Weekly App Review #1
The app store is a mess. As someone who downloads every new app I hear about through Twitter and Product Hunt, I wanted to share my thoughts on what I’ve been playing with the each week.
Jelly (7/10) — Founded by former Twitter co-founder Biz Stone — Gives instant crowdsourced feedback
The app is very easy to use and although I have not posted any questions yet, I have learned a lot from the app just by responding to others and playing around. First, I surprisingly enjoy the push notifications. Don’t find that it happens too often and I usually shut notifications off. I am eager to see what people ask and it is crazy how quickly questions are answered. Jelly reminds me of when I used to text Cha Cha for a simple question I was arguing about with friends.
A feature I would really like to see in the next version is the ability to comment on other people’s answers. There are many answers that can be improved if there was some clarification.
A feature that I think is very slick is the swipe down to the next question is possibly my favorite user interaction. It makes me want to go to the next question and remind me of the Tinder swipe feature.
I am not going to move Jelly to my home screen but will keep notifications on. I can see myself responding to many questions over time but do not see it as a necessity to have on my home screen.
P.S. I stumbled upon a great post by Mashable on use cases of Jelly.
Hangtime (5/10) gives event recommendations but has way too many recommendations from friends I’m not interested in or events that are nowhere near me. The design in the app feels very condensed with a lot of options, which made me very confused. I enjoyed the layout of the emails and I definitely see potential for this type of app to know what your friends are up to but I do not feel this accomplishes what I’m looking for.
Heyday (9/10) — I take a ton of pictures every day and Heyday has become the ultimate journal. It automatically syncs your pictures and locations to the app and it is great to come to review how your day went when you are going to bed. You can also look back on previous dates, which brings in nostalgic memories of the past, like when I was at the Playboy Mansion for the Starstreet Fantasy Football Championship☺
In the past week, I see myself checking the app multiple times a day to add events as well as see everything I’ve been up to.
One feature I would really like to see is if my Foursquare checkins along with my Moves and Jawbone data would sync with the app.
Fantasy Elite (9/10)— Fantasy Elite was just released this past week and I am very excited for the potential of this app to change the way people play fantasy sports.
There are many Daily Fantasy (DFS) sites that exist but Fantasy Elite is redefining the game on mobile by adding both a salary cap as well as a drafting aspect. The design of the app is simple and it easy to understand how to join a game. For those that have not encountered Daily Fantasy Sports before, the app makes it very clear and understandable how the draft works.
In addition to the drafting, the research you can do prior to a draft is so easy. It shows their fantasy points for the previous games as well as tweets related to the player. The use of Twitter to research starting lineups and injuries is the most useful tool you can have. Even for those that don’t want want to gamble, it is the best source of research for the NBA. I am a huge fan of this app and will continue to play and can hopefully make a few bucks in the meantime.
P.S. — It definitely doesn’t hurt that I won $15 in a free tournament the first night I played ☺
ZeroBlock (10/10) — Although it is not so new, ZeroBlock has become my go-to mobile source for everything Bitcoin. I think the potential of Bitcoin is huge, which can be for another blog post but ZeroBlock keeps me updated on everything. With just a few quick swipes, ZeroBlock provides me with real-time data from the different exchanges as well as an aggregate news source. It was an easy choice to move it to my home screen several months ago.
Possibly my favorite part of the app is the option for push notifications when prices cross a certain point. Additionally, I really enjoy the fact that the app opens up its new stories without having to enter a browser separately.
If you have any new app recommendations, please send them my way on Twitter. Here are my thoughts here on why I began this series.
