Reviews

All Things Appy: Top 5 iOS Video Camera Apps
April 03, 2013

Video cameras have been one of the killer hardware features in the smartphone revolution, and Apple's iOS platform for iPads and iPhones has made an important contribution to the video camera app market. Twitter's Vine lets you create arty 6-second looping videos for distribution on social networks including Facebook, Twitter and the Vine network.

Snagit's a Slick Screen Grabber
April 02, 2013

For many Mac users, screen grabbing tools provided by OS X are adequate for their needs. If you need to snatch a full screen, shift + command + 3 will suffice. If you want to carve out a section of your display, there's shift + command + 4. However, some Mac jockeys need to go beyond those simple grabbing techniques. For those users, there's Snagit 2.

Instant Heart Rate: A Cool Way to Track Your Ticker
April 01, 2013

Every now and then I'm surprised and delighted by the utter ingenuity I stumble upon in the iTunes App Store. I really like it when someone utilizes common technology for a unintended purpose -- in this case, using the camera on your iPhone to track the beat of your heart. Crazy, I know, but Instant Heart Rate - Heart Rate Monitor by Azumio does it in just a few seconds.

pwSafe Cracks the Safe-Password Problem
March 26, 2013

Hardly a day goes by without a data breach making the news or a social media account being hacked. That kind of news can be unsettling to many of us and leave us wondering how we can better protect our online security. One way to address the problem is to beef up your first line of defense against hackers: the passwords to your online accounts.

March Madness App Brings Its 'A' Game
March 25, 2013

I've previously avoided most big sports and event streaming apps for simple reasons -- they tend to bombard you with glitchy ads or make you jump through hoops to view the content, such as proving that you're a cable or satellite subscriber. In March, however, NCAA basketball grabs my attention.

Alfred Offers Bat-tastic Productivity for Mac Owners
March 19, 2013

We can't all have the riches of Bruce Wayne. Mac owners, however, can have a virtual version of his faithful servant, Alfred. Like Wayne's invaluable butler, this free productivity app is also named Alfred. Its latest version (2.0), released this month, is more useful than ever.

Year Walk Is a Creepy Yet Delightful Stroll
March 18, 2013

Year Walk -- an iOS game by Simogo -- is a story-adventure-puzzle that creepily evokes what it might be like to wander the Swedish countryside in the middle of night, in the middle of winter, after spending a full day without food in a very dark room. That is, of course, if you're some dude from 1894 desperately in love with a woman -- and you embark on a Swedish folklore "Year Walk" in the hope of seeing your future.

Tree Is a Cool Tool for Creating Outlines That Branch Everywhere
March 12, 2013

Outlines can be valuable tools for writers or just about anyone else who needs to organize ideas into a coherent whole. A problem with them, though, is they can be too rigid. A traditional outline is a vertical list. As much as many of us love lists of things, they can be stifling when a structure of ideas is forced into them.

123D Creature Is an Awesome Exercise in Facing Your Monsters
March 11, 2013

When I saw Autodesk's 123D Creature, an iPad app that lets you build three-dimensional monsters, I filed it away in the back of my mind as an app to try out on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I finally tried it, and I wish I would have done so sooner -- and that's not because I'm awesome at creating creatures. I wish I would have tried it sooner because 123D Creature has revitalized my faith in humanity.

A Few Quirks Keep Mellel Lite From Being a Heavyweight
March 05, 2013

Word processors can be a matter of taste. Some writers feel that the more the word processor departs from the original word processor -- the typewriter -- the more it interferes with the actual act of writing. For those writers, there are bare bones word processors like Byword and iA Writer.

When It Comes to Mobile Browser Speed, This Puffin Can Soar
March 04, 2013

In order to entice me away from one of Apple's standard built-in apps -- like the Web browser Safari -- I need something faster, more functional or with a slicker design. Usually, I expect a combination of these features before I'll take the leap. Puffin Web Browser by CloudMosa has been doing pretty well in the Utilities section of the iTunes App Store, hanging around as one of the top paid utilities.

All Things Appy: 5 Best Apple Lifestyle Apps
February 27, 2013

The introduction of the smartphone can be credited with inspiring many so-called lifestyle improvements -- not the least of which stems from its ability to multitask. Junk that alarm clock and makeup mirror, and gear up for fashion, shopping and art.

Chronicle Bill-Pay App Puts Time on Your Side
February 26, 2013

Paying bills isn't at the top of anyone's bucket list, but as long as we remain tethered to our mortal coil, they are inescapable. Those bills can be less of a chore, however, if we can remove some of the uncertainty surrounding them. I don't mean the uncertainty about having the money to pay the bills.

Mokriya Turns Ugly Craigslist Into the Very Picture of Beauty
February 25, 2013

Mokriya has transformed the stale, flat, and sometimes sordid experience of browsing Craigslist's vast online classifieds site on a computer into a handheld experience more like flipping through a dynamic, photo-rich catalog. It took me all of a minute to become a serious fan of the app.

BizVizz Brand Transparency App: Great Promise, Ho-Hum Delivery
February 19, 2013

Behind every big name brand is a big company. These companies might do good for the world or they might not. Or like most people, they could be inconsistent, doing good in some ways but snatching more than their fair share in others. A new app called BizVizz seeks to share information about these big companies while you are shopping.

MindNode Makes Mind Mapping a Mind-Blower
February 12, 2013

Mind maps don't have anything to do with identifying the contours of your brain -- although they may give you an inkling about how your mind works. At the heart of a mind map is the idea that we don't think in rigid hierarchies. The old-fashioned tree outline with heads, subheads and so forth can nicely organize a theme, document or white paper, but it isn't how people think or the way the brain works.

This Qwiki Keeps the Smiles Coming
February 11, 2013

When Apple selected Qwiki for iPhone as an Editor's Choice app, I ignored it, then came back to it wondering what the heck it was: The icon has a couple of blocks and maybe a horizontal head shaped like a "Q," which vaguely looks like, well, I'm just not sure. I get more info from most fluffy white clouds.

Napkin Takes Visual Editing to a Higher Level
February 05, 2013

Aside from their intended purposes, napkins have been known to be used for such things as jotting down the next big idea at business lunches. It's that unintended purpose that inspired the folks at Aged and Distilled software to create their markup app called "Napkin." Napkin gives you a set of professional tools for visually editing content.

Little Inferno Gleefully Ignites the Deep Dark Pyro Within
February 04, 2013

From what I've seen of humanity, there's a little pyro locked inside most of us. Maybe it's a universal longing to chase away the darkness with warmth and light, or maybe it's just a genetic quirk coded into our DNA from the days of the Ice Age when cooking up a wooly mammoth meant survival. Or maybe we just really like to see things burn.

PopClip and Unclutter: Big Utility Comes in Small Packages
January 29, 2013

Size isn't always a measure of an app's usefulness. Sometimes you can get more utility from a small app than you'd get from larger one that you use only occasionally. Two such useful programs are PopClip and Unclutter. While PopClip can help you cut down your keystrokes during the day, Unclutter can keep you from losing your mind trying to rifle through the mess on a chaotic desktop.