Idea Organizer is a handy little app for catching your brilliant ideas in the most convenient way.

In my experience “notes apps” or thought-catcher apps like Idea Organizer fall into two categories: too many features or too few. Give me too many features, and I can’t be bothered. Why spend 5 minutes fussing around with “extras” like color-coding and cutesy icons when I can whip out a pen and paper in 2.3 seconds. However, apps with too few features aren’t any better. I’m simply not going to spend money on an app that is basically a text editor with a fancy background.

Idea Organizer manages to balance that fine line with ease. The app is designed to make taking notes quick and convenient. Nanaimo Studio knows this can mean different things to different people. So, Idea Organizer lets the user decide how to capture their ideas: text, voice or visual. Read the rest of this entry »

iAm is an inspirational app designed to provide users with a guide for spiritual meditation and contemplation. The app uses stunning photography and more than 200 quotes from recognized authorities around the globe.

Artist Dan Baumbach shares his collection of nature photography and it is the primary reason to buy this app. The photos emote a stillness that can quiet a restless soul and nudge users toward serenity. The images really are lovely, so much so that I was surprised to find that they all came from the same artist. It’s amazing that so much beauty can come from one person. Read the rest of this entry »

Zenscape - More than a year ago, Koi Pond floated onto the app scene with a gorgeous (if pointless) app that allowed users to affect an onscreen world with a touch, tap or swipe. It was an instant success and app developers have been using the model ever since hoping to achieve the same fame.

Zenscape is a new wrapper for an old trick. That said, it’s a trick many users enjoy and new iPhone owners may not have experienced yet.

Zenscape is an “interactive visual experience” to “calm and relax your mind” says the App Store description. The app has a pretty simple set-up. Open the app and the home page greets you with a little piece piece of daily zen — a quote from an eclectic mix of personalities Buddha, Martin Luther King Jr, William Penn, Lily Tomlin and more. If you need more encouragement to find your inner peace, you can scroll through to get more quotes in random order.

The music for Zenscape is a new-agey, space-inspired soundtrack that feels Read the rest of this entry »

Video Poker by Hoyle is exactly what it sounds like — video poker for the iPhone — but what its name lacks in “sexiness” it make up for in sheer reliability.

The Vegas-style game consists of Double Bonus, 5 Card Draw, Jokers Wild, Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild — all of which shine like a iPhone 3G S fresh out of the box. Now as a professional iPhone reviewer — jealous? what’s your job title? — I have seen a lot of card games come my way but Hoyle’s version really does take the cake. Read the rest of this entry »

Deadlier Allusions is another installment of text-based who-dunnits for armchair detectives. The criminal capers are all murders where the victim has left behind clues that — if interpreted correctly — will point to the “perp.” It’s the players job to suss out the truth and solve the murder through multiple choice.

Each mini mystery takes less than a minute to read, but depending on your base of knowledge could take much longer to solve. Deadlier Allusions offers a “small hint” or a “large hint” to help point players in the right direction. If you’re really stuck you can just guess. There’s no penalty for wrong answers. Although purists might say, you’re only cheating yourself.

Trivia buffs will fare better than most as some of the clues are pretty esoteric. Then again, that’s sort of the point of Deadlier Allusions. Take your clues to the Internet and you may just find Read the rest of this entry »