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News : NPR

Ryan Ray — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:42:03 +0000

The last of the almighty news apps reviews! I’ve been covering my four favorite news apps over the last week. If you’ve missed any of those here they are… AP, BBC, and CNN. So now that you’ve checked those out, or are about to, here is my last news app. I would have to say that this is my favorite news organization, slightly biased for them, and their app is pretty fun to use too. It’s NPR’s iPhone app of course, NPR stands for National Public Radio if you weren’t in the know. Now that you are, let’s check out the app!

Here is the main page of the app, it’s clean, presents the info needed and gets the job done. All of the apps so far have done this very well. Styling is a personal choice and I think I like both this one and AP’s home page the best.

This is the individual story look for NPR. It looks like they want you to share news more so than any other app with their placement of the share button. There is a lot of space around it that could be fixed. Lot’s of white and neglected space… Again the picture thumbnail is in the story and can be tapped on to view fullscreen. Then the story is below it. Very nice like most others.

Here is where the NPR app gets fun. If you know NPR then you most likely have a favorite program. You can then listen to it through the iPhone app if it’s on the air! I loved doing this this summer via my iPad during my morning breakfast. A quick and easy way to catch up on the world. The iPad didn’t have multi-tasking yet and since the iPhone does you can close the app and keep listening to your favorite program. The next screen shot lets you find local stations and see if anything is on air. I like this part of the app, definitely worth checking out!

So here is the last news app. I’ve tried to show your each of their basics and slight differences. I also tried to highlight some of their unique features and things they do that I like. It’s important to stay current with the world. Picking one of these news apps, or all four like I do, will definitely help you out! Thanks a ton for checking out my reviews and I hope you enjoyed them.

Apple iPhone News, Reviews, Hacks, and More Copyright 2008 iPhone Nuts. All Rights Reserved.

News : NPR

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Dragon Dictation Review

Ryan Ray — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:01:44 +0000

Have you ever wished you could just talk to your phone to type an email, or tell it what and who to text? Well thankfully we can tell our iPhones who to call, and what music to play. We can even ask it to shuffle or simply for the time. We just can’t use speech to text yet. There is an app out there though that tries to save us from this lack of features on our iPhones.

It’s called Dragon Dictation. It is in itself just like every other speech to text app, I would go out on a limb and say this does it pretty well though. I tested it out over a few weekends. I’ve used it to send texts to people instead of typing them out, which is one of the awesome uses of it. The thing I like about it besides that it works pretty well is that you have a few options of how to use the text it dictates. So let’s check it out real quick below.

loading, loading, loading, loading…

Here is what you are presented with when she’s ready to roll. Once you tap the button it starts listening to you, turning your voice into text. Here is where the app runs into some inaccuracies. I said, with my best Ahnold accent, “Get to da choppa!” This is how Dragon Dictation interpreted it… Get the job ha ha. Hah, for real. I don’t know if it has a hard time deciphering my cruddy impersonation or what, but it didn’t quite get it right. Trust me though when I’ve used it before to send texts that if you speak clearly it has an almost %100 accurate rate. If it gets something wrong it’s really easy to fix. You simply highlight the word you want to fix and bring up the keyboard. Just as you would editing text in any iPhone app.

Once you have the text you want to send here is what you can do with it. Text it, email it, copy it, Facebook it, Twitter it, or just change your settings!

Now like I said the app works pretty well, just don’t try and impersonate the governator. I also haven’t tried translating a long period of talking into text for something like an email. I only sent one sentence texts, so your mileage may vary. The app makes any mistakes easy to edit and it will definitely save you some time in typing stuff out. It also makes it a little safer to text and drive in my case . Just kidding, I hardly take my eyes off the road not more so than any other person or any other distraction besides a dumb cell phone. So test out the app for yourself, it’s free, and see what you think!

Apple iPhone News, Reviews, Hacks, and More Copyright 2008 iPhone Nuts. All Rights Reserved.

Dragon Dictation Review

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News : CNN Review

Ryan Ray — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:27:01 +0000

Back, back, back again with another news app review. This time this app isn’t free, but usually with a paid app you should get a bit more quality and features. Let’s see if CNN lives up to that. If you were wondering what it costs, right now it is $1.99 in the app store. Worth it? I think so, let’s see why.

Just a splash/loading screen. Nothing to see here, move a long…

Now the app has loaded and presented us with it’s main navigation. The most up to date news is obviously the big story with the big picture. CNN deems this most newsworthy of the moment. Below the main story you can see a lot of other top news as well. Just navigate on down to see all on the front page. If you look right under the CNN logo you can see that it starts you out on Top Stories, but is easily swipeable to get to World news, or Politics, etc… I have to say the interface doesn’t feel terribly polished, especially on a paid app. You can’t tap the big picture to read the story. You have to tap on the headline, not very user friendly. But once you are in a story the screen shot on the right is what it looks like. Just about the same… hah. They’ve added, in the top right corner, a button to share the story. Then they list a few bullet points of the most important information first. If you scroll down then you’ll get to the story. Like I said, the interface needs work…

Under the next tab along the bottom is My CNN. This is a nice section that based on your location will give you your weather, and the local news. Along the top you can also tap on followed news stories and saved stories. You can also change the location if you need to. This section has a nice interface IMO. Now this is one of the features that sets this app apart from others. It includes video, available for streaming, in the app. Tap on the video tab to see what’s available for watching

Lastly CNN has a program called iReport where you can send in news happening right away. They’ve so conveniently built it into the app and it works well! So all ing all I definitely think the app is worth paying for, luckily I got it for $0.99 and honestly I think that that is all it’s worth right now. It needs some more polish before it’s worth $1.99, but check it out and let me know what you think if you use it.

Apple iPhone News, Reviews, Hacks, and More Copyright 2008 iPhone Nuts. All Rights Reserved.

News : CNN Review

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News : BBC App Review

Ryan Ray — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 20:58:28 +0000

Hey, I’m back again with the news apps part two! If you missed out on the first app, AP Mobile, click on the name to go check it out! This time we are going to jump across the Atlantic and talk about their shot at an iPhone app. It’s brought to us by the renown BBC. If you aren’t aware BBC stands for British Broadcasting Company headquartered in London, just wanted to make sure everyone was aware if they weren’t already. Just remember knowledge is power! Anyway let’s see how the BBC delivers the news via the iPhone

Splash screen while the app loads. Not really useful but also not terribly useless, purgatory…

The first screen shot is what the main beef of the app looks like. Here is where you can scroll and swipe to find stories. The news sections scroll vertically. You can find US news, Top stories, Technology, etc… And within those sections if you swipe horizontally you can read all the stories in the respective section. The second screen shot is what an individual story looks like. Pretty standard but a slight twist from the AP app. The title sits above while the picture and summary are nested together, just slightly different from the first one. Of course you can increase or decrease the font size, and share with that alien foot print looking thing.

If you wanted to add or remove sections from your home screen just tap on the edit button in the upper right corner. You can put anything category in any order you want. I wanted to share this screen shot though to show you my favorite feature of the news apps running on iOS 4. If you look in the upper left corner you can see a button for live radio. Tap this and a soothing voice will start to read some of the top news to you. While this is going on, and thanks to iOS 4, you can close the app and do anything else besides call someone. That just shuts off the audio in the background of the app so you can hear the person you are calling! Another app I’ll review this week has a similar function and I really like using it. I usually put this kind of feature to good use during my breakfast. In the summer that was everyday but during the school year I use it whenever I get a chance to listen to the news. While using the bathroom or while doing the dishes.

So that wraps up news app #2, what do you think? Which is better right now AP Mobile or BBC News? Leave a comment and weigh in!

Apple iPhone News, Reviews, Hacks, and More Copyright 2008 iPhone Nuts. All Rights Reserved.

News : BBC App Review

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News : AP Mobile Review

Ryan Ray — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:08:44 +0000

Welcome to the evening news, I’m your host… That’s what we are used to hearing every day on the evening news. Before there was this thing called the internet, or the iPhone and it’s apps, that’s how we got our news. There was the news paper and the evening news on TV. You had to tune in at a certain time to stay informed. With the advent of the internet and mobile phones the news organizations have happily embraced them, and now we can get our news anytime we want. Heck we can even get push notifications on the iPhone of breaking news. It’s great!

So I wanted to cover a few news apps this week, the first we are starting with is AP Mobile. This is the Associated Press’ mobile app for the iPhone, it was one of the first apps out for the iPhone. I’ve always like their apps and the stories they cover, been a faithful user since the app came out! It’s great to see the improvements they’ve made over the past 2+ years. Let’s dive into the app a little here.

Those two screenshots above are what greets you when you open the app. The tab is called My AP. Just under the heading you can browse different topics there. They have other news sections like sports, and wacky news. I like to see the wacky news, it’s quite entertaining to read what some people try to get away with.

Now you’ve selected a story to ready this is what you’ll see. With a free app this is how AP is going to make a little money for their service. Below that you get any pictures from the story and it’s rating. You can rate the story with the star button in the footer. Below the picture is the story. A simple and clean way to be informed. Also at the bottom you can change the font size incase it’s too small, you can share the story, rate, and save for reading later offline. As you can see by the second screen shot there is also a quick weather section. It usually picks up on your locations and shows you the current weather for where you are.

If you were wondering about the local news, they have that too. Another reason to love the app. Under the settings you can put which zip codes, or just cities you want to see the local news from. Sometimes if my local news comes up blank it just needs a tap of the refresh button. And of course under the more tab you can get access to settings, submit news, and more.

Like I said this is one of the first news apps made for the iPhone, and I like it a lot. I use it at least once a day to read the news. I definitely suggest you check it out and then get back to me to let me know what you think. Come back tomorrow and I’ll be talking about another new app for the iPhone.

Apple iPhone News, Reviews, Hacks, and More Copyright 2008 iPhone Nuts. All Rights Reserved.

News : AP Mobile Review

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Instagram App Review

Ryan Ray — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:28:13 +0000

Happy Sunday to everyone, I’m here to review yet ANOTHER photo app. Seriously I love them and it’s great that so many other developers keep building interesting photo apps. In past reviews I’ve always looked for one photo app to rule them all, I still haven’t quite found it. So I’m still out collecting great photo apps to fulfill one need. That need is to simply make some great photos on a camera that’s always with me.

Today’s app is called Instagram. Instant because the pictures are instantly edited and ready to send in a modern day telegram! Genius name! The app is pretty fun to use, BUT I must warn you, to even start using the app you have to sign up. Not cool by me. But a small price to pay for a free app and some awesome presets. Now let’s checkout the app and see how she works.

The picture above is the first screen you are greeted with. It’s a news feed with your friends latest pictures. I kind of like that about the app. It’s a nice easy way to see what your friends are editing. I think there should be one website where everyone can share great iPhone photography. Anyone know of a good one that exist?

This screen shot is of the popular section of the app. Obviously pictures that have the most traction or views will be posted here. If you can get a bunch of friends using the app then you might get some images up here.

Now onto the important, core function of the app, taking a picture! It’s really simple as can be. See that giant camera button, you push that when you are ready to snap a new picture. Now you can easily get access to past pictures on your phone if you wanted to edit those. Once you’ve got your pic it auto saves to your camera roll and is uploaded to your Instagram stream. When you are in edit mode you just pic a preset and see if you like it before saving. It’s pretty simple, and it works well!

That is pretty much the app in a nutshell, of course it has strengths and weaknesses. I hope soon they update it to save the full quality photo and not a compressed version. I like having the best quality I can. So it’s your turn to give it a shot and see what you think about it! Thanks a ton for reading!

Apple iPhone News, Reviews, Hacks, and More Copyright 2008 iPhone Nuts. All Rights Reserved.

Instagram App Review

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Trainyard Review

Ryan Ray — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 23:37:34 +0000

Trainyard Express the game of the hour! This game is not only addicting, and very fun to play, it has a great backstory and is really cool the success it’s brought for one developer. Hopefully they continue into the future!

Anyway if you haven’t been surfing the net or the app store in awhile you’ve been missing out on the rise of this app called Trainyard. The whole premise of trainyard is a simple puzzle/logic game. The execution of it though is mind numbingly addictive, I can’t put down my iPhone to save my life. There is a free version that is also an express version. It doesn’t have as many maps and puzzles. The paid version is fully featured and only costs $.99 at the moment. I’d definitely say that once you try the express version you’ll quickly go buy the full version. I’m reviewing it from when I played the free version, but since then Trainyard express convinced me to get the full version

First, the game has a cool story behind it. It’s made by one guy who developed it over the last year in his spare time. He has a full time job, and a wife and a newborn all to take care of and still managed to pump out this game. Even more reason to support him by getting the full version. He really believed in the game and had an interesting goal behind it all. Read more about the game’s story here…

So what does the game look like. It has an interesting dark interface and it works well. Here are some levels. The are ordered by province and inside each province are the puzzles. To unlock more levels you have to reach a certain amount of stars. As you can see under the Sunburst level if I complete it I collect 5 more stars.

Here is the unsolved puzzle, I somehow must get all of those yellow trains to combine into one and go into one of the stations entrances. You do this by simply drawing track with your finger. Curved, straight, overlapping, it all works. If you download and start playing you’ll start getting tips on how to work the tracks. It’s actually quite complex but at the same time simple in the way it operates.

One last thing is if you completely botch a track design you can hit the undo button, or erase pieces individually. My favorite though is to clear it all with a shake. Once I’ve completely screwed up a puzzle I like to just start with a clean slate, haha. You can hit erase then shake and it’ll ask you if you want to clear the tracks. Just incase you get so flustered trying to figure it out!

Like I said, this game is a ton of fun. You really need to experience it. Try it out and get back to me with what you think about it!

Apple iPhone News, Reviews, Hacks, and More Copyright 2008 iPhone Nuts. All Rights Reserved.

Trainyard Review

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Are Smartphones Our Next Addiction?

Ryan Ray — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 23:05:23 +0000

The smart phone, can it be called America’s new past time? At one point we called it baseball, but is it really still baseball? Just think about it. I’m sure a lot of Americans still go to baseball games. We love to get hotdogs, popcorn, and beer as we watch the sluggers try and slam one out of the park. Most of the time though I can guarantee that we are texting, taking pics with our smartphone, playing a game or two, and even updating our Twitter and Facebook statuses. We’re addicted to the smartphone…

The picture below I believe came from a Windows 7 phone ad. Although the Windows 7 phone is pretty dismal compared to the iPhone or even Droid, they make a good point in the spot. The premise of their phone apparently is that the phone is so good at showing you the information you need right away that you can get back to your life. Like I said though there is a counter message in there saying we spend too much time on our smart phones.

We all want a smartphone, and right now the iPhone is the king of the crop. With it we have a much better experience with a cellphone. Easy access to the full web, great apps, visual voicemail, even the texting is a rich feature of a smartphone. Our smart phones can even get us deals based on our location that it got us directions to… I know the smartphone is great but let’s take a step back and remember that the smartphone is there to help improve our everyday lives, and if we forget to get off our phones and live then we’ve missed the point.

I’ve had the conversation with many people that are against smart phones, and I see where they come from with their arguments. They say get off the phone and enjoy the time we spend together. It’s a thought that smartphone or not we all need to remember. So here is my final summation of advice…

Use your smart phone to it’s fullest potential, it’ll make your life easier. It at least does for me, but don’t miss out on interacting with other humans. Especially your loved ones. Use it to reserve a restaurant or order flowers for them and then put it down and spend some time with them. These are just my two cents, tell me what you think about a smart phone addiction.

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Apple’s Game Center

Ryan Ray — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:44:13 +0000

Games, games, games, and more games. I finally got around to upgrading to 4.1 last night. I had been waiting for a clean and simple jailbreak for 4.1 before upgrading. It’s taken me through four operating systems before I got hooked on jailbreaking. I’m not a very hardcore jailbreak man, but I do like to be able to customize how my phone looks (on the screen, not physically). I also love to be able to create a hotspot wherever and whenever I want. None the less I bit the bullet and am running 4.1, a jailbroken 4.1

The big feature that came packaged with 4.1 is Apple’s Game Center. A central location that is trying to make gaming on the iPhone social. So let’s take a first look at how Game Center works. First off, any app developers out there that want their app to be in the Game Center have to update them to work with it. Sadly I haven’t found many games that I own that are on that list yet. At the moment I have one game in Game Center. The second thing is is that this is a social platform. Without an easy way to find friends what am I going to do to compare my scores with other iPhone gamers? Like the picture below says, I need friends…

Well this is what the main Game Center screen looks like. That’s my username if you want to add me and give me some friends. Like I said I do have one game now that had to be launched before it put it in my Game Center.

Of course the interface and graphics are awesome looking. Reminds me of some old poker table, fitting isn’t it? As you can see, I have no friends, but next to that is my one game that I have. It’s an awesome fingerboard game called Touch Grind. I haven’t played it since it was updated for Game Center. It also reset my score since I moved it to Game Center, so beware because I think most apps will have to do this. One downside I guess to social gaming.

Well with no friends and one game, Game Center feels pretty lonely. I think a smart developer out there will write an app to take advantage of the social aspect of gaming and give us something awesome to play. In the meantime I’m going to try and find a friend and level back up in TouchGrind. Thanks for reading!

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How Do You Like Your iPhone Folders?

Ryan Ray — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:53:27 +0000

I’ve talked about folders on the iPhone a few times on this site. We all know how lovely they are to use. I rely on them almost exclusively on my iPhone. I keep some junk apps on the home screen. Apps like text, to do’s, calendar, etc… EVERYthing else goes into a folder and organized away. I can’t wait to get folders on the iPad. Definitely missing iOS 4 on it right now. Anyway let me show you my approach to folders on my iPhone, and see what you think about my thought process behind it.

Here is my second screen on my iPhone. It’s the only screen besides my home screen, and it houses all of the folders here. I can’t tell you any rhyme or reason to how I put apps on my homescreen, because there honestly wasn’t one, but it works for me. Some of Apple’s apps have made it into folders and others haven’t just yet. So what’s the method to my madness? In one word I would call it simplicity. In the folders I have things like photography apps, shopping apps, social networking apps, jailbreak apps (shhh), remotes, games, etc… I tried the best I could to put any app into a respectful category. I have one folder labeled reference and it has things like the kindle app, a weather app, and evernote. That may be my catch all folder if I don’t know where an app belongs.

Like I mentioned earlier I try and keep my app collection simple. If I don’t use the app that often, it’ll soon be deleted. I break my own rule on my photo apps though, I love collecting those. It’s my weakness. For instance I use to have at least 5 remote apps. I’m down to just two now, no need for 3 other apps that do the same thing. Just need to find the best and stick with it!

Here are two shots of some of my folders. The lifestyle one I’ll admit is somewhat random, but mostly includes things revolving around food, fitness, and traveling. The other folder is my second photography folder. Like I said I’m addicted to collecting those. YIKES.

Anyway, I’d like to hear what you think about folders. Also tell me your approach to organizing and using the feature. I’m all ears! Thanks for listening.

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