Last week I started what I hope will become a weekly feature here, by reviewing a couple of the fantastic apps I have downloaded or used of the last week. With over 80000 apps available in the iTunes store, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be running out of apps soon :) So, here are 3 apps I found pretty useful this week.
Bargain Bin – FREE (Opens iTunes Link)
A cool little app that, for me, runs in the “background” on the iPhone. By background, I mean, this app pushes me a notification whenever a popular app lowers in price, in the iTunes store. So When an app developer decides to have a special on their app, they lower the price in the iTunes store, and Bargain Bin, then picks this up, and sends me a push notification with the new price. I have picked up loads of bargains this way from the iTunes store. You can also have a watchlist of specified apps, so if the price drops, it will send you a push notification as well, for that specific app. A cool little app all round, which is handy to save a few $’s as well.
CNN Mobile – $1.99 (Opens iTunes Link)
Don’t let the price put you off of this one. This is well worth the $1.99 you goint to shell out for this. CNN is world renowned for the breaking news that they report on daily. And now you can get this on your iPhone. The best part of this app is the LIVE streaming breaking news you can watch on your phone. On Friday, the 2016 Olympic city was being announced, and I tested out this app, by watching the announcment, live, right on my Phone. The quality was unbelivable. Another awesome feature of this app, is all the news you can take in. The stories can be read in a “cover flow” format, simialr to iTunes. You also get push notification alerts for Breaking News stories. At first I was a bit sceptical about buying this app, cause a lot of the reviews moaned about the ads, but I honestly don’t find them intrusive at all. All in all an awesome app, that I highly recommended.
StreamToMe – $1.99 (Opens iTunes Link)
Shhh, don’t tell anyone about this app. This is one AWESOME AWESOME app. We all know the iPhone & iTunes can be a pain when trying to watch video’s on the phone. What StreamToMe does, it automagically converts most video formats including, MP4, AVI, MOV, FLV, MPG or WMV, video/music you have stored on your local machine or external drive and plays it for you on your phone. You don’t have to convert anything to make it work, it converts the video as you watching. All you need is to have the Server software (http://projectswithlove.com/streamtome/servetome.html) running on your MAC, and the rest is 1 touch to watch your favourite series or movie on your phone while lying in Bed. A great, yet simple app all round.
6 replies on “Weekly app review – 4 Oct”
Thanks for these recommendations Marc. I do have to ask however – many times I download an app only to find that it is next to useless in South Africa, merely because a lot of content providers dont provide anything specific to Africa, and all location based services dont work either. The CNN app is one of those apps I wonder about. If we have very limited bandwidth (not unlimited data bundles like in US) is it worth getting an app that streams video live to your phone? Would you still recommend it?
Hey Minaar,
Thanks for the comment. Yip, I suppose the CNN could be one of those apps. I watched the live streaming over WIFI, which seemed ok. And yes, the app is defitnely geared more towards US, with local news etc. I think if you looking for breaking news, and if there is a need to watch it, then I would recommend it. that said though, you right about the data charges etc, but I don’t think I could see myself using this all the time on the go ? hmmm, tough call & good point :)
Have similar thoughts on the CNN app. Noticed on their App Store page that the “International version will be available soon”, so I’m hanging tight for a bit.
StreamToMe has got to be one of my favourite apps – it’s seamlessly lets you watch practically anything you want off your main Mac. It’s such a pleasure to use!
You are such a clever boy. ;-)
Aww, thanks Binka….
SOME of us still blog, and don’t have to go on extended breaks :P