SlingPlayer, the application that lets users stream media from a Slingbox to their mobile via 3G and Wi-Fi, is being released in the summer on the Android platform.

SlingPlayer has been available on the iPhone platform for some time now, but news today confirmed that the popular media-streaming service is making its way onto Android.

According to Slashgear, Sling Media is still working on the UI – although it is thought to be similar in form and function to the one already available on the iPhone.

Videos have already surfaced with both the Nexus One and the Motorola Droid running the application.

Price wise, nothing has been confirmed yet. But if the iPhone version is anything to go by, Android users can expert to be paying in excess of £20 for the SlingPlayer.

Twinkini will be the first Twitter applicaton developed for Windows Phone 7 Series.

Twikini has been available on Windows 6.5 for quite some time now – so some users may be familiar with the name.

Nevertheless, it is now the first official Twitter application – bar the one Microsoft knocked out in 10 minutes at MIX 2010 – for Microsoft’s highly anticipated Windows Phone 7 Series OS.

According to Pocket Lint, the developer behind Twikini is planning to make the app fastest, best-designed and most feature-packed Twitter client around.

The app has a release date pencilled in for when Windows Phone 7 Series officially lands later this year.

Smartphones are much more than just a phoning and texting device nowadays.

As well as cameras, email devices and internet connections, a lot more people are starting to leave the separate MP3 player at home and use one built into their handset.

This has led to a plethora of applications hitting the Ovi store to help you enjoy your music even more but this latest one isn't about sound quality or special playlists, it is about making sure you can sing along with the right lyrics.

When you first open this free application you are made to register with an email address and password but this is very quick and you can get right on with listening to your tunes.

The initial screen has quite a futuristic feel with silver colourings and modern fonts. It offers you your usual music player menu of albums, artists, songs and playlists, so you can get right to the music you want.

There are also options to  go to online radio stations, YouTube videos and the site's community to pick songs to listen to.

Once you pick which tune you want to play, a picture comes up on the left-hand side of the album cover and the lyrics are then supposed to come up on the right-hand side as it plays.

This idea is great and would work amazingly well to find out what that singer is really talking about. Unfortunately, as TuneWiki is a Wikipedia-style community site, the library is pretty limited.

We tried a range of songs on it but most said the lyrics were not available on the site yet and suggested you go and add them.

If you are willing to put the time in and become part of this little community we think you could have some real fun with it. But until this idea really takes off its going to be a little pointless to use.

TuneWiki info

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Platform: Apple iPhone

Cost: Free

Developer: TuneWiki

Website/Demo: TuneWiki on Ovi store

Mobile phones, at one time, used to stay in your pocket when it wasn’t at your ear, but now the likes of the iPhone has so many uses other than phone calls, there’s lots of reason to keep it exposed. But with exposure comes security issues, and that’s where Thief Buster comes in.

The idea is to provide an application that fires off an audio and visual alarm whenever anyone but you so much as moves the handset.

Thanks to the accelerometer and light sensor, there are plenty of options for an iPhone to detect where it is and what it’s doing – what’s important is how Thief Buster makes use of those features.

Arming and disarming involves a unique form of passcode, which uses a series of simple gestures against the touchscreen, rather than numbers or letters.

The three alarm modes include motion sensing, designed to allow you to leave your iPhone laying around; anti-pick pocket mode, which triggers when the iPhone is brought out into the light, and defender mode, which uses the previous modes as a kind of detector for other objects, like your bag.

For a bit of extra security, the app also pumps up the iPhone’s speaker to full volume, regardless as to what it was previously set at, and should your clever thief just turn the app off to silence it, it automatically restarts and sets the alarm off again.

While it does beg the question as to why you’d leave your iPhone laying around – alarmed or otherwise – Thief Buster is a novel app that could almost prove as useful for ensuring you don’t lose or forget your iPhone, as much as stopping it being stolen.

If you’re quick, it’s currently free to download before going back to the budget price range.

Today info

Ease of use:
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Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone

Cost: 59p

Version: 1.1

Developer: FLAG Solutions

Website/Demo: FLAG Solutions website

Download Thief Buster from

We may all love our modern lifestyles of today, be it our 24 hour shopping culture, Wi-Fi in every coffee shop or, of course, our treasured smartphones, but it doesn't stop even the most up to date of people getting nostalgic at times.

Most of us like to take the opportunity to glance back at events of the past or be reminded of significant things that happened in our lifetimes, if not before that.

This simple little app is designed to help us do that but rather than trawling through the history books, all you have to do is download and install this free bit of kit to get going.

That initial process was quick and pain free, which we always finds gives the best first impression when playing with an application. The interface was a little disappointing as although the app may be full of rich information, all you get to look at is a dismal grey and white screen with plain black text.

To get to each different section – with a choice of Holidays and Observances, Births, Deaths and Events – you swiped across the screen to rotate the information. However the response to this was very lackluster and nearly always left you going backwards and forwards to find what you wanted.

The app sets itself to the current date but if you want to look up alternatives then you only have to simply click on the current date displayed at the top of the screen and then a calendar will pop up for you to chose from. Yet again the responsiveness of this was pretty terrible, leading you to often close the application or just bring up the information about developers rather than change the date.

The information given did seem a little random at times – such as the death of a Polish actor and a variety of remembrances solely for the catholic church – but  plenty of interesting facts emerged from this clever idea for an app.

However with its poor interface, lack of responsiveness and overall awkwardness, this nice idea for an application turned a bit nasty after it was turned into action.

Today info

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Platform: Symbian

Cost: Free

Developer: Offscreen Technologies

Website/Demo: Offscreen Technologies website

Although in an age of technology, with smartphones, laptops and netbooks coming out of our ears, many of us still like to make our notes or reminders with the traditional paper and pen method.

However application developers have leapt onto this process and are offering more and more ways to take down notes on mobile phones, making them easy both to write and to refer back to later on.

This is the latest attempt by Offscreen Technologies for the Symbian platform and it is nothing too exciting to write home about.

It is an incredibly simple screen with a plain white space for notes and a black toolbar down the side, offering the option to write a new one  or indeed exit the application and that's it.

You may not need more than this to write notes admittedly but it would have been good to see a bit of inventiveness to ensure the application stuck out from both competitors and the usual handwritten method.

When writing a new note, a onscreen keyboard emerges to use with very small and fiddly keys to operate, leading to many mistakes on our part. We were annoyed as we were using a phone with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard but typing on this would not be picked up by the application.

The listing of the notes was a positive as once you return to the main screen it shows you the last number of notes written with the time and date they were made, storing them in chronological order.

Admittedly this is the simplest of plans for an application so we weren't expecting fireworks and major excitement upon opening, or indeed using, the notes app.

However the awkwardness of typing the note in the first place and lack of attraction in the interface left us thinking we may well stick with the pen and post it when it comes to short notes like this.

Memo info

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Platform: Symbian

Cost: Free

Developer: Offscreen Technologies

Website/Demo: Offscreen Technologies website

We all spend a lot of time glued to the screens of our smartphones, be it watching videos, playing games or just searching through our messages and emails.

Quite often we want to share with friends and family what has engrossed us particularly so rather than all huddling round a tiny screen, why not take a snap and send it off to them through your network?

ScreenSnap is a very simple and easy way to take a screen shot on your mobile phone. The download and install was incredibly quick and we were ready to get snappy in a matter of minutes. An added bonus is the freebie price tag, which always tempts us to give an app a try.

The best place to use it is when taking screen grabs of your apps, so rather than having to describe everything in minute detail you could just send it off to a friend, either as a recommendation or a warning to keep clear.

On a more practical note however, this is also very handy if something goes wrong with your phone. It means you are able to take a picture of the particular problem and show it to an operator or retailer in a bid to get things fixed.

As well as being able to decide where your photos are stored after you have taken them, you can decide which button to use to take the initial snap (although we plumped for the phone’s actual camera button).

There are also options to put a delay on the camera, chose the image type and whether you want the image to be saved or sent.

It clearly depends on whether you think you will need this app whether it would be worth the download time but it is so simple, quick and easy we don’t think you could go far wrong downloading it and giving it a go.

ScreenSnap info

Ease of use:
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Overall

Platform: Symbian

Cost: Free

Developer: Smartphoneware

Website/Demo: Smartphoneware website

Most of us take advantage of the extra features on our phones, be it the cameras, email capability or keeping track of our social networking profiles. The most commonly used added extra with most handsets however is the music player.

If you are loaded with your MP3s and CDs back at home it is easy to take advantage of this bit of your device but for some it can be a hassle to upload everything or they may not even have that much at home to put on.

Here is where the joy of radio stations come in. Nowadays there is a radio station for every taste and variety of tune and it is great to stream onto your mobile. However streaming directly through your mobile browser can be a bore and leave a jumpy sound when you are out on your travels.

Absolute Radio is an app giving you a choice of all three of its radio stations with one push of a button. As well as the usual Absolute Radio, you can chose from its 80’s music station or classic rock station with a lot of ease.

The display is brightly coloured and easy to use. By sliding across the screen you can change your station and a simple bar at the bottom allows you to play or pause what you are listening to.

Although it does stream from the internet, it seemed a lot more solid than when going straight through a browser and it made it much simpler clicking on an app button that going through all the different URLs.

The only negative was how reactive the app was as often it would take a while to register you were trying to change stations and then take quite some time to buffer the stream and get things going again.

It is a free app though and we quite enjoyed the variety of tunes and ease of use so if Absolute Radio is your thing, give this Symbian app a try.

Shopping list info

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Platform: Symbian

Cost: Free

Developer: Absolute Radio

Website/Demo: Absolute Radio website

We've all used many scraps of paper, backs of envelopes and whatever we can get our mitts on to make that ever needed shopping list.

Who knows how many pens we have left in shopping trollies across the countries and how many ink marks have ended up on the fruit and veg, but these shopping lists are an essential to make sure we don't spend hours in a supermarket just to forget the main thing we went for.

Now smartphones are starting to play their role in making sure we remember our produce, offering many note apps to jot things down on. This app has gone one step further though, being specifically designed to make a list for when you are out on the high street.

Obviously the app starts empty with just a black screen and the odd bit of orange and green to brighten up your view but as you start to add items to your products list, you end up with a database of all your usual products.

Once you have your products list, you add the particulars you want onto your homepage list which also gives the page a date, making sure you don't confuse it with previous shopping trips.

Then when you have added what you need to pick up to your dated page, you can head to the shops and simply press on the items to give it a tick and show you have got it. No fiddly bits of paper, no leaky pens, simple as that.

The key to this though is the database. Like when shopping online, it saves your favourites, so making a list a second or third time is even easier and everything is saved.

The app was quick and smooth to download and had the added benefit of being free. We used it regularly when reviewing it and plan on using it again in the future to prompt our forgetful minds.

Never again shall we forget our garlic!

Shopping list info

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Platform: Symbian

Cost: Free

Developer: Kilut Oy

Website/Demo: Shopping List on Ovi

The days of wandering down the high street and coming home laden with bags seems like almost a distant memory to many of us.

Be it Christmas shopping, picking up our spring wardrobe or just doing the weekly food shop, more and more people are doing their shopping in the online world.

Now however it seems mobile app developers are getting  in on the act by creating apps to do that online shopping via your Symbian handset.

One of the flagship e-tailers of our time is Amazon. Originally an online bookstore, it now caters for music, dvds, even clothes, paid for with a card online and delivered to your door.

Rather than having to log on through your PC or laptop, the Amazon app allows you to go straight to its catalogue of products through your smartphone.

When opening the app, it is very simple and clear to navigate. The homepage offers a search bar for you to type in the exact product you are looking for, or the option to pick from one of nine categories on the front page for its best sellers.

Once connected to the internet it provides simple lists, along with prices and ratings like one would get via its website. This makes it quite intuitive to use as it is just your usual destination on a smaller scale.

You can use your existing Amazon accounts to go through the buying process and it really is as simple as the online process, albeit a little more awkward with a mobile keypad than full Qwerty keyboard.

If you are a regular user of the online shopping site but fancy doing it more on the move, this is the app for you, although due to the more fiddly nature as we previously mentioned, it still may be easier to nip onto your PC do get the purchase done.

Yet when something is this simple to install, easy to use and free, why not give it a go as a new shopping method.

Amazon info

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Overall

Platform: Symbian

Cost: Free

Developer: Amazon

Website/Demo: I Need File website

Vlingo has been available on a range of platforms for quite a while now, and now it's hit the App Store with some premium add-ons.

Previously, the app allowed you to speak commands (such as Facebook update: I need a coffee), and the app will convert the command to text and post to Facebook.

Now you can pay for add-ons that allow you to send an SMS or email to contacts already saved in your phonebook. These add-ons cost £3.99 each or you can get them both for £5.99.

Getting the add-ons is simple - Vlingo has put in-app purchasing to full use. All you need to do is select which package you want, confirm your wish to purchase it and enter your iTunes password. The add-on will be automatically installed and ready for you to use instantly.

So once you're set up and have entered the details for Twitter and Facebook in the Apps section, you'll have to take a minute to look through the tutorial and familiarise yourself with the correct terms.

When you're confident you know which commands you have to use to post to a specific service, press the big button and speak into it clearly.

There are a whole load of commands you can instruct Vlingo to do, including find an address or business on Google Maps, search the internet, dial a phone number, send an SMS or email.

The design is pretty basic, comprising of nothing but that Press & Speak button and the help panel below.

In the top right corner, there's the app menu that allows you to select manually which application you'd like to use voice commands for. It's a lot less fun to use Vlingo in this way, but the accuracy is better because you cut out half of the command.

So now onto the negatives.

Like many voice command apps, Vlingo sometimes struggles to pick up what you're saying. For example, we asked it to text our friend Jennifer asking 'How's the feature going?' The app translated this at 'How is the peach during'.

Another issue with texting and emailing is that you can't just send an SMS or email directly from the app - you'll have to copy the text and paste it into the SMS or email app and then send it. This seems a little pointless really, especially as the iPhone doesn't yet support multitasking - you can't just swap between the apps, so Vlingo will close when you enter the SMS or email app.

The service failed to connect us to Twitter at all, which is an issue as this is the social networking service we use the most.

Vlingo would be a useful app if it supported in-app messaging rather than copying and pasting functionality (that you pay for the privilege to use) and the voice recognition technology was more accurate.

As it stands, we don't really see the point of it - it doesn't save time when using the email or SMS functions, although the Google search and Google Maps functionality are a little better.

Take our advice: Get this app, but don't bother paying for the add-ons.

Vlingo info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: Free

Version: 2.0.0

Developer: Vlingo

Website/Demo: Vlingo website

Download Vlingo from

The Yellow Pages has updated its Yell Labs application, with augmented reality functionality so users can actually see what they’re searching for.

Users that download the application will be able to “see” local shops, offices and amenities using the camera viewer – regardless of distance.

When searching within the app, users can touch tagged boxes that display information about specific places of interest – addresses, phone numbers, opening hours etc.

In addition to this, the Yell app also utilises the iPhone’s multitouch capabilities. For example, users can limit the amount of information within their search by moving their finger to the left of the screen. There is also the option to see the most popular searches, which is done by swiping a finger to the right.

The National Trust has joined the Apps party with the release of its first ever iPhone app, which is now available from the Apple Apps Store.

As everyone knows, the UK has hundreds of National Trust locations scattered all over the country – ranging from stately homes to forests, to coastal beaches.

The National Trust App will give information about places and attractions near to them, such as opening times, en-route stop-offs and car parking facilities.

In addition to this, the app can be used to search for other attractions nearby or for the journey home.

“This is the first version of the National Trust iPhone app and we’re really keen to hear what people would like to see added to the app for future versions,” said Phillip Ludgate, Head of Digital Media at the National Trust
 
He added: “Over the next weekend we’re opening the doors of hundreds of our places for free through our Bonus Time weekend, and there’s no better way to find the places near you than by using the new app.

Users can download The National Trust application from

An Android compatible version of Opera Mini 5 is now available to download from the Google Android Marketplace.

Following the unveiling of the Windows Mobile version last week, dejected Android owners can now get their hands on the tab-friendly browser for free.

As well as opening up Android to the possibility of tabbed browsing, Opera Mini 5 also comes with a speed dial short cut screen, and password and bookmark management.

The appeal of Mini 5 over the stock browser are the claims of ultra-quick surfing, achieved by compressing the data by up to 90% in its remote servers before sending the massively reduced package back to the phone.

The fact that it's all done off-handset reduces the demand on your phone's performance, freeing you up to open up yet another app in the background.

To get your hands on the Opera Mini 5 beta app, simply download it from the Android Marketplace or visit the Opera download page and follow the on screen directions.

There really isn’t any information about yourself that isn’t considered sensitive these days, which is probably why secure ‘wallet’ style programs are growing in popularity every day.

Naturally this trend has spread to the iPhone, though not without a few difficulties along the way.

Primarily Apple is against the notion of all these fancy security algorithms running inside apps – despite the fact that it’s the only way to ensure your data is locked away nice and safely.

One of the latest additions to the burgeoning password keeper genre is 1Password, which has one of the vital benefits that few of these virtual password safes can boast – compatibility with a desktop version.

It’s Mac-only software, which is quite a downer for Windows users, but if you have an Apple on your desk as well as your pocket, chances are 1Password is something that’s already in use.

The accompanying iPhone app allows you to transfer your secure database to the handheld device directly from the computer, using Wi-Fi. Since 1Password allows for the generation of random passwords (the most secure kind) manually re-typing this information can be nigh on impossible.

Prohibitively difficult, at the least. Moving over a database from the computer means you’ve got all your info, it’s accurate, and it’s easy.

The app also features two layers of protection. A shorter PIN code to access the app, and a more complex master password for locking away your more sensitive information, like credit card numbers and online banking logins.

Coupled with the option to automatically copy and paste this data into mobile Safari, you’re able to make use of the secure websites on the go.

There are two versions of 1Password Pro on the App Store, so you can test it out before paying to go pro (the pro version still feeling a little pricey, despite its excellent features. Especially if you’ve already paid for the Mac version).

Chances are any existing Mac users will leap on this wallet application, and would be wise to do so.

1Password Pro info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: £4.99

Version:2.4

Developer: Agile Web Solutions

Website/Demo: Agile Web Solutions website

Download 1Password Pro from

Enable Interactive have joined the Twitter application party with the release of its first dedicated Twitter application, called Innercircle, for the iPhone.

According to Enable Interactive, Innercircle simplifies the management and viewing of Twitter lists on the iPhone - it even has the thumbs up from celebrity tweet-machine Stephen Fry.

The Innercircle application splits follow-lists into manageable groups, such as friends, celebrities and colleagues. From here users’ have the option to view a single stream of tweets from created lists, or jump quickly to an individual friend’s account and view all their tweets in one place.

Users have the ability to build lists within the application that are viewable on both Innercircle and Twitter.com. There is also the option to set these lists to private, or leave them open for everybody to see.

In addition to this, Innercircle carries support for multiple Twitter accounts, as well as author tweets, RT, follow and un-follow members, yfrog image upload and inline webpage viewing.

Innercircle costs £1.19 and can be downloaded from 

Since its arrival on the PC scene, Mozilla Firefox has literally spread like wild fire, out stripping both Windows IE and Opera, to become the number one choice for internet users the world over.

And while it has taken sometime, Mozilla has finally released its heavily anticipated mobile internet browser for the Maemo 6-powered Nokia N900.

Installation wise, getting Firefox Mobile up-and-running on the N900 takes no time at all. You simply access the Ovi Store, search for Firefox, download it and open it - simple.

However, once you open Firefox Mobile you quickly realise it isn’t the same as the one on your PC - although, Mozilla seems hell bent on claiming it is.

Nevertheless, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For starters, Firefox Mobile has a wealth of functions and tricks up its sleeve, such as “mobilise” which allows you to switch to mobile versions of websites and the ability to post Tweets from the address bar.

In addition to this, you can also search Google directly from the URL address bar, which will definitely save you some time throughout the week, as will the one touch bookmarking function.

One of the key features of Firefox mobile is a free add-on called Weave Sync. However, to use this feature you will have to set-up a Weave Sync account online, but don’t worry this doesn’t take very long.

The idea behind Weave Sync is ingenious and, for this reason, it has the potential to be something of a game-changing addition to the world of mobile web browsing as it syncs all your bookmarks, passwords, and favourites, which means your Firefox PC browser is exactly the same as the one on your mobile – at least, that’s the theory anyway.

Unfortunately, during testing we couldn’t get the Weave Sync account to connect to the Mozilla server and after nearly an hour of trying we gave up, which was very disappointing as we were really looking forward to trying it out.

Nevertheless, Firefox Mobile makes up for this in other departments. And while it may not be the best looking browser in the world, it does have all the features, functionality and usability you’d expect from Firefox – although, be prepared, it does take some time to find them all.

Another nice feature is the ability to navigate between tabs and settings on the main screen by swiping either, left for “Settings” – where you can manage all of your plug-ins etc – and right for “Tabs”.

You can also load up Firefox Mobile with all the plug-ins you want, which means the customisation options within it are practically endless.

Mozilla built Firefox Mobile using the same engine as Firefox 3.6, and set themselves the task of creating a “PC” like web experience on a mobile handset – and in some ways they’ve achieved this.

Obviously, there are a few glitches, such as Weave Sync, video playback and the fact that it’s a little complicated at first. But overall it’s difficult to be too harsh as Firefox Mobile on the whole is still a very accomplished browser.

So much so, that sometimes when you're using it, you can't help thinking that Mozilla has definitely brought something new to the table with Firefox Mobile.

Lets just hope it appears on other devices and operating systems soon.

Firefox Mobile

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Platform: Maemo

Cost: Free

Version: 1.0

Developer: Mozilla

Website/Demo: Mozilla website

When RIM produces an official application for the BlackBerry it really goes to town on it.

After all, it’s using it’s applications to showcase just how developers can take advantage of all the features built into the BlackBerry OS. 

That’s the intention with RIM’s own official Twitter application, but unlike its IM clients and its FaceBook application, there’s plenty of competition in the shape of all the BlackBerry Twitter clients out there.

Coming late to the game, RIM really needs a hit, but it’s also got to think of its developer ecosystem.

After all, you don’t want to be a developer making a reasonable living out of an application only to find your main competition is RIM itself. So how does RIM’s Twitter application shape up?

Like the Facebook application it’s certainly slick and well designed, with a look and feel reminiscent of Twitter’s own web site.

This is really a tool for the casual twitter. The are are only a few tweets available at any time – to see more you’ll have to wait for them to download.

That’s not such a bad idea for a device with limited memory, but it can be a little awkward if you want to catch up with your friends when you’re down in the Underground.

Even so you’ll find many of the features that have become standard in Twitter clients, from persistent searches to details of the currently most popular topics and hash tags.

There’s also support for uploading images using Twitpic, though at the moment there’s no GPS integration, so you can’t geotag your tweets.

New messages are shown in the BlackBerry home screen, using the same style notifiers as used for email and calendar events.

That’s a useful feature, though we’re not so sure about direct messages and mentions appearing in the messaging application.

The informal nature of Twitter doesn’t really lend itself to fitting in with email – though the application does show just how other BlackBerry applications can link to the device’s built-in software.

This is only a beta application at the moment, and the full public release is still some way off.

With tools like Seesmic carrying on adding more and more features, there’s plenty of competition, leaving RIM is playing catchup with its own customers.

It’s certainly going to be successful, and this is a credible Twitter application that compares well with the rest of the pack.

However were just not sure if an official Blackberry Twitter client is really necessary.

Twitter for BlackBerry info

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Platform: BlackBerry

Cost: Free (Beta)

Developer: RIM

Website/Demo: N/A

Smartphones really do change the way we do things. We used to carry around A to Zs and road atlases, now we have Google Maps.

We used to go into libraries to look things up in encyclopaedias, and now Wikipedia and the web are just a click away. So what’s happening to the dictionary, that staple of the bookshelves?

The folk at Dictionary.com are putting it into our phones too, with their first BlackBerry application, Dictionary and Thesaurus.

Just fill in the word you want to define, then choose Dictionary or Thesaurus, and click search.

The dictionary gives you the definition and the pronunciation, along with a sound snippet of the word so you can hear the pronunciation.

If you’ve spelt the word wrong you’re given a possible match, along with a list of words that could be the one you’re trying to define.

The thesaurus option is more use for creative writers, or for crossword puzzlers, as it gives you lists of different words that have the same or similar meaning.

You can check on what you’ve looked up recently using the Recent button, which gives you a list of your recent searches.

You can cut and paste words from other application, or you can take advantage of Dictionary and Thsaurus’ integration with the BlackBerry’s built-in applications.

Definitions can be SMSed or emailed to friends. It’s a good way of proving to your friends that, yes, you were right (but don’t use this power for evil – so no texting the answers in the middle of a pub quiz!).

Word of the Day is an online version of those old Reader’s Digest “It Pays to Increase Your Word Power” features. 

You get a word, followed by its definition, along with examples of usage – and some important trivia about the word, including its history and its cultural significance.

Where Dictionary.com’s service differs is that it’s multilingual, with a Spanish version alongside the English.

So know we know that the Spanish word “barba”, meaning beard, also means “fan”.

This is really a BlackBerry-formatted version of the Dictionary.com web site.

That’s not a bad thing, but it does mean that you need to be online to use it. Still, it’s a handy tool to have around, and doesn’t take up much space on your phone.

Dictionary and Thesaurus info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: BlackBerry

Cost: Free

Developer: Dictionary.com

Website/Demo: Download from App World

It’s not easy to forget that the BlackBerry is Canadian – after all, many of the applications in App World come from Canadian developers.

One of the more interesting is the free ScoreMobile, from the Canadian TV sports channel.

You’ll probably only want to download this app if you’re a fan of American sports.

You won’t find the Premier League here and the only truly international sports covered are the PGA gold tour and Formula 1 (you’ll have to wait until 2012 for the next batch of Olympic coverage!).

However, if you’re into ice hockey, American football, baseball, or basketball, then this is the application for you, as you’ll get results from the NHL, the NFL, from MLB, and the NBA.

Expat-Canadians will be pleased to see CFL results, while fans of the US College Basketball tournaments will get the March Madness results delivered straight to their phone.

The application is simple enough to use. Pick the league you want to follow (you can customise ScoreMobile to just display the sports you enjoy).

You’ll then be shown the last few days’ results, as well as upcoming fixtures. For each game you’ll get the score in each quarter or half – and if you understand the annotations for the sport in question, you’ll get full scoring statistics for e2ach player.

There are also game summaries, so you can quickly see just what happened during a game.

You’ll also get details of the current league standings of each team, which can be broken down by conference and by division.

One useful feature of ScoreMobile is the various statistical views.

If you’re taking part in a fantasy league, then you’re going to want to know the scoring percentages of each player in your team – though you’ll have to manually transfer them to your spreadsheets.

One useful feature is ScoreMobile’s integration with the core BlackBerry applications, so you can add a fixture directly into your calendar.

That means you’re able to schedule your time in front of the TV for the next Grand Prix, and make sure that everyone knows you’re going to be busy then…

This is an application for the dedicated sports fan, and it knows just what its audience wants.

In delivering it, ScoreMobile takes advantage of the BlackBerry’s unique features, and gives you a clean and clear view of the information you want in a timely manner.

ScoreMobile info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: BlackBerry

Cost: Free

Developer: The Score

Website/Demo: BlackBerry AppWorld website

Your BlackBerry is one of those things that’s always with you, sat in your pocket or on your desk.

With its data connection, it’s an extension of the Internet to wherever you are. The Weather Network, a Canadian TV station, has produced its own BlackBerry application, WeatherEye, to deliver up to date weather information wherever you are.

WeatherEye is a well-designed little application, with a bright sky-blue look and feel. There is some advertising at the bottom of each screen, which you can easily overlook.

Pressing the BlackBerry menu button drops in a scrolling menu, where you can pick from several different views – the current weather, an hourly forecast for the next six hours, a short term forecast for the next day and a half, and a long term look at the next five days.

The graphics on each forecast are clear and easy to interpret, much like the images on any TV weather forecast!

You can jump out of WeatherEye to The Weather Network’s mobile site, which gives you more detail – as well as a 14 day trend, which can help you plan a longer trip.

The website also includes sport and travel forecasts. We were disappointed to find that the “Send to a friend” link didn’t email a weather forecast, instead it just sends a link to a web site where the application can be downloaded.

The map option gives you scrollable, zoomable map, which can be explored using keys or a BlackBerry’s trackball or trackpad (or the Storm’s touch screen).

If you toggle to the control screen you’ll get a key to the rain charts – which are obviously designed for a less temperate climate than the UK, with two codes for ice and two more for snow, and only five for rain!

Sadly this isn’t really an application for the UK. While it pulls in the appropriate weather reports, there’s a lot of missing information.

You won’t get sunrise and sunset times, or short term forecasts, and while you can explore the maps (which are the first example we’ve seem of a BlackBerry application working with Microsoft’s Bing), you won’t get the same overlays of clouds and precipitation as you’d get for, say, Toronto.

However, if you’re off to Canada for a holiday or for business, then it’s well worth installing for your trip.

That’s one of the benefits of the free applications in App World – you can install them for when you need them, and then archive them when you’re done.

WeatherEye info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: BlackBerry

Cost: Free

Developer: The Weather Network

Website/Demo: App World

Free voicemail sounds good, but is it as convenient as standard voicemail? With HulloMail we'd say it's better, although getting started could be a little simpler.

HulloMail replaces the standard voicemail on your BlackBerry, and it gives you lots more options for listening to them if you're away from your phone (or you're travelling and don't want to pay for the phone call to get the message).

When HulloMail takes a voicemail for you, you get an email with an MP3 attachment (in the future you'll be able to switch this to other audio formats if you want). You can listen to the message on your PC in your email software, you can listen to it on your BlackBerry, you can go to the Web page and listen to it or you can call from any phone and listen to your messages the old-fashioned way.

Because it's an email you can forward it (ideal for sharing directions without having to copy them down). If the person who phoned is in your address book you get their name and the menu makes it easy to call them back, send them a text or reply with a voice message of your own. And if you want, you get a notification even if the caller hung up without leaving a message.

Sending HulloMails as replies, or just as messages, is really convenient (even on a BlackBerry where you've got a decent keyboard).

Sometimes you'd rather leave a message for someone - perhaps with details they'll need to refer to, so sending it as a recording they can play back might be just what they want and it's a nice way to send personal messages and birthday greetings.

If they're not using HulloMail themselves messages go to their email address (which come with details for signing up to HulloMail); if the contact only has their phone number HulloMail lets you click straight through to send them an SMS instead (with no recorded message).

The recording interface has just two buttons; to record your message and to listen to it before you send (you also get the option of re-recording it if you don't like it or need to add something). 

You have to choose who to send it to from the menu even though the address looks like a field you can click on.

Again that's just a little more confusing that it needs to be though you quickly get used to it. Recordings are excellent quality and don't take up much space (about 125Kb for 30 seconds).

You have to set up a free account to use HulloMail, which ask for information like the year you were born and doesn't quite explain what it's doing - the message you get that conditional call forwarding has been registered doesn't make it clear what's going on (it just means that HulloMail will answer the calls you don’t pick up yourself - there are instructions on the HulloMail site for having it answer all your calls, which could save money when you're abroad).

You still have to select whether to take your contacts from Google or your BlackBerry, and this takes some time if you have a lot of contacts (over half an hour for 2,000 contacts in our case) and set up your email address for having your voicemails emailed to you.

A wizard to walk you through more of this would be helpful. If you want to record a personal greeting for people leaving you a message you can click through the settings to dial in and record it, otherwise they get a standard 'leave a message' prompt.

If you want to manage your messages in multiple places and always know which ones you've already heard, there's a HulloMail Sync option that will copy these details around.

The company calls it mindbogglingly brilliant'. We'd say it's just a bit mindboggling.

New messages in the HulloMail app have a little yellow dot. If you listen to the message in your email (or any of the other ways you can listen to it) the dot disappears from the message on your BlackBerry the way it would if you'd listened to it on the BlackBerry.

At first glance this isn't that obvious, and we had problems setting it up on some email services.

It's easy enough with Gmail (and it automatically creates a HulloMail filter for you) but if you want to use it with Exchange email at work you'll need to ask your IT team for some of the details.

HulloMail is free (although you pay for any calls you make to retrieve messages and you might need to keep an eye on your data limits); it might get adverts to support the free service in the future and a future premium version might have extra features - and it doesn't work with PAYG because network operators don't allow you to divert your voicemail on PAYG handsets.

That could save you some money, especially if you're travelling, because you get the messages by email or in the client rather than phoning up to get them (which you can do by Wi-Fi on many BlackBerrys).

We'd like to see HulloMail get easier to set up, because it's actually a great service.

You can see who's called you and when, whether you have your BlackBerry in your hand or you're busy at your PC so you don’t have to phone up and press numbers to hear, repeat and delete messages - and you can reply by email, text, voice or voice message without having to write down or look up the details. 

Once you get it working, it's pretty much what voicemail should be.

HulloMail info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch 

Cost: Free

Developer: Hullomail Media

Website/Demo: Hullomail website

You can always look up film reviews and movie times on the Web, but Flixter brings together almost all the information you'd want. 

The Box Office section claims to tell you what's opening 'this week'.

in fact it goes back further than that (at the time of review it was still listing Avatar) but it does give you a good list of new and recent movies.

Put in your post code (or enable GPS to get your current location) and Theatres gives you the nearest cinemas, listed by distance (up to one, three, five or ten miles away) or name.

You can mark the ones you go to most as favourites so they're always at the top of the list.

Click through and you get the address (click to see it in BlackBerry Maps) and a phone number to call (although we had trouble dialling on some handsets as the brackets around the area code meant only the area code got dialled).

You also get the films showing today, with times - or you can pick dates up to seven days ahead.

Upcoming lists the movies opening in the next two or three months and the DVD section has lists of new releases and upcoming titles. 

Search finds films by title, actor or director. Whichever way you get to a particular film, you get the same details - which are certainly detailed.

As well as the ratings from Flixter users and the Rotten Tomatoes review site, the description and cast list there are reviews from professional film critics and online reviewers.

You can click through to IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes or the Flixster site for even more details (although the Flixster  pages were too large to load in the browser on the Bold, other Rotten Tomatoes pages loaded slowly and the links don't always take you to the page about the movie). 

If you're registered with the sites you can add your own reviews; it's a little disappointing that you can't do that through the Flixster app.

If the film is still playing in cinemas you can see where it's on and when. For many movies you can watch the trailer (often with the choice of high or low resolution) - on Wi-Fi the high-resolution trailers are superb quality and stream without lag or buffering.

Low resolution trailers on 3G are watchable but blocky, with some visible artefacts and streaming tends to stop and start.

You probably you don't have the patience to wait for the high resolution trailers to load on a 3G connection (and they repeatedly stop to buffer while you’re watching).

This is a great guide to what's showing and where.  About the only thing you can't do with the Flixster app is book tickets online.

Flixster info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: BlackBerry

Cost: Free

Developer: Flixster

Website/Demo: Flixster website

The BBC brings TV and radio to the BlackBerry; or at least to some BlackBerry models.

The new BBC iPlayer 'app' for BlackBerry is actually a browser shortcut with integration to the media player, so you browse for TV and radio shows on a mobile version of the BBC iPlayer Web site (with standard BlackBerry shortcuts like pressing 't' to get to the top of the page) and watch them in the familiar media player with the usual controls.

As with the standard BBC iPlayer, you can watch the BBC TV channels and listen to the main BBC radio stations live or catch up on shows from the previous seven  days (some series also have earlier episodes available).

You can search for shows by name on the Home tab (which also shows top picks and most popular shows as well as a list of what you've watched and listened to recently). 

Or you can choose the channel or station you want on the TV or Radio tab and pick a day then scroll through the list of shows; there are also lists of categories for both TV and radio, tucked away at the bottom of the page.

For live streams you go straight through to the media player; otherwise you get a page that tells you more about the show (including whether it features 'strong language' and how long you'll be able to watch it for ) where you can click through to watch or listen.

To get a good streaming experience, you need Wi-Fi (and a fast processor, so the app is only available for the Bold 9700 and Storm 2 handsets).

Watch on 3G and unless you have a very good connection you can see a lot of smearing and pixellation on the large Storm screen;  3G streaming on the Bold's smaller screen is more successful, although this currently only works on 3 and Vodafone contracts. 

Video start quickly; even on Wi-Fi you'll usually get some pauses initially while the stream is buffered but once there's a sufficient buffer, video plays without interruption and at really excellent quality - details are crisp and movements fluid, without lag or artefacts.

You can use the standard media player controls to pause (and scroll forward or back in the video for streamed shows, although you'll have to wait for the stream to buffer again).

The BBC puts strict geographic limitations on iPlayer content and you won't be able to watch anything while you're travelling outside the UK, although you will be able to listen to some radio stations. 

The iPlayer on BlackBerry is simple and straightforward with really no extra features. If you go back to a show you've watched before you don't automatically start where you left off unless it's still open in the media player and you can't transfer the list of shows you've been watching from the BlackBerry to your PC to carry on watching on a larger screen. 

The content is the main thing here - if you have the right handset you can enjoy BBC shows in really good quality.

BBC iPlayer info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: BlackBerry

Cost: Free

Developer: BBC

Website/Demo: BBC website

You can read Office documents on your BlackBerry - but you can't print them easily.

You can check in online on your handset for the flight home, but you can't print your boarding card without paying for the privilege at your hotel.

You don't often need to print from your BlackBerry, but when you do it's usually urgent.

Cortado promises free storage and cloud printing 'on any local or network printer' - is it really that simple?

Not quite. Sign up (and type in a PIN for security) and you get 1GB of free online storage.

You can upload files from your PC to the Cortado Workplace Web Explorer and open them on your BlackBerry later, or copy files you have on your BlackBerry into the Workplace directly.

You can also select an email and copy that into the Workplace from your BlackBerry inbox - and you get the choice of uploading the email message or an attachment.

This is fairly straightforward although the interfaces on the Web site and the BlackBerry are a little clunky.

For instance, instead of just clicking on a folder in the workspace to open it, you have to click and then choose Open on the BlackBerry menu and if you refresh the Workspace Web page to see a file you've recently uploaded it puts you back to the top level rather than refreshing the folder you're working in.

You can print emails and attachments without uploading them to the Workplace, and Web pages from your BlackBerry, as well as printing documents that are in your Workplace.

Providing, that is, that you can connect to your printer, which isn't always straightforward.

Bluetooth printers will show up if you've paired with them, but if you want to print over Wi-Fi your printer has to be connected directly to your wireless router too, not shared from a PC and you need to know the IP address of your printer (usually the same as the router) and you have to be on the same Wi-Fi access point.

This doesn't work with a printer that has its own wireless. You have to pick the printer name and model from the list on screen. This doesn't cover all the printers on the market but there are generic colour and black and white drivers for laser and inkjet printers.

That's possible if you're visiting a friend, but unlikely to work in a hotel or someone else's office - and if you want to print at work from your BlackBerry you'll probably have to ask your IT team for the printer's IP address.

Cortado does have a utility to look for network printers, but it's designed for the IT team rather than end users.

Cortado Workplace is a nice idea but connectivity is still too complicated for it to work everywhere. If it does work on your setup it's certainly useful, but don't assume it will work on your travels too.

Cortado Workplace info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: BlackBerry

Cost: Free

Developer: Cortado

Website/Demo: Cortado website

If you're a Twitter user and have an iPhone, it's pretty likely that you're struggling to make a decision which one is best for everyday use.

There are so many available on the App Store, both free and paid, that it can be a minefield to choose which to keep on your first homescreen.

HootSuite is just one of these, but it's certainly worth a download.

To be fair, much of what makes this application so useful isn’t down to the app itself, but the social networking management system HootSuite has already built.

It’s a great looking, organisable in-browser system that allows you to operate all your social networking identities in one place, which feels surprisingly necessary once you give it a shot.

The official HootSuite iPhone application only focuses on the Twitter aspects at the moment, however, but it offers a far more diverse and entrenched experience than Twitter itself.

Primarily, you can manage as many different accounts as you like (great for work and personal Tweeting) and submit a new micro-post to as many or as few all at once, simply by ticking which accounts you want to carry the message.

Simple sliding screens provide you with all the info you need, such as sent Tweets, direct messages, feeds from those you are following and so forth.

It also includes access to some pretty detailed analytics, showing how many people have read your Tweets, the number of times links have been followed and a whole lot more – great for business users.

On top of all this you can take photos with the camera and upload them to Twitter, embedded in a post (HootSuite uses its own URL shortening system automatically, which is first class), create lists, view pages of Tweets based on specific keywords and a host of other functions that Twitter alone doesn’t offer.

Indeed, HootSuite is very much what Twitter should be. Once you’ve started using this system, Twitter itself will feel incredibly limited.

HootSuite info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch 

Cost: £1.19

Version: 1.0.1

Developer: HootSuite Media

Website/Demo: HootSuite Media website

Download HootSuite from

Google has launched an app that allows users to search their phone by writing out a single letter or word is now available to download for Android devices.

Google clearly spends a lot of time and money developing new ideas for its ever-expanding range of services, and the latest release, Gesture Search, promises to make searching on the move a whole lot easier.

You can probably guess from the app's name but just in case you missed your coffee this morning, it allows you to draw out a letter on the screen and it will return all matching entries from your extensive list of contacts, apps, bookmarks, and even music.

If your handwriting isn't very legible Gesture Search will offer up results that include the letters that it thinks that you are attempting to write.

Currently, you have to open the app up like you would any other, but we can see this becoming a powerful tool if it becomes integrated to the point of the standard Google text search box.

It's currently available to download for free from the Android Market store, and contrary to some reports, it's available to download in the UK too, but it'll only work on the 2.0 OS or newer.

Vodafone has announced a new competition offering budding app developers a cool €100,000 cash prize.

The prize pool is open to hopeful entrants from any country, and developers are free to choose their market from the UK, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

In this first round, the winner from each market will scoop €25,000, whilst second place will score $15,000 and third, €10,000.

First place finishers then progress to a second round in which they are pitted head-to-heat in a public vote. Kind of like an X-Factor for mobile apps.

The overall winner will then receive a bonus €75,000 and the runner-up an extra €25,000.

If you fancy your chances you'll need to work quickly, the competition is closing the doors to entries on the 31st March 2010.

For full details on how to get involved, check out the App Star page on the Vodafone Developer website. Good luck!

First it’s probably worth clarifying what XBMC is. It stands for Xbox Media Centre, and although it was originally conceived as a replacement firmware for Microsoft’s first living room console, the popularity of the platform has seen it spread to other devices (hacked Apple TVs, PCs, and such).

This iPhone app serves as a kind of next-gen remote control – dispensing with infrared and sending far more complex commands via Wi-Fi.

Being as we make intensive use of an Xbox running XBMC, this is an app we had our eye on for a long time, but couldn’t quite part with the £1.79. A new TV in the bedroom convinced us to make the purchase, as the infrared extender was very flaky with the Xbox, while a Wi-Fi remote is rock solid.

The app allows you to control every aspect of your XBMC set up, and goes one step further by scraping in all kinds of data about the shows, films and music you’re accessing through the platform.

So choosing a program to watch (for instance) can be done via the on-screen list, grouped into series, shows and individual episodes. Scrolling though menus on the remote control (being your iPhone or iPod touch) rather than through individual button presses on the TV, is immensely liberating.

You do have a more traditional remote control set up, which offers a gesture system as well as virtual buttons. Gesture control is very effective, allowing you to keep both eyes firmly on the screen while still using the iPhone’s touchscreen to navigate.

The buttons are configurable, too, so you can resize, rearrange, add more screens and customise your remote to a remarkable level of detail.

The tall and short of XBMC Remote is that once you’ve tried it you’ll realise this isn’t a nice add-on. It’s an essential part of your Xbox Media Centre set up.

We’d even recommend you buy an iPod Touch just to give your XBMC the remote control it deserves.

XBMC Remote info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Cost: £1.79

Version: 1.4

Developer: Collect3

Website/Demo: XBMC Remote website

Download XBMC Remote from

One thing app stores are never short of is news applications and the BlackBerry App World is no different.

Most take their news feeds from a selection of sources and World News takes its feeds from big news sources such as the BBC, Guardian and Telegraph.

Wen you launch the application, you can choose which country you want to view news from - the app covers the UK, US, China, India, Australia and New Zealand, Germany, France, Canada and Spain. All content is displayed in English.

After you've chosen where you want your news to come from, you can decide which areas of news you want displayed, with Hot Topics listed at the top.

This is a feed of the most popular subjects or tags and at the time of reviewing, the top keywords were James Bulger, Michael Foot and Prime Minister. Under each hot topic, you'll be able to see all the stories tagged with that phrase.

When you select a specific topic, such as Political News, the stories will be listed in chronological order, so there may be a few stories that look to be the same but from different angles.

This is a double-edged success sword, because although it allows you to get a more rounded view of a particular story, it does mean that the top four may all include the same information if a story has just broken on the newswires.

In addition to these ways of finding stories, you can also search the whole app for a subject, although this will only display a certain amount of results, not a never ending list as you would find on a full mobile site.

All of the content on World News is available while offline too, so you can read the stories while you're out of network range - always a bonus on your commute to work.

One foible we had with World News is that it does take a long time to update when you open it up. In fact, there's no point in waiting it to load by itself - best bet is to manually refresh the application using the menu when you first power it up.

Yippidu's World News app is handy for getting snippets of the world's news while on the move, but it lacks the rich content of other BlackBerry news apps.

World News info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: BlackBerry

Cost: Free

Developer: Yippidu

Website/Demo: Yippidu website

The iPhone TomTom app is expected to receive an update in the next two weeks that introduces several new features.

One of the most interesting additions to the 1.3 version of the app is HD Traffic, which provides detailed traffic information and real-time updates about delays on your route, bringing the experience more in line with that of a stand-alone TomTom unit.

As well as appealing to motorway warriors wanting to take advantage of the longer, monthly or yearly subscription packages, the service is also being offered as an in-app purchase on a daily or weekly basis.

When approved, the service will work in the UK, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands, although support for France will reportedly follow hot on its heels.

Pricing for the iPhone app HD Traffic service haven't been revealed, but we can't see it being much, if any, less than the £8 per month that it costs on currently supported devices.

A report at Pocket-Lint.com confirms that the update will be free to customers that have already paid to download the app. If you haven't, the UK and Ireland edition is available on the iTunes store, priced at £49.99.

For more information check out the official TomTom website.

Humans used to use the stars for navigation and so their position was common knowledge.

These days, however, such information is more of a hobby or academic pursuit which can translate into high prices in the App Store. Stars is a free map of the stars which illustrates the location of the 88 constellations that we’ve named in the sky.

The premise of Stars is extremely simple. The stars are shown on a black background – as you might expect – with the constellations picked out in blue.

While is may seem obvious to opt for this colour scheme, it might have actually been easier to have the background white and the stars picked out in black, as the labels and lines are difficult to read on the dark background, a fact that isn’t helped by the reflective surface of the iPhone screen.

As you flick around the stars, you can see a dotted green line which indicates the celestial equator. This is the area of the sky that can be found directly above earth’s equator as it spins away.

Slightly to an angle of the celestial equator is the ecliptic which is the path that the sun follows, around the planet – though essentially, it is of course the other way round. The red is particularly tricky to pick out on the back ground.

To say that Stars was a no-bells-and-whistles app would be something of an understatement. A zoom feature for example would be great. However, the fact is that is delivers on what it promises in the item description in the app store which is more than can be said for a lot of other apps.

The real downside for Stars though is that apps such Planets do its job a lot better and are also free.

If you need a quick positional reference for the constellations, then you could do a lot worse that Stars and if sky gazing is something you’re into in general, then it could be worth a look considering it’s free.

Stars info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch  

Cost: Free

Version: 1.2

Developer: Nelix   

Website/Demo: Nelix website

Download Stars from

As the battle rages on between food label anoraks and trading standards agencies to get clearer-marked packaging, it’s thought that several countries in the world are falling into an obesity epidemic.

Whether you subscribe to this particular theory or you just think its standard scare mongering by the news papers to make a meal out of nothing and increase copy sales, staying fit can only be a good thing.

One good way to stay in shape is to walk. It might not sound like much, but if you were walk down to Margaret’s house for a cup of tea instead of fire up the Fiat Panda and drive your way there, then you can keep up with your calorie consumption and avoid it taking its place on your hips where it’s immeasurably more difficult to shift.

It’s this reason that apps such as Go Pedometer can be a great start to get your on track for healthier lifestyle

The first time you fire up the app, you’ll need to enter your height in centimeters or feet and weight in pounds, so make sure you have that information to hand. Once you’re in, the app has two screens.

One displays all the relevant information such as the amount of time it’s been running and the number of calories you’ve burned while the other is the settings page.

The pedometer page is packed full on information. In addition to the two parameters mentioned above, it will tell you the number of calories you’re averaging to burn per hour, average speed, current speed and the distance travelled.

When you’re ready to head off into the wilderness of, simply press the start button, put your iPhone in your pocket within the allotted three seconds so the measuring can begin and off you go.

While we mooched down to the supermarket to pick up some alcohol to burn off walking later on, the pedometer measured our steps accurately. Sometimes it seemed to double count a step but this was rare and you’d need to do some serious walking before it started to make a big difference.

The information on show is relevant and clear and it’s pretty easy to use. Being on your iPhone means that you’ll rarely leave it at home, leaving your motivation to do a little more exercise the final ingredient for success.

Go Pedometer info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch  

Cost: 59p 

Version: 2.3

Developer: Ilya Suzdalnitski

Website/Demo: N/A

Download Go Pedometer from

Life is pretty complicated these days and, sometimes, everything can pile up and really get on top of you.

Thankfully though, the limitless goodies in the App Store never cease to diversify and you can download apps that will help you on the road to more positive thinking.

Live Happy is brought to you by Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness.

The opening screen provides a shot of Lyubomirsky and a small TV icon which plays a short introductory movie. This reel tells you a bit about the developers that she works with to make the app, Signal Patters that specialise in psychology-based applications to improve wellbeing.

The idea behind the app is to take advantage of scientific studies in the area of positive psychology that suggest a few simple things can increase happiness levels.

These activities are things like savoring a moment and taking a picture, keeping a gratitude journal of all the things that you’re grateful for and setting positive goals and making notes of the ‘baby steps’ that might lead you to achieving them.

There are eight activities in total and a survey at the beginning will help decipher which ones are most suited to you.

When you start browsing around the app, you realise that it’s got a lot of content for your cash. There are lots of videos that explain all parts of the app in detail and also footage of Lyubomirsky appearing on TV shows such as Good Morning America.

Everything is very well put together to and it’s clear that a lot of work has gone into the interface. However, because everything is broken down into more manageable steps to make thing easier to follow, it can sometimes get a bit confusing until you’ve learned your way around.

The usefulness of an app such as this really comes down to the individual. The fact is that it’s been put together by trained professionals in the area of positive psychology and so the techniques are there.

However, you will need to take the initiative and actually invest time in using the features, which involves a good measure of inputting text. From an objective standpoint, it’s generally a well-made app with lots of content for the price and tried and tested scientific methodology at its foundation.

Live Happy info

Ease of use:
Value:
Features:
Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch 

Cost: 59p

Developer: Signal Patterns

Website/Demo: Live Happy website

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Space - the final frontier for software developers looking to make a quick buck.

Many free iPhone apps are pretty pants but when we stumble across one that looks decent, we like to give it a punt. Planets is one such an app. It can be found in the education section of the App Store and provides you with a decent surprising amount of goodies.

The app has four main features. Firstly, it provides a 3D, planetarium-style view of the night sky, showing the constellations and planets.

You can change the background view to settings such as infrared, microwave, though as far as we can tell the effects are just aesthetic. Either way, the 3D view works just as well, if not better, than many expensive applications we’ve such as Go Skywatch.

Next up is a visibility meter for each of the planets in the solar system. It shows you the times that they will visible to the naked eye and also the level of visibility which is indicated by the opacity of the marker.

This is a great tool for anyone that likes to point out the planets and impress someone or indeed, star gazing hobbyists and professionals. The layout is clear and easy to understand, even if you’ve no idea about astrology.

The Globe section is very cool. By this point we were already impressed with the amount of features in the free app. As if the above wasn’t enough, this section shows you 3D rendered and detailed spheres of all the planets in the solar system and also our moon.

You can watch the textures of their surfaces spinning away flick then round to examine specific points such as the great storm on Jupiter.

Finally, you can view a two-dimensional view of the night sky and constallations. If spinning around the planetarium view is making you dizzy then this view should let you browse the stars in a way that you’re probably more used to.

We were expecting this application to have adverts and the likes to make up the funds but there wasn’t one in sight. It’s brilliantly put together, easy to use, packed with great features and best of all, it’s free.

Planets info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.7

Developer: Q Continuum

Website/Demo: Q Continuum website

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