The iPhone Mom

One last app from IconApps. (These folks have been very busy making simple to use yet very useful apps!) Giftster lets you keep track of a gift list on your iPhone. It’s very straightforward – tap the plus sign to enter in a name, the occasion, due date, set a reminder, select whether the gift has been purchased or not and type up any notes for gift ideas. Once your information has been saved you can view it on the main list. From here you can sort the gift list by date, status (bought or not) or by person. It’s that easy. If you’ve used another app from IconApps (Family Vault or Key Dates) you can add in people from the Settings section and the Family & Friends list. For more information on how to set up this list see my review on Family Vault.

As I mentioned in the other IconApps reviews if you have Family Vault or Key Dates on your iPhone you use the same password and PIN to access Giftster for the first time. After that you’ll only need your PIN. This allows you to keep your gift list away from the prying eyes of children who can read. And type for that matter…mine would be crafty enough to enter in their own gift suggestions.

There aren’t a lot of extra bells and whistles to the Giftster app but it seems well priced at $.99 and if you’re looking for a simple way to track a gift list this is a good one to have.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Available at iTunes

Seller: IconApps, Inc.

Kids ID is an app that allows you to keep all of your children’s vital information in one convenient location. You enter in your child’s information (name, date of birth, height, weight, eye color, distinguishing features, etc.) as well as your own information. There are also fields to store your child’s medical and school information. Kids ID allows you to store photos of your child along with their information.

I like having all of the vital information grouped together on one screen. You have to scroll down to see everything but there’s no need to navigate from one information screen to another unless you want to view another child’s information. The data entry could made easier. Kids ID has you type in all of the information. I think it’d be a little easier if some of the fields had preset options to choose from – especially for a yes or no question.

A unique aspect to the Kids ID app is the “Emergency Checklist” feature. You’ll see a red button with these words at the bottom of the child’s information screen. Tap this button and you can read detailed guidelines of what to do if your child goes missing. The information is very thorough and walks you through a scenario you’ll hopefully never have to encounter. But it’s always best to be prepared and good reading for parents.

Kids ID is pricier than some other apps but there is a Lite version (with fewer features) that you can try first. I believe it’s a smart idea for all parents to have this type of information on your iPhone.

Price when Reviewed: $4.99

Available at iTunes

Seller: John Burns/JT Apps, LLC

What a sweet, entertaining game this is! Tic Tac Paddywhack! is a version of Tic-Tac-Toe that uses animal and children’s faces instead of x’s and o’s. The graphics are cute and there’s much more to this game than Tic-Tac-Toe.

Some things I really loved about this game:

When you play the one player mode you play against the iPhone. You choose whether you want to play as animals or children. Winning games in this mode lets you unlock new characters to play with and additional prizes. The prizes include bonus games you can play. You can also play in a two player mode that lets your kids play against each other (or you).

Tap the “Settings” button and you can adjust the volume button and the level of difficulty. I like this because you can adjust the setting depending on who’s playing the game. From here you can also clear the prize history and start all over again.  Under the “Your Chest” button you can see which prizes you’ve earned so far.

I love the dimension to this game. It takes a familiar concept that kids love and gives it a very entertaining twist that they’re sure to enjoy.

Price when Reviewed: Currently on sale for $.99

Available at iTunes

Seller: SMERC Design

iBattleships takes the classic Battleship game and brings it to your iPhone. The game play is simple and straightforward. You use a track ball on the screen to position your ships. There’s also a button for rotating and then dropping your ships into position. Once you’ve got your ships where you want them you choose whether to play against the iPhone or another player. You can play against another player using a WiFi connection. I haven’t tested this method of play out because it’s nearly impossible for my husband and I to have spare time at the same time.

When you’re playing you’ll use the trackball to pick a square where you think your opponent’s ships are hiding. Tap the “Fire” button to drop a bomb. If you get a hit, you’ll hear some sound effects, your iPhone will vibrate and the square turns orange. If it’s a miss, the square turns blue. Continue this way until you’ve sunk all the other ships or been sunk yourself.

I think the developer has done a nice job transferring Battleship to the iPhone. The game ran smoothly for me and was easy to play. The strategy behind the game will definitely appeal to my older kids. Plus, if they can each get on an iPhone and play against each other, all the better. One thing I did notice was that the blue square that shows up for a miss looks similar to the regular blue squares. It’s a nit picky detail but it’d be nice if it was darker and stood out a little more so you could easily see which squares you’d already tried.

At $3.99 iBattleships is a more expensive game but you’ll get a fun game, really nice graphics and sound effects.

Price when Reviewed: $3.99

Available at iTunes

Seller: Antonio Lo Giudice

I had my first child almost ten years ago. When she was born I did my best to keep track of how often she was eating and messing diapers all while trying to track her sleep and get her on a schedule. With my next two I don’t remember keeping track much at all. I remember doing my best to survive. In about two months baby number four is due to arrive at our house. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was more than a bit nervous about caring for a newborn while sleep deprived and caring for three other kiddos. I’m wondering how I’m going to keep track of when I feed the baby if I’m doing it in between dance classes and soccer practice and PTO responsibilities. Lucky for me (and other mom’s in my boat) there’s an app that can easily track everything – Baby Activity Logger.

Baby Activity Logger is simple to use, a must when you’re dealing with moms who are sleep deprived. There’s no typing to be done. Wonderful! Information is tracked and recorded using simple buttons. The main log screen shows you four buttons – a bottle, diaper, baby face and moon. Tap the bottle and a question pops up – “Has your baby started eating?”. Underneath that are some choices – right breast, left breast (for nursing mothers) or bottle. Tap the one that fits. Now you go back to the main screen and you’ll see that a timer has begun (underneath the large buttons). This timer counts how long it’s been since your baby started eating. It will continue to count even if you exit the Baby Activity Log app. When your baby is done eating you just tap the bottle again and answer, yes your baby has finished eating.  The timer stops and now starts tracking how long it’s been since the baby finished eating.

The diaper button takes you to a question asking if you baby has pooped, peed or done both. Tap the appropriate answer and you’ll see a timer (again, underneath the large buttons) telling you how long it’s been since you changed the baby’s diaper. The baby face button is for entering information about burping and spitting up. The moon one is for the baby’s sleep cycle. Tap it and tell the app if your baby has fallen asleep or woken up. You’ll see another timer counting how long your baby has been asleep. The timers all run consecutively, each keeping track of their separate activity.

At the very bottom of the screen you’ll see three buttons. “Log” takes you to this main screen with the large buttons, the spot where you log the baby’s activity. The “Today” button gives you a summary of everything your baby has done so far. From here you can also scroll forward and backward through dates.  You can filter the summary to see all the activity or only certain things. The “Total” button takes you to a page with the statistics for the baby’s activity.

A couple other notes. On the “Log” screen, tap menu and you can enter a manual entry and switch to a 24 hour clock. I prefer this clock to the military time, less work for my tired brain. Also at the top is a button that says “Baby 1”. Tap this and you can choose which baby becomes your default for logging activities. You can also “manage babies” and enter in their names. The app lets you track three babies.

  This app is so much better than the pen and paper method I used with my first child. I love the simplicity behind it and how you enter in information simply by tapping buttons. Baby Activity Logger is a great app for new moms – whether it’s your first child or your tenth.

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Available at iTunes

Seller: Mark Bonassera/Nerdtown

My husband forwarded this link to me today and I gave it a try this afternoon. It works! I checked out the Office episodes and they even had last week’s episode available. It’s as easy as going to www.nbc.com on your iPhone and then selecting the full episodes. Choose the one you want to watch and off you go.

Click here to read a review on cnet that gives more details on how it all works.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10238206-233.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

The CPSC Recall app is for moms who want to stay on top of product recalls. CPSC stands for Consumer Products Safety Commission. This app gives you a list of the most recent recalls. I was shocked at how many recalls pulled up the first time I used this app. I naively assumed that the most recalls found their way into the news but apparently I was wrong.

When the CPSC Recalls app opens up you’ll see the list of recalls including a picture of the product and the date the recall was issued. Tap on a recall and you’ll go to a screen that shows you more details and information. From here you can also email the recall information out to someone. At the bottom of your screen you’ll see a button that says “Most Recent”. This button takes you back to the main recall list. If there are any recalls you haven’t read there will be a red number above this button.  On the “Most Recent” screen, in the top right corner you’ll also see a button that tells you if you have any unread messages. Tap on this button and you can choose to mark all the recalls as read or unread. This is great if you don’t like the red number screaming at you, telling you that you’ve got reading to do.

The “Older” button at the bottom of the screen will show you recalls from earlier dates. The “Bookmark” button gives you a list of all the recalls you’ve bookmarked. To bookmark a recall touch the book icon in the top right corner when you’re viewing the product’s details. Touch the “Report” button to access ways of reporting your own safety concerns.

CPSC Recalls is a good app to have if you want to stay on top of product safety.  Some of the recalls on this app are fairly obscure (and the details gave me the giggles) but I guess you’d be glad you had the app if you came across a product you owned and the recall hadn’t made the news. One feature the app didn’t have which would be a nice add on is search capability.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Available at iTunes

Seller: Matt Coneybeare

Flag Match is a matching game, similar to Bejeweled. Your goal is to line up three world flags in a row. Do this and they’ll disappear causing the flags around them to shift and move. If you can’t find three in a row you can tap and drag flags to move them around. You’re trying to beat the clock and earn points as you eliminate the flags. There are thirty levels to the game and they get trickier as you go along, with harder matches and less time to find them in.

I like the cleanness of this game and the flags give it a unique twist. The many different symbols and colors in this app only add an additional challenge. One thing that I’d love to see is an info page explaining what countries go with the different flags.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Available at iTunes

Seller: Erich Bratton

My little boy knows how to download apps onto my iPhone. Hasn’t been a problem in the past. I set him up on the free games page and race car games show up on my phone. Not a big deal. He’ll usually ask me before he downloads anything and I’ve put the kabosh on some in the past. The beer pong game for one. But this morning he crawled into bed with me and had my phone while I was half asleep. I guess I wasn’t paying close enough attention because later in the morning I found this gem on my iPhone.

I’m not even going to try and describe it, I’ll let the iTunes description do it the justice it deserves.  

Pee Monkey Toilet Trainer

Earlier in the week cnet had an interesting article talking about the possibility of AT&T dropping the cost of the iPhone’s entry level service plan. If this does happen I’m hoping it’s an across the board price cut, not just for new subscribers.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10235782-94.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0