The main focus of this site is (hopefully) informed commentary, and news we’ve unearthed ourselves. We also like to provide you with in-depth reviews. But, being a mostly volunteer-run site, there’s not enough time to review everything that comes through the door, and personally I have quite a backlog of apps to look at.
So in a series of posts, I’m going to have a quick look at apps that I’ve promised developers I’ll review – ones that I’m reviewing because I thought they are interesting, and either highlighted how powerful the iPhone platform is, or just made me smile.
I’ve already looked at Pixi, Orbital and CalenGoo, and now we have SPB Brain Evolution, iDroidsMania, and Copy Share.
SPB Brain Evolution
This is a brain training-type game for the iPhone. There are two game modes:
Brain Training
– In this mode you play a couple of games per day, and have to unlock new types of games and difficulty levels.
Brain Marking
– This mode gives you a succession of games, increasing in difficulty as the marking level increases. You can publish your “Brain Power” on Twitter or spb.com. I’m currently scored as a “Child” (no comments please!).
You first have to set up a profile and set your current brain status by playing five games. You can also earn awards and unlock “interesting” facts, which I didn’t find that interesting. Handily, there are profiles so that different players can use the app.
The games included in the app fall into three categories – Logic, Orientation and Pattern, Memory and Calculation. You have a choice of:
- Arithmetics
- Quadronica – finding rectangles
- Sudoku
- Memorics
- Pairs
- Numbers
- Balltracker
- Guess Who
- Minesweeper
- Geometry
- Encyclopaedia
- Matches
It’s a good selection. I don’t use this app very often, but I’ve kept it on my iPhone as a fun one to come back to. It would be good to see some extra types of games available for in-app download. I haven’t used any other brain training apps on the iPhone, but I quite enjoy this one.
SPB Brain Evolution
Version reviewed: 2.0
Category: Games
Developer: SPB Software
Current Price: £2.99
Platforms: iPhone (version reviewed), iPod Touch
iDroidsMania
This is a 2D side-scrolling platform game. You play as HAXX, an iDroid and rural robot farmer from iDroidAbama. His family’s been abducted, and you need to defeat his nemesis BAD RAAM etc. etc. Ignorable backstory aside, the game’s quite fun. The backgrounds are cartoony and visually pleasing. It incorporates Facebook Connect to share high scores with your friends.
It’s not a bad little game but didn’t take me long to complete the 11 missions. There’s a lite version available, so you can give it a try for free.
iDroidsMania
Version reviewed: 1.0.2
Category: Games
Developer: iDroidsMania
Current Price: £0.59
Platforms: iPhone (version reviewed), iPod Touch
Copy Share
This app from Ed Lea allows you to share files between your iPhone and iPhones or Macs. You can share pretty much anything that can be copied: camera and saved photos, text messages, any details from Contacts, in fact, pretty much any content that can be copied on your iPhone or Mac
You need to install a counterpart app for sync with a Mac (there’s no Windows counterpart available). This sits in your menu bar, and can automatically start when you login.
It works pretty well. One downside is that only one clipboard item can be copied at once. It’s one of those apps that I think I should be using, but can’t bring myself to break my existing habits e.g. copy a photo from the camera roll, paste it into an email and email it to myself. Saying that, I’ve been using it quite a lot while bashing out reviews, hmm…
But I like apps like this, where the developer has clearly seen a need that others have not, and has created an app that is well thought-out. It came out before Tapbots’ Pastebot app, which is a bit more expensive, but provides more functionality.
Copy Share
Version reviewed: 1.1
Category: Productivity
Developer: Ed Lea
Current Price: £0.59
Platforms: iPhone (version reviewed), iPod Touch