Pet First Aid review

Pet First Aid by Jive Media LLC

Current Price: $4.99

Reviewed at v1.0.0

Pet First Aid is your comprehensive source for medical emergency care for your pet(s).

This app has 14 categories of articles available:

• Emergency situations
• Heart & Breathing
• Fundamentals
• What's Normal
• Disaster Preparedness
• Bites & Stings
• Bloat & Torsion
• Burns 
• Eyes, Ears & Nose
• Fractures & Sprains
• Head & Spinal Injuries
• Heat & Cold Injuries
• Poisoning
• Wounds

Each category features detailed articles, linking readers to related terms definitions, videos (which are clear and have excellent audio), and illustrations, all of which are available without connection to the web, making this app perfect for on the go emergencies. 

You're also able to add Pet Info on your pet, with veterinarian details, identifications, allergies & conditions, and more. This creates a profile for your pet and helps you better understand their needs. 

I would say that this app is lacking in this category and that category--but it's not. It's so thoroughly detailed and loaded with pages and pages of articles and useful content. This is an easy-to-use, informative application perfect for any pet owner. 

Interface: 5/5

Sound: 4/5

Replay Value: 4/5

Value: 5/5

iSmoothie review

iSmoothie by David Gulbrandsen

Current Price: $0.99

LE?: YES

Reviewed at v2.0

iSmoothie is the only comprehensive beverage app dedicated solely to smoothies. Featuring over 100 recipes, iSmoothie delivers several lists of tasty, fruity, savory concoctions perfect for summer.

There are five buttons at the bottom of the app: favorites, categories, smoothies, ingredients, and random. You're able to star your favorite recipes, add notes & ingredients, search for smoothies with specific ingredients, and hit the random button to discover new smoothies daily. There are a host of new features in v2.0, including adding pictures.

The UI of the app makes it easy to find new recipes, and the search engine breaks down your search into different categories featuring that specific ingredient. For example, if you search chocolate, you get a list of related ingredients, including chocholate syrup, ice cream, etc.

In all honesty, this app doesn't deliver anything new in terms of smoothies. You can find many of these recipes in a book at the library. However, this app allows you to quickly and easily browse a list of recipes at your convenience. For heavy-duty smoothie makers, it will come in handy.

Currently, this app costs $0.99. A lite version is available, so I recommend you try that out first and upgrade if you use iSmoothie heavily. For what it's worth, however, you won't find any recipe book for a cheaper price than iSmoothie for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Graphics/Interface: 4/5

Sound: N/A

Replay Value: 3/5

Value: 4/5

Dictionary.com review

Dictionary.com

Current price: Free

Reviewed at v1.0

Dictionary.com's app is a powerful reference tool made for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It uses a simple, user-friendly interface, allowing easy searches through Dictionary & Thesaurus.

If you've visited dictionary.com before, you'll know that this app provides clear defintions to a large selection of words, 275,000+. Thesaurus.com provides about 80,000 synonyms, according to Dictionary.com's description.

You're able to browse recent searches history and listen to pronunciations, as well as viewing "word of the day."

One of the greatest aspects of this app is the fact that it does not require Wi-Fi for searches. This optimizes the app's overall usefulness and convenience. You're unable to listen to pronunciations or view word of the day sans Wi-Fi; not a big deal to me, but worth mentioning.

Overall, dictionary.com is a useful, easy-to-use app, and proves to be convienient reference tool when on the go. And what's more, is that it's free!

Graphics/Interface: 5/5

Sound: N/A

Replay Value: 4/5

Value: 4/5

English Phrasebook (Idioms) review

English Phrasebook (Idioms) by ADS Software Group

Cost: $0.99

Reviewed at v1.3

English Phrasebook (formerly known as Idioms) offers a wide selection of English idioms available to view without internet connection. Some of the commonplace phrases include "eagle eye," "rub salt to the wound," as well as "MacGyvered" and "a broken clock is right twice a day." The UI of the application is similar to browsing songs on your iPhone or iPod Touch; content is alphabetized and you simply scroll through the right side to browse phrases. There is a search function, multi-colored backgrounds to "spice" up the screen, and quizzes. The phrases are well defined, but I have a few minor gripes with the app.

First off, scrolling through phrases is not as fluid as I'd like it to be. Perhaps this is because I've gotten used to quickly browsing through songs on my iPod Touch, but it is frustrating to find the screen this scrolling even when you're not touching the screen. 

And while I adore the great variety of idioms, or english phrases as ADS terms it, the app needs something to liven it up. The quiz format, in which you select between "Word" or "Definition" (which is mainly just memorizing the term or definition) is not intuitive or useful. I know this app is not meant to function as an idiom game, but offering such a functionality leaves room for criticism. Tweaking the quiz format with definitely "pack a punch" to the app's overall appeal.

The multi-colored screens are great and all, but maybe some customization options could be implemented? At times I feel the font is too small or hard to read. May that's just me, but I'd like the appearance to be changed a bit in that aspect.

Despite the minor flaws of this app, I have no other criticisms. If you're interested in the english language, or stuying idioms, or just curious about them, this app will suffice. There are 9,000 idioms featured, with concise, easy to understand definitions. You'll be able to view familiar phrases, while discovering new ones at the same time.

The app has not been updated in a while, but hopefully some changes are in store.

Graphics: 3/5

Sound: N/A

Replay Value: 4/5

Value: 4/5