Price: Free (A paid version is offered)
As the app opens I am awarded with vibrant colors, crystal clear pictures, phenomenal headlines, and enticing article previews. Too bad the app in which I am reviewing, Chicago Tribune, encompasses hardly any of these wonderful features. When my right index finger, which is slightly flat because of app overuse, presses on Chicago Tribune the first thing noticed and only positive to which I can attest to is a bold news headline. Yes, headline is singular. Depending upon which news section you have chosen: business, entertainment, living, etc. only one headline is viewable on the main page. Granted it takes up half of the screen and cannot be missed, I perceive as only being able to view one headline on the main page as a negative.
Chicago Tribune has taken a different approach to showing their news sections. Most news apps have horizontal scrolling tabs on top of the screen which are easily navigated and allow more space to be allocated for the articles. Chicago Tribune uses a vertical scrolling feature which takes up half of the screen on the home page. However, the vertical scrolling feature is still clear and easy to use.
News articles accompanied by pictures have clearly gone hand-in-hand since the beginning of print. The tribune News app does not accompany any pictures what-so-ever with their articles. I know pictures are not a necessity with news articles but they are a simple luxury that I and most others are accustomed to and take for granted.
Article previews should be considered a necessity within the news world of apps. Previews allow either a lady or a gentleman quickly to make a decision on whether the article is of interest and worth reading. Chicago Tribune offers no article previews and therefore causing myself to skip articles I normally would have read.
Overall Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
iCam App:
Visions of dancing sugar-plums may remind you of serene times but visions of dancing dust particles will bring you current peace of mind. I am speaking of the iCam app for the iPhone. This app currently costs $4.99 and the features offered are as appealing as hand picking a famous Georgia Peach from the farm and eating it. The app allows you to use up to four webcams in your house as a video security system that transmits a live feed on your iPhone. I say live feed but after performing 200 tests the feed is delayed anywhere from three to six seconds. Nevertheless for $4.99 I am content with saying the feed is live and everyone should be content with seeing dust particles dancing across their iPhone feed instead of some form of tragedy.
Here is how it works. First you purchase and download the app from the iTunes store and then quickly follow that up by going to www.skjm.com/icam/ to download the software needed for your computer. Next launch the software on your computer and choose your type of webcam, login, and password. Your webcam should be active. Now launch the iPhone app and enter the same login and password, tap done and you should see on your iPhone whatever your webcam currently sees. Yes folks installation is as simple as using a scalding knife to cut butter.
The features that accompany the iCam app are very impressive. Imagine you are on vacation and you happen to be one of those people like me who am a bit paranoid. You can easily set the motion detection to sensitive and if two dust particles were to mimic atoms of our phenomenal past by colliding I would venture a guess their motion would be detected. However, if you are not as paranoid as me or have pets my suggestion would be to set the motion detection at the midpoint. This way not every small movement is detected but most movements by humans should be. The iCam software also allows you to control whether or not to have push notifications sent to your iPhone, whether or not specifically to record motion events, and where specifically to record the events. Wait, there is more! The iCam app even allows sound to be transmitted to your iPhone. The sound feature is just one more feature allowing you to secure your home, monitor a pet, or any creative use you may think of.
The negatives that I have discovered would be only allowing your iPhone to receive four webcam feeds and not being allowed to retrieve your feeds on another computer. However, for the price of $4.99 these negatives will never come close to outweighing the positives.
All-in-all I highly recommend this product for anyone who has a computer, webcam and does not have a home security system.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
What else is there to say but goodnight and goodnight to you Mrs. Amore, wherever you may be.
You reviewed an app that's no longer available for download and was released nearly two years ago.
ReplyDeleteWe'd love to see a review of the newly released Chicago Tribune for iPhone app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chicago-tribune/id383137151?mt=8