iPhone App Review: Trip Boss - Expense and Budget Travel Manager

Trip Boss Expense & Budget Travel Manager

$4.99

iPhone/iPod Touch only

Version: 4.1.1

Tested on: iPod Touch 4G (iOS 4.3.2)

Rating: 4 of 5

When we travel, a lot of things are happening at the same time, regardless whether it's a business trip or for other purposes. There are lots of small yet important things happening which make the trip a great experience. You meet with new people, takes notes of interesting things you find, and spends some amount of money. Would it be great if there's an app that can help you gather all that information in a single place?

Well, Trip Boss Expense & Budget Travel Manager is an iPhone app designed to help you organize this information. With this app, you can start by creating a new trip and enter all your travel details, including departure/arrival times, travel purpose, description, notes, and other travelers who are going with you. Then, you can start recording all your expenses grouped under that trip.

The app truly shines when it comes to recording your travel expenses. Not only you can categorize your expenses, record the date/time and place, but you can also enter the expense in foreign currencies, tag any number of names as clients/guests, and write notes associated with each expense. These features are very helpful in recording the event of which the expense occurs.

One of my favorite features in this app is the Tip Calculator feature. This feature is designed so well, that you can actually use it even when you're not traveling. How many times do you go to a restaurant with friends/family and you need to calculate the tip then split the bill? Well, this feature is really easy to use. Not only you can define the tax/tip rates, but you can easily enter the number of people to split the bill and round up/down any part of the bill. In my group, I always be the one who count the tip (and I always round up the total amount) then split the bill, so this feature is just amazing.

What makes it even more lovable is that the app automatically includes your part of the bill (after the split) as your expense amount. Then, just as a good reminder, you can always take a picture of the receipt, then keep it or share it with your group. You can also track how you pay for the expense, e.g. cash, credit/debit cards.

Some people may like to put a budget on their trips, especially if it's a business trip. Again, this app has an answer for this with its great budgeting feature. You can easily define your budgets into categories, and the app will automatically match your expenses with each category, so that you can see how you have managed your expenses.

Features above are just some of what the app can perform. With its in-app purchase capabilities, the developer promises to deliver various modules like itinerary, journaling and trip planning. Right now, the itinerary module is ready for you to purchase. So you can try to use this basic module of Expense & Budget then purchase the Itinerary module from its in-app store, or you can choose to purchase the complete Itinerary module from the Itinerary, Expense & Budget edition.

The itinerary module allows you to record details of your travel, not only limited to flight details. You can record your travel regardless of the transportation methods you use. The module provides specific details for flight, train, bus, car drive, and even boat cruise. You can record details of your car rentals and parking too if you need to. These expenses will be integrated automatically into your trip.

Overall, I think this app is a great app for anyone, especially business travelers. A lot of features are packed within the app that I can't describe thoroughly within this review. And I believe that the more you use this app, the more you'll see its benefits. I'd love to see you try the app and share how it helps you to make your trips more enjoyable knowing that all the details are saved in this great app.

Now, for a limited period of time, you have a chance to win one of the three promo codes of this great app. And, here are the steps you need to take to get a chance to win it:

1. Follow @appenthusiast on Twitter
2. Tweet this: "Manage your travel with Trip Boss for #iPhone, and get a chance to win a copy! http://bit.ly/l1AUnj via @appenthusiast" or click the blue Twitter share button on the top right of this post.
3. The contest ends on Friday, May 12, 2011, 23:59 PST
4. I will choose randomly the three winners.

Check out my other iPhone apps reviews here.

Video Review: Neon Sign

Neon Sign

$1.99

Universal (iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad)

Version: 2.0

Tested on: iPad 2 (iOS 4.3.2)

Reviewer: Evan

Check out our video review of Neon Sign, a unique application which works for the iPhone and the iPad. This app allows you to turn your iPad or iPhone into your very own customized Neon Sign. There are 100+ unique neon design and numerous flashing types that you can choose from. Watch our review and let us know what you think.

Check out my previous iPad app review here.

NEW Release: iMotion HD (Quick Review)

iMotion HD

FREE

Universal (iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad)

Version: 1.0

Tested on: iPad 2 (iOS 4.3.2)

Reviewer: Evan

There are lots of photography apps on the App Store today, but looking for a good one for the iPad 2 can be a challenge. iMotion HD is a Universal app which was just released a few days ago and has already become one of my favorite camera apps for the iPad 2. With this app, you can create movies using stop-motion technique. It's something that's not commonly offered by other iPad apps on the App Store.

iMotion HD is an app that's very easy to use. When you start creating your movie, you can choose to use the iMotion Remote app (which is a separate app) to remotely control it, to use the automatic time-lapse camera with a mic, or to use the manual capture. You can also add a title for your movie. While making the video, you can use the onion skin or add the grid to help you get a better video. Depending on your settings, you may click capture or it may automatically take a picture within the period (in seconds) you set.

Once you're done with the movie, you're ready to share it. You can also edit the speed (time lapse between frames) to slow/fasten the movie. With an in-app purchase, you can export the movie to your photo albums, iTunes, e-mail account, YouTube or to the iMotion gallery.

Check out my previous iPad app review here.

App Reviews: Book Club Mobile for iPhone and Book Club Leader for iPad

Book Club Mobile for iPhone and Book Club Leader for iPad

$2.99 each

iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad

Version: 1.2

Tested on: iPod Touch 4G and iPad 2 (iOS 4.3.2)

Rating: 5 of 5

Reading books has always been a very inspiring experience that most book lovers can testify to. And, being in a book club can easily leverage that into something that's a whole lot better. But sometimes keeping book club meetings to be engaging and interesting may become a challenge in itself. Getting the right questions and topics to trigger discussions, and coming up with a list of candidates for the next session may become the key success factors for your book readers club.

Book Club Mobile is an excellent iPhone app that will help you maximize your book club meetings by suggesting questions and topics which are based on characters in the book, themes, plots, cultural/historical settings and how these different dynamics of the books relate to your personal experience in life. The app contains these detailed guides on around 200 book titles which are carefully selected to resemble what most book clubs are discussing. New reading guides are added on a daily basis to keep your book clubs fresh and always filled with great options to choose from.

The app is an excellent place to start your book readers discussion. With this app, you can gain the confidence to step up and lead the next session in your book clubs. Book Club Mobile allows you to sort the guiding questions by the type of questions and mark the ones which have already been discussed. 

Book Club Mobile has a beautiful design, and if you have an iPad, you should check the Book Club Leader for iPad. The design is just awesome. While these apps are keeping you on top of things during book discussions, they have a lot of features that would help you find the next book to discuss easily and elegantly. These apps have a strong integration with GoodReads API to get the readers ratings and use them to provide more information to their users. 

Both apps also have a section where you can easily find out more information about which books made the bestseller lists. You can use these lists to find inspiring books or even order the books directly from Amazon. I believe within the near future, we can easily purchase the book from the iBookstore too.

You also need to check out tips section where you can find various tips, ranging from dessert recipe, short articles, movie recommendations and more book recommendation. This brings the book club experience to a higher level than just book discussion. I think these tips will help you to keep your book club engaging.

Overall, I think this is a one-of-a-kind app that is thoughtfully designed. Not just being aesthetically pleasing, but every features are designed from the book lover perspectives and focused to help book club discussions to be engaging and interesting. I have a strong belief that with more people start using these apps and provide feedback to the developer team, they'll see these apps grow fast and become the essential kit for every book club in the world.

Now, for a limited period of time, you have a chance to win one promo code for the iPhone app and one promo code for the iPad app. And, here are the steps you need to take to get a chance to win it:

1. Follow @appenthusiast on Twitter
2. Tweet this: "Make your book clubs engaging with Book Club Mobile for iPhone, and get a chance to win a copy! http://bit.ly/jDnvtM via @appenthusiast" or click the blue Twitter share button on the top right of this post.
3. Post a comment here indicating which Twitter account you're using and which version you'd like to win.
4. The contest ends on Sunday, May 8, 2011, 23:59 PST
5. I will choose randomly one winner for the iPhone version and one for the iPad version.

Check out my other iPhone apps here.

NEW Update: Feedly (now for iPad too)

Feedly

FREE

Universal (iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad)

Version: 2.0.1

Tested on: iPad 2 and iPod Touch 4G (iOS 4.3.2)

Today, Feedly releases a new update which brings the app to the iPad. Previously, Feedly is only available for the iPhone. With this update, Feedly tries to position itself in the same league as Flipboard, Zite, and Reeder. The developer team of Feedly is using the HTML 5 approach which is aimed to work cross platform on the iPad, iPhone and Android. The result is a clean and minimalist look of the app. 

When you start the app for the first time, you'll see the Featured section displaying news selected by the Feedly developer team. But if you have a Google Reader account, you'd be more interested in learning how Feedly can display the feeds you read on regular basis. With a simple login, all your unread feeds will be formatted in a very clean layout. 

To read the news in its full length, you only need to click on the headline. Afterwards, you can swipe up and down to read the article, and swipe left or right to read the previous/next article. The article is laid out nicely by default. And if you're not satisfied with the layout, you can always choose to activate one of Feedly features which is able to optimize the view for your mobile device.

The app allows us to like an article, which in turn will give learning information for the app. Using this information, the app will gradually adjust its Featured section to suit your preferences. I haven't tried it long enough to see it work, but if it does work well, it'll probably be similar to what Zite has successfully carried out. 

Feedly also provides an in-app browser which looks very good. It seems to have built an in-app ad for its iPad version as well. I'm not sure whether this would be inline with the Apple's iAds guideline, especially because Feedly seems to be offering ad spaces to publishers or site owners. By clicking these in-app ads, Feedly takes me to various places, including Amazon's product detail page. 

I'm going to leave you with some of the screenshots showing how the app would look like on the iPhone. The screenshots also demonstrate another cool feature of the app where it can change the theme from black to white and vice versa by shaking the iPhone/iPad. Depending on your preferences and lighting in your reading environment, this feature can become very handy.

Overall, I think the new update brings Feedly to a new level, especially with its decision to use HTML 5 approach. It will become easier for them to implement cross platform updates in the future. This is a very different strategy compared with Reeder which is iOS specific and Flipboard/Zite which are iPad specific. The future seems to be a great one for news junkies with an iPad in hand.


Check out my other iPad app reviews here.

NEW Release: BuzzE for iPhone (Quick Review)

BuzzE

FREE

iPhone/iPod Touch only

Version: 2.0.1

Tested on: iPod Touch 4G (iOS 4.3.2)

BuzzE is an exciting social networking app which is just released today. It allows you to interact with the people around you, friends and family, wherever you are. You can use BuzzE to buzz your friends notifying that you're online, to chat with your family, to play interactive games with friends, to look for local events, or even to find new people near you. The app really does a lot of things socially and really worths to try it with your friends.

First, you need to sign up for the BuzzE service. It's a free signup and you can pull your details and avatar from your Facebook account to fill up your profile quickly. Then, you can either find new friends or you can invite your friends to signup for BuzzE too. I think you can find new friends up to at least 220 miles from where your current location is, so you don't need to worry about having a cold feet start with BuzzE Your friend requests need to be approved before you can see them as your friends. I think this is a good way to meet new people, and it only gets better with more people joining in.

Once you have friends who are online at the same time as you are, the app really shines. You can involve in multiple chat conversations with your friends at the same time, exchange gifts, and even playing fun games at the same time. It's always entertaining and fun to be involved in a hot potato game while you're chatting with your friends. It's almost like the real world. 

Hot potato isn't the only social mini-game available in the apps. You can also invite your friends to play the "I Found You" game. It's a unique game where you see a pile of photographs piled up, and you need to find your friend's profile pictures and put it into the bin faster than he/she does with your pictures. This is a great game which allows you to interact with your friend in real time. It's especially good when you just find a new friend on BuzzE.

Another game that's just great with new friends, especially from the opposite gender, is the "How Hot are We?" game. The game asks a series of 10 questions which you and your friend just need to say Yes/No as your answer. If both of you give the same answer, regardless of the answer is, then the game considers both of you as "Hot", otherwise you're considered as "Not Hot". It really is a fun game. The questions are very intriguing, and I believe more interesting questions will pop up in the future updates of this app.

BuzzE also allows you to find local events near you with its Hot Spot feature. You can also find details information about these public events. If you want to create your own private event, BuzzE also helps you to invite your BuzzE friends too. 

Overall, I think BuzzE has a lot of potential to be a great social networking app. It may start as a strong local app, but once you have a lot of people joining, I think this will become your favorite social networking app for the iPhone. Today is just the starting point for the app, and I'm looking forward to its future updates. Meanwhile, please download the app and add me as your friend on BuzzE. We can chat about your favorite iPhone app while playing the "Hot Potato" game. And I think, you'll find new friends too that have the same interests as you or get to know other readers of our site who are also joining in on BuzzE.

Check out my other iPhone app reviews here.