Developer: Cute Logic Ltd.
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.1
iPhone Integration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 3.67 out of 5 stars
Ghostwriter is a simple photo editing app that lets you add certain ’spooky’ effects to the photos you’ve taken of your friends and family, and lets you share them. It’s not meant to be the world’s most powerful photo editing app, but it offers a variety of spooky Halloween-flavored effects which will definitely amuse kids. It is a good option for a limited budget to share in the fun of making your costumed photos just a bit creepier.
What you’ll first want to do is actually go into the settings. You’ll have to select how you want to edit your photo before you even import it. This is one of the few problems I had with the functionality of this app. Most, if not all, photo editing apps let you import your source, and then allow users to edit the effects from there. Nevertheless, you’ll want to choose your Spooky Editing options from within the settings before you import or take your photo.
There are a small selection of options to choose from. First and probably most popular will be adding text – there are six preset messages, such as “Trick or Treat,” “I Want Candy,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and more. However, do you have the option to add your own message as well. From here you can select one of the two fonts available. After you’ve chosen the text, go ahead and choose if you want some ‘Goulish Miasma,’ or other effects like ‘Diabolical Light.’
Finally, a few other options let you decide if the picture will display with a sound effect, if you want to save the originals (for when you take a photo from within the app), or reset all your options. Once you’ve make your selections, go back out to the main page, import your photo, and see your creation! You can play the sound effects over and over, if you like. You can edit the text at this point if you’re not happy with what it says (but not the font or effects). Finally, go ahead and either save your spooky creation or email it to a friend.
That’s Ghostwriter in a nutshell, a simple holiday app for Halloween – pick it up if you’re interested in a simple, easy way to make spooky theme pictures for your Halloween memories!
Developer: Hoo Logic
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.1.2
iPhone Integration Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 3.67 out of 5 stars
On a lark, I decided to take Japanese this year. So far, so good—but as any student of the Japanese language can tell you, one of the most irritating initial hurdles is memorizing two entirely new alphabets (syllabaries, to be precise): hiragana and katakana. Making flashcards for characters is also so very tedious, which is why I’m very happy to have Real Kana on my iPhone.
Real Kana is an app version of the popular Real Kana website, which drills you on both hiragana and katakana. Just like the web version, the iPhone app lets you choose which characters to study by checking them off in groups of five—so for example, you can test yourself with all the hiragana, or just do the ha-hi-hu-he-ho sequence. You can also pick which typeface you’d like to use, which is a feature I’m deeply grateful for. Once that’s settled, you’re ready to go!
Practicing is as simple as getting set up. The app displays a character; you type in its romanized equivalent using the ever-present keyboard. If you’re stumped, tapping the screen reveals the answer as well as your current record.
I like Real Kana a lot because it’s simple and quick. I didn’t want to spend time making my own kana cards, and Real Kana allows me to practice both hiragana and katakana regardless of whether I have my textbook or regular flash card stack on me. The interface is sparse but includes all the features you need. It’s all in the details, and Real Kana steps out of its own way and just lets you practice. If you’re a beginning Japanese student, give Real Kana a go, whether it’s on the iPhone or your computer. Either way, you’re sure to find it helpful.
We have discussed how Toura could give museum visitors a guided tour via their smartphone, and how it was being used at the Art Institute of Chicago.
This App is designed to showcase the AIC’s permanent collection of French Impressionist Art with more than 100 iconic Impressionist and Post Impressionist paintings.
The App is for sale at the iTunes and Android Marketplace for launch sale price of $1.99 for two weeks, then it will rise to $3.99. The iPad will also have a version for a sale price of $3.99, and then a price of $5.99.
Developer: DOGFISH SOFTWARE
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 2.0
Device Reviewed On: iPad
Graphics / Sound Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars
Kakuro continues to be a phenomenon in the US, in spite of its consistently difficult learning curve. Something of a variant on classic Sudoku, Kakuro presents an empty and uneven grid that players must fill with numbers that add up to the sums listed at the top, bottom, left and right sides of that grid. If it sounds confusing and confounding, it is…especially at first. However, practice with fairly simple Kakuro puzzles, as is also the case with Sudoku, opens a player’s mind to the logical possibilities inherent in each puzzle, and urges players to try harder and harder puzzles.
Now, developer Dogfish Software has translated the Kakuro experience to the iPad, and the translation, though not visually or aurally stimulating, is actually a handy way to improve your logical skills in the game. Opening the app for the first time, the player is immediately dropped into a moderately difficult puzzle, which might prove too daunting for beginners. Resetting the game to an easy puzzle is recommended for newbies and the like, as the fundamentals of play are much easier to grasp on a smaller grid. Entering numbers is accomplished through the use of a small calculator-like graphic at the bottom of the screen, which also includes undo functions. There is also a handy hint function near the numerical pad that, when tapped, pulls up lists of number combinations that could be employed in the specific area of the grid you’re working on.
Kakuro CS is relatively spartan and utilitarian in presentation, but it functions well for its intended purpose. The sea green background color and lack of many sound effects do not contribute to any sense of atmosphere in the game. What you do get, however, is a good series of challenging Kakuro puzzles with a clearly-designed interface. And anyway, who needs a lot of graphical/audio flash with puzzles this mind-bendingly intense?
It’s the Engadget Podcast….to go! Would you like a little Joanna Stern with that? Easy on the Ziegler, buddy – and 86 the Paul, please. All that plus a special toy for kids ten and under that manage to listen all the way to the end.
Update: If you’ve been unable to download the podcast in iTunes or Zune, it’s because we had a naming issue — it’s since been fixed and should download properly once the cache breaks. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel Guests: Joanna Stern, Chris Ziegler Producer:Trent Wolbe Music:California Gurls
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Ghostwriter is a simple photo editing app that lets you add certain ’spooky’ effects to the photos you’ve taken of your friends and family, and lets you share them. It’s not meant to be the world’s most powerful photo editing app, but it offers a variety of spooky Halloween-flavored effects which will definitely amuse kids. It is a good option for a limited budget to share in the fun of making your costumed photos just a bit creepier.
First and probably most popular will be adding text – there are six preset messages, such as “Trick or Treat,” “I Want Candy,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and more. However, do you have the option to add your own message as well. From here you can select one of the two fonts available. After you’ve chosen the text, go ahead and choose if you want some ‘Goulish Miasma,’ or other effects like ‘Diabolical Light.’
We have discussed how 
Kakuro continues to be a phenomenon in the US, in spite of its consistently difficult learning curve. Something of a variant on classic Sudoku, Kakuro presents an empty and uneven grid that players must fill with numbers that add up to the sums listed at the top, bottom, left and right sides of that grid. If it sounds confusing and confounding, it is…especially at first. However, practice with fairly simple Kakuro puzzles, as is also the case with Sudoku, opens a player’s mind to the logical possibilities inherent in each puzzle, and urges players to try harder and harder puzzles.
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