Frequent flyers know how much of a hassle planning a vacation or business trip can be. Concur’s app TripIt for iOS devices streamlines the process by allowing users to plan trips while on-the-go. The new 3.0 update makes doing that even easier.

With TripIt, commuters can sync travel plans across iOS calendars, view and track flight information and find out about discounts. Included in this new update is a resigned dashboard providing faster access to upcoming trips and travel itineraries. Users can even find out what their fellow TripIt users are planning.

Also, from within the TripIt app itself, users can update to TripIt Pro giving them access to even more new features and removing ads. Pro users can network with other pro users and even manage their reward points to help save money on future trips.

Whether it is for business or pleasure, never miss another trip with this app. TripIt is free and TripIt Pro is $3.99. Both are currently available now on the App Store.

FREE!

TripIt - Travel Organizer - FREE

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2009-04-10 :: Category: Travel

$3.99

TripIt - Travel Organizer (no ads)

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-02-14 :: Category: Travel

Of all the things that define the high school experience, high-stakes romantic drama is near the top of the list. With hormones pumping rapidly, being a teenager and finding one’s first love is an unforgettable emotional experience. DR Studios is attempting to capture that same feeling in iSchool Dreams: My Valentine.

In this “role-playing interactive story,” players create their avatar and take control of the new girl in Charm Springs. From there, they can choose to spend their time shopping, walking around the park, gossiping and playing matching and dancing games. However, with the Valentine’s Day Ball quickly approaching, players should be doing all they can to get ready. Are they going to help Petey win the DJ battle? Are they popular enough and most importantly, who is going to be their date to the dance?

iSchool Dreams: My Valentine is available now on the App Store. It’s everything a preteen girl could want for this Valentine’s Day.

$0.99

iSchool Dreams: My Valentine

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2012-02-09 :: Category: Games

Smartphones are changing how we see the world. With the cameras on them becoming more and more powerful, phones are now able to see our reality and present it back to us in an augmented form. It may ultimately just be an advertisement for their “Shake it Up” campaign, but Tic Tac mints’ new Tic Tic Viewr app still shows off how novel augmented reality can be.

Using their phone’s camera, users can scan Tic Tac boxes and ads to reveal hidden content. Users will find funny and inspirational “Shake it Up” tips as well as 20 “Shake It Up” microgames providing extra fun after the scanning is over. Imagine getting a new game just by scanning a random Tic Tac ad at a bus stop. It’s as easy as taking candy, in this case mints, from a baby.

Tic Tac Viewr is currently available for free on the App Store. Uses can also download it by texting “MINTS” to 313131.

FREE!

Tic Tac Viewr

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2012-02-05 :: Category: Games

There is an ongoing debate in the world of gaming over whether or not the medium can be considered art. Those who think it should be point to games like Braid, Flower, and even Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP as proof of gaming’s artistic merit. However, based on the look of Woolly Robot’s new experimental game Flight of the Fireflies, it might be time to add a new game to that list.

The game describes itself as “an interactive artwork” or “an interactive musical poem” so naturally its more about the experience than the gameplay. Players use touch to move a group of fireflies across the night sky and through various environments while each firefly produces its own unique tone. Throughout their journey, players can discover more fireflies and add them to the musical collective.

This symphony of the night is only available for iPad owners. Flight of the Fireflies is available now on the App Store.

$3.99

Flight of the Fireflies

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2012-01-31 :: Category: Games

Whether it’s in real life or in a video game, navigating a maze can be pretty challenging. However, the satisfaction of making it to the end can make the whole experience worth it. Elements+ Maze is the “world’s first multi-floor maze game” and it’s hoping that it’s extra challenge leads to extra satisfaction.

Each maze has a fire level and an ice level. To reach the end of the labyrinth, players will have to guide their character in between them both, adding depth and height to the typically flat maze genre. Friends can compete to see who can finish a maze faster and mazes are randomly generated meaning the content is theoretically limitless. Playing on harder difficulties earns more coins for one to spend on things like character customization. Players can also elect to just buy more coins with real money.

Fortunately, with there being so many in-app purchase options, the initial download is free. Elements+ Maze is available now on the App Store.

FREE!

Elements+ Maze

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-12-22 :: Category: Games

The increasing power and proliferation of smartphones has given us an increasing amount of ways of connecting with each other. However, all of these new communication venues have also given us an increasing amount of contact information to keep track of. Android users already know how Xobni’s app Smartr Contacts can help simplify that process and now iPhone owners can too.

Smartr Contacts pulls data from various sources in order to create a master contacts list. Whether someone is a Facebook friend or a LinkedIn connection they will be accounted for. Smartr Contacts then puts that person’s email, phone number, picture and whatever else it can intelligently detect in one handy place. The app keeps track of recent communications one has had with their contacts and will even rank contacts in order of importance. Think of it as a way of knowing who one’s real friends are.

While the app works with other existing social networks like Twitter, in order to use Smartr Contacts one must sign up for a Xobni account. Smartr Contacts is available for free on the App Store.

FREE!

Smartr Contacts for iPhone

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Our Rating: :: CLEVER CONTACT
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2012-01-13 :: Category: Productivity

Thanks to the Team Stream app sports fans have been able to stream all of the coverage they could ask for on their smartphones. Tablet owners on the other hand have not had such a privilege, until now. Team Stream HD is available now for iPad.

Team Stream comes courtesy of Bleacher Report, “the Web’s fifth largest sports media destination with more than 22 million monthly unique users.” With the app, users can receive their own personal sports news reports. Similar to Flipboard, Team Stream searches the web and services like Twitter to collect and deliver information on whatever teams and sports the user wants. So whether one wants the latest scoops on college football, professional golf or local MMA tournaments they can find them with Team Stream.

The extra screen size of the iPad makes navigation easier while showing more of an article at once. The “HTML5 Experience” means no photo or video content is lost. Team Stream HD is a free download on the App Store.

FREE!

Team Stream HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2011-12-21 :: Category: Sports

Yes, it’s another game about birds on the App Store. Try to stay calm everyone. However, there’s no anger, block towers, or green pigs to be found in Dino Bird. Instead, it’s the story of a mother risking everything to save her children.

Dino Bird is the debut app of Wayman Harris. In it, players take control of a prehistoric mother bird attempting to feed her chicks. Tapping on mama releases a delicious worm for them to eat. Players must do this while also seeking out and destroying the ugly birds. These ugly birds, with different abilities like rock and fire powers, are out to harm the chicks. Luckily, with a simple tap, mama can send their attacks right back at them.

Dino Bird is available now for free on the App Store so there’s no excuse to not at least give it a look. It won’t even use up that nest egg.

FREE!

Dino Bird

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-12-20 :: Category: Games

ON Voicefeed from Orange Vallee has a pretty compelling pitch. “You wouldn’t greet your partner the same way that you greet your boss – so why treat everybody the same when it comes to your voicemail?” But thanks to the newest update, released to coincide with CES 2012, voicemail customization is just the start of what this app can do.

The biggest new feature is the inclusion of the new On Chat app. Now, in addition to organizing voicemails, the app integrates with Facebook and Twitter’s messaging services. All voicemails and messages can be viewed and shared in a single conversation screen and text can be copied from one source and pasted into another. Using the new menu tab users can handle notifications easier and added map functionality allows users to locate their contacts’ location. All of this is presented through new interface changes like the conversation screen’s bubble design.

The free version of ON Voicefeed limits users to three personal greetings and one generic greeting. For $9.99, users can lift that restriction. The update is available now.

FREE!

ON Voicefeed - a smarter voicemail

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-01-27 :: Category: Utilities

Between the Amazon Kindle App and Apple’s own iBooks store, the iPad has firmly established its place as a major player in the e-Reader market. Amazon, also being a very major player, is continuing to secure their own position by making it as easy as possible to get their content anywhere. The latest example of this is their new, touch-friendly, iPad-optimized Kindle Store.

To access the store iPad users must simply enter www.amazon.com/iPadKindleStore into their Safari browsers. From there they can shop for books in the new, touch-screen compatible layout with genres, editor’s picks and top 100 paid and free books easy to search. Amazon encourages adding the site to the home screen for even easier access.

The site also supports the Kindle Cloud Reader function. Any books purchased are stored on the cloud, ready to the accessed on any Kindle device, including this new website. Readers can keep going even if the internet connection is lost. As more mobile versions of sites crop up, it’s good to see that tablets are getting their own sites too.

[Kindle iPad app pictured above]

FREE!

Kindle – Read Books, Magazines & More – Over 1 Million eBooks & Newspapers

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Our Rating: :: RECOMMENDED
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2009-03-04 :: Category: Books

Just as the death of arcades hasn’t stopped Ion Audio from putting out cool, new iCade accessories, they aren’t letting the decline of games like Guitar Hero keep them from getting into the plastic instrument race. However, like their previous Piano Apprentice iPhone accessory, the upcoming Guitar Apprentice isn’t a game. Instead, it’s a musical teaching tool.

The device is a full-sized guitar shell that the iPad docks into. The onscreen frets light up to show players where they need to place their fingers and whether or not they are strumming the right chords. From there, players can learn and record songs with compatible apps like GarageBand and Ion Audio’s own upcoming Guitar Apprentice app.

The Guitar Apprentice accessory will soon hit retail for $99 in America before arriving in the rest of the world. If this works, imagine what other instruments Ion Audio could plug an iPad into. The second image shows that a drum accessory is in the works. What else could be coming? Saxophone Apprentice anyone?

SugarSync has been allowing users to sync all sorts of media across computers and mobile devices for over a year now. With so many people getting their first taste of cloud computing and storage thanks to this past year’s holiday gifts, SugarSync has decided to give them proper welcome. A new update has hit the service adding a host of new features.

Together, these new features streamline and speed up the media management process. Users can now upload multiple files at once instead of one at a time. Files will also now sync in the background allowing users to enjoy their devices while they update.

When syncing photos, users can choose to load low quality versions at a faster rate, higher quality versions at a slower rate or a compromise between the two. The photo tab has also been redesigned making it much easier and quicker to view and share albums.

SugarSync is available for free on pretty much any Mac, PC and mobile device out there.

FREE!

SugarSync

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2008-08-27 :: Category: Productivity

Tower defense games on the App Store are nothing new and neither are games featuring modern military equipment. However, has there ever been a game that combines these two elements? Probably, but no one should let that stop them from at least giving Battleground Defense from Evelyn Software Labs a look.

Staying true to its promise of combining “classic tower defense gameplay” with “the intense action of modern warfare,” Battleground Defense’s collection of 18 towers includes missile launchers, heavy canons and flame throwers. These are the kinds of weapons one needs to take on tanks, jets, armored cars and the rest of the game’s 15 different enemy types. Among the nine maps are some where the enemy path is pre-determined and others where players must use strategic tower placement to redirect foes themselves like in Fieldrunners.

Available now for $2.99, iPhone and iPad owners alike can experience this tower defense game for the 21st century.

$2.99

Battleground Defense

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-11-30 :: Category: Games

The unique look and feel of stop-motion animation is what gives movies like A Nightmare Before Christmas and the Wallace and Gromit series their charm. Mac users have been bringing ordinary objects to life with this technique for years now thanks to iStopMotion from Boinx Software. Now iPad users can also have the power to create and share their own stop-motion animations with the release of the iStopMotion for iPad app.

Like any form of animation, stop-motion works by playing a series of frames so fast that they appear to be moving. What sets stop-motion apart is that its frames are pictures of real things that have been carefully re-positioned numerous times instead of drawings. iStopMotion for iPad allows users to capture these frames, edit them into movies and share them online all through an iPad. It’s a cheap way to make movies and learn about the animation process while doing it.

Also available is the iStopMotion Remote Camera app which allows users to capture frames with their iPhones and sync them with their iPads via W-Fi. That way movies can look the best they can thanks to the superior cameras of the latest iPhones.

iStopMotion for iPad is $4.99, iStopMotion Remote Camera is free and both are available now. Why not celebrate the holidays by making some homemade Rankin/Bass specials?

$4.99

iStopMotion for iPad

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2011-12-15 :: Category: Photography

FREE!

iStopMotion Remote Camera

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-12-15 :: Category: Photography

Apple likes to boast that their products allow us to connect to each other in fantastic new ways. It’s a tall claim to say the least. However, what stronger connection could there be than the one between parents and their children? The MotherKnows app is trying to help prove Apple right by giving parents a new way to monitor their child’s development and more easily be prepared for medical emergencies.

Working in conjunction with the MotherKnows website, the app stores all sorts of health records like growth charts, medication lists, graphic displays of immunizations and other information collected directly from doctors and regularly updated, all on an iPhone. This is particularly useful for quickly providing places likes schools and camps with anything they may need to know regarding a child health-wise. Parents can use the app for little tasks like scheduling appointments and for more long-term tasks like tracking their child’s progress. Parents can even create milestones like “first steps” and take a picture to go alongside it.

Although the app can sync with one’s MotherKnows account when accessing data one doesn’t need to purchase an account in order to use the app. MotherKnows is currently available for free on the App Store.

FREE!

MotherKnows

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-11-18 :: Category: Medical

Those oh-so popular Angry Birds would have players believe that they are crusaders for justice, trying to reclaim their precious eggs from those nasty, hungry pigs. However, we now have proof that the whole story is more complicated than that. Every tale has two sides and with the release of Misunderstood Pigs for iPhones and iPads the porcine perspective on this avian affair has been uncovered for all to see.

A group of harmless pigs and their families are suffering from constant projectile bird attacks. The player’s job is to build structures around the pigs to protect them. Players must set up boxes, planks, pieces of glass and whatever else it takes to repel the invaders and get bigger scores. The game also includes a level editor so players can construct pig saving scenarios of their own.

Given how important it is for everyone to realize the truth, Misunderstood Pigs should be able to be played by as many people as possible. Luckily, it is a universal app and is available now for free.

FREE!

Misunderstood Pigs

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-12-21 :: Category: Games

Anyone who has ever read a copy of Highlights magazine knows what a hidden object game is. Players are presented with a big picture and are tasked with finding the objects hidden within. With the advent of social gaming and its ability to easily feed players new content and connect them with friends, the genre seen new life. Take for example Game Insight’s Mystery Manor: Hidden Adventure which has now made the leap to iPad.

The 8 million people that have already played Mystery Manor: Hidden Adventure since its release on sites like Facebook and Orkut know that the game’s hook is its atmosphere. In order to break the secret of Mystery Manor and find Mister X players must look for objects inside a hand-drawn haunted house filled with all of the zombies, monsters, gypsies and other creatures that implies. Beyond that though the game seems to offer enough puzzles and challenge modes to make the gameplay worthwhile as well.

Game Insight plans to offer new content like extra characters and quests on a fairly regular basis. They claim one “will never finish the game.” Best of all, Mystery Manor: Hidden Adventure is available for free.

FREE!

Mystery Manor: Hidden Adventure

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2011-12-14 :: Category: Games

There are many out there who believe that the current mobile explosion will save the dying news industry. Newspaper and magazine publishers have been loving Apple’s Newsstand App for the increased visibility it gives their content. Now Google has released a rival, more Flipboard-esque, mobile reader of their own, Google Currents.

Google Currents offers optimized, magazine-style versions of articles from Forbes, TechCrunch, Saveur, Popular Science, Good, 500px, Fast Company and more. Google Reader subscriptions are also used to provide users content from the blogs and feeds they follow. Popular, trending stories are collected from all of these sources and given special placement with photos, slideshows, videos, live-maps and social streams intact.

Users can also save articles for “high speed offline reading”, share them, and sync them across all of their devices. Content scales to fit whatever sized screen a phone or tablet may have. Google Currents is available now for free and is compatible with iPhones and iPads.

FREE!

Google Currents

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-12-08 :: Category: News