The iPhone Mom

Where did February go? Just a reminder that with the end of the month it’s just almost time for the end of TickleTap Apps iPod Touch contest.

I’ve seen coloring book apps that are good and coloring books that are, well, bad. Ones that are so complicated you’d need to be a rocket scientist to color a picture of a rocket (ok, exaggeration) and some that are so simple your kids will be bored from the get go. 123 Color is different. Here, different is good. Very good. It’s filled with fun pictures to color but it also teaches number and letter recognition at the same time. Your children will be learning while they are coloring.

The concept behind 123 Color is to match letters/numbers in the picture with letters/numbers that correspond to different colors. It’s like the color by numbers that I used to do when I was in school.  Just to be clear that’s Elementary school, not college. You can choose to color in uppercase letters, lowercase letters or numbers. There is also a “creative expression” option. Each of these options is assigned a button on the main screen. Tap a button and you’ll have a coloring page that has letters/numbers scattered around it. Now, at the bottom of the screen you’ll see a painter’s palette. Tap here to see your colors. This is important – swipe to the left and the colors will scroll along the bottom. There are more available colors than the ones which show up on the screen. (Unless you’ve selected 7 colors, more about that in a minute.) Now you tap on a color and then tap it’s matching letter/number on the page. If you need some help, tap on the coloring page first and the colors at the bottom will adjust to show you the set that contains the letter/number you’re looking for.  As a grand finale when your picture is fully colored you’ll hear a familiar children’s song.

123 Color was developed by Steve Glinberg who is behind KidCalc. Like KidCalc, this app has some great customization abilities. Within each activity you can adjust the settings. There is no need to visit a separate settings section. You can change the learning activity (lowercase letters, numbers, etc.) no matter what button you selected in the beginning. You can choose to hear things said aloud in English by a man or woman or Spanish. Or you can opt for silence from the app. One of the features that I really like is the ability to adjust the complexity of the coloring pages. This means you can choose between 7 and 30 different colors. If you choose 7 then you will only work with 7 letters/numbers which is great for the younger kids. The last adjustment that I appreciated involved the songs. I’m all for a song but not necessarily every time my child finishes a coloring page. So for those days when there’s just not room for music in my heart I can turn off the songs. Or if I’m having a day where “The Muffin Man” is just right but “Yankee Doodle” is all wrong I can turn on or off certain songs.

Very briefly, here are a few other things to note about the app. You can save finished pictures to the camera roll or email them out. There is a “do over” button. The main page has a link to a demo video that can walk you through using the app. Finally, “creative expression” lets you color the pictures however you want. You don’t do this by coloring with your finger on the screen. Tap a color and then tap on an area on the page. The colors are filled in by blocks. This is my favorite way to do it for the younger kids because who can stay in the lines when you’re coloring with a finger anyway? I know that I can’t.

123 Color is a fantastic coloring app. My only suggestion concerns how you change to a new coloring page. Right now when you want a new picture you tap a frame icon at the bottom of the screen. My first instinct was to shake my iPhone and it took me a minute to realize what I was supposed to do. Kids might get it right away but I’m not sure. That is my only quibble with the app and it’s so very small and it certainly doesn’t affect how much I like it.  Currently there are 32 different coloring pages. Based on what I’ve seen Steve do with KidCalc I think it’s a good guess that he’ll add more in the future.

If you are looking for a coloring app and you want it to have a purpose (in addition to entertainment) then you really need to grab this one. It’s very well executed, runs smoothly, is fun for the kids and you’ll know that they’ll be practicing key preschool skills.

**I just got word that I’ve got two promo codes for 123 Color to give away. This app is absolutely worth you leaving a comment.  But that’s not all, I’ve got three codes for KidCalc. Again, another app that’s worth a comment. So here’s how we’ll do it. Leave me a comment that says “123Color” or “KidCalc”. (You can write more if you want but don’t have to.) If you want to enter for both then please leave two comments, that way I don’t have to go through and separate things out. I’ll leave it open through Monday and then randomly choose some lucky winners that evening. Good luck!

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Steve Glinberg

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Gentlemen readers, stop now, this review is especially written for my readers who are of the female variety. Read on if you must, but don’t blame me if you suffer a case of TMI. Disclaimer over. Now ladies – The Pill is an app that’s designed to help you remember to take your birth controls pills. You’ll need to set the day when you took the first pill of your current (or last) pill pack. Then set the time of day that you take your pills. Next you activate an alarm that will remind you when it’s pill time. You also have the ability to set an extra alarm for twice the reminder. You can customize the alarm by choosing from a list of sounds. My favorite two were sitar and moo. Yep, moo.

If you enable push notifications then you’ll be able to receive your reminder even if the app is closed. There is also an option to set up an email reminder for yourself. Between all of that I think you’ve got no one to blame but yourself if you forget that little pill. The app’s background color can be changed up too. Finally, at the bottom of the screen is a picture of a birth control pill pack. If you swipe from left to right you can change which pill pack you see. There are four choices right now. This lets you set up the app so it’s counting the right amount of pills, depending on which type you’re using. As you go through the month pills in the “virtual” pack will disappear so it looks like your actual pack. The pack can also be hidden if you don’t want the app to scream “birth control!” Final reminder – if you want The Pill to sound the alarm while you aren’t running the app you have to enable it’s push notification and be connected to the internet, either through Wi-Fi or the 3G network.

The Pill seems like a thorough way to keep track of your birth control pills and I like that you can set the extra reminder (and determine the delay between the first alarm and second.) My only advice, don’t take your pills at the time of day when you might find yourself in a business meeting or volunteering in the classroom. Otherwise you might find yourself having to think fast to explain why your phone is mooing.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Stephanie Queraud

When Keith, the developer of GroceryList, contacted me about his app he’d already read my thoughts on the other grocery list apps that I’ve tried. He told me right up front that it didn’t have many of the features I’m looking for (multiple lists, syncing with another user, price information) but he also told me why he thought I would like it.  He said “it’s like a paper list, but much faster, more orderly and always in your pocket”.  I haven’t found the app yet that suits me perfectly so I thought, why not try it out?. And since one of my issues with the other apps is dealing with multiple screens to make a list I wasn’t going to say no to an app that claims to be fast.

So what did I think? Here are the things that I liked about GroceryList.

*It’s fast. The app comes with a “master list” and all you need to do to add an item to your shopping list is tap the plus sign next to it. Tap more than once to add  more than one of something. The items come with an aisle already preset. This will determine the order the items show up in for your shopping list.  You can change the aisle by tapping on the name of the item and then the blue arrow that appears. Now you can assign a new aisle and also add notes that will show up on your shopping list.

*The master list is thorough. Absinthe? Covered.  Whoppers? Yep. Trash bags? Would you like drawstring, drawstring scented, handle tie, outdoor or twist-tie? Like I said, it’s thorough. You can also add your own items to the list with the plus sign at the top right corner. All you need to do is type in your item and select the aisle it’s located on.

*I like the way the master list is organized. It’s alphabetized and the alphabet shows up vertically on the right hand side of your screen. Tap on the letter you want to jump to and you’ll get a list of beginnings of items. For example if you tap on “O” you’ll see Oatm, Onio, Ora-, Oran and Oven. Tap on the beginning that’s closest to the item you’re searching for and you’ll jump to that part of the list. It’s much faster than scrolling through a really, really long master list. You can also perform a search of the list.

*The aisle list is impressive. Usually I have to add in aisles like baby items and greeting cards but they’re covered here. You can drag the aisles up and down to rearrange how they’ll appear on your list. You can also add in your own aisles too. (To get to the “edit aisles” option you have to tap the “Go Shopping” button.)

Now for the things I didn’t like so much.

*As of right now you cannot delete items that came on the master list. You can delete the items that you add but not the original items. When you tap on the item name you’ll see a trash can icon but it doesn’t work yet. Keith tells me this is going to change in version 1.2 which should be coming by the end of next month.

*At the top of the master list is a button that says “My Common Items”. Tap on this and you’ll see a predetermined list of items. Right now you can’t manually add items to this list. But as you create shopping shopping lists the app will add the items you shop for most frequently to the common items. You also can’t delete the predetermined “common items”. Keith tells me this is also going to be changing in version 1.2. I like the idea of having the app automatically adding the items that I use most. That saves me a step but I also want some control too.

*In other apps, when you have items on your list (but you don’t have the app open) the number of items shows up in a red circle near the app’s icon. That was a long sentence. The point is, GroceryList doesn’t have that feature yet.

*The $4.99 price seems a tad too high.

Ok, now that I’ve gone through all of that I’m going to tell you that I plan on keeping GroceryList on my phone. I really like the basics of it and I think with the tweaks that are planned it’s going to be a nice, easy to use grocery list. Keith tells me that he is also working on creating a multiple list feature which is a big thing for me. I want to be able to separate my Costco list from my regular groceries. Overall GroceryList is fast, there’s something to be said for being able to create a list with a few taps and it absolutely beats a crumpled paper in the bottom of my purse.

Price when Reviewed: $4.99

Seller: Helium Foot Software

If my baby’s fingers weren’t a slobbery, sticky mess from teething I’d show her BalloonMaker. It’s brightly colored and simplistic and I think she’d be intrigued. So much so that she’d be reaching for the phone even more than she already does. Which I can’t have given the state of her fingers. Death by slobber is not the way my iPhone wants to go.

Here’s the rundown on BalloonMaker. It gives you a screen full of blue sky and fluffy white clouds. Tap the screen and a balloon appears. Tap again and again to fill the screen with balloons. If you hold your finger on the screen the balloon will blow up larger than if you simply tap. If you keep your finger on the screen you can drag the balloon around. The balloons  will float to the top of your screen and if you turn your phone they’ll readjust and float to the top again. They move around and bounce off each other. You can pop the balloons by tapping on them. They make a satisfying pop sound and explode with sparkles.

That’s the extent of the app and it’s perfect for young toddlers with short attention spans who love balloons. Which is just about every toddler I’ve ever met.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Troy Tegeder

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Acoco Interactive is looking for feedback from parents. They’ve dropped the prices of their three apps to FREE. The apps are Playn’Say Vehicles, Math Kingdom & PennyMe. Try them out and leave them a review or some feedback in iTunes!

Emily’s Girl Talk is a collection of games, some of which I played when I was (much) younger. It includes MASH, The Lemon Game, Cootie Catcher and Love. Back in the day I played them with paper and pencil but things have come a long way. Since my girls are the perfect age for this app I asked my 7 year old do the review. She gave me a great run down and what follows are her words. I put my comments in blue. Take it away Miss S!

Emily’s Girl Talk has four games that are girly. The first game is MASH. There are different categories that you have to fill out. (crushes, cars, cities, jobs, wedding dress colors and numbers) If you press the plus sign you can pick one of the words that are already there. If you tap on the line you can type in your own. (The app comes with a list of preset things you can choose from to fill in the categories. These are seen when you tap the plus sign. If you want to enter in your own tap on the line next to the plus and you’ll get the keyboard.) If you tap “Emily’s Pick” the app fills in the things for you. At the end you pick a number and it does something with that number and then makes a prediction. The prediction is of one thing from each category. It tells you who you’re going to marry and where you work and what car you have and your city and number of kids.

The Lemon Game – You type in girl names, boy names, body parts, cities and things you can do with a lemon. (Again, plus sign brings up preset list, tap on line to type.) Or click on “Emily Picks” and she picks things for you. Touch a lucky number. Like MASH it uses your number too but it takes your things to make a silly sentence. It’s kind of like Mad Libs. My sentence when I showed my mom was “Victoria will suck Kevin’s ear in Lima”. (I’m not so sure about that sentence!)

Cootie Catcher – Type in a question that you want a yes or no answer to. (There are no preset questions.) Then tap on a number on the cootie catcher, then on a color, another color and then you get an answer to your question. The answer is not always true. I like this version of Cootie Catcher. My girls can play it and now I don’t feel guilt because I threw away all the paper versions that were lying around the house. Plus there are no mean results.

Love – Enter your name and the name of your crush. I did my sister and Obi Wan Kenobi. It does some sort of calculation and comes up with your chance of love, like 23%, 38% or even 100%.

The Journal – The journal keeps track of everything (your results) for the games you’ve played.

Emily’s Sticker Album – When you finish a game it gives you a new sticker for that game.

Email Emily – You can email Emily by clicking on “Email Emily” on the front page.

Options – Has background music, sound effects, something called Twitter settings and a clear button for your journal.

Emily’s Girl Talk has been a big hit with my girls! I think it’s perfect for tween aged girls. I’ve been given two promo codes to give away, if you’d like one leave me a comment. The codes will only work in the US app store.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Broken Thumbs Apps

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

I’ve had kids with colds since last week and the germs finally caught up with me on Sunday. I turned to Benadryl for some relief and I should never write reviews when I’m under the influence of Benadryl. Because it turns out I forgot that I’ve got 5 promo codes to giveaway for the app “Erika Goes Green”. First 5 readers to comment on the Erika review will win them.

Build a Brag Book Story is an interesting app. It takes a photo of your baby and their personal details and puts them into a story. You start by adding in your child’s photo (take a picture or use one from camera roll/library). Then you’ll go through a series of questions ranging from your child’s name, to the time of their birth to the names of their grandparents. Sometimes you will see an empty picture frame on the screen. Tap on the plus sign to add a photo to the frame. You can add more than one photo for each frame.  When you’ve entered in all the information your story is ready. It’s a general story about a brand new baby coming home to meet the family, but it’s personalized with your child’s information and the pictures you added. There are three basic story templates to choose from but if you don’t see what you’d like you can email your text to the developers. The text has to work with the illustrations they’ve provided but they will create a new story template that will be available in their next update. Now that is customization. You can change the size of text, auto turn of the pages and how the pages look then when they turn (curl, fade, slide, etc.). I really like the idea of this app and I’m very glad you can add in personal photos. The illustrations that go along with the brag book are cute but my kids are always excited when they see a photo of themselves on my phone.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: Scott Singer

Noteworthy Places is an app that I could really use. When you are out and about and you discover a place that you’d like to remember you use this app to mark it down. The app notes the location’s address and it’s place on a map. You can add in comments, a phone number, a rating, or even a voice memo to the location’s information. You can also snap a picture and add that too. Now you have the location noted down and it shows up on your personalized list. Once you’ve added in entries the list can be searched, viewed by categories and sorted by name, distance, rating and date. Find the location, tap on it and all the information you entered is right there.

Noteworthy Places doesn’t come with any preloaded applications and I think that’s fantastic! Instead of having to wade through locations that other’s think are important I keep the list limited to what I know I need. It’s my own personal list that I’ve created. I also think this app would be a great one to take on vacation. As you’re out and about exploring you could keep track of your favorite spots. Then if you ever happened back that way you’d know exactly where to go.

Noteworthy Places is currently free for a limited time. I’d suggest grabbing it and giving it a try.

Price when Reviewed: FREE (limited time)

Seller: Oblik Systems