Category: I-phone

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting All-in Fitness. The developer describes All-in Fitness as the only app with more than 700 video clips! 700+ exercises for men and women. Yoga poses with video and audio instructions in HD quality! Includes: Live support from professional coaches for free, Pedometer, Calorie Counter, Body Tracker and Music Player. 40+ Ready-made workouts?, and 4 modes of workout program selection.

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

All-In Fitness

All-In Fitness

About the App

Here are the top five features you can expect to see in the latest version:

• Hundreds of firness exercises and yoga poses
• 40 workouts for any goal – free!?
• Live support – free!
• Pedometer, music player and calendar?
• Convenient calorie counter and body tracker

Requirements: iOS 3.1.3 or later
Price: 1.99
Developer: Viaden Mobile

Vote for a Review

Would you like to see us write a full review of All-in Fitness? Have your say in our poll:

Would you like to see All-in Fitness reviewed in-depth on AppStorm?Market Research

Quick Look posts are paid submissions offering only a brief overview of an app. Vote in the poll if you think this app is worth an in-depth AppStorm review! If you’re a developer and would like to have your app profiled, you can submit it here.

Last week, the Internet was abuzz with talk about a single tweet which caused quite a stir. The head of a PR firm tweeted: “#AlwaysBetOnDuke too many went too far with their reviews…we r reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom.” Working hand in hand with PR firms is something we at AppStorm have to do pretty much every day, but it’s not often we’ve seen one of them speak out like this.

Because of that issue, it got me thinking about how we do our reviews here at AppStorm, and it made me wonder if some of our readers think we might have a bias towards the positive side of things, and therefore, we don’t give “real” reviews. So to address that issue, I figured I’d peel back the curtain a bit and talk about how we at AppStorm review an app, and what that means for you, the reader.

The Input

We get lots of submissions at AppStorm, mostly from PR firms and developers who want to get the word out about their product. There’s a few different ways we take in the stream: There’s our Quick Look feature, email, and Twitter is another popular option. When we get these submissions, I’ll typically mark down the name on a spreadsheet I keep, and put it under a “potential review” section. We won’t review all of these apps (there’s just not enough time, frankly), but this way if a writer is looking for an assignment, we have something in the bank.

The Actual Review Process

As the editor, it’s my job to make sure that each writer is on task and writing about an app that either they’ve chosen themselves or that I’ve sent their way. To make it fair and accurate, I want them to use the app for a few days and get the feel of it. Sometimes, an app looks great on day one, but by day five, it’s delegated to the “Unused Apps” folder on their iPhone. This gives us the most fair and unbiased opinion on each app.

If the app works, then the writer puts up a review, with a rating at the bottom that designates how good the app is on a 1-10 scale. Typically, our reviews are between six to ten points, with most of them being in the eights, nines and tens. So why not anything below a six?

Peering Behind the Curtain

I bought an app the other day, with really high hopes for it. I expected it to replace two or three of my other go-to apps, and I figured that it was absolutely perfect to my workflow. Back then (before I was editor), I emailed the boss and called dibs on the review. He slotted me in, and I started playing with the app. As disappointment crept in, I realized that this app wasn’t going to be a 6 or above, so I told the editor as such. The response? “Fine with me, let’s just skip it and move on to the next one.”

We like to keep things positive here on the site, so we’re not going to publish scathing reviews that tear each developer up with each word — we’re just not that site. What we want to do is collect the best apps that you can get, and put them out for our readers to find. It’s those diamonds in the rough or hidden gems that we want to showcase alongside the big names, because we don’t want you to clutter up your iPhone with junk the way we do. The App Store is a pretty big place, so we like to think we’re helping you narrow down the process.

What We Don’t Review

Which, at the end of this all, means that we often review more apps than we actually publish. I know that between all of the AppStorm sites that I write for,  I personally turned down at least four last month because they just weren’t good enough. I spent hours of my time trying to determine if the applications were worth our reader’s time, and in the end, they weren’t. So instead of writing something fake just to get paid, I opted instead to move on to something else, that way the quality of the site was kept up.

And now, as editor, that’s something I continue to push. If one of our writers doesn’t like an app, don’t review it. For me, I find the best type of review is written by someone who uses — and hopefully loves — the program. For example, I’m a huge fan of Instapaper for the iPad. I use it every day — usually multiple times a day — and I really think it’s not only helped my productivity, but also the way I consume websites. As such, I wrote a review about it for our sister site iPad.AppStorm.net, and gave it a 10 out of 10. You may not agree with the score, but at least you know that I have a strong opinion about it, which means that at least one person out there thinks it’s worth the money. Why not listen to someone who’s passionate about the program, instead of hunting and pecking in the App Store to find something that just works OK?

The Results

Because of that, we won’t get into an argument on the web with a PR firm the way other sites will. If a PR company pushes a product our direction and we don’t like it, then it’s just not going to get reviewed. That way, the PR company doesn’t get a negative hit on the product, and our readers don’t waste their time reading a review on a less-than-stellar app. It’s win-win in our book.

This isn’t how most businesses run review sites, and we understand that it’s not for everyone. But this system works out pretty well over here, and I think it keeps a positive spin on things. And frankly, if you’re here reading this now, chances are pretty good you agree.

Frequent fliers know that there is an art to finding good deals on airfare. Booking early is a sure way of getting better prices, but sometimes it just comes down to comparison shopping. Unfortunately, there are so many individual flight search engines on the internet that performing this kind of search can quickly become tedious and unnecessarily time consuming — although it is a nice distraction from packing.

Hoping to resolve this issue, Momondo created a clean and efficient search aggregator that compiles results from over 800 different travel sites so that you can input your query once and get all the results you need. Having been successful with their web-based system, the company has finally released an app that allows you to take their powerful searching service on the road. We take a look at it after the jump.

Take-Off

The mentality behind Momondo’s system seems to be offering deep search capabilities without any unnecessary features. You won’t find any thorough trip planning capabilities like you might in TripIt, for instance. That being said, the lean approach works very well for the app since it allows you to focus on this particular aspect of planning without getting too involved in the follow-up.

Find a Flight

The core of the app is obviously the search itself, and Momondo has made it as streamlined as possible; The search interface appears front and center as soon as you start it up. After selecting whether you’re after a return trip (the default) or a one-way flight, you can tap the From and To fields to search for your destination.

Flight Searching in Momondo

Once you’ve narrowed down which airport you’d like to fly into, Momondo displays the flights it has found across all of the networks it crawls through. The results show up surprisingly quickly considering the number of sources the app is searching, and they are displayed in a well-designed layout that highlights important information such as price (in the currency of your choice), number of stops, airline, flight duration and departure/arrival times.

Filter & Save Flights

Once you have a list of flights, you can narrow down your search using convenient filters that let you select options pertaining to price, departure time, arrival time, number of stops, airline, etc. This is an excellent way to sift through a long list of flights to zero in on the ones that fit your situation and budget best.

Filter Flights

Once you have a flight selected, you can book it on the spot, and it’s easy to save it for later and/or email the details to yourself or your co-travelers for review if you prefer. The saved list functions as you expect it to, and while it’s a handy way to keep track of the flights you’re considering, the one great omission is that you can’t set up notifications for changes. This means that you’ve got to check back on the flights manually to see if the prices have fluctuated or anything of the sort. It’s a crucial gap in the app’s functionality that, for now, leaves the saved flights feature looking a bit incomplete.

Saving Flights for Later

Conclusion

While Momondo is undoubtedly one of the finest solutions for flight searching around, the app still needs a bit of work before it catches up with the functionality of the website. Beyond the lack of update notifications for saved flights, the app is also missing the robust hotel and car rental portions of the service, meaning that you still need to resort to another app (or the website) to look up a place to stay once you arrive at your destination. This is a particularly strange thing to leave out since the Momondo web service provides the functionality and the app is otherwise a straight port of the site’s features.

Aside from those missing links though, Momondo is easy to recommend because it offers a fast and well-designed system for getting you from point A to point B in your travel planning routine. The fact that it does this for free is just icing on the cake.

Have you used Momondo to book a flight before? Have another flight search solution that you prefer? Tell us about it in the comments!

Frequent fliers know that there is an art to finding good deals on airfare. Booking early is a sure way of getting better prices, but sometimes it just comes down to comparison shopping. Unfortunately, there are so many individual flight search engines on the internet that performing this kind of search can quickly become tedious and unnecessarily time consuming — although it is a nice distraction from packing.

Hoping to resolve this issue, Momondo created a clean and efficient search aggregator that compiles results from over 800 different travel sites so that you can input your query once and get all the results you need. Having been successful with their web-based system, the company has finally released an app that allows you to take their powerful searching service on the road. We take a look at it after the jump.

Take-Off

The mentality behind Momondo’s system seems to be offering deep search capabilities without any unnecessary features. You won’t find any thorough trip planning capabilities like you might in TripIt, for instance. That being said, the lean approach works very well for the app since it allows you to focus on this particular aspect of planning without getting too involved in the follow-up.

Find a Flight

The core of the app is obviously the search itself, and Momondo has made it as streamlined as possible; The search interface appears front and center as soon as you start it up. After selecting whether you’re after a return trip (the default) or a one-way flight, you can tap the From and To fields to search for your destination.

Flight Searching in Momondo

Once you’ve narrowed down which airport you’d like to fly into, Momondo displays the flights it has found across all of the networks it crawls through. The results show up surprisingly quickly considering the number of sources the app is searching, and they are displayed in a well-designed layout that highlights important information such as price (in the currency of your choice), number of stops, airline, flight duration and departure/arrival times.

Filter & Save Flights

Once you have a list of flights, you can narrow down your search using convenient filters that let you select options pertaining to price, departure time, arrival time, number of stops, airline, etc. This is an excellent way to sift through a long list of flights to zero in on the ones that fit your situation and budget best.

Filter Flights

Once you have a flight selected, you can book it on the spot, and it’s easy to save it for later and/or email the details to yourself or your co-travelers for review if you prefer. The saved list functions as you expect it to, and while it’s a handy way to keep track of the flights you’re considering, the one great omission is that you can’t set up notifications for changes. This means that you’ve got to check back on the flights manually to see if the prices have fluctuated or anything of the sort. It’s a crucial gap in the app’s functionality that, for now, leaves the saved flights feature looking a bit incomplete.

Saving Flights for Later

Conclusion

While Momondo is undoubtedly one of the finest solutions for flight searching around, the app still needs a bit of work before it catches up with the functionality of the website. Beyond the lack of update notifications for saved flights, the app is also missing the robust hotel and car rental portions of the service, meaning that you still need to resort to another app (or the website) to look up a place to stay once you arrive at your destination. This is a particularly strange thing to leave out since the Momondo web service provides the functionality and the app is otherwise a straight port of the site’s features.

Aside from those missing links though, Momondo is easy to recommend because it offers a fast and well-designed system for getting you from point A to point B in your travel planning routine. The fact that it does this for free is just icing on the cake.

Have you used Momondo to book a flight before? Have another flight search solution that you prefer? Tell us about it in the comments!

Frequent fliers know that there is an art to finding good deals on airfare. Booking early is a sure way of getting better prices, but sometimes it just comes down to comparison shopping. Unfortunately, there are so many individual flight search engines on the internet that performing this kind of search can quickly become tedious and unnecessarily time consuming — although it is a nice distraction from packing.

Hoping to resolve this issue, Momondo created a clean and efficient search aggregator that compiles results from over 800 different travel sites so that you can input your query once and get all the results you need. Having been successful with their web-based system, the company has finally released an app that allows you to take their powerful searching service on the road. We take a look at it after the jump.

Take-Off

The mentality behind Momondo’s system seems to be offering deep search capabilities without any unnecessary features. You won’t find any thorough trip planning capabilities like you might in TripIt, for instance. That being said, the lean approach works very well for the app since it allows you to focus on this particular aspect of planning without getting too involved in the follow-up.

Find a Flight

The core of the app is obviously the search itself, and Momondo has made it as streamlined as possible; The search interface appears front and center as soon as you start it up. After selecting whether you’re after a return trip (the default) or a one-way flight, you can tap the From and To fields to search for your destination.

Flight Searching in Momondo

Once you’ve narrowed down which airport you’d like to fly into, Momondo displays the flights it has found across all of the networks it crawls through. The results show up surprisingly quickly considering the number of sources the app is searching, and they are displayed in a well-designed layout that highlights important information such as price (in the currency of your choice), number of stops, airline, flight duration and departure/arrival times.

Filter & Save Flights

Once you have a list of flights, you can narrow down your search using convenient filters that let you select options pertaining to price, departure time, arrival time, number of stops, airline, etc. This is an excellent way to sift through a long list of flights to zero in on the ones that fit your situation and budget best.

Filter Flights

Once you have a flight selected, you can book it on the spot, and it’s easy to save it for later and/or email the details to yourself or your co-travelers for review if you prefer. The saved list functions as you expect it to, and while it’s a handy way to keep track of the flights you’re considering, the one great omission is that you can’t set up notifications for changes. This means that you’ve got to check back on the flights manually to see if the prices have fluctuated or anything of the sort. It’s a crucial gap in the app’s functionality that, for now, leaves the saved flights feature looking a bit incomplete.

Saving Flights for Later

Conclusion

While Momondo is undoubtedly one of the finest solutions for flight searching around, the app still needs a bit of work before it catches up with the functionality of the website. Beyond the lack of update notifications for saved flights, the app is also missing the robust hotel and car rental portions of the service, meaning that you still need to resort to another app (or the website) to look up a place to stay once you arrive at your destination. This is a particularly strange thing to leave out since the Momondo web service provides the functionality and the app is otherwise a straight port of the site’s features.

Aside from those missing links though, Momondo is easy to recommend because it offers a fast and well-designed system for getting you from point A to point B in your travel planning routine. The fact that it does this for free is just icing on the cake.

Have you used Momondo to book a flight before? Have another flight search solution that you prefer? Tell us about it in the comments!

Last week, the Internet was abuzz with talk about a single tweet which caused quite a stir. The head of a PR firm tweeted: “#AlwaysBetOnDuke too many went too far with their reviews…we r reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom.” Working hand in hand with PR firms is something we at AppStorm have to do pretty much every day, but it’s not often we’ve seen one of them speak out like this.

Because of that issue, it got me thinking about how we do our reviews here at AppStorm, and it made me wonder if some of our readers think we might have a bias towards the positive side of things, and therefore, we don’t give “real” reviews. So to address that issue, I figured I’d peel back the curtain a bit and talk about how we at AppStorm review an app, and what that means for you, the reader.

The Input

We get lots of submissions at AppStorm, mostly from PR firms and developers who want to get the word out about their product. There’s a few different ways we take in the stream: There’s our Quick Look feature, email, and Twitter is another popular option. When we get these submissions, I’ll typically mark down the name on a spreadsheet I keep, and put it under a “potential review” section. We won’t review all of these apps (there’s just not enough time, frankly), but this way if a writer is looking for an assignment, we have something in the bank.

The Actual Review Process

As the editor, it’s my job to make sure that each writer is on task and writing about an app that either they’ve chosen themselves or that I’ve sent their way. To make it fair and accurate, I want them to use the app for a few days and get the feel of it. Sometimes, an app looks great on day one, but by day five, it’s delegated to the “Unused Apps” folder on their iPhone. This gives us the most fair and unbiased opinion on each app.

If the app works, then the writer puts up a review, with a rating at the bottom that designates how good the app is on a 1-10 scale. Typically, our reviews are between six to ten points, with most of them being in the eights, nines and tens. So why not anything below a six?

Peering Behind the Curtain

I bought an app the other day, with really high hopes for it. I expected it to replace two or three of my other go-to apps, and I figured that it was absolutely perfect to my workflow. Back then (before I was editor), I emailed the boss and called dibs on the review. He slotted me in, and I started playing with the app. As disappointment crept in, I realized that this app wasn’t going to be a 6 or above, so I told the editor as such. The response? “Fine with me, let’s just skip it and move on to the next one.”

We like to keep things positive here on the site, so we’re not going to publish scathing reviews that tear each developer up with each word — we’re just not that site. What we want to do is collect the best apps that you can get, and put them out for our readers to find. It’s those diamonds in the rough or hidden gems that we want to showcase alongside the big names, because we don’t want you to clutter up your iPhone with junk the way we do. The App Store is a pretty big place, so we like to think we’re helping you narrow down the process.

What We Don’t Review

Which, at the end of this all, means that we often review more apps than we actually publish. I know that between all of the AppStorm sites that I write for,  I personally turned down at least four last month because they just weren’t good enough. I spent hours of my time trying to determine if the applications were worth our reader’s time, and in the end, they weren’t. So instead of writing something fake just to get paid, I opted instead to move on to something else, that way the quality of the site was kept up.

And now, as editor, that’s something I continue to push. If one of our writers doesn’t like an app, don’t review it. For me, I find the best type of review is written by someone who uses — and hopefully loves — the program. For example, I’m a huge fan of Instapaper for the iPad. I use it every day — usually multiple times a day — and I really think it’s not only helped my productivity, but also the way I consume websites. As such, I wrote a review about it for our sister site iPad.AppStorm.net, and gave it a 10 out of 10. You may not agree with the score, but at least you know that I have a strong opinion about it, which means that at least one person out there thinks it’s worth the money. Why not listen to someone who’s passionate about the program, instead of hunting and pecking in the App Store to find something that just works OK?

The Results

Because of that, we won’t get into an argument on the web with a PR firm the way other sites will. If a PR company pushes a product our direction and we don’t like it, then it’s just not going to get reviewed. That way, the PR company doesn’t get a negative hit on the product, and our readers don’t waste their time reading a review on a less-than-stellar app. It’s win-win in our book.

This isn’t how most businesses run review sites, and we understand that it’s not for everyone. But this system works out pretty well over here, and I think it keeps a positive spin on things. And frankly, if you’re here reading this now, chances are pretty good you agree.

Last week, the Internet was abuzz with talk about a single tweet which caused quite a stir. The head of a PR firm tweeted: “#AlwaysBetOnDuke too many went too far with their reviews…we r reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom.” Working hand in hand with PR firms is something we at AppStorm have to do pretty much every day, but it’s not often we’ve seen one of them speak out like this.

Because of that issue, it got me thinking about how we do our reviews here at AppStorm, and it made me wonder if some of our readers think we might have a bias towards the positive side of things, and therefore, we don’t give “real” reviews. So to address that issue, I figured I’d peel back the curtain a bit and talk about how we at AppStorm review an app, and what that means for you, the reader.

The Input

We get lots of submissions at AppStorm, mostly from PR firms and developers who want to get the word out about their product. There’s a few different ways we take in the stream: There’s our Quick Look feature, email, and Twitter is another popular option. When we get these submissions, I’ll typically mark down the name on a spreadsheet I keep, and put it under a “potential review” section. We won’t review all of these apps (there’s just not enough time, frankly), but this way if a writer is looking for an assignment, we have something in the bank.

The Actual Review Process

As the editor, it’s my job to make sure that each writer is on task and writing about an app that either they’ve chosen themselves or that I’ve sent their way. To make it fair and accurate, I want them to use the app for a few days and get the feel of it. Sometimes, an app looks great on day one, but by day five, it’s delegated to the “Unused Apps” folder on their iPhone. This gives us the most fair and unbiased opinion on each app.

If the app works, then the writer puts up a review, with a rating at the bottom that designates how good the app is on a 1-10 scale. Typically, our reviews are between six to ten points, with most of them being in the eights, nines and tens. So why not anything below a six?

Peering Behind the Curtain

I bought an app the other day, with really high hopes for it. I expected it to replace two or three of my other go-to apps, and I figured that it was absolutely perfect to my workflow. Back then (before I was editor), I emailed the boss and called dibs on the review. He slotted me in, and I started playing with the app. As disappointment crept in, I realized that this app wasn’t going to be a 6 or above, so I told the editor as such. The response? “Fine with me, let’s just skip it and move on to the next one.”

We like to keep things positive here on the site, so we’re not going to publish scathing reviews that tear each developer up with each word — we’re just not that site. What we want to do is collect the best apps that you can get, and put them out for our readers to find. It’s those diamonds in the rough or hidden gems that we want to showcase alongside the big names, because we don’t want you to clutter up your iPhone with junk the way we do. The App Store is a pretty big place, so we like to think we’re helping you narrow down the process.

What We Don’t Review

Which, at the end of this all, means that we often review more apps than we actually publish. I know that between all of the AppStorm sites that I write for,  I personally turned down at least four last month because they just weren’t good enough. I spent hours of my time trying to determine if the applications were worth our reader’s time, and in the end, they weren’t. So instead of writing something fake just to get paid, I opted instead to move on to something else, that way the quality of the site was kept up.

And now, as editor, that’s something I continue to push. If one of our writers doesn’t like an app, don’t review it. For me, I find the best type of review is written by someone who uses — and hopefully loves — the program. For example, I’m a huge fan of Instapaper for the iPad. I use it every day — usually multiple times a day — and I really think it’s not only helped my productivity, but also the way I consume websites. As such, I wrote a review about it for our sister site iPad.AppStorm.net, and gave it a 10 out of 10. You may not agree with the score, but at least you know that I have a strong opinion about it, which means that at least one person out there thinks it’s worth the money. Why not listen to someone who’s passionate about the program, instead of hunting and pecking in the App Store to find something that just works OK?

The Results

Because of that, we won’t get into an argument on the web with a PR firm the way other sites will. If a PR company pushes a product our direction and we don’t like it, then it’s just not going to get reviewed. That way, the PR company doesn’t get a negative hit on the product, and our readers don’t waste their time reading a review on a less-than-stellar app. It’s win-win in our book.

This isn’t how most businesses run review sites, and we understand that it’s not for everyone. But this system works out pretty well over here, and I think it keeps a positive spin on things. And frankly, if you’re here reading this now, chances are pretty good you agree.

Since the powerful iOS 4 developer library was introduced, many fantastic app ideas have come to fruition. In the social networking realm we’ve seen Facebook and Twitter exploding into the mobile market. Previously, we had looked into popular check-in services using the powerful GPS feature within every iPhone and iPod touch.

The release of With by Path, Inc has shown some tremendous popularity. It’s a check-in service similar to Gowalla or Foursquare where you not only update your status but include @replies to who you’re currently with. It’s a stroke of genius and promotes a fantastic system for meeting new people in your area. If you’re looking to get started using With, hit the jump to find out more.

Getting Logged In

You can download With app free from the app store and get going right away. Once you’ve launched you’re greeted with a heartwarming “Welcome!” display bubble. This provides some information about the app along with a Twitter Connect button. From what I can tell the app’s website doesn’t offer any type of signup process. For the time being, it seems like you’re only able to create and edit your profile from the mobile app itself.

With download and first run

Moving forward, the Sign In screen is fairly straightforward. The process allows you to sign up for a Twitter account if you do not already have one, or simply input your account details and connect. You’ll be asked to provide an email to complete the process as well. Additionally, your Twitter avatar will be imported into your With account — pretty convenient!

You’ll notice many of the most active user profiles include a custom avatar. This is a powerful way to distinguish yourself amongst the crowd. If you have friends on Twitter, you are able to invite them into With, assuming they can download the app. However, the best way to start meeting people is to dig through suggested users and search out your favorite Twitter accounts.

Twitter connect details

The Home Screen

One of the nicest features is live streaming updates on your home page. Once you’ve launched With, the app will auto-refresh and update with the latest check-ins. You’ll see each individual user and avatar as they’re included from another With account, or similarly a Twitter account.

In unison with the other popular check-in apps, With gives you the option to snap a picture and tie it into your update — as if check-in services weren’t storing enough information! These are displayed as semi-transparent backgrounds in each user’s live stream. Although this step is optional, it provides a layer of trust and will get your profile seen by more users.

Home screen and Milk Profile

But the biggest way to gain attention and meet people is to be active. This means consistently checking-in with others, whenever possible; Going out to eat, bowling, movies, whatever the occasion may entail. If your friends are using Twitter, you can include their account inside your With check-in, even if they don’t have a profile.

Tracking Down Followers

Try checking the bottom left-hand corner of the app window and you’ll notice a square holding your current avatar. Touch this to bring up your user profile page, complete with Twitter bio and URL fully imported.

You can check up on those you follow and how many people are following you. This is the main concept of With — connecting between many social networks and sharing updates with those around you. If you happened to follow anybody earlier in the signup process you can now access that list under Following in the lower left corner. From here, you may unfollow anybody you wish, or also access their profile pages.

Finding your friends and followers

Other profile layouts are basically similar to yours, displaying current followers and bio. From these screens it’s a lot easier to find people you’ve never met who are working in the same industry, or possibly those who enjoy similar hobbies. If you have friends already using the network it’s really simple to find people through their profile as well.

If you go back to the app home screen you’ll notice a search button located in the bottom-right. This will bring you back to the search page where the signup process initially dumped you off. If searching Twitter isn’t yielding results, attempt a keyword search. This includes full names and usernames among the many With profiles.

Build Your With Network

Remember that With works like Twitter, so it’s important to follow users you’re interested in. No doubt, it’s a great way to add some action into your live stream and also get your profile noticed. Many users are joining With each day, and the network is growing rapidly.

Updating a new With checkin

As you begin to follow many users, it’s only natural that followers will find your profile as well. If you are updating frequently and active in the app, chances are good folks will begin to recognize your profile. Surely there are plenty of great people to meet via the mobile web, and With provides yet another unconventional way.

Another handy feature is that the check-in process will actually notify your Twitter account to any users you are checking into using With. Once you post an update, it’s sent live to Twitter and includes a personal with.me check-in link. We’ve also seen this behavior on Foursquare and Gowalla. With performs all of these tasks so elegantly and requires barely any setup time, it’s truly a wonderful experience. Since the network is also public, it’s easy to include Twitter users and recruit them to With, just from a single update.

Conclusion

The process of meeting people on With is simplified a great deal. If you’re already a Twitter user, then you’ll probably end up with followers by just registering an account. The system is quite elegant with recognizing users and following your friends automatically. But even if some people are skipped over, the search functionality will be able to pick them up lightning fast.

User interface and design patterns are also stunning. Topping off what is one powerful and addictive social networking app, I highly recommend playing around and joining With. It’s a colorful community collective of bright minds and tech-savvy mobile users. And with a free price tag how can you beat the experience?

Last week, the Internet was abuzz with talk about a single tweet which caused quite a stir. The head of a PR firm tweeted: “#AlwaysBetOnDuke too many went too far with their reviews…we r reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom.” Working hand in hand with PR firms is something we at AppStorm have to do pretty much every day, but it’s not often we’ve seen one of them speak out like this.

Because of that issue, it got me thinking about how we do our reviews here at AppStorm, and it made me wonder if some of our readers think we might have a bias towards the positive side of things, and therefore, we don’t give “real” reviews. So to address that issue, I figured I’d peel back the curtain a bit and talk about how we at AppStorm review an app, and what that means for you, the reader.

The Input

We get lots of submissions at AppStorm, mostly from PR firms and developers who want to get the word out about their product. There’s a few different ways we take in the stream: There’s our Quick Look feature, email, and Twitter is another popular option. When we get these submissions, I’ll typically mark down the name on a spreadsheet I keep, and put it under a “potential review” section. We won’t review all of these apps (there’s just not enough time, frankly), but this way if a writer is looking for an assignment, we have something in the bank.

The Actual Review Process

As the editor, it’s my job to make sure that each writer is on task and writing about an app that either they’ve chosen themselves or that I’ve sent their way. To make it fair and accurate, I want them to use the app for a few days and get the feel of it. Sometimes, an app looks great on day one, but by day five, it’s delegated to the “Unused Apps” folder on their iPhone. This gives us the most fair and unbiased opinion on each app.

If the app works, then the writer puts up a review, with a rating at the bottom that designates how good the app is on a 1-10 scale. Typically, our reviews are between six to ten points, with most of them being in the eights, nines and tens. So why not anything below a six?

Peering Behind the Curtain

I bought an app the other day, with really high hopes for it. I expected it to replace two or three of my other go-to apps, and I figured that it was absolutely perfect to my workflow. Back then (before I was editor), I emailed the boss and called dibs on the review. He slotted me in, and I started playing with the app. As disappointment crept in, I realized that this app wasn’t going to be a 6 or above, so I told the editor as such. The response? “Fine with me, let’s just skip it and move on to the next one.”

We like to keep things positive here on the site, so we’re not going to publish scathing reviews that tear each developer up with each word — we’re just not that site. What we want to do is collect the best apps that you can get, and put them out for our readers to find. It’s those diamonds in the rough or hidden gems that we want to showcase alongside the big names, because we don’t want you to clutter up your iPhone with junk the way we do. The App Store is a pretty big place, so we like to think we’re helping you narrow down the process.

What We Don’t Review

Which, at the end of this all, means that we often review more apps than we actually publish. I know that between all of the AppStorm sites that I write for,  I personally turned down at least four last month because they just weren’t good enough. I spent hours of my time trying to determine if the applications were worth our reader’s time, and in the end, they weren’t. So instead of writing something fake just to get paid, I opted instead to move on to something else, that way the quality of the site was kept up.

And now, as editor, that’s something I continue to push. If one of our writers doesn’t like an app, don’t review it. For me, I find the best type of review is written by someone who uses — and hopefully loves — the program. For example, I’m a huge fan of Instapaper for the iPad. I use it every day — usually multiple times a day — and I really think it’s not only helped my productivity, but also the way I consume websites. As such, I wrote a review about it for our sister site iPad.AppStorm.net, and gave it a 10 out of 10. You may not agree with the score, but at least you know that I have a strong opinion about it, which means that at least one person out there thinks it’s worth the money. Why not listen to someone who’s passionate about the program, instead of hunting and pecking in the App Store to find something that just works OK?

The Results

Because of that, we won’t get into an argument on the web with a PR firm the way other sites will. If a PR company pushes a product our direction and we don’t like it, then it’s just not going to get reviewed. That way, the PR company doesn’t get a negative hit on the product, and our readers don’t waste their time reading a review on a less-than-stellar app. It’s win-win in our book.

This isn’t how most businesses run review sites, and we understand that it’s not for everyone. But this system works out pretty well over here, and I think it keeps a positive spin on things. And frankly, if you’re here reading this now, chances are pretty good you agree.

Since the powerful iOS 4 developer library was introduced, many fantastic app ideas have come to fruition. In the social networking realm we’ve seen Facebook and Twitter exploding into the mobile market. Previously, we had looked into popular check-in services using the powerful GPS feature within every iPhone and iPod touch.

The release of With by Path, Inc has shown some tremendous popularity. It’s a check-in service similar to Gowalla or Foursquare where you not only update your status but include @replies to who you’re currently with. It’s a stroke of genius and promotes a fantastic system for meeting new people in your area. If you’re looking to get started using With, hit the jump to find out more.

Getting Logged In

You can download With app free from the app store and get going right away. Once you’ve launched you’re greeted with a heartwarming “Welcome!” display bubble. This provides some information about the app along with a Twitter Connect button. From what I can tell the app’s website doesn’t offer any type of signup process. For the time being, it seems like you’re only able to create and edit your profile from the mobile app itself.

With download and first run

Moving forward, the Sign In screen is fairly straightforward. The process allows you to sign up for a Twitter account if you do not already have one, or simply input your account details and connect. You’ll be asked to provide an email to complete the process as well. Additionally, your Twitter avatar will be imported into your With account — pretty convenient!

You’ll notice many of the most active user profiles include a custom avatar. This is a powerful way to distinguish yourself amongst the crowd. If you have friends on Twitter, you are able to invite them into With, assuming they can download the app. However, the best way to start meeting people is to dig through suggested users and search out your favorite Twitter accounts.

Twitter connect details

The Home Screen

One of the nicest features is live streaming updates on your home page. Once you’ve launched With, the app will auto-refresh and update with the latest check-ins. You’ll see each individual user and avatar as they’re included from another With account, or similarly a Twitter account.

In unison with the other popular check-in apps, With gives you the option to snap a picture and tie it into your update — as if check-in services weren’t storing enough information! These are displayed as semi-transparent backgrounds in each user’s live stream. Although this step is optional, it provides a layer of trust and will get your profile seen by more users.

Home screen and Milk Profile

But the biggest way to gain attention and meet people is to be active. This means consistently checking-in with others, whenever possible; Going out to eat, bowling, movies, whatever the occasion may entail. If your friends are using Twitter, you can include their account inside your With check-in, even if they don’t have a profile.

Tracking Down Followers

Try checking the bottom left-hand corner of the app window and you’ll notice a square holding your current avatar. Touch this to bring up your user profile page, complete with Twitter bio and URL fully imported.

You can check up on those you follow and how many people are following you. This is the main concept of With — connecting between many social networks and sharing updates with those around you. If you happened to follow anybody earlier in the signup process you can now access that list under Following in the lower left corner. From here, you may unfollow anybody you wish, or also access their profile pages.

Finding your friends and followers

Other profile layouts are basically similar to yours, displaying current followers and bio. From these screens it’s a lot easier to find people you’ve never met who are working in the same industry, or possibly those who enjoy similar hobbies. If you have friends already using the network it’s really simple to find people through their profile as well.

If you go back to the app home screen you’ll notice a search button located in the bottom-right. This will bring you back to the search page where the signup process initially dumped you off. If searching Twitter isn’t yielding results, attempt a keyword search. This includes full names and usernames among the many With profiles.

Build Your With Network

Remember that With works like Twitter, so it’s important to follow users you’re interested in. No doubt, it’s a great way to add some action into your live stream and also get your profile noticed. Many users are joining With each day, and the network is growing rapidly.

Updating a new With checkin

As you begin to follow many users, it’s only natural that followers will find your profile as well. If you are updating frequently and active in the app, chances are good folks will begin to recognize your profile. Surely there are plenty of great people to meet via the mobile web, and With provides yet another unconventional way.

Another handy feature is that the check-in process will actually notify your Twitter account to any users you are checking into using With. Once you post an update, it’s sent live to Twitter and includes a personal with.me check-in link. We’ve also seen this behavior on Foursquare and Gowalla. With performs all of these tasks so elegantly and requires barely any setup time, it’s truly a wonderful experience. Since the network is also public, it’s easy to include Twitter users and recruit them to With, just from a single update.

Conclusion

The process of meeting people on With is simplified a great deal. If you’re already a Twitter user, then you’ll probably end up with followers by just registering an account. The system is quite elegant with recognizing users and following your friends automatically. But even if some people are skipped over, the search functionality will be able to pick them up lightning fast.

User interface and design patterns are also stunning. Topping off what is one powerful and addictive social networking app, I highly recommend playing around and joining With. It’s a colorful community collective of bright minds and tech-savvy mobile users. And with a free price tag how can you beat the experience?

Well, WWDC came and went and we still don’t have a new iPhone to hold in our hands. Of course, we knew going into the event that we weren’t going to see new hardware, but now the big question is, when is it going to happen?

Right now, one of the popular theories going around is that Apple will announce it at the annual iPod event in September, and that will be the new release date from here on forward. That sounds pretty good, but we’re not positive that’s going to be the case; Apple could definitely pull a switcheroo and announce it earlier or even later if they want, that way they don’t tick off anyone who bought a Verizon iPhone 4 new earlier this year.

So we’d like to hear from you to see if there’s a general consensus among the masses. When do you think the new iPhone will be released?

Since the powerful iOS 4 developer library was introduced, many fantastic app ideas have come to fruition. In the social networking realm we’ve seen Facebook and Twitter exploding into the mobile market. Previously, we had looked into popular check-in services using the powerful GPS feature within every iPhone and iPod touch.

The release of With by Path, Inc has shown some tremendous popularity. It’s a check-in service similar to Gowalla or Foursquare where you not only update your status but include @replies to who you’re currently with. It’s a stroke of genius and promotes a fantastic system for meeting new people in your area. If you’re looking to get started using With, hit the jump to find out more.

Getting Logged In

You can download With app free from the app store and get going right away. Once you’ve launched you’re greeted with a heartwarming “Welcome!” display bubble. This provides some information about the app along with a Twitter Connect button. From what I can tell the app’s website doesn’t offer any type of signup process. For the time being, it seems like you’re only able to create and edit your profile from the mobile app itself.

With download and first run

Moving forward, the Sign In screen is fairly straightforward. The process allows you to sign up for a Twitter account if you do not already have one, or simply input your account details and connect. You’ll be asked to provide an email to complete the process as well. Additionally, your Twitter avatar will be imported into your With account — pretty convenient!

You’ll notice many of the most active user profiles include a custom avatar. This is a powerful way to distinguish yourself amongst the crowd. If you have friends on Twitter, you are able to invite them into With, assuming they can download the app. However, the best way to start meeting people is to dig through suggested users and search out your favorite Twitter accounts.

Twitter connect details

The Home Screen

One of the nicest features is live streaming updates on your home page. Once you’ve launched With, the app will auto-refresh and update with the latest check-ins. You’ll see each individual user and avatar as they’re included from another With account, or similarly a Twitter account.

In unison with the other popular check-in apps, With gives you the option to snap a picture and tie it into your update — as if check-in services weren’t storing enough information! These are displayed as semi-transparent backgrounds in each user’s live stream. Although this step is optional, it provides a layer of trust and will get your profile seen by more users.

Home screen and Milk Profile

But the biggest way to gain attention and meet people is to be active. This means consistently checking-in with others, whenever possible; Going out to eat, bowling, movies, whatever the occasion may entail. If your friends are using Twitter, you can include their account inside your With check-in, even if they don’t have a profile.

Tracking Down Followers

Try checking the bottom left-hand corner of the app window and you’ll notice a square holding your current avatar. Touch this to bring up your user profile page, complete with Twitter bio and URL fully imported.

You can check up on those you follow and how many people are following you. This is the main concept of With — connecting between many social networks and sharing updates with those around you. If you happened to follow anybody earlier in the signup process you can now access that list under Following in the lower left corner. From here, you may unfollow anybody you wish, or also access their profile pages.

Finding your friends and followers

Other profile layouts are basically similar to yours, displaying current followers and bio. From these screens it’s a lot easier to find people you’ve never met who are working in the same industry, or possibly those who enjoy similar hobbies. If you have friends already using the network it’s really simple to find people through their profile as well.

If you go back to the app home screen you’ll notice a search button located in the bottom-right. This will bring you back to the search page where the signup process initially dumped you off. If searching Twitter isn’t yielding results, attempt a keyword search. This includes full names and usernames among the many With profiles.

Build Your With Network

Remember that With works like Twitter, so it’s important to follow users you’re interested in. No doubt, it’s a great way to add some action into your live stream and also get your profile noticed. Many users are joining With each day, and the network is growing rapidly.

Updating a new With checkin

As you begin to follow many users, it’s only natural that followers will find your profile as well. If you are updating frequently and active in the app, chances are good folks will begin to recognize your profile. Surely there are plenty of great people to meet via the mobile web, and With provides yet another unconventional way.

Another handy feature is that the check-in process will actually notify your Twitter account to any users you are checking into using With. Once you post an update, it’s sent live to Twitter and includes a personal with.me check-in link. We’ve also seen this behavior on Foursquare and Gowalla. With performs all of these tasks so elegantly and requires barely any setup time, it’s truly a wonderful experience. Since the network is also public, it’s easy to include Twitter users and recruit them to With, just from a single update.

Conclusion

The process of meeting people on With is simplified a great deal. If you’re already a Twitter user, then you’ll probably end up with followers by just registering an account. The system is quite elegant with recognizing users and following your friends automatically. But even if some people are skipped over, the search functionality will be able to pick them up lightning fast.

User interface and design patterns are also stunning. Topping off what is one powerful and addictive social networking app, I highly recommend playing around and joining With. It’s a colorful community collective of bright minds and tech-savvy mobile users. And with a free price tag how can you beat the experience?

Since the powerful iOS 4 developer library was introduced, many fantastic app ideas have come to fruition. In the social networking realm we’ve seen Facebook and Twitter exploding into the mobile market. Previously, we had looked into popular check-in services using the powerful GPS feature within every iPhone and iPod touch.

The release of With by Path, Inc has shown some tremendous popularity. It’s a check-in service similar to Gowalla or Foursquare where you not only update your status but include @replies to who you’re currently with. It’s a stroke of genius and promotes a fantastic system for meeting new people in your area. If you’re looking to get started using With, hit the jump to find out more.

Getting Logged In

You can download With app free from the app store and get going right away. Once you’ve launched you’re greeted with a heartwarming “Welcome!” display bubble. This provides some information about the app along with a Twitter Connect button. From what I can tell the app’s website doesn’t offer any type of signup process. For the time being, it seems like you’re only able to create and edit your profile from the mobile app itself.

With download and first run

Moving forward, the Sign In screen is fairly straightforward. The process allows you to sign up for a Twitter account if you do not already have one, or simply input your account details and connect. You’ll be asked to provide an email to complete the process as well. Additionally, your Twitter avatar will be imported into your With account — pretty convenient!

You’ll notice many of the most active user profiles include a custom avatar. This is a powerful way to distinguish yourself amongst the crowd. If you have friends on Twitter, you are able to invite them into With, assuming they can download the app. However, the best way to start meeting people is to dig through suggested users and search out your favorite Twitter accounts.

Twitter connect details

The Home Screen

One of the nicest features is live streaming updates on your home page. Once you’ve launched With, the app will auto-refresh and update with the latest check-ins. You’ll see each individual user and avatar as they’re included from another With account, or similarly a Twitter account.

In unison with the other popular check-in apps, With gives you the option to snap a picture and tie it into your update — as if check-in services weren’t storing enough information! These are displayed as semi-transparent backgrounds in each user’s live stream. Although this step is optional, it provides a layer of trust and will get your profile seen by more users.

Home screen and Milk Profile

But the biggest way to gain attention and meet people is to be active. This means consistently checking-in with others, whenever possible; Going out to eat, bowling, movies, whatever the occasion may entail. If your friends are using Twitter, you can include their account inside your With check-in, even if they don’t have a profile.

Tracking Down Followers

Try checking the bottom left-hand corner of the app window and you’ll notice a square holding your current avatar. Touch this to bring up your user profile page, complete with Twitter bio and URL fully imported.

You can check up on those you follow and how many people are following you. This is the main concept of With — connecting between many social networks and sharing updates with those around you. If you happened to follow anybody earlier in the signup process you can now access that list under Following in the lower left corner. From here, you may unfollow anybody you wish, or also access their profile pages.

Finding your friends and followers

Other profile layouts are basically similar to yours, displaying current followers and bio. From these screens it’s a lot easier to find people you’ve never met who are working in the same industry, or possibly those who enjoy similar hobbies. If you have friends already using the network it’s really simple to find people through their profile as well.

If you go back to the app home screen you’ll notice a search button located in the bottom-right. This will bring you back to the search page where the signup process initially dumped you off. If searching Twitter isn’t yielding results, attempt a keyword search. This includes full names and usernames among the many With profiles.

Build Your With Network

Remember that With works like Twitter, so it’s important to follow users you’re interested in. No doubt, it’s a great way to add some action into your live stream and also get your profile noticed. Many users are joining With each day, and the network is growing rapidly.

Updating a new With checkin

As you begin to follow many users, it’s only natural that followers will find your profile as well. If you are updating frequently and active in the app, chances are good folks will begin to recognize your profile. Surely there are plenty of great people to meet via the mobile web, and With provides yet another unconventional way.

Another handy feature is that the check-in process will actually notify your Twitter account to any users you are checking into using With. Once you post an update, it’s sent live to Twitter and includes a personal with.me check-in link. We’ve also seen this behavior on Foursquare and Gowalla. With performs all of these tasks so elegantly and requires barely any setup time, it’s truly a wonderful experience. Since the network is also public, it’s easy to include Twitter users and recruit them to With, just from a single update.

Conclusion

The process of meeting people on With is simplified a great deal. If you’re already a Twitter user, then you’ll probably end up with followers by just registering an account. The system is quite elegant with recognizing users and following your friends automatically. But even if some people are skipped over, the search functionality will be able to pick them up lightning fast.

User interface and design patterns are also stunning. Topping off what is one powerful and addictive social networking app, I highly recommend playing around and joining With. It’s a colorful community collective of bright minds and tech-savvy mobile users. And with a free price tag how can you beat the experience?

Well, WWDC came and went and we still don’t have a new iPhone to hold in our hands. Of course, we knew going into the event that we weren’t going to see new hardware, but now the big question is, when is it going to happen?

Right now, one of the popular theories going around is that Apple will announce it at the annual iPod event in September, and that will be the new release date from here on forward. That sounds pretty good, but we’re not positive that’s going to be the case; Apple could definitely pull a switcheroo and announce it earlier or even later if they want, that way they don’t tick off anyone who bought a Verizon iPhone 4 new earlier this year.

So we’d like to hear from you to see if there’s a general consensus among the masses. When do you think the new iPhone will be released?

Well, WWDC came and went and we still don’t have a new iPhone to hold in our hands. Of course, we knew going into the event that we weren’t going to see new hardware, but now the big question is, when is it going to happen?

Right now, one of the popular theories going around is that Apple will announce it at the annual iPod event in September, and that will be the new release date from here on forward. That sounds pretty good, but we’re not positive that’s going to be the case; Apple could definitely pull a switcheroo and announce it earlier or even later if they want, that way they don’t tick off anyone who bought a Verizon iPhone 4 new earlier this year.

So we’d like to hear from you to see if there’s a general consensus among the masses. When do you think the new iPhone will be released?