Category: Tutorials

It’s not often that you find a challenging match-three puzzle game for the iPhone. There have been some very unique puzzle series in previous apps, however, Legacy: Mystery Mansion kicks up the strategy to a whole new level.

The purpose here is to match up similar glyphs and drop antique fragments below the game board, which ties into elements to a plot line that you discover as you move throughout the mansion. The game is not only addictive, but just a great way to kill some time and boasts some very convoluted challenges. Let’s take a closer look after the jump.

Getting Started

After the startup screen, you’re greeted with bright graphics and sound effects. This area is one place where Legacy really shines. The developers have taken extra care to provide phenomenal graphics and music to accompany such a riveting game.

It’s fantastic how quickly the menu screen is pulled up. Aside from the audio options, you’ll find two modes: Story and Free Play. With free play, you can move through a few trial runs to build your skills up. I will say that Legacy is a very challenging game for newbies. Even on a simple match-3 style puzzle challenge it offers some very unique twists and turns.

Rules and Regulations

The purpose of each puzzle isn’t to just clear the board as you might expect. You’ll actually be rearranging the objects within each board to (hopefully) complete the antique puzzle on the left.. Ultimately, your goal in Story Mode is to find all of the missing antiques and put their pieces back together. As you move from room to room the mystery will slowly begin to unfold before your eyes.

As you spot pieces to the antiques lodged within your puzzle you’ll want to drop them down below the game board. This is how you acquire the bits and add them into your inventory. You should then begin to clear a path for each antique and the completed objects will be checked off your building map.

Each puzzle is given a strict five minute time limit for completion. This may seem harsh initially, which is why the puzzle series is so challenging for most. But as you come to grips with the system you’ll progress through the levels a lot easier. If you’re stuck, the game will often pose solutions you can use in bright glittering stars. These appear after a few seconds of inactivity.

Advanced Gameplay Mechanics

If you end up losing at the first level don’t be discouraged. Legacy: Mystery Mansion is truly a challenging puzzle. As you find objects, it is a very difficult process to clear rows beneath and bank on them. Try planning ahead for alignments beneath each object, especially as you move closer towards the bottom of the screen.

Feel free to ignore the auto suggest features throughout the game. The suggestions are merely to help things move along if you’re in a rut, but they are not geared towards your best possible choice — quite honestly, they may be random matchups. There are a decent amount of levels and you generally only need two or three pieces to put together a final puzzle.

The different level themes really do make the game much more enjoyable. As you move between rooms you’ll notice the puzzle icons change as well. You can move between the bedroom, parlour, hall, kitchen and a few other select places. Inside of each puzzle, icons will change between foods, bells, paintings, ink bottles and many other items.

The core differences between story mode and free play don’t stand out very much while you’re playing. You’ll obviously be completing tasks and finishing levels in story mode, but gameplay is identical. Use this to your advantage if you need some practice getting around the difficult puzzle challenges. Take note that you are not penalized for failure during regular gameplay, so you can mess up levels as much as you’d like.

Graphics and Ambiance

The background images moving between each room are hauntingly beautiful. They feature some stunning visual effects and lay down the perfect background to play against. In fact, the whole game does give you the feeling of poking through a haunted mansion — very creepy indeed.

Menu items feature some very simple to use buttons and interface design. Legacy’s logo is displayed throughout loading screens and features bright outlines and light bursts. The map layout is also very peculiar, and gives that feeling of working with an old treasure scroll. Legacy portrays each graphical representation beautifully on both iPhone 3GS and 4 retina display.

The music in each level is simply stunning. In a notable way, it’s also very haunting, but this fits right along with the game. As you face new rooms you’ll find different musical scores to enjoy, and solving the mystery of this old haunted mansion is such an exciting experience, the sinister music only feeds into this energy.

Possible Improvements

Personally, I don’t have much to complain about. After you beat the game there isn’t very much to accomplish, but those purchasing Legacy aren’t looking for a full RPG task list anyways. It’s plenty of fun and a great time killer when you’re waiting on location or simply bored.

The only improvement I can think of is within game mechanics and playability. The difficulty is a little far out, so maybe offering a tutorial course would be beneficial to new users. Also, the touch screen isn’t as sensitive as you may think. This results in sluggish animations and at times it’s difficult to keep moving puzzle pieces. However, this doesn’t detract from the gameplay, and Legacy is one of the best puzzle apps I’ve had the experience of enjoying.

Conclusion

I love Legacy: Mystery Mansion and would highly recommend it for iOS game junkies. The app features a beautiful soundtrack and collection of graphics to go along with the frightening haunted mansion theme. You’ll find 25 fast-paced puzzles moving between maps and rooms to keep you busy.

I would give this game an 8/10 with a high recommendation. If you aren’t a puzzle fan then this title may not be for you. But if you’re willing to give Legacy a shot you will most likely not be disappointed.

It’s not often that you find a challenging match-three puzzle game for the iPhone. There have been some very unique puzzle series in previous apps, however, Legacy: Mystery Mansion kicks up the strategy to a whole new level.

The purpose here is to match up similar glyphs and drop antique fragments below the game board, which ties into elements to a plot line that you discover as you move throughout the mansion. The game is not only addictive, but just a great way to kill some time and boasts some very convoluted challenges. Let’s take a closer look after the jump.

Getting Started

After the startup screen, you’re greeted with bright graphics and sound effects. This area is one place where Legacy really shines. The developers have taken extra care to provide phenomenal graphics and music to accompany such a riveting game.

It’s fantastic how quickly the menu screen is pulled up. Aside from the audio options, you’ll find two modes: Story and Free Play. With free play, you can move through a few trial runs to build your skills up. I will say that Legacy is a very challenging game for newbies. Even on a simple match-3 style puzzle challenge it offers some very unique twists and turns.

Rules and Regulations

The purpose of each puzzle isn’t to just clear the board as you might expect. You’ll actually be rearranging the objects within each board to (hopefully) complete the antique puzzle on the left.. Ultimately, your goal in Story Mode is to find all of the missing antiques and put their pieces back together. As you move from room to room the mystery will slowly begin to unfold before your eyes.

As you spot pieces to the antiques lodged within your puzzle you’ll want to drop them down below the game board. This is how you acquire the bits and add them into your inventory. You should then begin to clear a path for each antique and the completed objects will be checked off your building map.

Each puzzle is given a strict five minute time limit for completion. This may seem harsh initially, which is why the puzzle series is so challenging for most. But as you come to grips with the system you’ll progress through the levels a lot easier. If you’re stuck, the game will often pose solutions you can use in bright glittering stars. These appear after a few seconds of inactivity.

Advanced Gameplay Mechanics

If you end up losing at the first level don’t be discouraged. Legacy: Mystery Mansion is truly a challenging puzzle. As you find objects, it is a very difficult process to clear rows beneath and bank on them. Try planning ahead for alignments beneath each object, especially as you move closer towards the bottom of the screen.

Feel free to ignore the auto suggest features throughout the game. The suggestions are merely to help things move along if you’re in a rut, but they are not geared towards your best possible choice — quite honestly, they may be random matchups. There are a decent amount of levels and you generally only need two or three pieces to put together a final puzzle.

The different level themes really do make the game much more enjoyable. As you move between rooms you’ll notice the puzzle icons change as well. You can move between the bedroom, parlour, hall, kitchen and a few other select places. Inside of each puzzle, icons will change between foods, bells, paintings, ink bottles and many other items.

The core differences between story mode and free play don’t stand out very much while you’re playing. You’ll obviously be completing tasks and finishing levels in story mode, but gameplay is identical. Use this to your advantage if you need some practice getting around the difficult puzzle challenges. Take note that you are not penalized for failure during regular gameplay, so you can mess up levels as much as you’d like.

Graphics and Ambiance

The background images moving between each room are hauntingly beautiful. They feature some stunning visual effects and lay down the perfect background to play against. In fact, the whole game does give you the feeling of poking through a haunted mansion — very creepy indeed.

Menu items feature some very simple to use buttons and interface design. Legacy’s logo is displayed throughout loading screens and features bright outlines and light bursts. The map layout is also very peculiar, and gives that feeling of working with an old treasure scroll. Legacy portrays each graphical representation beautifully on both iPhone 3GS and 4 retina display.

The music in each level is simply stunning. In a notable way, it’s also very haunting, but this fits right along with the game. As you face new rooms you’ll find different musical scores to enjoy, and solving the mystery of this old haunted mansion is such an exciting experience, the sinister music only feeds into this energy.

Possible Improvements

Personally, I don’t have much to complain about. After you beat the game there isn’t very much to accomplish, but those purchasing Legacy aren’t looking for a full RPG task list anyways. It’s plenty of fun and a great time killer when you’re waiting on location or simply bored.

The only improvement I can think of is within game mechanics and playability. The difficulty is a little far out, so maybe offering a tutorial course would be beneficial to new users. Also, the touch screen isn’t as sensitive as you may think. This results in sluggish animations and at times it’s difficult to keep moving puzzle pieces. However, this doesn’t detract from the gameplay, and Legacy is one of the best puzzle apps I’ve had the experience of enjoying.

Conclusion

I love Legacy: Mystery Mansion and would highly recommend it for iOS game junkies. The app features a beautiful soundtrack and collection of graphics to go along with the frightening haunted mansion theme. You’ll find 25 fast-paced puzzles moving between maps and rooms to keep you busy.

I would give this game an 8/10 with a high recommendation. If you aren’t a puzzle fan then this title may not be for you. But if you’re willing to give Legacy a shot you will most likely not be disappointed.

It’s not often that you find a challenging match-three puzzle game for the iPhone. There have been some very unique puzzle series in previous apps, however, Legacy: Mystery Mansion kicks up the strategy to a whole new level.

The purpose here is to match up similar glyphs and drop antique fragments below the game board, which ties into elements to a plot line that you discover as you move throughout the mansion. The game is not only addictive, but just a great way to kill some time and boasts some very convoluted challenges. Let’s take a closer look after the jump.

Getting Started

After the startup screen, you’re greeted with bright graphics and sound effects. This area is one place where Legacy really shines. The developers have taken extra care to provide phenomenal graphics and music to accompany such a riveting game.

It’s fantastic how quickly the menu screen is pulled up. Aside from the audio options, you’ll find two modes: Story and Free Play. With free play, you can move through a few trial runs to build your skills up. I will say that Legacy is a very challenging game for newbies. Even on a simple match-3 style puzzle challenge it offers some very unique twists and turns.

Rules and Regulations

The purpose of each puzzle isn’t to just clear the board as you might expect. You’ll actually be rearranging the objects within each board to (hopefully) complete the antique puzzle on the left.. Ultimately, your goal in Story Mode is to find all of the missing antiques and put their pieces back together. As you move from room to room the mystery will slowly begin to unfold before your eyes.

As you spot pieces to the antiques lodged within your puzzle you’ll want to drop them down below the game board. This is how you acquire the bits and add them into your inventory. You should then begin to clear a path for each antique and the completed objects will be checked off your building map.

Each puzzle is given a strict five minute time limit for completion. This may seem harsh initially, which is why the puzzle series is so challenging for most. But as you come to grips with the system you’ll progress through the levels a lot easier. If you’re stuck, the game will often pose solutions you can use in bright glittering stars. These appear after a few seconds of inactivity.

Advanced Gameplay Mechanics

If you end up losing at the first level don’t be discouraged. Legacy: Mystery Mansion is truly a challenging puzzle. As you find objects, it is a very difficult process to clear rows beneath and bank on them. Try planning ahead for alignments beneath each object, especially as you move closer towards the bottom of the screen.

Feel free to ignore the auto suggest features throughout the game. The suggestions are merely to help things move along if you’re in a rut, but they are not geared towards your best possible choice — quite honestly, they may be random matchups. There are a decent amount of levels and you generally only need two or three pieces to put together a final puzzle.

The different level themes really do make the game much more enjoyable. As you move between rooms you’ll notice the puzzle icons change as well. You can move between the bedroom, parlour, hall, kitchen and a few other select places. Inside of each puzzle, icons will change between foods, bells, paintings, ink bottles and many other items.

The core differences between story mode and free play don’t stand out very much while you’re playing. You’ll obviously be completing tasks and finishing levels in story mode, but gameplay is identical. Use this to your advantage if you need some practice getting around the difficult puzzle challenges. Take note that you are not penalized for failure during regular gameplay, so you can mess up levels as much as you’d like.

Graphics and Ambiance

The background images moving between each room are hauntingly beautiful. They feature some stunning visual effects and lay down the perfect background to play against. In fact, the whole game does give you the feeling of poking through a haunted mansion — very creepy indeed.

Menu items feature some very simple to use buttons and interface design. Legacy’s logo is displayed throughout loading screens and features bright outlines and light bursts. The map layout is also very peculiar, and gives that feeling of working with an old treasure scroll. Legacy portrays each graphical representation beautifully on both iPhone 3GS and 4 retina display.

The music in each level is simply stunning. In a notable way, it’s also very haunting, but this fits right along with the game. As you face new rooms you’ll find different musical scores to enjoy, and solving the mystery of this old haunted mansion is such an exciting experience, the sinister music only feeds into this energy.

Possible Improvements

Personally, I don’t have much to complain about. After you beat the game there isn’t very much to accomplish, but those purchasing Legacy aren’t looking for a full RPG task list anyways. It’s plenty of fun and a great time killer when you’re waiting on location or simply bored.

The only improvement I can think of is within game mechanics and playability. The difficulty is a little far out, so maybe offering a tutorial course would be beneficial to new users. Also, the touch screen isn’t as sensitive as you may think. This results in sluggish animations and at times it’s difficult to keep moving puzzle pieces. However, this doesn’t detract from the gameplay, and Legacy is one of the best puzzle apps I’ve had the experience of enjoying.

Conclusion

I love Legacy: Mystery Mansion and would highly recommend it for iOS game junkies. The app features a beautiful soundtrack and collection of graphics to go along with the frightening haunted mansion theme. You’ll find 25 fast-paced puzzles moving between maps and rooms to keep you busy.

I would give this game an 8/10 with a high recommendation. If you aren’t a puzzle fan then this title may not be for you. But if you’re willing to give Legacy a shot you will most likely not be disappointed.

It’s not often that you find a challenging match-three puzzle game for the iPhone. There have been some very unique puzzle series in previous apps, however, Legacy: Mystery Mansion kicks up the strategy to a whole new level.

The purpose here is to match up similar glyphs and drop antique fragments below the game board, which ties into elements to a plot line that you discover as you move throughout the mansion. The game is not only addictive, but just a great way to kill some time and boasts some very convoluted challenges. Let’s take a closer look after the jump.

Getting Started

After the startup screen, you’re greeted with bright graphics and sound effects. This area is one place where Legacy really shines. The developers have taken extra care to provide phenomenal graphics and music to accompany such a riveting game.

It’s fantastic how quickly the menu screen is pulled up. Aside from the audio options, you’ll find two modes: Story and Free Play. With free play, you can move through a few trial runs to build your skills up. I will say that Legacy is a very challenging game for newbies. Even on a simple match-3 style puzzle challenge it offers some very unique twists and turns.

Rules and Regulations

The purpose of each puzzle isn’t to just clear the board as you might expect. You’ll actually be rearranging the objects within each board to (hopefully) complete the antique puzzle on the left.. Ultimately, your goal in Story Mode is to find all of the missing antiques and put their pieces back together. As you move from room to room the mystery will slowly begin to unfold before your eyes.

As you spot pieces to the antiques lodged within your puzzle you’ll want to drop them down below the game board. This is how you acquire the bits and add them into your inventory. You should then begin to clear a path for each antique and the completed objects will be checked off your building map.

Each puzzle is given a strict five minute time limit for completion. This may seem harsh initially, which is why the puzzle series is so challenging for most. But as you come to grips with the system you’ll progress through the levels a lot easier. If you’re stuck, the game will often pose solutions you can use in bright glittering stars. These appear after a few seconds of inactivity.

Advanced Gameplay Mechanics

If you end up losing at the first level don’t be discouraged. Legacy: Mystery Mansion is truly a challenging puzzle. As you find objects, it is a very difficult process to clear rows beneath and bank on them. Try planning ahead for alignments beneath each object, especially as you move closer towards the bottom of the screen.

Feel free to ignore the auto suggest features throughout the game. The suggestions are merely to help things move along if you’re in a rut, but they are not geared towards your best possible choice — quite honestly, they may be random matchups. There are a decent amount of levels and you generally only need two or three pieces to put together a final puzzle.

The different level themes really do make the game much more enjoyable. As you move between rooms you’ll notice the puzzle icons change as well. You can move between the bedroom, parlour, hall, kitchen and a few other select places. Inside of each puzzle, icons will change between foods, bells, paintings, ink bottles and many other items.

The core differences between story mode and free play don’t stand out very much while you’re playing. You’ll obviously be completing tasks and finishing levels in story mode, but gameplay is identical. Use this to your advantage if you need some practice getting around the difficult puzzle challenges. Take note that you are not penalized for failure during regular gameplay, so you can mess up levels as much as you’d like.

Graphics and Ambiance

The background images moving between each room are hauntingly beautiful. They feature some stunning visual effects and lay down the perfect background to play against. In fact, the whole game does give you the feeling of poking through a haunted mansion — very creepy indeed.

Menu items feature some very simple to use buttons and interface design. Legacy’s logo is displayed throughout loading screens and features bright outlines and light bursts. The map layout is also very peculiar, and gives that feeling of working with an old treasure scroll. Legacy portrays each graphical representation beautifully on both iPhone 3GS and 4 retina display.

The music in each level is simply stunning. In a notable way, it’s also very haunting, but this fits right along with the game. As you face new rooms you’ll find different musical scores to enjoy, and solving the mystery of this old haunted mansion is such an exciting experience, the sinister music only feeds into this energy.

Possible Improvements

Personally, I don’t have much to complain about. After you beat the game there isn’t very much to accomplish, but those purchasing Legacy aren’t looking for a full RPG task list anyways. It’s plenty of fun and a great time killer when you’re waiting on location or simply bored.

The only improvement I can think of is within game mechanics and playability. The difficulty is a little far out, so maybe offering a tutorial course would be beneficial to new users. Also, the touch screen isn’t as sensitive as you may think. This results in sluggish animations and at times it’s difficult to keep moving puzzle pieces. However, this doesn’t detract from the gameplay, and Legacy is one of the best puzzle apps I’ve had the experience of enjoying.

Conclusion

I love Legacy: Mystery Mansion and would highly recommend it for iOS game junkies. The app features a beautiful soundtrack and collection of graphics to go along with the frightening haunted mansion theme. You’ll find 25 fast-paced puzzles moving between maps and rooms to keep you busy.

I would give this game an 8/10 with a high recommendation. If you aren’t a puzzle fan then this title may not be for you. But if you’re willing to give Legacy a shot you will most likely not be disappointed.

As soon as WWDC was announced, we all knew that the latest version of iOS would be announced — it was just a foregone conclusion. But what we didn’t know, was how much it was going to change how we work and what we do. Then the beta testers got their hands on it, spilled the beans to everyone, and now we know all of the facts and info about the latest version that we can. And yet, what we don’t know yet is how it will affect us personally.

Well, you don’t know, but I do. I’ve got iOS 5 running on one of my devices right now, and I’ve gotta say, it’s changed my world completely. I don’t think it can be released fast enough, frankly, and I can’t wait for it to be polished up and perfect for general consumption. Want to know how it’s changed my world and how it’ll change yours? Hit the jump and I’ll tell you.

The Basics

First, let me preface this by saying how I got a copy. A good friend of mine is an iOS developer, and he has me beta test apps for him all the time. It started first with iOS 4.3, and now that iOS 5 is out, he put me on the bandwagon. Now I get to test his apps while using the new system, and that’s pretty cool.

Admittedly, I have this on my iPad, because my iPhone is just too important to risk on beta tests. That said, the subjects I’m talking about are universal iOS features, and not anything iPad specific. Also, I won’t be discussing anything that hasn’t been released by the news media, and I’m not personally under any NDA, either. So now that all that semi-legalese is out of the way, let’s talk about the bold new world of iOS 5.

Notifications

We all know that iOS 5 has a new notification system which uses a menu at the top of the screen that provides all of your alerts. It’s not only a better system than the popups, but it’s nowhere near as distracting.

Now before iOS 5, if I heard my email go off, I’d double click the home button, move over to Mail, and open it up to see what I had. Although this only took a few seconds, this can happen fairly frequently, and it also interrupts any workflow you may have on your iPhone, be it posting a tweet or playing a game. With iOS 5, the top of the screen rolls over and you see the Mail icon plus the subject of the message. Right away you know whether you need to open the email or not, and that saves time and effort. It’s such a simple tweak, but so important at the same time.

This happens with every notification as well. So now, I can just figure out if the alert is important enough to warrant my attention, all from inside the app. Do I need to text her back? Is that spam or an email from my boss? All those notifications and more make it very worth it, and have saved me lots of time.

As an added bonus, you can adjust how the apps alert you as well. If you don’t like those little circular popups to get in your way, turn them off. It’s a good way to reduce clutter on your desktop without losing functionality.

iMessage

In itself, iMessage is not a ground breaking application. It’s basically text messaging and BBMs all in one, which we discussed here recently. There are two aspects to it though that really make life easier, and expand your horizons in the process.

With a BlackBerry BBM, you know when someone is typing back to you, and iMessage works the same way. The application looks essentially the same as Messages does currently, but now there are three dots to indicate when someone is responding. Now, that seems trivial, but think about the last time you had a big text message conversation. For me, sometimes it’ll be minutes or hours between texts, just because I or the other person is busy. At other times, we’re both at our phones typing away furiously and awaiting the other’s response. By having those three little dots, I can tell what kind of conversation I’m going to have right off the bat, which means I can manage it better. I don’t have to wonder when they’ll text back if it’s really important to me, I just have to look. That’s nice.

In addition, using the iPod Touch as an iMessage machine now becomes pretty cool. Between FaceTime and iMessage, all you need now is a solid Internet connection and you’ve got a pretty good communication device. If you’re a parent and you want to give your kid a way to contact you without paying for a cell plan, this may become a good option. After all, kids have access to Wi-Fi at school (or at least some do), and if they’re out with a friend they could pop onto a local network if need be. It’s not a perfect solution for sure, but the door is open at least.

Wireless Syncing and Backups

When’s the last time you backed up your iPhone? If you’re like me, it’s usually a few weeks at least because there’s usually not a reason to do it. I only plug in if I want to put some photos in iPhoto, rearrange my pages quickly or add a few videos — and iOS updates, of course. But my wife never plugged in her iPhone, even when a new update would come down the pike, which would drive me nuts. With iOS 5, none of these are problems.

The freedom it affords is just amazing. I can backup my device quickly and easily, without worrying about whether or not I have an iPod cable floating around the house or not. I can also sync my contacts and email just as easily as I can with my current MobileMe account, but without the $99 yearly fee. Soon my wife can do the same thing, which saves us money and makes her life substantially easier. I can’t wait for that.

Conclusions

We’re all excited for iOS 5 to be out in the wild, but after using it for a few weeks, I now know how exactly it’s going to help me get things done. These are just three of the topics that have helped change the way I do things, and who knows, there may be more once iOS 5  is released. Here’s to hoping.

As soon as WWDC was announced, we all knew that the latest version of iOS would be announced — it was just a foregone conclusion. But what we didn’t know, was how much it was going to change how we work and what we do. Then the beta testers got their hands on it, spilled the beans to everyone, and now we know all of the facts and info about the latest version that we can. And yet, what we don’t know yet is how it will affect us personally.

Well, you don’t know, but I do. I’ve got iOS 5 running on one of my devices right now, and I’ve gotta say, it’s changed my world completely. I don’t think it can be released fast enough, frankly, and I can’t wait for it to be polished up and perfect for general consumption. Want to know how it’s changed my world and how it’ll change yours? Hit the jump and I’ll tell you.

The Basics

First, let me preface this by saying how I got a copy. A good friend of mine is an iOS developer, and he has me beta test apps for him all the time. It started first with iOS 4.3, and now that iOS 5 is out, he put me on the bandwagon. Now I get to test his apps while using the new system, and that’s pretty cool.

Admittedly, I have this on my iPad, because my iPhone is just too important to risk on beta tests. That said, the subjects I’m talking about are universal iOS features, and not anything iPad specific. Also, I won’t be discussing anything that hasn’t been released by the news media, and I’m not personally under any NDA, either. So now that all that semi-legalese is out of the way, let’s talk about the bold new world of iOS 5.

Notifications

We all know that iOS 5 has a new notification system which uses a menu at the top of the screen that provides all of your alerts. It’s not only a better system than the popups, but it’s nowhere near as distracting.

Now before iOS 5, if I heard my email go off, I’d double click the home button, move over to Mail, and open it up to see what I had. Although this only took a few seconds, this can happen fairly frequently, and it also interrupts any workflow you may have on your iPhone, be it posting a tweet or playing a game. With iOS 5, the top of the screen rolls over and you see the Mail icon plus the subject of the message. Right away you know whether you need to open the email or not, and that saves time and effort. It’s such a simple tweak, but so important at the same time.

This happens with every notification as well. So now, I can just figure out if the alert is important enough to warrant my attention, all from inside the app. Do I need to text her back? Is that spam or an email from my boss? All those notifications and more make it very worth it, and have saved me lots of time.

As an added bonus, you can adjust how the apps alert you as well. If you don’t like those little circular popups to get in your way, turn them off. It’s a good way to reduce clutter on your desktop without losing functionality.

iMessage

In itself, iMessage is not a ground breaking application. It’s basically text messaging and BBMs all in one, which we discussed here recently. There are two aspects to it though that really make life easier, and expand your horizons in the process.

With a BlackBerry BBM, you know when someone is typing back to you, and iMessage works the same way. The application looks essentially the same as Messages does currently, but now there are three dots to indicate when someone is responding. Now, that seems trivial, but think about the last time you had a big text message conversation. For me, sometimes it’ll be minutes or hours between texts, just because I or the other person is busy. At other times, we’re both at our phones typing away furiously and awaiting the other’s response. By having those three little dots, I can tell what kind of conversation I’m going to have right off the bat, which means I can manage it better. I don’t have to wonder when they’ll text back if it’s really important to me, I just have to look. That’s nice.

In addition, using the iPod Touch as an iMessage machine now becomes pretty cool. Between FaceTime and iMessage, all you need now is a solid Internet connection and you’ve got a pretty good communication device. If you’re a parent and you want to give your kid a way to contact you without paying for a cell plan, this may become a good option. After all, kids have access to Wi-Fi at school (or at least some do), and if they’re out with a friend they could pop onto a local network if need be. It’s not a perfect solution for sure, but the door is open at least.

Wireless Syncing and Backups

When’s the last time you backed up your iPhone? If you’re like me, it’s usually a few weeks at least because there’s usually not a reason to do it. I only plug in if I want to put some photos in iPhoto, rearrange my pages quickly or add a few videos — and iOS updates, of course. But my wife never plugged in her iPhone, even when a new update would come down the pike, which would drive me nuts. With iOS 5, none of these are problems.

The freedom it affords is just amazing. I can backup my device quickly and easily, without worrying about whether or not I have an iPod cable floating around the house or not. I can also sync my contacts and email just as easily as I can with my current MobileMe account, but without the $99 yearly fee. Soon my wife can do the same thing, which saves us money and makes her life substantially easier. I can’t wait for that.

Conclusions

We’re all excited for iOS 5 to be out in the wild, but after using it for a few weeks, I now know how exactly it’s going to help me get things done. These are just three of the topics that have helped change the way I do things, and who knows, there may be more once iOS 5  is released. Here’s to hoping.

As soon as WWDC was announced, we all knew that the latest version of iOS would be announced — it was just a foregone conclusion. But what we didn’t know, was how much it was going to change how we work and what we do. Then the beta testers got their hands on it, spilled the beans to everyone, and now we know all of the facts and info about the latest version that we can. And yet, what we don’t know yet is how it will affect us personally.

Well, you don’t know, but I do. I’ve got iOS 5 running on one of my devices right now, and I’ve gotta say, it’s changed my world completely. I don’t think it can be released fast enough, frankly, and I can’t wait for it to be polished up and perfect for general consumption. Want to know how it’s changed my world and how it’ll change yours? Hit the jump and I’ll tell you.

The Basics

First, let me preface this by saying how I got a copy. A good friend of mine is an iOS developer, and he has me beta test apps for him all the time. It started first with iOS 4.3, and now that iOS 5 is out, he put me on the bandwagon. Now I get to test his apps while using the new system, and that’s pretty cool.

Admittedly, I have this on my iPad, because my iPhone is just too important to risk on beta tests. That said, the subjects I’m talking about are universal iOS features, and not anything iPad specific. Also, I won’t be discussing anything that hasn’t been released by the news media, and I’m not personally under any NDA, either. So now that all that semi-legalese is out of the way, let’s talk about the bold new world of iOS 5.

Notifications

We all know that iOS 5 has a new notification system which uses a menu at the top of the screen that provides all of your alerts. It’s not only a better system than the popups, but it’s nowhere near as distracting.

Now before iOS 5, if I heard my email go off, I’d double click the home button, move over to Mail, and open it up to see what I had. Although this only took a few seconds, this can happen fairly frequently, and it also interrupts any workflow you may have on your iPhone, be it posting a tweet or playing a game. With iOS 5, the top of the screen rolls over and you see the Mail icon plus the subject of the message. Right away you know whether you need to open the email or not, and that saves time and effort. It’s such a simple tweak, but so important at the same time.

This happens with every notification as well. So now, I can just figure out if the alert is important enough to warrant my attention, all from inside the app. Do I need to text her back? Is that spam or an email from my boss? All those notifications and more make it very worth it, and have saved me lots of time.

As an added bonus, you can adjust how the apps alert you as well. If you don’t like those little circular popups to get in your way, turn them off. It’s a good way to reduce clutter on your desktop without losing functionality.

iMessage

In itself, iMessage is not a ground breaking application. It’s basically text messaging and BBMs all in one, which we discussed here recently. There are two aspects to it though that really make life easier, and expand your horizons in the process.

With a BlackBerry BBM, you know when someone is typing back to you, and iMessage works the same way. The application looks essentially the same as Messages does currently, but now there are three dots to indicate when someone is responding. Now, that seems trivial, but think about the last time you had a big text message conversation. For me, sometimes it’ll be minutes or hours between texts, just because I or the other person is busy. At other times, we’re both at our phones typing away furiously and awaiting the other’s response. By having those three little dots, I can tell what kind of conversation I’m going to have right off the bat, which means I can manage it better. I don’t have to wonder when they’ll text back if it’s really important to me, I just have to look. That’s nice.

In addition, using the iPod Touch as an iMessage machine now becomes pretty cool. Between FaceTime and iMessage, all you need now is a solid Internet connection and you’ve got a pretty good communication device. If you’re a parent and you want to give your kid a way to contact you without paying for a cell plan, this may become a good option. After all, kids have access to Wi-Fi at school (or at least some do), and if they’re out with a friend they could pop onto a local network if need be. It’s not a perfect solution for sure, but the door is open at least.

Wireless Syncing and Backups

When’s the last time you backed up your iPhone? If you’re like me, it’s usually a few weeks at least because there’s usually not a reason to do it. I only plug in if I want to put some photos in iPhoto, rearrange my pages quickly or add a few videos — and iOS updates, of course. But my wife never plugged in her iPhone, even when a new update would come down the pike, which would drive me nuts. With iOS 5, none of these are problems.

The freedom it affords is just amazing. I can backup my device quickly and easily, without worrying about whether or not I have an iPod cable floating around the house or not. I can also sync my contacts and email just as easily as I can with my current MobileMe account, but without the $99 yearly fee. Soon my wife can do the same thing, which saves us money and makes her life substantially easier. I can’t wait for that.

Conclusions

We’re all excited for iOS 5 to be out in the wild, but after using it for a few weeks, I now know how exactly it’s going to help me get things done. These are just three of the topics that have helped change the way I do things, and who knows, there may be more once iOS 5  is released. Here’s to hoping.

We all know we could be doing more to maintain a healthy diet, and there’s no shortage of diet advice in all forms of media. Whether you make a conscious effort to educate yourself about nutrition or not, many of you have probably absorbed a lot of information, and more or less know the basics of eating healthy. So if we know how to eat well, what’s stopping us? People often blame lack of discipline or motivation for unhealthy eating habits, but the developers of Foodish suggest that simply being more aware of your eating habits will help you improve them. Foodish is the modern version of a food journal, letting you keep track of what you eat visually with the iPhone you already take with you everywhere. Read on to find out if this simple approach to eating well can really keep you on track!

Getting Started

Starting out with Foodish is simple and non-intimidating. You’re presented with the day’s “food board” with a plus sign in the top right corner for adding food. When you add a new item, you can select from meal, drink or snack, and then most of the other fields are optional. You can give the item a name, assign a picture and then make your own judgement on the health value of the food, based on five different happy faces. You can either take a picture from within the app, or choose from your library.

If you’re curious about the basic nutrition info, you can look it up on Wikipedia from within Foodish. The icon is only clickable if the food item is searchable (e.g. “BLT” had an entry, but “Pita & hummus” did not. Wikipedia gives you a general calorie estimate and some basic information about the type of food, but not much more. Though Wikipedia’s database is extensive, it may not be the most appropriate one for this setting.

Reviewing Your Habits

Each item you enter into Foodish is stylishly displayed as a photo with title and health-value smiley on the day’s board so you get a quick visual overview of your day. Based on the health values you’ve assigned to what you’ve eaten, a message appears at the top either congratulating you for eating well, or warning you not to indulge too much.

Weekly reports

Foodish creates a graph for each week displaying your average healthiness for each day, and an average for the week. I wasn’t very consistent when using Foodish, so my graph isn’t very complete, but you get the idea.

Interface & Design

Foodish boasts a wonderfully simple and warm design, with a beautifully detailed wood texture, and aligns the photos for each item in a perfectly crooked way. I like how friendly and approachable this app feels, and how it strips down everything you don’t absolutely need. Using Foodish is simple and enjoyable, making it easier to keep up with the routine of documenting your eating habits. When you accumulate a fair number of food items (especially ones with pictures) you may find Foodish slows down a bit when switching between days (at least on iPhone 3G), I don’t know if the problem would get worse the more you used it, but it’s not really any slower than most apps get on my sluggish phone.

The Foodish Approach

Foodish is an excellent tool for the straight-forward purpose of documenting what you eat, but is this approach really effective? The simplicity of Foodish could be a negative for people who don’t already have a pretty strong understanding of the health value of most of the foods they eat. However, even if you make some misjudgements (restaurant food often looks healthy but is loaded with sodium and oil) this approach should still be able to keep you more or less on track. Obviously, if you’re looking to seriously lose weight you may need a more accurate method of tracking your eating, but for the average person, simply being aware of your consumption is probably enough to keep you on the healthier side.

Conclusion

Foodish works for a specific type of user: someone with good knowledge of food and nutrition, who knows what they should and shouldn’t eat, but maybe needs a little help with motivation. The power of Foodish is that it makes you accountable for what you eat, and you want to be able to look at the day’s meals and not be disappointed with yourself. This type of “fear-of-guilt” motivation works pretty well for me, but that depends on the type of person you are.

Foodish is also aimed at a certain type of iPhone owner: the type that has their phone at their side at all times. I bring my phone with me almost every time I go out, but I don’t bring it into the kitchen for breakfast, or to the coffee shop to grab a latte. Like keeping a food journal, using Foodish requires a certain amount of discipline and memory, and I never really got into the habit of taking a picture of everything I ate; It was just too time consuming.

On the other hand, I know people that use apps like MyNetDiary, which requires you to search and enter information about each item you eat, which is definitely way more time consuming than taking a picture and picking a smiley face. So, if your iPhone is your constant companion and you know your saturated fat from your dietary fibre, Foodish may be the perfect app to help you maintain a healthy diet.

As soon as WWDC was announced, we all knew that the latest version of iOS would be announced — it was just a foregone conclusion. But what we didn’t know, was how much it was going to change how we work and what we do. Then the beta testers got their hands on it, spilled the beans to everyone, and now we know all of the facts and info about the latest version that we can. And yet, what we don’t know yet is how it will affect us personally.

Well, you don’t know, but I do. I’ve got iOS 5 running on one of my devices right now, and I’ve gotta say, it’s changed my world completely. I don’t think it can be released fast enough, frankly, and I can’t wait for it to be polished up and perfect for general consumption. Want to know how it’s changed my world and how it’ll change yours? Hit the jump and I’ll tell you.

The Basics

First, let me preface this by saying how I got a copy. A good friend of mine is an iOS developer, and he has me beta test apps for him all the time. It started first with iOS 4.3, and now that iOS 5 is out, he put me on the bandwagon. Now I get to test his apps while using the new system, and that’s pretty cool.

Admittedly, I have this on my iPad, because my iPhone is just too important to risk on beta tests. That said, the subjects I’m talking about are universal iOS features, and not anything iPad specific. Also, I won’t be discussing anything that hasn’t been released by the news media, and I’m not personally under any NDA, either. So now that all that semi-legalese is out of the way, let’s talk about the bold new world of iOS 5.

Notifications

We all know that iOS 5 has a new notification system which uses a menu at the top of the screen that provides all of your alerts. It’s not only a better system than the popups, but it’s nowhere near as distracting.

Now before iOS 5, if I heard my email go off, I’d double click the home button, move over to Mail, and open it up to see what I had. Although this only took a few seconds, this can happen fairly frequently, and it also interrupts any workflow you may have on your iPhone, be it posting a tweet or playing a game. With iOS 5, the top of the screen rolls over and you see the Mail icon plus the subject of the message. Right away you know whether you need to open the email or not, and that saves time and effort. It’s such a simple tweak, but so important at the same time.

This happens with every notification as well. So now, I can just figure out if the alert is important enough to warrant my attention, all from inside the app. Do I need to text her back? Is that spam or an email from my boss? All those notifications and more make it very worth it, and have saved me lots of time.

As an added bonus, you can adjust how the apps alert you as well. If you don’t like those little circular popups to get in your way, turn them off. It’s a good way to reduce clutter on your desktop without losing functionality.

iMessage

In itself, iMessage is not a ground breaking application. It’s basically text messaging and BBMs all in one, which we discussed here recently. There are two aspects to it though that really make life easier, and expand your horizons in the process.

With a BlackBerry BBM, you know when someone is typing back to you, and iMessage works the same way. The application looks essentially the same as Messages does currently, but now there are three dots to indicate when someone is responding. Now, that seems trivial, but think about the last time you had a big text message conversation. For me, sometimes it’ll be minutes or hours between texts, just because I or the other person is busy. At other times, we’re both at our phones typing away furiously and awaiting the other’s response. By having those three little dots, I can tell what kind of conversation I’m going to have right off the bat, which means I can manage it better. I don’t have to wonder when they’ll text back if it’s really important to me, I just have to look. That’s nice.

In addition, using the iPod Touch as an iMessage machine now becomes pretty cool. Between FaceTime and iMessage, all you need now is a solid Internet connection and you’ve got a pretty good communication device. If you’re a parent and you want to give your kid a way to contact you without paying for a cell plan, this may become a good option. After all, kids have access to Wi-Fi at school (or at least some do), and if they’re out with a friend they could pop onto a local network if need be. It’s not a perfect solution for sure, but the door is open at least.

Wireless Syncing and Backups

When’s the last time you backed up your iPhone? If you’re like me, it’s usually a few weeks at least because there’s usually not a reason to do it. I only plug in if I want to put some photos in iPhoto, rearrange my pages quickly or add a few videos — and iOS updates, of course. But my wife never plugged in her iPhone, even when a new update would come down the pike, which would drive me nuts. With iOS 5, none of these are problems.

The freedom it affords is just amazing. I can backup my device quickly and easily, without worrying about whether or not I have an iPod cable floating around the house or not. I can also sync my contacts and email just as easily as I can with my current MobileMe account, but without the $99 yearly fee. Soon my wife can do the same thing, which saves us money and makes her life substantially easier. I can’t wait for that.

Conclusions

We’re all excited for iOS 5 to be out in the wild, but after using it for a few weeks, I now know how exactly it’s going to help me get things done. These are just three of the topics that have helped change the way I do things, and who knows, there may be more once iOS 5  is released. Here’s to hoping.

We all know we could be doing more to maintain a healthy diet, and there’s no shortage of diet advice in all forms of media. Whether you make a conscious effort to educate yourself about nutrition or not, many of you have probably absorbed a lot of information, and more or less know the basics of eating healthy. So if we know how to eat well, what’s stopping us? People often blame lack of discipline or motivation for unhealthy eating habits, but the developers of Foodish suggest that simply being more aware of your eating habits will help you improve them. Foodish is the modern version of a food journal, letting you keep track of what you eat visually with the iPhone you already take with you everywhere. Read on to find out if this simple approach to eating well can really keep you on track!

Getting Started

Starting out with Foodish is simple and non-intimidating. You’re presented with the day’s “food board” with a plus sign in the top right corner for adding food. When you add a new item, you can select from meal, drink or snack, and then most of the other fields are optional. You can give the item a name, assign a picture and then make your own judgement on the health value of the food, based on five different happy faces. You can either take a picture from within the app, or choose from your library.

If you’re curious about the basic nutrition info, you can look it up on Wikipedia from within Foodish. The icon is only clickable if the food item is searchable (e.g. “BLT” had an entry, but “Pita & hummus” did not. Wikipedia gives you a general calorie estimate and some basic information about the type of food, but not much more. Though Wikipedia’s database is extensive, it may not be the most appropriate one for this setting.

Reviewing Your Habits

Each item you enter into Foodish is stylishly displayed as a photo with title and health-value smiley on the day’s board so you get a quick visual overview of your day. Based on the health values you’ve assigned to what you’ve eaten, a message appears at the top either congratulating you for eating well, or warning you not to indulge too much.

Weekly reports

Foodish creates a graph for each week displaying your average healthiness for each day, and an average for the week. I wasn’t very consistent when using Foodish, so my graph isn’t very complete, but you get the idea.

Interface & Design

Foodish boasts a wonderfully simple and warm design, with a beautifully detailed wood texture, and aligns the photos for each item in a perfectly crooked way. I like how friendly and approachable this app feels, and how it strips down everything you don’t absolutely need. Using Foodish is simple and enjoyable, making it easier to keep up with the routine of documenting your eating habits. When you accumulate a fair number of food items (especially ones with pictures) you may find Foodish slows down a bit when switching between days (at least on iPhone 3G), I don’t know if the problem would get worse the more you used it, but it’s not really any slower than most apps get on my sluggish phone.

The Foodish Approach

Foodish is an excellent tool for the straight-forward purpose of documenting what you eat, but is this approach really effective? The simplicity of Foodish could be a negative for people who don’t already have a pretty strong understanding of the health value of most of the foods they eat. However, even if you make some misjudgements (restaurant food often looks healthy but is loaded with sodium and oil) this approach should still be able to keep you more or less on track. Obviously, if you’re looking to seriously lose weight you may need a more accurate method of tracking your eating, but for the average person, simply being aware of your consumption is probably enough to keep you on the healthier side.

Conclusion

Foodish works for a specific type of user: someone with good knowledge of food and nutrition, who knows what they should and shouldn’t eat, but maybe needs a little help with motivation. The power of Foodish is that it makes you accountable for what you eat, and you want to be able to look at the day’s meals and not be disappointed with yourself. This type of “fear-of-guilt” motivation works pretty well for me, but that depends on the type of person you are.

Foodish is also aimed at a certain type of iPhone owner: the type that has their phone at their side at all times. I bring my phone with me almost every time I go out, but I don’t bring it into the kitchen for breakfast, or to the coffee shop to grab a latte. Like keeping a food journal, using Foodish requires a certain amount of discipline and memory, and I never really got into the habit of taking a picture of everything I ate; It was just too time consuming.

On the other hand, I know people that use apps like MyNetDiary, which requires you to search and enter information about each item you eat, which is definitely way more time consuming than taking a picture and picking a smiley face. So, if your iPhone is your constant companion and you know your saturated fat from your dietary fibre, Foodish may be the perfect app to help you maintain a healthy diet.

We are still exploring uses for our mobile devices and cellular and WiFi networks, but one feature or function that has always been hanging around is this notion of content consumption. As devices get better and networks get faster, the possibilities and opportunities continually change.

Reading from the web is certainly a big portion of this content, and companies, publishers and individuals are constantly exploring how to best get their content to their consumers and how to monetize it. The world of book and magazine publishing has been especially shaken up as our mobile devices have become increasingly more powerful. The idea of simply trying to re-create the physical experience on a mobile device is a path that many established publishers, arguably incorrectly, are heading down.

Push Pop Press is looking at this from a different angle: they are looking at book publishing essentially from the ground up. Their thought is to look at the devices we currently have access to and the conditions in which they reside and then build a platform using those capabilities to create the best possible experience for the user. It is a book, but at the same time, it is something completely different. Our Choice by Al Gore is their first book utilizing this new platform. Let’s take a look and see how it works.

Design and Interface

The interface to this new electronic book platform is extremely clean and simple. There are two modes: the table of contents view and the reading view. The table of contents view isn’t exactly how it sounds. You’ll see a large image with the title of the chapter you’re currently viewing, and some dots below showing how many chapters are in the book. Swiping across the large image will move you between chapters. You actually won’t see what’d you’d typically think of as a table of contents — that can be a little unnerving, but I didn’t seem to miss it.

Below the large image and chapter titles you’ll see the actual content of the chapter. They’re just small representations of each of the pages. You’re able to swipe across that bottom row to skip ahead and backward quickly. Tapping or pinch zooming on an individual section will magnify it and bring it into reading view. Double-tapping or pinching reduces the size and takes you back to the full chapter view. Skipping forward and ahead isn’t the easiest thing to do on the iPhone interface; Everything is a bit too small to see exactly where you’re jumping to, but it can still be helpful for jumping to general areas.

Once you’re in the reading view, a simply swipe forward or backward will move you through the content. It is a book, so a majority of the content is, of course, text. Push Pop Press has done some interesting things here and worked hard to incorporate a lot of fantastic images, videos, animations and interactive graphics along the way. As you move along you’ll see these graphical bits, and tapping on them will activate them. Tapping on a photo will magnify it to full screen with a really cool zoom out effect. Tapping the other graphics and videos will fire them up and allow you to interact with them. They are seemlessly integrated into the content of the book and really add some fantastic visualization.

Something interesting to point out, and it is probably a testimate to a thoughtfully designed product, is that there are no instructions or settings to change anything at all. It’s not really necessary though, because the interface is easy to figure out after a couple minutes. It’s intuitive and just makes sense.

Navigating the Content

I talked a bit about this in the previous section, but we’ll dig in a bit more and show some screenshots of how this works exactly in the application. Essentially, you’re holding the contents of a book in your hand, and you’ll have chapters and pages to flip through. The way in which you move throughout the text along with the intertwined graphics are what make this a much different experience than reading an actual physical book.

Below is a slider of each page in the chapter. Sliding from side to side you’ll get a view of all the pages and tapping or pinch zooming on one will zoom in on that page and you can start reading. On the iPhone, this isn’t too useful for finding a specific page as the display is just too small to really differentiate one page from the next. It could help you to make a quick jump say halfway through a chapter or something like that, but anything more specific just isn’t going to happen. That said, it’s still a handy feature and one I used frequently.

Reading

This is a book, and although it is very different from what our brains want to think of as a book it acts in much the same way. After you’ve zoomed in on a page, you can simply flip through page by page. Swiping from left to right or right to left will take you forward and backward in the book.

One thing I did miss a bit was a bit of customization, mostly for the text size. I would have enjoyed to have some control of that aspect to adjust the size of the text to fit more or less on each page. It’s at a comfortable level for most people I would say, but I ran into some issues when hitting the graphics. I was forced to move forward a page or two to finish the sentence or paragraph I was reading, and then flip back to the image. Not a major issue, but for me, a smaller text size would have lessened my back and forth flipping. Granted, this is a small display, so there is likely no perfect solution for this.

Graphics

Where this application and book really shine is with the graphics scattered throughout the text. These are all incredibly well made, beautiful and informative. You’ll see a mix of photos, videos, animations, interactive maps and infographics. The interactive infographics are pretty incredible — they are easy to interact with and engage you in a way that’s flat out impossible in any other platform. Working with these was truly a new learning experience.

One graphic showing how wind engery is captured and utilized allows you to interact with it by blowing on your iPhone. Yes, that’s right, your iPhone will sense you blowing on it, the windmill will spin and the graphic will fully animate. It’s pretty amazing.

Final Thoughts

Though this is a review of the iPhone application Our Choice written by Al Gore, it is more so about the new platform developed by Push Pop Press. The experience of reading a book in this fashion is a very different experience than what we’re used to. I credit Push Pop Press for really pushing the envelope and utilizing the platforms we have available to create a new, more interactive book experience.

It is great to see someone stepping back and starting to re-create the book experience from scratch to best utilize the technology currently available. As I understand it, Push Pop Press is trying to develop a platform for book publishers to use with their own publications. They’re pushing the envelope for an entire industry, and I’m excited to see the evolution of books on our mobile devices.

We all know we could be doing more to maintain a healthy diet, and there’s no shortage of diet advice in all forms of media. Whether you make a conscious effort to educate yourself about nutrition or not, many of you have probably absorbed a lot of information, and more or less know the basics of eating healthy. So if we know how to eat well, what’s stopping us? People often blame lack of discipline or motivation for unhealthy eating habits, but the developers of Foodish suggest that simply being more aware of your eating habits will help you improve them. Foodish is the modern version of a food journal, letting you keep track of what you eat visually with the iPhone you already take with you everywhere. Read on to find out if this simple approach to eating well can really keep you on track!

Getting Started

Starting out with Foodish is simple and non-intimidating. You’re presented with the day’s “food board” with a plus sign in the top right corner for adding food. When you add a new item, you can select from meal, drink or snack, and then most of the other fields are optional. You can give the item a name, assign a picture and then make your own judgement on the health value of the food, based on five different happy faces. You can either take a picture from within the app, or choose from your library.

If you’re curious about the basic nutrition info, you can look it up on Wikipedia from within Foodish. The icon is only clickable if the food item is searchable (e.g. “BLT” had an entry, but “Pita & hummus” did not. Wikipedia gives you a general calorie estimate and some basic information about the type of food, but not much more. Though Wikipedia’s database is extensive, it may not be the most appropriate one for this setting.

Reviewing Your Habits

Each item you enter into Foodish is stylishly displayed as a photo with title and health-value smiley on the day’s board so you get a quick visual overview of your day. Based on the health values you’ve assigned to what you’ve eaten, a message appears at the top either congratulating you for eating well, or warning you not to indulge too much.

Weekly reports

Foodish creates a graph for each week displaying your average healthiness for each day, and an average for the week. I wasn’t very consistent when using Foodish, so my graph isn’t very complete, but you get the idea.

Interface & Design

Foodish boasts a wonderfully simple and warm design, with a beautifully detailed wood texture, and aligns the photos for each item in a perfectly crooked way. I like how friendly and approachable this app feels, and how it strips down everything you don’t absolutely need. Using Foodish is simple and enjoyable, making it easier to keep up with the routine of documenting your eating habits. When you accumulate a fair number of food items (especially ones with pictures) you may find Foodish slows down a bit when switching between days (at least on iPhone 3G), I don’t know if the problem would get worse the more you used it, but it’s not really any slower than most apps get on my sluggish phone.

The Foodish Approach

Foodish is an excellent tool for the straight-forward purpose of documenting what you eat, but is this approach really effective? The simplicity of Foodish could be a negative for people who don’t already have a pretty strong understanding of the health value of most of the foods they eat. However, even if you make some misjudgements (restaurant food often looks healthy but is loaded with sodium and oil) this approach should still be able to keep you more or less on track. Obviously, if you’re looking to seriously lose weight you may need a more accurate method of tracking your eating, but for the average person, simply being aware of your consumption is probably enough to keep you on the healthier side.

Conclusion

Foodish works for a specific type of user: someone with good knowledge of food and nutrition, who knows what they should and shouldn’t eat, but maybe needs a little help with motivation. The power of Foodish is that it makes you accountable for what you eat, and you want to be able to look at the day’s meals and not be disappointed with yourself. This type of “fear-of-guilt” motivation works pretty well for me, but that depends on the type of person you are.

Foodish is also aimed at a certain type of iPhone owner: the type that has their phone at their side at all times. I bring my phone with me almost every time I go out, but I don’t bring it into the kitchen for breakfast, or to the coffee shop to grab a latte. Like keeping a food journal, using Foodish requires a certain amount of discipline and memory, and I never really got into the habit of taking a picture of everything I ate; It was just too time consuming.

On the other hand, I know people that use apps like MyNetDiary, which requires you to search and enter information about each item you eat, which is definitely way more time consuming than taking a picture and picking a smiley face. So, if your iPhone is your constant companion and you know your saturated fat from your dietary fibre, Foodish may be the perfect app to help you maintain a healthy diet.

We all know we could be doing more to maintain a healthy diet, and there’s no shortage of diet advice in all forms of media. Whether you make a conscious effort to educate yourself about nutrition or not, many of you have probably absorbed a lot of information, and more or less know the basics of eating healthy. So if we know how to eat well, what’s stopping us? People often blame lack of discipline or motivation for unhealthy eating habits, but the developers of Foodish suggest that simply being more aware of your eating habits will help you improve them. Foodish is the modern version of a food journal, letting you keep track of what you eat visually with the iPhone you already take with you everywhere. Read on to find out if this simple approach to eating well can really keep you on track!

Getting Started

Starting out with Foodish is simple and non-intimidating. You’re presented with the day’s “food board” with a plus sign in the top right corner for adding food. When you add a new item, you can select from meal, drink or snack, and then most of the other fields are optional. You can give the item a name, assign a picture and then make your own judgement on the health value of the food, based on five different happy faces. You can either take a picture from within the app, or choose from your library.

If you’re curious about the basic nutrition info, you can look it up on Wikipedia from within Foodish. The icon is only clickable if the food item is searchable (e.g. “BLT” had an entry, but “Pita & hummus” did not. Wikipedia gives you a general calorie estimate and some basic information about the type of food, but not much more. Though Wikipedia’s database is extensive, it may not be the most appropriate one for this setting.

Reviewing Your Habits

Each item you enter into Foodish is stylishly displayed as a photo with title and health-value smiley on the day’s board so you get a quick visual overview of your day. Based on the health values you’ve assigned to what you’ve eaten, a message appears at the top either congratulating you for eating well, or warning you not to indulge too much.

Weekly reports

Foodish creates a graph for each week displaying your average healthiness for each day, and an average for the week. I wasn’t very consistent when using Foodish, so my graph isn’t very complete, but you get the idea.

Interface & Design

Foodish boasts a wonderfully simple and warm design, with a beautifully detailed wood texture, and aligns the photos for each item in a perfectly crooked way. I like how friendly and approachable this app feels, and how it strips down everything you don’t absolutely need. Using Foodish is simple and enjoyable, making it easier to keep up with the routine of documenting your eating habits. When you accumulate a fair number of food items (especially ones with pictures) you may find Foodish slows down a bit when switching between days (at least on iPhone 3G), I don’t know if the problem would get worse the more you used it, but it’s not really any slower than most apps get on my sluggish phone.

The Foodish Approach

Foodish is an excellent tool for the straight-forward purpose of documenting what you eat, but is this approach really effective? The simplicity of Foodish could be a negative for people who don’t already have a pretty strong understanding of the health value of most of the foods they eat. However, even if you make some misjudgements (restaurant food often looks healthy but is loaded with sodium and oil) this approach should still be able to keep you more or less on track. Obviously, if you’re looking to seriously lose weight you may need a more accurate method of tracking your eating, but for the average person, simply being aware of your consumption is probably enough to keep you on the healthier side.

Conclusion

Foodish works for a specific type of user: someone with good knowledge of food and nutrition, who knows what they should and shouldn’t eat, but maybe needs a little help with motivation. The power of Foodish is that it makes you accountable for what you eat, and you want to be able to look at the day’s meals and not be disappointed with yourself. This type of “fear-of-guilt” motivation works pretty well for me, but that depends on the type of person you are.

Foodish is also aimed at a certain type of iPhone owner: the type that has their phone at their side at all times. I bring my phone with me almost every time I go out, but I don’t bring it into the kitchen for breakfast, or to the coffee shop to grab a latte. Like keeping a food journal, using Foodish requires a certain amount of discipline and memory, and I never really got into the habit of taking a picture of everything I ate; It was just too time consuming.

On the other hand, I know people that use apps like MyNetDiary, which requires you to search and enter information about each item you eat, which is definitely way more time consuming than taking a picture and picking a smiley face. So, if your iPhone is your constant companion and you know your saturated fat from your dietary fibre, Foodish may be the perfect app to help you maintain a healthy diet.

We are still exploring uses for our mobile devices and cellular and WiFi networks, but one feature or function that has always been hanging around is this notion of content consumption. As devices get better and networks get faster, the possibilities and opportunities continually change.

Reading from the web is certainly a big portion of this content, and companies, publishers and individuals are constantly exploring how to best get their content to their consumers and how to monetize it. The world of book and magazine publishing has been especially shaken up as our mobile devices have become increasingly more powerful. The idea of simply trying to re-create the physical experience on a mobile device is a path that many established publishers, arguably incorrectly, are heading down.

Push Pop Press is looking at this from a different angle: they are looking at book publishing essentially from the ground up. Their thought is to look at the devices we currently have access to and the conditions in which they reside and then build a platform using those capabilities to create the best possible experience for the user. It is a book, but at the same time, it is something completely different. Our Choice by Al Gore is their first book utilizing this new platform. Let’s take a look and see how it works.

Design and Interface

The interface to this new electronic book platform is extremely clean and simple. There are two modes: the table of contents view and the reading view. The table of contents view isn’t exactly how it sounds. You’ll see a large image with the title of the chapter you’re currently viewing, and some dots below showing how many chapters are in the book. Swiping across the large image will move you between chapters. You actually won’t see what’d you’d typically think of as a table of contents — that can be a little unnerving, but I didn’t seem to miss it.

Below the large image and chapter titles you’ll see the actual content of the chapter. They’re just small representations of each of the pages. You’re able to swipe across that bottom row to skip ahead and backward quickly. Tapping or pinch zooming on an individual section will magnify it and bring it into reading view. Double-tapping or pinching reduces the size and takes you back to the full chapter view. Skipping forward and ahead isn’t the easiest thing to do on the iPhone interface; Everything is a bit too small to see exactly where you’re jumping to, but it can still be helpful for jumping to general areas.

Once you’re in the reading view, a simply swipe forward or backward will move you through the content. It is a book, so a majority of the content is, of course, text. Push Pop Press has done some interesting things here and worked hard to incorporate a lot of fantastic images, videos, animations and interactive graphics along the way. As you move along you’ll see these graphical bits, and tapping on them will activate them. Tapping on a photo will magnify it to full screen with a really cool zoom out effect. Tapping the other graphics and videos will fire them up and allow you to interact with them. They are seemlessly integrated into the content of the book and really add some fantastic visualization.

Something interesting to point out, and it is probably a testimate to a thoughtfully designed product, is that there are no instructions or settings to change anything at all. It’s not really necessary though, because the interface is easy to figure out after a couple minutes. It’s intuitive and just makes sense.

Navigating the Content

I talked a bit about this in the previous section, but we’ll dig in a bit more and show some screenshots of how this works exactly in the application. Essentially, you’re holding the contents of a book in your hand, and you’ll have chapters and pages to flip through. The way in which you move throughout the text along with the intertwined graphics are what make this a much different experience than reading an actual physical book.

Below is a slider of each page in the chapter. Sliding from side to side you’ll get a view of all the pages and tapping or pinch zooming on one will zoom in on that page and you can start reading. On the iPhone, this isn’t too useful for finding a specific page as the display is just too small to really differentiate one page from the next. It could help you to make a quick jump say halfway through a chapter or something like that, but anything more specific just isn’t going to happen. That said, it’s still a handy feature and one I used frequently.

Reading

This is a book, and although it is very different from what our brains want to think of as a book it acts in much the same way. After you’ve zoomed in on a page, you can simply flip through page by page. Swiping from left to right or right to left will take you forward and backward in the book.

One thing I did miss a bit was a bit of customization, mostly for the text size. I would have enjoyed to have some control of that aspect to adjust the size of the text to fit more or less on each page. It’s at a comfortable level for most people I would say, but I ran into some issues when hitting the graphics. I was forced to move forward a page or two to finish the sentence or paragraph I was reading, and then flip back to the image. Not a major issue, but for me, a smaller text size would have lessened my back and forth flipping. Granted, this is a small display, so there is likely no perfect solution for this.

Graphics

Where this application and book really shine is with the graphics scattered throughout the text. These are all incredibly well made, beautiful and informative. You’ll see a mix of photos, videos, animations, interactive maps and infographics. The interactive infographics are pretty incredible — they are easy to interact with and engage you in a way that’s flat out impossible in any other platform. Working with these was truly a new learning experience.

One graphic showing how wind engery is captured and utilized allows you to interact with it by blowing on your iPhone. Yes, that’s right, your iPhone will sense you blowing on it, the windmill will spin and the graphic will fully animate. It’s pretty amazing.

Final Thoughts

Though this is a review of the iPhone application Our Choice written by Al Gore, it is more so about the new platform developed by Push Pop Press. The experience of reading a book in this fashion is a very different experience than what we’re used to. I credit Push Pop Press for really pushing the envelope and utilizing the platforms we have available to create a new, more interactive book experience.

It is great to see someone stepping back and starting to re-create the book experience from scratch to best utilize the technology currently available. As I understand it, Push Pop Press is trying to develop a platform for book publishers to use with their own publications. They’re pushing the envelope for an entire industry, and I’m excited to see the evolution of books on our mobile devices.

Happy Friday, game fans!

Good news — we’re back to a weekly schedule now, so you’ll have a fresh batch of games waiting for you at the end of each and every week. We hope you’ll keep sending us your tips and suggestions so we can include them. Let’s have a look at this week’s picks…

 

 

 

 

 

What Have You Been Playing?

If you aren’t too busy being absorbed by one of these fine titles, drop us a comment and let us know what else you’ve been playing and what you think of this list!