guides to App Land

You can't bump into apps while strolling through the mall, or impulsively pick one up at the grocery cashier's counter.  Not yet anyway.  The whole world of apps is new enough that many of us don't know what we are even looking for anyway, but like discovering a nifty garlic peeler or a more efficient weeding tool, we would consider using a new and possibly better tool if we saw it.  Talking into the phone and having it translate words into text when I'm composing an email or document is an interesting possibility to me.  (Dragon Dictation) Some days I speak with more clarity than I type.  (Can someone find me an app that helps if it's a day when I can't do either?)  Having an app use my geographic coordinate to show me diagrams of the constellations while I look at them in the sky is pretty spectacular. (Stars) I wouldn't have known about either if I hadn't heard from someone who had seen them. Shopping guidance from app users is the ideal way to learn about apps, obviously, so developers and marketers are creating app review sites.  Many are high on the marketing aspect and light on original or practical content.

The app review site I am enjoying the most at the moment is Appolicious.  It has a slight social networking aspect which in this case turns out to be a good thing.  Because people have more identity than just a cryptic web handle, and you can actually read their bio and see a list of the apps that they use, you can have some perspective on their reviews.  If a guy is way into shooter game apps, he probably isn't a good app curator for me.  But, when a marketing professional recommends a list of reliable time management and document conversion apps for the iPad, I'm going to follow up and see if the apps might work for me.  Or when a or photographer breaks down a list of photography iPhone apps, it is a huge help.  I'm discovering a lot of cool things that I didn't expect or even imagine could exist (details on those to come in future reviews of my own, no doubt). Sure, I would like it if Apple's iTunes had more search and category flexibility but until then, or maybe even if it did, Appolicious is turning out to be a great filter for me.  Reviews are typically brief and to the point which keeps the site a simple, quick reference guide to compliment the more in depth information provided by tech journals.  I've already posted a few reviews of my own there which sometimes also link back to ones that I post here. Follow the link above to visit the site and see for yourself.