If you are new to Pygmy Reviews, they are short quick reviews of several things of the same type. The name comes from the pygmy hippopotamus
Discovr Apps ($2.99)
One Line Description: A failed attempt to help users find iOS apps based on the apps they like.
I regretfully spent $0.991 on this iOS app that claims to help “discover” new applications. It has done no such thing for me. First and foremost, it can’t figure out what apps you already have, which is somewhat understandable, but inconvenient, so every app that a user wants to use as a jumping off point have to be manually entered. Second, the suggestions that seem to be made are more “similar” apps than “people who bought that also bought this”. That assertion is made based on the fact that when OmniFocus is entered, all of the apps that are suggested seem to be ToDo applications. This application does not seem worth money since it’s method of furthering discovery don’t seem very effective.
Facebook Messenger (Free)
One Line Description: The “Messages” of portion of Facebook extracted out and made into a standalone app.
Supposedly based on Beluga the group messaging app that Facebook bought, Facebook Messenger is surprising useful. It’s very quick to load, which makes you useful as essentially, a group IM client. When a multi-person conversation is more rapid-fire with short responses, an app like this is better than filling up e-mail inboxes. The fact that it’s multi-platform, including PCs/Macs, make it all that more appealing. It’s also an effective IM/email replacement for people you don’t have on other services.
Agenda Calendar ($0.99)
One Line Description: A very minimalistic-looking calendar application designed to be simple.
Agenda is a great app. Unfortunately I have two calendar apps on my phone already that I like better (that would be Calvetica and QuickCal). Agenda is very clean and easy to read, and it’s clear that no one would get confused by the layout or options. I think if I had more events on my calendar I would prefer this to the somewhat cluttered Calvetica interface. I would love to see them add the natural language input that QuickCal brings to the table. That might be enough for me to replace my Calvetica/QuickCal combination. Agenda is very good though. And worth $0.99 if you need a good calendar app.
Glassboard (Free)
One Line Description: A private social network only accessible via mobile devices.
A unique take on social networks from Sepia Labs, makers of FeedDemon, which they claim is the most popular Windows RSS client. Glassboard doesn’t come with a lot of explanation and would likely be useless to anyone who isn’t comfortable figuring out things themselves. It’s different in the sense that you create “Boards” which seem to be like private message boards almost. The only way to get other people to see these boards is to invite them. The app is very plain, and while I think it could serve a really small niche, there are so many other places that you can get a better experience and the same type of functionality, like Path.
Snapseed ($4.99)
One Line Description: Photograph post processing application used to add effects to images on an iPhone.
Amazingly huge selection of built-in filters/options, all of which are further tweak-able by the user. These photo processing apps serve a certain niche and for me, they just aren’t that useful. I don’t take a ton of photos on my iPhone right now and until I do, I don’t get excited about adding effects to make a photo look older/crappier. If that is your thing, however, this app adds just about as many different filters as you can imagine. I picked this app up during a couple of day span when it was free back in September, otherwise I would have passed, but again, more because of the subject matter than the application itself.
- My threshold to buy anything I am remotely interested in [↩]
