Apps

From the best medical iPhone apps to the best entertainment apps, from the best ebook apps to the best iPhone travel apps, the best iPhone apps are now in one place that’s

AppFairy.com allows users to search by price, category and word for easy use, and also offers free newsletter subscriptions.

“Anyone who owns an iPhone knows both the excitement of downloading a great app and the frustration of spending time searching for and downloading bad ones,” said Jed Lampi, owner and founder of AppFairy.com. “AppFairy.com is kind of like the tooth fairy in that in rewards you with the best information and best iPhone apps by category.”

Users can search by 20 different iPhone app categories in the regular listings and in the new Top 50 iPhone apps section: books and ebooks; business; education; entertainment; finance; games; healthcare and fitness; lifestyle; medical; music; navigation and GPS; news; photography; productivity; reference; social networking; sports; travel; utilities and utility apps; and weather apps. In addition, AppFairy.com offers Top 10 articles on a variety of iPhone topics.

About AppFairy.com
Founded in 2010 to help consumers navigate the growing number of both free and paid iPhone apps, AppFairy.com is the premier site for finding and downloading the best iPhone apps. For more information on the site and iPhone apps, please visit .

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Last year, I wrote about my favorite iPhone apps for traveling . Now, I have some more. I LOVE these apps. They made my recent travels so much easier.

1. Tripit. Free. This is a great app. As I plan my vacations, I email all the reservations to plans@tripit.com (after signing up), and it puts together my itinerary in one folder. You don’t have to be online to access the information, and Tripit adds helpful items such as maps, directions and weather info. Really handy.

2. TripAdvisor . Free. I’ve used this for years on my desktop, but the iPhone app is wonderful when you’re on the go. When we were recently in Europe, we’d see a restaurant that looked good, and I would go on TripAdvisor to see what sort of ratings it got from other travelers. That helped us avoid some places that got really bad reviews. It also has a “near me now” feature that will show nearby attractions, restaurants and hotels – and their ratings.

3. FlightTrack . $4.99. This is a bit pricey for an app, but it’s worth it. You simply enter your flight information, and you get all the real-time information about your flight – delays, gates number, etc. It also has a map so you can track flights. This app works internationally.

4. iTranslate . Free. For international travel, this app is a must-have. It translates words and phrases in more than 50 languages. It also has free audio in 18 languages, so you can hear how the word is supposed to sound.

5. Words With Friends . Free/$1.99. I’m cheating a bit here. Obviously, Words With Friends isn’t strictly for travel. But this Scrabble-like iPhone game sure comes in handy when you’re sitting in an airport waiting for a flight or just have some downtime in your hotel room. And I’d like to think it’s a bit more stimulating than, say, Angry Birds. The free version has pop-up ads; it was worth it to me to spring for the $1.99 ad-free version.

One of the most exciting novelties of late is that of Square technology which enables you to ditch the paper and pay for everything on your mobile phone. Square is a literally a little square which you plug into your iPhone and then swipe your credit card through. This can be done to pay for goods of all prices and means that you can pay for breakfast at a greasy spoon or apples at a your local fruit and veg market without handing over any cash! It is truly innovative. But how do you track your transactions I hear your ask? Well, Square has created lots of ways to do this – firstly you get an instant receipt sent to your email or mobile phone after each transaction, which you can access securely. Secondly, Square has developed an interface which allows you, as a business, to view the amount of money you have made in a day including tips, tax, and method of payment. It really couldn’t be simpler. We are loving the fact that this is now available on various platforms such as android and can be downloaded as an iphone mobile apps. If you are using Square, we would love to hear your feedback.

Finally, the product of the month has to be Amazon’s New Kindle DX. Although it might not change the way we think about e-books, as was first thought a year ago when it was described as the iPod of the e-book world, the Kindle DX certainly has some advantages over the iPad. Here’s how: The iPad can’t be read in direct sunlight and the Kindle can. This is a particular disadvantage over the summer. The Kindle has a very thin third-inch width compared to the iPad’s half-inch size. Plus, the Kindle has a battery life of an entire week on a single charge whilst the iPad gets about 10 hours. The Kindle DX is also noticeably lighter than the iPad. However, the Kindle literally only allows you to read books, what the iPad does is allow you to download mobile apps

As an app reviewer, I spend an inordinate amount of time browsing apps and app reviews in Apple’s App Store. When I’m considering an app review, or considering purchasing an app for personal use, one of the first things that I do is to read the user reviews, as I’m sure many of you do too.

Unfortunately, a newly released app or an app without a lot of reviews can sometimes have fake reviews, planted by developers or their friends, to trick unsuspecting customers and artificially inflate ratings. We’ve developed a quick guide that will help you avoid apps that are being falsely promoted.

Recently, at PadGadget, we came across a few apps with not just one or two fake reviews, but 30 or 40. One of the apps even had upwards of a hundred fake reviews, which was baffling to me because it takes a lot of effort to make that many false iTunes accounts.

Fake reviews are a problem that has plagued the App Store since its inception, and while Apple has made an effort to curtail falsifying ratings, no system is flawless, and it’s still an issue that users need to be well aware of when buying an untested app.

Back in May, Apple changed its app review policies, disallowing reviews of apps received from promo codes. Previously, App Store developers could request multiple promo codes to send to friends, who could then falsified reviews for the app. While promo codes can’t be used to for reviews anymore, developers can still use gifted apps and fake iTunes accounts to purchase apps and leave positive reviews, so it’s important to be vigilant when choosing an app.

Here are some obvious signs that a review is fake:

The titles are all similar. Every user has to enter a title for a review, and when an individual is creating multiple titles in quick succession, they tend to be similar. Look out for reviews that all start with one word titles, or have a lot of the same words, like “great app,” awesome app,” “good app.” Here’s some titles of actual fake reviews: “amazing,” “nice,” “good,” “awesome.”

Similarities in punctuation. We all have particular writing styles and tendencies towards certain words and punctuation. A person who regularly uses two exclamation points instead of one will often do that in multiple reviews, and the same is true of capitalization, comma usage, ellipses, and other punctuation marks. Additionally, if a word is misspelled in one review, it will often be misspelled in all of them. Two of the fake reviews, posted one right after another: “cool graphics.. loving it” and “its great fun addicting..” The two single periods in each review are a dead giveaway that these aren’t real reviews.

Names. The person writing fake reviews needs to come up with several different iTunes accounts in one sitting, and our brains aren’t wired to pick up on our own nuances. Several two word names, like Bob Smith, Brian Jensen, Pete Jones, and Frank Johnson are incongruous. Real people have widely varied user names.

Problems with syntax. Like with punctuation and spelling, different reviews that truly come from just one user will share similarities in syntax: “it’s a cool game but it’s hard. if you like a challenge get this game”; “great game and fun. pretty difficult to get high scores.”; its hard at first. once you get the hang of it, its fun!” All of these reviews are short sentences, with with similar content and style.

Clicking on a user’s name who left a review will take you to a list of all the reviews they’ve written. If there’s only a few, and they consistently give high reviews, be suspicious. Often, these users will leave reviews for the same group of apps, so click a few and find out if they have all been commenting on the same apps. As a bonus, you’ll find other apps to avoid! The catch is that this technique only works when you’re on your computer, so whenever possible, resist that impulse purchase on your iPhone or iPad and check it out first.

In the apps that I mentioned, with reviews by a developer that was padding their own ratings, there are hundreds of positive comments and then approximately ten negative, angry comments from customers who were falsely tricked into purchasing the app, and then realized the reviews were fake after the fact.

While there are some true independent gems in the App Store, a good rule of thumb is to also check out the other apps that a developer has put out. In the case that I mentioned, they have several apps all with fake reviews by the same group of iTunes accounts, so it was very obvious.

If you take a look at all the reviews and see clear links between them, it’s best to avoid the app and losing money. Google can be helpful as well. There are a lot of app reviewing sites out there, including PadGadget, who work hard to bring you honest information and opinions about apps. If there aren’t any third party reviews, and the app looks suspicious, trust your intuition and save yourself the frustration of downloading an app that’s been falsely promoted.

REVIEW – “Hi-tech hiking tools from MotionX!”

MotionX has released several apps and games into the App Store, and is becoming one of the premier developers for the iPhone and iPod touch. This App is designed for all of those people out there who enjoy traveling in the great outdoors.

This app offers an impressive amount of information from your iPhone 3G’s internal GPS chip, allows you to plan and keep track of hikes, runs, bike rides and all kinds of outdoor activities. Best of all the free version of the app has nearly the same functionality of the paid app.

The first screen you see after the splash screen that advertises the paid app is the “Status” screen. This screen gives lots of information that you’ve probably never seen from the GPS chip in your phone, but this is just where this app starts. At the bottom of the screen you’ll see several menu options. The far left option is an awesome feature that allows you to save battery while you are using this app. If you press the little lock button, it locks all of the buttons on the screen, makes it where you have to drag like when you unlock your phone to unlock the app and also gives you a bar to adjust the brightness of your iPhone’s display to save battery.
The next menu option at the bottom is the little gear-shaped button and it takes you to the settings menu. From here you can adjust all kinds of options such as whether or not the app uses assisted GPS, the speed display format, measurement units information is displayed in, as well as change the settings for map caching.

Map caching is one of the features of this app that sets it apart as an app to use for backpacking and hiking. A lot of applications, especially ones that are free, rely on you having a constant data connection to use them because they download all of their maps on the fly. This app actually allows you to cache map data so that, when are in the woods or mountains hiking and lose your cell service, you still have access to the maps you need to easily follow the path that you have set.

The settings menu also allows you to set the pages that are viewable from the main screen by pressing the arrows at the bottom right. You can have all six screens of information available all the time, or you can select just one or a few of them to view. The six screens are Maps, Track, Logbook, Waypoints, Compass and Stopwatch.

While the Maps feature and Waypoints help keep you on track, the Stopwatch is an excellent feature for hikers, bikers and runners. Once you turn the Stopwatch on, it not only tracks your time, it also keeps track of the path that you take on your trip, and allows you to take pictures directly in the app that are tied to the trip. Once you finish with your hike you can easily save the trip, with all of its data on your average speed, the distance of the trip, all of the pictures and even upload the information on your trip to Facebook!

I did notice that several people have given this app negative reviews because it does not offer driving directions. If you want driving directions then you should probably look elsewhere because that is not what this app is designed for. If, however, you are looking for an app to track your runs, hikes and bike rides, I doubt you will find anything that has more features and detailed information tracking than this one does. And I can almost guarantee that you will find nothing better for free!

- David H.
2009, All rights reserved. AppShouter LLC

1. Business Case: If you have an idea that could make in to a good mobile application, you should first research if another application on same / similar idea already exist. Determine how you can differentiate and improvise your idea. Understand if there is a need for the application that you plan to develop. Besides validating your concept, assess if developing that application is a good fit for your business strategies, direction, and if you will be able to recoup investment in to developing this application.

2. Target Audience: Whether you are developing application for your internal business use, use by other businesses, or use by individual consumers, you should have a good understanding of who your target audience is. That will help making design and technology decisions for your application. If you are targeting global audience, you may also have to consider making your mobile application multi-lingual.

3. Technology Selection: With mobile client applications, you cannot develop a single application that can run on all of the mobile platforms. Each of the mobile platforms is different and run only applications that are developed on the specific technologies. So if you develop an iPhone application, you cannot run the same application on Android, Blackberry, or Windows Mobile platforms. That is why it is important that before beginning application development, you select an appropriate mobile platform for your application. If your plan includes developing application for multiple mobile platforms, make sure that you architect your application properly to reduce initial and ongoing development efforts and costs. Most importantly, determine if you really need to develop a mobile client applications which are platform specific or a mobile website / web application which are more universal and could run on all smart phones.

4. Timing: When there are thousands of businesses trying to tap in to the booming mobile applications market, it is critical that you move forward with your mobile development project in a timely manner. Otherwise, there are chances that someone else may beat you in launching an application with similar concept and could quickly tap in to your potential client base. When it comes to launching a mobile application, right timing is essential for maximizing return on investment.

5. Pricing: Just like any other product, you need to make sure that price for your mobile application is right. Research on the price of other similar apps, determine how valuable is your application going to be for consumers, and figure out your total cost of ownership for building, launching, and maintaining your application. Consider offering your mobile applications for free or at a discounted price for a short period of time to attract more buyers.

Bonus Point: Marketing – After launching your application, it is important to market it and improve its visibility to your target audience. Without the marketing efforts, your application may get buried under the stack of thousands of other applications hurting its revenue potential. Marketing your application on social media sites, search engines, and offering it for free for a short period of time should help increase its consumer base. Make sure to listen to the feedback application users will be giving and incorporate that in to your future development plan.

But, whilst its new Android app is similar to its existing iPhone edition in many functional respects, there is one critical difference…

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Though the latter remains accessible only via six- or 12-month paid subscription in the UK, the Android app is being launched for free with advertising subsidy .

That means The Guardian believes it can charge high-end British iPhone users but not mass-market Android owners (or overseas iPhone users, who are also not subject to the fees). It constitutes another supposition, by a big-league content proprietor, that the Android segment is not one ripe for charging through .

“We feel that having a free, ad-funded Android app is the right business model for this marketplace and platform at this point in time,” a Guardian News Media spokesperson tells paidContent. “We have no plans to change our iPhone pricing model as it stands, though we are always reviewing and watching the market very closely.”

The Guardian allows developers to re-publish its content for free through its API (though the process of monetising that content has barely begun), and several Android apps already offer Guardian articles for free.

The split mobile business model is more than just a bifurcated app strategy. In promotion, The Guardian also promotes its free mobile website harder than its subscription iPhone mobile app. This summer, the mobile website comprised a tenth of Guardian.co.uk’s total traffic.

This all bucks the received wisdom of many, that mobile apps can charge for content because, unlike the desktop web, mobiles have little prior culture free consumption.

The message is clear – if you want free Guardian, use the desktop or mobile website or Android; if you want to pay what is the equivalent of four daily print copies for an entire year’s mobile app access, use the iPhone app.

In a fit of ad targeting, the new app’s sponsorship across the board is for Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, an Android tablet. Samsung is going ahead and selling the 10.1 device in the UK from today after a European injunction against it was temporarily suspended.

After revising its iPhone app on a subscription model in January, by June, 67,258 people had subscribed to the app (in the UK, 72 percent of them for one year at 3.99, 28 percent for six months at 2.99). That suggests it made 193,218 from annual subs and 56,308 from six-month subs in the first half of the year, for a total 249,526 before Apple’s commission.

The milestone coincided with the first of the six-month subscribers being required to renew. But The Guardian won’t disclose how many people have done so.

It also coincided with Apple’s new policy of requiring subscription payments go through iTunes Store with 30 percent commission. “Our iPhone subscriptions have always run through iTunes, so there is no change in terms of the 30 percent issue,” a spokesperson says.

The iPhone app has been downloaded 52,915 times in the States, where it is free because The Guardian wants to build an audience there.

Disclosure: Our publisher ContentNext is a wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian News Media.