One thing I can assure you about this site is that I am not going to be demonstrating the benefits or negative points about every conceivable app in the world.
When I bought my iPod Touch (in your case it may be an iPhone or a forthcoming iPad) I was quite looking forward to exploring the 100,000+ apps now available to users.
I did realise that not every app was going to appeal to everybody, that not every app was going to be perfectly presented, and that some would be..... well how can I put it?........ errr Cr-app!
What I was not prepared for was just how many crapps are out there (if crapp ever gets adopted by the dictionary as a synonym for cr*p app I'll claim the credit :) )
Many of you may never have seen what arrives on the iTunes store on a daily basis as you only get to see some of it on the front page. But bearing in mind Apple don't allow nudity (even nipples) go to your local iTunes store and do a search it for "Girls".
You will be confronted by page after page of poor quality apps submitted by people who don't care about quality of presentation or content - it's all about trying to depart really desperate men from their money. As I said Apple has a no nudity policy so this isn't even porn - it's just scantily clad babes - wearing as little as the developer can get away with whilst not showing any "naughty bits"
And as for the "babes" description that's not mine it's the developers' theory. Unless it stands for "Bland And Boring Endless Slappers" which applies certainly to most of the preview pictures.
Don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with a genuinely sexy app which is non offensive, professionally produced and which has some purpose to it but 99% of this adult aimed stuff is complete drivel. If anybody is seriously downloading this stuff in any great numbers it's immensely sad.
Not sad because of the type of material but sad because each iphone or iPod touch has a perfectly capable web browser where any user has access to literally millions of pictures free. Any desperado with half an ounce of common sense could also create a girlie gallery on their PC and transfer it to their Photos folder on their Apple gadget - if they must.
Now each and every app I understand has to be passed by Apple so it confounds me why they allow so many crapps to be listed. They do seem to like promoting the fact that there are so many apps but the truth is there are probably around 90,000 apps featuring poorly pictured women in lingerie (mosty of Eastern origin) and 10,000 apps which probably have some form of use to the majority.
As a result having bought your new apple gadget you arrive at iTunes only to find a database so bloated with rubbish it is really hard to find anything worth downloading. Note that I said downloading rather than buying because many apps are free as well as paid for. And no you won't escape the "babes" by browsing just the free stuff as there's just as many free"slappler" apps (another new word for the dictionary slappler = partially naked woman in Apple App) as there are paid for ones. The free ones probably carry more adverts for more paid for slapplers.
So 90% cr-app makes it difficult enough to find a decent app so you need to find another way to find good, uselful apps.
Users can leave feedback on iTunes with a 5 star rating so that must be worth a look?
Sadly in practice you learn that relying on this is completely hit and miss. Many a great app is downloaded hundreds of times but for one reason or another neither a star rating nor a comment left.
You can also get the situation where people tend to complain rather than give praise so you may get a few negative reviews but the apps may have been happily received by the majority.
You find an app which has been launched recently and it has 10 positive comments and they are all 5 star ratings. Must be brilliant then?
No not necessarily - there have been many cases where staff involved in the development of an app, their friends, their families have all posted top ratings immediately an app is launched. There is NOTHING to stop this. Personally, I do try to rate as many of my purchased apps as possible on iTunes but I have learned it is only of limited use.
I tried magazines for recommendations - I have to be fair I picked up a few tips here but paying out £6 ($10) to find a few apps which probably cost 1/3 of that at the most I found to be a bit of a false economy.
Yes there are app review sites out there but some of the biggest are not quite what they seem.
Look a little closer and you may see that most apps featured coincides with iTunes own sequence of top apps in various categories.
Some review sites will actually accept payment for reviews - can this be unbiased? No !
Eventually by sheer determination and hundreds of hours of searching I have built up an impressive collection of apps which are great or excellent.
I thought I would share my findings with others, to save them the search. Over the coming months more and more reviews will be added for the very best apps both free and paid.
If it's not worth 8/10 or more it doesn't get in.
I want somebody to be able to get their new iPod Touch or iPhone and have more confidence that an app does what it says because somebody completely independent has tested it.
And I mean INDEPENDENT. In no way am I employed or endorsed by Apple nor do I accept payment from developers for reviewing apps. Note I will accept promo codes from developers to look at their app - more details in the Submit-An-App page - but developers have to realize if it doesn't warrant 8/10 it won't get in - period.
I have already had great comments regarding my reviews since this site was launched in early 2010.
I hope you enjoy my reviews which I try to keep as short as possible yet keep them informative at the same time.
I will keep the great apps reviewed as long as developers keep up the standard.
Incidentally this site has been formatted in a way that makes it easy to browse both on the web and also to look good on the safari browser so don't forget to bookmark us.
Edit: March 2010 Following the Apple purge on sexy apps you will no longer find bikini clad girls in apps. Unless that is your name is Playboy in which case you have been permitted to stay. So no more bikini babes now we have sexy dressed secretaries and the like cascading into the app store
