animate

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

The inside of a vacuum cleaner is no place to be. Luckily, most of us will never have to endure such a place. The detritus we create in daily living, however, is another story. Not only do we want dust, dirt, and pet hair to be subjected to the internal whirlwind of a vacuum cleaner, we want it to stay there. At least until it's time to empty the bin.

Emptying the bin may be the last step in the journey for particulate matter, but other side of the story is just beginning. The bagless technology that Dyson uses … Read more

Your Android phone or tablet can be a great educational tool for your kids, with the right software. Softdiv's Animals Spelling Game For Kids is a super-easy game designed to help kids just learning how to spell with simple, familiar words. And what better source than animal names, which tend to be short and easy to spell but exotic enough to both challenge young learners and keep them interested.

Animals Spelling Game's main page has three buttons: Play Game, Top Score, and Exit. We started a game. Our first puzzle presented three letters; D, G, and O, above … Read more

Cinemagram cannot help but get comparisons to Vine. It offers very similar functionality in a very similar interface, but there are a few added features that make it at least worth trying out if you are eager to experiment with as many video creation apps as possible on your iPhone.

Cinemagram looks very similar to most photo/video sharing social networks on iPhone. Open the app and you'll find an option to create your own shared item and menus to navigate the items shared by friends and other users. The home menu by default includes recent and popular shares … Read more

Designed to deliver an entertaining learning experience to small children and enhance their hand-eye coordination, this app also promises hours of fun. Baby Shapes and Animals does deliver on some of these promises, but it has far too many drawbacks for the everyday user to include it in their application collection.

At 26MB, Baby Shapes and Animals seems to be one of the largest applications of its kind. Given its simple graphics and extremely limited functionality, there is no reason it should occupy so much space. Download time can be horrendous and the application also lags considerably. It opens painfully … Read more

The iPad is a natural learning device for toddlers and preschoolers. It is practically made for little fingers to swipe and pinch across games and learning apps as they absorb letters, numbers, and stories. But there is a very wide range of quality among toddler-oriented apps. Some are sublime and well- thought out. Others are obvious cash-in attempts directed at unaware parents. Dinner Dash Animal Letters World for Toddlers falls into the second category.

In fact, Dinner Dash Animal Letters is such a feature-barren app that it's hard to know exactly what its purpose is. The game essentially shows … Read more

If you enjoy anime or Japanese drama, then Crunchyroll is far and away the best app on the App Store to feed your obsession. The app is very simple in execution but delivers above and beyond what you would expect for an app that is free to use and contains so many different shows dating back more than a decade. With simple, intuitive menus, a universal app for access on your iPad or iPhone, and a free version that includes hundreds of episodes, it's a great place to start if you enjoy anime or are interested in getting into … Read more

A Chinese animation film studio has sued Apple for allegedly selling its movies in its iTunes store without permission.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, citing a report from the South China Morning Post, Shanghai Animation Film Studio, which is backed by the Chinese government, has sued Apple for more than $500,000. The company argues that Apple sold over 110 of its movies, including "Calabash Brothers" and "Black Cat Detective," in the iTunes store without permission.

Apple has faced its fair share of troubles in China. The company last year was forced to pay $60 million to settle a lawsuit with Proview … Read more