Foodictionary isn’t quite what I thought it would be, or at least, what my holier-than-thou, presumptuous nature concocted from the sugar-crusted ravages of my foodie mind. I should have taken a cue from the developer, who describes the app as, “a translation software for food and beverage terminology.” Wow, I don’t believe I’ve ever read something so… what’s the word? Hermetic. Exacting. Cold and calculating, but not of the cold meat variety. It’s definitely not of the jargon I would expect from most foodies, which is the demographic this app is most likely to cater to (ba dum crash). In essence, foodictionary is simply that: a compound word merging food and dictionary. It should be taken at face value: it’s just a dictionary of foods, translated into several different languages of your choice. This isn’t all bad – to the frequent traveler, it’s good to be able to translate what you see on the menu with a handy app. Many of us aren’t fluent in our destination’s tongue, and even if we are, sometimes we don’t know all the specific words and spices and unique fish, flavors, etc that can often be exhibited in a menu. Just in case you feel like trying the Testa in Florence, it’s wise to either consult someone proficient in the language, or this app. Both will tell you, with all the ease of a straight answer, that Testa is pork head. Hey, I’d try it, but that doesn’t mean you’d want to.

In terms of consulting, Foodictionary, at least, really delivers. My first impression, actually, was “Holy Sh**” because the thoroughness of all the lists and the categories, is just so overwhelming. It’s a massive compendium of many different kinds of food, covering more than 12,500 terms per language. It supports 7 languages – English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Greek – with more than 87,500 translated terms in total. I’m still reeling a bit over those numbers – who had the time to do all this? I suppose that’s beside the point, but another pressing question I have is why is Greek included, but no dialect of Chinese? I’m sure more languages will be included in future updates.

The main thing that impressed me wasn’t merely the sheer volume of items, but the attention to specifications. Under the Italian listings, there were several phrases for anchovy, regarding plain, regular anchovies, anchovies of the north Atlantic, anchovies in lemon and olive oil, anchovies with tomato, and anchovies with straight up olive oil. It’s interesting noting these specifications not just for the range of options, but it reflects on the food culture of that language, itself – the Italians must eat a good deal of anchovies for there to be such specific ways of eating them. The Inuit, because their environment was snow, had over 300 words for snow, alone. In a way, this app is an interesting, pseudo-ethnographic study on how language reflects cultural ideas.

Two button tabs at the bottom of the screen let you switch the languages and the order of translation, so you may have items listed in English and translated into Spanish, or listed in Spanish and translated into English, or the same thing using the app’s given languages at your disposal. It’s all very interesting, and quaint – despite all enormity – to have this comprehensive collection of food items in one app. It’s not terribly easy to sort through, and it’s rather dull to look at, which makes me wonder if anyone would use this app, at all? I admit it’s very impressive (my reaction above still stands), but for apps to survive for longer than a week in the App Store, they better be nice to look at, or so well-designed that navigating them is a breeze. But, even if Foodictionary possessed those two things, I’m still not sure it’d last long enough for people to appreciate what it has to offer.

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Soho may be one of the premiere, chic shopping destinations of New York, rife with what I deem a hoity-toity air, a slowly wavering art scene, and a street-walking population of girls is the latest Citizens of Humanity skinny jeans, bug-eyed Prada glasses, oversized leather bags, and cone-shaped, red-lacquered Christian Louboutin heels – or, now that it’s spring, sky high

Plenty of categories to rifle through...

wedge platform that turn someone of my stature, 5′9, to right around 6′1. Soho definitely has its own flair, as does any neighborhood of Manhattan, and Midtown is no exception. Midtown isn’t a neighborhood, per se, but more a collection of neighborhoods, like Chelsea, Gramercy and Hell’s Kitchen, to name a few of the more familiar ones, and it encompasses a vast area, ranging from between 14th Street and 59th Street, from the Hudson River to the East River, at about five square miles or 12 km total. The core of Midtown Manhattan is from about 31st Street to 59th Street between Third and Ninth avenues, about two square miles – this is the area most commonly referred to as “Midtown” and is where the famous Times Square is located.  All in all, midtown denotes any area not labeled as “uptown” or “downtown,” and it carries a very symbolic New York essence to it, representing – if you will – the very heart of New York with iconic places like the Empire State Building, the Museum of Modern Art, Madison Square Garden, the New York Public Library, Penn Station, Carnegie Hall, the Plaza Hotel, Madison Avenue, Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and much, much more. The New York you see heralded in film was most likely shot in some area of Midtown.

... and 3D maps to boot.

What MIDTOWNinmypocket does is assist you with finding your way around the giant epicenter that is Midtown, by carefully recording every single worthwhile place to see, shop, eat, sleep, lounge, or otherwise engage in mundane tasks (banks, churches), all in painstakingly organized categories and mapped locations. The app is designed in exactly the same manner as SOHOinmypocket – right down to the chic, Parisian-looking girl with giant, white framed spectacles -  with the option to either sort through categories to find something specific, or by browsing the map for your current location to see what’s nearby. Any mapped location may be tapped to view further information, and pertinent things like address, telephone, hours, and such are given for each place. When viewing a mapped location, you may also tap the “go” button, for your ease, so the app can navigate you there from your current location.

It’s astonishing, actually, the precision of MIDTOWNinmypocket (as well as SOHOinmypocket). The only downside to this app is the map loading time can be slow, but it’s noticeably faster on the 3GS model – it’s not that big of a deal, anyway. It turns out the developer will be releasing a SANFRANCISCOinmypocket soon, which I absolutely cannot wait for – San Francisco, and the Bay Area in general is where Appstruck is based, and I’m always looking for excellent guides to the area. Even if you’re a native, or at least, a long-term resident, there’s always the chance you’ll be surprised at what a guide can tell you.

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In the past, I’ve praised the gifted ability of Airfare to find my low-priced flight tickets; unfortunately, it seems for the past few months the app has been burdened with painfully slow loading times, crashes, and oftentimes simply not working at all. I’ve since moved on to scouring JetBlue and Southwest Airlines for discount deals (I remember several months back JetBlue had an outrageous offer for flights from SFO to JFK for $14 each way – those sold within minutes). I haven’t particularly liked any iPhone apps in recent history – I’m sorry, but the highly regarded FlightTrack Pro is usually off by 30 minutes at a time, so what’s the point of tracking your flight’s arrival? – so I’ve relegated to using, once again, all those flight finder sites, like Orbitz, Kayak, Expedia, and more, taking a good 30 minutes just to view all of them and compare prices. It’s a pain.

As if the flight gods were overhearing my agony, BookMe landed in my lap a mere week ago. BookMe is a free iPhone app by BookMe.com that searches the best travel sites for flights, hotels, car rentals and cruises in every country in the world. It presents them to you in one neat package, never leaving the app, itself, until you make a purchase, so you can avoid individually visiting each site and plugging in the same information. I tested it out with fairly low expectations – how much time could it really save me? – but I was grateful at how breezy BookMe is to use.

The options are presented as such: search for flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, flight+hotel, flight+hotel+car, or flight+car. Let’s say I just want to search for a roundtrip flight to New York, airport preference up in the air. I pick a flight date of June 20, set to return on the 30th, with the departure from SFO and the arrival at any airport in NYC. I plug in this information once then tap the “Search and Save” button. Well, if the button says “save” then they best bring me the best savings that searching can provide me. A list will pop up, almost immediately, of the sites that provide arguably the best deals in terms of price. For my hypothetical flight, Skyscanner, Bing Travel, Kayak, Travelocity and Orbitz are shown. I’ll try Bing Travel first, if anything, just for the perky name. A new tab emerges, taking me to an in-app page of the website, and the loading time is roughly 10 seconds, if even that, depending on my current connection. The arrow keys at the top allow me to browse the site as I would via the web – only, make sure not to tap the Back button at the very top of the screen, or you’ll be sent back to the main page of BookMe and start from scratch. I made this mistake the first time around, as it’s easy to assume, based on its positioning, that the “back” button is used as a web browser’s; remember, you’re using BookMe, so the interface isn’t the same. Instead, should you want to return to your search results list, use the Home button at the bottom left of the screen, next to your first tab (which, for me, is Bing Travel).

I’ve decided that $342 for a flight to New York isn’t bad at all, but maybe some of the other sites have something better to offer. I tap the Home button and this time I select Skyscanner – I like how BookMe keeps the sites currently on tab highlighted in blue, so you don’t forget which ones you currently have open. A second tab appears at the bottom of the screen, and BookMe opens to the Skyscanner page, where apparently, I can book a flight for the same price (it’s important to note that some sites, like Skyscanner, list separately the prices for your departing and arriving flight, rather than combining the full price, as with Bing Travel. Also, most sites don’t tack on additional fees until you total the purchase, so take this into account, too). Kayak took longer than the other sites to load, and then eventually crashed, but it was the only crash I experienced throughout my entire use of the app (several hours worth). After I searched through all the sites, I discovered that each of them offered the same price of $342 – which is cheaper than any airline site I searched, and was ascertained by me much more quickly than had I searched each of these sites individually.

I wish some filters would be applied – I would like flights to be arranged in terms of their affordability, priced low-high, to make for easier navigation, as it’s currently unclear whether BookMe automatically performs this duty for you. Overall, though, an excellent app I will definitely use in the future for any traveling arrangements.

My boyfriend, on the other hand, is a skier. Gliding this way and that, effortlessly, over powdery snow, sloshing pretty streams of it in either direction, he just exudes lithe grace and expertise. A familiarity I do not possess. His father took him often to the slopes of Mount Shasta and Mount Lassen, where he learned from a young age – age four, tucked between his father’s knees – how to don those frumpy snow pants and goggles without looking silly. When I hold ski poles, I do not look elegant and keenly aware, I look clumsy and unsure, the poles jutting at inharmonious angles like barbed, insect limbs. Last year I had my first bout with cross-country skiing, which left me permanently, for the rest of the trip, with a surly, angst-ridden expression on my face. No, I am definitely not a skier. But, I would like to learn.

It’s finally getting chilly in northern California, enough to see your breath around 5pm and to want only soups and hot cider drinks. My boyfriend’s dad calls me every now and then, asking, “Hey! So, when are we going skiing?” A few murmured hesitations are my usual answer, but I am determined to hit the slopes this year. Yes, I’ll even rock the jargon with my hit the slopes. Much like how WeatherBug is useful in preparing for weather conditions, there are three snow/skiing apps for the iPhone that despite their individual flaws, are great when used in tandem with each other. They’re far better than the other skiing apps out there; besides, they’re all completely free. For both the fledging skier like me, and the gelding, these apps are a great asset to any skier’s iPhone. These apps are The Show Report by The North Face, Ski Report, and iTrailMap.

The Snow Report by The North Face definitely has the prettiest interface out of the three: it’s easy to be partial to the charcoal gray and Christmas red theme, and the app itself is easy to navigate. The Snow Report opens to a summary page of five default ski resorts, including Whistler/Blackcomb of Canada; Chamonix of France; Snowbird of Utah; Kirkwood of California; and Stowe of Vermont. Beside each resort name is the current snowfall within the last 24 hours – currently, none of the stock sites have experienced snowfall, but if you switch the gauge to 48 and then 72 hours timeframe, then you’ll see that Whistler/Blackcomb experienced 33 inches of snowfall. Going back to the resorts, I’m not entirely sure what their reasoning was for including these particular places. With big names like Chamonix, I’d expect to see Aspen and Tahoe included, perhaps a few places in Alaska and Montana, Jackson Hole of Wyoming or Squaw Valley, even. You may add additional sites by tapping the plus symbol in the upper right, but this isn’t a surefire way to get information. I added Mount Shasta, but the app was unable to find Mount Lassen, and a few other smaller California resorts, like Heavenly, Gold Mountain, and Cedar Pass. More resorts are included in the Global Top 10 tab, which generally includes places outside of the U.S, far away from here.

Tapping on any of the resort names takes you a report page with in-app links to weather forecasts, snowfall, trail maps, and a “locate resort” map button (to access another resort, simply flip through or go back to the summary page). There are also tabs at the top indicating “Details” and “Twitter,” – just in case you need to keep tabs on people currently skiing who feel the need to tweet. Almost too much information is given on the forecast page, it seems – while it’s good to know what times sunrise and sunset happen, and what the UV index and wind speeds are, I don’t necessarily need to know that the moon tonight at Chamonix will be Waxing Crescent. The Satellite imaging is not quite up to par with WeatherBug’s, but it works in a pinch, and there’s no reason to snub your nose at any app that includes satellite imagery. It’s only too bad the trail maps featured on The Snow Report are woefully lacking. They’re pretty to look at from afar, like a Monet painting, but once you try to zoom in, the low resolution takes a toll and everything being a mishmash of blurred lines and words. It’s absolutely useless unless you want a general overview of the area.

But, other information peppered throughout the app is more helpful. Tap on the “details” tab to check out when lifts and runs open, what the average snowfalls of the area is, or what the elevation top and base are. There’s even a handy webcam to check out live conditions (maybe even a skier!), and a phone to get you immediately in contact with the resort. Some additional features of The Snow Report include finding a North Face store (that was a given), a North Face news feed (another given), an avalanche advisory panel (good thinking), and an image gallery showcasing the wild talent of both snowboarders and skiers, taken with wild, highlighted colors on the photographer’s part (glam factor). Overall, though, an excellent app for skiers.

Ski Report has a few definite edges over The Snow Report. As soon as you open the app, Ski Report prompts queries you about GPS, and if you select yes, then Ski Report shows you all the resorts in your given area. For someone like me – i.e. someone who never skies – it’s incredibly helpful to know where all the nearest resorts are. For my position in Petaluma, the app shows Bear Valley, Royal Gorge, Kirkwood, Soda Springs, Sierra at Tahoe, Sugar Bowl, Boreal, Homewood, Donner Ski Ranch, and Alpine Meadows. I haven’t even heard of half of those. As indicated on the main page, all these resorts are currently closed but will be opening soon, some with specific dates (November 25 for Sugar Bowl), and the amount of snowfall and projected snowfall is given. As with the Snow Report, you may add additional resorts by tapping on the informative “i” in the upper right, and you may view forecasts and a webcam. I may actually prefer the forecast information through Ski Report – it’s less involved and convoluted than The Snow Report, and is more direct in its detailed blurb, covering the basics over what you should expect. Unless you’re a competitive skier, there’s really no need to know about wind speeds and dew points, humidity levels and what not. So, you’ll sweat a bit more in your suit, or lean a little more into the wind than usual. No big deal. First hand ski reports by people currently on the snow are a small point of amusement, with their posts like “Bear Valley is the best!!!!!!!!!!” leaning a bit in the direction of hyperbole, but some posts actually give a good impression of what the scene currently looks like.

Unfortunately, Ski Report doesn’t even have trail maps to compare to The Snow Report’s low-res ones, so this is where iTrailMap comes into play. This app is straightforward and simple: it provides ski trail maps. Excellent ski trail maps. After checking to see if the resort nearest you is open with Ski Report, and after checking out snowfall rates and weather patterns with The Snow Report, open up iTrailMaps and start downloading the map to your resort. Trust me, iTrailMaps is bound to have it (it has Heavenly, Cedar Pass, and all the other resorts I mentioned The Snow Report didn’t recognize). Once a map is downloaded, you view it in its grand entirety, then pinch and zoom wherever you please, getting so far in you can distinguish the individual paths on Aspen. Now, tell me that isn’t completely zoomed in. Since the maps are downloaded to your iPhone, you need not fret about losing wireless connection. The screen is a bit small to look at a map, in general, but it sure beats carrying around different trail maps all the time. If you want, you can upgrade to iTrailMaps 3D, but I find the free version suits just fine – the 3D version lets you check out the resort’s topography, which could be useful if you’re planning a course around a severe drop, but skiers have always done just fine without this kind of routing technology. Big Air Software is constantly adding new resorts to the app, but it seems the North America section is pretty complete.

Now, all of the above are excellent apps that serve their purpose with recent accumulation, weather forecasts, community banter, resort information etc., but as I looked over the recent snow/winter app list to see what was new, one caught my eye. I’m familiar with the Skullcandy brand on a superficial level, seeing their highly regarded headphones for sale on Steep and Cheap and WhiskeyMilitia constantly, but I am also aware that they have some of the most creative and viral ad campaigns in the action sports industry, and the fact that the app is free made me really want to check it out. Skullcandy has really created a great app. The features are too numerous to name, but some of the highlights are as follows (from their site): Surf reports so you know when and where to rip; to the minute snow reports plus a 5 day forecast; a skate park finder for nomads who have to try them all; free music player; video from Skullcandy TV loaded with shorts featuring Skullcandy athletes and musicians; a dealer locator feature will find the nearest shop for instant gratification (very nice); a mobile Skullcandy store that allows you to buy new headphones, backpacks or other Skullcandy gear (even nicer); a fresh selection of continually updated wallpapers designed by Skullcandy fans that allow users to defy genericism (can’t retain your indie cred otherwise); and, finally, access to all Skullcandy happenings through the Skullcandy blog. The app also works with your phones mapping functionality to get you to any of the surf skate or snow spots you might find. Basically it does it all. It gets you stoked via its music, video, and photo content, then keeps you informed with their blog’s connection, and the best part is it wraps it all in a beautifully designed interface that is simple to use. If you’re looking beyond a strictly skiing app, this is a surefire win.

I actually can’t wait to try out skiing again – the plan is to go this next coming weekend, hit the bunny slopes for a good hour with other n00bs, then try my newly instated poles and skies onto bigger, badder slopes. I may have spent my childhood on the snowy, bitterly cold east coast, and I may have shoveled many driveways and enjoyed many episodes of ice skating, but I had absolutely no introduction to skiing. Maybe it’s just not in my blood. But, with these 4 apps on my side I can at least pull my weight with my boyfriend and his dad. It won’t improve my skiing, but at least I’ll be more informed.

Parking lets you forget the memorization game by keeping track of the street rules for you – however, it is only with the current version that the text alerts have become effective. In prior versions, the Parking App had to be left often, or else you had to re-open it near the time of an alert in order for you to be reminded (thereby completely defeating the purpose of a text alert). Frankly, the push notification used in the latest version should have been included in the first version, but oh well, at least they finally got around to doing it – I suppose cgCraft didn’t mind all those low ratings and reduced purchases for something so simple as not using effective text message alerts. The latest version, too, is more streamlined and modern to behold. cgCraft did away with the bland, boring, white background that seems the blank slate or virginal birthright of every productivity app in the iTunes Universe, and updated to a sleek, bluish-grey motif, with a darkly lit parking timer, and the hints of a shadowy cityscape at the screen’s bottom. A vast improvement, to be sure.

Using the app is very straightforward. A timer at the top mimes the face of a parking meter – all you have to do is adjust the time (30 minutes, say?), and select the recommended option of including an early warning alert, from 5 or 10 minutes prior to longer than that. You can use the app simply for Parking means, if you desire, though I can claim it’s just as easy to track 30 minutes on your watch or cell phone – setting the stock alarm on your iPhone may be easier, if not as snazzy. The real intent of the Parking App is for you to input the various rules and times and alerts for street cleaning, no parking times, etc, so that you’re not a jumbled mess attempting to remember all these. Take my friend, for example: all the streets within a 2-block radius of where she resides have their own rules. With Parking, all she has to do is label a street name (even pinpoint it on the map for later use if she saves her car’s location there), then choose times for the restrictions, the alert times (one or two hours prior may be handy for most working professionals who need adequate time to move their car), and the amount of occurrences (daily, only on wednesdays, every first week of the month, every first and third week, and so on). She could add every street in her neighborhood if she wanted, so when she parked, she could simply pinpoint her car’s location on the map, save the location, and then select, say, Frederick Street at Cole, which has street cleaning on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 in the morning. After syncing the information with Google Calendar (you must do this), my friend would receive reminders from Parking to move her car. The location hint is pretty unnecessary, I think, unless your memory is so poor you just need that photo of your car by that unmistakable stretch of sidewalk – besides, you can save your GPS location, so why take a picture? And, another quirk is if you decide to enter the map feature, you have to exit the app and reopen Parking – very, very annoying.

But, really, with the latest update, Parking is quick, efficient, and a friend to every city-dweller.

The biggest purchase of all, though, is often that ticket home to the family. Many of us live on opposite coasts of our hometowns, sometimes in different countries, and what would cheery festivities be without the mom and pop, the childhood friends and the brother who still wears the same khaki pants? Okay, maybe it’d be just as good, but I, for one, can attest to my mother’s amazing home cooking, and I would happily fork over the plane fare just to eat her food instead of hassling with all the culinary preparations, myself. That’s why Kayak is such a great iPhone app. Normally, I use Airfare for all my traveling needs, as it consistently finds the cheapest airfare for any destination (at least domestically in the United States, as I haven’t flown out of the country in the past year). However, it’s been a bit buggy here and there, and sometimes it won’t load the results screen at all. This won’t do, at all.

Kayak recently released an app version of their website containing, in one handy app, all the amenities it showcases online, including flight finders, hotel bookings, car rentals, airline information, traveling tips and more. And, it’s wrapped in a sleek, streamlined package of white outlines on a gray palette – a far cry from the starkly white, and frankly put, primitive look of their main website, with its blue, underlined hyperlinks. I definitely scratched my head when I looked at the app – “There’s no way this was produced by the same company” – because the interface is so much more aesthetically pleasing, and just as easy to use.

Searching for a flight is a no-brainer: select your departing airport and your destination airport, select a departing date (and returning if roundtrip), and then select the amount of passengers. There are a few filters offered right off the bat, like one-way, include nearby airports, and prefer nonstop, but all of these are switched off by default, leaving it up to you whether you’d like to include these options in your search. In the free version of Kayak, only economy class flight searches are available, but in the full mode, for just $1.99, you can tack on business and first-class options. I bought the full version just to see the results, but I always fly economy; and, I think it’s safe to assume that most of us in this ongoing recession are opting for the same.

Let’s say I want to fly to Vancouver in the middle of January (because, obviously, it’s not bitterly cold enough here already). I can type in SFO or just start typing San Franci... and Kayak will automatically know which airport I am seeking. The button to the right may be used if you wish to find the nearest airport to your location. This may come in handy in a foreign locale, maybe when you’re in the bushwhack of the Outback (should your iPhone even have coverage there), but for someone like me, who knows the San Francisco Airport and the Oakland Airport are the two closest that offer international flights, then it won’t impress me to see the teeny tiny, mostly private-charted Santa Rosa Airport pop up, despite its close proximity to me. Then I choose YVR for Vancouver, and plunk down the dates in the usual manner, by selecting calendar dates from, surprise, a calendar. I choose not to select any of the additional filters because yes, I do plan on returning home; yes, I realize YVR is situated right in Vancouver so there’s no reason to check out any nearby airports; and yes, I do like cheap flights, so nonstop is out. The search takes a mere matter of seconds, with the cheapest flights by default arranged at the top. It seems Alaska Airlines at $320 is my best bet, and thankfully, there are 20+ $320 options for Alaska Airlines, so it’s just a matter of choosing the time that best suits my needs. I could painfully read through all the tabs, as I would have to do with Airfare, or I can just tap the Times tab at the bottom left of the screen, where I can filter based on Take-off time and Landing time for both the Departure and Return Flights. In an ideal world, I’d like to leave at noon – I can get up at a reasonable hour, shower, have a quick bite to eat, and leave at 10:30 with none of the usual morning 101 Southbound traffic that leaves you with red-rimmed eyes, frazzled hair, and a murderous impatience in your lane switching. It’s hard to get an exist time with the scrollbar, but it gets the deed done. After applying the filter, it looks like there’s an Alaska Airline that leaves at 11:57 am. Perfect. Finally, tapping that flight takes me to a page with the Flight’s details (layover in Seattle for one hour), along with links to Booking sites – in this case, Orbitz, CheapTickets.com, and the Alaska Airlines website.

Simple as pie.

AccuTerra provides users with high-definition 3D maps of U.S. forests, state parks and national parks, maps that work even when you are far outside the reach any wireless mobile networks. One of the very first maps that were made available by Intermap for their new iPhone app was a map of Yosemite National Park, so now you can use your iPhone to navigate the Yosemite trails and know where you are exactly every step of the way. The AccuTerra app allows hikers, bikers, sportsmen, climbers, and casual outdoor enthusiasts who own an iPhone to view their topographic surroundings with a degree of detail previously unavailable, while allowing them to track their adventures and share with friends and family. The app tags photos and the location they were taken during an adventure and easily stores and shares the entire experience via email or posting directly to Facebook. Additionally, once the adventure is over, the AccuTerra Walking Tour feature lets the user replay the entire adventure directly from their iPhone. AccuTerra displays the user’s location and how far they are from the nearest roads, rivers, warming huts, trails and even natural points of interest. All of this is displayed along with information about the terrain, which is essential when hiking your way through a wilderness region.

Earlier in June, AccuTerra’s slick interface and smooth performance, as well as its innovation and usefulness, earned it an Apple Design Award for best iPhone 3.0 application at the 2009 Apple Design Awards. The AccuTerra was praised for its “usability” and “technology integration and adoption.” Because of the time it takes for the Apple store to approve new apps, AccuTerra was only available after the awards conference. However, once the delay was over, Intermap’s first iPhone application definitely did not disappoint.

Perhaps the secret to AccuTerra is that Intermap’s key business is not iPhone applications at all, but rather, aerial mapping. In the past, Magellan GPS and the US government have partnered with the company to utilize their 3D map data. And mapping in this world is no easy feat. To collect more than 3 million square miles of high-resolution 3D map data, the company didn’t ping a satellite. Their work involved developing new mapping technology and deploying more than 2,530 aircraft over U.S. airspace for more than 10,000 hours of airtime. Imagine that paperwork. Still, the company believes your safety is well worth the effort.

Even in a storm far from a wireless connection, hikers can use AccuTerra to see their distance from warming huts and roads, routes around river beds, and most importantly, the terrain. While the app’s ability to create and share annotated hiking tours with geo-tagged photos is interesting, it’s the offline maps that make this application a solid survival tool. AccuTerra plans to sell state park maps at $1.99 each and national park maps at $2.99 each in the app store; however, for WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) attendees, Intermap released free maps of Yosemite National Park and the SF Bay Area including Muir Woods and Mt. Tamalpais. Even though each map costs money, it’s worth it to have all these maps easily saved on your iPhone. Any hikers knows the cumbersome effect a mere three maps can have in your backpack. I’ll definitely be using AccuTerra for all my future hiking endeavors.

My original idea was to speak my entire review, email it to myself through QuickVoice Pro, and (Voila!) complete my review. Unfortunately the Voice-Recognition Gods were not with me on this one. QuickVoice Pro has a good service which is exceptionally accurate. The primary drawback of this app (for my purposes) was that conversion only takes place for audio under 30 seconds. If you’ve ever been on the spot before, 30 seconds goes by quickly with minimal output (not nearly enough to constitute an article).

QuickVoice Pro redeems itself though due to the quality of its service. Even if you did jabber on past 30 seconds (try two minutes for a few of my test runs), the QuickVoice Pro iPhone app will still email you the .caf Quicktime file. If you are concise enough to speak under 30 seconds, the email sent to you is quite accurate:

I spoke:

“Of course, if they offered the ability to edit your audio, I could splice each of my clips into an under-30-second clip. Unfortunately, I’m unable to do so at this point. Now I just have a shmancy voice recorder.” Okay, so I was a bit perturbed.

I was emailed:

“Of course, this they offered to ability to edit your audio. I could splice each of my clips into an under 30 seconds clip. Unfortunately I’m unable to do so at this point. Now I just have a Smansey(?) voice recorder.”

The email was sent to me within 15 minutes, which wasn’t too bad considering the accuracy. I also like the question mark next to my made up word.

I thought I’d figured the system out, realizing that QuickVoice Pro uses SpinVox software, and saw my efficient workflow process on the horizon. I signed up for a SpinVox account. Quickly I realized that my workflow would only be dampered by using QuickVoice Pro, as I could just call the SpinVox number (after signing up for a free account) and my phone call would be emailed to me transcribed.

This takes so much time, that I might as well bring my laptop and type, or just thumb type.

Frustrations aside, QuickVoice Pro is the best app out there currently for transcription. I tried so many other apps that had hidden monthly fees or false promises. QuickVoice Pro brings to the table exactly what they promise. I appreciate this and their services.

Hopeful Updates:

• Organization of Audio files
• Extended time allocation of transcribed emails
• Audio editing ability
• Auto Pause recording/playback when alarm/incoming call occurs

With these updates, I would give QuickVoice Pro a perfect score. Without them, QuickVoice Pro is still a viable option to transcribe your mutterings.

Currently you may rename your audio files (while listening to other recorded files). This is a great start, but the ability to reorder your files is currently nonexistent and is stored purely in chronological order of recording.

The ability to edit the audio would be a great bandaid to the 30 second time problem, but perhaps unnecessary as it would probably take more time to edit the audio than just type with your thumbs.

A definite fix needs to be an auto pause when your receive a call. This became quite annoying as I had to begin my work over again.

Bottom Line

Get it! It’s the best voice recognition out there right now, and I can only see it getting better.

This has set the bar quite high for eTodo, and now I’ve put this iPhone and iPod Touch app to the test. To begin, I tapped through the bottom menus until I found the last option on the last menu that shows you how to use the app. I found eTodo intuitive enough to figure out on my own though, and it is probably a good thing to have this written out for iPhone users new to technology.

I began by inputting my variety of activities and gave them corresponding icons, dates, etc.

Satisfaction

• Simple layout
• Prioritizing and Tagging of Tasks
• Filters/Search
• Various icons

As my day requires the juggling of multiple tasks, and I am a visually oriented person, the option to assign one of a variety of icons to the task at hand is priceless for me. This along with the ability to assign tasks multiple tags (which corresponds to a filter system that allows multiple filters) is brilliant. Above all, you are simply able to see everything you need right at your fingertips.

There’s also an ability to determine how the tasks are ordered. So far eTodo really taps into the new generation of customization. Everything can be changed to fit your need. I was only able to find a few minor changes I would suggest for this app.

What I’d like to see in an update

• Task due date has an optional hour setting
• Option to export tasks to outlook, google calendar, etc
• Show data in a visual layout (much like a Gantt chart)
• Option to import icons?

I know that simplicity truly matters, when you want to make your to-do list arranged and yourself focused. To further an ease of functionality, setting push alarms set to a specific time (set at onset of task due date) could strengthen the use of eTodo, currently mine gives a little vibration, but sometimes that just doesn’t get my attention, and there’s no specific time that it yells at me.

My suggestion for a visual layout of tasks (Gantt Chart status) could benefit some task masters. Of course this is extraneous and my imagination is wildly active today, so I wouldn’t consider this to be a decision maker on buying this app.

Last on my suggestion list, is that for importing icons. So I’m picky. That’s why they made me the ambassador to the bear community. I’m also a graphic artist during the day, so my pickiness over icons might be a bit biased. There’s nothing wrong or bad with the current icons, I just want more. Silliness would be nice (although I am extremely serious), but is not necessary. Maybe an option to download more from the developer’s website? There goes that imagination again!

Bottom Line

eTodo is worth every penny. You are able to keep your life in order in an extremely user friendly interface and the option to search through tasks for multiple tags. I am so glad to have found a task calendar app that like this.

I started by downloading iRetouch Lite. As with all lite versions, the app had the feel of the full app, but without all of the bells and whistles. The main difference between the two is that you can save higher resolution photos (1536×2048px) with iRetouch, than lower resolution saves (default 640×480, but as high as 1024×768) in iRetouch Lite. The dpi difference here alone was enough for me to upgrade, especially when I found the full version for sale from the App Store at 50% off.

Positive Features

• You may continue your last session
• Undo (Redo in full version)
• Preview of effects prior to implementing (full version)
• Basic Tools (full version) and Retouch Tools (both versions)
• Blend Modes

To clarify, iRetouch provides an addition to the repetoire of iRetouch Lite with it’s Basic Tools, which provide for higher quality saving, easy photo crop, rotate, flip, resize, brightness/contrast, black&white, color temperature (warmer/colder), invert, unlimited undo and redo.

The Touchup Tools remain the same in both versions and provide the ability to clone stamp, smudge, brighten, hue, color, eraser, pencil, brush, and use stamps (which come in a variety of customizable shapes).

The true success of iRetouch comes in its Blend Modes. This is the closest to a Photoshop App (besides the real Photoshop) I’ve found. There are layman friendly descriptions of each blend mode and quite a bit of control in implementing them. Most of the work I have posted here takes advantage of the blend modes within iRetouch.

Future Changes I Want to See

• Redo in Touchup Tools
• Easier way to take photo from Basic Tools into Touchup Tools (and without quality loss)
• An offset drawing option would be nice
• More space between the edge of the photo and the edge of the app

My frustrations arose when i found the full version also does not include a redo in the Touchup Tools. Sometimes I tried something out only to accidentally hit the undo button and found I could not replicated exactly what I had errased. This could have been erradicated had I found a redo button, but alas I found none.

a different version I made with iRetouch Lite

My last serious petpeeve came up when I was trying to touchup details near the edges of my photos and found that I was hindered by the format of iRetouch. With in inability to zoom out far enough to bring the border of my photo into the center of the screen, some of the edges were unable to receive the same treatment as more accessible areas.

Face was lightened from a wash of shadow.

Bottom Line

iRetouch is a refreshing approach at easy photo editing with all of the extras to keep you happy. I have kept this app for months and keep going back to it over other photo editing apps. Try the free Lite version to get a feel for it, then find the full version for faster work.