Google Mobile App

The Google Mobile app is a free search application from Google that lets you find what you need using your voice, location and now using pictures via Google Goggles. You already know that you can use voice commands to find things with the Google app, but now you can also take pictures of things you see using your iPhone camera and Google will bring up the relevant results. Goggles recognizes things such as landmarks, books, wine, artwork, and logos.
The voice feature of Google Mobile App can understand many languages including American, British, Indian or Australian English accents, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Czech, Polish and Korean. Your local search results can be tailored to your current GPS provided location. The results can be vertically swapped between Google Maps, Images, News, and Shopping, and you always have your search history for quick access to recent lookups.

If you already have the Google Mobile App on your iPhone, just update it to get the new camera icon for Google Googles. Goggles has been a big hit with Android users, and now iPhone owners too can enjoy this cool new search feature. The app can not only find results from pictures of places and products but can even translate text from pictures with legible copy.

Google Goggels (GG) is similar to competitive technologies like Amazon’s SnapTell and Kooaba. Google Mobile App comes as a universal binary that works on both iPad and iPhone, although since the Google Goggles feature is graphically intensive, you have to have either the latest iPhone 4 or an iPhone 3GS for the camera’s pictures to be legible enough to work properly.

Appsafari Rating: 4.5/5

This 3rd Party App is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Browse the full list of all AppStore apps filed under the AppStore category.

View the developer website here

Download Google Mobile App at iTunes App Store

Price: Free

Google Docs

Google Docs is now available for your iPhone or iPod touch. You can view your Documents and Spreadsheets and Presentations on your iPhone with a very slick user interface. You can filter your files by starred, and whether they are created by you. Also you have the ability to star and un-star files from the iPhone. Additionally you can search for files. The search feature actually looks at the content of your documents as well as the file names. The main page displays your documents conveniently broken down by creation date such as “Today”, “This Year” etc. On the bottom of the page you can browse your folder hierarchy and browse the files within each folder.
Update: Great news! Google has now added full editing support for Google Docs from your iPhone and iPad via the Safari browser at docs.google.com. Making edits are easy, just tap on any table cell or document area and start typing your text. Then hit the submit button to save your changes. Google also gives its Android users the ability to speak the text they want to type.

• Spreadsheets are presented nicely using HTML tables, with support for multiple sheets.
• Presentation files render quite nicely in the iPhone and by default start a slideshow presentation of the file when you view them. There are buttons for navigating the slides and closing out of the slide show.
• Document files are converted to HTML for quick reading on your iPhone or iPod touch.
• Full Editing capability added

Here is a video demo of the Google Docs web app on a mobile device.

You will only see the iPhone version if you are using Safari on the iPhone or iPad. If you open the url on your PC or Mac you will still see a mobile version of your Docs which is also light weight with similar features. Try it here

iShow Makeup

iShow Makeup is a do-it-yourself app brought to us by iMew Design. It is a tool that helps you decide what kind of makeup and accessories look best on you. iShow costs $1.99 and is compatible with an iPhone and 4th generation iPod Touch.
If you can remember the computer program that Cher uses in Clueless to pick out an outfit for school then you are a stone’s throw away from understanding what it is that iShow Makeup does. Just imagine that Clueless program on a much smaller scale and without indicators informing you that you look terrible or you are mismatched.

All you have to do to use this app is take a picture of your face and start adding makeup, contact lenses, accessories, art, or animals to the picture in order to gauge what works on you. There are many options to browse so you get your fair share of variety. There are a mix of glasses and sunglasses, a broad range of different kinds of eye shadow and eyelash variations, contact lenses, tattoos, pets, and art. Truth be told, the eye shadow and eyelash choices are wild and showgirl-esque. That is not a complaint because what better way to preview how 5 pounds of makeup looks on you then through an app like iShow before you spend hours on your look for Halloween. The contact lenses are also not very practical. Most of them look like they were used on the set of Aliens or Terminator.

The biggest problem I found with iShow is that the accessories are not scaled very accurately. The glasses are so enormous that the picture you use of your face has to be a close up of just your eyes in order to fit them. The only feature offered in terms of altering the appearance of the accessory is a rotation device in case you need to flip an item to use on the other side of your face. I think I would have a lot more fun with iShow if the size of the accessories and add-ons were more realistic and I was able to integrate them into my portrait more effectively.

Appsafari Rating: 3.5/5

This 3rd Party App is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Browse the full list of all AppStore apps filed under the AppStore category.

View the developer website here

Download iShow Makeup at iTunes App Store

Price: $1.99

FX Photo Studio

FX Photo Studio is a photography app that allows you to tweak, improve, and modify your photos using an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. The developer of this magnificent app is MacPhun and costs $2.99.
I have recently realized the beauty of using my iPhone as a camera more than anything else. I own a digital camera but it is stuffed away somewhere in my closet. I always have my phone on me or not more than a foot away so why not use it to its full extent? I guess the point I am making is that I live for photography apps so when something like FX Photo Studio is introduced to me it is as if I have died and gone to heaven.

FX Photo Studio is simple to use yet features highly complicated and diverse photo effects and filters. There are 171 photo effects and filters, so having a simplistic interface is essential. You can turn your photograph into nearly any style you would like with options like, Stencil Poster Red, Grunge Rays Sepia, Brush Strokes, Pencil Paint, Old Photo, and Mosaic. There are so many effects that they needed to be categorized. There are 19 categories that come with the app and then 3 extra ones that you can buy in the app for an additional $0.99 each. There is a favorites option in case you want all of your preferences together in one place to get to quickly. You can rotate, flip, and crop an image as well. Even though you can preview the changes before they are made, there are easy access Undo and Redo buttons. The best feature of this app is the Gamma brightness adjustments that improve an image 100%. You can also mix and match the different modifications to get hybrid creations. Once you finish your alteration, you can save the image to your photo library or broadcast it via Facebook, email, Twitter, or Flickr.

FX Photo Studio is worth every penny. You do not have to put forth any real effort to get a fairly large return. The app is straightforward and packed with features. I honestly cannot think of any possible improvements: FX Photo has it all.

Appsafari Rating: 5/5

This 3rd Party App is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Browse the full list of all AppStore apps filed under the AppStore category.

View the developer website here

Download FX Photo Studio at iTunes App Store

Price: $2.99

Wordspector

You don’t have to be a brilliant detective to know that when you have a popular online Flash game on your hands, it’s a good idea to make it into an app, which is exactly what Moido Games has done. A word game that plays rather like the love child of Scrabble and Mastermind, Wordspector aims to please you wordsmiths who like to mix up words with a bit of mystery. Unlike other word games which give you a bunch of letters and have you make however many words you can, Wordspector just wants you to make one word.

There are two basic playing modes in Wordspector, Action and Puzzle, but they both have the same general playing mechanism. You start with a number of blanks, just like in Hangman, and you can make guesses as to what the word will be. If a letter is correct and in the right place, it will show green. If it’s in the word, but not in the right place, it will be orange. If it’s just wrong, it will stay blue. Each guess must be a valid English word, no proper nouns, so you can’t just try letters at random to see what will happen. Naturally, the goal is to figure out the word as quickly as you can.

Some levels come with letters already fixed into place, to help nudge you in the right direction, and later levels challenge you with longer and longer words. Action and Puzzle differ in that Action gives you unlimited guesses, but you are racing the clock to find the word, where Puzzle gives you unlimited time, but only a handful of guesses. They’re both challenging in their own way, but unsurprisingly, Action is the much more fast-paced of the two.
There are also a small number of mini-games that appear between levels and also as standalone modes accessible from the main menu. “Deduction Derby” has you solving 7 mystery words as quickly as possible. “Anything Goes” is a straight-up, “make as many words as you can with a given first letter” challenge. And finally, “Betweenies” challenges you to find words that fit between a given first and last letter. They don’t really bring anything new to the experience, but they’re still nice little bite-sized bonuses.
All things considered, Wordspector is a very solid offering, with very polished graphics, smooth interface, and overall professional finish. Local and online leaderboards, as well as separate Facebook integration means you’ll have plenty of opportunities to challenge friends and strangers to beat your high scores. There is no OpenFeint or Game Center integration, sadly, although there is a rather impressive array of in-game badges you can earn.
Because it requires a large chunk of brain power pretty quickly, Wordspector probably won’t become an addictive go-to game for those looking for quick fun on the run, but the game still looks, plays, and re-plays very well making it a very worthwhile buy for word game lovers.

Appsafari Rating: 4.5/5

This 3rd Party App is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Browse the full list of all AppStore apps filed under the AppStore category.

View the developer website here

Download Wordspector at iTunes App Store

Price: $1.99

Google Books

Do you consume digital books? Google Books is a free iPhone and iPad app from Google that lets you find and read eBooks using the brand new Google eBookstore service. Google eBooks already has well over 2 million titles which is quite impressive. Your Google books live in the cloud, are cached locally in the app, and synced across the network each time you open one up to read. Books are in ePub and PDF file formats. Most books have free flowing text, while some have scanned pages, and other offer both versions. The Google Books service runs in the cloud, so your purchases are always available to you anywhere you go, including your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and even other eBook readers, and from the web on your Mac or PC.

When you first launch the Google Books app, you’ll log in with your Google account. From there the app shows you 3 warm-up books for free so you can get you started and get a feel for using the app. The books are: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, and Great Expectations. “Tap to download” any title right away. Books that are being downloaded can be read simultaneously.

The My eBooks section is where all your Google Books are shown by thumbnail. Visually a nice progress bar and page counter that highlights how much of each book you’ve read so far.
The reader section has all the features you’d want from an eBook reader. You can jump to chapter in the content browser, change fonts, text size, swap black/white background, change line height, and enable/disable 3-D page turns. The built in flip animation is very smooth and comparable to the iBooks app. You can find text in the book by keyword using the Search feature and tap any result to jump to that page. An information section displays the cover, publisher, author and number of pages for the book. On the bottom of the reader a slider lets you drag to any page in the book along with a live updating tool-tip window that shows page/chapter info as you slide. There is no brightness control, and there also is no way of having the book read out to you. You can read books while offline or in Airplane mode.

Fonts supported on the iPhone Google Books app are: Georgia, Baskerville, Cochin, Palatino, Times New Roman, Helvetica, and Verdana. The iPhone app only works in portrait mode.
The process of shopping for eBooks is not fully integrated in the Google Books app. To find and download eBooks the app shoots you out into a web browser where you can search for and download books/free samples. Also you can’t edit/manage your books using the iPhone app. That also has to be done on the website, either on your computer or via Safari on your iOS device.
Using the mobile Google Books site you can check out featured books, browse by category or search by keyword. Book detail pages contain star ratings and user reviews from various sources. Once you buy/download any book it automatically gets added to your account across all your Google Books supported apps. You can tap “Read now” to launch the Google Books app and start reading the book right away.
Google Books automatically syncs not only the books you have bought but also the page number where you left off reading. So for example, you can read a book on your Mac and then later on open the Google Books app on your iPad and automatically continue reading where you left off.

There are now so many ways to buy and consume eBooks that I was really hoping Google would offer a way to price shop between all these stores, which probably won’t happen now that Google has gone into the eBook market themselves. Also if you’ve already bought a bunch of books on another service say Amazon or iBooks, there isn’t a way to import and consolidate all your existing eBooks into Google Books.
Prices for eBooks from Google Books are comparable if not lower than Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple’s iBooks store. While the iPhone app isn’t fully integrated and is missing some basic features, you do have the freedom to get to your books from any supported device. On the Google eBook website, you can click on the “Read on your device” link from any book you’ve bought where you’ll find links to download a PDF (scanned version) or EPUB (free flowing text version) file if you want to manually sync them with your other devices.
Right now Google’s eBooks service works with iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Andorid, Any web browser on Mac or PC, and any eBook reader device that supports the Adobe eBook platform, including the Barnes & Noble Nook and Reader from Sony. Amazon’s Kindle is not supported.
Here is a video demo of the Google Books app on the iPhone

Appsafari Rating: 3.5/5

This 3rd Party App is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Browse the full list of all AppStore apps filed under the AppStore category.

View the developer website here

Download Google Books at iTunes App Store

Price: Free

Google Latitude

The Google Latitude iPhone app is here and you can use it to connect and share where you are, letting your friends and family keep in touch with you. The Google Latitude app can either show your friends on a map, which you can then use to meet them in person. For your privacy, the app lets you share specific parts only like for example just the city where you are, as opposed to the exact address. You can choose to share your location with anyone you want to keep in touch with. specifically. Updates can occur in the background if you let the Google Latitude app do so, or you can disable updates in the background.

Sign into Google Latitude using your Google account, and use your contacts to invite friends to your network. The Official iPhone app is an improvement on the web based app and a welcomed addition to existing Google based products on iOS devices.

Appsafari Rating: 4/5

This 3rd Party App is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Browse the full list of all AppStore apps filed under the AppStore category.

View the developer website here

Download Google Latitude at iTunes App Store

Price: Free

CarPro

CarPro is a personal assistant that seeks to help you out with most car questions that may surface. It was developed by srcnix’s obsessions and is compatible with an iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. You can buy it for a limited time only at $0.99 as opposed to the usual $1.99.
To begin using CarPro you complete a thorough questionnaire about your car. The questionnaire is broken down into 3 sections, Car, Insurance, and Recovery. In the Car section you fill out the Make, Model, Type, Registration, Next Service, Tire Pressure, etc.

In the Insurance and Recovery sections you are filling out the Policy Number, Insurer, Recovery Company etc. You save this information once you are finished and then you can add another car if you have one. There is also a Drivers section that you can toggle to where you add the name of any of the drivers of the car you inputted. The next cluster is titled Ticket/Permits where you can set a countdown to doomsday (when your ticket is due) or add a Permit so that you know its duration. On top of storing all of your car data, CarPro offers a GPS tracking to find your car.

When you have parked in some no man’s land you simply turn on CarPro and go to the Location section. It finds the location you are in and then you hit save. In addition, you can either takes notes describing where you are, take a photo of something to remind you, or have a map and compass guide you to the spot. On the Home page you get a breakdown of all the cars and drivers you have added. The cars are color coded with orange for Due, red for Expired, and green for Fine.
CarPro is your best bet to keeping it all together in terms of Car maintenance. If you are a really disorganized person I would call this app a definite asset for you. CarPro will definitely come in handy for Angelinos, who practically live in their cars and receive parking tickets in droves.

Appsafari Rating: 3.5/5

This 3rd Party App is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Browse the full list of all AppStore apps filed under the AppStore category.

View the developer website here

Download CarPro at iTunes App Store

Price: $0.99

Sketch Club

Sketch Club is an art app that provides its user with a blank screen and sketching tools in order to create a masterpiece. It was developed by Jim Scott to be enjoyed on an iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad for $1.99.
First and foremost, Sketch Club is a lot of fun. The app includes everything and does not skimp on settings. You get a set of traditional and procedural brushstrokes to work with and you have the ability to change the size and opacity of the strokes.

You get a choice of Brush, Pen, Eraser, Fur, Side Lines, Sketchy, Smooth, and Vector to use for your type of strokes. You then get to choose any color in the spectrum for your art utensil. You can modify the background or foreground using the Tools icon. For the background you can choose an image from your photo library, then play with the opacity level or you can choose a color to fill the background with. There is an Undo button and a Redo button if your sketching starts to take a turn for the worst. You can also erase the image completely with the Waste Bin icon. You can pinch the screen to zoom in or out and tap it with three fingers to get the image to fit to it.

You can either choose to use Sketch Club privately or share your work with an online community for their rating and viewing pleasure. When you are finished you can save your creation to your photos, email it, post it on Facebook, or upload it onto the Sketch Club network. You can access the network from within the app if you want to browse other sketches that have been submitted. Once on the network you can comment on and rate other sketches and you can enter your own sketches into competitions.
Sketch Club is inclusive and simple. Once you buy this app you are given everything you need to start sketching and get the creative juices flowing. You are also given a public forum to share your work for those of you who want feedback.

Appsafari Rating: 4/5

This 3rd Party App is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Browse the full list of all AppStore apps filed under the AppStore category.

View the developer website here

Download Sketch Club at iTunes App Store

Price: $1.99