Review: Clashot – An Interactive Photo Community for iOS That Makes You Money

58a33 clashot feature  Review: Clashot – An Interactive Photo Community for iOS That Makes You Money

I am a sucker for photography apps, there is something alluring about being able to take, edit and upload perfect photos on the go. What if there was a way to not only capture these moments and perfect them, but to post them in a community where they could also be purchased, in turn, making you some mullah? Then you need to check out Clashot, free in the App Store.

Overview

Clashot is an application that allows users to not only capture photos, but upload them to an entire community of photos and photographers where they can then be commented on, rated and even make you some money! We all take pictures anyway, why not capitalize on our images?

58a33 clashot 1  Review: Clashot – An Interactive Photo Community for iOS That Makes You Money

The Clashot application is a little confusing at first. As with any networking app, users are required to create a login, followed by agreeing to the terms of use and service, one item I did notice was that “Clashot discharges to the user a payment of 44% of the actual payment” which I suppose is to be expected. Users can also opt out of having their photos for sale on the site when they accept the terms and conditions. If users opt to have their photos available for sale, they can link a PayPal or WebMoney account with the application, once there is a balance available from a purchase, the user can then request the funds be transferred to their linked account. One side note, the transfer may take up to 7 days to be completed.

After creating a login and agreeing to the terms, I was ready to roll. The interface is similar to that of Instagram, you follow users whose photos you like, gain followers based on your uploads and have images in a gallery. The biggest difference I noticed right away was that images were uploaded into separate albums or galleries, known by Clashot as “reports” rather than albums. Users can create multiple reports of images and classify them in a variety of ways, from titles and tags, to descriptions and categories. The more information users provide for their reports and images, the more likely they will be seen by the Clashot community. Items uploaded to Clashot are able to be shared to Facebook and Twitter if users elect to link their accounts, further promoting their images and presence on Clashot.

58a33 clashot 2  Review: Clashot – An Interactive Photo Community for iOS That Makes You Money

As with most photo networking sites, the images hosted in the community are from all over the world, which makes being a part of the Clashot community all the more exciting. Sharing images things we see every day can be exciting to others, basic surroundings may be marvels for someone halfway around the globe. The whole idea of photo networking is being able to see through the eyes of someone else and Clashot assists in connecting users with the world. Like reports, comment on images and rate what you see, the application allows for a ton of interactivity between users.

Verdict
Rating: 4/5

Overall Clashot is an incredibly interactive application that allows users to not only browse images and connect with the Clashot community, but make some money doing it. If you love Instagram, sharing images and networking through photos, Clashot may be the app for you, and don’t forget the extra monetary incentive for being part of the Clashot community!

Check out Clashot, free in the App Store! For more information, visit Clashot.com.

Pros:

  • Allows users to network and connect with others
  • Images uploaded by users can be purchased by others
  • Users can opt out of selling their photos
  • Images are organized by reports (albums)

Cons:

  • Users only get 44% of photo sales (Clashot has to make a profit somewhere, right?)

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Review: Pilo 3 – The 3D Interactive Story Book & Cooking Game

f4a08 pilo 3 icon  Review: Pilo 3 – The 3D Interactive Story Book & Cooking Game

Pilo the Pillow Fairy is back with another adventure, Pilo 3. Once again you and your child are encouraged to interact with Pilo, Tommy, and a whole new cast of characters. How does it compare to Pilo 1, which we prevously reviewed? Let’s take a look.

7aab3 pilo 3 screenshot title  Review: Pilo 3 – The 3D Interactive Story Book & Cooking Game

Overview

Tommy is back, and this time he’s being a picky eater, so it’s off to his bedroom where his pal Pilo the Pillow Fairy is waiting to take him on various food based adventures.

In this edition of the interactive series, you and your kids will have fun playing various games such as decorating cakes, flipping pancakes, cutting up fruit ala Fruit Ninja,  putting together a train, and more!

As in Pilo 1, the 3D animation and sound effects are great. The voice acting is probably the weakest point, and it’s still acceptable.

7aab3 pilo 3 screenshot 2  Review: Pilo 3 – The 3D Interactive Story Book & Cooking Game

As in the previous edition, you can customize the way the characters look, by selecting to play as either Tommy, or Sunny, dress Pilo in various outfits, and even select the language you’d like the story to be told in. (English/Chinese/Korean.)

I found this edition of the series to be more interactive than the first edition, with more action based games. While the speed of the games were stepped up a notch from previous versions, they were still easy enough for small children to catch on quickly and enjoy the action.

The cooking based games were entertaining and fit in well with the story. Sometimes the lull just before a game would begin made you think you were supposed to be doing something to advance the story, but the pauses weren’t too horrible.

7aab3 pilo 3 screenshot 3  Review: Pilo 3 – The 3D Interactive Story Book & Cooking Game

In Pilo 1 the story seemed a bit scary at times, mostly when Pilo was first introduced. This was probably due to the dark lighting required in the bedtime setting of number one. This edition is set in a brighter landscape, nice and cheery, with pleasant characters to interact with.

Verdict

This is a great addition to the Pilo lineup of interactive books. The games are engaging, and challenging without being overly difficult. Once again, the developers have a winner with this one.

7aab3 pilo 3 screenshot 4  Review: Pilo 3 – The 3D Interactive Story Book & Cooking Game

Pilo 3 is another great way to spend quality time with your kids, while entertaining them, and maybe even helping them a bit with their motor and reasoning skills. You could do worse than having this a part of your iOS based children’s library of entertainment. I highly recommend Pilo 3.

Rating:4/5

Rating: 4/5

Price: $ 2.99 - Available for the iPhone and iPad in the App Store [DIRECT LINK]

Pros:

  • Great graphics and animation.
  • The games are challenging without being too difficult to complete.
  • The ability to customize characters is always welcome.

Cons:

  • The ability to save your position in the book would be a welcome addition.

7aab3 YTZ a9VKRcY  Review: Pilo 3 – The 3D Interactive Story Book & Cooking Game

Review: Earth 3D – A Beautifully Interactive World Map For Mac

0bf51 Earth3D icon  Review: Earth 3D – A Beautifully Interactive World Map For Mac

There’s a lot of ways to explore the world and all it has to offer. If you prefer to do it from the comfort of your Mac, you have plenty of options. Of course there’s Google Earth, as well as a wide variety of other apps. Very few if any allow you to view earth in a number of ways, whether it’s as a screensaver, applying it as wallpaper, or interactively. Earth 3D ($ 2.99, App Store Link) by 3Planesoft offers you the ability to navigate the globe in any three ways with over 200 world sights in HD-quality.

Overview

For the most part, Earth 3D is a pretty basic application that makes for a neat wallpaper or screensaver. Of course, if you set the app to screensaver or wallpaper mode, the map will rotate by itself in any random direction. You also have the option to turn or off background music, sound effects,  and adjust the volume of it to your preference. I had the music turned on at a very low setting when I had it set to wallpaper.

0bf51 Earth3D1  Review: Earth 3D – A Beautifully Interactive World Map For Mac

As you would imagine, if you’re watching a video or listening to music, the music from Earth 3D would interfere. In this case, I kept having to go back and forth to the Preferences window and adjusting it accordingly. It would have been more convenient if you were able to choose that option right from the menu bar. A lot of other Mac applications have this ability, so I’m sure it would be something that the developers would be able to add in a future update.

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Graphics

Also under the Preferences window is an option for multi-monitor support with monitor selection. The application looks beautiful running across two screens, especially if you have the resolution maxed out. Earth 3D supports retina displays, but besides that you can explore the planet with HD-textures for 1920×1080 and up.

The planet and all the world sights look so detailed thanks to the high-quality effects and 3D graphics. There are 253 world sights in all plus 838 geographic names. The application was just updated with new world sights and geographic names, but there are a lot still missing. These cities that are missing aren’t that big as the others already in there, but it’s still somewhat noticeable.

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Interactive Mode

One part of the app which I was most looking forward to was Interactive mode just because I though I would have been able to do a lot more interacting and exploring. You can only view Interactive mode in full screen, which is not a big deal, but it would have been essential to view the app in a separate window if you’re multitasking. Other than that, the controls in Interactive mode are pretty basic. You can move in any direction with the directional buttons and turn around with the mouse. I was expecting to be able to zoom in on the planet to get a closer look at the world sights and maybe click on a certain sight to get more information about it.

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Overall

Earth 3D has a few cool features such as wallpaper and screensaver mode, but for the price, I was expecting a bit more. The graphics look great and vibrant. There’s a lot of detail and highly vibrant textures. The developers put a lot of effort into the graphics, probably more than any other aspect of Earth 3D. Besides the different modes, there are some small details added such as planes flying by across the planet, sound effects, and an original music track.

One of the things I was skeptical about was if the battery would drain more if the app was running in wallpaper mode in the background. I noticed it was draining a little quicker. For someone who works on their Mac most of the day such as myself, I would rarely use the wallpaper or even the screensaver feature if at all. Overall, Earth 3D is a pretty interesting application, but not something I would wind up spending too much time using.

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Price: $ 2.99, App Store Link

Rating: 3/5
Rating: 3/5

Pros:

  • 253 world sights and 838 geographic names
  • Great graphics
  • original music track

Cons:

  • Interactive mode is limited
  • No controls in menu bar
  • Not able to zoom into world sights

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Review: The Lion and the Mouse – An Interactive Storybook

43ae1 lion mouse icon  Review: The Lion and the Mouse – An Interactive Storybook

Children today need more than just a static page in a book with a few colorful drawings. Reading today is a multimedia presentation, with animation, sound, music, and 5 different languages! Enter The Lion and the Mouse from Kid-Mind Studios, a “book” for the iPad that will keep young children entertained while they learn.

04ed5 lion mouse screenshot 1  Review: The Lion and the Mouse – An Interactive StorybookOverview

The Lion and the Mouse blurs the line between animated entertainment and storybook.

  • There are 33 animated scenes.
  • 30 different interactions.
  • Several mini-games.
  • Great music and sound effects.
  • It’s even available in 5 different languages! (English, Mandarin, French, Spanish and Cantonese)

The “book” tells the classic fable of the lion and the mouse. It tells the story with excellent animation, games, and interactions. The graphics are beautiful, and the music and sound effects really add to the charm of the presentation.

The app allows you to play with almost all aspects of the book, you play with different story modes, change the language the book is presented in, you can play with the characters by interacting with them via touch.

The animated scenes should enthrall your young children, allowing them to have fun, while hopefully learning about reading. The interactions have the effect of putting the children into the middle of the story.

Mini games are intertwined throughout the story, adding to the immersion. By drawing the young audience deeper into the story, they not only learn educational lessons, but hopefully moral lessons about treating their fellow creatures with kindness.

With its beautiful graphics and animations, the interactive experience, multiple languages, and more, this app is a great way for your young child to learn in today’s modern world.

e3d73 lion mouse screenshot 2  Review: The Lion and the Mouse – An Interactive StorybookVerdict

If you have small children who can’t read, or are just learning to read, this is the perfect tool to introduce them to reading, while allowing them to enjoy a fabulous animated story and mini-games.

It would probably be most suitable for children from toddlers on up to children of 7 or 8 years old. You’ll enjoy sitting and sharing the app with your children too.

Price: $ 2.99. Now available for iPad in the App Store (direct link).

Rating:4/5

Rating: 4/5

Pros:

  • Delightful animation and sound.
  • Mini-games keep children interested.
  • Multiple languages.

Cons:

  • I did have some problems with sound. Had to restart my iPad a few times.
  • Also had the app freeze a few times when accessing the menu.

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Feral Interactive To Bring Two Sonic Games To The Mac

36b14 Sonic icon  Feral Interactive To Bring Two Sonic Games To The Mac

If you’re a fan of the little blue hedgehog, then you’re in luck as Feral Interactive have announced (via TUAW) that for the first time ever Sonic will be making his way to OS X this summer, featuring in two games, Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing and SEGA Superstars Racing.

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Both games will feature full online multiplayer support via Game Center when Mountain Lion comes out, so you’ll be ready to challenge your friends the moment the game is released.

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing and SEGA Superstars Tennis for Mac will be arriving this summer! In each game, a star-studded lineup including Doctor Eggman, Tails, Shadow the Hedgehog, Alex Kidd and Aiai the monkey will battle it out on race tracks and tennis courts inspired by the mega inventive worlds of SEGA games.

We’re especially excited to announce that both games will feature online multiplayer modes that use Apple’s Game Center technology, a feature of the next version of Mac OS X, Mountain Lion.

SEGA, who chose Feral Interactive as the company they wanted to proceed with Sonic’s transition, has interestingly already released one of the games, All Stars Racing, on the iOS App Store. It has already been an incredible success, reaching number one in many countries despite only being released on June 5th, so SEGA will be hoping for the same again when both games hit the Mac.

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