This week ‘s Free Reign has me really looking forward to getting my new iPhone. Ever since updating to 3.0 my 2G has slowed to a crawl in a lot of ways. But even funky iPhone slowdowns haven ‘t kept JAiB from covering these four apps this week:
- Newsflash (full review here)
- Fandango
- MovieLingo
- XE Currency
(really need to replace that header picture soon)
Newsflash
Concept: A news app that brings you news from a large number of the leading news providers (US and international sources) and rolls them all into one fresh-looking interface, and let’s you customize the ‘front page’ in some unique ways.
Strengths: Looks good, and delivers tons of good content from lots of good sources. Very easy to customize the front page in more powerful ways than any other news app I’ve seen. For instance, you can not only add a section for your local area, but for any search term you want to use. So adding a front page section for ‘Pedigree Dogs’ or whatever floats your boat, is very simple.
Non-strengths: Nothing major. One of the main listing views could do with a fresh coat of ‘design paint’, and it’s not yet capable of using push notifications.
Overall: A great news app – better in many ways than AP Mobile as a single source of news from your region to around the globe.
Fandango
Concept: Find movies in your area, get information about them, watch trailers, check local showtimes, buy tickets – and all the things that can be done in a number of iPhone movie apps.
Strengths: The best of a strong bunch of iPhone movie apps. Very slick and easy to use interface. Does everything you want in a movie app, and makes it quick an easy to do. Lets you tie in to your Fandango account if you have one.
Non-strengths: None to speak of.
Overall: A blockbuster of a movie app.
MovieLingo
Concept: Test your knowledge of movie quotes over the decades; shake the iPhone to summon up an audio clip from a decade and genre and tap the bottom bar to find out which movie it was from.
Strengths: Pretty good selection of movies; audio clips are decent quality “ enough to distinguish which actor is speaking; can lock the genre or the decade when shaking, so you can generate 80 ‘s Romance quotes whenever you need to, Casanova.
Non-Strengths: Is it just me “ or are there only two movie quotes available for action movies in the 2000 ‘s? I pressed the shake button six times and heard the same two lines..
Overall: Cute and quick way to pass the time; filed nicely under that as-of-yet unofficial ‘party trick ‘ app category 🙂
XE Currency
Concept: Don ‘t bother visiting XE.com to convert currency, just use the iPhone app!
Strengths: Ridiculously easy; tap on desired currency, type in a number, then watch all other currencies reflect the conversion rate. Add and remove currencies at will just like the default Stocks app
Non-Strengths: None to speak of.
Overall: Really useful little utility, especially if you do online shopping a bunch and everything is in USD and you like waving your Canadian flag around. Or even if you just need to convert currency.
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
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