"If there is an app for that"

Tap Towards Your Dreams in VOEZ, a New Music Rhythm Game

May 31, 2016 by macjeff

VOEZ (Free) by Rayark International Limited is a gorgeous rhythm music game that puts the spotlight on J-pop. If you’re a fan of games like Dance Dance Revolution or the classic Tap Tap Revenge, and enjoy a bit of catchy J-pop tunes, then VOEZ is one to check out. It’s an fine addition to the other fine games from Rayark, including Cytus, Deemo, and Implosion – Never Lose Hope.

Back when I was in high school, I hung out with a group of friends who were super into Japanese culture and anime, which rubbed off on me. Even though I haven’t kept up with animes in the past few years, I still love Japanese culture and the anime and manga art style. I also remember listening to my fair share of J-pop back in the day, and that was when those music games with plastic peripherals were all the rage. While I definitely wasn’t the best with music games back then, I still enjoyed them a lot since they were challenging and just downright fun. I’m not too familiar with Cytus or Deemo since I haven’t had the chance to check them out, but with VOEZ featured on the App Store, I couldn’t pass it up, especially since I liked Implosion a lot.

Visually, VOEZ is stunning. It features beautiful hand-painted anime-style art and visuals, which will appeal to anyone who is even the least bit interested in Japanese culture. The art for each of the characters is rendered gorgeously, and all of the colors are soft but still vibrant enough to stand out. The musical notes are simple shapes and lines that fall down onto the screen in brightly colored sections, so while it looks simple enough, things still get pretty tricky as you up the difficulty levels for each track. All animations in VOEZ are smooth and fluid, which is necessary for a musical rhythm game, but be prepared for somewhat long wait times as the game loads up all of the data needed for each track. It reminds me of those times I play on my PlayStation 4 and have to load up the next section in a game — yeah, the wait between tracks can be that long. Hopefully they can make it a bit quicker in the future.

Since this is a rhythm game, the meat of VOEZ is all about the musical tracks that are included. The initial download includes a good amount of different tracks that you can play and unlock as you make progress, and the developers are planning to add more each month. If you’re looking for American music, then you should turn back now — there is nothing but dynamic J-pop songs that will sound a bit differently depending on how you perform. But if you’re a fan of the music genre, then you’ll find yourself in a slice of heaven with VOEZ. I found the songs to be soothing and catchy, and once you get some practice with tapping to the beat, things get pretty addictive.

Like other music games, VOEZ has a lot of songs that are available with the initial download, but you’ll have to clear songs in order before you can unlock them all. Or, if you’re impatient and want to get a later song now, you can unlock them by using “keys” that are earned from playing, or you can pay to unlock it through in-app purchase. There are also in-app purchases to get more keys too. I’m not that big of a fan of this system, since it doesn’t seem like unlocking new songs requires too much skill. At least you get a good variety of songs to start with, though.

VOEZ is rather interesting since it’s a music game but there is a storyline to it. In VOEZ, players will meet Chelsea and her high school classmates, who come together and make their mutual dream come true by forming a band together, which is called VOEZ. They will face hardships together, but their end goal is to make sure that the world knows their music. It’s a pretty cliché plot, in my opinion, but it works for the game, art, and music. And it does add another layer of depth to the game’s journey, which is nice to have.

Controls in VOEZ are simple enough. With single notes, you will want to tap on them as they hit the line. The longer notes require you to tap-and-hold the screen, even slowly moving your finger in the direction that the lines are going toward. Then there are single notes that require a swipe in the direction they’re pointing at. While this all may sound easy enough, like with any other rhythm game, things can get pretty fast and hectic, especially in the higher difficulty levels, so you’ll need good hand-and-eye coordination to keep up with the beat. To make things more complicated, each track has dynamic notes, meaning that the lines for the notes can move around on the screen, so you’ll have to make sure you keep a close eye on them. These small additions to the gameplay make VOEZ stand out from the competition, and it makes things much more interesting than the status quo for music games.

I’ve only started on VOEZ a bit over the weekend, but so far I’m finding the game to be fun and enjoyable, despite the weird system for unlocking songs. The art is superb, the tunes are fun and memorable if you’re into J-pop at all, and the controls are simple enough to learn even for music game novices. However, the dynamic gameplay for each song makes the game refreshing and challenging, so if you’re looking for a test of your rhythm, then VOEZ will do rather nicely. I just want to see shorter load times for each track and a better unlock system in the future, but I am looking forward to checking out monthly new tunes.

I recommend VOEZ to anyone who is into music rhythm games, or just enjoy J-pop and anime-style art in general. VOEZ can be found on the App Store as a free universal download with in-app purchases.

Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews

If Your Mac is Lost or Stolen Track My Mac is Your Best Friend

May 31, 2016 by macjeff

Track My Mac iPhone App

When the unthinkable happens and you realize your Mac is not where is should be, you don’t have to panic if you’re prepared.

Track My Mac is the ideal solution for anyone who values their MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.

Features:

Track My Mac from MacKeeper developers and Kromtech Alliance Corp., goes well beyond the capabilities of the standard “Find My Mac” from Apple. Sure that functionality works, but this is a leap beyond.

Setting it up is a trivial exercise; you download the app to your iPhone and download the Mac application from MacKeeper which includes a built-in Anti-Theft tool.

Once you’ve done that you simply authorize your Track My Mac, turn on the Location Tracker and set up the lock screen. We do want to point out though that the complete process also requires you to go to the Anti-Theft tab in MacKeeper and click “Install Anti-Theft” on its Welcome Screen.

Track My Mac iPhone App

At this point you’re good to go and you will be able to see where your Mac was last located (it’s up-to-date location) and, if necessary, waste no time in reporting your Mac as stolen directly from your iPhone, and protect your Mac from unauthorized access attempts.

Functionality:

An app like this cannot be a “sometimes” app, it needs to work reliably and consistently. In fact, in our extensive testing we found this app to be just that; reliable and consistent.

We were very impressed with the app’s ability to generate its Anti-Theft Location Report along with an iSight photo of whoever is directly in front of the Mac’s camera (presumably the thief) and send it directly to your iPhone.

Furthermore, in the event that someone is trying to gain access to your precious Mac when the screen is locked without knowing the password, when they enter an incorrect password you will receive a Lock Screen Location Report with an iSight photo of the intruder directly to your iPhone.

Overall Value:

We wish this app could somehow get the Mac to a FedEx box and ship it back to you but we’re still impressed with it. It’s an extremely easy-to-use app and does exactly what it says it will. We found it to be a step above the facility provided by Apple and well worth the minimal effort required to add it to your devices.

Plus, the fact that you can use it with an unlimited number of Macs makes it incredibly useful in any type of group, business, or school situation.

Do we wish this app had a PC counterpart? Oh yeah, we do. Afterall there are some weirdos out there who use an iPhone with a PC (can you believe it?).

But seriously, for anyone who has shelled out their hard earned bucks for a MacBook, you would be well served to use Track My Mac.

Track My Mac requires iOS 8.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Bookmark apps and iTunes content and install them later with Lookmark for iPhone

May 28, 2016 by macjeff

Lookmark for iPhone by developer Claes Jacobsson received a major update yesterday, prompting me to take another look at this interesting piece of software.

With Lookmark, you can bookmark apps and other iTunes content very easily from Safari, other apps and your desktop, and install/download them later when the time is right. Yesterday’s update added a Share sheet extension which can save apps mentioned on any webpage.

Saving apps and iTunes content for later

The premise of Lookmark is simple: save iTunes content like apps, movies, music, books and more. And piece of iTunes content can be bookmarked on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, including apps on the App Store as well as music, movies, television shows, podcasts, books and audiobooks on the iTunes Store.

Lookmark All the Things! https://t.co/8rLe9HTccq pic.twitter.com/hJrpDwXjek

— LOOKMARK (@lookmarkapp) May 25, 2016

With Lookmark’s extension, you can quickly save App Store apps from any app which supports iOS’s multi-purpose Share sheet, including all of Apple’s iTunes content apps: App Store, iTunes Store, Podcasts, Music and iBooks.

The Share sheet extension is very smart: after invoking it, it’ll scan what’s on a webpage and capture any mention of apps and iTunes media, allowing you to save them all in one go with a simple tap.

The app will even alert you via a push notification when Wi-Fi is available so that you don’t download apps over a cellular connection.

Lookmark Plus and desktop Safari extension

Lookmark is not confined to mobile devices. You can save apps and other iTunes content for later when browsing the web on your computer with Lookmark’s Safari for Mac extension (Chrome fans can download Lookmark’s extension here).

And content saved for later on your computer instantly appears in Lookmark on your iPhone.

This lets you use Google search to find apps on the web and install them easily to your iPhone without needing to manually send an iTunes URL to your iOS device via AirDrop.

If you subscribe to Lookmark Plus, you will be notified when prices of apps you have bookmarked change in the App Store, which is very useful if you’re a bargain hunter.

A six-month Lookmark Plus subscription is available as a $4.99 In-App Purchase.

Pricing and availability

Lookmark requires an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with iOS 8.0 or later. The English-only app lacks a native iPad interface and doesn’t currently support the Apple Watch.

You can download Lookmark at no charge on the App Store.

Google’s iOS app gains Accelerated Mobile Pages, sports highlight videos in Now cards

May 28, 2016 by macjeff

Google’s native Search application for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad this morning received a newsworthy update in the App Store, gaining faster browsing with support for Accelerated Mobile Pages from major publishers and another feature which allows you to instantly watch sports highlight videos in Now cards.

The app’s available for free on the App Store.

News and articles that load instantly are distinguished by a lightning bolt and "AMP" next to them in the Top Stories section of your search results.

And whenever you get a sports highlights Now card, you can now tap the Play button and watch the video right there, no need to load a new webpage.

Accelerated Mobile Pages, an initiative that the search giant announced in October 2015 strives to tackle the problem of slow loading times on mobile due to ad tracking and other JavaScript code injected into webpages.

Designed to rival Facebook’s Instant Articles, Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages are optimized articles from Google’s content partners which are hosted on Google’s servers and optimized for delivery on mobile devices.

The goal for these articles is to appear on your iPhone and other mobile devices almost immediately after clicking a link in Google search results.

Today’s update arrived ten days following the previous release which brought out much-needed support for hardware keyboard shortcuts for iPad users and the ability to see the busiest hours for places and local businesses directly in the search results page.

Download Google’s iOS app for free on the App Store.

Get the Best Fuel Price With the 7-Eleven Fuel App

May 28, 2016 by macjeff

7-Eleven Fuel iPhone App

When we first found out about 7-Eleven Fuel App from 7-Eleven Stores we thought that it was a great idea.

7-Eleven Fuel is a great app for Aussies to find the best local price of fuel and lock it in at their 7-Eleven fuel store.

While we do like the overall functionality and features of this utility, there areas where it could be improved.

From the perspective of someone who just wants to get the best price of fuel, this app is lacking because it works only with their brand and their gas stations.

Concept and Idea

As for the app itself, the concept of the app is quite interesting and very well-thought.

Assuming you do prefer to patronize 7-Eleven, this app offers great value to its customers, and of course, it’s great for the company because it creates brand loyalty and it is a great way to attract new customers.

The idea is that the customers save money with reserving or locking the prices of the fuel. If there is a change in the price and that price is above the locked price they will not pay that price, but the locked one.

However, the great thing is that if the price get’s lower then the locked price, they will pay the lower price. So, the customer will always benefit. The is where the app shines and presumably gets drivers in Australia to use 7-Eleven Fuel stores more often.

Features and How to Use it

7-Eleven Fuel iPhone App

Everything that you need is tailored in 4 steps. First you need to choose the fuel type, then you need to find your best local fuel price, get the card and top it up and as final step you need to lock it in.

Functionality and UI

Although the concept is good on paper, there are several flaws in reality. First of all, it appears that you need to use a credit card to lock in the price. If you don’t have a credit card or prefer to use cash you’re out of luck. On top of that the app only works with Visa or Master Card.

Another drawback is that you can use only one lock in. If you have multiple vehicles this can be frustrating. Also, you can’t put the exact amount of money as input.

The user interface is fair but could be improved to be simpler to use. Things could be better organized and arranged in an easier way. It takes a bit get the hang of how this app works.

Final Thoughts

This is a great idea and a great concept that many other gas stations around the world will no doubt implement.

We’d like to see the developers work on improving the overall user experience and add some features, such as accommodating multiple vehicles and letting folks pay with cash. This could help families to save money, especially the ones that heavily depend on vehicle transport.

7-Eleven Fuel requires iOS 9.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.