Category: I-phone

The geniuses behind Foursquare had a simple but brilliant idea: a location-based social network. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could send a quick shout to all your friends telling them where you are? However, this wasn’t enough. The real innovation that made their idea work was that they realized there would need to be some incentive to come back and use the app. A goal system with prizes was born and the rest is history. Foursquare now works across several mobile platforms and boasts millions of daily users.

Foursquare began in 2009 and triggered the social check-in revolution that is still very much in its infancy. Today we’re going to look at what developments have been made in this area in addition to a few notable newcomers that you might want to check out.

A Rivalry is Born

By the end of 2009 there were two main competitors in the social check-in game: Foursquare and Gowalla. Gowalla’s service was conceptually almost identical to that of Foursquare, but their UI design set them apart and provided a clear point for users to compare and choose their favorite. Back in April of 2010, we did just that in our article “Head to Head: Gowalla vs. FourSquare”

Side by side comparison of Foursquare and Gowalla

Ultimately I think this rivalry has been great for both platforms. Rather than one service ruling and becoming stagnant, both have had to engage in a strong push towards innovation that has led to several new features and interface upgrades in a pretty short amount of time.

Facebook Checks In

By August of 2010, the social check-in game was in full stride. Not one to sit idly by while other social networks gain steam, Facebook decided they wanted a piece of this business and launched their own location-based check-in feature.

At the time, many of us were quite concerned that the entrance of Internet giant Facebook into this arena would spell doom for Foursquare and Gowalla, the two little guys who worked hard to pioneer the market. It seemed like a cheap move for Facebook to simply take the idea and run with it as their own.

Checking In On Facebook

Fortunately, the doom and gloom predictions turned out to be over-stated. Around half a year after Facebook launched Places, the impact that it has had on the social Check-In industry appears to be quite minimal. In fact, if anything it has added yet another interesting layer as Foursquare and Gowalla can now interact with Facebook on a useful level that wasn’t possible before. Using only one app, Gowalla, you can now check in and keep up with friends on the Gowalla, Foursquare and Facebook networks! I personally love that the competitors in this market are choosing to play so well together.

It’s interesting to note that Twitter also has a location layer, but it doesn’t really seem like a truly integral part of the service and definitely never felt like a threat to Gowalla and Foursquare.

New Kids on the Block

So here we are in 2011. Foursquare and Gowalla are still going strong, meanwhile, Facebook Places has had some trouble taking off and has yet to ruin the industry like we feared. There’s still plenty of room for innovation and fresh blood and I think it’s entirely possible there will be a few more really big names in this list a few years from now.

For now, here’s a few promising apps that you should definitely check out and keep an eye on.

Kickball

Kickball isn’t really a Foursquare competitor, because it actually is Foursquare, just in a different wrapper. If you love the Foursquare service but aren’t a fan of the relatively boring interface, Kickball provides you with a gorgeous alternative that utilizes the same exact network. Even if your friends have never heard of Kickball, they’ll still see all of your check-ins and shouts just as if you were in the Foursquare app.

Kickball gives Foursquare a makeover

Kickball goes one step further by actually improving your Foursquare experience with a few new features. For starters, you can now see the location of friends and places around you in a live map view (a nice upgrade from the simple list), there are also some improvements for linking photos to specific places.

For now, Kickball only allows you to check in on Foursquare, but Gowalla and Facebook Places integration is coming soon. Interestingly enough, the app actually functions as a decent browser for your Facebook and Twitter feeds as well, making it a hard-to-beat social hub!

SCVNGR

SCVNGR is a fairly new location-based app that, on the surface appears to be just another Foursquare clone, but actually brings some new functionality to the mix.

Beyond simply checking in and earning badges, each location you visit presents you with a series of challenges that you have to complete to earn points. For instance, at the location I visited, you could take a picture, Bump with another contact, or write something about the location, each of which had a unique point value.

SCVNGR

The coolest part is that as you rack up points at various locations, you can earn savings and rewards. So some local business could give you $5 off for earning 25 points, which gives you incentive to keep returning. It’s a great feature that is very close to what already happens with Foursquare, but is integrated into the app on a much deeper level.

Wingman – Check in to get Checked Out

Wingman is yet another interesting use of the existing Foursquare network. This time the goal is digital flirting. You can use the app to check into a location and then see what other single Foursquare users are around you. You’ll get an alert when someone shows interest and you can chat to get to know them and decide whether or not to meet up.

Wingman brings flirting to Foursquare

I’m a happily married man so I haven’t personally tried this one, but the idea seems to have a lot of potential. Approaching someone in public is dreadfully awkward and having an impersonal piece of technology bridge the gap is a great way to reduce the stress of finding a potential partner. Obviously, there’s potential here for predators looking for trouble, so ladies, pack your pepper spray!

Untappd

What do you get when you mix Foursqaure-like functionality with beer? Untappd! This browser-based mobile app allows you to check into your favorite drinking spot and share what you’re drinking with your friends. It’s a great way to not only discover new places and people, but to find new and popular beer. What could be better?

Untappd is a social drinking app

If you’re looking for a native Untappd iPhone app, check out iTappd on the App Store for $1.99. It’s a third party solution but looks like it integrates with the service pretty well.

Shopkick – Deals & Rewards!

Shopkick is similar in concept to SCVNGR in that it’s geared heavily towards earning real-world savings. By checking into certain stores and/or scanning the barcodes of specific items, you earn “kickbucks” which you can then cash in for gift cards, song downloads and more.

Shopkick provides great savings for social shoppers

From a business perspective, it’s a fantastic way to actually get people into your store. Sure, they’ll get plenty of people just looking for some quick points, but once you walk through those doors they have you right where they want you and can reel you in with sales pitches and discounts.

Conclusion

As more and more people make the switch to smartphones, I expect to see a mountain of growth in the social check-in arena. As we saw above, there are already a number of interesting and even wacky ideas for how to apply this technology, everything from snagging discounts to getting a date! More and more we’re starting to see location sharing not only as a stand-alone platform, but a must-have feature for nearly every social app out there.

Leave a comment below and tell us about the check-in services that you’ve seen and used. Do you stick primarily to Foursquare/Gowalla or have you branched out to other apps? Better yet, are you confused by the whole trend and still wondering why anyone would want to share their location with the world? Let us know!

It’s so easy to get disorganized on a trip. When you’re out of your normal settings, everything gets out of order fast. Plus, you went on vacation just so you could get away from sticking to a calendar like you do every day at work, right?

Today we’re going to look at an app that can make organizing your trip both easy and fun. Itinerary is a beautifully designed app for iPhone and iPod Touch that helps you keep up with what you’re doing and where you’re supposed to be throughout your trip. If you’ve found it boring or difficult to keep a schedule while on vacation, Itinerary may change your mind. Plus, it can even be helpful if you’re actually traveling for business since it gives you a head’s up view of each day’s schedule.

Ready to takeoff? Let’s go!

Getting Started

Itinerary starts off with a nicely designed help guide that looks like a deck of photos. Swipe your finger to the left to switch to the next picture and get a full overview of how the app works.

Even the intro help screens are beautifully animated … swipe left to view the next slide

Once you’re finished, you’re ready to start adding your upcoming and current trips. Itinerary will show an empty leather wallet, simply tap the plus button to start adding your trips. Add your departure and return date, then enter your departure city and destination city and country. Tap Save when you’re done.

Add your upcoming or current trips, including destination and dates

As you add trips, you’ll see your wallet fill up with virtual tickets. Just seeing all your trips as tickets isn’t too useful, but tap the tickets to add what you’ll be doing throughout the day. The ticket will automatically include the number of days that you indicated you’d be on the trip when you created it before, and you can swipe between the available days from the top band. Just tap the plus at the top of any day’s page to add what you’re doing that day.

Tap a trip, and the ticket slides out with a 3D animation so you can add your itinerary on the back

Schedule What You’re Doing on Your Trip

Itinerary App does a great job at letting you add your activities and the locations you’ll be visiting on your trip. You can enter the location you’re going to, along with the city and country. Tap the icon on the top left to change the location tag; you can choose from over a dozen built-in location types. Oddly enough, you have to press the icon then press Save, though it would make more sense if you just pressed the tag and that added it.

Enter info about what you're doing, complete with icons of the destination category

From here, you can add the location you’re going to visit. Tap the Locate In Map button, then enter your destination in the search box. Itinerary App uses the city information you’ve already entered to locate destinations in that area, so it was amazingly easy to find the places we were visiting. You can also add notes about your destination before you save it. As you’ll notice, Itinerary is beautifully designed throughout the app, which makes it really fun to use.

Add location and notes to your outing

As you add more and more things to your day, you’ll begin to see your ticket fill up. The icons make it easy to spot the different things you’ll be doing, and you can see your notes about the outing under the destination name. Tap the event, and Itinerary will open a nicely styled page showing a map of your destination with your note on a notepad underneath.

View what you’re doing each day, then tap an entry to see your map and notes

Features and Design

Itinerary is one of the nicer designed apps I’ve used recently. From the ticket wallet to the animation when opening the events list, the entire app is beautiful and fun to use. I really enjoy natural textures in apps, and Itinerary incorporates them beautifully.

The only real problem I noticed is that the app is somewhat limited in its feature-set. I would have loved to see a way to download a copy of trip data to a computer, or perhaps synced with an online itinerary or calendar app. Also, it’d be fun if you could add pictures from your trip to the locations you added. There’s a lot of potential here, and even as-is, it’s one of the simplest and cutest trip planners I’ve seen.

Conclusion

If you’ve been looking for an easier and more graphic way to plan your trips, Itinerary app is a fun way to do it. It makes it simple to get a list of everything you’re doing and all your destinations, and could be an easy way to keep a travel journal with notes about each place you’ve been. The graphics are top notch, but we do wish it had a slightly deeper feature set. That said, sometimes it’s best for an app to be simple, and Itinerary definately wins there.

How do you usually stay on top of everything you’re going to do on a trip? Do you have some favorite travel apps?

The rumor mills are alive with speculation about the iPhone 5, which will supposedly be coming this summer. With these rumors comes the tale of a mythical device that we haven’t heard mentioned in quite some time: the iPhone Nano.

When the very first iPhone was released, it took spin-artists no time to convince the media that Apple was working on a new smaller version. This device would of course be cheaper and more compact than the normal iPhone and would hopefully appeal to customers not willing to shill out for the big version.

Of course, years later we know that these rumors were 100% fabricated and not the least based in reality. Yet here we are again, four years later and the rumors have resurfaced. Could Apple finally be ready to expand the iPhone line with a smaller version? More importantly, do you care?

Let’s say the rumors are true and Apple releases an iPhone Nano in a few months, would you buy one? Vote in the poll above, then leave a comment below and let us know, regardless of whether or not you want to buy one, if you think it’s a good strategy. Do you know people that would jump on the idea of a smaller, cheaper iPhone?

With Cupid closing in on us, I’m certain that many of you have been perusing the flood of Valentine’s updates to many of the major games like Angry Birds, Cut The Rope, etc. so rather than bore you with the obvious selections this week, we’ve gathered a few new titles that may have flown under the radar.

If you’ve caught some others then get in touch and let us know, but in the meantime, have a look at this week’s roundup!

Chocolate Tycoon

Chocolate Tycoon

Nothing says love like chocolates, so we’ll start things off with an interesting new business simulation game from Com2uS called Chocolate Tycoon in which your goal is to man a small chocolate shop by day and develop and expand the business by night.

It’s an interesting setup with a great deal of charm, all portrayed with adorable graphics and good sound design. The gameplay is varied and includes feeding “Choki” creatures to have them produce chocolate for you, selling the prepared chocolates to customers, investing your earnings, buying new equipment, and even designing your own chocolates.

If you’re into this kind of simulation game then you’ll find a lot to love in Chocolate Tycoon as it’s one of the most finely tuned we’ve encountered. Well worth the relatively steep price point.

Price: $2.99
Developer: Com2uS Inc.
Download: App Store

Sticky

Sticky

Next up is a side scrolling game that presents a quirky and enjoyable game mechanic that takes some inspiration from previous gravity flipping titles and implements it in a new way.

Specifically, you play as a little goo ball called Sticky in a quest to save the scientist who created you from evil black sludge goo balls. To do so, you will progress through levels in which the goal is to attack the black goo by slamming its head a la Super Mario, except rather than controlling Sticky directly, you stretch the ground beneath him to catapult him around the map, up to the ceiling, etc. It’s a lot of fun and handles very smoothly.

There are a good number of levels and achievements to unlock, and no doubt there will be updates with more. Nice and simple entertainment here.

Price: $0.99
Developer: Gamistry Games
Download: App Store

Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden

Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden

The world of “blockbuster” iOS action RPGs has a new contender in the form of Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden, recently released by Gameloft. While it’s structurally very similar to most other fantasy RPGs you’re likely familiar with, Sacred Odyssey brings some interesting new things to the mobile world that set it apart from the pack.

For starters, you have a mount that you can ride through the world (think horseback riding in Zelda). In fact, the game clearly owes a lot of inspiration to the Zelda series, even down to the special items that you’ll collect throughout the quest (a boomerang, grappling hook, special shield…stop me if this sounds familiar). That being said, the homage is beautifully put together and stands well on its own. Several diverse environments, a decent story, and good graphics offer plenty of positives to look forward to.

On the negative side, the app is not actually free, unlike the App Store listing would have you believe. It is in fact a sort of hybrid lite version where you get a brief demo and then must pay the full $6.99 to continue the adventure. It’s not an unfair system but it’s not advertised clearly. In any case, if you have a 3rd or 4th gen iOS device, you’ll almost definitely find something to like in Sacred Odyssey.

Price: Free ($6.99 in-app purchase)
Developer: Gameloft
Download: App Store

TowerUp! Plus

TowerUp! Plus

Not exactly brand new, TowerUp! Plus is a refreshed version of a popular tower building game where you work to build the tallest and most profitable hotel highrise you can.

In addition to building the expected hotel rooms, you’re also encouraged to add exterior decorations, entertainment rooms, and a variety of other elements to create a vibrant tower community. There’s a nice social aspect built in too (though it also means you need to be online to play) and free is hard to beat, so give it a shot and see how high you can build.

Price: Free
Developer: Uken Games
Download: App Store

Sky Combat

Sky Combat

Last up is one of the finest vertical shooters in recent memory. Sky Combat is the latest gem published by Chillingo and developed by Alien Worm over in Poland. It’s a military-themed affair where you control a helicopter, tank, and boat alternately as you navigate the levels.

What stands out about Sky Combat is the quality of the graphics, for one. Just have a look at the water and explosion effects and you’ll get a sense for what we mean. Beyond the presentation though, the gameplay is also streamlined and fun, and there are several difficulty levels to appeal to gamers of all skill levels. We also appreciated the inclusion of extensive customization options for controls and the HUD.

There is a lot of fun gameplay to be had in Sky Combat, so it’s one you definitely want to check out.

Price: $1.29
Developer: Alien Worm
Download: App Store

What Have You Been Playing?

That’s it for this week! Remember, cute games make neat little digital gifts for your sweetheart. They’re not edible though, so you’ll probably still need to stock up on chocolates.

Have a good time and make sure to drop us some comments if you find any neat new games!

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Talking OZ. The developer describes Talking OZ as follows: Talking OZ repeats everything you say with cute voice. Talking OZ is full of amazing & hilarious animations, all of which will be on air soon. OZ can provide hours of laugh to children of any ages. Parents will love OZ because they will have some free time in peace while kids are playing with her.

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

Talking OZ

About the App

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

• Cute & Unique character
• Mimics user’s voice
• Fun movements and animations
• Video recording & upload function
• To be launched as Canimals series

Requirements: iPhone OS 4.0

Price: Free

Developer: VOOZCLUB

Vote for a Review

Would you like to see us write a full review of Talking OZ? Have your say in our poll:

Would you like to see Talking OZ reviewed in-depth on AppStorm?survey software

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.

Who doesn’t love music videos? We were all teenagers once, rocking out to MTV and VH1 as we watched songs from our favorite artists unfold in an artistic drama on the screen.

For a very short while, Apple had a section where you could watch free music videos on iTunes, but this was quickly replaced by paid downloads, leaving a void for free music video content for Apple fans. Vevo HD fills this void for iPad owners and brings a ton of great music videos for music fans of all types, no big downloads or expensive purchases necessary. Today we’ll go over the app’s features and interface and discuss whether or not you should download it.

Getting Started

When you first open the app, it’s deceptively simple. I saw a slideshow with a few videos and naturally assumed that this app didn’t have much to offer.

Featured Section

However, when I started digging around, I realized that Vevo HD gives you access to a huge library of music videos from an impressive span of artists. The content is ad supported in the form of the occasional commercial before a video, but these are well worth sitting through for the mountain of content available here.

Apart from the featured section above, there are five other tabs, each providing a different way to browse the video collection.

Videos and Artists

The “Videos” section features a grid showing all the most recent content. The bright and crisp thumbnails contrast beautifully on the black background, giving the app a classy feel.

Videos

You can scroll down and browse through the offering, enter a search or filter the videos by category, time and genre. Everything from Eagle Eye Cherry to Katy Perry is present so no matter what you’re into, you’ll likely find something to suck you in right from the start.

Video Filters

The “Artists” tab is essentially the same as the “Videos” tab, only instead of seeing individual videos, you see a grid of different bands and artists to scroll through. All of the filters from the previous section are present here as well.

Artists Tab

When you tap on an artist, you are taken to a page containing a photo, the available videos for that artist and even their Twitter feed and tour dates.

Eminem’s Twitter Feed

Playlists, Music Map and History

Vevo HD gives you the ability to create playlists of videos to come back and watch later. This is implemented really nicely across the app in the form of a button and the very bottom right of the screen. When pressed, a little drawer pops up from the bottom and “+” symbols appear on every video thumbnail. Simply press the “+” to add the videos to your playlist.

Creating a Playlist

When you bring up the Playlists tab, you can browse through all of the playlists created and submitted by other users. This is a great way to discover new content that you might not have given a shot otherwise.

Playlists

The next tab is the “Music Map” feature. Here you can check out what’s popular in your area. Once you allow the app to determine your location, a Google satellite map will pop up showing your location and a list of videos people near you have been listening to. You can also change locations to quickly see what’s popular in LA, New York, etc.

Music Map

The final tab is “History,” which is exactly what it sounds like: a quick list of everything you’ve watched. Don’t worry, if you’re embarrassed by all of those Bieber hits in your history, you can easily clear this section.

History

Watching a Video

Tapping on any video will bring it up in the full-screen player. While the video loads you are greeted with interesting trivia about different artists. The full-screen video controls are pretty standard and include the playhead and video control buttons along with other options like “Add to Playlist” and social network sharing.

Watching a video

If you exit full-screen mode, the video keeps playing and a list of related videos pops up. This is yet another feature that keeps you hooked and watching video after video.

Worth a Download?

I’m actually really impressed with this app. It could’ve easily been a mess of poor usability and slowly loading videos, but it isn’t that at all. Instead, it’s a well-design, intuitive and downright addicting way to browse an awesome selection of free music videos.

I had a lot of trouble getting through this review because I kept getting distracted by the app. Watching Michael Jackson’s amazing rendition of “Come Together” inevitably leads to sitting through the full “Thriller” video, which then leads to the discovery of the bizarre claymation film “Speed Demon.” Just like that, over 30 minutes had gone by and I hadn’t written a thing! It’s definitely not common for me to spend such a big chunk of time in a single app.

So the answer is a big “yes.” If you’re a music fan (and who isn’t’?), go download Vevo HD. The next time you need to kill a few minutes, chill out with your favorite artists and videos from the past few decades.

As with just about any video app, there is the occasional crash, but they’re really quite rare. On the whole, the app is fairly stable and hardly gave me a single issue the entire time I used it.

Conclusion

To sum up, Vevo HD is a fantastic app for browsing and viewing music videos from all of your favorite artists. The app and the videos within are completely free so there’s really no reason to not go to the iTunes store and grab your download now!

Give Vevo HD a shot and let us know what you think in the comments below. Also be sure to let us know if you’ve found any other music video apps that you would recommend.

If you’re reading this from the U.S., the fact that you might be doing so from a Verizon iPhone is big news. Many Apple fans have waited not-so-patiently for four long years for this opportunity and customers of other carriers are no doubt licking their lips wondering when their turn will come.

Now that the Verizon iPhone is officially in the wild, what effect did it have on the market? How are other carriers responding? Has someone hacked it yet? Today we’ll take a brief look at a world where Verizon iPhones exist.

iPhone Competes with Free

Let’s face it, competing with the iPhone isn’t easy. The retina display blows the competition out of the water, the multi-camera and FaceTime combination is amazing and most importantly, the App Store knows no equal (sorry Android, close but no cigar).

Now that the two biggest dogs in the U.S. cellular service fight are both enjoying the iPhone and its horde of followers willing to dish out hundreds of dollars every time Apple sneezes, how can the other carriers compete? T-Mobile has an interesting approach, they’re giving away phones, the good ones.

T-Mobile is jut giving these things away.

On February 7th, T-Mobile announced their upcoming Valentine’s day deal, which states that “all T-Mobile phones, even the fastest 4G smartphones running on America’s largest 4G network, will be offered for free at T-Mobile retail stores with qualifying plan on two-year contract.”

Needless to say, this is a great deal. Many of T-Mobiles smartphones are normally upwards of $100 so getting one free with a new contract sounds too good to be true. Of course, you’ll be locked in with them for two full years so you better like that non-iPhone that you just bought because you’re stuck with it. There are plenty of great Android handsets out there though so this deal will no doubt make customers not interested in the iPhone quite happy!

AT&T and Verizon Bickering

Another effect of the iPhone now being on two carriers is the launch of new commercials from both AT&T and Verizon, each of course claiming that their version of the iPhone is better.

In Verizon’s commercial, they show the iPhone dramatically spinning over a black background while lavishing complements about its genius. The commercial then throws in an obvious jab at AT&T: “but does your network work?”

Yes, I can hear you now.

AT&T quickly responded with a much more lighthearted ad depicting a man on the phone with his wife, lying about having already made reservations while he browses the web on his phone and makes up for the oversight. The commercial closes with a message that “only AT&T’s network lets your iPhone talk and surf at the same time.”

AT&T and Verizon jousting matches are nothing new, but it’s definitely interesting to see them targeted at a single, nearly identical device that both of them now possess.

Jailbroken Already!?

The most current Verizon iPhone firmware puts us at version 4.2.6. Sometimes jailbreakers have to wait days or even weeks for the hacker community to come up with a response but this time they were on top of it.

So even if you’re currently taking the wrapper off that beautiful new iPhone box, you can already jailbreak it to take advantage of the plethora of hacks and apps not traditionally compatible with the device. The newest Verizon-friendly jailbreak is Greenpois0n RC5.4 and can be downloaded free from a number of sources online.

iFixit Breaks Into Verizon’s iPhone and Makes a Discovery

iFixit discovered a chip that supports both GSM and CDMA

The handy people at iFixit have already posted a complete breakdown of the Verizon iPhone’s inner-workings. The biggest shocker is that it has a Qualcomm dual-mode chip, which technically supports both GSM and CDMA.

Don’t read that as an indication that the Verizon iPhone supports GSM networks, because it doesn’t. However, the fact that Apple is already using a chipset capable of such a feat points to the inevitability that they’ll soon be merging the two distinct handsets into one device that will function on any network (a likely feature of the iPhone 5).

Conclusion

To sum up, the Verizon iPhone is already making big waves. It broke all Verizon pre-order records in the first few hours, is causing T-Mobile to literally give away its most expensive phones, has AT&T on the offensive, spurred jailbreakers into action and has the tech community buzzing about the likely GSM/CDMA hybrid iPhone of the future. Not bad for its first few days!

This kind of buzz is why iPhone.AppStorm exists. The iPhone is an unprecedented phenomenon and the world simply can’t get enough of it. We’ll be here, dishing out reviews, news, rumors and everything else iPhone-related for some time to come simply because we are as fascinated by Apple’s wonder-phone as you are. Thanks for stopping by and offering your continual support!

This is a real life story of my experience working at an Apple Reseller before a major shopping holiday.

It was a few days before a major shopping holiday and we had a huge supply of iMacs, Macbooks, and iPods in our store. It was the perfect time for a holiday robbery, with thieves being able to steal a huge amount of valuable computers. Sure, we had an alarm, but alarms aren’t foolproof. We didn’t want to take a chance with so much product on the line. We also didn’t want to spent hours watching a surveillance camera in hopes we would catch someone breaking in.

We wanted something that would alert us if it detected motion. We wanted something portable enough to run on a few laptops or connect to our current security camera system. We turned to an app called iCam. iCam allowed us to connect several Macbooks to iCams software, giving us access to a live video stream from anywhere in the world.

Features

We chose iCam because of a few really great features that were built into the app. iCam uses the webcam of your Mac or Windows PC to stream video to your iPhone. We were able to use three laptops at different angles to make sure we covered all the entrances, no expensive security camera required.

iCam's webcam viewer allows you to watch multiple cameras at once

iCam also has a built-in motion detector which sends you push notifications when it detects motion. That means you can sleep easy knowing that iCam will stay watch. When it does detect motion, you’ll get a push notification and can easily view the camera that detected it. Sometimes the motion alerts are set off by pets or lighting changes, but it’s much easier than constantly watching the cameras. You can also adjust the sensitivity of the camera software to prevent getting alerts from minor motion events.

Watch your home from anywhere in the world. Just run iCam on a computer with a webcam.

iCam supports several different cameras at once, so you can set up a bunch of computers to monitor your home or workplace. iCam presents you with four video feeds simultaneously, so you can see what’s going on everywhere at once. Tap a video stream to view it on the full screen and even listen to audio. iCam also supports multiple logins on the same account, so your family or coworkers can join in on their iPhones.

Cross Platform

iCam’s server software was built to work on both Windows and Mac OS X, giving you the ability to use just about any laptop or desktop with a connected webcam. Create a home security network for just the price of one copy of iCam. iCam can also work with an MJPEG-compatible network camera, allowing you to upgrade your existing network camera with motion-detecting and monitoring from an iPhone.

iCam viewer can run on iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads, and even Android devices; making it easier for everyone at the office to monitor the camera no matter what device they have. Users without any of these devices can also use the java web client, although they won’t get motion notifications like the others versions will.

No Complicated Setup Required

One of the amazing features of iCam is that it requires very little setup. It runs automatically through the developer’s server, meaning you can access your camera from anywhere in the world.

iCam's instant setup makes it really easy to start monitoring your home. Enter your login information in the iCam Options menu.

You don’t need to have external IPs or any domain names setup on your cameras. Just type in the same username and password that you entered on the computer you are running the webcam software on and iCam will connect you. Within seconds, your webcams are up and running remotely. You can access these cameras from anywhere in the world using this login!

Alerts When You Need Them

The real magic of iCam is that it sends notifications when it detects motions. You can be playing Angry Birds on your iPhone or even watching TV. When iCam detects that there is motion on a camera, it will send you an alert to your phone. The iPhone push notification system sends you alerts no matter what your doing. iCam also stores screenshots of motion events, allowing you to review them at a later time.

iCam was featured in a Dallas local news story where it was used to capture video of two men breaking into a home. The homeowners were alerted of the break-in via iCam’s push notifications while they were on vacation and were able to contact the police and actually watch as police officers entered their house.

Conclusion

iCam is incredibly simple to use, and it’s the simplicity that makes it the best webcam app available for the iPhone. Imagine being able to setup any computer to act as home security system and not having to deal with VPNs or external IP addresses to access these cameras. Then imagine just opening up iCam and being able to monitor your home or workplace from wherever you are.

$4.99 is a small price to pay for piece of mind on this level. If you have a PC with a webcam, we highly recommend that you give this app a shot.

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Coin Pirates. The developer describes Coin Pirates as a coin pusher game which drop coins and gain treasures. Treasure-trove on the pirate ship! Drop coins and spin the reel, then get tons of treasures!!

Some treasures are for collection, but some are special and not for collection… It’s a secret until you play game and drop it.

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

Coin Pirates

About the App

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

• Fast and Realistic Coin Physics
• Jackpot Slot Machine feature
• Secret treasures to be collected
• Cumulative Jackpots trigger Ultimate jackpot!
• Free coins regenerations

Requirements: iOS 3.0

Price: Free

Developer: Nubee

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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.

Recently, we looked at the our favorite apps from Macworld followed by a post on the future of the Expo. Today we’ll wrap up this series with a post on some of our favorite hardware accessories that made an appearance at Macworld 2011.

Many of the accessories were quite useful, but even more interesting to us were all of the bizarre ideas inventors have come up with. From iPad jackets to cases for using your iPhone underwater, this post has it all.

Cases

FastMac Impact Shield

These may look like ordinary iPhone and iPad cases, but they are more like super cases! The people at FastMac have developed an incredibly tough line of protective cases that have been dropped off buildings, run over by cars and hit with hammers; all while leaving a working iPhone intact!

If you’re prone to dropping your expensive iOS devices, you should definitely consider making the investment to pick one of these up. The iPhone cases start at $39.95.

FastMac Impact Shield

Dry Case Waterproof Cases

It happens all the time, you’re taking a swim at the beach and you think “Gee, I wish I could check Facebook right now!” Well now you can do just that with the “Dry Case.” Whether you’re standing in the rain or 100 feet underwater, you can protect and use your iPhone or iPad with this incredible line of products.

I won’t personally be using my iPhone underwater any time soon, but if you think you might be then you’re $30-60 bucks away from tropical iOS bliss. They even have some waterproof headphones!

Dry Case Waterproof Cases

Luxmo Diamond iPhone Cases

Some customers want their case to be highly practical like the two shown above that protect your iPhone in unique ways, others are more interested in something else: bling. Luxmo Diamond iPhone cases are probably some of the most ornate phone cases you’ll find.

These cases don’t merely have a coat of shiny paint, they have three-dimensional jewels and decorations glued onto them so that you’re sure to catch the attention of everyone around when that baby comes up to your ear.

Luxmo Diamond iPhone Cases

Stands

iRest Stand

This cleverly designed stand was catching a lot of attention at Macworld. It’s designed to allow hands-free use of your iPad, even when you’re lying on your couch. The stand feels a lot smaller in life than it looks in the pictures. It’s very portable and light but still felt nice and solid. The iRest Stand is currently selling online for $49.90.

Rain Design makes a lot of other great stands too so be sure to stop by their site for products designed for MacBooks and iPods as well.

iRest Stand

Sleeve360

It seems to be a pretty popular fad to strap an iPad to your hand. We saw a number of cases repeating this same basic idea at Macworld, some better than others. The Sleeve360, shown below, is quite a versatile take on the hand-mounted iPad sleeve.

The sleeve itself is a fairly protective case and can serve as a stand with both upright and laying down options when you’re not wearing it. If you too want to be able to wave hello with a tablet-laden hand, this one will set you back $49.99.

Sleeve360

ZAGGmate iPad Case with Keyboard

The iPad’s keyboard is big enough that it nearly matches the size of the one on my MacBook. I feel quite natural typing on it, but the hunched over viewing angle isn’t ideal for long periods of time. Cases like the ZAGGmate seek to solve this problem in addition to the lack of tactile feedback by tacking on a physical keyboard.

Your iPad can sit vertically or horizontally on the stand, which folds down flat and protects your screen when you’re on the move. At $99.99, it’s not for everyone, but if you find yourself working several hours per week on your iPad, it may be worth checking out.

ZAGGmate iPad Case with Keyboard

Apparel and Bags

Defender iPad Convertible Back/Front Tech-Pack

I have to admit, I laughed a bit when I first saw this product. The idea of wearing your iPad folded down from your chest just seemed silly to me. However, once I saw the product in action, I was fairly impressed.

It starts as a backpack and carrying case for your iPad. Then when you want to use your iPad, the pack can be quickly rotated around to your front and folded down for easy access. I’m not sure I’d pay $130 for it, but it’s definitely a well-made and useful product.

Defender iPad Convertible Back/Front Tech-Pack

PADX-1 LEDGE Wearcom Pullover

Want to have quick iPad access from anywhere but don’t to walk around with bulky backpack? Want to be as cool as the guy in the photo below? Maybe what you need is an iPad-carrying jacket!

For just $285 your iPad fashion dreams can come true. The same company also makes an impressive iPhone jacket that puts your iPhone on your sleeve for water protective outdoor use.

PADX-1 LEDGE Wearcom Pullover

Other

HyperDrive Hard Drive for iPad

One of the most usefully innovative products we saw at Macworld was the HyperDrive Hard Drive for iPad. Storage is a big deal on mobile devices, but Apple doesn’t like allowing you to expand the built-in storage. An external hard drive is a logical solution and HyperMac has apparently figured out how to do it.

These devices start at around $200 for 320 GB and range all the way up to $400 for 1TB. It’s a bit pricey, but if you want to carry your movie collection around everywhere, this might just be the perfect way to do it.

HyperDrive Hard Drive for iPad

HyperMac Micro External Battery for Apple iPad/iPhone

As you can tell, HyperMac really stole the show in the accessories arena. There are two big problems with mobile devices: storage and battery. The previous accessory solved the first and this one solves the second.

These nifty devices will add upwards of 5 hours to your typical batter life, but it’ll cost you upwards of $70 to get your hands on one.

HyperMac Micro External Battery for Apple iPad/iPhone

Bonus Gadget: The TV Hat

There was one particular accessory at Macworld that really brought a smile to our faces: The TV Hat. This unique ball cap allows you to insert your iPhone into the bill, which also holds a magnifying lens.

The basic idea is that you can watch whatever you want, wherever you want with complete privacy. Example use cases were at the beach, on long car rides, even in front of your computer! I snapped a picture of our own Joel Bankhead trying it on. His beachside experiences will no doubt never be the same.

Joel and David checking out the amazing TV Hat

Conclusion

Every one of the accessories above are from great teams of hardworking people. We got the chance to talk to many of the masterminds behind these products and they’re all very passionate about what they’re doing. At AppStorm we love good ideas, great ideas and even really crazy ideas and wish all of these companies the very best of luck.

If you’ve seen any bizarre iPhone peripherals or accessories lately, leave a comment below with a link and quick explanation of the product. We know there are tons out there and we’re anxious to see what you come up with!

We’re going to be kicking off a new series next week, called “Ask the Editor”. This will run a few times each month, and give you a chance to submit questions to be answered by our editorial team (and a few expert writers, if we need some assistance!)

Whether you have a question related to iPhone apps, accessories or hardware problems, I’d really love to hear it! I’ll do my best to answer a series of diverse questions that will be interesting for everyone.

Without further ado, here’s a quick form to submit your question for next week’s post. Hopefully you’ll be seeing my response up on AppStorm soon. Thanks for contributing!

Online Form – AppStorm > Ask The Editor

When it comes to iPhone games, they all pretty much fall into two broad categories: Games you can play on the go, and immersive games that take a while to play.

Shuzzle falls into the play-on-the-go category, because it’s not only easy to pick up and play, but it’s easy to turn off as well. So is this game worth the 99 cent entry fee? Hop in after the jump to find out.

The Premise

Shuzzle is, at its core, a puzzle game. Once you start a game, a circular pattern is displayed on the screen. The inside circle in the pattern displays a shape in a particular color. The outside circles display a color with a hole in the center for a shape. Simply touch the outside circle you want to drop the center piece into, and you’re good to go. You get 1 point for matching the shape but not the color, and 10 points for matching the color and the shape. As an added bonus, there’s a timer here to factor in, so the faster you do it, the better off you are.

Touch and go, it's just that easy

If you feel like upping the difficulty a bit, then try tilt mode instead. Hold your iPhone in your hands and lean the iPhone in the direction of the outside circle that you want to hit. This amps things up a lot, because to get the center piece in the correct slot you’ll be constantly dancing the iPhone around.

Tilt mode takes the difficulty up a notch or two

The Action

As I said before, this is a game that you can pick up and run with whenever you want. I like to call this category a “Doctor’s office game,” because it’s best if you’re chilling in a waiting room somewhere before your dentist/haircut/doctor’s appointment. But don’t think that means there’s not stuff to do, because this game can suck you in pretty fast, until the next thing you know it’s two hours later and you missed your appointment.

The timer pushes you every time you play. Each level seems to get progressively harder and harder, and therefore faster as well. You find yourself constantly slapping the outer circle to try to find just the right shape that will score a few bonus points, and occasionally, freezing in your tracks and wondering which option is your best choice. This turns the game from slow to frantic, and makes it lots of fun to play.

Customization

Like many iOS games today, this one is customizable. As previously stated, you can switch between tilt and touch modes to change up the difficulty. You can also turn the effects and music on or off, plus play your own iTunes library while you play. There’s also a vibrate feature if you prefer the game to vibrate with every match. And if you’re colorblind, you’re still able to play the game by changing the settings, which turns frequently missed colors to a neutral shade of gray.

Start off basic, or add extra shapes to the mix

As if all that wasn’t enough, there are also multiple difficulty levels to battle through. On Easy mode, you’ve got the basic shapes shown above, and that’s a slow time scale. If you want to lose your mind though, feel free to amp it up to Extreme mode, and get ready for some quick moves. Now you have to place your shapes in under two seconds, making what’s usually a frantic game to levels that most middle school kids amped up on Mountain Dew wouldn’t be able to contain. Is it tough? Heck yes it’s tough. And that makes it fun.

Conclusion

Let me explain how I feel about Shuzzle by telling a quick story.

My wife and I both love video games of all kinds; In fact, it’s part of the reason we’re married today. And although we cross streams here and there with titles, for the most part I prefer adventure and strategy games while she prefers the mindless games that you find on PopCap or similar sites. I personally don’t think I could spend more than an hour or two playing this game because it would get pretty repetitive. Yes, it gets more challenging as the game progresses, but it’s not my bag.

My wife though, would absolutely love this game. I can see her spending hours with this app, tapping away on the screen so fast that she starts to build up smoke. And that’s really the thing about Shuzzle; Either you’re the type of person who prefers a good first person shooter, or you’re one who likes to play something that takes your mind away from the everyday stresses in life. If you fit into the latter category, then I think Shuzzle is a perfect game for you.

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting DanceSteps. The developer describes DanceSteps as follows: DanceSteps allows you to experiment with and finally learn the basic steps of a dance by using your iPhone or iPod Touch. It achieves this with a very simple user interface and with provided high quality rhythm-tunes that can help you learn the steps even easier.

Useful information and tips are provided for each dance, like how partners must hold each other, on which foot body weight should be, etc.

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

DanceSteps

About the App

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

• Four well known rhythms initially included
• Learning mode allows for learning at our own pace
• Helpful cloud notes for better step understanding
• Quality, carefully selected,music provided for each dance
• Designed to be used by male, female or even couple!

Requirements: iPhone or iPod Touch with iOS 3.2 or greater
Price: $1.99
Developer: Anthony Boudouvas

Vote for a Review

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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.

As you know, the AppStorm team just returned from our very first Macworld Expo. To us, this was the stuff of legend. In years past we had spent Macworld glued to our computer monitors, taking in every scrap of information from bloggers making live posts about the newest developments from the world of Apple.

However, we soon found out that the atmosphere had changed dramatically from previous expos. The massive and legendary event that we had seen and heard from afar has been replaced by something else. Nearly every developer, exhibitor, and attendee we spoke with throughout the week talked about the change that had taken place.

Is Macworld a shadow of what it once was? Is the conference on a downward spiral? What will the future hold? We’ll discuss all this and more below.

A Little History

I imagine that some of our readers haven’t been Apple fanboys their whole lives and are even fairly new to the idea of a Mac community. For those of you unfamiliar with the subject, Macworld is both a popular magazine and an annual technology expo dedicated to all things Mac. The first Macworld Conference took place in 1985 in San Francisco, and continues to this day in San Francisco at the Moscone Center. Notice that was only a year after the Mac was introduced!

Though the event was created by a third party, Apple came to build a strong presence there over the years. Steve Jobs’ keynote speeches were one of the biggest hype-builders of the entire event because they often marked the release of something new and exciting. The iMac, PowerBook G3, Aqua (OS X’s interface), iTunes, Safari and the MacBook Air are just a few of the popular products originally announced at Macworld.

Apple Changes Everything

In December 2008, Apple announced that the January 2009 Macworld Expo would be their last. It was an interesting move. Here was the single largest gathering of faithful customers they could hope for, an event which they leveraged intensively for years, and yet they were pulling out amidst rumors of a CEO with failing health. Things didn’t exactly look great for Apple or Macworld.

The theories behind Apple’s exit from the conference abound. Some say that Macworld had gotten too big and expensive and that Apple doesn’t like letting other people control any relationship. Others say that Apple grew tired of announcing products at Macworld and left so they would have the freedom to call their own gatherings to announce products (which they now do). In all honesty, there’s probably not one single reason Apple pulled out. Most or even all of the commonly discussed factors likely played a role in the decision.

How Has the Event Changed?

Macworld 2011

The most notable change is the size. Macworld used to take up a large portion of the Moscone center and was spread throughout multiple sections. Now the conference is limited to the West hall and is a fairly small, centralized event compared to the Macworld Expos of yesteryear. Even some big events like the Industry forum, expected to draw thousands or at least hundreds of visitors, pulled in numbers around the 50s and 60s.

The tone of the exhibitors has also changed quite a bit. Many are simply not as excited to be there as they once were. They told us story after story of how they used to spend months preparing for this event and would rent huge areas of floorspace, go all out on booth design and spend lavishly at parties throughout the week. Now, many have been reduced to a small display at a single stand and complain about how much even that cost. Instead of spending months in hard preparation, a large portion of exhibitors we spoke with only decided to go at the last minute after swearing through the year that they had been to their last Macworld conference.

The Good News

The summary above doesn’t make it look like there is a very promising future for Macworld, but there is plenty of evidence to make me think otherwise.

First, the event is still rebounding from Apple’s exit. The coordinators still have much work to do to figure out how to run an event that the world isn’t flocking to like they once were. Exhibitors have lots of ideas and even demands about how the event should be run, priced and promoted and hopefully IDG is smart enough to listen. Next year will be their third without Apple and they’ll likely have refined their strategies to make the most of the event.

Secondly, even the most skeptical exhibitors have positive things to say. One of the most potent for them is the quality of the connections that they are making at the show. It used to be so overrun by people only interested in free swag and a glimpse at the newest iMac that the ratio of quality to useless interactions could be fairly dismal. Now however, it seems that the people there are either genuinely interested customers or members of the press who are looking for great products to promote. Both of these types of visitors are great for developers looking to push their products as the next big thing.

Finally, there is still a very large and very strong core set of people who absolutely love the Mac community and want to see events like Macworld succeed. Guys like John Gruber have been attending for years and have a lot to say about what could be done differently, but ultimately even more about how important the event is for Mac users.

There was a time when we Mac users weren’t on top of the world as we are now. We were a quirky cult convinced of the superiority of the products we used while the world shook their head in confusion. Events like Macworld reaffirmed that we weren’t alone in our unwavering devotion to Apple and helped provide the heart and soul of a customer base that never stopped telling patrons of the competition that they should switch over.

There’s an entirely new generation of Mac users now with entirely different motivations for using Apple’s products. Macworld is one of the few interesting places where the old and new customers collide and find middle ground and perhaps the expo provides a key opportunity for some of that old school fervor to rub off on the newly convinced.

The iPhone and Mac app stores have created not just a new customer base, but a huge new developer base unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the Mac community, and this will only get better in the years ahead. As this network of developers continually grows, you can bet more and more of them will see Macworld as a potential place to finally stand out against the competition and gain a foothold with customers.

What Did We Think?

AppStorm’s own Josh, David and Joel with Ryan from Marketcirlce

Since this was our first Macworld Expo, we didn’t experience the longing for a bigger, more energetic event. Instead we could appreciate Macworld for all of the value that’s still very much present. For the AppStorm team, Macworld was a chance to put faces to email contacts from supporters that we simply couldn’t live without. It was also an opportunity to form bonds with new developers and innovators that we are excited to watch and work with in the future.

We feel much more plugged into the Mac community and were massively encouraged by the number of people that told us they were fans of the site. We are incredibly grateful for the event’s creators, exhibitors and attendees. Thanks to all the people who showed us around, introduced us to important people and invited us to a few exclusive parties with delicious food and good company! We’re already looking forward to next year.

Have you ever wished you could access any computer you need from the comfort of your iPad on the couch, or from your iPhone in a park, all with the same simplicity of using a native iOS app?  iPads and iPhones are powerful on their own, but you still can’t do everything from them.  Whether you’re needing to change network settings on your work computer or start a movie download on your home computer, your iOS device just can’t do it on its own.

Since the early 2000′s, VNC (Virtual Network Computing) technology has been widely available for most mainstream operating systems to let you remotely login to your computer and use your programs and data without being in front of it.  The latest wave of powerful smartphones and mobile devices have sparked an increasing interest in using your computer remotely, and the App Store currently contains many VNC apps for iPhone and iPad.

There’s only one problem.  Most VNC apps make you drag the remote mouse cursor around, treating your iPad as a giant laptop touchpad.  That’s where Screens comes in.  This new VNC app from Endovia aims to bring the best of the iOS touch interface and VNC together to make your desktop feel like a native iOS app.  Best of all, it’s a universal app so you can use the same app on your iPad and iPhone.  Let’s take a look and see if this is the app that can make remote computing easier for you.

Get More Screens on Your iOS Device

Screens brings the iWork feel to a VNC app.  When you first launch the app you’ll get a quick overview of how it works, and then can quickly add your VNC accounts.  Each appears as a screen on a wood background, much like documents and presentations do in the iWork apps.

One of the most refreshing things about Screens is that it’s a universal app that really works the same on all iOS devices.  Many apps work differently on iPad than iPhone even when they’re universal apps, but Screens feels the exact same on either device.  The only difference with using it on an iPhone or iPod Touch is that the screen is much smaller!  The iPad’s screen size makes using VNC much more enjoyable, but Screens does a good job making it usable on a smaller screen, too.

PC, meet my little brothers.

If your computers aren’t already setup for VNC connections, you’ll find detailed instructions in the Help menu for setting them up in Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.  For OS X and Linux computers, you’ll simply need to enable Screen Sharing or Remote Desktop, respectively, from their system preferences.  On Windows computers, you’ll need to install a VNC program on your PC such as the recommended free TightVNC app.

Once you’re ready to start adding computers to Screens, tap the New Screen button in the top left corner of the app.  Screens will automatically detect nearby Linux and Mac computers, so you can add their info with two taps.  Alternately, enter your computer’s name and address manually.

Now, whether you automatically added a computer or entered it manually, you’ll need to enter the computer’s VNC password and select the operating system manually below.  If you don’t select an operating system, your keyboard and special key settings may end up messed up.  Finally, if you’re using SSL tunneling for extra protection, you can enter those settings below.

Select OS X and Linux machines directly, or manually enter the IP address or name of Windows computers

Now you can login to your computer by just tapping the screen image.  You’ll see a status indicator as your iPhone or iPad connects, then seconds later you should see your computer’s desktop.  If not, tap the edit button in the bottom left corner of Screens to edit your settings.  Or, if you want to remove a connection and start over, tap the trash can in the right corner.

Once you've entered your settings, it'll only take a few seconds to login.

You can get right to work as soon as you see your desktop.  Just tap on buttons and links on your remote computer as you would in an iOS app, and the virtual cursor will automatically move to the spot you tapped.  Pinch to zoom in or out of your screen, scroll in apps with two fingers as you would on a laptop touchpad, right click by tapping with a second finger after clicking with the first, and press and hold to move a window or select text.

You can even access common system shortcuts from the handy buttons on the bottom that automatically customize to your OS.  Screens includes a Windows key for Windows VNC connections, and a CMD key for OS X connections.

Windows, Mac … Landscape, Portrait … Screens works with them all!

Need to type in your computer?  Press the keyboard icon on the top left of Screens to open the full normal iOS keyboard.  Alternately, press the button beside it to open a keypad with special buttons for accessing system functions.  You can copy and paste text between your iOS device and your remote computer, minimize a program, open the Task Manager in Windows or Spotlight search in a Mac, and more.

Type or access system commands with the two included keyboards

You can even use a wide variety of multitouch gestures to access standard Windows and Mac features.  Swipe up or down with 4 fingers on a Mac VNC with to activate Expose, or swipe left or right on a Windows or Mac VNC to open the app switcher (Alt-tab) interface.  Screens also lets you customize your three finger swipes to enable a wide variety of functions.

Multitouch gestures make VNC connections fun and easy to use

Once you’re finished, swipe the green screen button on the top right of Screens to end a VNC connection.  Screens will now show the way your desktop looked when you logged out in the screen icon for that system.  You can now choose another connection, add a new VNC computer settings, or get back to whatever else you need to do.  Screens makes it quick to login, do anything on your PC, Mac, or Linux computer, and get on with your life.

Keep all your Windows, Linux, and Mac machines only a tap away.

Login From Anywhere

If you’re using a Mac and have a router that supports UPnP, you can use the free Screens Connect app to login to your Mac no matter where you are without messing with tricky router configurations.  Simply download the free program from their site, and you’ll find a new Screens option in your system preferences.  You can then enable the service and add a unique name for your computer and login to it from Screens wherever you are.

Remote VNC can be tricky, but not with Screens Connect!

Screens’ Performance

After using Screens with Windows 7, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and Ubuntu 10.10 machines, we were overall very impressed at its performance.  Windows 7 did run noticeably slower than the others over VNC, though switching to the Windows Classic color scheme instead of the default Aero glass did improve performance.

With all OSes, though, the experience was fluid enough to do common tasks directly from an iPhone/iPod Touch, or iPad.  One thing that didn’t work, though: painting or drawing in Photoshop, Paint, or similar apps.  Since Screens tries to make the experience as touch friendly as possible, there’s no “mouse” to drag in a painting application, so if you’re wanting to turn your iPad into a Wacom + Photoshop mashup, it just won’t work (try Air Display instead).

We did experience a couple problems as well.  The app did crash while testing a couple times, and some of the special tricks such as taskbar/dock expose by dragging the screen down didn’t always work correctly.  Also, we had some odd behavior when multitasking with other apps.  For the most part, it works best to not multitask while in the middle of a VNC session.  Everything seemed to work best when we logged out of VNC, then used another app, then logged back in.  You can multitask with it, but it did seem more likely to have quirks when you come back.  Overall, though, these were minor problems, and Screens works great for almost everything we tried it with.

Screens rarely crashed on us, but when it does it gives you the option to submit crash data to the developers

Conclusion

Screens does a great job merging the simplicity of your multitouch iOS devices with the power of your laptops and desktops.  Rather than having to think about where your remote mouse cursor is on the screen, you can just tap, pinch, and scroll just as you would on most iOS apps.  It’s an especially great tool on an iPad, as the larger screen lets you do even more with your VNC-connected computer.

However, since it’s a universal app, the great thing is that you can use it on any iOS device you want.  Whether you need to remotely login to your work computer from your couch at home, assist a client while you’re walking through the store, or just want to check something on your Mac in your room, Screens is a handy and useful app that’s a great companion to any sysadmin’s toolkit.