Weekly App Review #8
Thoughts on new apps I have used for the past week
Truth — (7/10) — FREE — I noticed a tweet about Truth that I do not recall and downloaded it a couple of weeks ago. Truth is another entrant into what I feel is the anonymous app sweepstakes. I believe there is potential for more than one winner in the space and each new app I see appears to have something unique that makes it stand out. Truth has perhaps the most interesting aspect of them all. Truth gives anyone the ability to anonymously text people in their contacts. It does this by showing a randomly generated fake number to the receiver of the text.
I cannot explain the amount of fun I had when I started messaging my siblings and close friends. Although the idea seems brilliant, which it is, I am not sure that Truth can scale in the same manner that an app like Secret can, due to its network and more social features. It has a great way to sign up the receivers of the message as after a little while, it asks them if they want to sign up to see who the messager is. Despite this novel sign up flow, I am not sure whether Truth will be able to grow past a cute app people may use once in a blue moon.
Screenshotter — (LIMITED ACCESS Beta — 9/10) — Screenshotter has a very basic goal, which it accomplishes really well. Screenshotter syncs your photos and simply separates your screenshots into the app. It is such a simple idea and yet it is super useful. I am constantly taking screenshots, particularly for this blog and it takes a ton of time to search through all of my photos (over 1000) to find the ones I want to use. With Screenshotter, I can easily find the screenshots I want to use or send without the hassle. If you’re someone that loves to take screenshots on your phone like me, Screenshotter will not disappoint!
Veern — (6.5/10 — FREE) Veern is another simple concept that I thought was useful. The app helps you keep track of the time zones of people that are out of your area. With cousins in Israel and California along with my brothers recent move to Denver, I am rarely cognizant of the different times when I am going to contact them. Although this is a much smaller problem for me, it is a big problem for people that live in other countries that do business all over the world. It is very important to keep track of all time zones, which is why the founder of Veern built it. If you have a lot of friends around the world, it may be very helpful for you.
Medium—(8/10 until ability to write — FREE) — Medium took some time to release their iOS app but the reading experience is well worth it. I much rather prefer to read on mobile these days and they do one of the best jobs providing a full screen display for the reader, which helps you avoid distractions and read faster. My only disappointment with the app was their decision to not include the ability to write posts at the moment. In the Help section, they state how they are working on it and I’m excited to see the update when that feature is released. Possibly my favorite tidbit of the app are the small pictures above each post of the faces of friends or people that I follow that have recommended the post. Its a nice touch to bring those into the center of the screen, which I enjoy way more than the web version which shows them at the bottom of the post.
Breeze (FREE — iPhone 5s ONLY) — Although I have been unable to use Breeze (not on iPhone 5s),the newly released app by the Runkeeper, I wanted to share it. I have heard great things from several different people and I am positive that it is well worth a download. Runkeeper is my favorite app to keep track of my workouts and Breeze provides another great tool in your toolbelt for staying fit and healthy
