When it comes to depth of content, lets get one thing straight; the database in Movie Genie isn’t just IMDB-like, it is IMDB.  Less a movie database and more an method of presenting IMDB in an iPhone-friendly way, Movie Genie acts as your go between for IMDB when you’re on the go and it does what it does incredibly well.  The fine folks at IMDB have been dragging their heels on developing an iPhone app for far too long.  Now that Movie Genie is here, they may very well have regretted the wait.

Any actor, director, or film can be found in seconds via the search feature.  Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, the profile is streamlined to make for easy navigation.  At the top of each page are two tabs; one that brings up a person or projects details, and one that brings up the cast & crew or filmography.

The Details page offers up all of the relevant information that you would find in an IMDB profile that’s not pertaining to the list data on the second tab.  Plot, trivia, goofs, user reviews, taglines — you name it, it’s on there.  In fact the only thing that seemed to be missing were trailers, and even they won’t be gone for too long.  The developer currently has trailers slated for a future update.  To keep things streamlined, each of the items on the details page offers up only a few short lines of text.  If you want more, you can just click on the feature to get all of the information.  This makes sure that the Details page provides access to everything you could want without ever getting cluttered.

In addition to the basic search feature Movie Genie also lets you keep track of favorites so that you can revisit material at a later time.  If you’re a big fan of Pauly Shore for example (and who isn’t?) you can bookmark his IMDB profile to your favorites for a quick visit whenever it’s needed.  Even better than the favorites feature (which, lets be honest, was totally expected) is the history tab.  Just give it a quick click and see all of the pages you’ve visited in reverse chronological order (ie most recent first).

Because it uses IMDB as its source material, Movie Genie can help you keep track of more than just movies.  TV shows and video games are also organized here, as well as all of the people associated with them.  If you want to know all the video games Ron Gilbert has worked on or all the TV shows Norman Lear has produced, the information is all at your fingertips.

The only negative to be found with Movie Genie is its nearly total lack of offline functionality.  Because it depends on IMDB for its database resources, Movie Genie needs to remain online for it to work.  And while this should pose no problem for iPhone owners, iPod Touch users will be left out in the cold.  Sure they can browse explore and enjoy when near a wifi point, but let’s be honest — how much of this app’s appeal is for users sitting near a wireless router at home and how much is it for those wanting a point of refernece while in a video store?  Or settling an argument with a friend while out and about on the town?  The idea of Movie Genie is to have a movie database on-the-go.  For iPod Touch users, that simply isn’t the case.

Still, that’s not to say the app would have zero appeal to those who are stuck offline in public.  Let’s say you’ve used your favorites tab to assemble a list of movies you’d like to see.  That list will still be visible regardless of internet connection.  If you want to go any deeper than that though, like finding out who is in the movies on your list or reading a quick synopsis, you’re fresh out of luck.

The lack of offline functionality will definitely be a dealbreaker for a number of iPod Touch users, but when it comes to everybody else?  Movie Genie is easily the best movie reference tool in the iTunes App Store so far.  IMDB should consider dealing directly with developer Taylan Pince when they finally get around to developing an iPhone app, because they’d have a hard time topping what he’s produced with Movie Genie.

The first thing to be said about Postage is how good it looks. It has an amazing UI, and it is no wonder that in won an Apple Design Award this year. But it’s not just the UI that’s nice-looking, it’s the postcards you create as well that look great. And they’re easy to make—It just takes a couple of steps.

The first step is to choose the style for the postcard. As of now, there are over 55 styles in 10 different categories, which is more than enough. In the preview of each style, it shows you exactly where the picture will go, and where the text will go too. After you have chosen a style, you can choose a picture from your iPhone’s photo library. It would be great if you could see a preview with the picture as you were browsing photos, but I think that is an issue of Apple not allowing direct access to photos, you must use the list. After you have selected a picture, you can add one of 7 effects, or keep it as-is. More effects would be nice, and maybe even sliders for exposure, and saturation. But, this is supposed to be a simple app that allows you to make a postcard in just a minute, so it is not a necessity.

The next step is text. With Postage, not only can you choose what it says, but you can also choose a font, text style and text color. There are 9 different fonts to choose from, all of which are very different. If they added more, some would look alike, and you might end up spending minutes trying to figure out which one looks best. So, maybe you should be happy there aren’t more. The styles are normal text styles: left, center or right-alligned and normal or bold. I’m surprised that italics are not in there though, but for a simple message, I’m not sure you’d usually need them.

The final step, but most important one, is the addresses. You can choose someone from your contacts, or just enter someone’s email address. And, you can choose any email address that it will be marked as being from. So, if you want to surprise them, but down a random email address. You can also choose to add the postcard to your photo library, so you can keep track of all the ones you send. I would have never thought of doing this, but it is a great idea. Then, once you have finished everything (and you can go back to the previous step at any point), you must click Send, and your postcard is complete.

Just as easy as—Actually easier than—Mailing an actual postcard and you can choose your own image, style and text style and it arrives almost instantly. All this for the (normal) price of ($4.99) about 8-10 postcards (with postage), and this allows you to send unlimited postcards. But as this is being written, Postage is 40% off, or just the price of ($2.99) 5-6 postcards (with postage). So, if you’re on vacation, or going on vacation soon, Postage can assure that you don’t have any angry relatives for not sending postcards—What’s not to like? It’s available in the App Store through This link for only $2.99 as of now.

It’s this spirit of preservation that has allowed the underground world of digital comics to flourish.  Rather than risking damage to that Action Comics #71 you have tucked away for a down payment on a house, digital reproductions allow you to view the comics in your collection without ever taking them out of their protective plastic.  The lack of a decent portable program that allowed for the reading of these digital iterations has kept many a reader tied to their desktop… until now.

Comic Zeal allows you to transfer your digital comic book collection directly to your iPhone or iPod Touch, and presents you a number of great viewing options for reading.  Each page can be zoomed and navigated using the same tap and zoom mechanics that iPhone users have grown used to.  Comics can be read in landscape or portrait depending on your preference, with pages being flipped through by simply sliding your finger to advance through the story.  The fundamentals of page navigation, something that is at the core of any good comics reader, should be second nature to any iPhone user.

Clarity is the other cornerstone of a solid comics reader, and here too Comic Zeal excels.  While the default view even in landscape blurs the words a little too much too be readable, a light zoom fixes that right up.  And since you can still navigate from the zoom, you can simply set it once and forget it forever.  Presentation outside of an issue is just as good as inside.  Comics are displayed in “boxes” of series, which when clicked on will give you a cover view of every comic in that box.  It’s a nice touch, and a fantastic step up from the boring old text lists that most programs of this nature rely on.  Comics is a visual medium, and Comic Zeal embraces that fact.

Not everyone who loves comics has ventured into the world of digital reproductions, and unless you’re willing to scan your own or step into some of the internet’s shadier locales to download back-ups of comics you already own (MacApper in no way supports piracy, comic books are a dying medium, please support it!) you may not have much of a use for Comic Zeal.  Thankfully the developers at bitolithic recognized this and added some built in functionality for those looking to pick up some public domain comics to get a taste of something new.  Links to downloads from the indie superhero imprint Flashback Comics as well as a selection of Golden Age classics ranging from Atomic War to The Blue Beetle are available to anyone looking to expand their collection.

Despite these inclusions, Comic Zeal isn’t really aimed towards the reader with little previous experience with digital reprints.  Those with massive collections filling their hard drives have been dying to get their hands on a convenient portable reader that would allow them to read their collections.  Fantastic single issue iPhone apps have demonstrated the devices amazing capabilities pertaining to digital comics on the go, and while Comic Zeal can’t offer the amazing readability they do, it does allow you to port your comics to the iPhone with ease.

While one might hope for out-of-the-box support for the standard .cbr file type that most comics are read in, it’s not entirely the case.  Rather than reading .cbr files, Comic Zeal require you to convert your comics to their proprietary .cbi format via their freeware desktop application.  It may seem like a nuisance, but it makes a lot of sense when you see the reason behind it.  Traditional cbr’s exist at resolutions that are ridiculously high for iPhone usage.  Converting to cbi brings these down to a reasonable size, helping to conserve battery life by putting less strain on the processor.

When the app first launched there were endless hoops you’d have to jump through to get your files converted.  Before installing the desktop coversion software Comic Zeal Creator, you had to install supporting software.  Then you had to sort out server nonsense.  It was a mess.  Bit if past experiences with Creator turned you off of Comic Zeal, you might want to give it a second shot now that they’re released Creator’s successor, ComicZeal Sync.

Sync cuts out all the run around of it’s predecessor and opts for drag and drop simplicity.  After you drop an item into Sync, it will immediately begin the conversion.  If file names follow a certain structure, Sync should be able to sort out what file belongs to what series and keep your collection tidy without any first-hand involvement from you.  If your files aren’t that tidy, don’t worry.  While processing you can add basic info for the item such as series name, issue name, and issue number.  This will make sure that when you pop open Comic Zeal on the go everything is ready and waiting for you.  The only real problem here is that you can’t go back and edit that data after the file has been converted.  It’s not a major hassle, but it’s downright silly that the option to edit after conversion isn’t available.  And while you can also bulk convert, the necessity of providing correct info to keep your collection nice and neat kind of suggests that maybe you shouldn’t.

Syncing is a fairly painless process as well.  Clicking the sync button on the desktop app and the sync button in the iPhone app will get all of your new comics copied and sorted for you with no fuss or muss.  It’s all handled on the backend through the universally-acclaimed SyncDocs, so it’s highly unlikely you’ll find yourself running into data issues as a result.

The only real downside to the app, apart from the inability to edit your collection once converted, is how it underperforms compared to those single issue apps that exist for comics like Atomic Robo or The Terminator.  Being designed to specifically capture an individual issue means that each “page” can be a single panel, navigated frame by frame.  Using pre-existing scans simply doesn’t allow for that level of ease.  Despite this, ComicZeal offers up a fantastic experience for readers looking to take their collection on the go, even if it means they’ll have to pan and zoom to get through each page.

Unless Marvel and DC start to offer single issue downloads of their complete back catalogue in the AppStore, Comic Zeal will reign king as the premiere app for comic book lovers looking to take their favorites on the go.

Comic Zeal is available on the iTunes AppStore for $2.99.

Star Walk shows you all its information based on the time of day and your location. Using Apple’s location services, you must only allow it to find your current location, and everything else is automatic. If you would like to change the time of day you’re looking at, simply click on the Clock icon (in the upper-right corner) and you can change it. To navigate around the map, you just use pinching and dragging. There are even four markers for North, East, South and West so you know exactly where to look for a specific constellation. There is also a red line for the horizon making it, again, even easier to see where something is.

Star Walk is cool enough with just the ability to look around a virtual map. But, it also adds some other features. When you press on a constellation name (in the virtual sky), you will see a white drawing of it with the stars. This feature is great for showing to kids (and for helping one find the constellation). While the name is still selected, if you hit the “i” button, you will get more information. A “W” button will also appear allowing you to see a Wikipedia article on it.

Constellations are not the only things Star Walk knows. If you click on any star or planet on the screen, you can also hit the “i” button and get more information.

What I would say is one of the most important features that Star Walk carries is its search. If you hit the search button (lower-left corner), you can search for stars, constellations, planets and messier. If the object is visible to you, its name will be in white, if not, they name will be grayed out. When you click on one, it will take you there on the map. This makes it so easy to find what you want.

Star Walk also includes some nice preferences. The first one is night mode, which basically turns everything into a red-ish color. There is also the ability to turn of the pictures of constellations and sounds. And finally, you can adjust the brightness of stars, planets, etc. All of these can be accessed from the button in the lower-right corner.

Star Walk costs $4.99 in the App Store and is the International Year of Astronomy 2009’s official product. It is extremely intuitive and also provides many features for amateurs and even pros. Anyone who likes watching the stars (and has an iPhone or iPod Touch) needs this app.

Buddy the Bus offers up a 21st century take on the book-and-record sets we used to get as kids.  Back then you’d dig out your Fisher-Price turntable and listen to the narrator read along with the story.  Now that we live in “the future,” both audio and book are magically transported as one package in this totally free app.  Your kids can pop in their headphones and listen along as Buddy the Bus takes his passengers all over the town.

Baby Flash Cards is, to no ones suprise, exactly what it sounds like.  Flash cards are considered by many to be a great way to stimulate a child’s mind.  But why shell out $5-$10 for a set of real cards when you can get a fantastic free set right here?  The free set included in Baby Flash Cards features a variety of real world objects and animals paired up with their matching words.  Cards can be explored alphabetically or randomly, and you can set it so that all the info is on the card at once or the words are hidden until you touch them.

SimpleDraw proves one solid universal truth: kids LOVE coloring.  It’s timeless.  Give a kid in 12th century Mongolia a crayon and he’ll know what to do with it in seconds.  So it should come as no surprise that the one app my 2 year old is always trying to wrestle away my iPod for is the one she calls “COLOR!!”  SimpleDraw’s name couldn’t be more accurate.  You can select from a handful of colors and brush thicknesses, but asides from that things are kept alarmingly minimalist.  Your little one can just put a finger on the screen and go to town.

Children’s Classics let’s you put the tradition of reading with you’re kids right in your pocket.  Sure you could ask your child to sit quietly and patiently on that long train trip/airport wait/doctor’s office visit, but wouldn’t it be more fun to break out the bedtime stories in the middle of the afternoon?  Children’s Classics offers up 16 classics children’s reads ranging from Pinnochio and Robin Hood to Aesop’s Fables and The Secret Garden.  If you find your family is really digging it, make sure to do a search on the AppStore for BeamItDown Software.  Not only have they pblished this great collection, but they have a number of other classic family stories like Alice in Wonderland or A Christmas Carol available completely free of charge.

myHomework is an app that every iPhone/iPod toting student should own, and every parent encourage.  myHomework lets a child keep track of their class schedule, assignments, tests and other school activities.  Even better, it has color coded reminders to let them know when something is about to come due or has missed a deadline.  Organization is a cornerstone to success, and what better developmental task to apply this to than the daily juggle of academia?

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are many apps, both paid and free, that prove to be a great resource for parents the world over.  What iPhone apps do you share with your kids?

What does this app do?

Img2icns is designed to take any image in all of the popular formats, including Adobe Photoshop files, and apply it so that you can put that image on a folder/file. In other terms, it takes your image and turns it into an icon.

Img2icns feels like this was the blueprint throughout the entire app. All you have to do is drag your image into the window-dominating drop field and Img2icns gives you your options. Once the image is loaded into the app, simply drag another file or folder onto the same drop zone to give it your new icon. If you want to convert that image into Apple icon format (.icns), click the ICNS button.

Streamlined Interface

The developers put a ton of effort into the look and feel of this app. It’s no surprise that Img2icns is dominated by icons. The window is small so it doesn’t take up a bunch of real estate. Every step is transitioned with sleek animations making the experience as fun as the result. If you’re ever stuck, choose Help > Show help balloons and some popup balloons tell you what the interface elements do.

Requirements and Performance

Img2icns is universal, meaning that it can run on a Mac run by an Intel or PowerPC processor. Its current version is made for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, however you can also download version 0.5 for Mac OS 10.4 X Tiger. In terms of speed, like any app it will depend on your processor and the amount of memory you have. Img2icns imports and exports images extremely quickly. Icons are not big files, and setting them to files does not require a lot of processing power.

Standard or Pro?

Img2icns comes in two versions. The pro version obviously comes with more features. Shiny Frog, the developer of this app, has illustrated the capabilities of each version with a comparison table:

The Verdict

At the time of review Img2icns is in version 1.01 and does exactly what the title depicts: it takes your images and converts them into icons, which can be applied to style your files and folders. This app feels like it has been designed from the ground up for this purpose only. There are no excess features or fluff. Img2icns’ interface is streamlined, not to mention beautiful, with great transitions designed to keep your workflow productive and stress free. The best experience is when running this app under Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, however there is a previous version available for Tiger. If you have a need for the ability to export icons for the iPhone or to create favicons, there’s a pro version for $12.90. Otherwise Img2icns is available at img2icnsapp.com for Free.

7 Cities TD ($4.99 Introductory Price)

7 Cities TD brings a storyline to tower defense. There are 7 cities (hence the name) that you must protect. There are also different towers and powers that you can unlock by beating levels. Even on the easiest difficulty, 7 Cities is very hard. Instead of upgrading with money, in 7 Cities you must use the special blue gems to upgrade. To get these gems, one of your towers must level. Leveling is not the same as upgrading, though. Your towers will level themselves when they get to a certain amount of kills. You can also collect these gems when a bonus wave comes. When a new wave is about to come, 7 Cities will tell you what type of armor they have: Light, Medium, or Heavy. The heavier the armor, the harder they are to kill. This game may sound very complex, but once you have played it a few times, the only complex part is figuring out a good strategy. 7 Cities provides hours of gameplay with its campaign (that can be played on three difficulties), and to top it off, its graphics are beautiful. This gives it a lot of bang for the buck. The only real issues are: it has no free play (although you could consider trying to beat a level free play), and it is very difficult, even on easy.

Grade: B+

Besiegement ($3.99)

Besiegement uses the same campaign idea as 7 Cities, but also goes a bit further. It provides 20 levels, and 10 things called challenges. The levels are a little bit different from those in most tower defense games. In each level, the enemies just go where you aren’t, and where there are no obstacles. The game forces you to allow them a path, but other than that you can go pretty much anywhere. This, for the most part, makes the game easier. Unlike 7 Cities, you can use money to upgrade your towers. The challenges work just like regular levels, except you cannot let any enemies escape. They also have restrictions on both you and the enemies. In some, you can only use certain weapons, and in all, there is only a certain type of enemy. Besiegement also allows you to store up to 5 profiles, so both you and your friends or family can have their own campaign. Although Besiegement is not extremely hard, it provides many levels and challenges, and also has great graphics and animation. It also provides a means to make it harder; you can increase and decrease the speed at which the enemies move. So, even though there’s not a campaign for each difficulty, you can make it a lot harder for yourself. Unlike in most other Tower Defense games, Besiegement does not let you zoom in on your map. Like 7 Cities, Besiegement does not have free play.

Grade: B

iTD ($1.99)

iTD is one of the closest to original tower defense games you can find. It’s simple: there are 3 maps you can play for each of three difficulties. There is no campaign or goal other than just playing as long as possible (trying to get a high score). There are four types of towers: Snow, Lightning, Bomb, and Laser. Like Besiegement, you use your money to upgrade the towers. As the game goes on the enemies get harder. Instead of using boats (like in 7 Cities) or real-looking enemies (like in Besiegement), iTD uses classic shapes and colors. Similarly, instead of using anything that looks like a tower, iTD uses blocks with pictures (as can be seen in the icon above). Like in both of the above, at the top of the screen iTD shows you the next enemy type. Even though it does not tell you the difficulty of the next enemy type, you should expect it to be stronger. Even though iTD keeps track of your scores, there is no way to view them without actually playing, which can be quite annoying. You also only have one profile, which doesn’t matter too much because it’s not campaign style. If you are looking for classic Tower Defense, with no campaigns or extras, then you will like iTD.

Grade: B-

Mote-M ($0.99)

Mote-M’s main difference from the other tower defense games mentioned is its difficulty meter. Instead of there being many different levels, you just drag a slider to choose a difficulty from 1 to 10. Of course, it goes up in increments of 1/2, so this does not provide infinite difficulties. Once you have selected a difficulty, you choose one of four Filed Types: Top-down, Across, Diagonal, or Sandbox. Like a few others, there is no defined course; instead, you define it yourself. Mote-M also brings another interesting feature: when green arrows appear around a square, you can put any tower on it for free. Like a few others, instead of actual tower-like figures, Mote-M just uses squares with dots that tell you their type. You use money to upgrade to new levels also. The level of a tower is shown with the circles in the bottom-right side of the tower. One of the best parts of Mote-M is its graphics. It runs extremely smoothly, and just looks clean. I have not had any lagging yet, even when there are many enemies on the field. Don’t let the $0.99 price tag make you think Mote-M is inferior to the others, because it provides great gameplay and graphics, and would be well worth $3. The only major issue with it is limited maps, but that is easily solved with the difficulty slider.

Grade: A-

Retro Defense ($3.99)

Retro Defense is the closest to original tower defense you can find, from the graphics to the board. However, this is not necessarily good. The game freezes up for a second every so often, and it lags most of the time. I have also found that sometimes after clicking a button, it freezes up for a couples seconds. I am not sure if this is all part of the retro-ness, or just a major bug, but it does get very annoying. Even though it’s supposed to be retro, that doesn’t mean that the animation has to be. Retro Defense provides many maps, and tells you the difficulty of each one. It also shows you the total waves, and the most waves you have ever defended on the map. If you are a big fan of retro games, or just retro tower defense, this is the game for you. If not, then you will definitely want to look elsewhere. For $3.99, this really is just for retro fans.

Grade: C

TapDefense (Free)

For a free game, TapDefense is very full-featured. Like Besiegement, it has both a challenge mode and a campaign/levels mode. Like 7 Cities, it has a high-score view where you can view all your high scores for any level. You can also see the high scores of people who have submitted their scores. In TapDefense, you start out with 3 types of towers, but there are 4 others that you can unlock. Unlocking in TapDefense works a lot like upgrading in 7 Cities — you collect halos (which are different from money), and then when you get enough (1 or 2), you can unlock a new tower. TapDefense also includes one really cool feature which none of the others have: interest. Not only do you receive money for killing the enemies, but you also get interest on your saved money after each round. If you want to increase your interest rate, you use your halos. When you are playing a level, if you click on an enemy, you can see its details, such as speed, name and health. Although this means you cannot target enemies (click on one, and it becomes a priority to all towers), it is still a pretty cool feature. Although TapDefense is free, it still packs a lot of features and many hours of play. It should be tried by anyone thinking of purchasing a Tower Defense game, because it is probably enough for most of us.

Grade: B

The Creeps! ($1.99 Introductory Price)

The Creeps provides a much different story than many of the others. Instead of defending a base, or something like that, you are defending a kid from monsters in the closet. To choose a map, you get a nice cover flow view, which is a feature that none of the others have. Like Mote-M, it has very smooth animation and looks very clean. One feature it has that only a few others have is targeting, but it goes a bit beyond just that. On each map there are pre-set objects, and you can target these too. So, if you want to build a tower where there is already a gravestone, you just target it, and all of your towers in range will try to destroy it. Like the others, you can upgrade your towers, which makes them perform better. Although it only has 10 levels at the moment, the developer promises that many more will come (the developer also promises sound). Another thing it has that many others don’t is accelerometer-based super-towers. These are towers that you use the accelerometer to activate. For $1.99, The Creeps offers great graphics and fun gameplay. However, some may find it a little too easy, but that may change in future updates.

Grade: B

The gameplay is fairly simple. You’ll be creating geometric shapes made of bamboo so that the monkeys can get from the box they’re hiding in to the exit. The main gameplay mechanic is based around the proper distribution of weight. Build a tower poorly and it will topple before a monkey gets to it. Build it weak and the weight of the monkeys will see it come crumbling down. The monkeys aren’t just motivated by the promise of an exit though — they’re also banana-crazed. There are five bananas on each level and getting the monkeys to them is a big part of the game. While it’s not required to complete each stage, you’ll need to get a gold rating to move on at certain points in the game, and that means getting all the monkeys to all the bananas. You’ll need to make sure your constructs are structurally sound if you expect your monkeys to cover all their bases and make it out alive.

The gameplay is fun and fairly intuitive, but it doesn’t last too long. Tiki Towers is comprised of 45 stages spread out across 5 themed levels which will take you only an hour or two to complete. The majority of levels have fairly obvious solutions to them, and you’ll find yourself powering through the first two thirds of the games with ease. Luckily the last 18 or so stages start to really make you use your noodle, and while solving them doesn’t take too long, it definitely tickles the reward center in your brain and delivers up a smug sense of accomplishment.

Controlling things in Tiki Towers couldn’t be easier, but that doesn’t mean things aren’t flawed. Everything is controlled with touch. You’ll be able to create bamboo structures, remove bamboo pieces, and move around the camera, all with the same sliding motion. But while simple controls are what’s called for here, the system doesn’t always know what you want to do. If you’re trying to move around the screen you may find yourself building bamboo constructs that you didn’t really want. Dismantling those constructs can also become an exercise in frustration, as that too will place more bamboo pieces unintentionally. Thankfully these problems quickly become a regular part of the background noise and can be easily overlooked once you get used to them.

At first glance Tiki Towers may look like little more than a World of Goo clone that’s been shrunk down to fit the iPhone. Spend a little time with it though and you’ll find that RealArcade has released a bargain-priced iPhone game full of personality, puzzles and playtime joy. While a few control issues and a limited offering keep Tiki Towers from greatness, it offers more than enough gameplay to justify the 99 cent purchase. Definitely a must-have for those looking for a simple puzzler with a high reward factor.

Tiki Towers is currently available in the iTunes AppStore for $0.99.

Snow Reports ($1.99)

The app that I would compare Snow Reports to the most is Weather.app (included on all iPhones and iPod Touches). This is because it works the same way. You have a list of resorts that you can edit from the “i” button, and to go from one to another you just slide your finger. That being said, I’ll bet you have already figured out that it’s easy to use. In the settings window (click the “i” button), you can also change the order of the resorts, change from inches to centimeters, and add new resorts based on location.

For each entry you get some very nice information, like the number of trails and lifts open, show, and depths. The top section tells you whether the mountain is open and the total number of open trails and lifts. It also gives you links to call (if you have an iPhone) and visit the resort’s website. The New Snow section tells you how much it has snowed in the last 24, 48 and 72 hrs (1, 2, and 3 days). The Base Depth section tells you the lower and upper thickness of the snow. On the bottom there are 3 buttons: Report, Weather, and Images. Report will open a WebKit view with the OnTheSnow conditions page for the resort. The Weather button opens another WebKit view with the weather report for the resort. The Images button also opens a WebKit view with images of the resort. It would look much better if there was another view for these that fit the nice style of Snow Reports instead of just a WebKit View.

Snow Reports gives you about all the information you would want as someone just looking but not skiing. If you do ski a lot, then this app may not have all the features you will want, like maps, trails, etc. For $1.99, it can be a fun app for skiers and non-skiers.

Grade: B-

Ski Lodge ($4.99*)

Ski Lodge is made for the skier and not just the average bystander. It includes features like maps, built-in live cameras, photos, and even news. Like Snow Reports, it is very easy to use, but it doesn’t use the same style. It has a better way to view your favorites; there’s a list view, making it easier to access resorts in long lists. Favorites are resorts that will appear in your favorites, but they are not the only ones that you can get information about. To access any resort, just go to All Resorts and go through the lists to select a resort. If you want to add it to your favorites, just click the Add to Favorites button. You can also go to Nearby to find resorts near you.

For each resort, Ski Lodge gives you a lot of information, divided into two main sections: the top and the bottom. The top part gives you access to weather, temperature, and snow. The weather report is just a picture of something like a sun, a sun and a cloud, etc. The temperature tells you the current temperature, and the snow report tells you how much snow has fallen in the last 24, 48, and 72 hours. You can change from metric to English in Settings.app. The bottom section gives you links to other views. The Trail Map button shows you the percentage of green, blue, black, and double black trails based on the length of each section. When you click on it, you can actually view the trail map with full multi touch! The Live Cams & Photos button will bring you to a view where you can choose to see the resort from live cameras and photos. To go to the next or previous camera or photo, just slide your finger across the screen. The Website button brings you to the resort’s website. The Show in Maps button opens the location of the resort in the Google Maps app. The button with the phone number allows you to call the resort. Although, even if you have an iPod Touch, it allows you to click this button.

Ski Lodge is definitely aimed at someone who skis a fair amount. It gives you many more features than Snow Reports, but it also costs more. If you do not ski, or don’t ski not very much, but still want a ski report app, you will probably want to go with Snow Reports. But just the maps and news alone can make Ski Lodge worth it for even someone who skis just a couple times a year. You’re also doing the environment a favor by not taking a map.

Grade: B+

*Ski Lodge was $4.99 at the time of review–it is now on sale for $1.99 for a limited time.

Classics is a new book reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch that is meant exclusively for reading popular classic novels. Currently the application includes 14 different titles ranging from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; but more are planned in future updates.

When you open the application you are greeted by a beautiful wooden bookshelf. Here you can slide up and down to view all the books, drag books organize them, or simply tap to start reading one. Books have nice, cream-colored pages which are very easy on the eyes. You can change pages by swiping, or simply tapping the right or left side of the screen. As you turn the page, the pages actually look like they are flipping, but if this annoys you you can turn it off in the options. If you want to skip to a different chapter, just tap the button in the top right to view a chapter list. You can also return to the main bookshelf by tapping the icon in the top left. As you return to the bookshelf a bookmark slides in onto the current page.

Although Classics is a great app, it still has it’s issues. First off, some people might not want just classic books, so this is not the application for them. Also, currently there isn’t a way to download extra books, and users will have to depend on the developer to release updates including more. If you love reading classic books and like a nice interface, then you might want to try out Classics. If not, you might want to try out Stanza, a free application that allows users to download hundreds of books. Stanza is also available in iTunes.

Classics is currently available in iTunes for $0.99.

Seadragon is a project which is part of the Microsoft Live Labs, an experimental application warehouse of sorts. The idea behind Seadragon is to allow you to “infinitely zoom” on giga-pixel sized images. The application was originally developed on Microsoft’s Silverlight for the PC platform but the people over at the Live Labs have adapted it for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Right out of the box Microsoft includes several example images and sets for you to play around in. They include a 1898 artist’s rendering of Milwaukee, aerial images of the United States, NASA’s Blue Marble, and many others. Microsoft also allows you to add your own “Deep Zoom Content” and content done by Photosynth users. When choosing a set instead of an individual image, you can hit the play button at the bottom of the screen to allow you to look at the set’s images individually.

Seadragon was obviously developed for the iPhone because of the multi-touch “pinch” zooming capabilities as the multi-touch allows you to navigate through the image very easily. When zooming, you are basically transitioning through images, and this transition is very smooth but occasionally takes a fair about of time (~10 seconds). If you ever try running it online, the transition is much quicker, with a noticeable load time rarely happening.

The application is very impressive at first use, but after using it a few times the “novelty” wears off. Microsoft offers an application Deep Zoom Composer, which is only available for the PC and PhotoZoom, which is an online app but is very lacking. If Microsoft was to offer software for us Mac users, this app would be much more useful.

Microsoft has the Seadragon app listed on the iTunes App Store for free.

Camerabag is an application from an unlikely developer, Nevercenter, whose claim to fame is actually a 3D modeling application. Camerabag itself is a relatively simple application. It is very obvious that they are focused on your photos and not a “delicious” interface, which I find pleasing. Camerabag allows you to take a photograph and apply one of several effects. The effects revolve around styles of older cameras, such as Holga and Lolo, as well as photographers like Ansel Adams.

To apply these effects you merely import the photo into the application and swipe through the various effects and save the ones that you like.

Nevercenter is constantly adding new effects and tweaking the ones that are currently included. In the time I have been using it (about a month), they have added an Instant (polaroid) effect and tweaked the Infrared effect.

Camerabag also allows you to take photographs from within the application but if you do not tell it to save the photo with any of the effects it will not be saved at all. Unfortunetly, due to its heavy reliance upon the camera Camerabag is not very useful on the iPod Touch. But if you do store photos on your Touch, Camerabag is capable of modifying them.

Currently Camerabag is listed on the iTunes App Store for $2.99 here (iTunes link).

The fellows at Spoonjuice saw this problem and created a clean astheticly pleasing solution. The app is know as Night Stand and it serves its purpose surprisingly well.

Put simply all Night Stand does is display current hour, minute, day and optionally second. But the unique and most important part is that you are able to keep the iPhone from going to “sleep” or shutting off the screen. This proves to be incredibly useful when in a dock on, ironically enough, your night stand. This way you can use the iPhone’s alarm capabilities and still be able to roll over in bed and see the current time. Other functionality includes the ability to change the clock’s color and rotate the screen from vertical to horizontal using the accelerometer.

With running the iPhone without “sleep” has it’s disadvantages though. It will drain your iPhone much quicker then regular use, so I would only recommend using it when the iPhone is plugged in. Keeping your screen on for prolonged periods of time will degrade your backlight and screen much faster and to slow this I would recommend lowering your backlight brightness.

Aside for the short list of problems, which aren’t necessarily the apps fault, I would definitely recommend getting this app. Currently it is listed for free on the App Store (iTunes link).

I can’t speak to the latter two questions, but I want to impart a little DIY innovation to make the most out of your iPhone camera. Want to take close up pictures without breaking your warranty, an old digital camera, or purchasing that ugly clarification case with the sliding macro lens? Follow me…

So the next time you want to take advantage of Evernote’s text recognition with a photo note or scan a barcode and see if your getting a bargain with Snappr, what are you going to do?

The evolution of macro lens solutions for the iPhone has finally produced an option that makes sense to me. By holding a magnifying lens in front of the iPhone lens, you’ll be able to take close up shots of objects within 4″-6″ of the lens. Problem is, I don’t want to carry a magnifying glass in my pocket. I also don’t want to cage my beast of iPhone with a bulky case.

Solution: Talk to your Target Pharmacist.

Target, in their quest to revolutionize prescription packaging, includes a small magnifying strip to assist in reading the small type on the medication bottles. This magnifying strip, placed in front of the iPhone camera lens, clarifies your close up shots. Look at these quickly taken and poorly lit examples intended to simulate conditions in the field below:

iPhone lens:

With Target ClearRX Magnifying Strip:

Well lit shots taken with a steady hand and a smudge free iPhone will look even better!

Next time you’re in Target, see if they’ll give you a magnifying strip and try it out. Scan a couple of bar codes and see if you can’t get a better deal on scrapbooking supplies.

Today, I have put together a list of 4 little applications that will help to kill your productivity (like you even need help with that, right?). They have no productive value, but definitely can get addicting, or are great when you have a little time to kill.

The first application that I want to bring to your attention is BallDroppings. I first learned about this game a while ago from a post on MacUser. Basically, little white balls drop from the top of your screen (you can alter the place where they drop from) and you draw lines that the balls bounce off of. The balls make a noise when they hit a line.

You can alter a bunch of variables in the game, like air friction, gravity, pitch of the ball bounce, and also how fast they come out of the feeder. I’ve wasted many hours playing around in this game, and I expect there are many more to come. BallDroppings is (of course) freeware, and you can download it here.

The next application, Bullet, is one of those applications you break out when you are really bored. At its core, it is an application that takes over your mouse, and makes bullet holes wherever you click. You can set whether to fade the bullets out after each shot, overlay a bulls-eye on your screen, and it even has auto-fire!

Bullet is an application that gets old fast, but whenever you just get that “put holes in my desktop feeling,” Bullet is there to help. It is also good when you want to confuse your coworkers and family by leaving it running on their computer. The developers no longer seem to have Bullet listed on their site, but you can download it from the Mac Softpedia.

iStache is an application for everyone. 17 years old and still no stubble? Ever wonder what your grandmother would look with a full beard? With iStache, you no longer have to wonder. Once you have a picture you want to “Stache-ify,” you just need to select a style and get staching! A slider lets you choose the size of your stache or beard, and a drop-down menu lets you choose from 12 styles (everything from the “Hitler,” to the “English Gentleman.”

The last application, Enigma Simulator, really impressed me. It is well polished, and quite neat once you learn the history behind it. Enigma Simulator is a computer simulated Enigma Machine, which is a machine that Nazi-Germany used back during WWI and WWII to encrypt and decrypt messages.

To use the Enigma Simulator, You first have to select your settings. In the screenshot, I set the three letters at the top of the screen to “M-A-C.” Holding down Command-3 opens the Schreibmax, which keeps track of the keys you press. I typed “macapper” which outputted our encrypted text, “PMPDUHME.” After resetting the dials back to “M-A-C,” I typed “PMPDUHME,” which then decrypted back to “MACAPPER.”

Enigma Simulator is complete with sound effects, and German text. To learn more about the Enigma Machine, check out the wikipedia article. You can download Enigma Simulator from Terry Long’s website, which also has an FAQ about this application, and examples.

That about does it for this weeks edition of Freeware Friday, if all goes well, another roundup of freeware apps should be posted next Friday. If you don’t think you can wait until next week for your freeware fix, make sure you take a look at “The Great Mac OS Freeware List.”

There are 6 apps that are a part of the AppStoreGems site right now, from 5 developers. The apps are as follows:

1. Sketches
2. Where To?
3. Groceries
4. FileMagnet
5. Kineo
6. Pennies

Each developer is donating their revenue to a different charity, from the following list:

• Prevent Cancer Foundation
• UNICEF
• Oxfam International
• Teach for America
• American Humane

John Casasanta posted a blog post to the taptaptap website detailing this event, and the AppStoreGems website. Personally, I think it is great when developers get together and hold an event like this. The developers get exposure for their application, and charities benefit in the process.

Of course, with the Give Good Food to your Mac promo, the build-your-own-bundle idea is nothing new. The selection of apps for the Mac Mix Promo though, makes it worth looking at. A list of the participating applications and details after the jump.

The idea of the Mac Mix Promo is the same as Give Good Food to your Mac. The more applications you add to your “mix.” the greater the discount you will receive. If you add 1 app, you get 10%, 3 – 30%, 5 – 40%, 7 – 50%, 9 – 60%, and finally 12 apps gets you a 75% discount. Many people have found so far that it is more cost effective to add 12 apps (including some of the cheaper ones), which nets you the greatest discount. A portion of the money you spend will also go to help the trees.

The line up for this promotion is as follows:

Parallels – $79.99
iBank – $59.99
iBiz – $49.99
Process – $39.00
Yep – $34.00
MacGourmet – $24.95
Linkinus – $20.00
Leech – $15.36
Xylescope – $19.95
Kavatunes – $35.00
Flux – $69.00
Forklift – $29.95
Picturesque – $34.95
DrawIt – $42.00
Photon – $69.00
YourView – $29.99
HoudahGeo – $42.66
AlterEgo – $30.00
Witch – $15.36
HoudahSpot – $25.60
Steel – $9.00
ShoveBox – $24.95
TextExpander – $29.95
AppShelf – $6.90
Wacky Mini Golf – $27.00
Islands Mini Golf – $21.00
Comic Book Lover – $24.95
iConquer – $25.00

There are 28 applications in total, spanning 5 categories. There should be a few apps in there for everyone. If you just bought a Mac and are looking to fill it up with some software, or you have been holding out on purchasing one of these titles, then now is probably as good a time as ever to buy. According to the Mac Mix website, one lucky person within the first 500 buyers will win a free super bundle (all 28 apps) and there is also an award winning “mystery app” being given out to the first 500 buyers.

Mac Mix Promo

Note: Mac Mix Promo is advertising its bundle in our sidebar, though this post was written before I even knew it was there.

When you open Black Ink, you will notice that there are 9 different newspapers that you can choose from. Nine newspapers all in one app! The difference, though, is that you can actually have as many as you want! If you go to Web Puzzles in Black Ink’s preferences and hit the New Source button, you can add a new puzzle. Just give it a URL, a name, and the days the puzzle is out, and you’re off! Although this feature doesn’t work for some newspapers, it does work for the most common ones.

For those with bad eyesight, one of the most important features is auto highlighting of the clue you are looking at. Black Ink will highlight the squares on the puzzle that correspond to the clue you have selected. Instead of having to look around for the squares, they are right there for you! I don’t have horrible eyesight, but I still love this feature.

Another feature for those with bad eyesight is the resizing of the puzzle. This may sound like a ‘meh’ feature, but it really isn’t. When you drag the corner of the window, instead of just resizing the window, and maybe the puzzle, Black Ink does much more. It resizes the puzzle, every letter typed in, and all the symbols in each box. So if you need it bigger, everything gets proportionally bigger. And if you want it smaller, everything gets proportionally smaller.

Black Ink has two types of ‘hints’ that it can give you. The first type is just checking your answer. So, if you don’t want to cheat, you just highlight the word you want to check (on the puzzle), and go to Solution > Check > Current Word. Black Ink will put X’s next to the wrong letters, and check marks next to the right letters. You can also just check the current letter, or the entire puzzle this same way; just go to Solution > Check > (the one you want to do).

The other type of ‘hint’ that Black Ink can give you is the actual word. Just highlight the spaces and go to Solution > Reveal > Current Word. Now, don’t think you can just cheat your way through the whole puzzle, because Black Ink will put a little eye on all of the letters you revealed. Using the same method, you can reveal the entire puzzle, a single letter, or all of the letters that are incorrectly marked by you. These are all located in the Solution > Reveal menu.

Now, one more thing for you paper and pen lovers. Black Ink allows you to easily print out copies of your favorite crossword puzzles. Just go to File > Print, and Black Ink does the rest. It sets up the page to look like a real crossword puzzle, with clues on the bottom and side. So, if you won’t have access to the internet or newspaper for a bit, just print out some old ones that you haven’t done!

Black Ink, by Red Sweater, has finally given Mac users the best of both worlds with crossword puzzles. It has given us an amazing interface to solve out crosswords on the computer, and an easy way to print them out with a more classic interface. The only small downside is the price. It costs $24.95. Most online crossword puzzles are free, and this price may turn some users off. However, I think it is an extremely good tool for doing crossword puzzles, and I think some of you may find that it’s worth the money.

A few days ago, while browsing through the MacHeist Forums, there was some talk about an application called “Scribbles.” A quick Google search turned me to Atebits Software, where I downloaded Scribbles. This application has a simple interface and makes good use of Leopard’s CoreAnimation technology.

When you open up Scribbles for the first time, you will notice that the interface is very clean. The default brush, brush size, and brush color can be set in the preferences, so you can always start off with your favorites.

Clicking the button in the bottom-left corner brings up a palate that allows you to change your brush. In the screenshot below, from left to right, the brushes are as follows: Rainbow, Goo, Calligraphy, Charcoal, Bristles, Flat Hard, Flat Medium, Flat Soft, and and the last line was made by the flat hard brush and then gone over with the shading brush.

The next button over is for selecting the brush color. Clicking on the circle will bring up a color picking overlay, which looks similar to Apple’s color wheel. Just click and drag your mouse to select the color, and then the right side is for shade.

The slider along the bottom of the window is for brush size. Drag to the right to make it bigger, and to the left to make it smaller.

The last button (in the bottom right corner), opens up the layers overlay, which is something you don’t usually expect to find in a simple application like this one. From this view, you can add and remove layers, and change their opacity. You can scroll through layers by moving your mouse up and down, and the active layer is outlined in blue. This implementation of navigating layers feels like a sideways cover-flow, which is a nice touch. The application takes a very visual approach to UI, negating the use for inspectors and floating palates.

The top-right corner is where the canvas navigation resides. The first button lets you go back to the brush tool if you have another selected. The button with the arrows takes a clever approach to manipulating the layer. Clicking and dragging inside the inner-most circle allows you to move the layer, dragging in the second circle lets you rotate the layer, and the third circle lets you zoom the layer in and out. Clicking and dragging outside of the circles also lets you move the layer around. The hand tool lets you move all the layers at once, and the magnifying glass tool lets you zoom all the layers at once.

The View menu also had a few surprises for me. Scribbles lets you draw full screen, which is awesome for an application like this. Scribbles has an “infinite canvas,” meaning that there are no set boundaries for your drawing. You can pan and zoom endlessly. Scribbles offers a “Tracing Paper” view, where the background goes transparent and you can trace whatever is under the Scribbles window. Lastly, you can also have a grid overlaid on the page foreground.

When exporting your finished masterpiece, you have a few options. Scribbles supports exporting to 7 file formats, such as PNG, TIFF, BMP and GIF. If you would like to share your creation with the rest of the world, you can upload it to the Scribbles Gallery free of charge. There are some neat pictures there; I recommend you take a look.

Overall, I was impressed with Scribbles, as I didn’t really think very much of it when I first opened it. The use of CoreAnimation throughout the interface makes everything smooth and a joy to use. Some may be turned off by Scribbles apparent lack of features, but my impression of this application is “less is more.” It does one job, and it does it well.

With such an array of graphics applications available, you have many more to choose from if Scribbles isn’t for you. If you do decide that Scribbles is up your alley, you can purchase a license for $19.95 from Atebits Software.

The first thing about Delicious Library 2 you will notice is a major design change. In the previous version of Delicious Library (which I will henceforth refer to as “DL”), the main window consisted of three vertical panes. In DL2, there are still three panes, but they are arranged with one pane vertical on the left side, and two panes stacked vertically on the right. I am not a big fan of this change, as the other design was able to make better of screen real estate on widescreen computers. Some may not be too concerned about this change, but it would be nice to have an option to change the view in the next update of DL2.

Other design changes include making the overall window more “open,” with more white space, and each element of the window is no longer boxed in by the gray border. You will now find all info pertaining to your media in one “Details” tab, instead of having separate “Details” and “My Info” tabs, and 3 additional tabs (Synopsis, Reviews and Recommendations) have also been added. One feature of DL that always had the “neat” factor also got a bit of an interface tweak. When inputting items with your iSight, the window now has guides to make it easier to line up the barcode to be scanned.

As I mentioned above, DL2 takes advantage of many Leopard technologies. When you add an item, a nice little animation fills up the space where the item will occupy, and deleting an item will cause it to “explode” out of your library. DL2 also takes advantage of some technologies available to developers to make it run faster and more smooth, like CoreData, and CoreGraphics.

Above interface changes, the most significant changes to DL have been done under the hood. Many things have been optimized, so that things like scrolling now work flawlessly, even for people who have very large libraries.

Feature-wise, DL2 did receive a few additions. You can now create Smart Shelves (think iTunes’ Smart Playlists), your iTunes library now shows up in the sidebar (albums, movies and audiobooks), you can export to the web right from within DL2 (more on that later), quicklook items on the desktop, improved voice search, three click selling through Amazon, and the list goes on. For a full list of all changes from v1 to v2, check out the release notes on Delicious Monster’s site.

In v1 of Delicious Library, the only types of items you could add were media items such as DVDs, but in v2, you can add many more different categories of items like Tools, Gadgets and even clothes. Depending on how keen you are keeping track of your belongings, or on using the functionality of this app to your advantage, DL2 may never be anymore than a novelty to you. I feel that DL does have practical use if you have a lot of stuff to keep track of, and actually take the time to fill out the metadata, though again, for some, DL may never be more than a novelty. One very handy use that is brought up on the Delicious Monster site is insurance reasons:

But a few people are skeptical, or slightly less obsessive. “Ok,” they say, “then I have my stuff in my computer. Big whoop. I can just look at my real shelf, right now, for free.”

And we say, “True, but have you ever had someone break in and steal all your CDs or DVDs? Your insurance company wants an exact list of what you had, but you can’t remember every last thing, and so for years afterwards you think, ‘Drat, I forgot to list Rocky Horror Picture Show, and now it’s too late!’ Well, with Delicious Library you always have a complete inventory of your stuff, with replacement costs. You can print it or back it up to the web, so it’s not going anywhere.

Being able to share your library with friends is quite handy, which can be done with people through the new “Publish to Web” option. You then get the option to export to .Mac, iWeb, FTP or a folder. You can choose to upload everything or just selected shelves to two different templates. Clicking on the little green “i” will let you select the different options for that destination. It does take quite a while to create the pages, and quite a while to upload, especially when your library is big. The first time I uploaded everything to my server, I just walked away from my Mac for a hour or so.

Overall, DL2 is a solid upgrade that brings many new features and speed improvements. To purchase a new license of DL from Delicious Monster, it will set you back $40. To upgrade, the cost is only $20, though if you bought a license between December 1st, 2007 and May 26th, 2008, you qualify for a free upgrade.

SketchBox is a small little window that holds all of your notes; just double click one and it will move out of the box to its position on your screen. The left side of the window displays your folders and the right side displays your notes. You can zoom in on your notes to view them easier before opening them. One problem with this window, though, is that it’s a bit big and on smaller screens it could get in the way, but hiding the window can easily fix that. Once you have created a new note (command-N) you can do many things with it. On the top is the close button, note color change button, and the options button. On the right are three tabs: one for drawing, one for typing, and a third for setting alarms.

I’ll start with the Drawing tab. On the bottom of the note are options. You can switch between Eraser and Pencil and change the color and width of the pencil stoke. When you change the color of your pencil your mouse pointer also changes colors, so you can tell which color you are using. There is also a screenshot tool built into the drawing tab. Just click the camera
icon and the whole note turns into a viewfinder. Just set up the shot and click on the window. You can then draw on the picture and save it to your computer.

The next tab is the Text tab. If you have already drawn a picture or taken a screenshot this will overlay the text on top of the image, but with the image faded in the background. If you switch back to the drawing tab after typing, this will switch; the image will look normal but the text will be faded. The text is very simple. On the bottom of the note you can change the size and make the text underlined, bold, or italic. You can change the font by clicking command-T or by going to Format–Font in the menu bar. Sadly, there is no option to drag the text around. If you want to place it in an area on your screenshot you have to use Enter and Tab to place it.

The third tab is the Alarm. The Alarm is very easy to set — just drag the sliders in each section: Days, Hours, and Minutes. On top of the note you can see exactly what time and date your alarm will go off at. In the preferences you can choose between an analog or digital alarm noise. You can click the button at the bottom to have it reset. If an alarm is on then a small orange alarm icon will be displayed in the corner of the note in the main SketchBox window.

SketchBox has many great features that can not be found in Stickies. It even has tablet support which supports pressure sensitivity and the ability to use the end of your tablet pen as an eraser. If you have been using Stickies, or some other note taking application, you should definitely try this out. SketchBox is freeware and can be downloaded here.

Now, before I tell you anymore about Gluestick, there is one thing you need to know. It is not an image editor. It is simply layer-based editing. You need to already have images before you start. There is no vector, no drawing, etc. You simply put things in different layers, and move them around. This may sound like a stupid app at first, but its usefulness does reveal itself. When you are a developer, and you need to create a document icon, or even an icon for your app, Gluestick can be extremely helpful.

As I said above, Gluestick is great for developers. The first great thing for you if you are a developer is the Source view, which lets you look through Apple’s library of system-related icons. In the bottom of the sidebar, there are a bunch of images. These are either Apple’s default icons, or the ones you have chosen, if you use CandyBar or another customization app. There are blank documents icons, types of computers, hard drives, etc. This is great because then you can create an icon based off of Apples’ defaults, so it will end up looking more Mac-like. You can also add more groups to this source view by clicking the bar above it, going to “Edit groups…” and clicking the [+] button.

Another feature for developers is the .icns export support. Gluestick can export to .icns, and fill all sizes for it. Now, one problem with this simplicity of export (File>Export) is that it does not allow you to optimize the image for each size. Some people like to do this with more detailed icons, but I usually don’t. If you do not want to change your icon for each size, this may not be an issue for you.

Now, if you are just an average user, Gluestick may not be for you. It has a few image effects to add, but other than that, it is pretty much exclusively for designers and developers. Those are the people that Gluestick was made for; however, you still can make some nice images for yourself with it. But, if that is all you are going to do with it, you might get greater value out of Pixelmator or Acorn.

In the Inspector, the last three tabs is where you can add simple effects to your images. Like I said above, Gluestick does have a few effects that can be applied to your layers, but not enough to make it a full fledged editor. The first of these tabs in the Inspector allows you to adjust color. It gives you options like Saturation, Brightness, Monochrome, etc., some basic effects you would find in iPhoto or Aperture. The second of those tabs is for adding a shadow, and specifying the opacity. The third of these tabs allows you to do many things. First, it allows you crop and zoom. At the bottom of this tab, it allows you to specify the editing background (should be wood if you haven’t customized it yet). The background will not be exported with the image, it will only be there when you are editing. Though you can specify the background that you want to be saved with the final image if you like. I wish that there were a few more editing options like reflections or strokes, but what Gluestick has should get the job done. Another problem I have found, is when clicking the “Inspector” button in the toolbar. The inspector window (if open) just moves to its original location, and doesn’t close. In most other apps, clicking the Inspector button opens as well as closes the window.

The main window of Gluestick is very simple. You click “Add Layer” to add either a text layer or an image layer. You click “Remove Layer” to remove the currently selected layer. In the Tool Select toolbar item, you can choose to either move a layer (the first one), resize a layer (the second one), or zoom (the last one). The zoom toolbar item lets you specify a percentage to zoom to.

The final thing I want to touch on is templates. These give you a guide for creating a certain type of icon. The choices are: Badged Folder, Disk Image Icon, Document Icon, or Plugin Icon. When you click on one of these templates (in the Templates menubar item), Gluestick will create a base for your icon (i.e. a disk image icon for the disk image template). Gluestick also creates a layer with the perspective of the base. You could do this yourself in another application, but this makes the process much simpler and quicker. As I have said before, this app really is for making icons.

Consonance Software’s Gluestick retails for $24.99, and there is a free trial available at their website. Gluestick makes the process of making icons and doing some repetitive tasks very simple. The price tag is a little high for what it does, but it can help a lot for these tasks, so you may find it invaluable.

When you open PulpMotion Advanced you are greeted by a simple start page with 3 main options: New, Open, and Open Recent. After selecting New you can select from one of the many themes, but you can always change your theme whenever you want. The top half of the theme window is for choosing the theme and the bottom half is for choosing a variation. Now the main window opens. The main window has a slick black design. On the right is the media browser but with the 3 buttons under it it can also be for options and for choosing a different theme. The bottom of the window displays music, text, and photos in the slideshow; just drag media there to add it. Finally, the slideshow plays in the main middle section. Now on to options. By clicking the button with the gear on it you can change the media browser to Composition Settings. This is where you can change every little detail about your slideshow. Once you have gone over the many options it’s time to add pictures.

Adding pictures is very simple. Just find the images you want and drag them straight to the media bar. You can select as many pictures as you want. Once you have your pictures added you can add a voiceover with a microphone and change the name. To change the name just double click the name under the image and type in what you want. You can also pick out special parts of an image and have it zoom in on those and then out onto the whole picture. Just go back to the composition settings and click the button in the top-right next to the star. Then choose the image you want to change and click Open Editor. Once the editor is open you can select different “zones of interest” and it will zoom in on those and then go to the full image. You can always change the time of certain images by clicking the clock icon next to the title. You can change the time of all of them in Options.

Adding music is just as easy. Just drag a selected song from the media browser to the bottom. It will display the percentage of the song that is covered by the pictures and you can edit some options by double clicking the song. Once you have finally finished your slideshow just check over the settings one more time to make sure everything is perfect and then hit Play. You can then click File-Export to export it to many different sources like an iPod, AppleTV, iLife, Mail, and even as a screensaver. When you export your slideshow you can choose all of the options including looping, quality, and motion blur.

Overall PulpMotion Advanced is a great application, with many new features compared to the standard PulpMotion. There is still one small problem where some angled lines can be jagged, but all the slideshows and themes look amazing. In the end I’m sure that PulpMotion Advanced will help you share your pictures and stories in a very impressive way. You can download a demo and purchase PulpMotion Advanced at the Aquafadas website. PulpMotion Advanced costs $129 or you can upgrade from standard PulpMotion for $85.

I Love Stars is a free application from Potion Factory, and it’s designed to do one simple thing. It simply shows up inconspicuously in your menubar and provides you with a simple interface to rate the current track.

It’s not a fully-fledged iTunes controller; it won’t allow you to control your music or display snazzy album art. All it does is one thing, and it does it well. The interface simply consists of 1 to 5 stars, arranged nicely and unobtrusively. Sure, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to an app like Quicksilver to control the ratings, but it would be nice if you could see it, right?

I think utilities like these are really helpful because it reduces distractions. Having to switch to iTunes just to rate music is annoying and somewhat distracting. Though you originally planned to just tag a song, in no time, you’ll end up browsing album art, looking through the iTunes store, and actually buying some music. It’s simple utilities like these that get the job done, and done fast.

For extra goodness, launch System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items and add it to the list. The app will launch automatically when you login. I Love Stars is available for free from Potion Factory.

When you start up Comic life the welcome screen appears, where you can select a theme for a new comic or load an old one. Comic Life includes 12 different themes, along with a blank one and the ability to save your own. I’ll start with a blank template. After selecting the template the main creation window opens. On the top of the window you can see the different pages of the comic, along with a few buttons; there are buttons to add a new page, undo changes, make text smaller and bigger, and save and print options. On the bottom you can view different spray paint patterns, props, and text. On the left is the style toolbar, which lets you edit everything in your comic: text, objects, add effects, change opacity — everything is covered in the style bar. And finally, on the right, you can add panel layouts, template pages, and photos.

The first thing to do is add some comic panels. Under Panel Layouts there are many different types of layouts. After clicking on a panel you can warp it into any shape you want.

Now we need to fill up those panels with some pictures! On the right side you can navigate through folders, your iPhoto library, and (something I don’t see much in shareware) your Aperture library. You can also just take a picture with your iSight. Once you’re ready, just drag and drop photos to the panels. Then you can change the position of the object in the panel and move it to other panels by dragging it around.

Now for one of the coolest features — the Magiq image editor. Just click on the picture you want to edit and click the painting palette icon in the top right of the image. The window dims and the image editor shows up. As you can see, it looks just like a color palette. On the top are the different editing layers. You can choose options in each layer with the pink buttons on the right. If you mess up something on the layer, just click the Reset Layer button under the image or click the arrows on top to undo and redo changes.

The first layer is Color. On the left the choices are control, sharpen, exposure, hue, invert, monochrome, and crop. When you click a choice customization options will show up on the right of the image. Then when you move onto the next choice the icon will turn purple. Now click the next layer, Cut-Out. This will allow you to cut out an object in the image to use as a prop or to get rid of the background. The easiest way is with the Magiq Snip option. To use it, click the Keep button and draw a shape in the border of the object you want to keep. Then click the discard button and draw another shape around the outside of the object. With the other options you can cut out a certain color, a shape, or you can paint your own mask. The next layer is the Warp layer. The warping options are vortex, twirl, bump, pinch, bulge, dent, squeeze and smudge. The forth layer is Skin. This will allow you to paint on a different skin overlay into image. You can choose from a variety of skins, from steel to alien. The fifth layer is Filter, which allows you to add one of three different blur effects to the image. And the final choice is Paint, which simply allows you to choose a paintbrush and paint on the picture. Click Done and the picture is updated in the comic.

Next up, lettering and text bubbles. To add text just click theme on the bottom bar and click All to view all the options. There are 8 different bubble styles as well as a text box and one customizable lettering choice. The lettering can be edited just like the panels and can also be warped into different shapes. Even the bubbles can be changed to create any style you want. To quickly change the bubble types just click the bubble and click the black button in the top left of the bubble. This will display a wheel with the different options. Just click the option to change it. Once you are done with your comic just click Save and then print it out with the print button. Or, if you prefer, you can export it to an email, Flickr, HTML, photo file, PDF, iPhoto, or iWeb.

Comic Life Magiq has so many different options to make your comic, and it also makes an amazing and simple image editor. You don’t need to just make a comic in Comic Life, you could use it for whatever you want, even to create a photo book. Comic Life Magiq is available from Plasq for $44.95 for a full version or $29.95 for a cross-grade from Comic Life. Currently they are having an introductory price of $39.95 for a license and $19.95 for a cross-grade for a limited time. You can learn more about Comic Life Magiq, watch a video overview, and download a 30 day trial on the Plasq website. Comic Life Magiq requires Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard.

I have been keeping a eye open for some of these new releases the past few days, and have compiled a list of some of the applications that have been introduced, and ones that have been updated.

The first application on my list is TapeDeck. TapeDeck is an application that was released as version 1.0 on May 9th. The basic premise behind TapeDeck is being able to record audio quickly and easily. This is a Leopard-only application, that takes advantage of technologies like Core Animation, and Core Audio. Each new “tape” that you record is stored in a sliding panel, that is easy to search. When you record, the little wheels of the deck even spin, which is a nice touch. TapeDeck has been released for $25; look for a full review on MacApper soon.

The next app on my list is Bokeh. Bokeh, a joint application from Ollie Wagner and Geoff Pado, is an application that was born from Freeze Frame. It allows you to stop an application from using the processor, freeing it up for other applications to use. For example, you could freeze every other application you have open except for Final Cut Express if you were rendering a scene and wanted FCS to be able to use all of your processor. When you “Focus” on an app (freezing all other applications except for one) the screen behind the app blurs, hence the name Bokeh. A full review of Bokeh is currently in the pipes, to be consumed by you readers in the near future.

Next up we have a few application updates. Pixelmator got a big update yesterday, bringing it up to v1.2 (Draftsman). This update was free to all registered users and brought plenty of bug fixes, and some new functionality. Most notably was the introduction of rulers, a curves feature for “adjusting the entire tonal range or making precise adjustments to individual color channels in an image, and a new color balance tool essential for controlling the overall color mixture in an image for color correction work,” (Pixelmator Weblog) an enhance tool, and a polygonal lasso. The documentation of Pixelmator has also been updated, as well as a few enhanced Automator actions. You can pick up the update right from within Pixelmator, or from the Pixelmator Team’s Website.

Another application that received quite a considerable update is Picturesque, from Acqualia. I reviewed Picturesque v1.0 way back in May of 2007, and with this update, you won’t even recognize Picturesque anymore. The interface of Picturesque has been completely redone, doing away with the floating inspector window. This update in addition to a new interface, has brought a few new tools, like Perspective and Crop. A review of Picturesque has just been posted to MacApper, by our very own Joe Turner.

Now those are the only ones that I found in my travels through the internet, but I would be happy to hear some of the other ones that I may have missed.

We will find out the winners of the ADAs in a months time at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference this June.

Like most social networks, each user maintains a network persona by creating a profile page, listing personal info such as name, age, gender, location and occupation. Where a Net4Mac profile differs from Facebook or MySpace is in its options for describing your Mac rig, your brand of iPod, your iPhone and your level of Mac expertise. (For my profile, I chose “power user” because I’m just that awesome.)

“Facebook and MySpace are great but nothing special for true Mac fans,” says Greg Barrot, the manager of the dev4mac development team, in an email. “With our concept, people can share information on the subject they like and create groups, for example, about the software they are using.”

How does dev4mac successfully limit its members to only Mac users? In order to signup for an account and edit your profile, you must download the Net4Mac OS X application. In fact, the majority of the network’s features are only accessible through the software; only user profiles can be viewed within a browser window. The app approach to social networking allows for features such as badge notifications in the Dock to signify new messages, integration with Address Book for sending invitations to friends, and snapping profile pictures with an iSight camera.

“The application is better than a website because we can make a better integration with the technologies of Mac OS X, like Address Book, iCal, iChat, etc.,” says Barrot, whose user profile is automatically added to each new member’s friends list — essentially the Tom of MySpace. “You cannot do that with a regular web browser,” he says.

Still, it would be nice to have the option to access more of the network’s features from within a browser for those times when you’re away from home and (cruelly) forced to use a Windows PC. But dev4mac has no plans for implementing a web-based version of Net4Mac. “Actual members love the application,” Barrot says. “We don’t believe in web applications; we believe in applications connected to web services.”

It’s clear that users are excited about the potential of a walled garden for Macaholics. In just four days since its debut, Net4Mac has attracted more than 5,000 members, a number the development team didn’t anticipate it would reach until a month after release. But the servers had no problem handling the load, thanks to its Apple Xserve infrastructure running the Leopard Server OS, Barrot says. And users should be pleased to know that there are plenty of new features in the pipeline, including integration with iChat for viewing a user’s AIM status from within the app.

“We launched the application on April 4,” Barrot says. “The feedback from users is just amazing. They love the idea and the application. … And the growing rate is amazing.”

But I still have some qualms with the whole concept. The majority of the features can be (and have been in other sites) accomplished within a browser, including web cam support via Flash, and the few unique abilities Net4Mac offers don’t seem to be worth keeping the app running and eating system resources. The social calendar doesn’t currently integrate with iCal, but Barrot says the feature is scheduled for a future version. The classifieds section is useful, but there is no way to customize the listing to show only items from your area, meaning you’ll have to wade through listings from all over the world — some of which are not even in your native language.

For some reason, Net4Mac uses an installer instead of letting the user simply download the app and drag it to the Applications folder. Nevertheless, Net4Mac is free for both download and registration, with separate versions for both Leopard and Tiger.

As usual, the MacHeist guys have done it again, with a bundle that consists of finance software, a word processor, an organizer as well as a handful of games for your Mac. Yea, lovely games.

I think it’s a rather cool idea bringing the concept of MacHeist into the mainstream. I’m sure they’ll be able to reach a lot more users who would otherwise not have heard of it. However, it’s still unclear how widespread the retail bundle will be physically available. I just hope that issues like distribution costs, rights and other nitty-gritty stuff like that wouldn’t ruin an otherwise superb idea.

What’s in it for people who already own these apps? Well, MacHeist is offering a referral program. Not just an ordinary referral program where you get paid for each sale. Instead they will be unveiling several diferent tiers of software prizes, each crammed with several options. Sounds like the MacHeist guys will have something cool up their sleeves, stay tuned for more.

If you don’t own the majority of these apps, please consider purchasing them. 25% of all proceeds will be going to a group of charities; MacHeist believes that this time round they could push the donations to over a million dollars. So what are you waiting for? Get your retail bundle today.

StumbleUpon is like channel surfing for the web. The site, which ranks in the top 500 on Alexa Traffic Rankings, lets you specify a list of categories you’re interested in, whether it be art, music, humor, technology or a slew of others, and then jump randomly between popular sites in those areas. Not uncommon for a social bookmarking site, Stumble features user profiles and friends lists. Once you start Stumbling, you may be surprised at how addictive it is.

Unfortunately Safari users were, for the most part, left out to dry on some of the site’s most unique features. Relying on the SIMBL InputManager that Saft and PithHelmet use to integrate with Safari, Stumbi adds an entry in the menu bar, providing options for surfing to the next random page and for rating the current page. These options can be triggered using built-in keyboard shortcuts or by specifying your own shortcuts in System Preferences.

The $2 shareware application is a great option for Safari users, but those using other browsers, like Opera or OmniWeb, will have to turn to bookmarklets. By placing javascript links in your bookmarks bar you can create the Toolbarless StumbleUpon. Users can pick and choose which ones they want to bookmark, with features including logging into the Stumble service, giving a site a positive rating, submitting a new page to the directory, displaying page reviews and switching content filters. The Toolbarless StumbleUpon, dubbed “bookmarklets for surviving without the toolbar,” is free.

Now I can already hear some of you typing out responses that in a nutshell say “Why don’t you just use VNSea to do the same thing?” There are many answers to that, but I think the best of them comes in the form of a question: Have you ever tried to fit a 13 inch screen onto a screen barely larger diagonally than your index finger? Part of the allure of Touchpad Pro is that it very much simplifies your VNC experience, so that you don’t have a cluttered screen full of windows and Dock icons, but just a black touchpad in the palm of your hand. Another advantage is its low-latency format. Because it’s not streaming video directly to the iPod, response is very snappy, and a lot smoother than standard VNC.

Touchpad Pro doesn’t have the largest featureset, but it does have a number of attributes that one may find attractive. First, the setup is very simple. Simply input a connection title, the host machine’s IP address or hostname and the host machine’s VNC password. The interface is very clean, and includes only a black screen and a series of buttons on the lower edge for modifier keys like command (the Apple Key), control, shift and option. It also has a built-in keyboard for text input that you can show or hide when needed.

Touchpad Pro also has a different mode that allows for use as a media remote, controlling the arrow keys, tab and the space bar. Other, more necessary features are so well implemented that they don’t even need buttons. Simply tap to click, double tap to double click, or double tap and drag to drag items and use two fingers to scroll. Touchpad Pro even supports pinch gestures for zoom, just like the new MacBook Pros and MacBook Air.

Find Touchpad Pro and great instructions on installation for both the iPhone and iPod touch as well as for Mac and PC here.