Bringing war to your phone

• App review for Armored Strike Online
• Posted by balzzzy September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Gamers or Students

Armored Strike is like a good classic game of tanks, but with so much more to offer.

In this game you pit yourself against CPU's or other players online in the vehicle of your choice. A total of 7 vehicles are available ranging from various types of tanks to mech warrior type vehicles. You earn more vehicles as you play through the game, gain experience and further your rank. Each type of vehicle has different statistics for armor, movement, ballistic range, firing angle and damage bonuses.

A player can pick their trajectory, strength of their shot, take the wind into consideration as well as the weapon selected and fire at their opponents. A total of 31 weapons are available for purchase in the game as well as 9 terrain types and 75 achievements. The more damage you do, the more money you gain to purchase more weapons for further rounds.

The best feature of the game is the online multiplayer. Players can duke it out in their own game or join another game. This classic tank game has a modern touch with extreme firepower. Worth the money and your time.

You've never gone this fast on your phone

• App review for Speedx 3D
• Posted by balzzzy September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Gamers or Students

Speedx 3D is a game that makes you enjoy the feeling of speeding through a tube that morphs along the way as you dodge obstacles and gain power ups.

The controls are simple; hold your phone horizontally and tilt it left and right to steer through the never ending obstacle course. Avoid obstacles by watching for the colored squares in your path. This indicates that a cube will soon be in your way and you will see it coming.

Now on to the power-ups. If you hover over the 3 orange squares with black stripes you gain extra shield power. The shield, displayed in the bottom right, allows you to hit certain obstacles and break through them without losing. Various colored single squares give you different abilities. Use the abilities by tapping the circle in the top left of the screen. These abilities include the following: RED - Blast away all obstacles on screen, BLUE - Slow down your race through the course, GREEN - Cancel the effects of the various obstacles that distort your view of the course (like hue changes, black outs, gravity wells, etc.)

The developers recently added a Vibrant mode to the game. This sharpened up the graphics and made it easier to view the course and the obstacles throughout. Some complained though that the Classic version gave a sense of going faster through the course with the blurred edge effects. So within 24 hours the developer added both modes for players to choose between.

I think that this game is by far one of my favorites on my mobile. It really sets itself apart from other games and you can pick it up and play it without having to commit to huge chunks of time. The best part is that it is dirt cheap and worth your time. Give it a try. You'll get hooked.

Dude, where's my phone!?

• App review for Wheres My Droid
• Posted by balzzzy September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Road Warriors, News Junkies, Foodies, Book Readers, Gamers, Workout Junkies, Parents, Students, Animal Lovers, Outdoors Enthusiasts, Music Fans, Shopaholics, Career People, Social Butterflies, Budget Hawks, Sports Fans, Film/TV Fans or Tech/Social Networking Junkies

I put my phone right here, where did it go? I drank too much, where's my phone? I dropped my phone somewhere and I can't find it. Whatever your excuse is this app will tell you where your phone is, so long as you can hear it or get access to a computer.

Even if you have your phone on silent mode or set to vibrate, this app will override your volume settings on your phone and crank it up to the max with whatever ringtone you have set. All you have to do is send a text message from someone's phone or from the net. The default message is "Wheres my droid" but you can customize it to whatever you like. When you find your phone there will be a button to push to silence the phone.

Even better, you can also get the GPS location of your phone in Lattitude and Longitude and a link to Google maps so you can even get directions to it.

It's free, it's small and it will help save you hundreds of dollars on a new phone. Not bad.

Backing it ALL up

• App review for My Backup Pro
• Posted by balzzzy September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Road Warriors, News Junkies, Foodies, Book Readers, Gamers, Workout Junkies, Parents, Students, Animal Lovers, Outdoors Enthusiasts, Music Fans, Shopaholics, Career People, Social Butterflies, Budget Hawks, Sports Fans, Film/TV Fans or Tech/Social Networking Junkies

My Backup Pro...this app is by far the most important app you will ever own. You can backup, restore, manage, view everything on your phone and even schedule backups

The interface is extremely easy to use and it all just makes common sense. The biggest plus that it has is backing up apps to your SD card. For those who need to manage their memory better this app is for you.

On the data side you can select to back up contacts, call log, bookmarks, SMS, MMS, system settings, and Android home.

There is a demo available for a trial period of 30 days. But the app is well worth the price. Go get a $25 pre-paid credit card from your local convenience store and add this one to your list.

Watching your KB, MB and GB

• App review for 3G Watchdog
• Posted by balzzzy September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Road Warriors, News Junkies, Foodies, Book Readers, Gamers, Workout Junkies, Parents, Students, Animal Lovers, Outdoors Enthusiasts, Music Fans, Shopaholics, Career People, Social Butterflies, Budget Hawks, Sports Fans, Film/TV Fans or Tech/Social Networking Junkies

Data plans seem to be the big thing that cellphone carriers push these days. With your different amounts of download storage and different programs that use more data than the rest. Then there's the times when you you use your Wifi at home and aren't using data from your package.

So how do you monitor all of your KB, MB and GB usage? The answer, 3G Watchdog. This application is very handy. You can enter what date of the month your data plan resets, how much storage per month you are allotted, how often to refresh your data usage on screen. But the best feature is that it comes with a handy little widget for your to view your usage without opening the application.

This thing taught me that one 9 minute YouTube HD video uses 50 MB of data. That's 5% of a 1GB data plan. Good to know.

I highly recommend this application to everyone that has a data plan that uses the internet more often than the casual user.

Lookout is there for you

• App review for Lookout Security & Antivirus
• Posted by balzzzy September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Road Warriors, News Junkies, Foodies, Book Readers, Gamers, Workout Junkies, Parents, Students, Animal Lovers, Outdoors Enthusiasts, Music Fans, Shopaholics, Career People, Social Butterflies, Budget Hawks, Sports Fans, Film/TV Fans or Tech/Social Networking Junkies

Lookout is a handy application that provides Anti-Virus protection, data backup and a missing device feature. The best part, it's for free.

That's right free anti-virus protection. While the company doesn't update all that often I have to wonder how up to date the virus dictionary is. However, this app works. It scans all apps right away that are installed and also tells you that 'Everything is OK.' I tried to download a free app and this thing scanned the sucker before installing. Sure enough it had a bug and stopped the install right away.

The data backup is OK, but there are better programs out there for this feature.

As for the missing device feature, it's alright but it's not loud enough.

All in all a good application for those who download quite a bit, and for those who would feel more secure just having it there.

Playstation Portable...er mobile

• App review for psx4droid (old - use v2 now)
• Posted by balzzzy September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Gamers, Students or Tech/Social Networking Junkies

This application proves that you can emmulate just about anything on just about any platform. When you initially download the application you are told that you must locate and point to the PSX BIOS file (typically SCPH1001.bin). Now for those of you who aren't tech savvy the developer cannot legally include the Playstaion BIOS file, the property belongs to Sony under copyright.

So now what? Rest assured, a quick search in Google for the file name and you can find sites that host the file for download*. But now what about the games. The developer cannot legally include the games, or ROMS in this case, for you to play.

So what now? Rest assured, a quick search in Google for the PSX ROMS you are seeking and there they are ready for download**.

Now here is my review. This thing works great, considering it is on a mobile device...with a few flaws. Not all games load into this emmulator and the games that do load can have issues with sound and lag in gameplay. This can be frustrating for some with older model phones, but the problems persist even on higher end platforms. I myself have the HTC Desire with a fast processor in it but still suffers from lag.

Which leads me to the next part, lack of support and updates for the application from the developer. This has to be the most frustrating part of the app and why I scored it a 3. If a developer is going to provide us with an application at a higher price than usual, you had best support it or suffer from lack of user confidence. The developer did work closely with the same developer who provided us with SNesoid and Nesoid. But still problems persist.

However, all in all I can say this is a really good start for those who want to show their iPhone friends what an open Market platform is capable of...old school and classic games on your phone without restrictions, well sort of.

* please note that by downloading the Playstation BIOS file you do so at your own risk.
** please note that in order to download ROMS you must own a copy of the game. If you do not own a a copy you must delete the file within 24 hours. By downloading the Playstation ROMS you do so at your own risk.

Insanely Accurate!

• App review for Google Translate
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010

Great app. After taken 4 years of Spanish its a great app to use for reminder purpose...it would be a cool addition if the app could speak the translated phrase/sentence.

Hours of Fun...

• App review for Jewels
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Gamers

Similar to the PC version, only wish there were an option to make the jewels larger. great app.

Compliments Motoblur...

• App review for Myspace
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Social Butterflies or Tech/Social Networking Junkies

Makes sharing pics easier without having to go onto the mobile site. select the pic click share and click myspace...very simple...i don't use the other features as i dont have to with motoblur.

Accurate!

• App review for My Days - Period & Ovulation ™
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010

The more you use it, the more accurate it is in calculating cycle start/stop times. Would be nice if they had a depo shot/Plan B feature...as well as a notification that would show in the taskbar...great app overall

has potential...

• App review for Astro Player Nova
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Music Fans

the only free alternative music player that has a custom equalizer...great feature...however the app is a beta (still!) and the developer is constantly updating the errors...when it works it works well, but does not work 100 percent of the time.

Add to the collection..

• App review for Coloroid
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Gamers

Very simple game...entertaining and surprisingly challenging.

No longer a Meebo fan

• App review for Meebo IM
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Social Butterflies or Tech/Social Networking Junkies

Loved the app, but it drains the battery, and was glitchy...needs major updates...Nimbuzz is a way better alternative.

like on the pc!

• App review for MineSweeper
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Gamers

This app is insanely similiar to the PC version. I love it!

Great Addition!

• App review for Facebook
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Tech/Social Networking Junkies

this app combined with motoblur on my phone, priceless...i dont use the mobile site at all...and the full FB site on occassion. makes sharing links pics etc very simple and fast.

Its Simon...

• App review for Classic Simon
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Gamers

Basic app, just like the regular game. Entertaining.

MyCloset

• App review for MyCloset
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Shopaholics

App has improved over time...no more staring into the closet before a night out on the town...stare at your phone instead....

Sports Watcher must have!

• App review for SportsTap
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Sports Fans

During the NBA playoffs, this was my app...It runs in the background (watch the battery) and would alert me of score changes and game start/stop times just to name a few features...better than NBA Lite in my opinion.

For the Movie Warrior!

• App review for Movies by Flixster
• Posted by crdavis2009 September 06, 2010
• Recommended for Film/TV Fans

Have you seen the trailer for The Expendables? No...well I have it right here on my phone... Also connects to FB for easy access to your friends rating, wishlist, and comments on movies.