Android – Iphone – Applications

There’s a certain tongue in cheek charm to Bulba the Cat that’s immediately apparent. Even the description on the app store conveys a feeling that the developers don’t take themselves seriously. The storyline is described as ‘the most complex story ever written in human history (approximate evaluation)’ because clearly it is. You control Bulba the Cat who has to retrieve their stolen sushi from a nasty crow. Why a crow would steal sushi and why a cat would eat it, I have no idea. My cat certainly wouldn’t be impressed by sushi.

The concept is simple – using the accelerometer and tilting the iPhone around, you move Bulba across the screen. Be careful though as he can drown quite easily so it’s vital you only bounce from platform to platform. It’s simple enough and each level is theoretically quite brief to complete. There are 60 levels in all and each level gets increasingly difficult to complete meaning there’s a fair challenge here. While early levels simply involve not falling in the water, later levels provide windmill obstacles, mushrooms that can be jumped upon and the ever challenging platform that collapses once you jump on it.

It’s consistently fun to play though and the game is never anything but charming. Even the menu options are sweet such as ‘Cat’s Enough’ if you want to quit out and ‘Paw screen’ instead of touch the screen.

For a mere $0.99, Bulba The Cat is excellent fun. It’s simple and cute but very entertaining too. The controls may take a brief time to get to grips with but if they were anything other than tilt based, I suspect the game wouldn’t have the same level of charm as it does currently.

Oh and never fear, the app is only too happy to explain that no cats were harmed in the making of the game. That’s always reassuring to learn.

[ Bulba The Cat Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by mjmeser \\ tags: $0.99, accelerometer, bulba, bulba-the-cat, c4mprod, developers, Game, ipad apps and games, ipad games, Iphone, iphone apps and games, overall-rating, replay-value, review

The Hidden Object genre is one of those genres that the experienced gamer will undoubtedly turn their nose up at. It’s understandable in some ways considering the genre does tend to be a bit lazy when it comes to innovation. Plus ultimately you can complete such puzzles in a puzzle book rather than on a technological gadget. FoundIt despite offering puzzles akin to a puzzle book, still has its merits though.

Rather than following a loose storyline, FoundIt dispenses with any such pointlessness, instead focusing on why you bought it – the hidden object part. 8 different levels are available comprising of cutesy cartoon animals to fish and flags of the world. In each level, it all turns a bit Where’s Wallyish whereby you have to find 20 items within a huge area of similarly themed items. That’s about it really. You’re scored on your progress and how quickly you spot the items but there’s only a local high score leaderboard available so the competitive element is slim.

It is quite fun though. You can drop in and out of the game to do other things with your time, returning to exactly where you left it. This makes it an ideal game to drop in for a few minutes at a time in between more productive things like working. It also feels a good game to play alongside a child or older relative, especially if they’re still learning to play games.

Don’t expect spills and thrills with FoundIt or even fancy looks, it’s clearly not that kind of game. While it would have been nice to have seen more variety with the different levels (the flags of the world were particularly tedious compared to cartoon animals), it’s not bad. It makes for an OK distraction to dive into once in a while.

[ FoundIt Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by gunturbabu \\ tags: Application, competitive, experienced, Game, Games, ipad apps and games, ipad games, rating, replay-value, review

I love the theory behind Comimix, the app that offers an RSS Feed style app of daily comic strips. It is a great idea. However, what sounds like a good idea does not play out into a satisfying or enjoyable app.

The problem with Comimix is that there’s almost nothing for the reader to do. You don’t get to choose comics or subscribe to specific strips; you’re getting a single static feed from Comimix. You aren’t able to browse the strips they’re feeding you or to find the strips you like; you begin at a fixed point and can only swipe to go back and forth along a comics slideshow, one image at a time. And what you can do with the comics you see is very limited: you can save them to your Image Library (there’s no saving, favoriting, or bookmarking strips in-app), e-mail them to someone, or share them on your Facebook wall. There’s no versatility, no customization, and no in-app instructions, no Portrait orientation support, not even a title screen.

So, in short, you are limited in what you see; you are limited in what you can do; and you are limited in how you’re able to share. In fact, that’s a very, very apt description for Comimix as a whole: limited. It works fine for what it does, but it doesn’t do much.

I would love to see the makers of Comimix really expand the idea here. Give us a browsable overview, like they have in the standard Photo app; heck, make it look like a funny page! Let us browse to a particular comic, or even through several days worth of a single title. Let us subscribe to favorite strips. Let us share via Twitter or other means. Let us print via AirPrint so we can put it up on our refrigerator. Make Comimix a true funny page. But as it stands now, Comimix is an app that is far too limited and limiting to be an enjoyable comic experience.

[ Comimix for iPad Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by ahmed \\ tags: $1.99, ipad, ipad apps and games, overall-rating, portrait, price, refrigerator, strips

There’s an ineffable, serendipitous moment when I “discover” a new band or even a new song. It doesn’t happen often, or with any regularity whatsoever, but when it does it’s as if I’ve known about them and heard their songs all along. Now, Discovr for the iPad attempts to “appify” this process and open multiple pathways to new music, bands and songs. The effort is a valid one, but there’s still a lot of work to be done before this app even reaches something close to what Pandora already does.

What separates Discovr from Pandora and similar apps is that it is not a radio app, which might seem counterintuitive for a music app these days. Instead, Discovr focuses on a visual search. Users type in the name of a band or artist they are interested in, and Discovr generates a graphic chart with the band/artist as the hub of a wheel. Surrounding that hub are usually 6-7 bands/artists with similar qualities to the original one entered. In my case, typing in “Grizzly Bear” called up similar acts like Animal Collective, Bright Eyes and a few I’ve never heard of. Double clicking on any of these calls up an artist profile page, complete with a biography, a list of relevant blogs dedicated to that artist, and assorted YouTube clips of songs. You can choose to share this information with others through the usual social channels – email, Twitter, Facebook – or you can return to your search results and extend your music map by single clicking on any artist on the page, generating another interconnected set of bands and musicians. The search map page is very intuitive and interesting, and certainly does generate a fair number of unknown acts.

There are really only two primary issues I have with the Discovr app. The first is that the only songs you are able to hear from a band are those available on YouTube, and some of these results are inaccurate (more on that later). There is a link to purchase songs or albums available on iTunes or Amazon so you can listen to segments and even purchase them, but there is no way to even sample a comprehensive array of songs from within the app. Using Discovr as a gateway for purchasing new music is a great idea; I’d just like to see it further developed in the future.

The second problem brings us back to the YouTube search results. Some are inaccurate, and their inclusion clutters the entire experience of the app. Take, for instance, Bright Eyes. When I pulled up the information page for Bright Eyes, I got the usual bio (though it was painfully short) along with links to blogs, reviews and iTunes/Amazon, but some of the YouTube videos were odd. Art Garfunkle’s song “Bright Eyes” was included, as was another song of the same title by a different artist. Tightening up these search results would result in a more effective, useful app.

I applaud Discovr for doing something different with music discovery. Perhaps if they could work in tandem with Pandora or Last.FM we could finally have the one music discovery service to rule them all. An app that combines visual search with full audio choices would be a heady success indeed.

[ Discovr for iPad Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by tmunzke \\ tags: discovery, discovr, facebook, ipad apps and games, ipad music, music, musicians, rating, review, search

For better or worse, Wolfram Music Theory Course Assistant looks and feels like the culmination of everything music related in Wolfram Alpha. Explaining the Wolfram system is tough because it’s not a traditional encyclopedia, but an answer engine that just gives you facts. There is no fluff in the world of Wolfram, just science.

Being a sort of science, music is the newest endeavor of Wolfram in the App Store. Again, for better or worse, the Wolfram Music Theory Course Assistant gives you straight facts about just about anything music related. Want to know what a C Chord is? Find it in the chord section and you’ll get the straight scoop, including the music notation, the note names, the keyboard display, guitar chord voicings complete with tabs, and even handy little button with the chord in action.

As bland as the app is, it really does cover just about everything that you’ve ever wanted to know about the science of music theory. You can look up chords, pitch notations, scales, intervals, and even dictionary-like terms of different music related words.

The problem that I have with this Wolfram app, other than the expected blandness of the UI, is that it has no soul. I know, the whole point is that the app is supposed to be an answer engine, but when I look up “jazz band” in the music dictionary, I’d like to see a bit more than how to use the word use in a sentence. I’d like to see some jazz chords or some famous jazz musicians. I want to feel like I’m grasping the essence of jazz band, not just getting a bland answer back with no life. Honestly, I can get just about everything I get in Wolfram Music Theory Couse Assistant on Wikipedia for free, except for the sound output examples, and learn a whole lot more about the subject.

[ Wolfram Music Theory Course Assistant Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by margs \\ tags: better-or-worse, culmination, ipad apps and games, iphone apps and games, overall-rating, theory-course, wolfram, wolfram-alpha