Thursday, November 15, 2012

Freebie Friday: Freebies on AppStorm


I know, it’s Sunday. But everything mentioned in this post was free on Friday as well – I promise!


The AppStorm team have been hard at work again. Here is a huge bunch of great free apps and web services they covered.


Mac.AppStorm



Pocket for Mac: Read It Later on Your MacPocket for Mac: Read It Later on Your Mac


Back in April of this year, the popular service Read It Later was revamped and completely renewed, completely with a brand new name, Pocket. Pocket continues to be one of the popular mobile apps that is always featured on roundups of must-have apps for your iPhone or Android device.


Today, the developers of the hit bookmarking service released Pocket for Mac, an official client for the service on OS X, to work alongside and in sync with other platforms. If you’ve been using Read Later on your Mac, the release of Pocket for Mac replaces that too with developer Michael Schneider having worked on the official client. Shall we take a look?

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Skitch 2: A Stark RegressionSkitch 2: A Stark Regression


Skitch received a major upgrade to version 2.0 last September, taking the Mac community by storm—in a bad way.


Personally, I’m pretty open-minded towards app upgrades. I almost always welcome changes made to an app’s design and functionality, giving it the benefit of testing out the changes first before making any judgments. So, you can imagine how curious I was when I saw how version 2.0 enraged so many of Skitch’s users just after it was released. Did Evernote really push out an update that broke Skitch, a fine application, and made it clunky and unusable?

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Pocket Planes for Mac: Manage Your Own AirlinePocket Planes for Mac: Manage Your Own Airline


You’re probably aware of Tiny Tower, a tycoon and management-style game from developer NimbleBit that recieved strong reviews and some pretty strong attention when it seemed Zynga blatantly ripped them off. Earlier this year, they released a new game, Pocket Planes, for mobile platforms which also received critical acclaim (scoring a full 10/10 in our iPad review) and got me seriously addicted.


When browsing the Mac App Store recently, I came across an interesting discovery. NimbleBit has brought the insanely popular game to the Mac in a port that even boasts syncing with its iOS brother. Let’s take a look and see how it stacks up to the well-recieved experience on your iPhone and iPad.

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Inky Is a Different, Semi-Simple Approach to EmailInky Is a Different, Semi-Simple Approach to Email


When Google acquired Sparrow, the most popular Mac email client of the day, back in July, it seemed all hope for email on OS X was lost. People thought they’d have to resort to Apple’s stale Mail app because Sparrow’s support may end. Mail all that bad, but it really isn’t the simplest thing out there and trying to do little things is often arduous. So that gave independent developers another chance to do something big: build a great new mail app for the Mac.


It all started with .Mail, or the “Dot Mail App” as some have referred to it. This appeared to be the most beautiful mail client ever on a Mac, but it was only a mockup at the time it was first shown off. It’s now in development, but it’s still a ways off, so people are constantly searching for a Sparrow alternative. An interesting little app by the name of Inky came across my desk the other day and it looked promising. After all, who doesn’t want to try out an app that has an icon nearly identical to Pearl from Finding Nemo?

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Evernote 5: Beauty Meets the Old Evernote ClientEvernote 5: Beauty Meets the Old Evernote Client


If you’ve read a few of my articles in Mac.Appstorm then you’ve probably seen how big of a fan I am of Evernote. It’s a wonderful service: not only does it let you create, organize, and share notes easily, but it also lets you keep everything synced up and accessible through many places, like their website, and the iOS, Android and Mac apps.


The Mac app has been around for some time now, and even though it gets continuous support and works just fine, it has been in need of a UI overhaul for a long time. Well, just a few days ago the Evernote team revealed a new update that will bring a complete re-do to the app, and just now we’ve had the opportunity to test out the beta version of the new Evernote 5. Let’s see what’s new!

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Web.AppStorm



Create Beautiful Posters and Fliers Instantly with TackkCreate Beautiful Posters and Fliers Instantly with Tackk


Let’s face it: most amateur and small business posters and fliers are terrible — mismatched fonts, bad alignment, garish color schemes, and that’s just getting started. They are made in a hurry by people who don’t know what they’re doing. Then they get posted on a local bulletin board, and who looks at those?


Tackk makes it easy to quickly create fliers, posters, announcements, web pages, and other simple fire-and-forget notes, and share them on the web. It has a beautiful, clean design, and plenty of room for customization. It has its own virtual bulletin board to share your filer, in addition to social network sharing options, and you can print your creations out to stick on a real bulletin board if you wish. Let’s take a closer look to see if it holds up to scrutiny.

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Thesixtyone Gamifies Indie Music DiscoveryThesixtyone Gamifies Indie Music Discovery


If you listen to music enough, eventually the music you have in your library gets old. Luckily, there are tons of apps out there to help you find new music. You can try unlimited streaming with Spotify or discover new artists with custom stations on Pandora. These services are great, and widely used. Unfortunately, services like these don’t really benefit independent artists.


Thesixtyone is a web app that turns indie music discovery into a game. Users listen to full songs from up and coming artists and have the opportunity to interact with the song and artist in various ways. On top of these interactions, users can complete quests and earn points just for listening to songs and accomplishing various tasks. It’s quite an interesting idea for music discovery, so stick with me after the jump to learn more about how thesixtyone works and if it’s worth checking out.

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Make Journaling a Breeze With LoccitMake Journaling a Breeze With Loccit


I have always been jealous of others that are able to be disciplined enough to keep a journal and be consistent with it. I have tried so many different times to start one, only to stop in a week or two. I tried a variety of ways to make this happen, including pen and paper, typing, using cool apps to do it, but nothing seems to work for me. I struggle with this because, I feel like I am at a point in my life where I want to be more reflective as there are some very significant things happening right now and I want to be able to look back on them and see what my thoughts were.


A few weeks ago, I came across a web app called Loccit, that takes a different approach on journaling. When I watched their video on how it works, I started to realize that they may be on to something. Their whole premise is to take the apps that you use on an every day basis to share what is going on in your life and bundle them into one to create your own journal. Now, there are other similar services out there that do this, but this one just seemed like it was interesting to try.

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KustomNote: Custom Note Taking on the WebKustomNote: Custom Note Taking on the Web


In my line of work, I am constantly taking notes during meetings, phone calls, and any other random time I can think about. I get a lot of information thrown at me all the time, and unless I write it down, I tend to lose it. Then, there are a lot of important things that are said and I need to make sure I document them for later use.


I have tried many different ways to capture all of this info and have not found something that I liked. I started out with the plain paper and pen route, and although that is reliable, I wanted to use something where I could access it at any time. Besides, I type faster than I can write. I tried to use a variety of note taking applications on my Mac and iPad and found most of them just okay, and nothing that really stood out for me.


One app that I always seem to come back to is Evernote. I like that I can access it from just about anywhere and that it is integrated with other apps. So a little while back, I was searching through the Evernote Trunk to see if there were any cool, new apps to try out, and to my delight, I stumbled upon one that seemed to address my note taking needs. The app is called KustomNote and it it is a great note taking app that connects with your Evernote account, making it even better for taking quick notes.

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Compare Ninja: Easy Way to Create Beautiful HTML TablesCompare Ninja: Easy Way to Create Beautiful HTML Tables


Anyone who has published content online knows how difficult it is to create tables – especially if HTML is a foreign language for you. Be it a simple specification sheet or a more complex comparison chart, it’s an absolute pain to have to make tables suited for publishing online that actually look good.


It’s a problem I faced often when I was writing for a phone blog. Every time a new handset launched, I wanted to create a comparison table with a competitor. While making that in Excel was easy, translating the table into an eye-pleasing online experience drove me nuts.


Compare Ninja seemes to offer a solution, as an easy-to-use table-making app with beautiful results. Let’s take it for a spin.

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Bucketlistly: Making the Bucket List SocialBucketlistly: Making the Bucket List Social


We all have done it or thought about it at one time or another: keeping a proverbial Bucket List, a list of all the major things you plan to do. It is one of those things that I don’t necessarily keep a good track of as some other people do, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have things that I want to make sure I do before I pass on. I haven’t necessarily decided whether I should actually sit down and make one at some point as I take the approach of “one day at a time.”


Having the opportunity to try out Bucketlistly over the past couple of weeks has really made me think twice about making a bucket list for myself and our family. The developer of the app has taken what is a simple task and turned it into a social network of sorts. At first I thought the concept was a little interesting, but the more I played with it, the more I started to see how useful it could be. Let me show you more of the app and you can decide for yourself whether you want to use it or not.

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Kicksend: Transfer Unlimited Photos and Videos PrivatelyKicksend: Transfer Unlimited Photos and Videos Privately


In this digital age, it’s more and more difficult to keep your information under wraps. Upload an album of your photos on Facebook, and people start tagging others in them, and soon, everyone is commenting on everything. And then there are those file size or resolution restrictions that auto-downscale your beautiful images. Upload videos to YouTube and even if you’ve kept the link invisible to search engines, it somehow finds its way to others. Dropbox isn’t the ideal solution when the people you are sharing the photos with aren’t using the cloud storage service. And the old practice of simply emailing your photos to friends and family is quite difficult given the attachment limits in most email service providers.


Privacy, it seems, comes at a premium on the information highway. How do you just send a bunch of photos, all hosted on the cloud and kept there safely, to your friends without anyone else being able to see them? Enter Kicksend!

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Edit Your PDFs in the Cloud With PDFZenEdit Your PDFs in the Cloud With PDFZen


How often have you come across this scenario: You’re working in the office when someone sends you a PDF file that needs to be edited, either with your signature or anything else. But hey, there’s no PDF editor on your work machine, and your company has strict admin policies.


A web app is the best way to go around this and PDF Zen could be just what the doctor ordered. It’s got a lovely, Metro-inspired design, is extremely easy to use and features enough options for you basic PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, ODF and RTF editing needs.

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Snippic: Photobooth In Your BrowserSnippic: Photobooth In Your Browser


If your computer doesn’t have a built-in webcam app, your camera might sit there unused, even when it could have a ton of fun potential. For Mac and iOS users, this has always been pretty easy, since they can use the Photobooth app to quickly take all the fun pictures you like. Windows 8 now has a built-in camera app, but for everyone else, you’ll have to go searching for another app.


In an age when the web possesses everything we would ever need, you probably could of guessed there was some kind of alternative online. Snappic is an app which definitely fits the bill. Acting as a Photobooth in your browser, Snippic could soon become a party favourite!

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Fotor lets you get creative with your photosFotor lets you get creative with your photos


It’s been said that the world would be a better place if everybody knew how to edit their photos. Okay, fine, I just made that up. But it’s true, though — images are so much a part of our digital lives that being able to post quality pictures has become a necessary skill. And with the wide range of easy-to-use imaging apps available for every platform, there’s really no excuse for using poor, boring images anymore.


Today we’re taking a look at a new player in the editing game, and it’s called Fotor. With its array of tools and effects, this app offers plenty of scope for adding a creative touch to your shots. And while it’s simple enough for novices to get into, Fotor is also a great option for those familiar with photography, to work quickly with images wherever they are. Let’s dive in!

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iPhone.AppStorm



Get a Jolt of Tom Hanks’ Electric CityGet a Jolt of Tom Hanks’ Electric City


Electric City is the creation of Tom Hanks, one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed A-listers. His animated, dystopian future follows the survivors of cataclysmic events and how ⎯ three to four generations later ⎯ they’ve rebuilt their society.


Key to their survival is the production of electricity, as other forms of fuel have been depleted. Key to the plot are the conflicting motives of the many denizens of Electric City, some of whom are unhappy with the way things are run and others who will do anything possible to maintain the status quo.


Electric City is wired beyond streaming and/or downloading series webisodes. Its app is a lead-in to other complementary media and stories that flesh out Hanks’ vision. Will the series app lead to more accolades for the actor? Find out after the break.

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Collect Great Memories Together with QuiltCollect Great Memories Together with Quilt


I don’t have to go into detail about how our lives have become much more social that it ever has before. With Facebook and Twitter taking over and a host of other social networking apps, we have been inundated with updates from friends far and wide, and ones that we haven’t talked to in years. We can debate about whether this is a good thing or not, but I know for me, I have really started to take a closer look as to what I choose to share and with who. It is not that I am becoming a social networking snob, but I just want to be careful and I don’t want it to consume my time.


With that being said, I have been able to play with an app called Quilt for the past couple of weeks, and the one thing that I really appreciate about it is the fact that it lets you decide how social you want to be. But, before you write this one off as just another social networking app, you need to know that there are some really cool features that make it one to seriously consider. In fact, as you will discover, there are a variety of ways to use Quilt that will appeal to a mass market.

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Easier RSS with FeedlyEasier RSS with Feedly


Reading on your iPhone can be a chore, mostly because your iPhone is so small and words can be so big, especially when writers make them into sentences and then paragraphs. From there, people start writing blogs, and everything just goes downhill — unless you have a great RSS app to help you keep all that reading in check. Feedly is making reading on the iPhone that much more enjoyable though, even if you do still have to contend with all those words and sentences and things.

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Lingibli Offers a New Way to Learn a Language With Your PhoneLingibli Offers a New Way to Learn a Language With Your Phone


Often a major challenge to learning a second language is the lack of time a person is able to apply the words and phrases outside of a textbook. Lingibli offers a solution, by working in conjunction with physical barcode labels that you print, cut out and tape to objects around your home or office.


Then all you have to do to squeeze in study time is scan the label with your iPhone and presto, you’re learning. Komm mit! I’ll show you how it works.

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Put Your Gift Cards on Your iPhone With GyftPut Your Gift Cards on Your iPhone With Gyft


When it comes to gift cards, I tend to have a love/hate relationship with them. On the one hand, I love receiving and giving them to others as you can never go wrong with getting gift cards for someone else. On the other hand, I hate having to keep track of all the ones that I do get. I either lose them, or they just sit in my desk collecting dust because I just forget to use them. I have always longed for a better solution.


When Passbook was introduced with iOS 6, I got a little excited, as I thought it would help me solve my gift card problem. But unfortunately, it is still in its infant stage and has some work to do. The good thing about Passbook though, is that there is no shortage of developers that are creating their apps with it in mind. Like the app I am reviewing today, Gyft, looks to solve the gift card dilema with their app and with the help of Passbook. Let me show you what I’m talking about after the break.

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Sirius XM Internet Radio: Continue the Jam Session Outside the CarSirius XM Internet Radio: Continue the Jam Session Outside the Car


Sirius XM is a radio subscription service which provides most of their content commercial free. You most likely have seen a Sirius XM enabled radio in a car and might even already be a subscriber, but did you know Sirius XM is also available on iOS?


The Sirius XM app for iOS enables subscribers to keep jamming or listen to their favorite talk show while not in the car. Using the service through the app does include some extra features. These extra features include being able to listen to shows on demand, pausing events, songs, or shows, and starting at the beginning of a song when tuning to a station with TuneStart.

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Cue: More Than Just Another CalendarCue: More Than Just Another Calendar


There are a lot of calendar apps, but it’s hard to get all of your events in one place. Finding a single app that syncs with everything is a big enough challenge. Now try presenting all those events and information from all over in a truly meaningful way, and you have a real job on your hands.


More than just a calendar app, Cue: Know What’s Next will sync not only all of your events in one place but just about any information you could need during your day. What Cue does is give context to your events, turning a calendar reminder into a chance to connect and engage.

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Add Beautiful Text to Your Photos With TypicAdd Beautiful Text to Your Photos With Typic


An increasing number of apps are focused on making it easier for users to share their photos across social networks. Enter Typic, the latest one to enter the ring. Not only does it let you apply a filter to your image and share it with friends, you can also add your own caption in a gorgeous script.


So how does the app stack up compared to the rest of the crowd? Click “more” to check out the walk-through.

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Aviary: Pushing the Limits of Mobile Image EditingAviary: Pushing the Limits of Mobile Image Editing


I have been a huge admirer of Aviary for a long time now. I don’t use their web apps often, but I’m in awe at them for showing the world what web apps are capable of. The range and quality of their toolkit on the web is praiseworthy. It’s no wonder that the developers have started licensing their toolkit to peer their apps.


Image editing in the mobile phone genre is largely powered by Aviary, and the most famous example of this is the recently launched Twitpic app. Not just comfortable being in the background, Aviary has launched its official iOS app in the app store. Let us go check out how functional it is.

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Timer: The Only Timer You’ll Ever NeedTimer: The Only Timer You’ll Ever Need


I can hear you ask the question: are you seriously going to review a timer application? How much can there really be to it?


The fact is that for years I had only used Apple’s own timer app, and before I tried Timer I couldn’t see any need to change that. But it’s the little things that make a big difference and Timer has some neat little touches that make it the only timer you’ll ever need.

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Food Network On the Road: Eating Like the StarsFood Network On the Road: Eating Like the Stars


When I married a woman who is an incredible cook and loves to bake, I knew I had hit the jackpot. Unfortunately, what I didn’t realize is that also meant I was now obligated to watch hours of programming on the Food Network. In the last five years I’ve seen so much Paula Deen my arteries are clogged just from watching, and I’ve learned that you can make literally anything into a food competition with ingredients I’ve never even heard of (what exactly is “jaggery” anyway?).


Well, if you’re a foodie like my wife who loves watching the Food Network then you might interested in their new app, Food Network On the Road. The question now is does it live up to the promise of helping you find all the places where the stars eat when you’re on the road? Read on to find out.

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Circa Delivers the Most Important News in a Quick ReadCirca Delivers the Most Important News in a Quick Read


It was a winter day in 2008 when I discovered tl;dr. At first, it seemed like a read-it-later client of sorts, or a disfigured emoticon. But no, it meant something much worse. This expression, which can be found throughout the comment sections of many blogs, meant that people had begun to undervalue reading. It meant that all the readers I thought I was getting were really just skimming the headline and moving on.


If you’ve been one of those too long — didn’t read people — a solution has recently been developed to help your daily rush. Download Circa News, a free new app from Circa 1605 Inc. I’ve been using it for almost a week now, and it has a lot of potential. But hey, this is a review, so meet me after the break for a deeper look at how this company is trying to revolutionize the way you read news.

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Letterpress: A Game of Real Estate and WordsLetterpress: A Game of Real Estate and Words


Developer Loren Brichter is perhaps best known for his work with Twitter. He’s the man behind Tweetie, an app that was purchased by Twitter and eventually morphed into an official offering from the social network. Brichter left Twitter and, until recently, has been teasing a new app.


That new app is not a Twitter client. It’s actually a game named Letterpress. A mixture of Scrabble, Boggle and real estate-style gameplay, Letterpress is an addictive, very competitive game. Let’s take a look after the jump.

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Add Pics to Your Calendar with MoredaysAdd Pics to Your Calendar with Moredays


Calendars are very personalized utilities, detailing an individual’s most important events and tasks, and maybe letting them jot down a note or two. No wonder visual calendars are all the rage these days. Fans seem to be in love with the ability to tailor their daily, weekly and monthly timetables just a little bit more with the pictures and artworks of their choosing.


Add to this function an ability to create alerts, visual sorting features and managing easy-to-create entries and the combination equals Moredays, the app that prides itself on being a digital planner that blends elements of a scrapbook. Can Moredays be a great addition to your app collection? Find out on the other side of the break.

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Help Four Penguins Escape From Antarctica to HawaiiHelp Four Penguins Escape From Antarctica to Hawaii


In the runner game Aloha From Hawaii you get to control four lovable penguin characters, plus even switch between them mid-level. In fact, switching is not only encouraged but also heavily incorporated into the gameplay, since you’ll need to utilize all the penguins’ strengths to escape an angry mob of creatures and make it to the popsicle freezer before it’s too late.


Ultimately, you’re trying to get these four friends from the South Pole to postcard-perfect Hawaii, where all their penguin dreams are sure to come true. Come on, let’s take a look.

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Mobile Website Creation with M dotMobile Website Creation with M dot


With the advent of the smartphone, we are starting to do more things on it that we never thought were possible. Recently, I did an experiment where I was going away on a weekend trip and decided to only take my iPhone with me to see if I could get by. I forced myself to use the iPhone for my every day normal tasks that I would do if I had my iPad or laptop. To my surprise, I found that when it was my only device to use, I actually got by fine with it and actually did more on it than I had done before.


Not only are smartphones getting better, so are the apps that are being made for them. Take M dot for example, which lets you create a good looking website right on your iPhone in mere minutes. I had a lot of fun playing with it and it truly displays the extensive capabilities of the iPhone.

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Become a Celebrity in Zombiewood!Become a Celebrity in Zombiewood!


Gameloft, the bringers of the previously reviewed Asphalt 7: Heat, have done it again! With their creative minds, they’ve created a game which incorporates the making of a true hollywood film. Through the commands of your director, different prearranged scenes are shot for the ultimate zombie movie!


What do you call the zombie invasion of Hollywood? Zombiewood! As zombies walk down the streets that once flourished with celebrities, you decide to make a few extra bucks starring in a motion picture film in which you tear down rows of the undead. The exhilirating, well designed, cartoonish gameplay makes this a must play game offering hours of fun.

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iPad.AppStorm



IntoNow: A Television CompanionIntoNow: A Television Companion


Everyday, roughly 42 percent of tablet owners in the U.S. use their device while watching TV. Why? TV viewers are multitasking (i.e. web browsing) or using their device as a second screen in order to find more information about the program they’re watching or engage in social networking banter.


With this rise of second screen usage, it should come as no surprise that app makers want to provide tools that act as a companion to a user’s TV. Instead of jumping on Twitter to comment about a show, IMDb to access a show’s cast or Shazam to tag a song that’s being performed, IntoNow from Yahoo! hopes to provide all those functions and more. But, does it do so effectively?

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Get a Jolt of Tom Hanks’ Electric CityGet a Jolt of Tom Hanks’ Electric City


Electric City is the creation of Tom Hanks, one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed A-listers. His animated, dystopian future follows the survivors of cataclysmic events and how ⎯ three to four generations later ⎯ they’ve rebuilt their society.


Key to their survival is the production of electricity, as other forms of fuel have been depleted. Key to the plot are the conflicting motives of the many denizens of Electric City, some of whom are unhappy with the way things are run and others who will do anything possible to maintain the status quo.


Electric City is wired beyond streaming and/or downloading series webisodes. Its app is a lead-in to other complementary media and stories that flesh out Hanks’ vision. Will the series app lead to more accolades for the actor? Find out after the break.

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AppNet Rhino: App.net Arrives on the iPadAppNet Rhino: App.net Arrives on the iPad


App.net is rapidly evolving from an ambitious concept into a flourishing reality. User registrations have exceeded the 25,000 mark, and the addition of Netbot, by Tapbots, to the App.net lineup lead to a boom in new user registrations.


AppNet Rhino was the first App.net iOS client to make it into the hands of users, but its lack of features resulted in a less-than-stellar experience. It’s hard to scoff at a free application, but App.net users are a technologically savvy bunch, and other free apps were trumping Rhino in both style and functionality. The AppNet Rhino team acknowledged this feature gap with an impressive update, which also made Rhino one of two App.net iPad clients currently available. Let’s take a look at this new iPad version, and examine just how well it holds up against the Tapbots juggernaut.

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Sirius XM Internet Radio: Continue the Jam Session Outside the CarSirius XM Internet Radio: Continue the Jam Session Outside the Car


Sirius XM is a radio subscription service which provides most of their content commercial free. You have most likely have seen a Sirius XM enabled radio in a car and might even already be a subscriber, but did you know Sirius XM is also available on iOS?


The Sirius XM app for iOS enables subscribers to keep jamming or listen to their favorite talk show while not in the car. Using the service through the app does include some extra features, including being able to listen to shows on demand, pausing events, songs or shows, and starting at the beginning of a song when tuning to a station with TuneStart. Read on to see if including Sirius XM Internet streaming is right for you.

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The Weather Channel: Complete Weather CoverageThe Weather Channel: Complete Weather Coverage


Weather is a very popular subject. I’m sure many of you have found yourself talking to someone you’ve just met, or aren’t very familiar with, and the subject of weather provided you a few moments of semi-awkward conversation. For most, weather is the first or second thing they check when they wake up in the morning (email being the other major priority).


With weather being such an important part of our lives, it’s equally as important to get your weather news as easily as possible, with the knowledge that the information you’re getting is accurate (or as accurate as you can be with weather). Since its launch in 1982, The Weather Channel has been one of the most trusted sources for weather news, so it comes as no surprise that The Weather Channel for iPad would be one of the best weather apps available in the App Store. Join us after the jump for an in depth look.

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Make Your Images Communicate With SkitchMake Your Images Communicate With Skitch


t’s not particularly new news, but in case you haven’t been following along, Evernote has been very busy building a fleet of useful, cross-platform applications to help you stay organized and “remember everything.” In addition to the handful of tools sporting the actual name Evernote, the company added formerly-independent applications Penultimate and Skitch to their lineup. Along with this recruitment came some app updates to include standard things like Evernote integration, but Skitch, in particular, received a pretty handsome makeover.


If you’ve never even heard of Skitch, it is an application whose main functionality is designed to help you take and annotate screenshots. Today, we’re going to look at how Skitch has changed since we last reviewed it, and whether or not the tool is still worthy of helping you use your images to communicate. Hit the jump to read on.

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Pose: Your Personalized Fashion MagPose: Your Personalized Fashion Mag


A month or so ago, Pose launched its native app made specifically for the iPad. Pose has iPhone and Android native apps as well; the iPhone app was already reviewed at iPhone.AppStorm.


Pose is a photo sharing app for outfits. Users take a snapshot of their outfit and tag it with brand and designer details. You can also discover other people poses and even shop from within the app. Pose has a considerable users’ adoption; more than 10 thousands poses are being added to the platform everyday.

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Food Network On the Road: Eating Like the StarsFood Network On the Road: Eating Like the Stars


When I married a woman who is an incredible cook and loves to bake, I knew I had hit the jackpot. Unfortunately, what I didn’t realize is that also meant I was now obligated to watch hours of programming on the Food Network. In the last five years I’ve seen so much Paula Deen my arteries are clogged just from watching, and I’ve learned that you can make literally anything into a food competition with ingredients I’ve never even heard of (what exactly is “jaggery” anyway?).


Well, if you’re a foodie like my wife who loves watching the Food Network then you might interested in their new app, Food Network On the Road. The question now is does it live up to the promise of helping you find all the places where the stars eat when you’re on the road? Read on to find out.

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Is GoodReads The Perfect iPad Companion For Reading?Is GoodReads The Perfect iPad Companion For Reading?


I love books. As Elizabeth Scott once famously quipped, “I like that the moment you open one and sink into it you can escape from the world, into a story that’s way more interesting than yours will ever be.” Books are my best friends; they keep me entertained and encouraged. Whenever I feel depressed or need a shoulder to lean on, I turn back to a book, be it Jonathan Livingston Seagull or Goblet of Fire. iPad has evolved into a powerful, mobile library over the years, thanks in large to iBooks.


I can’t imagine how I’d survive my long and tedious ride to my office without my iPad, but the problem is finding the right book. We often rely on critics like the New York Times, who heavily rely on sales numbers to measure a book’s quality, to find our next book. But, more often than not, we walk away disappointed. Wouldn’t it be a better idea to listen to your like-minded friends rather than a complete stranger? That’s what GoodReads is all about.

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Add Pics to Your Calendar with MoredaysAdd Pics to Your Calendar with Moredays


Calendars are very personalized utilities, detailing an individual’s most important events and tasks, and maybe letting them jot down a note or two. No wonder visual calendars are all the rage these days. Fans seem to be in love with the ability to tailor their daily, weekly and monthly timetables just a little bit more with the pictures and artworks of their choosing.


Add to this function an ability to create alerts, visual sorting features and managing easy-to-create entries and the combination equals Moredays, the app that prides itself on being a digital planner that blends elements of a scrapbook. Can Moredays be a great addition to your app collection? Find out on the other side of the break.

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Letterpress: A Word Game RedefinedLetterpress: A Word Game Redefined


After being acquired by Twitter in 2010, atebits seemed to disappear from the app world. Just recently, its founder has surprised us by announcing the revival of the company as atebits 2.0. Its goal? To make things, the first of which being a game.


The brainchild happens to be the game we are reviewing today, Letterpress. While it is obvious that Letterpress is quite different than the rest of the word games available for iOS, is it strong enough to bring atebits back to the developing scene, or does it leave them in the dust? Find out after the break.

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Android.AppStorm



Give Your Brain a Workout With HueBrixGive Your Brain a Workout With HueBrix


I love puzzle games but I’m terrible at playing them. Still, I really love a challenge, particularly when it’s simple to get into but increasingly complex as you go along. And that’s exactly what Huebrix is – a clever puzzle game that’ll have you racking your brain for all it’s worth, with a ticking clock to add to the tension.

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Clean Up Your Phone in a Flash With 1Tap EraserClean Up Your Phone in a Flash With 1Tap Eraser


One of the great advantages of Android devices over the iPhone is that you do not need to decide how much space you are going to need with your initial purchase. Almost all Android phones and tablets include some internal storage that is supplemented by a memory card that can be upgrade as and when you see fit.


But this is not to say that you’re not going to run out of space. All memory has a finite capacity, and the law of average states that you are most likely to run out of space when you need it most – just as you need to take an important photo, or when you need to download a file to work on. 1Tap Eraser is a free tool that can be used to manually and automatically keep your storage in check by cleaning out unnecessary space hogs.

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Pops: Pop-ups With PersonalityPops: Pop-ups With Personality


Pop-up notifications have been part of third party messaging apps like GoSMS Pro and Handcent and although they might serve their purpose, they’re not exactly ground-breaking, nor are they applicable to other applications.


Enter Pops, which takes notifications to a whole new level with artsy, animated pop-ups unlike any other. It falls well in the fun side of Android, by combining basic functionality and advanced customization with the simple event of receiving and sending messages — SMS but also email, Twitter or Facebook messages.

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Falcon Brings Twitter to Your HomescreenFalcon Brings Twitter to Your Homescreen


Twitter makes a lot of sense on smartphones — the 140-character format is brief enough and suitable for smaller screens. Add to that the variety of quality Twitter clients available for Android and you can have a great social networking experience in the palm of your hand. Could things get any better?


The wunderkind behind Minimal Reader Pro (the brilliant Google Reader widget) seems to think so. Developer Joaquim Vergès and designer Jesse Coletta have come up with Falcon for Twitter (beta), a new Twitter widget that brings all the functionality you need to get your tweet on, right to your home screen. Is this your next favorite Twitter app or just the flavor of the week? Let’s take a closer look to find out.

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TuneIn Radio: The Best Radio Experience On Android?TuneIn Radio: The Best Radio Experience On Android?


“Radio” to the majority of us seems like an old technology. Nowadays most people only listen to the FM radio occasionally in the car to drain away the mindless hours. And for the younger generation, it is only ever listened to as a last resource after TV, music players and countless other entertainment options.


Admittedly, I don’t listen to the radio as much as I should. Radio shows have a lot to offer, and some of them have really enticed and intrigued me in the past, making me wonder about the world and society as we know them. That’s why I looked for a encouragement to use it more. So I decided to get Nexus 7 to help me and fortunately, I came across TuneIn Radio, a brilliant Android radio app!

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uTorrent Beta Preview: Still in Need of ImprovementsuTorrent Beta Preview: Still in Need of Improvements


BitTorrent is as popular, if not even more so, than ever. You’re probably familiar with the idea of using torrent to quickly download large files, even if this is not something you choose to indulge in.


uTorrent for Android enables you to make the move from desktop torrenting to mobile torrenting. The app is currently in beta so I thought I’d take a quick look to see how things are shaping up. The desktop version of uTorrent is my default client, so I was intrigued to see how it compares.

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X Plane 9 – Sky High on Your AndroidX Plane 9 – Sky High on Your Android


t’s Christmas day 2004, I’m slouched over the family budget PC, CRT screen and all. My blurry vision can’t tell if Flight Simulator is installing or has frozen. The computer’s tower revs and whirrs under the strain – barely possessing the required memory and processing power to handle such a beast of a game — stored on two disks if memory serves me right!


Flight Simulator gave me hours of joy. There was something invigorating about a virtual flight in snowy conditions from Heathrow to Keflavík. I’d often sit with a cup of tea – periodically adjusting course, checking fuel or praying autopilot would handle the turbulence so I wouldn’t have to.


The fact that I can now enjoy a similar thrill on my Galaxy Tab 2 thanks to the guys over at Laminar labs is a testament to their hard work on the X Plane 9 series and to modern mobile hardware. Thirteen year old me would nosedive at the sight of this bad boy. And no Joystick required!

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Visualize Your Mind With Mindjet for AndroidVisualize Your Mind With Mindjet for Android


It’s National Novel Writing Month once again, time to challenge yourself to write 50000 words in 30 days, no easy feat! But with your Android device by your side, you can keep working on your novel or non-fiction book anywhere and anytime. Throughout this week, we’ll share our best apps, thoughts, and tips to help you achieve that writing goal.


One of the most important aspects of writing – especially long form writing like reports, stories, novels, etc. – is the organization and structuring of content. A lot of people use long lists and sub-lists but unfortunately, for a lot of visually inclined people like myself, this gets ugly and out of control very quickly. I can’t get myself to make any sense of content until I can spatially organize everything for an at-a-glance overview.

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Kayak: The Best Travel Guide?Kayak: The Best Travel Guide?


Planning a holiday can be a momentous job. For the trip to be a success, everything needs to be planned and all the costs have to be accounted for. And if anything is forgotten, disaster and disappointment could rear their ugly head. Another big problem is overpricing – many people try to avoid paying too much for anything while planning their trips. Enter Kayak which aims to solve these problems.


Transferred over from the highly successful website, Kayak is now available on Android in both tablet and phone form. This thorough and well-made application is, in my opinion, one of the best holiday planners around.

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Test Your Musical Chops With Magic PianoTest Your Musical Chops With Magic Piano


“Music” is quite the cluttered category these days on mobile devices – there are the old school music players, radio apps, editing apps and then some creation apps. On the gaming front, the competition is pretty light with a few variations of Guitar Hero style gameplay and not much else. I’m not into the whole guitar-chord-busting genre, but one game that brought back memories of my childhood piano lessons is Smule’s Magic Piano.


If the developer’s name sounds somewhat familiar, you’ve probably heard of their Ocarina app on iPhone a few years back that caused quite a stir with its unique approach to creating music by blowing into the iPhone’s microphone. After a spate of ground breaking and successful apps on iOS and the excellent Songify on Android, they finally decided to bring Magic Piano over to Android. Having craved to see something like the Ocarina on Android, I decided to give Magic Piano a go and here’s what I came back thinking.

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Windows.AppStorm



Stay Tuned with System MechanicStay Tuned with System Mechanic


At one stage in my life, I was so obsessed with tuning my PC and keeping it clean by trying to remove as much junk, unused files as possible. I’ve used almost all popular paid and open source tools to get the job done. Temporary files, broken shortcuts, registry cleanup – I have done it all.


But, that was a time when the hard disk space, RAM and processing power of desktops were well below what we have under the hood of smartphones of modern times. Things changed real quick and I upgraded to faster machines which made system tune up irrelevant. After a few years, I got curious as to how things are going on in the PC tune up space.

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Take Care Of Your Hard Drives With Auslogics Disk Defrag FreeTake Care Of Your Hard Drives With Auslogics Disk Defrag Free


What’s the most important component of your computer? RAM? Processor? Monitor? How about your hard drive? As well as being home to Windows itself, your hard drive is where you store all of your documents and it is a piece of hardware that it in constant use whenever your computer is switched on.


The problem with any hard drive is that files become fragmented – they are broken up into a series of small chunks which have to be pieced together whenever they are accessed. This is a serious bottleneck to performance and it is not a problem that can be tackled without the right tool.

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Sleuth Around Your PC With OSForensicsSleuth Around Your PC With OSForensics


Forensic analysis of a PC is a time consuming process as there are tons of data that has to be assimilated, dissected and analyzed. Not to mention organizing the information in the first place is a lot of hassle. Yes, there are applications that aid you, but the best ones are always expensive. Luckily, with OSForensics you might just have found a solution to your “investigation woes”.


OSForensics is a PC forensic analysis tool that lets you extract and analyze hidden information from a computer and manage all your forensic data. Though a number of similar open source software exist, few are loaded with as many features or work as efficiently as this app.

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Get Byte Sized News Chunks With NewserGet Byte Sized News Chunks With Newser


Long gone are the days when we physically had to flip through the pages to read the news. In this ADD infused age, who has the time to actually sit in a place and read what is going on? We have started to read 700 page novels in our laptops and tablets because it is convenient this way. So why not news?


Looking for a good news app, I came across Newser in the Windows Marketplace. Newser is one of those apps which gives you all the essential news from all around the world. The good thing is that the stories are not lengthy and you can actually read and parse something in less than a minute which is a boon to people who really don’t like to read much. All it takes is a decent internet connection and you can be well read and informed!

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Take Control of Your Music With Foobar2000Take Control of Your Music With Foobar2000


Everybody enjoys listening to music. However, what really determines your listening experience is how you decide to listen to your music. Many music lovers are moving their music to the cloud. While this is far more convenient compared to the traditional method of having a locally stored library, the quality of music is not always preserved.


Audiophiles such as myself typically use desktop players. Many desktop music players such as iTunes don’t always perform very well and don’t look too great either. If you happen to be on the lookout for a responsive, aesthetically pleasing, and free music player, Foobar2000 may be what you are looking for.

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IMDb Mobile: A Must Have App for TV and Movie AficionadosIMDb Mobile: A Must Have App for TV and Movie Aficionados


They saw you don’t talk about religion and politics if you want to keep your relationship smooth with someone. They’re forgetting one more thing: which movie to see!


More often than not, trying to pick a movie to see takes more time than watching the darn movie in the first place! This is where a aggregator of some sort helps as they give you a quick idea of what the movie is about and how the critics and fans feel about the movie. IMDB is one of the forerunners of this category and today we’re going to take a look at IMDB’s Windows phone version.

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Ask Ziggy: Siri On A Windows PhoneAsk Ziggy: Siri On A Windows Phone


Last year when Apple released their iPhone 4s one of the major new releases was Siri. A voice control system which allowed you to manage your phone in a more interesting way. Now that Siri has been around a year, other companies to follow suit, trying to replicate this exciting new implementation of voice recognition.


One of the best Siri clones has been Ask Ziggy, an app which follows the same concept, but on the Windows Phone. Since buying my phone Ziggy has been a firm favourite of mine. Using it in everyday situations to settle debates and set reminders.

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Photosynth: The Best Panorama App?Photosynth: The Best Panorama App?


One integral part of any phone is ability to take pictures. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll try to get pictures of everything and everyone in the entire world. That’s why we download photography apps, making the experience even better by adding additional features over the stock camera app.


Last month at Windows.Appstorm I wrote an article entitled “Windows Phone Elite: Photography Apps!” This was a roundup of my favourite Windows Phone photography apps in the marketplace. Each of these apps was brilliant in its own right, but there was one that clearly stuck out. Photosynth. The only app in the world which allows you to take full 360 degree pictures.

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Fontli: Embrace The World Of TypographyFontli: Embrace The World Of Typography


Photography apps seem to pop up everywhere we go. Searching through the marketplace I constantly come across the “next big thing” in the photography category. It seems that the majority of us have moved on from the normal social networks and have transferred over to the world of photo social networking.


Unfortunately, we Windows Phone Users lack the ability to download the most popular app of this kind, Instagram. Until I came across Fontli, which quickly becoming one of my favourite apps. Fontli supports a sleek design which works perfectly with the layout. However, the most interesting feature is that all the pictures revolve around typography and how the letters are structured – something I hadn’t seen before.

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Is Microsoft Mathematics the Math Tool for You?Is Microsoft Mathematics the Math Tool for You?


We have all been there: we don’t have the right calculator or just need a better one but can’t afford it. It’s usually the case that we got a cheap calculator and it can’t graph, or even at times you just don’t understand how to use it. I know I have many times.


I’d be doing some math homework and my calculator could not do the problem because it didn’t have a bunch of features that you needed. It was hard being able to pay $100 for a one-off course.


That’s when I began my search for a tool that could meet my needs. I didn’t care if it was free or paid, because at least it would be cheaper and probably more convenient. That’s when I found Microsoft Math, a free software provided by Microsoft that was able to solve my math and lots of science problems. Let’s see whether it’s worth your while.

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Recognise Music Instantly With Soundhound!Recognise Music Instantly With Soundhound!


Recognizing music instantly is a skill which few possess. When a song plays which you haven’t heard in a while, you constantly rack your brains in pursuit of that elusive song and artist info. Soundhound is an app which identifies any music playing and quickly shows you some key statistics related to this song.


This is an app which you can show off to all your friends and help make you look like a music guru. Read on to find out how powerful this application is!

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