Tag: Personalization »

The iPhone looks pretty attractive the moment it's purchased but sometimes it's nice to add that personal touch. It's easy enough to adjust the home screen image and general background, but how about a whole new personalized cover for the device? That's what CaseApp provides.

The app enables users to import images from their camera roll and position them on a case from within the app. 20 different themes are available to create a great effect and it's possible to tilt and resize images appropriately. Once happy with the design, tap order and the case can be shipped straight away.

CaseApp promises a delivery date of 3-5 business days with prices under $30 + shipping and handling.

The kind folks at CaseApp have given 148apps readers 30% off any order they make between now and May 23rd though so it's the ideal time to purchase. Just use the promo code caseapppc30 to get the discount.

The CaseApp app is out now.

As anyone with cable TV will tell you, picking what to watch isn't as easy as it could be. While there's always a channel guide to browse through, it's frequently not very intuitive when it comes to finding the right show. Fortunately, Peel - Personal TV Show Guide jumps right in there and tackles that dilemma.

Kind of like an app version of Tivo, Peel - Personal TV Show Guide recommends shows according to what favorites the user adds to the system. The more the app learns about TV tastes and preferences, the better the suggestions become.

An attractive app to look at, it's simple to flip through the colorful thumbnails of each TV show and these thumbnails can lead onto episode descriptions and other details. Perhaps most useful is that of the ability to search for any show and Peel - Personal TV Show Guide lets the user know exactly when it's on and what channel to tune into.

Peel - Personal TV Show Guide is bound to save some time for the avid TV watcher, all the more so with Christmas coming up.

It's out now and it's free to download.

It's excellent fun and frequently very tasty to eat out at different restaurants from time to time. The problem lies in figuring out exactly which restaurants are worth the time and which need avoiding at all costs. While the App Store loves to offer plenty of recommendation apps, Ness is the newest out there for restaurant recommendations and it's looking pretty good, indeed.

Unlike other apps, Ness learns about the user's tastes by getting them to rate their dining experiences at 10 restaurants they've visited. Using such data, Ness then determines what kind of things the user enjoys about dining out, then uses that information to recommend other establishments. The more places that the user rates, the more Ness learns and in turn the more accurate the predictions become.

There's a social element to the app too with recommendations all connected to similarities between people as well as the user's friends and their preferences. For those who admit that some friends haven't got the same taste as them, there's the option to filter them out so they don't affect the recommendations from within Ness. All this is conducted via Facebook and Foursquare friends so there's no need to sign up to yet another social network just for the purposes of this app.

A Likeness Engine gives each restaurant a Likeness score out of 100 with filtering options abound throughout. Users can choose to hide places they've already rated for instance, ensuring there's always a new experience around the corner. No big chains can be switched off too thus meaning the little guys get noticed more so.

Ness's developers, the appropriately named Ness Computing, don't plan to stop with food either with future releases promising recommendations for music, shopping, nightlife and entertainment. Eventually, Ness could arrange the ideal night out all from this one simple yet useful app.

It's out now and it's a free app. Give it a shot and do report back on how it goes!

Exclusively brought to consumers by the U.S Air Force comes the release of the Last.fm Festival app. It's an app that sets out to make it easy for Last.fm users to find out which of more than 4500 upcoming festivals are most compatible to their musical interests, as determined by previous music choices.

Using a mixture of Last.fm's 'scrobbling' and its recommendation technology, personalized and informed suggestions are offered ensuring that users will always know which festivals cater best to their interest. The more they scrobble and interact with the service, the more accurate the results.

The app offers up a personalized compatibility score for each show rather than just a list, as well as offering up a recommended lineup and bio information on each band at the show. Users can also search by location, date, genre or festival name as well as by compatibility.

For now, the service is exclusive to users within the U.S., but similar apps are promised in the upcoming months for other countries.

Last.fm Festivals is available now and it's a free download.

Coming soon to the iPad is Groove, an app that's all about offering an unique music experience. It's an app that's already available for the iPhone and iPod Touch with its main features being able to study users' listening habits and then provide them new and interesting music that they might enjoy.

The app sets out to be the user's own personal DJ with one single tap offering up a mix of songs that go well together as well as the ability to listen to instant mixes of their favorite songs. It's been quite a hit for the iPhone and understandably so. Who could resist discovering new music in such an attractive and personalized manner? It seems to be much more effective than the Genius button too.

The iPad version of Groove is setting out to provide an even better experience with a complete redesign to ensure that the app looks great on the larger screen space.

Groove for the iPad is currently being finalized so expect it to be released soon. Why not check out the iPhone/iPod Touch version in the mean time?

Zite is an iPad only app that reminds me just how desperately I need an iPad in my life. It's not the only app that offers a personalised magazine style interface but it does offer some pretty cool looking features for the grand price of nothing.

Using a variety of different sources, both mainstream and niche, Zite collects everything up and provides a truly personalised experience for your reading needs. An added bonus is that you can sync both Twitter and Google Reader with Zite to give you even more to consult.

An auto-suggest tool intelligently recommends some great ideas, customising things to your interests.

Plus there's the near obligatory ability to share content via Twitter, Facebook and email. Always handy if you want to let a friend know about something you've just read about.

Zite looks like a clean and useful app. One that'll keep up to date with your ever changing interests and needs. The ability to simply tap if you want to see more about a certain genre, or to 'like' the particular article so Zite remembers in future is a great and simple touch.

Zite is available now for the iPad.