I found a free IRC client called IRC999 for iOS. I tried it out and it's mostly very intuitive to use. You can configure the server, port and nickname/password you wish to use and the channels you wish to join (autojoin is an option) and you're in.
The interface adapts itself to landscape/portrait orientations. In landscape mode you can see the status of various channels on the left pane, with the conversation of the current channel on the right pane; in portrait mode, the current channel takes over the entire screen. It has a few customizable options including font size (S/M/L).
It can list the nicknames in the current channel, but the list is unsorted; there is no tab-completion for nicknames.
1. Usability: .5
2. Usefulness: .5
3. Looks: 1
4. Enjoyability: .5
Showing posts with label ipad app review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ipad app review. Show all posts
June 19, 2011
December 24, 2010
A Review of the Merriam Webster App for iPhone/iPodTouch
I discovered the Merriam Webster App after reading an article about the top-10 words of 2010.
A unique feature of the app is the voice search-- you can search for a word by speaking it, instead of typing. The voice-recognition has 80% accuracy; of the words I spoke, it did not recognize ebullient and effervescent but recognized: diplomat, dictionary, acknowledge, recognize, mimic, etymology, apple, diplomat.
The app remembers recent words looked-up, shows completions as the word is being typed and also has audio pronunciations for words. It also has synonyms and antonyms and example sentences. The Word of the Day feature, the audio search feature and audio pronunciations require network connectivity.
It is an iPhone/iPodTouch app only, so the text looks jagged on the iPad. The app also displays Google ads along the bottom of the definition. I would use the Dictionary.com app (see my review) first and use the Merriam Webster app as a supplement.
I rate the Merriam Webster Dictionary app 3 out of 4 stars.
1. Usability: 1
2. Usefulness: 1
3. Looks: .5 (not iPad ready)
4. Enjoyability: .5 (voice input is a nice feature but recognition failures were frustrating)
A unique feature of the app is the voice search-- you can search for a word by speaking it, instead of typing. The voice-recognition has 80% accuracy; of the words I spoke, it did not recognize ebullient and effervescent but recognized: diplomat, dictionary, acknowledge, recognize, mimic, etymology, apple, diplomat.
The app remembers recent words looked-up, shows completions as the word is being typed and also has audio pronunciations for words. It also has synonyms and antonyms and example sentences. The Word of the Day feature, the audio search feature and audio pronunciations require network connectivity.
It is an iPhone/iPodTouch app only, so the text looks jagged on the iPad. The app also displays Google ads along the bottom of the definition. I would use the Dictionary.com app (see my review) first and use the Merriam Webster app as a supplement.
I rate the Merriam Webster Dictionary app 3 out of 4 stars.
1. Usability: 1
2. Usefulness: 1
3. Looks: .5 (not iPad ready)
4. Enjoyability: .5 (voice input is a nice feature but recognition failures were frustrating)
December 11, 2010
A Review of dictionary.com Dictionary and Thesaurus for iPad
The Dictionary app from Dictionary.com includes both a dictionary (Random House) and a thesaurus.
Upon launching, the top of the screen has an input field and the bottom has a tool bar with icons for dictionary, thesaurus, recent words and word-of-the-day; the middle portion of the screen is wasted with a splash-screen.
As you type the word, a list of completions, matching the portion of the word you have typed, appears in the middle part of the screen. You can either continue typing the rest of the word or can select it from the list.
So far, the dictionary has found meanings for all the words i have searched:
There are only two items that are customizable in the Settings menu:
The only suggestion I have for improvement is to allow the word-of-the-day to be displayed upon start-up in the middle portion of the screen currently occupied by the company logo. I rate the Dictionary.com app 4 out of 4 stars.
1. Usability: 1
2. Usefulness: 1
3. Looks: 1
4. Enjoyability: 1
Update: Corrected Roget to Random House.
Upon launching, the top of the screen has an input field and the bottom has a tool bar with icons for dictionary, thesaurus, recent words and word-of-the-day; the middle portion of the screen is wasted with a splash-screen.
As you type the word, a list of completions, matching the portion of the word you have typed, appears in the middle part of the screen. You can either continue typing the rest of the word or can select it from the list.
So far, the dictionary has found meanings for all the words i have searched:
- yenta (mentioned in a NY Times article),
- trattoria,
- farrago,
- Manichean (my test-word, which, surprisingly, is not in the iPad's auto-correct dictionary),
- encephalon.
There are only two items that are customizable in the Settings menu:
- automatically display the keyboard on start-up (which I enabled and which should be on by default)
- enable tracking (by dictionary.com of words you searched for; I turned this off)
The only suggestion I have for improvement is to allow the word-of-the-day to be displayed upon start-up in the middle portion of the screen currently occupied by the company logo. I rate the Dictionary.com app 4 out of 4 stars.
1. Usability: 1
2. Usefulness: 1
3. Looks: 1
4. Enjoyability: 1
Update: Corrected Roget to Random House.
December 2, 2010
A Review of The Weather Channel (TWC MAX+) App for iPad
The Weather Channel Max app displays the weather (including radar and satellite imagery) for your current location or other locations of your choosing and also provides long range forecasts in both graphical formats and with video from the TV channel.
I downloaded the app with a little trepidation because of the numerous negative comments on the AppStore. I became more worried when I ran the app and the GPS located me in a nearby city about 40km away. Not an auspicious beginning. I then manually entered the name of my location and was amazed that it was recognized!
When the app starts, the start-up screen displays TWC logo and a weather related photograph for about 7 seconds. A small map of your location then appears in the center of the screen with a toolbar below and after a few seconds the weather is displayed in the map. Tapping on the map enlages it full screen. On this screen there is an unobtrusive banner ad displayed at the top and the bottom has a floating toolbar to allow the type of imagery: precipitation, cloud coverage, UV etc. to be chosen and animated.
The second icon in the main toolbar is for local long-range forecasts. Two-thirds of the screen displays the forecast with animated icons and the bottom third displays a scrollable list of buttons for video forecasts and traffic-camera access. The forecast can be toggled between hourly or 7-day.
The third icon is for accessing The Weather Channel Videos. You have to watch a video ad for the sponsor (Sears).
The fourth icon is for severe weather alerts and storm watches.
The remaining two icons are labeled Social and TV.
The Weather Channel app has replaced the previous app (Weatherbug) I was using for weather. It is a very useful app, pleasant to use and well thought out. I do not understand the negative reviews on the AppStore.
I would rate the The Weather Channel app 4 out of 4 stars. It is my current weather forecasting app.
1. Usability: 1
2. Usefulness: 1
3. Looks: 1
4. Enjoyability: 1
I downloaded the app with a little trepidation because of the numerous negative comments on the AppStore. I became more worried when I ran the app and the GPS located me in a nearby city about 40km away. Not an auspicious beginning. I then manually entered the name of my location and was amazed that it was recognized!
When the app starts, the start-up screen displays TWC logo and a weather related photograph for about 7 seconds. A small map of your location then appears in the center of the screen with a toolbar below and after a few seconds the weather is displayed in the map. Tapping on the map enlages it full screen. On this screen there is an unobtrusive banner ad displayed at the top and the bottom has a floating toolbar to allow the type of imagery: precipitation, cloud coverage, UV etc. to be chosen and animated.
The second icon in the main toolbar is for local long-range forecasts. Two-thirds of the screen displays the forecast with animated icons and the bottom third displays a scrollable list of buttons for video forecasts and traffic-camera access. The forecast can be toggled between hourly or 7-day.
The third icon is for accessing The Weather Channel Videos. You have to watch a video ad for the sponsor (Sears).
The fourth icon is for severe weather alerts and storm watches.
The remaining two icons are labeled Social and TV.
The Weather Channel app has replaced the previous app (Weatherbug) I was using for weather. It is a very useful app, pleasant to use and well thought out. I do not understand the negative reviews on the AppStore.
Score
I would rate the The Weather Channel app 4 out of 4 stars. It is my current weather forecasting app.
1. Usability: 1
2. Usefulness: 1
3. Looks: 1
4. Enjoyability: 1
November 27, 2010
A Review of the Feeddler RSS Feed Reader for the iPad
This is a review of the free version of the Feeddler Google RSS feed reader for the iPad.
Upon start-up the login dialog invites you to enter your Google login and password and notes that your login credentials will only be used to authenticate with Google and that the communication is SSL encrypted. (You have to trust the developer here).
After logging in, it retrieves all your Google Reader feeds and displays in a near replication of the Google Reader order. The folders were listed in the same order while the individual feeds were listed in alphabetical order rather than my preferred order.
Feeddler's interface mimics the two-pane web-based interface of the Google Reader. Like most iPad apps, the interface changes based on the orientation of the iPad. In portrait mode, it defaults to listing all the articles in my Google feeds with banner ads across the bottom of the screen; in the Pro version, the ads are not present.
In landscape mode, it switches to a 2-pane view similar to the default Google Reader interface with the left pane (about 1/3 screen-width) containing the feeds and the right pane containing the articles and the banner ads below the articles.
You can switch to full-screen article view by tapping on an article. In this mode, the bottom of the screen contains a navigation bar with left and right arrows to go to the previous and next article in the currently selected feed and icons to star, like (heart), keep unread (it was not obvious what this circle icon was for) and email the current article. The screen can also be swiped to navigate to the next and previous article. There are no ads displayed in this mode. The title of the article can be clicked to visit the actual website with the article; this is displayed in a built-in browser without having to leave Feedler. The browser has a back and forward button in the top-left along with an RSS button which returns you to the article in the feed. The article mode also supports pinch-to-zoom.
If you select a folder in the left pane, the pane then switches to show all the feeds in that folder. This behaviour is different than Google Reader, which displays all the articles in the folder, in the right pane. There is an arrow above the left pane to return to the subscriptions. When you return to the subscriptions, the folder you selected is not hilighted, you have to look at the top of the article pane (where the articles you finished reading remain) to check what folder you just visited.
It does have some nice touches like "Night Mode" which displays in grey on black (but the revolving ads in eye-searing bright colours, at the bottom of the page, negates the usefulness of this mode (in the free version). I blocked the ads with the folds of my blanket while reading in bed.)
There are a surprising number of customizations available by tapping the gear icon found at the bottom of the left pane, below the subscriptions. I enabled the two-line summary which displays two lines of text from each article below the title, while in browse-mode.
I tend to read an average of 1% of articles in the feeds I subscribe to, so I mostly used Feeddler in landscape mode, giving me the ability to quickly jump from feed to feed (based on reading the two-line article summary) rather than sequentially reading the full content of the articles in a folder or feed (in portrait mode).
I would rate the free Feeddler app 3 out of 4 stars. I would use Feeddler to read my Google RSS feeds.
1. Usability: ½
2. Usefulness: 1
3. Looks: 1
4. Enjoyability: ½
I have a few suggestions for improvement, mostly in the usability, some of which may be implemented as customizable options:
Login
Upon start-up the login dialog invites you to enter your Google login and password and notes that your login credentials will only be used to authenticate with Google and that the communication is SSL encrypted. (You have to trust the developer here).
After logging in, it retrieves all your Google Reader feeds and displays in a near replication of the Google Reader order. The folders were listed in the same order while the individual feeds were listed in alphabetical order rather than my preferred order.
Interface
Feeddler's interface mimics the two-pane web-based interface of the Google Reader. Like most iPad apps, the interface changes based on the orientation of the iPad. In portrait mode, it defaults to listing all the articles in my Google feeds with banner ads across the bottom of the screen; in the Pro version, the ads are not present.
In landscape mode, it switches to a 2-pane view similar to the default Google Reader interface with the left pane (about 1/3 screen-width) containing the feeds and the right pane containing the articles and the banner ads below the articles.
You can switch to full-screen article view by tapping on an article. In this mode, the bottom of the screen contains a navigation bar with left and right arrows to go to the previous and next article in the currently selected feed and icons to star, like (heart), keep unread (it was not obvious what this circle icon was for) and email the current article. The screen can also be swiped to navigate to the next and previous article. There are no ads displayed in this mode. The title of the article can be clicked to visit the actual website with the article; this is displayed in a built-in browser without having to leave Feedler. The browser has a back and forward button in the top-left along with an RSS button which returns you to the article in the feed. The article mode also supports pinch-to-zoom.
If you select a folder in the left pane, the pane then switches to show all the feeds in that folder. This behaviour is different than Google Reader, which displays all the articles in the folder, in the right pane. There is an arrow above the left pane to return to the subscriptions. When you return to the subscriptions, the folder you selected is not hilighted, you have to look at the top of the article pane (where the articles you finished reading remain) to check what folder you just visited.
It does have some nice touches like "Night Mode" which displays in grey on black (but the revolving ads in eye-searing bright colours, at the bottom of the page, negates the usefulness of this mode (in the free version). I blocked the ads with the folds of my blanket while reading in bed.)
There are a surprising number of customizations available by tapping the gear icon found at the bottom of the left pane, below the subscriptions. I enabled the two-line summary which displays two lines of text from each article below the title, while in browse-mode.
Comments
I tend to read an average of 1% of articles in the feeds I subscribe to, so I mostly used Feeddler in landscape mode, giving me the ability to quickly jump from feed to feed (based on reading the two-line article summary) rather than sequentially reading the full content of the articles in a folder or feed (in portrait mode).
Score
I would rate the free Feeddler app 3 out of 4 stars. I would use Feeddler to read my Google RSS feeds.
1. Usability: ½
2. Usefulness: 1
3. Looks: 1
4. Enjoyability: ½
Suggestions
I have a few suggestions for improvement, mostly in the usability, some of which may be implemented as customizable options:
- After all the articles in a feed are marked as read, automatically return the left pane to the subscription list
- Hilight the selected feed or folder in the subscriptions pane
- In the built-in web browser, the active/inactive state of the back and forward navigation buttons in the top-left is ambiguous
- In night mode, the grey bullet, indicating articles have been read, should be a darker colour (almost blending with the background), it is currently as bright as the blue unread-article bullet.
November 13, 2010
A Review of the Yellow Pages (Canada) iPad App
Searching for a person or a place, traditionally involved opening a telephone book and searching for the item alphabetically (alternatively, for a cost, one could call 411 directory assistance). Then, one would write down the address and telephone number. If one needed to visit the person or place, would consult a street map of the area and locate them.
In the internet era, there were several search options, but it still required two steps— the search and then the locator using Google maps, etc. The iPad app is an improvement on both the traditional way and the internet way.
In the internet era, there were several search options, but it still required two steps— the search and then the locator using Google maps, etc. The iPad app is an improvement on both the traditional way and the internet way.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)