"If there is an app for that"

Snapseat Makes Browsing Movie Showtimes Beautiful and Fun

June 22, 2016 by macjeff

Snapseat - Browse nearest cinema movies ($0.99) by Mads Jensen is the most beautiful showtimes app you’ll find on the App Store. If you love going to the movies, especially now in the summer, then this app is worth checking out.

Summer is officially in session, and that means a lot of trips to the movie theater, at least for me. While many of the summer blockbusters have already made their debuts this year, there are still some good films to look forward to, such as “Independence Day: Resurgence” this week, “Ghostbusters” next month, and even “Doctor Strange” later in the year. I’ve been to the theaters numerous times already in the past couple of months, since it seems the most interesting films start coming out in May. And like many of you, I use apps like Moviefone or Regal to check showtimes when I’m planning an outing with my friends and family. But let’s face it — those apps aren’t necessarily pretty to look at, though they get the job done. So when I came across Snapseat, I was in awe from how gorgeous the app looked, so I had to check it out myself.

In terms of aesthetics, Snapseat is downright stunning. It places a lot of focus on the visuals of films, as it features thumbnails of the posters on the left column on top of another lead image from the movie (it could be a closeup of the poster or not). You can also easily identify the movie since the title is in fairly big text on top of the image, and the average star rating and showtimes are displayed underneath. The best part about Snapseat are the subtle but smooth animations as you transition from the listing view to see movie details, as well as the amazing parallax effect as you scroll, which makes everything pop out with a 3-D effect. It’s great eye candy, and pretty refreshing to see in the showtime app genre.

When you launch Snapseat and grant it permission to use your location, the first thing you’ll see is a list of movies that are playing near you. The current city that you are in will be shown at the top of the screen, and the showtimes for each film appear in a line under the titles. Naturally, the newer movies are on the top, and you’ll see older movies (along with fewer showtimes) as you scroll down.

To view a movie, just tap on it to get a brief synopsis, director, genre, and rating info. Snapseat also lets you watch high-definition trailers just by tapping on the “Play” button. You also get to see how Trakt.tv users are reacting to the film, in case what other people think will sway you one way or another in regards to seeing the movie. And since this is still a showtimes app, Snapseat shows you up to six theaters in your current area that are playing the movie as well as the times they’re showing the movie. When you find a time that you think works for you, just tap on it, and you can share the movie with your friends to plan an outing, or you can book tickets directly through movietickets.com. It’s an overall super easy process.

If you’re interested in checking out what is upcoming, just tap on the calendar icon in the floating tab bubble at the bottom of the listing section. The Upcoming section works a bit differently than the “Out Now” view. In Upcoming, you can see the movie posters and parallax effect images, but rather than have showtimes, you see the announced release date and “how hot” the movie will be, based on data from Trakt.tv. Tapping a movie will let you watch a trailer (if available), and you’ll get a plot summary, director info, and you can have Snapseat alert you to when the movie is going to be in a theater near you.

Overall, I like using Snapseat because it looks fantastic, and it gives me the information I want to know in a glance. However, I did notice some odd things about it that made the experience a little disappointing. First, a new premium theater opened up near my house (Harkins) but it does not appear in Snapseat yet. I’m not sure how the app is getting the info for nearby theaters, but I hope to see added in Snapseat soon enough. It’s also a bit annoying that you can’t favorite your preferred theaters, as it will just show you the six closest ones near you. The other thing that can be improved is the fact that the showtimes only apply to today, so you can’t check on what the showtimes will be tomorrow or over the weekend in advance. So planning a movie outing with friends and family can be tricky, unless you let everyone know in the morning that you want to see a movie later in the evening. Hopefully this changes in the future. I also found it a bit odd that while “Indepence Day: Resurgence” comes out this Friday, June 24, it is nowhere to be found in Snapseat last time I checked the Upcoming section.

While Snapseat is beautiful and polished, there is still a lot of room for improvement. However, if the flaws I mentioned don’t bother you, then I recommend giving Snapseat a try. I’ll be keeping it on my phone, but hope to see changes in future updates.

Snapseat – Browse nearest cinema movies is available on the iPhone App Store for just $0.99.

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

Free Apps to Download TODAY ONLY 06/22/2016

June 22, 2016 by macjeff

Give It Up! 2 , Antioxidants , Off to bed! Boys and girls - Interactive lullaby storybook app for bedtime and more

Universal:

Give It Up! 2 ( $0.99 → FREE )

Blob and his friends love to bounce. The only problem is, there are giant steps and spikes standing in their way. You must tap to the beat to help them bounce to safety. The game includes 27 stages with hidden bonuses, and original music that changes dynamically during the game.

Antioxidants ( $1.99 → FREE )

Antioxidants includes ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) values for over 350 popular foods. The higher the ORAC, the better the food. The app allows you to browse through the top 20 foods, sort all foods by their ORAC value, or sort all foods alphabetically. You’re also able to search for specific foods. Each entry includes additional details as well.

Off to bed! Boys and girls - Interactive lullaby storybook app for bedtime ( $2.99 → FREE )

Off to Bed provides a soothing, interactive reading experience. Follow along with the narrator as the young child in the story learns all about the ritual of falling asleep. Each scene is loaded with interactive animations and educational elements that can be activated in a variety of ways.

Shark Puzzles for Kids Jigsaw Wonder Collection ( $1.99 → FREE )

You won’t be able to resist the wonder of this jigsaw puzzle game. Each of the 44 jigsaw puzzles features a breathtaking shark photo to reconstruct. The jigsaw puzzles can be broken up into as few as four pieces and as many as 24. You’re also able to choose whether or not you want a colored background and outline hints. What more could you ask for?

Week Cal Widget for iOS calendar ( $1.99 → FREE )

iCal Widget isn’t a standard calendar app in any way, shape, or form. It taps into your iDevice’s native calendar app in order to populate a Today view widget with everything that’s coming up on your schedule. When you launch the app itself, you’re greeted with ways to customize the look and content of the widget. iCal Widget includes a day timeline, a week timeline, and the ability to scroll through days and weeks.

Source link: http://appadvice.com/apps-gone-free

Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

June 22, 2016 by macjeff

Everyone likes free apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up fast. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.

The post Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source link: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/daily-app-deals-ios-06-22-2016/

Take Your Photography Seriously with Exify

June 21, 2016 by macjeff

Exify - Tools for Photos ($1.99) by The Iconfactory is the latest app from the developers behind popular apps like Twitterrific and Astronut. If you’re a fan of The Iconfactory and have any interest at all in your photography, then Exify is an app worth taking a look at.

Ever since the iPhone 4 (arguably the most significant turning point of iPhone photography), I have abandoned traditional digital cameras and just rely on my iPhone for all of my photo taking, whether it’s every day moments, special occasions, or new adventures. I don’t consider myself a professional, of course, but I just enjoy taking photos as a hobby in my spare time. Still, I’m always curious about the metadata that can be found in my photo files, despite not having professional lenses and whatnot. So when The Iconfactory released Exify, I was intrigued enough to give it a spin for myself. If you’re a photography nerd, then this app is a great companion.

Like other apps from The Iconfactory, Exify features a simple and clean aesthetic that is pleasing to the eye while also being intuitive to use. The app features a black background so that your photos are the primary focus, and the light green icons contrast nicely with the overall color theme. The colors in the RGB graphs are rich and vibrant, so you get a clear idea of the color levels in the image you’re viewing. Each image will have multiple “pages” of data that you can view, and they’re all just a swipe away. The magnification tool is also easy to use so you can make sure you don’t miss out on any details, and Exify also has a handy iOS editing extension that lets you do several actions directly from the Photo Library. Once again, The Iconfactory has done a great job with pushing out these slick, minimalistic pixels. Exify is packed full of informative metadata for your photos but it still looks great.

Once Exify gains access to your Photo Library, you’ll see your entire Camera Roll on the main screen, from descending order with most recent at the top. Unfortunately, Exify doesn’t have a way for you to quickly jump to a certain time frame in your Camera Roll, so if you have a large collection of photos (my Camera Roll is over 2300 images at the moment), it may take you a while to find what you’re looking for.

Fortunately, though, the app seems to handle large libraries fine and the scrolling remains smooth, not jerky like other apps I’ve used, and I did not experience crashing while scrolling. The only time I had a crash was when I went to my Photos app to delete some unwanted images and then came right back to Exify — the deleted images caused the app to crash, but it was fine after I launched it again.

When you find the photo you want to view data for, just tap on it. The first page of information features the Overview, which tells you the type of image file it is, size, dimensions, megapixels, ratio, and exposure and lens detail. The thumbnail will also point out the point of focus on the image, and if you tap on the thumbnail, you get a larger view with magnification, so you can zoom in (1x) on specific areas to see the fine details of your photos. If you want to zoom in more, just double-tap for 2x magnification. Tapping on the eyeball button will let you check the color and shadow or highlight level of sections that you pick with the crosshair.

While one may think that the Overview already has plenty of data, there’s much more available. Just swipe horizontally to go through each of the other sections, which include Histogram, Geolocation, EXIF data, GPS, and even TIFF. The Histogram section lets you check out the peak and median in midtones, and you can check the RGB and Luminosity levels. Location has exact coordinates of where the image was taken and shows you on the map, which is provided by Apple. The EXIF, GPS, and TIFF data all include a ton of detailed bits, and you can even copy all of the text in these sections to the clipboard in order to share with others.

The best part about Exify are the iOS extensions that are included. With the action extension, users can show image information, magnify, or duplicate the image without having to go into the app itself. If you prefer to edit images directly within the Photos app, there’s also another additional feature of Exify: the option to add a watermark to your images. With the watermark, you can have white or black (with a partly transparent white background strip) text, and have the watermark be strong or light (more subtle). Other things you can do with the editing extension is remove location data for privacy, or even add GPS data from another image.

I only downloaded Exify yesterday, but I’m finding it to be a pretty nice tool to have in my photography app collection, especially for the easy way to add a watermark to images. More serious photographers will definitely get a kick out of all the photo metadata that is revealed in the app too, and everything is just super easy to use. The only change I would want to see is a way to quickly jump to a certain point of time in your Camera Roll, rather than scroll through everything, which would certainly be helpful for bigger libraries like mine.

I recommend checking out Exify if you’re into photography at all, whether it’s just iPhone photography or if you like to import professional images taken with a DSLR to edit on your iOS device. Exify – Tools for Photos is available on the App Store as a universal download for just $1.99.

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

Free Apps to Download TODAY ONLY 06/21/2016

June 21, 2016 by macjeff

Awkward Family Photos , Clipboard Manager QuickClip | Fast, East Copy and Paste , PaceDJ: Music To Drive Your Running Pace and more

iPhone:

Awkward Family Photos ( $0.99 → FREE )

Awkward Family Photos is the official app based on the award-winning website. It allows you to easily browse through thousands of cringeworthy family photos. Photos can also be broken down by category, searched for by name, or presented at random. Your favorites can be saved and shared. You’re also able to submit your own awkward photos.

PaceDJ: Music To Drive Your Running Pace ( $0.99 → FREE )

Unlike similar apps, PaceDJ actually helps you find the right BPM before you get started by having you answer a few personal and fitness questions. It will then determine the correct BPM based on those parameters and find songs that are within range. Then hit the ground running and allow PaceDJ to not only play you matched music but also track your distance and speed. The app also includes the ability to correct BPM for songs by tapping and create interval workouts.

Universal:

Clipboard Manager QuickClip | Fast, East Copy and Paste ( $0.99 → FREE )

QuickClip allows you to keep a running log of every single piece of text you clip. All you have to do is launch the app and allow it run in the background. Clipped text will be saved automatically, and you can edit each entry at any time. The app also includes a Today widget, which allows you to copy already clipped text in a snap.

Pixagram ( $1.99 → FREE )

Pixagram has everything you need to make your photos stand out. You’re able to apply 25 effects, 15 textures and light leaks, 20 vignettes, more than 30 frames, and text with more than 30 fonts. If that isn’t enough, you’re also able to adjust parameters like exposure, saturation, temperature, and vibrance. Don’t know what you want? No problem. The app offers the ability to randomly apply effects, textures, and vignettes.

Intro to Math, by Montessorium ( $4.99 → FREE )

Intro to Math includes five main educational activities: Red Rods, Number Rods, Sandpaper Numbers, Number Rods and Cards, and Numbers and Counters. The activities will not only teach your child how to read and write numbers from one through nine but also sequence, order, and spatial relationships.

Flip Clock - Beautiful Weather Clock for iPad ( $2.99 → FREE )

It pulls images from Flickr that correspond with your weather or part of the day. If you have your own Flickr account, you can have it use those images instead. The app also boldly displays the time, date, current temp, highs and lows for the day, and a five-day forecast. You can collapse the display to get a better view of the beautiful images with a tap. The app also includes repeating alarms, the ability to dim the screen with a swipe, and relaxing built-in sounds to help you fall asleep.

Source link: http://appadvice.com/apps-gone-free