and then gives you a list of the active storms as well as completed storms. When you click on a storm, you can look at the radar loop, projected path, tracking map, satellite images, and bulletins. All of this allows you to try to keep on top of these potentially devastating storms.

In addition, you can look a historical storms (from last year going back to 1851) and specific data feeds (like satellite images) from a variety of sources. For people with little hurricane experience, you can also see how hurricanes are rated on the Saffir-Simpson scale. While it certainly isn’t necessary, it would be nice to have some sort of hurricane checklist included (what to do, or not do, when one hits, for example).

Unfortunately, the app doesn’t provide any customization options. You can specify your location and only look at storms that may hit you. You can’t mark a storm as a “favorite” to keep close tabs on it. You don’t get push notifications when a storm status changes (or a new alert is released). These are all kinds of features that would put this app into an elite category. In addition, there is no ability to sort or search the historical data. I can’t look for all historical Cat 5 storms that have him Florida, for example. If I am curious about how frequently a specific area has been hit, I can’t only include storm that hit Texas. The historical data is nice, but in the present form it is a little unwieldy unless you know exactly what you are looking for.

Conclusion

As hurricane tracking apps go, this is a nicely designed app, giving you a lot of the pertinent and critical information. If you live in a hurricane prone area, it could certainly be worth the $3.99 price. However, the app is missing some features that would move it into a premium app category (which, I should note, I haven’t seen in other hurricane apps as well).

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

Pros

• Up to date hurricane tracking and projections
• Detailed data regarding hurricanes
• Historical data included

Cons

• No to choose “favorites”
• No push notifications
• No location based data
• No search or sort feature for historical data

TiPb Review Rating

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: Hurricane Tracking for the iPhone

Vine2Wine Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Overall I think this is a neat little reference guide. While you might find more information about each of the term on the Internet (and I’d like to see the option for more information on the grape varieties). I think this application handles the information very well and it’s quick and easy to use.

Vine2Wine is a wine drinker’s reference guide, whether you are a beginner wanted to learn the lingo or even for intermediates.

The app is simple. On the main screen you choose from three categories:

• Grape Varieties
• Wine terminology
• Wine Tastes

In the Grape Varieties list view. The different grape varieties are listed and depending on what type of grape it uses it is represented by a correlating purple of white grapes next to each variety. Also within the list view you have the phonetic pronunciation for the terms for quick reference. If you tap on one of the Varieties it will give you some information about it – such as color, flavors, & history.

Vine2Wine Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

As for the Wine terminology and Wine Tastes list views, each term is listed and a small part of the first line can be seen. If you tap on the term, rather than going to a new screen, the list expands to display the full text. I thought this was a really cool feature as it was quick and easy to navigate between the terms within the list.

All the lists are just like your contacts list in that they have the letter scroll bar on the right-hand side of the screen.

Pros

• Easy Navigation
• Interesting and quick navigation within terminology lists

Cons

• Not all the grape varieties have pronunciations
• No way to add notes.

TiPb Rating

Vine2Wine is available for $0.99 from the iTunes App Store.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: Vine2Wine for iPhone

The news used to be more simple. You had your choice of three major television networks, newspaper, magazines, or radio. Twenty-four-hour cable news was yet to come and the Internet was not even a glimmer in Al Gore’s eye. If the constant bombardment of information via satellite broadcast wasn’t enough to overwhelm the mere mortal, along came the Internet with the rise of blogging (ahem) and countless web sites feeding information. Something had to be done to make information easier to digest for the busy person on the go, and Spreed:News uses an innovative way to deliver it. Read on for the review!

What is Spreed:News?

Spreed:News

There are a variety of pre-set news sources to choose from, like CNN Top Stories, Blog Maverick, ESPN – Headlines, and People.com, to name several. The ability to customize the types of news and articles you are interested in is also a feature of Spreed:News.

Using Spreed:News

Also on the main page of the site is a “Customize” button. Tapping on it permits you to choose from several different categories so that each time you visit Spreed:News, you can select from sites and read news and articles that match your interests.

As I see it, there are three main benefits of using Spreed:News, and they are somewhat interrelated. First, it increases your ability to read faster. Second, it presents the information in such a way that, as you learn to read faster, you can digest larger amounts of information in shorter periods of time. Finally, it makes it much easier to read on a mobile device, like the iPhone. Although the iPhone sports a best-in-class Internet browser for rendering full web pages, it goes without saying that ALL mobile devices leave much to be desired for reading large amounts of information due to the small screen real-estate. Even the iPhone, with it’s expansive screen, benefits greatly from this eye-friendly presentation of information.

Once you have customized your interests and selected a news source, just tap on the stories that interest you, set your desired WPM, and start reading the word groupings as they flash in front of your eyes – it’s that easy. Or is it?

What’s It REALLY Like?

A Spreed:News user and fan, Michael, has put together a helpful video here, so I recommend you take a look so you can get a feel for how it works. Thanks, Michael!

The exciting thing about Spreed:News, aside from the obvious way in which it speeds up your ability to digest news and information, is the fact that the company is very responsive to user feedback and improvements are implemented all the time. Also, once you finish reading an article, you are presented with a screen with several options. Users can rate articles so you can see what is recommended reading and what isn’t, post the article on Twitter, send it to a friend, post it on Facebook, and leave feedback. Spreed:News is not only a great way to read information, but it’s also a great way to share the information with others in a variety of ways.

Final Impressions

It is challenging at first to get used to the innovative method of reading word groupings at a high rate of speed on your iPhone, but if you hang in there for a little bit, you will be rewarded with increased reading speed, surprising comprehension, and time savings in dealing with your daily information overload. I highly recommend you give it a try – at the low price of FREE, what are you waiting for?

RATING:

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Web App Review: SpreedNews

Jott (recently out of beta) is a way to take audio notes, then have them transcribed into SMS, email, or just a web note. This truly takes my Tungsten Audio recording days to the next level.

There are a couple ways to use Jott; either the iPhone application or via an 800 number. This review will focus on the use of the iPhone app., but will touch on different ways to you can access your Jott.

Starting out

Jott is a free service with optional paid plans that allow you to take verbal notes spoken into your iPhone and have them transcribed and placed in an online todo list.

After installing Jott, you will have to create an account. Jott gives you 3 levels of service; a free level which should cover most people’s needs, and two paid levels. The main differences between levels include the length of a recorded note and the ability to have these transcribed notes sent to you via email.

After you have logged in you can begin using Jott right away. The applications’ home screen has a visual recorder. Simply tap it to begin recording. The screen turns red on the top and bottom telling you that you have begun recording. You have 15 seconds to record your note. If you end earlier, simply tap the screen to stop. Afterwards you MUST stay in the application for your note to be uploaded to Jotts servers for transcription.

I’ve recorded a note, what next?

It takes a little time to transcribe your note; somewhere between 3 and 15 minutes. Afterwards, you note will appear in the “Notes” tab on the bottom of the application. From here, you can see the transcribed notes from today, yesterday, etc. If a note is not done transcribing, the software tells you to check back in a few minutes. You can tap any Jott to read it. Once you have read the Jott you can move it to a folder (your defaults are Home and Work), delete it, or mark it as “done”. You can also make a new list at any time by tapping Edit in the top left corner of the application. You can then move and organize your Jotts as needed.

If you prefer to type out a Jott, you can do that too by simply tapping the ABC icon located in the top right of the screen. Your typed note gets uploaded to Jotts servers along with your transcribed Jotts.

Conclusion

I like Jott a lot. It really comes in handy when you can’t type out a todo or reminder; Jott is there to save the day. The ability to use Jott as an actual todo list is quite helpful as well since Apple does not have any built-in software to accomplish this task. It is important to note, that once you have an account created, you can Jott by calling their 800 number and via the web and their Adobe Air application. Using these tools, you can access your Jotts just about anywhere. I have also been very pleased with the quality of the transcription. I speak relatively fast and Jott picks up most everything very well. Kudos to Jott!

If I had to find an Achilles heel with Jott it would have to be that in order to use the service, you really have to be online. So, for example, you are using this app with an iPod Touch and have no Wi-Fi, it is essentially useless to you. Once you record your Jott, Jott wants to begin the upload immediately for transcription. If you are using it with your iPhone, the fact that the Jott cannot be sent in the background can be quite frustrating as using an EDGE connection can take upwards of 2-4 minutes to upload. If you exit the app and come back, it starts all over again.

All in all though, this is a great app, especially since it is free. There are other todo applications out there, but they are just that, todo tools and they don’t really offer much in terms of voice note. If you are looking for a melding of traditional todos with voice notes, this is a great option. The todo functionality is not as strong as it could be, but it is enough for basic needs.

Ratings (out of 5)

• Look and Feel: 4
• Navigation: 5
• Features: 4
• Reliability: 4
• Overall: 4.25

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Take a note anywhere
• Touch or talk- two ways to enter data
• Many ways to access your Jotts

Cons:

• Uploading over EDGE is painful
• You have to stay “in the app” to upload
• 15 seconds on the free service might be too short for some

BONUS: Here is a video discussing how Jott works!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: Jott- take an audio note!

While Apple waits on manpower/priority celestial alignment to someday enable the long requested cut, copy, and paste functionality in the iPhone OS, Proximi’s MagicPad has decided to take multi-touch into their own hands, and provided something far more than what they describe as a proof of concept: a rich text editor which, a few limitations aside, brings Apple’s OS future very much into the App Store present.

Text Selection

Apple provides a user experience for insertion point placement that involves tapping and holding your finger down until a magnifying loupe pops up and lets you more accurately position the curser. To zoom in on a photo or fill the screen with a web element, Apple gives you the double tap. Many have wondered what an interface for text selection (the pre-requisite for Rich Text formatting and cut, copy, and paste) could or would look like — and some have even wondered if getting it “right” was what was delaying the functionality.

MagicPad combined the insertion point placement tap-and-hold with the zoom double-tap, to text select via double-tap-and-hold. And while it may not be what Apple will ultimately term “right”, could it be “right now”?

Read on to find out!

MagicPad’s text selection choice will likely be loved by some, hated by others, fill more than a few blog posts, and eventually either be copied or obsoleted by Apple (something the developers previously told TiPb they were very much hoping for).

Personally, I found it almost immediately usable, which is perhaps the most important factor for me. Nice touches include the ability to tap-and-hold to get the zoom loupe for insertion point, then tap-again-and-hold to activate text selection. Quick-selection works something like double-clicking on a PC to select a word: Tap-tap-hold-and-drag to highlight the current word no matter where the insertion point is (use the previous tap-hold-insert-tap-hold to select only part of a word). While it looks complicated when written out, it feels very organic. The nature of the loupe itself, of course, can make either insertion or selection tricky, but it gets easier quickly.

Rich Text Styling

Unlike the built in Notes App, in all its mono-sized, Market Felt ug-ness (seriously, does that font have something on Steve Jobs? Pictures? Video? What?), MagicPad allows expanded control over font face, size, color, and style/decoration.

Fonts

Selectable fonts include Serif (Times New Roman?), Sans Serif (Helvetica?), Marker Felt, Cursive (Zapfino?), Mono (Courier New?), and Type (American Typewriter?). While only a subset of the subset of fonts Apple includes on the iPhone, it covers the bases.

Point Sizes

Though not as fine-grained as a slider, button selectable sizes step from 14, through 16 and 24, to 36 points, which is a good mix given the 320×480, 160dpi nature of the iPhone’s screen.

Colors

Whether due to current interface limitations (the need for large, easy to tap buttons) or simple presentation realities (the need for consistent, matchable colors), MagicPad currently provides a restrained 8 color choices. Standard black is joined by red, green, and blue, and rounded out with preference towards the warmer orange, pink, violet, and capped off by gray. It’s not hard to imagine, however, that like early graphics programs, 8 will someday jump to 16, and perhaps even 32 or more.

Styles and Decorations

Though not all fonts support all styles or decorations, with MagicPad you can easily choose from any available bold or italic styling, or underline or strike-through decoration.

Cut, Copy, and Paste

What all iPhone owners have been waiting for, cut, copy, and paste functions as simply as simple functionality should. Once selected, a quick tap of the tools button brings up the same type of selector as the Rich Text formatting, with the choice to — wait for it! — cut out the selected text, copy it, or paste it in at the current insertion point.

Quibbles and Q & A

One problem that immediately jumps out with MagicPad was the lack of the auto-text completion that makes the iPhone soft/virtual keyboard usable in so many other apps. Brian Radmin from Proximi was gracious enough to answer some of our questions about this.

Is the lack of auto-correction a limitation imposed by the API given what else you were trying to accomplish?

Apple’s SDK does limit us from using the built-in auto-correct feature because of the way MagicPad needed to be developed.

We are in the process of building around this and definitely know how much utility the auto-correct function brings…especially to a text-editor.

So it’s something that will come in an update?

While our main focus was to create a working case implementation for our text-selection (and copy & paste) UI candidate, we are also working hard and committed to producing a great feature complete productivity app which includes auto-correction. We hope to have it in place for our next version.

Thanks Brian! Does that mean we can request “undo” as well? It sure would come in handy to roll-back some of our less considered stylings and pastings.

On the quibbles heap, rather than the built-in MobileMail App, MagicPad uses its own email server to send out MagicPad notes, complete with a CAPTCHA requirement. While a privacy policy and terms of use are prominently displayed along with the more common email fields, this seems like a less than ideal solution, and something I likewise hope is made obsolete in future releases of either the SDK or MagicPad itself.

Update: Brian let us know that yes, indeed “undo” is in the pipeline, as is CAPTCH-free email, though until Apple allows RTF via MobileMail, it will still need to go through Proximi’s servers.

Conclusion

As a proof-of-concept for text selection and thus, Rich Text and editing functionality, MagicPad is a big, bold step up onto Apple’s plate. A dare. Perhaps a double one. Not the final answer, but the only current one and while not everyone will agree with the implementation, the bottom line is it works as implemented.

As a Notes replacement, the extra features are great, if you can live without auto correction and the privacy/security of the built in MobileMail application. (And due to the SDK restriction on sharing data, we can’t mix and match the best of both apps either). The killer Notes app, however, will need to support syncing back to the desktop and cloud (ActiveSync or MobileMe), so until Apple pulls the trigger on that most basic of functionality, every note app will fall a little short.

Pricing and Availability

$3.99 via the App Store (iTunes Link)

Pros

• Working cut, copy, and paste on the iPhone, come on!
• Rich text styling
• Did I mention CUT and PASTE

Cons

• No auto-correction for spelling
• Uses 3rd party email server

Rating

4.5/5 (bonus points for sheer audacity).

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review + Q&A: MagicPad Brings Rich Text and Cut and Paste to the iPhone