Overview

App Store ($2.99)

Andrew Answers is developed by children’s author and television writer Alan Katz and narrated by Marc Summers. The app is creative and interactive application designed for children in the 5 to 10 age range. It’s silly, funny and quite educational for kids. With this app, your children can choose to read along with the narrator or watch and listen.

The story is all about Andrew taking a trip to the principal’s office, the mayor’s office and finding himself standing in the White House.

Features

Upon launching the app, you’ll find the Begin Story button and an “i” for the informational menu. The i ultimately is your help menu that teaches you  how to use the app, with a Main Menu button and a button to visit the website. You can tap the i from any point in the story to access this menu.

To transition from page to page, simply swipe left or right to navigate back or forward. You can also tap the navigational arrow to turn the page.

The app offers two ways to experience the book. When you click Begin Story, you’ll find Andrew in Mrs. Wilson’s class at Dryden Elementary School. The story begins when Mrs. Wilson asks Andrew to name a word that starts with the letter N. Mrs. Wilson isn’t too happy with Andrews answers, so Andrew visits the Principal’s Office.

As the narration begins, children can read along with the provided text located at the top of the page. You have the option to hide the text by swiping in an upward motion. To get the text to appear again, just swipe down. The book features quite a few interactive elements and animations. By touching various objects, you’ll find surprises such as an apple getting eaten, a fish jumping, a globe spinning and so much more.

Andrew Answers takes advantage of the iPad platform by adding a gaming element within two pages of the book. The first challenge is to help Andrew get through a maze to find his way to the Principal’s Office. You can choose the diff

iculty level (Easy and Hard) or even choose to skip the challenge. The next challenge involves helping Andrew’s parents park in the school parking lot.

The Good

Andrew must provide a word for a different letter he’s given at each office he is sent, but it all comes together when the President lets Andrew speak for himself as he watches in amazement as Andrew uses each letter of the alphabet to tell the President his thoughts. I thought this was a creative way to tie it all together and a challenge for children to either attempt to memorize the phrase or make one of their own using each letter of the alphabet.

The app is very fun, silly and quite helpful for children learning to read. I like the blend of entertainment and learning this app provides. The gaming element is a pretty cool addition. The $2.99 price tag looks to be right on par with similar apps.

Room for Improvement

The app is well done and I could only offer a few minor suggestions. I would like to have a table of contents to quickly jump to a page I wanted, rather than swiping until I find the page. I love the response to the President, but am a bit curious whether Andrew says the words a bit too quickly for young children to read the words. The only other thing I’d like to see is for Andrew to take more trips to various offices and provide a word for more letters before the alphabet finale at the end.

Conclusion

As I previously mentioned, the app is very entertaining, educational and a joy to use. It takes advantage of the iPad platform with both the touch and tilt. It incorporates the gaming element, which kids will love. I foresee children using this app multiple times to learn the words, come up with their own words and to simply to play the two challenges. Parents could further use the app as a tool by challenging their children to create more words or longer ones than Andrew or even to create their own phrase using each letter of the alphabet. It’s a fun way to learn and Andrew Answers is definitely worth the $2.99 pricetag.

Below, you’ll find an interesting video from Alan Katz, along with a little intro to Andrew Answers.

Ruckus Media Group will soon be offering LITE versions of their storybook apps, which will give you a chance to try them for free before purchasing. They’ll also be launching The Three Little Pigs (narrated by Holly Hunter), Paul Bunyan (narrated by Jonathan Winters) and Thumbelina (narrated by Kelly McGillis) this month, so be on the look out for these exciting new storybook apps.

I hope you enjoy the post and here’s wishing you have a Merry Christmas!

Overview

If you consider yourself a car enthusiast or one who simply has a curious interest in certain vehicles, CarBuzz may be just the app you’re looking for. CarBuzz features a total of 50 brands, 659 cars, 3k posts and over 78k photos. This frequently updated, magazine-like app offers the latest news, rumors and amazing pictures.

Features

Upon launching the app, CarBuzz quickly syncs the latest news. The landing page consists of a feature article and other recent updates, each with thumbnails aligned to the left. To navigate on the main menu, you scroll up and down to find the additional articles, then simple tap to launch a full article. Full articles are launched to the right and you slide your finger left and right to read each screen.

At the top corner of each page within the app, you’ll find a “Cars” button, which provides an option to setup your Facebook login, along with the ability to browse popular and buzz-worthy articles and a very useful “Manufacturers” section to find all the related entries by vehicle. Simply click on the manufacturer of your choice, then scroll left and right to browse through all the vehicle models or click “see models,” for a nicely organized horizontal list of vehicle images. You’ll then be greeted with all the specifications, featured articles and more as it relates to your selection.

HD-quality images are well blended in each of the articles and the last page of each provides both related articles and two sharing options in “Publish to Facebook” and “Send by Email.”

The Good

CarBuzz is ideal for car enthusiasts, providing all the latest reviews, editorials and news from the automotive industry. I found it very easy to navigate and find my way around the app. The HD-quality pictures are plentiful and content is frequently updated with approximately five or more entries per day.

The one click access to buzz worthy posts (popular, first look and upcoming cars) is very useful, as is the ability to quickly find the car that interests you most by drilling down by manufacturer. I also like that CarBuzz uses Facebook Connect, to quickly and easily leave comments, share, etc all without leaving the app. Of course, who can argue with the price. For being a free app, CarBuzz will be a nice addition to your Android, iPhone or iPad. The app isn’t available on the iPad, but the iPhone app looks good on the iPad.

Room for Improvement

Though CarBuzz is a well executed app, there is always room for improvement. I’d personally like to see the addition of a search button to quickly find content by keyword. Another thing I noticed on the Android was the bottom portion of the screen is utilized only for ads, so when no ads are displayed, you have almost an inch of space that’s not being utilized. I also occasionally noticed the Android app having difficulty loading some images, but noticed no such performance issues on the iPhone. A few other enhancements I’d recommend would be the ability to pinch and zoom and to add Twitter sharing options.

Conclusion

This free app should make a nice addition to your mobile device. I don’t consider myself a car enthusiast, but still enjoyed viewing all the stunning images and taking a look at some of the upcoming vehicles that will be arriving in the next few years. Though the Android version could use a few tweaks, there’s no doubt this app will delight car enthusiasts with all the news, rumors and detailed images. To get a nice preview of the app, take a look at the video below.

While your favorite stores rush to send off their Black Friday Sales Fliers, why not get ahead of the game? Who needs to wait for a local newspaper or sales flier to make it to your mailbox? Not this guy.

I’ve scoured the App Store, trying out more Black Friday, shopping, coupon and deal-related apps than I’d like to admit and have narrowed down the 5 best I believe will help you make the most out of Black Friday. Whether you’re planning to visit local stores or just shop online, these apps have you covered.

BlackFriday2010

This app has two browsing modes: Browse Ads and Top Deals. Within the Browse Ads section, you can view the Black Friday Ad, view listed products or visit the store website. Top Deals chooses the best deals from all the stores and lists them for you. Each listing displays a product image & info, deal specifics and active dates. I was able to find a Refurbished 16GB WiFi iPad for $449, magazine subscriptions for $4 and more.

Shopkick

This app is a bit different from the rest as it makes shopping fun and rewarding. It uses your location to find deals closest to you. As deals are displayed, you can go to the store and display the discount code on your phone to the cashier. I saw a $25 off $100 coupon, accessed the deal, then received the coupon code to show the cashier while being leveled up in the process. In addition to finding the great deals, you can collect rewards, such as gift cards, just for walking into a store, scanning a product or checking in.

TGI BlackFriday

TGI Black Friday shows you two different views in Popular Deals and Newest Ads. You can then sort by store, category or even search for a product. My favorite feature of this app is the ability to quickly view the different deals and either email it to yourself or add it to My List. As you’re browsing, keep a running list of all the best deals that interest you and reference the list anytime from the app.

BlackFriday powered by DealNews

Ahh, my favorite money savings store had to be included in the listing. Just like DealNews.com, this app rocks! The different views consist of Stores, Categories, Search, Deals and My List. Within the Stores view, you get all the stores listed alphabetically with the number of ads for each. My aspect of the app is the Deals, which display all the newest deals and Hottness rating. If you see a deal you like, click save and it’s added to My List.

Groupon

This app isn’t Black Friday specific, but the amount of money you can save made it worthy of the listing. Groupon currently is available in 70 cities and offers one or more deals each day, depending upon merchants in the city. Deals offered are typically pretty significant, with as much as 50% or more off products, entertainment and more. Within the app, you can quickly see the deals closest to you, view any related discussion and purchase from the app. You then redeem them by simply showing the cashier your phone.

What’s your favorite iPhone or iPod Touch App you’ll be using this holiday season? Did I miss any of your favorites? Let me know what you think.

Overview

iDress for Weather is an iPhone and iPad application that features a beautiful high definition display, with options to display the current temperature,  humidity and wind in your region. The app is ideal for those who need assistance as one swipe will bring you to an image that correlates to the  current weather condition. You can use your own personal pictures and match them to the various weather conditions. As the weather changes, so will the display and the image that’s just one swipe away.

Features

iDress for Weather is simple to use and consists of two total pages. Upon launching the app, you’ll see a beautiful high definition and animated display that changes with the temperature in your region. Overlaying the display is the current temperature, humidity and wind strength.

The second page displays an image of your choosing that’s specific to the temperature. The default images provide different snapshots of a closet, with clothing ideal for the current temperature.

Within the settings, you can modify the units to be US (fahrenheit, miles, etc) or metric units (Celsius, kilometer, etc). You can set the location by using your current location or searching by city or zip code.

The temperature levels are defined by five different categories; Hot, Warm, Cool, Cold and Really Cold. You can use the default temperatures for each category or define your own, i.e, Cool is between 45 degrees and 65 degrees.

You can choose to show only the temperature or the temperature, humidity and wind conditions.

The Good

I love the beautiful display iDress for Weather provides! It’s refreshing to see an app so carefully designed for it’s intended user. Not only is it very simple to setup, but the ease of use is unmatched with one swipe of the finger.

Ultimately, it’s a great visual reference that can help children or those who need assistance identify or at least narrow down which clothes to wear. Imagine your children waking up to get ready for school, launching iDress to see the weather, then quickly identifying which clothing items to wear. It could be a time saver.

For an iPad app, I found the $1.99 price tag to be fair.

Room for Improvement

Suggestions for improvement would be to provide additional options to use a custom image for the display, provide the ability to add multiple images to each view and to maybe even add the ability to input text, so you can leave written messages and reminders on the screen. But perhaps, this takes some of the simplicity away from the app.

Verdict

iDress for Weather is a well thought out application that could be very useful. As Phyllis from iDress explained, ” think: child with autism who will ONLY wear that one red jacket or that grandmother with Alzheimer’s who struggles to remember what her own jacket looks like.”  The beauty is in the ease of use. It’s meaningful to the person using the application and they can pick out all their favorite clothes to use with the app.

“How it works – Applications are nominated throughout each month by our knowledgeable (and good-looking!) committee members. Once each month, our committee will then vote on the nominated applications and induct, at most, 12 applications into the App Hall of Fame. Those inducted applications will be displayed on the site for all time as a reference to app lovers new and old. That means you! And us!”

Harbor Master ($1.99) “After Flight Control, Harbor Master is a must have in line draw game genre!’ – Emiliano Contarino

Omnifocus ($19.99) “The quintessential power users organization and GTD tool.”

Blue Defense ($1.99)  – ‘Taking clues from classic arcade shooters, this simple, perfect shooter takes full advantage of the iPhone platform.” – Jeff Scott

Reeder ($2.99) – “Sets the standard for RSS readers on the iPhone”

Yelp (Free) – “The go to source for restaurant and other business reviews by consumers.”

Pocket God ($0.99) – “I don’t think there’s any other game that’s been this successful for this long period of time. This game is a cult classic. EVERYONE knows about it.”

Real Racing ($4.99) – “One of the first games to show that the iPhone wasn’t just about small novelty games, Real Racing firmly placed the format against handheld console rivals.” – Paul Byron

Tilt to Live ($2.99) – “Made for iOS devices with beautiful tilt controls, and just loads of fast paced arcade fun across all four modes. Now with Game Center and retina graphics!” – Trevor Sheridan

Facebook (Free) – “Facebook has become as routine as brushing your teeth for most people, and the portable version manages to offer exactly what users are looking for on the go.” – Jim Squires

Bebot ($1.99) “The surprisingly easy to use synthesizer app with great customization options.”

Fruit Ninja ($0.99) “A true breakout hit. Put Fruit Ninja in the hands of any non-gamer and watch them go. Absolutely intuitive, and the first with online Game Center multiplayer.” – Andrew Podolsky

Dropbox (Free) “Probably one of the single most useful apps to ever make its way to iOS devices. This needs to be inducted.” – Nic Vargus

As mentioned in the recent review, each fully illustrated storybook offers three different ways to experience the book. From video playback to reading and recording, you and your children will LOVE these storybook classics. Packed with 25 minutes of video playback and plenty of pages to read and enjoy, the entertainment and educational combo you get is unmatched. Storytellers include Denzel Washington, John Cleese and other talented actors and authors who bring the books to life.

To have a chance to win one of the storybook apps, simply hit the Twitter button below or Tweet this article from your favorite Twitter client. If you don’t have a Twitter account, feel free to leave a comment below and let us know you’re interested in participating. Only one entry per person please.

Winners will be announced Thursday at 5pm EST. We’ll select the five lucky winners at random and send the app vouchers your way. We’ll be searching the TwitterVerse for the winners, but be sure to follow @FiveFreeApp and @RuckusMedia to ensure we don’t miss your entry. Happy Tweeting (or commenting)

Though the poll provides just a sample size, it’s an interesting outlook on how all this Verizon iPhone craze is going to effect smartphone users on different platforms and carriers.

As you can see in the results above, of 71 total votes, 46% of the voters said they like their Android and are sticking with it and 7% said they prefer their BlackBerry.The Evo also received a mention in other.

In all, 23% of users (that either are with Verizon or AT&T) will indeed get a Verizon iPhone once available, while 77% for one reason or another said no to the Verizon iPhone.

Of the existing iPhone users with AT&T, 72% of voters said they’ll remain with AT&T, while the other 28% said they’re switching over to Verizon to get their iPhone.

What are your thoughts on the poll or on the iPhone coming available to Verizon?

Now that you’ve seen the results of this week’s poll, please do feel free to participate in the newest poll, “What do you want for Christmas?” With the holiday season upon us, I’m curious what all you tech enthusiasts have on your wishlist.

Rather than just highlighting these posts, we thought we’d give you a one stop shop for all the posts we’ve covered that enable you to stream media from your PC or mobile device. Enjoy!

Watch On Your PC

14 Free Sites to Watch Live Sports Online – This post mentions all the best sites to watch the big game, fight, etc online. Whether you are on the go or lacking the necessary television stations, this list will definitely come in handy.

5 Best FREE Sites to Stream Live Sporting Events in 2010 - This was my take on the 5 best free sites to watch live sporting events online. Though many sites have changed since this was originally published, the list is still very strong.

5 Chrome Extensions to Stream Movies & TV Shows – With the growing popularity of Google Chrome, part of the appeal is with the collection of Extensions. And of course, there are some that will let you stream some of your favorite movies and tv shows. Check it out.

20 Awesome Music & Audio Sites You May Not Know About – Sure, you know about Pandora, Last.fm and the most popular music and audio streaming sites, but I bet you’ll find some sites in this list that you’ll love, yet never heard of.

Watch 3000 Live TV Channels From Your Browser – 5 Awesome Firefox Add-Ons – I love Firefox! My favorite aspect of Firefox may be in all the useful Add-Ons. The Firefox Add-Ons in this listing let you watch TV directly from your browser.

50 Free Sites to Watch Movies & TV Online - This is the most popular post we’ve had at FiveFreeApps/EazyCheezy. It’s been updated several times since originally being published in 2008 and will get another update sometime in the future.

Watch Free Anime Videos Online – Free Anime Sites A to Z – A little while back, I compiled a listing of free sites to stream Anime Videos online. Currently, the list has more than 20 sites, but additional sites will be added sometime in the future.

Free Movie Sites A to Z – This page is loaded with free sites to watch movies and tv shows online. There’s over 100 sites!

10 Free Sites to Watch Live Streaming TV Online – Yes, more sites to stream video. The sites mentioned focus on watching TV online.

Watch On Your iPad or iPhone

Best iPad Apps to Stream Music & Video From Your PC to Your iPad – In this post, we highlight the 5 best Apps you’ll find to stream all your media onto your iPad without the hassle of converting files or syncing it with your device.

SlingBox iPhone App on the iPad; 3G vs. Wifi – Rumor has it that a SlingPlayer App is coming soon for the iPad, but a nice and most likely cheaper alternative is the SlingPlayer iPhone App. This post gives you a comparison of how it renders with Wifi and 3G.

Movie Time! Transform Your iPad into a Mobile Movie Theater - This post highlights Netflix, ABC Player and a few other great iPad Apps for movie and tv fans.

3 iPhone Apps to Stream Your Music Library to Your iPhone – Though the storage the iPhone provides is sufficient, there’s no longer any need to waste space with your music files, These apps will let you stream your library on your iPhone.

Watch On Your Android

15+ Video Streaming Android Apps – Stream TV, Watch Movies, Download Videos & More - If you’ve got an Android, you’ll want to keep these apps handy. With these apps, you’ll be able to take full advantage of your phone as an entertainment device.