Macworld UK Reviews

Spotifitunes (beta) review

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Cross Spotify with iTunes and what do you get? Access to your music library from any computer

You may have missed the recent news that Apple has bought streaming music service Lala. Any geek worth his pen-protector could put those two together and come up with a Spotify rival rumour.

Knomo Lincoln briefcase bag review

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:00:00 GMT

Knomo and Erick Morillo team for new Superstar DJ bag range

Luxury accessory specialists knomo have produced a fine selection of laptop bags over recent years, many grouped under themes. The latest collection is something of a novelty for the designer brand, a collaboration with globetrotting DJ, producer and all round good guy Erick Morillo. The DJ has many fans and is regularly in demand across the world and even has his own iPhone app. Endless travel requires good quality durable bags, which is where knomo comes in, with this stylish yet sturdy new collection.

Muse App for iPhone review

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:30:00 GMT

All the best bits of muse.mu plus some extras

Every band needs an iPhone application. It has the potential to keep fans in touch with their favourite music anytime and anywhere, even on the way home from a gig. A mix of news, reviews, forum posts, gig listings, photos, artwork, videos and music clips is ideal for the intimate small screen pocket sized format. Muse, a classy band, have produced a classy iPhone application, complete with all of the above, wrapped up in an intuitive attractive interface.

Star*Burst for iPhone review

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:00:00 GMT

A colorful twist on a classic puzzle game

If you’ve played any of the countless match-three puzzle games, you can quickly pickup the basic gameplay of StarBurst. However, StarBurst adds a great deal of depth and requires a bit more strategy than the rest.

Star*Burst review

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:00:00 GMT

A colorful twist on a classic puzzle game

SugarSync for iPhone review

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:00:00 GMT

File viewing and sharing app is good at what it does -- but not great

SugarSync is an online backup service reminiscent of Dropbox. It lets you access your backed up files on the go, and share them with friends. You can automatically sync new photos back to your computer, and even stream MP3s.

TVCatchup review

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:30:00 GMT

Oddly named internet service offers live online streaming

TVCatchup has made quite a splash for its excellent iPhone compatible service that allows users to watch a range of TV channels live, admittedly with a short delay. Despite some aspect ratio issues and the occasional bout of buffering, the free service has been such a hit that a few less than honest folk have tried to cash in by selling links to the service on eBay.

Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals for iPhone review

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT

No more TV dinners, this app will get you cooking in no time

What do you get if you cross a cooking programme, a recipe book, and an iPhone? Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals. It’s quite an ingenious idea. You pick a recipe, the app gives you a shopping list, videos to guide on certain areas of food preparation (for example, cooking with herbs, or knife skills), and simple-to-follow steps with photos at each stage of the way.

Blinkbox review

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:00:00 GMT

With a tweak here and a tuck there, BlinkBox could be the Spotify for movies we've all been waiting for

Ever since Spotify came up with a streaming music model that worked, we’ve been waiting for someone to do the same with movies. We’re still waiting, but until that day comes there are promising contenders: Blinkbox is among the best.

Walt Disney World Guide Notescast 2.5 review

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:00:00 GMT

Fun in the sun for iPod classic, nano and Video users

Billed as an application store for iPod classic, nano and video users, Notecasts.com offers a range of eBooks covering literary classics, hobbies, holiday destinations and more. The store, run by TimeStream Software, even offers a guide and platform for users to write their own. Inexpensive, the Notecasts are installed and stored in the 'Notes' section of any compatible iPod.

FileMaker 11 Review

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:00:00 GMT

One new blockbuster addition, some great tweaks and a couple of features to check out.

FileMaker 11 is here and the single best single word to describe it is, Charts. FileMaker 11 has built in charting of data and this new feature is easy to master, flexible, elegant and even web compliant. You can choose to create bar, area, line and pie charts. Describing the process is almost as easy as performing it. You click the appropriate tool to create the chart and draw a box on the layout. A dialog box will come up with the options to choose a chart type, chart title, what field(s) represent which chart axis and what set of data do you want to use for the chart.

HyperMac Mini

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:00:00 GMT

Is this the first designer battery pack?

HyperMac’s Mini may look like a brightly coloured hip flask, but it’s actually an external battery pack for iPods, iPhones, and other USB-powered gadgets. The design is really shiny - we picked out the bluey purple model, but all the colours would look great alongside a matching iPod nano.

Mill Colour for iPhone review

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Photo-grading app brings out the colour in your images

The Mill is one of the leading visual effects companies in the world. With its The Mill app, The Mill takes some of the excellent colour control that it’s known for in the professional editing world and brings it to your iPhone.

JBL On Time 200P review

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:00:00 GMT

Curvy alarm clock speaker dock from JBL

The JBL On Time 200P continues the company’s fondness of space-age curved design. It’s a bedside alarm clock with a good range of features - including a remote control that offers full playlist navigation, an AM/FM radio and snooze functions.

CoPilot Live for iPhone review

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Satellite navigation: yet another trick up the iPhone's sleeve

The CoPilot Live software is just £26.99 for the UK and Ireland maps – about half the price of the TomTom iPhone navigation app. CoPilot Live has full seven-digit postcode search and weather reports for your destination. The display automatically switches from day to night mode and offers 3D and 2D map views. There are speed notifications and safety camera alerts included too.

Google Email Uploader review

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:00:00 GMT

Simple process for uploading your local email to that Gmail account

Google’s Gmail service offers vast amounts of storage, a unique approach to organization, one of the best e-mail-searching features around, and access to all your email from any Web browser - all for the low, low price of free. And with a program such as Mailplane, you can even get many (though not all) of the niceties of a dedicated email client.

Castle Frenzy for iPhone review

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:00:00 GMT

Destroy incoming enemies before they breach your castle gates

Over the last year, the castle defense genre has become popular on the iPhone platform largely thanks to the efforts of smaller developers. Now iPhone gaming giant Gameloft jumps into the fray with Castle Frenzy.

PrintMaster Platinum 2.0 review

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:00:00 GMT

Design and print banners, business cards, calendars, certificates, envelope and more

So you’ve just snapped some great pictures of your new puppy and you want to do something special with them. You could use your favorite photo editing tool like Photoshop or iPhoto - to fix the colour brightness and crop out the background noise, but then what? When you want to turn a good photo into a great story, PrintMaster Platinum 2.0 helps you put one or many of your favorite photos into an inviting layout that you can share easily with friends and family.

iRiver Story eBook Reader review

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:00:00 GMT

With a full keyboard, nice design touches, and plenty of compatibility - the iRiver Story is an eBook reader to look out for.

One fair criticism aimed at most eBook readers is that the build quality and design are often lacking. But not the iRiver Story: with its svelte white frame, slightly tapered casing, and embedded page-turn buttons this is a great looking piece of kit.

Storyboard Composer for iPhone review

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Storyboard tool helps you flesh out ideas for your next movie

There’s no true movie-editing app on the App Store yet and no dedicated scriptwriting tools. But with Cinemek’s Storyboard Composer app (previously called Hitchcock), there is now a way to flesh out ideas.

Mental Case review

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:00:00 GMT

Pitched as the ultimate study tool, Mental Case is a presentation authoring program for students and teachers

Flash cards are a proven method for learning and memory improvement. Mental Case is a dual-purpose tool for authoring and playing back stacks of flash cards, complete with text, graphics and a rudimentary level of interactivity.

Marketwatch for iPhone review

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:00:00 GMT

Audio news report feature helps this financials news app stand out

What does Dow Jones’ financial wire service, MarketWatch, have that competitor Bloomberg doesn’t? After all, both offer up-to-the-minute market news, analysis and data, with searchable stock quotes. On the iPhone and iPod touch, both have easy-to-navigate screens with extensive coverage of the day’s events on Wall Street and stock and mercantile exchanges around the globe.

AppZapper 2 review

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Remove unwanted programs with AppZapper's simple drag-and-drop tool

Because we review two squillion new Mac applications each month, we’re probably more excited about tools that help you remove programs than most. Without them, our Macs would be clogged up with half-removed apps, orphan *.plist files and weird Automator code. And, even worse, pointless menu items that appear when your Mac starts. Who needs those? Who?

Snagit for Mac (beta) review

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:00:00 GMT

Veteran PC screen-grabbing app makes a slick Mac debut

We don’t like to admit it, here at Macworld, but we sometimes use PCs. Snagit is an application that’s been available for Windows for a long time. It’s gone through nine versions, in fact. And we’ve been using it for most of that time because it’s chock-full of great features, highly configurable and very flexible. So, when we found out that there was a Snagit beta for the Mac, we were disproportionately excited considering that the sole purpose of this application is to take pictures of things happening on your screen.

BashFlash review

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Flash can tax your CPU and suck the life out of your battery

We’re big fans of ClickToFlash, the Safari plug-in that lets you choose which bits of Flash content, on which Websites, get loaded - blocking everything else. But as good as ClickToFlash is, it can’t protect you from Flash you’ve approved. Those bits of Flash can still hog processor cycles, waste battery life, and lock up your browser.