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How often do you let your toast burn, brew your tea for 20 minutes, or forget to turn off the sprinkler when watering your grass? Or do you have a harder time remembering that you need to call your Mom on your lunch break, submit your proposals before the deadline, and more? Most of us need something that will stay on our back and not let us forget the littlest things we need to do, and relying on your spouse, parent or boss to remind you isn’t a great idea.

Your iPhone or iPod Touch is the ideal reminder device. It’s really the best personal digital assistant that had ever been made, even if we don’t usually call iOS devices PDAs. The only problem is, the default Clock app doesn’t make it easy to set quick alarms for specific tasks, and you can only have one timer going at once. That’s not nearly enough for the variety of reminders and timers you’ll actually need to really remember everything.

Due is an elegant new app that’s designed to solve this problem. You can quickly add reminders for everything you need to do, whether it’s today or next week. You can also create reusable timers that you can activate with one flick, so you’ll never forget your brownies in the oven again. Keep reading to check out more of Due’s features to see if this is the app you need to turn your iOS device into a better PDA!

Getting Started

Due starts out with a blank page, but before long, you’ll have it humming with reminders and timers for all of your tasks. Tap the plus button to add a reminder, complete with a task name and the date and time you wish to be reminded about the task.

Due lets you grab pre-selected times that it generates based on the current time, or you can tap on the Due field to autoselect 10 minutes for your timer. Swipe to the left to uncover settings for auto snooze, as well as repeat settings that let you make your task auto-repeat every day, week, or month.

You’ll now be able to see all of your reminders from the Reminders tab. Tap a reminder to uncover extra options, including snooze, repeat and alarm. Or, if you want to put a reminder off, tap the last three buttons to add 10 minutes, 1 hour, or 1 day to the task. If you need to edit it tasks further, just tap Edit and then select the task to tweak it. If you complete a task before the timer is up, you can tap the check box to mark it as completed.

Timers Made Simple

The timers are even easier to use. Due comes with a few premade timers that you can use or delete if you don’t want, or just tap the plus button to add new ones. Enter a name for the timer, select the time length for the task, then choose whether or not to use alarm mode. If you use alarm mode, you’ll keep getting reminded if you don’t turn off the timer; in standard mode, you’ll just get reminded and the timer will automatically turn off.

New timers will automatically be turned on when you add them, but you can quickly turn any timer on or off anytime by tapping the light switch on the right of the task. You’ll see a countdown in blue on active timers, while inactive timers will show their time and description, ready for you to use when you need them.

Stay Reminded

Whether you’ve set reminders or timers, you’ll always be notified when they’re due, no matter what you’re doing. Due uses native notifications, so you won’t have to be online or have your tasks synced to a server to get notifications. If your device is locked when a task is due, you’ll be able to go directly to the task when you unlock it. Alternately, tap close or hit your power button to snooze the task, and if you set alarm mode on your task you’ll get a new notification soon.

Back in Due, you can see any snoozed reminders or overdue timers easily as they’re highlighted or in bright red, respectively. This is especially handy with the timers, so you can see just how overbaked your pizza is this time.

Tweaking Settings and Syncing

Want to see what you’ve done? The Logbook keeps track of all the single-use reminders you’ve completed, including the last time they were done. You can reuse the reminder by pressing the recycle button. This will open a menu where you can select when you need to get reminded of that task again.

Due’s Settings are hiding in the Logbook, too. Tap the Settings button in the top right corner of the Due Logbook to tweak your alerts, sounds, backup settings, and more.

You can tweak all of the sounds in Due from the Settings. There’s a wide variety of excellent sound effects to notify you, so you can choose the ones that you think will be the most likely to make you notice. Each sound effect shows its time length, too, which is a nice touch that makes it easy to know which sound effects will be best for your needs.

If you use Due on multiple iOS devices, or perhaps want to share your Due tasks and timers with someone else, you can sync everything via Dropbox. Just link your account, then choose your sync settings. Now, whenever you’re online, your tasks and timers will be backed up and synced.

Design and Usability

Due definitely makes it easier to keep up with the things you need to do. I especially liked the timers, which made it super easy to create timers for things I do often and then turn them on with literally 2 taps. The developer obviously focused on making Due streamlined and quick to use, and it really excels there. If you ever find yourself lost, chances are Due will help you find your way. Tap any i button you see to get a popup with info about that feature, and when you add time to or change a task, you’ll see a text notification at the bottom to give you feedback about what you’ve done.

Conclusion

Apple’s built-in iOS apps are some of the best designed apps on iPhone, but Due is yet another example of how focus on one feature done right can result in a much more streamlined and useful app. The Clock app tries to do too many things, and manages to make it more difficult to make alarms and timers that are truly useful. If you’d like to make it easier to keep up with all the little times you have to remember throughout the day, Due is a great way to do it. From reminders to timers, this is one app that makes it easier to keep up with what’s due, when.

Once upon a time, we didn’t all have web-connected wonder devices in our pockets to provide us with endless entertainment. Strangely enough, I spent a good portion of my childhood outside engaging in physical activity! An antiquated practice to be sure. When my parents did allow me to come indoors, it was game time. My two brothers and I loved playing board games, card games and of course, our original Nintendo Entertainment System.

Many of the games that I enjoyed as a child have been re-imagined and brought to life on the single device that keeps me occupied these days: my iPhone. Today we’ll take a nostalgic stroll down memory lane to see what classic games have made their way to iOS.

Tetris

Who among us hasn’t dedicated endless hours of their life to creating solid lines from these entrancing falling blocks? Tetris was and continues to be a global phenomenon that has made its way onto just about every electronic platform known to man.

Tetris has come a long way since I played it on my NES though, in addition to Classic mode, the iPhone version has five new crazy modes that introduce all kinds of interesting ways to play!

Price: $2.99

Get It Free

When possible, I’ll scatter in free alternatives of the games so you can make it through this list without going broke! For starters, I recently found a really fun Tetris clone called Ponon! that you should definitely try out.

Monopoly

Boardwalk, Park Place, Community Chest, Free Parking, these terms should instantly bring back visions of rainy days spent sprawled out on your bedroom floor with paper money scattered everywhere.

Monopoly is perhaps the quintessential board game of our time. The iPhone version brings back all the fun of the original game without all the tiny pieces to lose (and it’s a fraction of the price of the physical game). The best feature is multiplayer via pass & play or WiFi so you and your friends can relive old times together.

If you’re looking for a new spin on the old game, check out Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition.

Price: $2.99

Clue

Colonel Mustard, in the library with the wrench! I loved sleuthing around in this classic board game, trying to discover who the murderer was and how he/she went about it. The original game had character and originality that I haven’t really seen mimicked with any success in years since, and that includes the iPhone version.

Unfortunately, instead of reviving the old board game, the creators of Clue for iPhone decided to dramatically change the concept for 21st century gamers. The new version has you traveling from room to room interrogating suspects and looking for clues. It may be a perfectly good game, but it’s definitely disappointing that you can’t play the original!

Price: $0.99

YAHTZEE Adventures

My grandmother loved Yahtzee and whenever I visited her as a child, it was pretty easier to talk her into playing a game or two. Back then we had to use paper and pencils to do the all the math by hand, imagine that!

Yahtzee Adventures features both the classic gameplay that you know and love and a few new modes to add to the fun. If you’re used to the old paper score cards, the interface might throw you off a bit at first, but scoring works just like it always did and has just been redesigned in a super efficient layout.

Price: $0.99

Get It Free

In all honesty, $0.99 is a great deal for the official Yahtzee game. However, if you’re set on finding a free version check out Yacht Free. Also give iFarkle Free a download for another spin on an old dice classic.

Battleship

I remember the first time I saw a commercial for Electronic Battleship, a high-tech talking version of the classic sea-faring game. As a kid, I couldn’t imagine that Battleship would ever be cooler or more advanced than that. Since I had the old version, my parents didn’t heed my pleas for the electronic update, but I never stopped thinking my life would’ve been so much better if they had.

The iPhone version of Battleship definitely surpasses that old electronic version. Back then I didn’t know what Wifi or Bluetooth was but if I had seen a touchscreen version that you could battle your friends with from across the room, my parents would’ve seen no end to my begging!

Price: $0.99

Get it Free

Warships is a great alternative to the official Battleship app. The Ai seems a little too informed for my taste but you can play against a friend over Bluetooth.

Uno

Everyone loves Uno. It’s one of the easiest card games in the world to pick up and learn and can provide hours of solid fun for anyone from eight to eighty years old.

The iPhone version is admittedly a little rough around the edges but it stays true to the Uno experience and is definitely worth the $0.99!

Price: $0.99

Phase 10

Phase 10 is a little like Uno meets Rummy. Each round you have to collect certain sets in order to proceed, if your opponents finish the round, they advance and you get stuck behind!

I’ve always really liked Phase 10 and this version does a reasonably good job of bringing the game to your iPhone. The lack of a multiplayer with non-computer opponents is a pretty big downfall though.

Price: $2.99

Scrabble

Scrabble was always my favorite board game growing up. I was fairly precocious in my time and could usually best most of the adults that I played! To this day I take Scrabble very seriously and can’t stand losing (which seldom happens by the way).

Scrabble for iPhone is great. Gameplay is perfect and you can connect to the Facebook version and play with any of your friends whether they have an iPhone or not!

Price: $2.99

Get It Free

Just about everyone with an iPhone has heard of Words with Friends. This awesome Scrabble-clone allows you to play online against your friends or randomly selected opponents. The free version is just as good but throws in some ads between turns.

Rubik’s Cube

I have put so much time into trying to figure out my Rubik’s Cube that it’s embarrassing. I simply refuse to look up the solution and am convinced that one day I’ll beat it all in my own.

I can’t really get a feel for the digital versions of the Rubik’s Cube, but there are quite a few, including the official app shown below. If you’re into cheating, this app will also help you solve that cube sitting on your desk!

Price: $2.99

Get It Free

Most of the free Rubik’s Cube apps limit you to a tiny 4×4 cube. MiCube however gives you the full experience and doesn’t cost a cent.

The Game of Life

Long before The Sims came along, Life was the best virtual life simulation around. You could go to college, get a career and even get married! All accomplished by moving your little plastic car and people pegs around the game board.

The core concept of The Game of Life has been well-preserved in the iPhone version, which lets you play in a fun, toony 3D view. If you’re a big fan of the old version, you won’t be disappointed here. No Wifi, but there’s a pass and play mode that allows you to play with up to three friends.

Price: $2.99

What Did You Play As a Kid?

The list above represents some of my favorite childhood games that have made their way to the App Store. Many of them are available in both official paid versions and free knock-off versions for the cheapskates out there. Download a few and enjoy some nostalgia courtesy of your iPhone.

Leave a comment below and tell us what games you played when you were little. Is there an iPhone version yet? If not, would you like to see one?

If you’re an iPhone owner, I’m sure you’ve heard of the phenomenon that is Angry Birds. Writing this article at my desk I have an Angry Bird plush toy on top of my laptop in the corner and a fan-adapted theme song playing over the game on my iPad. It’s unreal just how much of a success Rovio has created.

While the idea of the game is very simple (kill pigs with birds catapulted from a slingshot), I’m surprised how many players don’t actually know what each bird does or what the difference between the blocks are. In addition to explaining what these are, in this article, we’ll be looking at some top strategies to bag more points in both Angry Birds and Seasons.

The Birds

The birds are the namesake of the game, those who have had their eggs stolen from them. Somehow they deem it fit to commit an act of revenge on the egg-stealing pigs which sets the premise of the game. The idea of firing them is pretty simple, but do you really know what each bird is and does?

The Red Bird

The red bird is the first bird you’ll see in the beginning levels. This one has no special power and is just the plain old projectile bird. Tapping on one achieves nothing but that does not mean the bird isn’t useful. In fact, it’s a well-rounded bird with average power.

The red bird is the iconic bird that appears on the app icon.

Availability: From start

The Blue Bird

The blue, scattershot bird is your second bird that is slightly smaller than it’s red brother. Tapping the screen whilst this bird is en route splits it into three allowing you to attack different areas of the setup.

The scattershot bird is good for attacking multiple pigs in close proximity to each other or attacking a single pig by firing in close range.

Availability: Level 1-10

The Yellow Bird

The yellow, third bird is the kamikaze one. This bird is like the red one in that it doesn’t split up but rather stays as one. This time round, when you tap on it, it will accelerate and hit whatever object is in front with more force.

Despite it’s ability to speed up on request, it’s not so useful on glass or stone. Instead it has an uncanny ability to destroy wood blocks which sometimes act as the primary protection for buried pigs.

Availability: Level 1-16

The Black Bird

You know those (almost) indestructible stone blocks? There’s one bird that can detonate and destroy them: the black bomb bird. This bird acts in two different ways. The first is destruct-on-tap. This method detonates the bird once you tap on it and is a fairly unhelpful approach.

The most useful method is a delayed detonation. Launch the bird and let it land, wait a few seconds and it’ll explode taking most of the stone blocks with it.

Availability: Level 2-5

The White Bird

The white bird is the only bird we see to actually lay eggs. We spend so much time trying to extract revenge for the egg theft, but it seems the white bird is the only one dropping the things! This maternal, aerial option is an important one in some levels.

The bird is best used at close range to targets but can also act as a normal projectile bird like the red one.

Availability: Level 2-14

The Green Bird

The green bird, or the Boomerang Bird as it’s better known, is one of the harder birds to use. This one acts just like you’d expect, on tap, they do a complete 180 and return. It’ll take some time to get your shots with this bird perfect, but in some cases, this can be a perfect attack.

The boomerang bird is probably the most difficult to master as it’s attack can fluctuate. Be sure to have a go at firing the bird about first in order to judge just what it can do.

Availability: Level 6-5

An interesting option for this bird is to send the bird backwards and tap to create a fast-flying bird.

The Big Red Bird

The big red bird is the big brother to the initial, smaller one. The small red has evolved with a bigger head and a more aggressive attack. Just like the small one is an average all rounder, the large one acts in very much the same way by with three-fold power.

Expect the big red bird to literally destroy everything in it’s path, pigs included (or at least, from levels 9-1 and above).

Availability: Level 9-1

Mighty Eagle

The might eagle isn’t exactly the same as the other birds. Instead of being angry due to natural, egg-related causes, the Mighty Eagle has been drafted in – for an in-app purchase of $0.99 in real money (a tin of sardines in bird money) – to help out. Using a Mighty Eagle allows you pretty much destroy everything in sight and gain “eagle score”. It’s an in-app purchase available in the game.

Price: $0.99 per usage up to a maximum of one per hour

The Pigs

The pigs are the main antagonist of the game. The storyline is simple: while the pigs sat and ate grass, they noticed the Happy Birds (yes, they weren’t always angry!) with their eggs. Gaining a taste for eggs, the pigs managed to steal the eggs while, ironically, the birds killed a fly that had landed on one.

The pigs have a handful of variants but they all pretty much act in the same way. Size also doesn’t affect the game in any way (apart from the bigger ones being every-so-slightly easier to hit). The varients are normal, mustache, crown and stone/helmet. Those equipped with a stone helmet require at least two hits before they are obliterated (one for the hat, one for them). Other than that, the pigs all act in the same way and none have any special powers, unlike the birds.

The pigs also have a sense for royal hierarchy with rare kings pigs seldom seen in some levels and “mustache pigs” as their right-hand accomplices.

Top Tips

Now we’ve covered the birds and the pigs, let’s look into strategy. Here’s a handful of top tips to maximize your Angry Birds score:

• Play about with levels first to gauge scoring. Sometimes attacking a ditch full of watermelons results in more points than simply saving the birds.
• And on the note, use as few birds as possible. Each one bags you an additional 10,000 points
• Check out RovioMobile’s official YouTube channel for walkthroughs of all the levels.
• Aim shots at the corner’s of horizontal beams that will inevitably ripple through the whole structure. A prime example of this is on level 1-1.
• Utilize the blue bird for aerial scatter shots in levels that have some sort of other defense between glass blocks and the bird. Launch the bird high in the air and tap on descent.
• Aim the boomerang bird backwards and then tap to create a highly-accelerate projectile bird.
• Hit golden eggs to unlock extra mini games available in the menu.

Got any other tips to share with fellow players? Discuss in the comments or suggest any other gaming guides you want produced for iPhone.AppStorm!

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting iTranslator. The developer describes iTranslator as the easiest translator around to use. 52 Languages and counting. Translate emails, documents, webpages and anything you can copy and paste.

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

About the App

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

• Text-to-speech most languages (included in price)
• Copy & Paste Functionality.
• Send translation via SMS & Email right from the App.
• Bookmark translation for future retrieval online or offline.
• Landscape Mode support.

Requirements: iOS 3.2 or higher
Price: $0.99
Developer: Third World Apps LLC

Vote for a Review

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

Would you like to see iTranslator 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.

As with many of the default iPhone utilities, the iPhone’s calendar app is fairly middle of the road. It’s a great app with solid functionality and good design, but it could be improved. If you find that the default calendar app doesn’t quite fit your needs, here’s 30 amazing alternatives you might want to check out!

We’ve split the selection below into categories containing apps with awesome functionality, apps that allow you to track holidays and important events, apps that throw in a handy clock feature, apps with a limited but useful focus, and finally, a few calendars that are just plain fun. Enjoy and let us know what you think!

Great Features

Pocket Informant (Calendar & Tasks)

“Pocket Informant is an integrated calendaring and GTD-based tasks solution for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Our purpose is to fuse together best-of-class calendaring with best-of-class tasks into one great solution. Proper task management is essential, but it’s only part of the picture. Pocket Informant is a full featured PIM, so it lets you focus on everything you do in a day – not just your task list. We believe bringing your appointments and tasks together in one place is more efficient than working in isolated calendar and task management systems.”

iTunes Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $12.99

CalenGoo

“The calendar view is similar to the web view of Google Calendar. Events are displayed in the same colors that you use in your Google Calendar. It also recognizes which calendars are visible and which are hidden. So the view should match the view of your Google Calendar as much as possible. ”

iTunes Rating: 4/5
Price: $6.99

Organizer

“Organizer is an iPhone application that works just like a real organizer. You can enter text, create diagrams, use emoji, insert pictures and save contacts just as you would write them down in your organizer. You can also record and play voice memos on the iPhone and iPod touch (older models will require an additional microphone). It is the perfect tool to manage your daily schedule, to-do list, notes or diary. ”

iTunes Rating: 2.5/5
Price: $4.99

GoCal for iPhone

“Life consists of small things, but to remember all of them is difficult. Do not miss more than one item, a business meeting, important date, friends’ and relatives’ birthdays. To make easy the most complicated schedule will help you GoCal. This application will be your personal assistant in all matters. Google has created for everything Calendar, we also made sure that it would become more convenient and accessible for everyone via iPhone and iTouch.”

iTunes Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $4.99

miCal – missing Calendar

“miCal is THE missing calendar for your iPhone and iPod touch. With miCal, planning your events will be much more efficient, well-arranged – and even more beautiful.”

iTunes Rating: 4/5
Price: $1.99

Week Calendar

“See all your appointments for the week in one neatly organized overview. Week Calendar is all new, better, awesome iCal-style calendar for your iPhone or iPod touch. The default iPhone calendar app does not include a week overview and makes it difficult to see all your items for the coming week; Week Calendar fixes this by providing a new calendar overview, in an awesome and stylish iCal-like overview. ”

iTunes Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $1.99

Calendars

“Google Calendar application of your dream is here. Calendars is the most elegant and easy to use Google calendar client available on the App Store. Calendars easily manages your calendars online and offline. It has an unique interface that allows you to move events with simple drag & drop and navigate between days, weeks, months, pretty like in the Calendar application on the iPad.”

iTunes Rating: 4/5
Price: $6.99

Calvetica Calendar

A super clean, Helvetica-driven calendar app with plenty of power to support its stylish interface.

iTunes Rating: 3/5
Price: $2.99

GooCal

“GooCal is an easy, fast and secure way to access and manage your Google Calendar. It supports multiple accounts & calendars and also works in the offline mode if you don’t have an Internet connection available.”

iTunes Rating: 3.5/5
Price: $0.99

TapCal

“TapCal is a schedule management app which pursue the simple design in order for users to do every operation easily and intuitively. It also has many customizable settings and you can customize the app as much as you like.”

iTunes Rating: 3/5
Price: $4.99

Pocket Calendar – Sync with Google Calendar

“For anyone who relies on a digital calendar to keep them on track, Pocket Calendar is a must-have application. Pocket Calendar gives a fast and easy way to manage and modify your Google Calendar with your iPhone or iPod Touch. ”

iTunes Rating: 3.5/5
Price: $1.99

Calendar Alarm

“Never miss an appointment again! Calendar Alarm offers the function you always wanted on your iPhone Calendar: an alarm you can’t ignore because it rings long and loud, so that you are no longer committed to the two short standard calendar beeps. ”

iTunes Rating: 4/5
Price: $1.99

x-Calendar PRO

“The essential x-Calendar PRO for holidays, vacations, custom events and calendar weeks! Particularly easy to use, the App offers different search options for dates located in the past or future. Corresponding information to the calendar week is displayed within a weekly and monthly overview.”

iTunes Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $1.99

Calendar Tracker

“Calendar Tracker is the easiest and most versatile tool to track anything you want. Motivate yourself by tracking your progress in detail, setting a goal/target and seeing how close you are to achieve it. Unlike most apps that are based on a single calendar and categories, with Calendar Tracker you can create as many calendars as you like – an individual calendar for each thing you want to track. You can start with creating just one simple calendar and tap dates to mark an event with a check-mark. Calendar Tracker visually shows you the number of events and the dates.”

iTunes Rating: 3.5/5
Price: $1.99

weCal II

“weCal II uses the Apple iPhone Calendar data and integration options. With weCal II, appointments from the calendars in the Calendar App can be shown and edited.”

iTunes Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $4.99

ActionFocus

“Our goal is to provide not only simple user interface and good design but also powerful features to make schedule and todo management enjoyable.”

iTunes Rating: 4/5
Price: $3.99

SmartTime 4 – Adaptive Organizer

“SmartTime is a logic based organizer and calendar for people who are always on the go. SmartTime is the only app of its kind that not only shows you all of your tasks and appointments on the same screen, but also finds the time for you to get it all done!”

iTunes Rating: 3/5
Price: $9.99

Holidays and Events

Holidays Calendar

“Includes holidays for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, France, Belgium, Italy, Puerto Rico, Mexico – and also jewish holidays (Hanukkah, Yom Kippur, Pesach).”

iTunes Rating: 3.5/5
Price: $0.99

USA Calendar

“With USA calendar it’s easy to keep track of both important historical events and entertaining facts and trivia all in one place. This great little app would be a nice option for everyone who is looking for a day-to-day calendar app without a lot of complication. ”

iTunes Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $0.99

On this day

“On This Day is a stylish calendar that lets you view historical events, birth and death dates on your iPhone and iPod touch.”

iTunes Rating: 4.5/5
Price: Free

Calendar Clocks

Clock Simply – Calendar

“Clock Simply is a simply clock and calendar application. Equipped with a digital clock needed for Alarm, Start-up time correction, World holiday calender and 17 background patterns.”

iTunes Rating: 4/5
Price: $1.99

FlipTime

“FlipTime is a simple desk clock & calendar which is designed to look like flight information boards at airports. It uses actual sound sampled from actual clocks so as to realize the flip-flap feelings.”

iTunes Rating: 3.5/5
Price: $0.99

DeskClock

“DeskClock displays the time, day, date and monthly calendar in a large easy-to-read display on your iPhone or iPod touch – just tap for a full screen year-at-a-glance calendar! ”

iTunes Rating: 3/5
Price: $0.99

Useful and Focused

Streaks – Motivational Calendar

“Streaks is a simple tool for tracking the consecutive days it takes to reach a certain goal. For each day that you accomplish your task, you mark it on the Streaks calendar, motivating yourself to keep the streak going! Miss a single day, and the streak starts over. ”

iTunes Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $1.99

Countdown Calendar

“The easiest, most beautiful countdown app for iPhone. Count down to any date by day, weekday, week, month, or year. Also download from a central repository of countdowns: movie release dates, sporting events, important dates in Apple history, etc.”

iTunes Rating: 3.5/5
Price: $1.99

ShareCal

“ShareCal makes sharing your calendar events with others as simple as bumping your phones together or sending an email! Just pick which event you would like to send, choose how you want to share the event, and you’re done!”

iTunes Rating: 4/5
Price: $0.99

QuickCal Mobile

“Create calendar events using natural language in seconds, and seamlessly sync those events to your phone’s calendars! (Exchange, Google, iCal, whatever!) You’ll be amazed how much quicker you can create events than using any other calendar app (native or otherwise). Nothing is faster than typing what you want!”

iTunes Rating: 4/5
Price: $0.99

4DCalendar: Maps + Calendar

“Organize your schedules by time and space! 4DCalendar is the missing Calendar for iPhone: you can finally see all your events of the day on the Map. Seamless integration with the native Calendar database, so you will have notifications, sync with Outlook and Google Calendar, but with the benefits of having all your appointments organized in both space and time.”

iTunes Rating:
Price: $3.99

Just For Fun

UNIQLO Calendar

“With global capability, this calendar comprises music and images of Japan’s beautiful four seasons, featuring clips of those seasons taken from UNIQLO’s unique perspective. By filming the images in miniature, the app shows clips of Japanese culture and lifestyle from everyday life, taken from a unique point-of-view.”

iTunes Rating: 3.5/5
Price: Free

Fishing Calendar

“Plan your fishing trips based upon information on the sun and moon. Fishing Calendar instantly displays best fishing times for your current location. Quickly choose days and times with the greatest probability of successful fishing. Fishing Calendar stores your catches with photo, size, weight, location… for later analyze or just to tease your friends.”

iTunes Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $4.99

Closet – Clothing Organized

“Closet is a clothing organization/planning application. It allows you to organize your clothing items, create outfits, plan them for certain days, and view them in beautiful full screen mode. All wherever you go at your finger tips. ”

iTunes Rating: 3.5/5
Price: $2.99

How Do You Stay Organized?

There a million iPhone apps for organizing your daily life. We hope the list of our favorites above will help you sift through the mess and find a few apps that can genuinely improve the way you track and plan your important dates.

With such a huge number of apps to choose from, we surely left out a few of the greats. Leave a comment below and let us know about your favorite calendar apps!

SyncPad is the ultimate whiteboard for remote and local collaboration. Forget those whiteboard and sketchpad applications that require you to be few feet from each other in order to collaborate. With SyncPad you just need to be connected to the internet, and you will be able to enjoy a live connection experience, just like if you were working the very same whiteboard, no matter where you are.

How To Enter

Today we’re pleased to announce that we have ten SyncPad promo codes to give away! To enter, simply leave a comment on this post telling us how you’ll use SyncPad with your friends or coworkers. We’ll choose the ten winners at random one week from today. Good luck!

Today we have a real treat for you in the form of an exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming iPad app, Appetites. We first got a glimpse of the app in action at Macworld Expo last month and I’ve been begging the developers to send me a pre-release copy ever since.

At heart, Appetites is a recipe app. In practice, it’s unlike any recipe app you’ve ever seen and will likely heavily influence this entire genre for the better for years to come. Want to see what all the fuss is about? Let’s take a look.

Meet Appetites

Within the first few seconds of opening Appetites, you’ll already be impressed. For starters, it’s a beautiful app. The interface features lots of realistic textures like paper and wood and contains lots of really nice subtle touches like letterpressed text and little page curls.

The thing that really gets you though is the seamless integration of video into every aspect of the application. Mind you, this isn’t homegrown cell phone footage but super high quality, absolutely gorgeous video from real professionals. You won’t want to take your eyes off of it.

Update: See It In Action!

Check out the video below to meet some of the bloggers and see Appetites for yourself!

The Bloggers

The first screen that you’ll come to is a page containing photos of popular food bloggers. The Appetites folks have rounded up some really talented blogging chefs from several different perspectives and backgrounds so you can enjoy a diverse collection of top-notch recipes.

With blog names like “Brokeass Gourmet” and “Lick my Spoon”, you can tell that these bloggers aren’t exactly Martha Stewart. Instead, they’re real, down to earth people with personalities that you can easily connect with.

Each blogger has his/her own distinct style, both in personality and food, and you’ll be able to pick out your favorites pretty quickly.

They’re Alive!

The thing that catches your attention on this screen is that, as you’re browsing the thumbnails to choose a blogger, the photos come alive at random. Suddenly, one of the photos isn’t a photo anymore, but a silent video of the blogger looking at the camera. Harry Potter fans will love seeing photos that come to life in a similar manner to those in Rowling’s stories.

Some of the bloggers are a bit awkward and have a sort of “deer in the headlights” vibe, but others really get the idea and goof around as they smile and wave at the camera and urge you to pick them.

If you don’t like browsing by blogger, just tap the “Recipes” button at the top to see a beautiful gallery containing images of each recipe.

Choosing A Recipe

Once you choose a blogger, you’ll be taken to that person’s profile page. From here you can see their name and website along with their available recipes. The app comes pre-loaded with several recipes from each chef, but also provides new recipes to download for $0.99.

Each blogger profile page contains the animated image you saw on the main screen. When you tap this image, the bloggers will tell you all about themselves. You’ll also learn about their websites and cooking style.

As you scroll through their recipes on the right, tap on a recipe to hear more about it from the blogger. From here you can choose to either cook the recipe or purchase it if you don’t currently own it.

Cooking a Recipe

You might be wondering why you would pay for recipes when there are so many free options online. In fact, many of the recipes that you can buy in the app are accessible free on the bloggers’ websites! What you have to realize is that you’re not really purchasing the recipe so much as a one-on-one private tutorial on how to make that recipe. To see what I mean, let’s take a look at a recipe.

Each recipe contains beautiful, large videos of every single step of the process, from ingredients to cooking. These are laid out in a single vertical column, with each step shown as a card lying on the table. Simply swipe up and down to progress back and forth through the steps.

Each of these quick videos (usually less than a minute) outlines a step in the recipe and contains text along the bottom to help guide you along. When you reach a given step, the blogger that you chose will show you exactly how it’s done while they talk you through it. Ingeniously, the video for each step loops infinitely while the audio only plays through once (unless you tap to play again). This allows you to watch the process again and again as you attempt it, without being annoyed by repetitive audio.

The Game Changer

You’ve seen video recipe apps before right? So what’s the big deal here? Aside from the unmatched integration of video throughout the app that I’ve already mentioned, the videos in Appetites are shot from a unique perspective.

The annoying thing about most cooking shows and video recipes is that you spend the nearly entire time looking at the chef when what you really came to see is the food and how it’s prepared. Appetites solves this problem by giving you more of a first-person perspective so it looks like you’re actually the one doing the cooking!

This completely transforms the video recipe experience into something that feels very interactive and straightforward. As soon as you watch your first recipe, you’ll be hooked and will happily spend hours going through the rest.

Getting More Information

If you’re used to the traditional written recipe format, don’t worry. Tap the tab on the left side of the screen to bring up simple written instructions for each step in an easy-to-read list.

There’s also another tab on the right that gives you a quick look at the ingredients you’ll need.

My Thoughts

I love to cook, but I’m not necessarily any good at it. One thing that I constantly struggle with is that recipes seem to skim over the trickiest parts. Some crazy enchilada recipe simply shows me the end product and says “wrap them like this”, meanwhile I’m ripping tortillas in half and pulling my hair out trying to figure out how they did that. Other recipes use crazy cooking-only verbs that I don’t remotely understand. “Next, steep the herbs and blanch the almonds”, wait what!? Am I just stupid or are those not real words?

With Appetites for iPad, it’s completely different. Viewing every step in a close-up instructional video really empowers me and makes me feel like I can cook anything they throw at me. Other apps, like the excellent selection from Jamie Oliver, do this to an extent, but not to the degree that you see in Appetites.

This when combined with the awesome video snippets of the bloggers scattered throughout the app in place of boring thumbnails makes this app a no-brainer for foodies with an iPad. I can honestly say this is the best recipe app I’ve ever used and has quickly become one of my favorite apps on the iPad.

Conclusion

To sum up, Appetites for iPad is a remarkably unique attempt to re-design the way we experience recipes, and trust me, the experiment is a success. This was one of those rare apps that is hard to sit down and write a review for because every time you try, you just get lost playing with it.

Appetites truly showcases the potential for the iPad as a sort of magical, futuristic device in a way that I haven’t seen from anything else in the App Store. Even if you never cook a single recipe, it’s worth a download just for the experience.

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Talking Cupi. The developer describes Talking Cupi as the “Best Valentine’s day app either to send funny greetings. Cupi repeats anything you say with an funny voice, he can also be poked and pinched and you can even tickle him to make him laugh out loud. Record funny greeting video and send them to your friends. Discover all other things you can make with Cupi. Have fun!”

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

About the App

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

• Talk to Cupi and he will repeat everything in a funny voice.
• You can tickle Cupi and he will laugh.
• Poke him on his head or slap him.
• Cupi will jump to the stars and fetch you one of them.
• Cupi will send an arrow and show you a heart full of love.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), and iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later
Price: $0.99
Developer: Buntar Games

Vote for a Review

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

Would you like to see Talking Cupi 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.

In a recent poll, our readers clearly expressed that they carry no great amount of love for the Apple earbuds included with every iOS device. Today we’re going to take a look at a product that may be just what the doctor ordered for iPhone and iPod owners looking to upgrade to a decent headset without spending a fortune.

The SteelSeries Siberia Neckband is a stylish and affordable set of headphones that I recently got my hands on for a review. We’ll rate the cans on both design and functionality so you can decide whether they’re right for you.

Aesthetic Design

We’ll start with the first thing you notice about the Siberia Neckband: they look beautiful. If you’re a serious Apple fanatic like me, odds are you care a good amount about aesthetics and won’t just strap any ugly product to your head.

Fortunately, this is one well-designed piece of headgear. The contour of the white plastic is super sleek and the harsh contrast between the black grills white plastic makes it hard to look away.

The Siberia Neckband is so attractive that it has made an appearance up in a number of music videos, including David May’s “I’ll Be Watching You.”

Functional Design

The Siberia Neckband scores quite high in the functional design aspect as well. Most notably, the version I tried was specifically designed to work with iOS devices. The manual points out that they’re compatible with the 2nd generation iPod Touch and the iPhone 3GS, but they also worked perfectly with my iPhone 4 and iPad.

The iOS-specific element comes into play with the control buttons on the wire. If you’re familiar with the headset that comes with the iPhone, this works the same way and even looks quite similar.

As you can see, the same three-button design is present here as on the Apple headphones. Here’s a quick rundown of how they work:

• Volume Up/Down: Press “+” and “-”
• Play/Pause: Press center button once
• Skip to Next: Press center button twice
• Previous: Press center button three times
• Fast Forward: Press center button twice and hold
• Rewind: Press center button three times and hold
• Answer/End Call: Press center button once
• Decline Call: Hold center button for two seconds
• Switch Calls: Press center button to put current call on hold and switch, hold center button to end current call and switch

Microphone

Instead of building the mic into the control button like Apple, the SteelSeries Neckband contains a cleverly hidden and extendable microphone. It lives discreetly in the left can and can simply be pulled out for use.

I have mixed feelings about this design. One on hand, it is quite clever and works really well. The fact that it puts the microphone right up by your mouth means you get a cleaner recording (in my testing it fared better than Apple’s mic). However, this feature really only works in a home or office setting; you probably don’t want to talk on your phone in public with the mic extended unless you’re willing to field a few space man comments. The Apple mic is so hidden that it appears to be non-present, which is preferable in my opinion for outings.

Now, to be fair, I only use my Siberia Neckband at home anyway, and I like it that way. Further, the mic does in fact work in the hidden position, albeit not as well. So if you don’t like the extended look, you can keep it hidden.

Comfort

First of all, as the name implies, it’s not a traditional set of headphones. Instead of squeezing your scalp, you place the cans on your ears and let the band rest on the back of your neck.

I had never tried a neckband design before and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve never been a fan of big, tight headbands and this is a really nice alternative. The band expands and contracts so that no matter how tiny or massive your noggin is, you should still be able to find the perfect fit.

The neckband design is also great for any fashion-conscious music fans who like to listen whilst sporting a ball cap (or fedora for you Indy fans).

Ear Comfort

Big headphones can be murder on your ears, especially if you happen to have particularly large ears like I do. The Siberia Neckband does a great job of avoiding ear fatigue through the use of heavy black padding in a cup around the ears.

This makes for an impressively comfortable fit. I have a fairly low tolerance for big headphones and can’t usually stand them for more than a half an hour at best, usually much less! With these though I can typically make it through an entire album (around an hour) before my floppy ears get sore and I need a break.

Audio Quality

Audio quality is definitely the most important part of any headset review, so how did the Siberia Neckband fare? On the whole, I am quite satisfied with the performance of the Siberia Neckband. In fact, they’re easily the best sounding set of headphones that I own. The sound is remarkably full and captures the audio spectrum very nicely. I tested them out with some Miles Davis tracks and the high squeal of the trumpet sounded beautiful, but it was the low thump of the bass that really impressed me; excellent for such a low cost product.

Are they the best headphones I’ve ever heard? Certainly not, and they definitely won’t compete with your $400 studio headphones. But for $80, they blow away plenty of the competition. Ultimately, if you’re a serious audiophile, it’s not going to be easy to find any product in this price category that will please you, but if you’re an average listener who wants a great audio experience without breaking the bank, I fully recommend checking these out.

Here are the tech specs for both the headphones and the microphone.

Headphones

• Frequency response: 18 – 28.000 Hz
• Impedance: 40 Ohm
• SPL@ 1kHz, 1 Vrms: 104 dB
• Cable length: 1 m / 3.3 ft.
• Jacks: TRRS jack for iPhone

Microphone

• Frequency response: 80 – 15.000 Hz
• Pick up pattern: Uni-directional
• Sensitivity: -38 dB
• Impedance: 2K Ohm

Conclusion

To sum up, if you’re looking for a solid set of iPod and iPhone-compatible headphones, go strap on a SteelSeries Siberia Neckband. They’re designed specifically for iOS devices and have on-board controls similar to those found on Apple’s earbuds. The super comfy cans won’t over-stress your ears, the neck resting fit is perfect for anyone who doesn’t particularly like traditional headphones and the sound quality doesn’t fail to impress.

Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. Have you tried these? If so what did you think? If not, have we convinced you to give them a shot?

Want to get your iPhone peripheral reviewed? Shoot us an email or tweet and if we think our readers will like it, we’ll take a look!

Many of the things we have to do each day have to be done at specific locations. From picking up the dry cleaning to dropping off your library books, you have to remember to do certain tasks while in a specific place. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just be reminded of what you need to do while you’re in an area?

Task Ave is a new location-aware task manager that’s designed to help you remember what you need to do somewhere while you’re actually there. You’ll be able to quickly see how far you are from the things you need to do, and can add tasks to locations with the integrated Google Maps or location search. Keep reading to see how it works and if Task Ave will help you keep from making multiple trips for things you need to do in the same area.

Add Your Tasks by Location

Task Ave is entirely centered around location. When you first open the app, you’ll see a default map from Google Maps that will show your current location (if you enable location services on your device). Press and hold at a location to add a task that you need to do at that spot, or press the plus button to enter a location manually.

Since Task Ave is a location-centric app, it works best on iPhone as it can use the GPS to know when you’re near a location. However, it can still work on iPod Touch, and will even find your location if your WiFi network includes location data.

Once you enter a location to search for, you’ll see suggested locations listed underneath. Pick the appropriate one, or change your search query to find the location you’re actually looking for. Task Ave seemed to work best at finding locations in the US, though it did work decent with international destinations. When you select a location, Task Ave will show you how far you are from that place. Now enter the things you need to do at this location, pressing “Done” on the keyboard when you’re finished to add the task. You can continue to add tasks without clicking anything else, which makes it very quick to use.

If you’ve already added tasks to a location, you’ll see the other things you’ve added to the location when you select it. Alternatively, you can see all of your recently used locations by tapping the book icon in the right of the Location box when entering a task. This way, you can add things to do at the places you visit most without searching for them each time.

Remember What You Need to do

As you add things you need to do, your task list will be begin to fill up. You’ll be able to see everything that needs to be done from the List button on the bottom. Each location will automatically show how far away you are from that destination, which makes it incredibly easy to plan your tasks based on location.

Alternatively, you can select Map in the menu. This time, though, you’ll be able to see your tasks overlaid on the map. Currently, each location is shown individually, so if you have many items in nearby locations, they’ll look bunched together. It would be nice if the tasks combined to show the total for that region as you zoomed out, but currently it just shows each individual location as its own pin, regardless of your zoom level.

From the map, you can tap a pin to see the exact location, then press the arrow to see what you need to do there. Now, as you’re going throughout the day, Task Ave. will automatically prompt you with proximity alerts when you’re near the places you’ve added with tasks. Or, if you’ve turned off location services or can’t currently receive GPS signal, just open the app to see what’s the nearest tasks you need to do.

Depending on where you live and what you’re doing, you may want to be prompted when you’re closer to or farther away from tasks. You can tweak this and more from the Settings menu. One odd thing for American users is that Task Ave uses the metric system by default, but if you’d prefer to see your distances in miles and feet, you can change this from the settings as well. You can also turn off proximity alerts if you’d like to conserve your batter life when you’re not actively using Task Ave.

Features and Design

While Task Ave isn’t the only todo list app that lets you include location data with tasks, it works better for location-based tasks than other apps since it’s focused solely on this one thing. Often, focused apps that only do one thing well are better, and Task Ave is yet another example of that. Its clean interface and simple features make it simple to create location-centric tasks. Most apps require many steps to add location data to a task, but with Task Ave, todos are built around locations, not the other way around. More and more apps and services are taking advantage of location data in mobile devices, and this is one of the more useful uses of location data we’ve seen.

Conclusion

If you’ve struggled to remember things that you need to do while you’re in the area, or if you simply want to not have to juggle everything you need to do in your brain, Task Ave is a great app to help you. It won’t help you keep a schedule or plan your meetings, but its great for the smaller tasks that are easier to forget. See, your GPS chip can be used for more than just getting from location A to location B! With Task Ave, it can also help you remember what you need to do when you get there.

Despite being admittedly overhyped by the media, the antenna issues with the iPhone 4 are very real. When I’m doing anything but talking on my iPhone, the way that I instinctively hold it inevitably drains my reception to almost nothing within a minute. Then, as soon as I change my grip, those bars jump back up to full.

However, I have yet to actually go and purchase a bumper. I did look at Apple’s solution but thought that $30 for a such a small ring was pretty outrageous. The bigger problem though is my aversion to cases in general.

I’m what you might call an Apple purist. I love the design of my Apple devices enough that I almost never add any adornment to the equation. My MacBook contains no stickers, skins or clip-on case and my iPhone looks just like it did the day I bought it. I did purchase a case for my iPad, but it’s purely for transportation of the device. When I actually use it, I quickly slide it out of the case (my criteria for purchasing an iPad case was solely the speed at which I could remove the iPad).

Our poll today asks where you lie on this spectrum. Do you protect your iPhone with a case, simply use the bumper to fix the antenna issues or perhaps forsake both in favor of an unfettered iPhone experience? We want to know! After you vote in the poll, leave a comment below and let us know what cases you own and recommend, both for iPhone and any other Apple products!

As always, a variety of new titles coming at you today as we round up some of the best iOS games that you may not have noticed.

Hit the jump for a look at this week’s picks!

What Have You Been Playing?

This was a great week for suggestions and tips, so please keep them coming and we’ll see you next week with a fresh pick!

Lab for iPhone is like using a microscope on your photos, showing you details and information that you never knew about your images. It allows you to see the meta-data, which is automatically recorded when you take a photo, showing you information such as location, resolution, file size, and camera specs. Check image resolution and file size in a slick and well designed interface that looks amazing on the iPhone 4’s Retina Display. Lab was designed for photographers looking to quickly check photo metadata and file sizes without having to transfer the files to their desktop computer.

Whether you’re in the field taking pictures or in front of the computer, with Lab you’ll always be able to read photo metadata at the push of a button. Lab also has an advanced info section which shows you a histogram, exposure details, and more. All this is displayed in a clean and simple interface.

What’s In a JPEG

Have you ever wondered what’s inside a JPEG file. A JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group, which was the name of the committee the specified the JPEG standard) is actually a compression format for saving images. The average digital camera uses a format called JPEG/Exif which has a tiny bit more information than a standard JPEG. This extra information can be extremely useful.

When you take a photo on a newer digital camera or an iPhone, it records several pieces of information. This includes information about the camera (make & model, orientation, flash on/off, the date and time according to the camera, and on newer camera’s it even records your location based on a GPS receiver in the camera. This is a feature that is unique to JPEGs and present in most digital cameras.

While Exif does have its share of problems (only supports JPEG, doesn’t support video) it’s becoming used more and more on sites like Flickr or even in Apple’s iPhoto application with Geolocation. When you’re taking a photo on an Exif supported camera, all this information is captured instantly and saved into the JPEG file. Think of the JPEG file as a container. A large portion of the file is image data containing compressed bits and bytes about the color of each pixel and a small portion of the container is the Exif, or metadata.

Even after you transfer it from the camera, the image Exif data stays in the file. The only way to actually remove this information is changing the file format to something that doesn’t support Exif (PNG, or Portable Network Graphic for example, doesn’t support Exif data).

I’ve Found You

When you take a photograph on an iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS running 4.0, the camera application automatically records metadata about various elements such as your current location and saves it into the image. This is how iLife’s geotagging software automatically determines where a photo was taken.

Say you took a whole bunch of pictures on your iPhone from various spots around town and wanted to quickly check where each photo was taken. With Lab, it’s easy to do all that and more. Just open Lab and select a photo. You will see an embedded Google Map with a pin point where the photo was taken. It’s never been easier to find out this information. Lab also lets you read the timestamps on photos, giving you information about exactly when a photo was taken.

Isn’t that what people are always wondering, when and where a photo was taken? Now with Lab, you can show them exactly that. Best of all, Lab presents this information in an extremely friendly interface that even a novice will be able to use.

A Work in Progress

I like to believe that a developer’s work is never really done, even after they release an application. There are always new features and additions that could greatly improve an application. That’s why with almost every app I review, I like to highlight a few changes that could be made to make the app even better. Here are a few of my suggestions:

• Add the ability to strip out Exif data similar to the functionality found in Camera+. This could easily be accomplished by saving a copy of an image in a different format.
• Provide an easy way to scan other photos for similar geolocation data, allowing them to quickly see other photographs taken at that location.
• Posting to social networks could be an interesting feature addition. The developer could even make use of ShareKit, an open source framework that brings support for sharing images and text with only three lines of code that need to be added.

Conclusion

While Lab might seem simplistic to some, it’s a huge timesaver for any photographer wanting to quickly check the date, time, location, or even exposure of their photographs.

So next time you’re curious about what resolution that picture is, or where that last photo was taken, open Lab and put that photo under your iPhone’s microscope.

We’re kicking off a new post series today called “Ask the Editor”. This is a great way for you to ask questions and get help for all things iPhone. Whether you’ve just purchased your first iPhone and need help setting it up or are a pro with an advanced technical question, I’ll tackle your question and see if I can help!

We had some great questions submitted this week, so read on to find out what my responses are (and how you can submit your own questions for the next article). Two of them are GPS-related so if you’re into navigation, you won’t want to miss this post!

Is there an iPhone app that allows me to input GPS coordinates of places I like to eat or visit, so when I tap “Nearby”, it will list all the bookmarked nearby places?

CT Shop

Great question! So basically, the functionality that you’re looking for is to be able to keep a custom list of the places that you like so that when you’re in a given area, you can quickly see a filtered list of what’s around you. I can definitely see how this is much more useful than a huge list with everything in the area!

Fortunately, Yelp for iPhone has a feature that I think is right in line with your goals. With Yelp, you can add “Bookmarks” for all the places that you like. Then, all you need to do is tap the “Bookmarks” tab at the bottom and you’ll see a map of your current location along with pins for any businesses that you’ve bookmarked.

Yelp is a free app that has way more functionality than we can discuss here. Bottom line, there’s no reason not to have this great app installed on your iPhone.

Out of all the iPhone navigation apps like TomTom USA, Garmin StreetPilot, and Navigon which of them do you get the best bang for your buck?

Lenzi

Navigation apps can be quite pricey so it’s definitely important to do your research and determine which app suits your personal needs best before purchasing. The choices you’ve listed above are all great and very similar in their feature sets. Garmin StreetPilot has had a couple of wayward updates lately that have caused its user satisfaction to tank, so it might be a good idea to steer clear of that one for a while.

This leaves Navigon and TomTom. The Navigon app is a bit nicer and has the added bonus of doubling as an iPad app. However, it’s a whopping $59.99. TomTom’s app has most of the same features and a better reputation for up-to-date maps and will only run you $34.99. So to answer your question of which is the best deal from a price-conscious viewpoint, I’d definitely have to go with TomTom.

That being said, we recently did a review on MapQuest 4 Mobile that you might want to check out (U.S. only). This impressive little app is completely free and offers voice-guided turn-by-turn directions. I was personally happy enough with this app that I haven’t seen the need to purchase one of the pricier GPS alternatives.

Is there an app that will allow me to speak a text message?

Latanya

I think there are a lot of users looking for this functionality so I appreciate the question! There are a few options in the App Store for speaking text messages, but there’s really one app that stands out in this area above the rest: Dragon Dictation.

Dragon Dictation is completely free and has superb voice-to-text capabilities. You can use it to jot down your ideas, update your status on Twitter or Facebook, send an email, and yes, even shoot out a quick SMS message.

Didn’t See Your Question?

If you asked a question but didn’t have it answered today, don’t worry! I’ll do my best to get to it in a future week. If you’d like to submit a new query, you can do so here:

Online Form – AppStorm > Ask The Editor

Need to use more than just English on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad? While many people may never need to use multiple languages, there are plenty of us that want to type in several languages. Plus, even if you only ever use English, you may sometimes want to insert special characters that aren’t on the normal keyboard layout.

Apple has included a wide range of languages directly in iOS, so you can change the main language on your device or simply add an extra keyboard so you can type in another language. Plus, the default English keyboard has a number of built-in special characters you might have never noticed. Here’s how you can use your favorite language on your iPhone or iPad.

Your iOS Regional Settings

Your iOS device actually comes with 40 different languages preinstalled, and all you have to do is activate them. iPhone and iPad can display international fonts on websites and documents no matter which languages you have enabled, but if you want to change your main system language or type in a different keyboard, you’ll need to activate the language of your choice.

Open the Settings app, then select General and then International. This screen lets you change your Language, Keyboards, Regional Format, and Calendar year format.

iOS Settings work almost the exact same on iPhone and iPad, so we’re showing the steps on both devices in some screens and only iPad in others. The only difference is, everything will be smaller on your iPhone.

Let’s see how you can add new keyboard languages, insert special characters with the keyboards, and change your whole device’s main language.

Add a New Keyboard Language

To change your keyboard, tap the Keyboard option in the International settings pane. You’ll see the keyboards you already have enabled; tap Edit to remove a language or reorder them. The language on the top of the list will be the first to open whenever you start typing in an app.

Want to add a new language? Tap Add New Keyboard and select from the 40 layouts  to add a new keyboard layout. Some languages, including Chinese and Japanese, have multiple keyboards avilable, so choose the one that will work best for you. Once you’ve selected it, you can reorder them in the previous screen as before.

As soon as you’ve added a new keyboard layout, you can start typing with it in your favorite apps. Just tap the new button on the left of the spacebar that indicates your current language to switch to another language you have installed. Alternately, press and hold the button to select the language from a popup list.

All international keyboards aren’t the exact same. The Thai keyboard has 4 rows of characters, while the Chinese handwriting keyboard lets you write a character with your finger as it attempts to auto-detect what character you’re writing.

You can use the Chinese Handwriting keyboard to enter English characters in handwriting, too!

Use Special Characters

Sometimes it’s not a full new language you need; you just need a special character. For instance, on a PC, it can be extremely difficult to enter accented vowels and special symbols such as the degree symbol. Once again, this is something that the software keyboard on iOS does better than a traditional keyboard. Just tap and hold on the most similar letter to the special one you’re trying to insert, and then you can select the character you want from the popup. And if you’re wondering, you’ll find the degree symbol as an extra character under the 0!

The virtual keyboard changes in some apps as you’ve likely noticed. In Safari or most alternate browsers, you can add .com to the end of a domain name by just tapping the .com button to the right of the spacebar. You can also use this button to enter .net, .org, or other localized domains based on your regional and keyboard language settings. As you can see here, I have U.S. domains listed as well as Thai domains like .co.th since I have the Thai keyboard activated.

Change The Main System Language

If you’d rather use a language other than English, or if your device came in another language and you want to switch back, you can change the entire system language from the settings. Just select Language in the International pane in Settings, and then select the language you want to switch to. Press Done to activate it.

As soon as you tap Done, your screen will turn black with a message in the language you just selected letting you know that the language is being set. After a few moments, iOS will boot back up so you can use your device again.

This time, though, everything’s going to be different. Almost everything in the default Settings and apps will be translated to the language you selected, and you may even notice some icons being slightly different such as the on/off switch for airplane mode. Most apps don’t include translations, though, so they may still be primarily in English. Even still, it should be easier to use your device in your favorite language. If you don’t like it, you can always switch back!

Conclusion

Apple’s made it amazingly easy for bilingual users to type in their favorite languages or even switch their whole device to a new language quickly. My aging Windows Mobile device doesn’t even display most non-English characters in websites, much less let you enter other languages from the built-in keypad. That’s the beauty of a software keyboard: it’s not fixed to one language.

Do you use multiple languages on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad? Or is your favorite language not included? I personally use U.S. English and Thai keyboards and keep my devices with the default US English language settings. We’ve got an international audience here, so it’d be fun to see what languages everyone uses the most! Let us know what you use in the comments below.