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iPhone/iPad App Recommendations & Reviews

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A&E Networks just released a trio of iPad apps for streaming shows from the A&E, Lifetime, and History channels. I downloaded the History Channel app to check it out, even though I don't watch very much stuff from them anymore. I opened the app and the first thing it did was redirect to my browser to install cookies. Apparently their 3rd party ad partner wants to track ALL of my web activity.

Now, I realize that this kind of stuff takes place all over the web and by using services from Apple, Google and any number of other places I'm already being tracked and mined for data. I've mostly resigned myself to that idea. What pissed me off about the app was how brazen and clumsy the whole thing was. I've trusted my information to a lot of different companies on the web - but I won't share my info with one that's going to redirect my browser without asking first or act like I won't know what's going on when they do that.
 
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Dryden;2300116; said:
Ticket to Ride Pocket for iPhone is free for a limited time. Highly recommend.
Click to expand...

I paid $2.99 for it 3-4 months ago -- it was worth it at that price, too. TTR Europe is a nice spin on the original, although I have only played the board game version.
 
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After a few years of stubborn resistance, I have decided to jailbreak my iPhone on a trial basis. I'm trying to get my bearings and find the right tweaks to try out. The Cydia store is a freaking mess. Does anybody have recommendations for what to buy/use? I'm not looking to mess with themes or anything like that - I generally like how iOS looks and behaves which is why I've been so hesitant to jailbreak up to this point. I am interested in things that give me a shade more flexibility with how I organize icons on my screen, but I don't want to install anything that will degrade performance or battery life.

Here's what I've installed so far:
  • NCSettings
  • NoNewsisGoodNews (to get rid of the stupid, ugly Newsstand folder)
  • Fake Time Warner (to get around the restriction on their app for jailbroken devices)
I'm also interested in Inifinidock, so I can have more of the utility and core apps in the same place.



Any other suggestions?
 
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Here's what I use:

SbSettings...IMO it's better than NCSettings. And they have a skin for it that looks better than the stock one
Activator - assign gestures to do certain actions
Bigify - shrink/enlarge app icons
5 Column Springboard - adds a 5th column
Icon Renamer - rename app icons
Tab+ - more than 8 tabs in safari
Pandora Skips - unlimited skips for pandora
BiteSMS - a much better SMS app
YoutubeToMP3 - take audio from a YouTube video and make it an mp3


There's some others that haven't been updated for ios6....hopefully the developers are working on them

Here's my home screen:
E7JnrpZ.jpg



And just an FYI, I've had a jailbroken iPhone for probably 1year now. As long as you don't install 100's of tweaks, you won't really notice a difference in performance from the phone.
 
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Mac;2307394; said:
Here's what I use:

SbSettings...IMO it's better than NCSettings. And they have a skin for it that looks better than the stock one
Activator - assign gestures to do certain actions
Bigify - shrink/enlarge app icons
5 Column Springboard - adds a 5th column
Icon Renamer - rename app icons
Tab+ - more than 8 tabs in safari
Pandora Skips - unlimited skips for pandora
BiteSMS - a much better SMS app
YoutubeToMP3 - take audio from a YouTube video and make it an mp3

There's some others that haven't been updated for ios6....hopefully the developers are working on them
Click to expand...

I know there are more options to customize and more toggles, but I tried out SBSettings for a bit and didn't see much that I wanted that NCSettings didn't have... besides the ability to hide icons for stock apps. I got rid of SBSettings though and downloaded Poof instead, which takes care of that feature. Maybe I overlooked some things though.

I like the idea of the IconRenamer tweak... I hate it when the name of the app is too long and it can't be displayed properly... or when an app is just given a stupid name. It would be kinda nice to change some of those.


I'm thinking about some browser tweaks now too... I had tried out Chrome on my iPhone and iPad, and hated the slowness and lack of integration. Looks like some of the tweaks might help with that.

Mac;2307394; said:
And just an FYI, I've had a jailbroken iPhone for probably 1year now. As long as you don't install 100's of tweaks, you won't really notice a difference in performance from the phone.
Click to expand...

That's good to know. I have had a few Springboard crashes that were kinda annoying, but other that that it has been doing well so far.

I did take the plunge on a few other paid tweaks that looked good. It's just so hard to find some of them because the Cydia Store is a mess. Some of the others I've added are:
  • Auxo (better multitask bar)
  • LockInfo 5 (better organization and interaction with the lock screen and Notification Center)
  • Infinidock
  • Poof
  • Activator (I haven't really seen a need for this one, but it was part of the LockInfo 5 package)
I like to have a "less is more" look and feel, and I like for things to stay pretty close in line with stock iOS as possible.


Here are my screenshots so far...


AC9256C3-9E3D-42D7-9E93-9C5E3725550C-6326-000001C5CAF350A1_zpseee193f3.jpg
FD767F0D-616C-4A6C-8EB1-AFA020EA991F-6326-000001C5CC5F7A64_zps73eab2fb.jpg
31778AF6-686B-48CD-AE5E-AA43DEC21C08-6326-000001C5CDFEA4C6_zps61c05d84.jpg
 
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I'm the same way. I don't do themes, and want to keep it close to stock iOS, but add a few essential things that make using the phone easier

In your Notification Center, are the mail, calendar etc notifications expandable/collapsible? I like how that looks
 
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Mac;2307654; said:
I'm the same way. I don't do themes, and want to keep it close to stock iOS, but add a few essential things that make using the phone easier

In your Notification Center, are the mail, calendar etc notifications expandable/collapsible? I like how that looks
Click to expand...

Yep.

In my view, that's one of the killer features of LockInfo5. It allowed me to add my calendar to my notification center without it taking up too much room. My job has me doing a lot of one-on-one appointments, and it gives me a convenient way to glance at my calendar for the next 24 hours.

The other essential feature is the setting to mark emails as read when they are dismissed from your notifications. The stock mail app doesn't have a "mark as read" feature, and this allows you to do that either in batches or one-by-one.

The only drawback I've noticed with it so far is that there are a ton of settings for it, and it takes some doing to get everything just right. I had to go thru and tweak settings for every app that I have push notifications turned on for, because I don't want most of them in my lock screen or turning on the screen/backlight all the time.

Apparently LockInfo5 is normally $7.99, but right now it's half-price and has a free 14-day trial.
 
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I had been looking forward to Real Racing 3 for months. Now that it's out, I'm disappointed and a bit angry. I'm not surprised I guess, but it's a shame nonetheless that EA has done this to what was once a top-notch franchise.

Kotaku: Real Racing 3 is a Beautiful Game Strangled By Freemium Nonsense

There is a ton of content in Real Racing 3. There are more than 900 events, from head-to-head battles to standard circuits featuring a massive 22-car grid; elimination races to CSR Racing-style drags. Participating in all the events available only requires you have the right car class for the job. As of right now there are 26 race series available, and with the two cars I've purchased so far I have access to three of these.

There's a featured event this week?the Audi R8 LMS Ultra Showcase?but it requires a car that costs roughly 20 times the cash I currently have on hand. This makes me sad.

There are 46 licensed vehicles to collect, most of which can be purchased with cash earned from completing in-game events, while others require copious amounts of gold, the game's premium purchasable currency. For instance, the Koenigsegg Agera R costs 800 gold. 1,000 gold costs $99.99 in the in-app store. You might be able to accumulate that much through normal play, but no... you won't.

Unattainable vehicles aside, the real frustration of Real Racing 3 comes from a constant barrage of completely arbitrary timers. It starts with maintenance. Over the course of normal racing a car's oil, engine, brakes, suspension and tires will wear down. If they drop below a certain point their performance will drop. This is fixed by performing maintenance, which costs in-game cash and takes time to complete, unless you spend gold to finish instantly.

Then there are repairs. Dangerous driving will damage your vehicle, impairing performance. This is fixed by initiating repairs, which costs in-game cash and takes time to complete, unless you spend gold to finish.

Upgrades take time to install, unless you spend gold to finish. When you purchase a new car you have to wait for it to be delivered, unless you spend gold to finish.

This is bullshit.

It's unavoidable bullshit. While I can pay $2.99 to $19.99 on vehicle packs to unlock events more quickly, there is no lump sum that gets rid of the damn timers. I would gladly pay if there were.
Click to expand...

I'm mad at EA for doing this. I'm mad at the people who get sucked in by games like Farmville, Mafia Wars and other cutesy shit that gets them to empty their entire paycheck into it, 99 cents at a time. They made this model viable for cynical publishers like EA, who are now expanding it to real games with real gameplay that real gamers want to spend time with. It's a shame that publishers can apparently make more money off a small percentage of suckers who will keep dropping money down a hole to ungimp a game rather than just charging a fair price for it up front.

It's a shame, because it looks like the studio that created it made yet another awesome game. It looks like it's in there somewhere, at least. On the strength of the first two titles (both of which I gladly paid for) I was prepared to pay a premium up-front price for this game. I'm not going to allow myself to get sucked into this freemium crap though.
 
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