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Big Update For Tough Love To-Do List App, CARROT

Posted by Jennifer Allen on August 15th, 2014
iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad
Our rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar :: GUILT-INDUCED PRODUCTIVITY :: Read Review »

Everybody's favorite abusive To-Do list app, CARROT, has just benefited from a rather substantial update.

The update brings with it a speech synthesizer, a new story chapter to do with Captain Whiskers, and a cowboy cat costume in the Shop N Slack store. For those at level 15, there's now a new way to quickly add items to your list through swiping down.

60 new rewards can also be earned (according to the developer, they're mostly cat facts) and there are 5 new challenges to test you.

For the uninitiated, prepare to be insulted regularly by this bizarre motivational tool. There's no other task management app quite like it, but it's a great idea.

CARROT is out now on the App Store and is priced at $2.99.

Timeful Review

iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad
By Jennifer Allen on August 11th, 2014
Our rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: PRACTICAL TIME MANAGEMENT
Timeful makes a packed schedule slightly easier to bear with its ability to slot your to do list items in wherever there's a gap.
Read The Full Review »

WPS Office Gets a Major Update to its Free iOS Office Suite

Posted by Jessica Fisher on August 7th, 2014
+ Universal & Apple Watch App - Designed for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch

Kingsoft Office Software, Inc. has just released WPS Office 4.0. The new update comes power packed with new features.

The spreadsheets have received new formatting features, the ability to merge cells and freeze panes, full support for formulas, and now users can save spreadsheets to XLS and XLSX formats. For presentations, users now have access to new slide layouts, transitions, animations, and can insert, crop, and resize images in slides. The slides can also be directly exported to PDF format now. Lastly, for writer, users can manage their comments within a document better and directly export files to PDF format.

Mr. Ke Ge, CEO of KINGSOFT said, "With WPS Office 4.0 we introduce what we believe to be the best free office suite available to iPad and iPhone users, but this is just the beginning. We will be launching many additional features and innovations in the coming months.” So it looks like we can look forward to more updates soon.

You can download WPS Office 4.0. for free on the App Store.

Alter Review

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
By Jennifer Allen on August 6th, 2014
Our rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: COPY
Copy, paste, and create a list from that content. It's as simple as that.
Read The Full Review »

Asana update for iPhone & iPad Brings a Whole New Design

Posted by Jessica Fisher on August 5th, 2014
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Asana, the email and task organizer, has updated to 3.0. The update brings users a brand new redesign that is customized for iOS 7, and is now compatible with the iPad.

Asana now has a new home screen that will present you with your most important tasks of the day, and it also has a new navigation system with the ability to search tasks, projects, teammates, and tags and a quick add button for tacking on new tasks to your calendar without any fuss.

Asana is free on the App Store.

Take Note! Noteshelf Has Recieved a Big Update.

Posted by Jessica Fisher on July 30th, 2014

Fluid Touch Pte. has released version 8.6 of Noteshelf, the simple yet satisfying notebook app. The update lets users backup, archive, and share notebooks via AirTransfer and automatically publish notebooks to Evernote. Noteshelf also now allows users to import and annotate Microsoft Office Word, Powerpoint, and Excel files. And it supports Pencil, a stylish stylus by FiftyThree. Fluid Touch Pte. has also improved functionality for left-handed users and squashed some bugs along the way.

You can pick up the new and improved Noteshelf for $5.99.

Note Review

iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad
By Jennifer Allen on July 29th, 2014
Our rating: starstarhalfstarblankstarblankstar :: TOO SIMPLE
Note is a note taking app that's a little too short on features to be worth its asking price.
Read The Full Review »

MyTaskList Review

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
By Jennifer Allen on July 22nd, 2014
Our rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar :: EFFECTIVE IF PLAIN
It's not the most stylish of task management apps, but MyTaskList has all the features you could wish of such a tool.
Read The Full Review »

Birdseye Mail Adds Extra Account Support Plus Better Attachments Support

Posted by Jennifer Allen on July 10th, 2014
iPad App - Designed for iPad
Our rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: SOLIDLY USEFUL :: Read Review »

There's a new update out for Birdseye Mail and it's a pretty significant one.

The update adds support for iCloud, Yahoo, AOL, and FastMail accounts alongside the Gmail support that's already there. You can also toggle notifications for different accounts now.

Most important of all though is Birdseye Mail's new way of dealing with attaching files to your emails. It's now much faster to add attachments, plus there's the added benefit of being able to rename files before you send them.

Birdseye Mail is available now for the iPad, and it's free to download.

Peiji Review

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
By Jennifer Allen on July 7th, 2014
Our rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: MINIMAL YET PRACTICAL
Want a simple to use note taking app that's more powerful than the built-in tool? Peiji is the ideal app for you.
Read The Full Review »

This Week at 148Apps: June 30-July 4, 2014

Posted by Chris Kirby on July 6th, 2014

Apps Are Us


How do you know what apps are worth your time and money? Just look to the review team at 148Apps. We sort through the chaos and find the apps you're looking for. The ones we love become Editor’s Choice, standing out above the many good apps and games with something just a little bit more to offer. Take a look at what we've been up to this week, and find even more in our Reviews Archive.


Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

Trying to explain Monster Hunter Freedom Unite to someone unfamiliar with the series is always a challenge. There’s an almost unrivaled amount of satisfaction to be had the first time you best a Rathalos or when you complete an armor set . You might’ve spent hours hunting dozens of Diablos, to the point that you can do it in your sleep, but now you’ve got what you need and can finish your set and oh it looks so amazing you can’t wait to show it off to your friends! I suppose that’s actually the best way to explain Monster Hunter: you earn it. You earn everything. And it’s difficult not to be extremely proud of that. --Rob Rich


World of Tanks Blitz

It was dark all around and there was frost in the ground when the Tigers broke free. And a good time was had by all. World of Tanks Blitz is a mobile take on World of Tanks, the PC-based online tank combat game from Wargaming.net. World of Tanks has been consistently popular since its North American and European release in 2011, so it’s surprising the game has taken this much time to get an official mobile release. Many imitators have sprung to life in the meantime – some of which are quite good – but unsurprisingly, the real deal is one of the best tank games available for mobile. --Nadia Oxford


Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake

I wouldn’t be pleased if monsters actually ate my birthday cake. How dare they snarf up the sugary confection I was poised to chow down on myself?! It’s a sentiment no doubt shared with the developers at Sleeping Ninja, who have crafted a satisfying twist on The Legend of Zelda-like puzzle-solving. Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake is a sweet treat for mobile gamers that serves up an excellent mix of puzzles, bright and colorful characters, and engaging content that rivals triple-A blockbusters in terms of unadulterated fun. When you get started you’ll find yourself swapping out characters in order to complete level-specific puzzles. Each level has characters with differently-assigned abilities, and each monster has its own loadout. In order to conquer the various obstacles scattered throughout each area, you’ll have to become acquainted with the monsters’ abilities while avoiding or eliminating enemies completely. --Brittany Vincent


X BEATS

Music theory is one of the trickier parts of learning to play a musical instrument. Learning how to read the musical notes and understand how they each sound different isn’t always that fun to figure out, either. This is where X BEATS hopes to buck that trend. It’s a puzzle game that relies upon musical notes to solve the challenges. Each level consists of a mostly empty grid. Players then have to fill up the grid based on the note values to reach a certain amount at the end. Predictably, early stages are pretty simple and easy enough to bluff through, although that’s not the point. They simply require matching up 4 beats and there are limited options to ensure you can’t go wrong. --Jennifer Allen


Lars and Friends

I would like to introduce readers to the new app, Lars and Friends: a charming storybook for young children that contains very special illustrations, making it really stand out among a sea of other apps within iTunes. Lars and Friends is the simple and sweet tale of a horse named Lars and his adventures with many different types of creatures, allowing children to become familiar with the unique names used to describe a group of specific animals such as a colony of ants, knot of frogs, or tower of giraffes. I have had a lot of fun with the different activities Lars engages in with different creatures large and small, creating whimsical images about some unlikely friendships that will stay with readers as well as teaching the sometimes odd name-groupings children of all ages and their adults will enjoy learning about. --Amy Solomon


yantouch Diamond+ "Music+Light" Bluetooth Speaker

When turned off in a well-lit room, the yantouch Diamond+ looks kind of like a slightly garish ball of nothing. When turned on in a dark room – especially when displaying colors based on the tempo of the being played through it – it’s more like staring into a technicolored Eye of Sauron. You know, if Sauron were actually a pretty cool guy and not bent on conquering/destroying the world. Setting up the Diamond+ is pretty easy, and there are a couple of options you can pick from. Initially I hooked it up to my computer via the included audio cable, then later via bluetooth. I’m not sure if it’s just my imagination but it actually sounded a little tinny when connected via the cable, but it sounds just fine via bluetooth. --Rob Rich


Other 148Apps Network Sites

If you are looking for the best reviews of Android apps, just head right over to AndroidRundown. Here are just some of the reviews served up this week:


AndroidRundown

Wave Wave

Life is sweeter when it’s easy. When everything moves the way it should for as long as it should, one can’t complain. There isn’t any shame in appreciating that. With video games, we like reasonable levels of difficulty, but I think that deep down, we all really want an epic battle… something seemingly impossible to conquer. Basically, we love torture by pixel. Why else would games like Wave Wave be so addictive? We’ve known about this game for a while, and finally had a chance to take it for a spin. It is a twitch/reaction games, so it makes sense to go into it with a soothed state of mind. Simplistically explained, the playing area is an insane, jazzy splash of altering colors. A lined arrow travels through this playing area, and the base idea is to use the controls to avoid the quick-appearing obstacles that appear. --Tre Lawrence


Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville

I admit to being a bit surprised back when Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville was announced – a Powerpuff Girls Metroidvania, developed by Radiangames, known for their dual-stick shooters and puzzle games? And it released on Steam? I didn’t get around to playing it until now, when it surprisingly released on mobile recently, but it makes a lot more sense that it’s a Radiangames title – and it’s a unique, if imperfect, take on the open-world adventure genre of Metroidvanias. The game starts out with Mojo Jojo, famed villain of the Powerpuff Girls, having erased all of the girls’ memories, imprisoning Bubbles and Blossom, with only a flightless Buttercup around. Flight is the first power earned back by collecting in the world, and here’s where the game shows its original qualities. Many games in the Metroidvania vein restrict progress by restraining movement, but this game relies solely on the lack of certain powers necessary to progress. I feel like it’s almost fairer, because it’s kind of nice to not have things that are just out of short jumping reach. It’s more artificial, but it feels more natural in a weird way. --Tre Lawrence


First Strike

First Strike is all about nukes. The crux of many an action movie nukes can be fun to throw around. First Strike contains all the fun of launching arrays of nuclear death without all that pesky fallout afterwards. First Strike throws diplomacy out the window. By the time of the game the world is already going to be bathed in nuclear fire. The only question is who will do most of the bathing? First Strike divides each nation up into sections and each section has a number of silos, the number of which is controlled by tech level. Each silo can have a particular kind of missile. There are cruise missiles which are used to intercept incoming nukes and ICBMs, which are used for nuking other nations. --Allan Curtis

And finally, 2014 is halfway through, so Pocket Gamer revealed its top-rated iOS, Android, Vita, and 3DS games of the year so far, and found 100 upcoming mobile games to look forward to. The guys also started documenting their adventures in bizarre art installment art MTN, took a look at Civilization Revolution 2, and produced a whopping great guide to Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake.

The First Calendar Review

iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad
By Jennifer Allen on July 1st, 2014
Our rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: FOCUSED PLANNING
Keep track of your daily appointments and call reminders with this handy iPhone-only app.
Read The Full Review »

Dropbox Adds Some Time-Saving New Features

Posted by Jennifer Allen on June 25th, 2014
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Our rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: PRODUCTIVITY TO THE MAX :: Read Review »

There's a new update out for everyone's favorite cloud storage app, Dropbox, and it's a useful one.

The app now allows you to reorder your Favorites list with a simple touch and hold motion. It's a small but significant step in making things that bit quicker for you. As well as that, you can now set up Dropbox with your camera, simplifying the set up process when linking a computer to the service. Plus, Dropbox now remembers your recent locations when importing files, which is bound to save some time!

Dropbox is available now on the App Store and it's a free download.

Personal Assistant App 24me Adds "Smart Alerts"

Posted by Jessica Fisher on June 18th, 2014
+ Universal & Apple Watch App - Designed for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch
Our rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: SMART AND SLEEK :: Read Review »

24me has announced the addition of smart alerts to its personal assistant app. It has combined a calendar, task manager, and real world information to provide you with up-to-date alerts to make your day that much easier.

Now when you schedule a meeting, 24me will send you an alert about the best time to leave based on traffic and local weather reports. Always forgetting your friend's birthday? 24me has you covered with its special events feature. It sends you an alert a week ahead so you have plenty of time to buy a card.

The latest version of 24me is available on the App Store now, for free.


- Next Day and Today’s Agenda - 24me gives you heads up about your schedule including your meetings and tasks planned for tomorrow.
- Smart Weather Alerts – 24me alerts on unusual weather conditions for the next day, so you will never get caught without your umbrella.
- Someday Tasks - A group of tasks that holds all the tasks which don’t have a due date.This group can be dragged from one day to the other.
- Email The Meeting Participants – New “Email All” button, allows sending all participants an email with one tap.
- Text and Emails - Tasks which are text or email can now hold the text/email content on the “Notes”. Once tapping on the action button of that task, the notes are automatically populated into the body of the text/email.
- Enhanced Invite Mechanism – it’s now easier than ever to invite your friends and colleagues to meetings, 24me lists the most recent contacts you email under “Recent” in the Invite tab.

RadResume Review

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
By Jennifer Allen on June 11th, 2014
Our rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: USEFUL DOCUMENT CREATION
Want to create a resume or cover letter fast? RadResume is just what you need.
Read The Full Review »