Tag: $5.99 »

Bestselling business card app Business Card Reader has released a new update set to significantly improve everything possible about it.

For the uninitiated, Business Card Reader sets to save you plenty of time by importing contact information from a business card straight into your iPhone's address book. We've all been there, you've been off networking and collecting up many business cards from various potentially useful contacts. Now you're stuck having to add all that information manually. Scan it in with Business Card Reader and your time is instantly saved. It even works with business cards in other languages or with unusual characters. Jason reviewed it last year and gave it a sterling review with 4.5 stars out of 5.

This latest update hopes to make everything more efficient. There's improved contact editing courtesy of the new contact editor and there's a great scanned card preview to check out as you go along. Plus the app is all too happy to highlight symbols that it's not certain about.

Business Card Reader was already an essential app for the networker, especially for iPhone 4 owners who seemed to have the best results with the scanning engine, but this update sets to make it that bit more useful.

The update is free for owners of the last version. Those who are interested in taking the plunge with the app can purchase it for $5.99.

Infinity Blade's first major content update has hit, entitled The Deathless Kings. The meat of the update focuses on the new Deathless Kings section of the game. Accessible through a new path at the castle gates, or right before the lift that leads to The God King's lair. Now, to access the dungeon that leads to the Deathless Kings, you have to have bought the Infinity Blade in game, meaning that this section is, by design, only for experienced players who have amassed large quantities of gold either through massive playtime or by buying gold via in-app purchases so that they could buy the Infinity Blade, which costs $750,000 in in-game currency. When you finally unlock it, you get to fight the three Deathless Kings, some of the toughest enemies in the game. If you can manage to beat them, you unlock NewGame+, which starts you over in a new bloodline with all your equipment, items and gold intact, and with the ability to re-master them and level up even further. Of course, all the enemies will be stronger as well, so don't just expect a walk in the park. Of course, if you can beat NewGame+, then you can do it again.

For those less obsessed with the game, but are returning to check out the game with the update, there's fresh content for you as well. 30 new items have been added to the game, along with 10 new enemies, like the Warden, and the Wood Jester. As well, there are new Game Center leaderboards and achievements, the ability to have multiple character slots, and new settings. Of course, the most exciting new feature may just be the ability to reset the game to Bloodline 1, in case you want to go back to the halcyon days when The God King was just level 50, and you can smack him around, just like you did the first time. Ahhh, memories. The Deathless Kings is a free update to the same universal Infinity Blade app, and more features are promised in the future, including online Game Center multiplayer to fight your friends.

Wizard of Oz is a marvelous version of the classic book for iPad with gorgeous artwork and quality interactions. Without narration, this book is intended to be read alone or out loud to one's children and would also make a lovely book for advanced readers to read on their own.

I loved this book as a child and I am a big fan of this app as well. I really appreciate how elements from both the classic 1939 movie as well as the original book have been interwoven to make a wonderful new version of this story. The artwork here is really wonderful and includes not just lovely drawings, but also many pages of paper-cut illustrations which I appreciate for their use of interesting textures as well as delivering additional details and dimensions to this story.

Lovingly adapted, this app is 45 pages and keeps intact events that are omitted from many other shorter Oz versions including one of my favorite moments of the gang in the poppy field as well as other details Oz enthusiasts will enjoy. I really enjoy how movie details here are kept in tact as well, and love the artwork used showing the world before Dorothy opens the door to Oz as well as the ending back in Kansan is in black and white - one of my favorite elements from the movie. Still, it is nice that Dorothy's shoes remain silver which is true to the original book, something that I appreciate.

The interactions are also very nice here and can sometimes be quite involved, which I really like. The developers give detailed info about these interactions on their site. I hope at some point these valuable and fun details can be added to the app itself as they could be of interest to those who may not think to go to an independent site looking for more information.

Although I do love narrated apps, I respect the decision not to include narration here as this makes a lovely story to read to children or for an advanced reader to read to themselves. The interactions are can be sophisticated at times and will appeal both to children who are able to read this book to independently, to older students and adults as well as to younger kids who get to listen as this story is read out loud.

I have really enjoyed this app and I hope that more apps are created by these developers. All the elements are very well done, and I hope to see more from them.