@app-review Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Touch Press The Elements for Mac -- Entertaining for Everyone

by Ilene Hoffman (Sep 5th, 2013)

When The Elements for iPad by Touch Press came out in 2010, I was absolutely captivated by the clarity, precision and beauty of the graphics and information. It took a potentially boring topic for most of us -- the periodic table -- and brought it to life in a wonderful presentation that is ...

CanOpener is an excellent app for listening with headphones on iOS

by Mel Martin (Sep 4th, 2013)

There have been several apps designed to enhance the experience of listening on headphones, using a variety of digital manipulations of the signal. CanOpener is a new entry in the audio app derby, and it's a solid debut. CanOpener is a US$4.99 universal app with an extensive feature set. A ...

On-the-fly business portraits are a snap with George

by Mel Martin (Sep 3rd, 2013)

Here's a handy iOS app for a very specific task: Using the iPhone camera to create a nice looking snapshot for resumes, Linkedin or any business use. The app, called George - Quick Business Portraits (US$0.99) makes the process easy if you think ahead before you snap the photo. What makes the app ...

Beautune is a capable OS X editor for making portraits

by Mel Martin (Aug 30th, 2013)

The digital era has given us a bountiful selection of apps to improve portraits we take. Photoshop, long the favorite for improving and retouching, is being challenged by a variety of apps that complete a single task -- improve portraits. Beautune, released today in the Mac App Store, is a US$49.99 ...

Friday Favorite: Jimdo

by Steven Sande (Aug 30th, 2013)

Back in the "good old days," Apple had a nice little app called iWeb that was part of the iLife suite. It was designed to let anyone easily design and publish a website, and despite some failings, it did a pretty good job. iWeb has been ignored by Apple for some years now, and the demise of MobileMe ...

DeskConnect delivers Mac-to-iOS quick sharing

by Michael Rose (Aug 29th, 2013)

The forthcoming AirDrop functionality in iOS 7 will deliver a straightforward way for some iPhones and iPads to quickly share photos, contacts and more. That's great -- but, aside from the fact that iOS 7 isn't yet generally available, there are a few other flies in the ointment. Even though iOS 7 ...

Daily iPad App: Dig deep with Terraria

by Mike Wehner (Aug 29th, 2013)

The easiest way to describe Terraria would be to say that it's like a 2D version of Minecraft, but this would also be selling the game short in many regards. The familiar sandbox gameplay mechanics that the two titles share -- things like gathering resources and crafting items -- mask a much ...

Reward Summit tracks your credit card reward programs so you don't have to

by Kelly Hodgkins (Aug 29th, 2013)

Reward Summit is a new finance app that has one goal in mind -- help you save money by using the right credit card when you make a purchase. The app tracks your credit card reward programs and tells you which card will save you the most money when you buy that big-screen TV. Reward Summit only ...

Night Vision Camcorder offers low-light iOS video capture, sleazy marketing

by Erica Sadun (Aug 28th, 2013)

For US$1.99, the Night Vision Camcorder app does exactly what it says on the label. It enhances sensors so you can better see and record low-light sources. The marketing for this app, which was developed in Russia, is frankly appalling. It shows numerous young "hotties" in a low-light club ...

Blackbar: A fascinating word/puzzle game and cautionary tale

by Steven Sande (Aug 28th, 2013)

The first thing that caught my attention about Blackbar (US$2.99) was the icon, showing a black-and-white photo of a woman with a black censor bar across her eyes. After that, it was finding out that developers Neven Mrgan and James Moore were involved in the project. Mrgan was formerly a designer ...

Review: Pic Scanner is a good idea, but incomplete

by Mel Martin (Aug 28th, 2013)

The "free" Pic Scanner app for iPhone and iPad (universal) has a lot of promise, but fumbles on the details. The app lets you put up to three photos you want to digitize on a blank piece of white paper. Focus and snap, and the app automatically will crop the photos and let you work on them ...

PhatPad offers decent handwriting recognition and numerous sharing options for digital inkers

by Kelly Hodgkins (Aug 28th, 2013)

PhatPad is a note-taking app from PhatWare with a long history that extends back to the early days of Windows Pocket PC. It transitioned to the iOS platform with an iPad app that debuted a few years back. The company is known for its digital inking solutions, which let you write on a tablet device ...

Daily iPhone App: PicPlayPost lets you add images and video to your collage

by Kelly Hodgkins (Aug 27th, 2013)

There are dozens of collage apps that let you put borders around your pictures, but PicPlayPost does something a bit different. It lets you place both pictures and video into customizable frames and then share those multimedia creations with the world. PicPlayPost is a collage app, and like any ...

tadaa 3D creates the illusion of depth in your iPhone pix

by Mel Martin (Aug 27th, 2013)

tadaa 3D doesn't create real 3D images, but it can bring some depth to your photos and the result will likely delight friends and family. The US$3.99 app is disarmingly simple to use. (The app is listed as free as of August 30. That may change.) You can snap a photo from within the app, or create a ...

Parallels Access works to 'applify' desktop apps for the iPad

by Steven Sande (Aug 27th, 2013)

What if I said that I was writing this post in Microsoft Word ... on an iPad? No, it's not Microsoft's native iOS app for Office 365 subscribers, and not a third-party workalike that's been stripped of features, either. It's the same application that I use on my Mac -– in fact, it's ...