Yelp is here to help

Who isn't attracted to a rhyming title?


So Yelp is one of my latest finds. This would be a really great app for travelling, but also super handy in your home town.

Want to find the nearest bar, restaurant, bank, gas station, drugstore (and so on)? Get Yelp. You can choose a category, such as the ones I just listed or tap "everything" which will let you see everything that's nearby from hotels to convenience stores.

Click on your selection and read/ write reviews, check out the price point, get directions, make a reservation, (where applicable) call there, bookmark their page, check in or look at pictures of the business of choice.

You have to make a profile when you download the app, but it take 20 seconds. But with that profile, you can chat with others in the area which could be pretty cool, or super creepy, when in a different city and what to know what to do.

You can even search something like - pizza - and choose the distance and price you're looking for and you're set.


Pretty dang cool and I know I'll be using it quite a bit. A lot of it is pretty similar to the Urbanspoon app, but with a few extra perks.


FRRREEEEEE.

Speaking of #Wiki..

haha..hash tag in title. Whata weirdo.

So as most of the web searching world knows, Wikipedia was a big ol' black out for 24 hours on the 18. The stop online privacy act - SOPA - situation was getting in the way of my searching, so I did the usual, check for an app.

Seems strange that I never checked for one before for Wikipedia.. but I found one!

Wikipedia Mobile

Pretty simple, a few sweet features..

The obvious one that prompted the search is that it wasn't blackedout. 

It's speedy and easy to use, so you won't, or shouldn't, find yourself swearing at it much.

You can save all of your search history. Find something awesome - save it 

But the part that I've wasted the most time on is "nearby." The app searches where you are using your phones location and pins anything near you that has been added to Wiki. Not actually thaaaat awesome in Winnipeg, but I think it would be pretty cool and handy for traveling. 

Oh, hey, just like the original, it's free 

What the heck is kik?

I asked this question yesterday on Facebook as 17 people had...

kik - "hghifhkfe" <----insert user name there

as their status.

The anwer I recieved was   "lol for idiots." - Shane Neufeld

Funny answer, surprisingly not helpful.

Turns out it's BBM, but for all smartphones. I've never had BBM, as the iPhone was my first smartphone, but I still don't see why it's thaaaaat awesome.

When I got my iPhone, I never understood why everyone was obsessed with BBM. Heck, when I had my little sqare phone that struggled to connect to the internet I still never understood.

The main thing that makes it worth the download for me, is that you can download the app Sketchee to use through Kik, which is drawing in an ms paint like way, and you can send your "art work" to the other person.

Reminds me of, like I said, Paint
and also of msn (when I thought it was cool) when they added the drawing feature.

You can also send emoticons, which I guess was a big part of BBM.

I can see why Blackberry or ex Blackberry users would be thrilled with this. Even more so the people that considered a Blackberry, mainly for BBM, then decided on an iPhone. You win, whoever you are.

There's other apps you can download to use through kik like games and what not. For sure worth the free download, but I don't see me using it more than text.

I dislike the "Erin is typing" message across the top, but it doesn't compare to how much I hate the "R" for read. I thought that was the stupidest feature about BBM. There was that ad for BBM with that chick that was supposed to be all tough and says something along the lines of "I love that you can see when people read your message. Just be real with me." Worst feature BBM, unless the person is a stalker. Then they probably love it. Weirdo.

$0.99 for a little nostalgia

Twist-it Pull-it Pass-it!

Who didn't love gathering around with the siblings or cousins and playing reaction-time-testing game - Bop it? Even though I was the youngest and rarely got a turn, it's still quite a staple in my childhood.

I've been on a bit of a board game binge recently, so I decided to check what the app store had to offer in this category.

Habsro's Bop it baby!

Everyone brings their Bop it to amusement parks...

You can play solo or multi player, as a team or head-to-head. There's also several different ways to play..

There classic, which of course is the OG. You pick  2-4  out of Bop it, twist it, pull it, spin it and flick it, then follow what the voice says on Bop it. There's other things like shout it, tilt it, pop it, shake it... all of which I have yet to unlock.

You can also just have the sound effect go off so you know what to do, without the annoying voice who makes fun of you when you lose. You can also turn off the insults if you like the voice.

The Basic way of playing is a rhythm challenge. It calls up one of the 5 options and not only do you have to hit it, but you earn more points by doing so on the beat.

Blitz is a bit ridiculous when you haven't played in years, which is just all 5 options on the screen and you follow what the voice says. Pretty much like classic, but harder.. thus, more embarrassing. 

Extreme! Starts off with just Bop it, then the others build on to the screen ending with the same game as Blitz. Gradual embarrassment at least.

Then for the multiplayer there's 

- Basic, but then pass it comes into play

- Extreme, passsss it

- Head 2 Head - Where you lay the app device down and two people play while facing each other. It's set up the same as classic, but the screen is split into two colours. When you do something right on your side, you get a point. If you mess up on your side, the other person receives a point.

AND

- Blitz Challenge. Its Blitz, but it will keep up to 10 peoples scores to see who did the best.

And after all of that..you should probably just get it, because the rhythm is just like you remember it.

Studying..?

I probably use 7 apps a day. Today, as I'm supposed to be studying, I think I've used forty. The games that I have uploaded today aren't even that fun, and I'm not good at them and yet I found myself playing them for far to long.

Sooo.. the only good one I found in my search through the top 50 free apps was World Hardest Game. So good I even paid for the 99 cent version.. ha.

The game is a series of mini games starting with easy, going to medium and finishing up with crazy. Now don't get too intimidated, because it's not thaaat crazy.

The games are all about reaction time and speed, which doesn't sound that fun, but check it out, at least the free version!

Buuuut CreCommers and other students.. wait until the end of this week or whenever your exams are done - the game is addicting and perfect for procrastination :D

Did you know?

Alright, so this app is pretty straight forward. Everyone has that friend that knows a lot of useless, random, weird, odd and/ or funny facts. Where the heck do they find these?

Maybe they watch a lot of Jeopardy or study Trivial Pursuit cards constantly. If you want to be the one that busts out the facts or just have them handy for when your friend uses you for the call a friend life line, download - Weird Facts.

It just brings you through facts that you can then post to Facebook or Twitter, text to a friend or e-mail it to someone.

"There are more plastic flamingos in the US than real ones."

iiinteresting.

The app that made me happy this week.

On May 31, 2012 I will be listening to Roger Waters make my ears smile.  Alright, that kind of sounds creepy/weird, but I will be listening to The Wall and be beyond overjoyed.

 The handy app that helped me to get tickets without standing in the hallway at school at 10 o'clock swearing at a busy signal and end up with no tickets to the sold out show was the Live Nation app.

So I took part in some presale action. They have more presales on the app than on their site, with no password necessary!

You can set alerts so you are told when new presales start, new concerts are announced in your area or when artists you have selected under your favourites announce a show.

As soon as you download the app, it takes the artists from your iPhone, iPad or iPod's music library and puts them in your favourites. You can then take out ones you don't want, or add any that you would like.

When you go to any of your favourite artists, or ones that you search, you can check out their set lists at previous shows. Once you're on a set list you can preview songs and go straight to iTunes to buy them.

You can also post anything from the app straight to Facebook and Twitter.

Another sweet thing, although this is mainly helpful for if you're running late or not going to a concert is you can check out what's going on at the show while it's happening. What time the artist took the stage and a live set list can both be found on the app.

So I bought my tickets and checked out my view right from the app. Sounds like this app is going to be dangerous for my student budget.