Software

The purpose of Caption Studio is to create pretagged photos automatically from your photo library or phone. The concept is basic and may seem, at first, to be a good idea. Why spend hours trying to think of the perfect caption for a new photo if an app will do it for you? Unfortunately, not only are the captions limited, but they also can be vulgar and there are very few options for editing or changing them.

Caption Studio presents very few options when you first open it. Either select an existing photo from your library or take a new … Read more

Fairly simple, highly polished, and heavy on the cuteness factor, Baby Learns ABCs HD is perfect for children ages 1-3. Part of the Baby Bus suite, this app is a must-download for parents.

The app features two simple, interactive games for young children. The first is a driving game in which children must move a car to capture the letters that appear onscreen. The second is a sing-along of the ABCs. Both are very rudimentary, but production values are high, which helps to keep the attention of the child using the app, and the interaction level is perfectly matched to … Read more

One in a long line of stylized and thematic apps for children aged 1-3, Baby Learns ABCs is produced as part of the Baby Bus suite of apps and uses the same basic interface and style of delivery as the other free apps it is often marketed with. This is a good thing, of course, as the Baby Bus apps are among the best on the App Store for young children just learning their numbers, shapes, or letters.

The Baby Learns ABCs app, in particular, is one of the better of the Baby Bus apps, combining music, games, and simple … Read more

Part of the Baby Bus suite of learning tools, Baby Learning Shapes HD focuses on teaching shapes to young children.

In the case of this app, the same basic Baby Bus interface greets you when the app is first started. This is one of the apps' biggest weak points as the screen is cluttered with menus, upgrades, and other apps that the developers entice you to download, not to mention ads that your children will almost certainly find a way to tap. Once you get past the home screen interface, however, the game is well-constructed and enjoyable. The animations are … Read more

Bird Sounds Free allows users to learn more about the birds they are looking for, at least sonically-speaking. It's easy to use and provides crystal-clear bird calls.

Bird Songs Free is a fairly basic app, providing a very basic interface and limited features beyond the basic functionality promised in the title. It opens with a grid of bird pictures. None of the birds is labeled, so unless you know your way around a chart of bird pictures, you'll be largely tapping at random. There is no way to know the accuracy of the bird calls in the chart … Read more

Boulder Happy Hours is a very useful--though fairly rudimentary--app that alerts users to happy hours in their fair city. If you live anywhere near Boulder, it is definitely worth a download.

The Boulder Happy Hours app is designed to show the happy hour information for every bar and restaurant in the Boulder area. When you open it, you'll find three menus: one for featured happy hours (usually showing only one), one for every location in the database, and one to call a cab, which is a very nice addition for any app focused on drinking. For each location, you … Read more

Candy Crush Saga manages to be one of the most compelling, entertaining, and socially-engaging match 3 games currently on the App Store with deep Facebook integration and an addictive reward scheme.

The concept of Candy Crush Saga is very basic. Match three similar pieces of candy to advance to the next level. Each level has a certain number of candy matches needed, with bonuses, combos, and high-score opportunities, all integrated with Facebook for friendly competition. The game is free to play, but there are a number of upgrades, including lives that allow you to keep playing if you lose on … Read more

VideoUpLink for Mac helps users who take frequent videos for sharing with friends to quickly upload them. While it allows the user to save some steps required for this process, it is of little additional value.

VideoUpLink for Mac provides a free trial version, which restricts the uploads to personal Facebook pages. The unrestricted version costs $9.99. The program downloaded quickly and its installation was seamless. The application did have technical support available, and a basic Help menu provided initial user instructions. The main interface is sparse, but easy to navigate, with buttons on the top for uploading and … Read more

Despite its dated design, Toki LineTest HD for Mac easily creates early drafts of professional animators' work, and has all of the functions likely needed by these users.

The program offers a free trial version with a 60-frame limit. The full program costs $69.90. The download completed quickly over a high-speed connection. The installation folder contained readme, instructions, and license files in several languages, which was a nice feature. It was unclear if technical support was available, but the program started up without any problems. The instructions were a particularly useful feature since the main menu is not intuitive. … Read more