Tag: REVIEW

Earlier today Amazon released its long-awaited Appstore for Android. Fundamentally it's very similar to Google's first-party Android Market or the third-party AppBrain, but it has a few Amazonian differences that could set it apart from the competition very quickly. First and foremost, Amazon is promising to give away one paid app for free every day. Today it's Angry Birds Rio, and it only ...

If you loved NBA Jam on the Super Nintendo console back in the '90s, the iPhone version will transport you back to the slammin', jammin' days of yore. If you're new to the classic two-on-two basketball game, prepare to waste a whole lot of time, and get some ice ready for your sore thumbs. NBA Jam for iPhone is a faithful translation of NBA Jam Tournament Edition, featuring at least three ...

Dead Space is one of EA's best and biggest original IPs, and now to mark the release of Dead Space 2, the sci-fi survival horror franchise has made the leap to the portable screen. Dead Space for iOS charts an exclusive-to-the-App-Store prelude to the frightfest that is Dead Space 2. But does the visceral horror, suspense and thrilling action translate to the mobile screen? I took a look at the ...

When you've got an itty-bitty touch-screen and need to pound out a quick email, the last thing you're going to want to do is type. I mean, tapping out a text message is fine every now and then, but when you're forced to type more than a couple of lines when you're on the go, sliding is definitely the way to go. Sliding keyboards utilize the fact that each word, as it is typed, tends to create ...

When I listed Gentle Alarm as one of my top Android apps, I promised a more in-depth review -- and here it is! Here are the key features of the app that's been (successfully!) waking me up every morning for the past several weeks. Profiles One of the best concepts in Gentle Alarm is that not all alarms are exactly alike. The Profiles screen lets you set up individual alarm "types". As you can ...

What the Zuk is a (very) occasional feature, in which I review software that I have been using for many years, and which is instrumental for my work. These are the first tools I install on every new system, the reliable work-horse applications I turn to for every need. In each installment I will explain what makes this particular program special, and why I find it so vital for my computing ...

Earlier this week, Trillian, one of the oldest third-party IM client developers, released its Android app. I've always found Trillian a bit gimicky -- kind of like a 'Super Mega' Windows Live Messenger, with more bells and whistles than I really need, and a bloated, hard-to-navigate UI as a result. Trillian for Android, I'm sad to say, is no better. Ultimately, it's functional but it feels like ...

NetFront is a free browser for Android with a few features I haven't seen on any other browser. I took it for a spin, and created a gallery for your viewing pleasure. Now let's look at those features: Tilt Mode Reading webpage text on a tiny screen can be pretty irritating. In portrait mode, the characters are tiny -- and in landscape mode not many lines fit on the screen. Most people just make ...

Grooveshark is somewhat of a house favorite here at Downloadsquad. It's one of the few music sites which isn't georestricted, which means Sebastian, Erez, Vlad, Sam and I can all enjoy the same music as our teammates in the U.S. This morning, I woke up to find a completely overhauled Grooveshark interface and there's one change which trumps all the visual tinkering: it's not built with Flash. The ...

When you look at some apps it's pretty clear that the design of the user experience was left a little late in the development cycle. It's common practice to employ a designer to finish off what the developer has already put in place, polishing the pixels if you will. That's certainly not the case with The Feed, as its claim to fame is that it's been made purely by a design firm, Ocean ...

So, Diaspora started sending out invites. Jay got one and invited me in! Rather than bore you with a lengthy text description, I've decided to bore you with a video instead, so you can at least see for yourself what it looks like while I rattle on and on. The aesthetic is different than what we've seen in past screenshots. It doesn't look as good, at least to me. At any rate, you're welcome to ...

If you weren't aware, it's impossible to take screenshots with Windows Phone 7. Perhaps once it's rooted we'll be able to -- but until then, screenshotting apps for reviews is laborious -- you have to take a photo of the screen -- and the quality is inevitably low. So, looking for an alternative, I decided to do a video review of Office for Windows Phone 7. It's about 10 minutes long, and the ...

The iPad provides a fantastic opportunity for some really unique media consumption experiences. We've seen magazine-type apps like Flipboard and Pulse before, but there aren't any really good examples of novel music consumption on the iPad – until now. Aweditorium is certainly a unique and engaging experience, but it's difficult to really describe what it actually is. It's brought to you ...

Here at DownloadSquad, we're pretty heavy users of screenshot software -- whether it be an operating system's built-in tools, or a third-party app, taking screenshots forms part of our day-to-day routine. We've covered the PC version of Snagit extensively in the past, but now that the beta version of Snagit for Mac has hit release candidate it's time to take a look through what you can expect. ...

Well, what do we have here? On sale for less than a day, and it was pulled because the developers couldn't cope with the high demand. But was that demand warranted? Is Skyfire the answer to a Flash-craving iPhone user's prayers, or is it all hype and no substance? I took a good look to find out how it fares in our continuing iOS browser review series. Features Being built on the iOS ...