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Snapguide Makes Creating a How-To a Snap January 14, 2013 
In late December, Snapguide updated its iOS app to include iPad optimization, joining the previous iPhone and website versions that somehow slipped my notice. Or maybe I did notice them months ago but walked away disinterested, which happens. I don't remember -- but now I'm interested. Apple highlighted Snapguide as a "What's Hot" selection in the iPad section of the App Store.
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Calendar App Is a Fantastic Time Manager January 08, 2013 
In a game of word association, it's unlikely that "fantastical" will produce "calendar" in most players' minds -- unless they've used the dandy time management program for Mac OS X of that name. Apple includes calendar software with OS X. It gets the job done. It's nicely integrated with other calendar programs that use the CalDAV protocol, notably Google Calendar.
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Hundreds Uses Basic Physics to Grow Puzzling Circles of Delight January 07, 2013 
It's not so often that I notice a newly released game or app rocket to a high-profile position in the iTunes App Store, but Hundreds, a puzzle game, seemingly debuted in the App Store as an Editor's Choice for the iPad version. Supposedly, the game is designed for people ages 2 to 222, so I figured it ought to work for a guy whose fingers are slow and mind only incrementally faster.
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The Coolest Cartoon Video App You've Never Noticed: ToonCamera January 02, 2013 
ToonCamera is an app that's been flirting with stardom in the iTunes App Store: I've seen it rise as high as the No. 8 paid app in the Photo & Video category, as well as claw into the Top 100 paid apps in the store. Along the way, it's boasted a high 4 or 4.5 star user review rating. ToonCamera is an iPhone or iPad app that applies a real-time cartoonish filter to photos and videos.
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Frequency Tunes Out the Noise When Tuning In to Videos December 27, 2012 
One of the most irritating things about enjoying videos, movies and TV shows online is the sheer number of places you must navigate to in order to get the content. Each of the major television networks has its own channel, some of which serve up some full episodes some of the time, while others just serve up teaser clips and ongoing snippets, like the opening monologues for "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson."
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TweetDeck Tweaks Make Latest Release a Joy to Use December 18, 2012 
It doesn't take long for a new user to find Twitter overwhelming. That becomes especially true as you add and attract followers to your account. Twitter has some tools for grappling with tweet overload. There's a list function, for instance. It lets you create lists of people you're following. For example, you could create a list of all twitteristas you follow who also follow your favorite baseball teams.
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A Tale of Two Ecosystems: Amazon Instant Video for iPhone Marks Best of Times December 17, 2012 
Back in August, Amazon released Amazon Instant Video, an app for the iPad that lets you stream or watch downloaded movies and TV shows you access via an account with Amazon. Now the company has extended that app to the iPhone and the iPod touch, which is fantastic for iPhone-packing, Amazon-using customers like me.
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Evernote 5.0 Combines Smoother Navigation With Dashing Looks December 11, 2012 
Evernote is the perfect program for a paranoiac like me. As the owner of a desktop computer in its golden years, I never know if its next reboot will be its last. With Evernote, I have some insurance in the cloud that I'll be able to continue working should disaster strike.
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Echograph Gives Photos a Beautiful Touch of Life December 10, 2012 
Some of the apps that I enjoy most are those that help me rethink my world, particularly when it comes to photography. By luck more than anything else, I've stumbled upon a new one: Echograph, an app that lets you shoot or take video -- then create a photo with just a bit of motion left within it. Does it sound complicated? It is and it isn't.
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MonoPhix Creates Monochrome Effects on the Cheap December 04, 2012 
For many digital shutterbugs, the simple black-and-white filter included with most cameras these days meets their needs for dabbling with monochrome photography. For those who find that a tepid option, there are always the more sophisticated offerings found in high-end post-capture programs like Photoshop and Aperture. MonoPhix offers an alternative to those extremes, though.
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iTunes 11: I Want to Be More Impressed Than I Am December 03, 2012 
After the iTunes 11 delivery delay, I was hoping Apple was working through a seriously complicated redesign that would vastly improve my iTunes experience. Instead, we got iTunes 11, which looks like a huge improvement, but -- if anyone out in the world is at least somewhat like me -- is just a marginal improvement with some pretty shininess built into it.
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Mixtab Delivers Content With a Side of Eye Candy November 27, 2012 
Really Simple Syndication is a way for people who produce content for the Web to push that content to people interested in it. For folks like me, it can save time otherwise spent jumping from website to website to gather news. During its heyday, RSS was quite popular, so much so that advertisers agonized over how to monetize the technology.
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Xbox SmartGlass: Not Quite the One, But Worth a Date or Two November 26, 2012 
I've been watching Microsoft's Xbox 360 transformation from online gaming console to living room media center for years, so when Microsoft's Xbox SmartGlass app showed up earlier this month, I had to give it a whirl. My personal Xbox 360 use is fairly limited to playing a few games here and there as well as assisting small children as they attempt to play games.
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Stan Lee's 'Verticus' Starts With Awesomeness, Then Falls Flat November 19, 2012 
When I saw that comic book legend Stan Lee was involved in a new iOS game released last week, Verticus, I was stoked enough to drop $1.99 and give it a try. After all, we're talking about Stan Lee here, and if you don't appreciate his contribution to the entertainment world -- co-creator of Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men, Iron Man, and more -- a new iOS game won't mean much to you.
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iCloud Revisited: My Mind's Somewhat at Ease November 12, 2012 
Last week I railed on iCloud and claimed that it was breaking my mind. I'm still sane, and iCloud isn't all bad. I've learned quite a few things as I've gone in, messed with settings, and tested the results. iCloud is sort of an invisible mishmash of services from Apple, and depending on what you own and what you care about, some, none, or maybe all of it might be valuable to you personally.
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iCloud Is Breaking My Mind November 05, 2012 
In the history of Apple applications and features, there's only one that consistently makes me feel like I'm an idiot: iCloud. The problem is, I can't tell where iCloud begins and where it ends. I can't tell when it's working, when it's not working, and when I've just selected the wrong setting.
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Shatner's Love for Language Shines in Shatoetry App November 01, 2012 
Have you ever asked yourself, "If I were William Shatner, what kind of iPhone app would I be?" I certainly haven't, but if I had, I would now have the answer: Shatoetry. Think refrigerator-magnet poetry, read by Shatner in all his dramatic glory, and you pretty much have the idea. Launching today, Shatoetry is Shatner's contribution to the app world, and it's a pretty good one.
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Atlas by Collins: Pretty but Plodding October 30, 2012 
Atlas by Collins is a globe-view app similar in concept to Google Earth. Similar, that is, in appearance, but if you really want a robust Earth-view app, don't bother spending the money on this one. To begin with, you can't zoom past about the 30,000-foot view without encountering a serious lag in the data loading.
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Pocket Stretches to the Mac October 29, 2012 
The single feature I like most about Pocket, an app and online service that lets you snag articles online and save them for reading later, is speed. I've been using Pocket for iOS on my iPhone and iPad for months, and the interface is clean and the action is all fast. Idea Shower has created a native Mac OS X version of Pocket, thereby extending the Pocket-accessible universe.
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Crazy Taxi Is a Wild Pedestrian-Terrorizing Jaunt October 23, 2012 
Back around the turn of the millennium, Sega had itself a bona fide hit in Crazy Taxi, a driving game that has players picking up fares around a city that looks a lot like San Francisco and getting to their destinations in as little time as possible. What began as an arcade game was ported to the Sega Dreamcast and then to various other platforms, most recently iOS.
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