I have spent a great deal of my time looking for hidden objects.

Big City Adventure is a huge time taker. The premise is simple and involves playing mini-games such as jigsaw puzzles to progress to the next part of town. When you reach the next part of town you have to find a series of hidden objects in a picture. This picture can be zoomed in to get a much closer look which involves lots of scrolling around and blurred graphics, but what appear to be failures at first quickly add to the fascination of the game. The first few plays are incredibly frustrating because it feels like looking at a meaningless picture with no logic involved, but over time it all falls into place and the process becomes very, very addictive. Objects are hidden inside pictures that pop up when you click a specific part of the main picture and others are found using cryptic clues. There are bonus coins for extra points, clues and other rewards and you gain extra points for finishing each level quickly. Think of it as a visual crossword and you won’t go far wrong.

So far I have progressed through 15 levels which leave 45 to complete, plus 45 mini-games along the way. It has taken me a week to clear these 15 and so I can expect at least another 3 weeks to complete the whole game, but the pictures get harder as the level numbers increase so the remaining time may also increase.

I simply cannot explain why hunting around pictures for objects is so addictive and why it is taking so much of my time, but the implementation is superb and everything from the clues to the clever placement of the objects come together to create a relaxing, yet at times frustrating, experience that I will be playing for some time to come. Big Fish Games has released many titles in this genre and I can see myself eventually buying all of them. I am completely and utterly addicted to the genre and these are the best implementations I have seen yet. If you are unsure, try one of the Lite titles and you will see what I mean. Prepare to be addicted…

“Infinite Dreams decided to drop the Sky Force price to 0$ in case of reaching 5000 Facebook fans milestone. It’s up to gamers how fast the game will be available for FREE to download on your device.

All you have to do is visit Infinite Dreams Facebook fan page and become their fan. Then invite your friends to join the party and watch how the price go down. If the ‘like’ counter shows over 5000 fans, Sky Force will be discounted to 0$ on Apple App Store for 48 hours.”

BT Engage is your perfect companion to the BT Engage Meeting Manager web portal.
Now you can schedule, view, cancel, start, monitor, or control your video meetings right from your iPhone or iPad, wherever you are, whenever you prefer.
Whether it’s SD, HD, or immersive video systems from any major vendors, you can schedule or control your video meetings using the same simple interface on your mobile device.

There are, however, things you can use to make an iPhone (and iPad) feel more independent and here are just a few examples-

The first example is hardware related and a problem that all smartphone owners suffer with- the need to connect to a wire to charge the phone. For those of you in the UK, HMV is currently selling the Logic3 Power Sleeve (for iPhone 4) for only £9.95 in store. You charge it up and take it with you and when you need to charge your phone just slip it into the cradle. It charges the iPhone much faster than my Mac Mini via USB does and has proved useful on multiple occasions so far.

Photo organisation is one area where the iPhone is poor to say the least. To manage your photos you have to sync your phone with iTunes or at the vest least connect to use iPhoto or a similar tool. PhotoSync takes away a lot of this pain and will let you synchronise photos wirelessly between a desktop and the iPhone. Unfortunately due to restrictions by Apple you cannot specify folders on the iPhone so you are still left with a slightly limited experience, but one which is way better than the default settings. Phanfare ($29 / year) is another option which covers many bases. You can save all of your digital photos online and access them directly from an iPhone. It will sync with iPhoto and any photos or videos that you take on your iPhone are automatically uploaded and stored on the service. If you are serious about looking after your photos, this is a very good option.

Podcast management is terrible on the iPhone, but not so with Instacast. For $1.99 / £1.19 your entire Podcasting experience will be changed forever and it really should be snapped up by Apple for a future upgrade.

For notes I have to recommend EverNote and Awesome Note as a combination that never needs to touch a desktop computer. It’s all so seamless that I can’t imagine not using either now.

There are many restrictions imposed by Apple, some with good reason, that limit how mobile an iOS device can currently be, but have a look around and you will find many more apps that can help to get around these restrictions.

The first thing I noticed was the similarity in looks to the native calendar app. Many of the familiar elements were there across the top and across the bottom. From the calendar selector to the view sensitive date selector on the bottom of the page. But there are a few tweaks. I appreciate the thoughtful tweaks and details like the page marker and the nice use of larger fonts that take what Apple gave us and add much needed usability.

Week Calendar HD has four views: Day, Week, Month and Year. Information can be pulled from either the native app or synched with Google calendar. (This is the main reason I use it). You can create several calendars or even subscribe to other calendars such as holidays, sporting events etc. Each calendar display can be color coded so you’ll know exactly what calendar(s) you are looking ator hidden if desired. Each view has a contextual navigation bar across the bottom so yo can navigate to the day, week, month, or year needed. There is also a Today button on the bottom left that, when pressed, will take you back to the current day. It is a very clean and straight forward layout that is easy to use without having to think about where different features are located.

The Day view is divided in to two panels. The one on the left lists all the upcoming events for the month in an agenda format. Tapping on any appointment will display the appointment details. Tapping on any day will bring up that day on the right panel. The right side panel displays the day broken up by hour time slots; working hours shaded differently than non-working hours. There is a red line that marks the current time of day in the calendar.

The Week view gives you a nice quick overview of your week. The day names run across the top with the current day highlighted in blue. As with the day view, there is a red line showing the current time of day. If you have appointments that are not displayed there are small arrow indicators that inform you there are hidden items. The block style for appointments can be customized from a simple flat color block. to a more modern shiny one.

The Month view looks very much like the default iOS app and works pretty much the same. The weekends are shaded while the current day is highlighted in blue. Tapping on an event will bring up the details of the event. Double tapping on a page with bring up the day view. I would like the choice to switch between a text label (iOS) and the button type (WC). But this is a very minor thing in my opinion.

The Year view is one of the views that I hardly use but it is a useful tool for advanced planning. The current day’s date is displayed in blue. Any day with an event will show yellow and get progressively darker with each event added. If you have five events per se, then the day will be an orange color. It’s a nice little addition that I thought was a nice solution to that particular need.

If you are looking for an alternative calendar for your iPad that syncs up with Google calendar, check out Week Calendar. It is a great program that may not have all the bells and whistles as some of the other solutions, but in keeping with an idea of sophistication with simplicity, Week Calendar is awesome. It just works. It’s well worth the cost of $3 and is available now on iTunes.

Clark

I have 9 dictionaries and thesauri on my iPhone and iPad. They seem to multiply like my cats. I look at one, it looks interesting. I look at another. It presents words in a different way. And so on. I’ve stopped looking because 9 is the maximum I can fit in a folder on my iPhone. Part of me hoped that Apple doesn’t increase the limit.

This isn’t a review but a look at how dictionaries can present words. What’s the big deal, you say. A dictionary is a list of words in alphabetical sequence with meanings attached. And if it’s a thesaurus, each word has a list of similar words. That’s the basic idea. But words can be presented in different ways. When you’re looking for a way to describe something, having a list of words is one thing, but if they’re presented in different ways, it’s easier to choose the right word to convey what you want to say. Or maybe realize that you don’t want to say what you thought you wanted to say.

I can’t remember which one I bought first. And I look at some of them now and ask myself why I bothered. They must have looked good at the time. So I’m going to go through the ones I have and describe what I saw in them. I’m not necessarily recommending them other than for the way they present words. Also, some of the free ones are supported by advertising which is somewhat strange in a dictionary.

Oxford Deluxe (ODE & OTE) by Enfour

You have to have an Oxford. There are a number available. As I understand it, this is the Shorter Oxford which is normally two volumes and a couple of thousand pages. It’s quite expensive as Apps go, but significantly cheaper than the paper version. Layout and presentation is what you expect in a top level dictionary. There’s also audio pronunciation with a British accent. I also use this for British/Canadian spelling. It usually has the American spelling as well. There are other Oxford English Dictionary Apps, but this one seemed to get the best reviews.

American Heritage Dictionary by Enfour

Similar to the Oxford Deluxe, but American English oriented. At work, our documentation must use American English spelling, so having a good dictionary is a requirement. This one also has audio pronunciations, but in a North American accent. To me that means almost no accent. I also find that there are some words that are accepted in North America that I don’t find in the Oxford and vice versa.

Dictionary.com – Dictionary & Thesaurus by Dictionary.com

I think I picked this one up because at the time it was free. Definitions tend to be brief which can be useful. Again, the presentation is your typical dictionary. The thesaurus has a brief definition as well as a list of synonyms (of course) and antonyms.

Advanced English Dictionary & Thesaurus by jDictionary

This one has a different UI compared to the typical dictionary. It breaks out words in boxes with the type of word, noun, verb, etc., on the top of the box. It also has more general and more specific words as well as opposites. Each definition is in its own box along with related words so they are directly related to the particular meaning.

Meriam-Webster Dictionary by Meriam- Webster

I picked this one up because it was free at the time and it is Webster’s. Again, this is a traditional dictionary presentation and has synonyms and antonyms as part of the word definition.

Advanced English Dictionary and Thesaurus by Mobile Systems

This one also combines much of a dictionary and thesaurus in one, so you don’t have to switch. There’s a definition as well as a number of phrases showing usage. Then there are antonyms and synonyms. There are also related words which can help home in on what you want to say. As well, there may be hypernyms and hyponyms, words that are more general and more specific than the focus word.

WordBook English Dictionary & Thesaurus by TransCreative Software

This one has the usual definitions and origin, but you can then tap a button to get to a traditional thesaurus and also a links button which contains synonyms, more specific and more general words, and related words. You can also use the word in a Google search and define websites to use as links, such as Wikipedia.

WordWeb Dictionary by WordWeb Software

Another traditional layout but when you’re searching, related words that are included with the definition of the current word drop down in a little box. This one also has links to external resources such as Google and Wikipedia.

English Dictionary & Thesaurus by Ultralingua

Here the definitions are also quite short and to the point. I found some of the related words to be interesting choices. For example, I looked up the word “swim” in all the dictionaries to compare them. In the thesaurus, this one has “swim” as a verb with be light, float, and lighten as some of the related words. The antonym given is “gravity”. I would have expected “sink” but I did want a different view after all. One nice touch in this dictionary is that verbs are conjugated. Most dictionaries just have a single word showing the different tense. This one shows the complete conjugation (I, you, he/she/it, we, they) as well as more tenses than I knew existed.

So there you have it. As I said, a brief look at what makes these different. One thing’s for sure, I’m never at a loss for words.

Bob

Then there are the price drops. That’s more interesting because it often gives you a chance to try something for free or pick up something that you were waffling on for a reduced price. I’m starting to watch this more closely because there are some deep discounts available if you can catch them.

Some of the sites I frequent highlight price drops and Apps gone free. It is one such freebie that prompted this piece.

On one site that regularly highlights Apps Gone Free, I noticed a paint program called Inspire that was rated quite highly. It was down from $4.99 to free for the day. Now I am no artist. I don’t consider that I have very much creative ability, at least not in what people would consider art. However, for free, I figured what the heck. Let’s see what can be done.

I’ve seen paint programs on Windows and the Mac. In fact I have some. Mostly I use them for photo editing, but occasionally, I need to change a splash screen or something for work. I can use them that way, but I would never consider them for real art. Just like my feeling about mind mapping Apps, using a mouse is to far removed from the App.

So I downloaded Inspire. It’s an iPhone App but I loaded it on my iPad. The iPhone is too small to let things flow. And I started playing. Way cool. I said I was no artist and an App isn’t going to make me one, but this was fun. There are a zillion options for brushes, textures, amount of paint on a brush (gee, just like the real thing), and so on. I checked out the iPad version and it looked even cooler. But it wasn’t cheap. Since I was just playing, I couldn’t justify the price.

But my curiosity was fired up and I started doing some research, as I tend to do a lot. I checked out various sites with reviews and comparisons of painting and drawing Apps. I downloaded some free ones to get a feel for them and the various interfaces. And I made a list of Apps I want to keep track of for price drops.

One of the Apps had some very basic tutorials. One of the reviews mentioned them but complained that they were much to simplistic to be of much use. But it occurred to me that there must be lost of free tutorials on the Web if I was interested, just like there are for almost any subject you can think of.

And there it was. It actually occurred to me that it might be fun to learn something about painting. I don’t think I had ever given this a first thought before, never mind a second one.

I had the same thoughts about music when I got my MacBook and played with GarageBand. And then GarageBand on the ipad brought it even closer. But I wasn’t a complete stranger to music although I’m no musician. I did play with a guitar some when I was younger. That was the 60s. You had to play the guitar!

So Steve Jobs is correct when he says that the iPad (and similar tablets, but we won’t tell Steve) is magical. It’s a transformative type of magic. Alchemy if you will. It has the ability to change no interest into curiosity into a fun learning experience.

I’m looking forward to retirement in a few years. I’ll have absolutely no trouble filling up the extra time. I’m adding art and music to my list of things to try. Who knows what else I’ll magically be attracted to.

Bob

“If you are wondering how to use iPad 2 in the water, this Water Resistant Case will be a new gadget for you. The case is made of thin and strong clear material so that you can fully access your device with finger-touch.”

Also worth considering is the iPhone 4 Ultra-thin Slide-out Wireless Keyboard which could finally solve the problem of typing on a touch screen.

iPhone 4 Ultra-thin Slide-out Wireless Keyboard protective Slide-out hard case for your iPhone 4 with keyboard built-in. The case offers high protection for your iPhone 4. It features a slim, perfectly fit and stylish design. This is a Bluetooth enabled keyboard. Its portable and tiny design can be used for travel, school, or any other working environment with a Bluetooth enabled iPhone 4.

“Amazon has since updated the web client to work with iOS devices. While it isn’t quite as nice as an actual app, it provides nearly all of the functionality that you could ask for. Even the multitasking music controls work flawlessly. Sound quality is said to be “great,” and the only part of it that is a little buggy seems to be the scrubbing capability.”

It is extremely difficult to balance the need to note down your tasks in a way that does not mean you spend longer organising than ‘doing’ and this is a trap I have seen many people, including myself, fall into. Calendars can get complicated and reoccurrences can start to annoy rather than remind and very soon you find yourself stuck in the trap of noting down everything you need to do using a method that is not designed to allow quick management of tasks. To do lists can also suffer from over complexity and it is all too easy to create long lists of tasks that get put back time and time again or become hidden below the bottom of the screen because the lists are too long.

I always use a calendar because I can’t get my head around To do lists. I just forget that the tasks are there and end up with lots of useless information that is of no value to me. I use a calendar because of the reminders and the ability to get an overview of what is coming up. It works well for me and the only downside is the time needed to input new entries and the fiddling around that occurs when I need to change appointments.

And then Notificant appeared. Of all the solutions I have seen to date this one seems to strike the perfect balance between keeping the user informed of what needs to be done while making the creation process as easy as possible. All you do is type a note and set the time and date to be alerted and that’s it. You can choose how you want to be alerted and on which devices and you can even choose to have an email sent to you at the appropriate time.

There is a limit of 160 characters which is slightly too low in my opinion, but I guess this makes sense to keep the simplicity at the forefront while you are using the app; it is all about speed- type in a note, set the time for the notification and choose where you want the notification to be sent to. You then get on with your life and when the alarm sounds, you do what it asks you to do and move on.

There are apps available for the iPhone and Mac and also the ability to create and manage notifications on the web. The web side works very well in Firefox, Chrome and Safari, but is problematic under Internet Explorer. I asked the developer about this and here is the reply-

“Thank you for purchasing Notificant. The problems you are experiencing are there because you are using Internet Explorer, which is wildly noncompliant of web development standards.

Notificant is a sophisticated web application and has been coded in accordance with those standards and it therefore fully supports modern web browsers such as Apple’s Safari, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

One day, perhaps, we will go back and make the modifications necessary to support Internet Explorer, but as it stands today, it is a fairly daunting and expensive task and we’d rather focus our resources on moving forward instead of supporting outdated browsers like Internet Explorer.

If your situation allows you, we urge you to switch to a more capable web browser like the ones mentioned above. Not only will you be able to use Notificant to its full potential, but your whole web browsing experience will become significantly richer.

If you’d like any more assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us again.”

They are of course quite right, but it would be nice to see an update because many people are stuck with using IE at work and it makes the process more convoluted. The main problem under IE, besides the presentation, is that you cannot choose a time and date when creating a new notification- you have to created it and then go back in to edit it to amend it. Not the end of the world, but it could be better.

I haven’t bought the Mac app yet because I really don’t need it. The web app works so well under Firefox that it would be an expense, albeit a small one, that would give me little more than an even cleaner interface to play with.

Over the past week Notificant has completely changed the way I managed what I need to do. I get things done, but don’t have to look at lists of tasks the way I do with a calendar. There is of course a list of future notifications, but this method of presenting them immediately puts the ‘one moment in time’ approach into the user’s head. You see the notification and you deal with it, and you don’t worry about what else you need to do until it happens. If you are struggling with organising yourself on a daily basis you really do need to take a look at Notificant.

Many magazines available on the iPhone have the content right, but the presentation has not come close to offering a magazine feel and at times the navigation is fiddly and too cumbersome to make the experience worthwhile.

And then Our Choice appeared. The content is good, but what really interested me was the way the images, videos and text were displayed and handled on a small smartphone screen. At last there is a decent smartphone magazine option- we just need the big providers to take notice and jump on board.

“The Sophie is another concept from the venerable Mac Funamizu. The iPhone dock/case prints photos just like a Polaroid. A QR code and geo tagged map can also be printed to link it to a digital version somewhere on the web like Flickr. Clever and simple. This is a much better evolution of Polaroid technology. A certain company should take notice.”

I don’t know if this is a good idea or not. As a consumer I would love to use BlackBerry services on a non-BlackBerry phone, but it feels like RIM is giving away its most prized assets to the competition and leaving itself little room for maneuver in the future.

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM, TSX: RIM) is announcing today plans for a multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution for managing and securing mobile devices for enterprises and government organizations. The solution will make available the market-leading management, security and controls of BlackBerry® Enterprise Server and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express for BlackBerry® devices plus, through RIM’s pending acquisition of ubitexx (creator of the ubi-Suite device management solution), the solution is expected to incorporate secure device management for Android and iOS based devices and tablets, all managed from a single web-based console.

“The multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution is designed to address a growing market and respond to requests from enterprise customers who want a secure multi-platform device management solution from a company that already delivers the gold standard for enterprise mobility,” said Peter Devenyi, Vice President, Communications Platform Group at Research In Motion. “We recognize the opportunity to continue leading in the enterprise market by providing customers with a common platform to help simplify the management of a variety of mobile devices.”

The single web-based console is being designed to provide IT administrators with a simple and efficient way to distribute software and manage policies, inventory, security and services for BlackBerry devices, as well as other mobile devices. IT administrators will be able to manage devices over-the-air, including activating devices, distributing software and applications, locking or wiping devices, enforcing and resetting device passwords, setting IT policies, and managing optional mobile applications for end users. Certain features are expected to remain exclusive to BlackBerry devices because such capabilities are built into the design of a device’s operating system. Examples include RIM’s industry-leading push technology, network and data usage efficiency, behind-the-firewall access to enterprise applications and systems, and many of the over 550 IT policies available through BlackBerry Enterprise Server.  The recently-released BlackBerry® Balance™ technology (see separate press release issued today), which supports the use of a single smartphone for both work and personal purposes without compromising the security of corporate content or the privacy of personal content, will also remain exclusive to BlackBerry devices.