Whisper is an iPhone app from WhisperText LLC. It’s available now as a free download from the App Store and carries additional in-app purchases.

Whisper is a social networking service that relies on images and anonymity to create connections and conversations. Before users can dig into the service, they are asked to set a username and PIN. Avoiding a traditional sign-in system allows for people to limit their personal connection with Whisper. Real names, emails, and importing of contacts go unused in Whisper and even display names do not stand out as prominently as they do on most social networking services. This level of anonymity is the core focus of Whisper and it helps make the service stand out from others.

In terms of content, Whisper is all about images and text. When a user posts content to the service, they are given the choice to take a new picture, upload one from their device, or search for one on Whisper, which features an extensive image library. Once they select their image, users can apply a filter, add custom text, and upload it to the servers. From there, the new whisper is placed among the thousands of others. Finding specifically-themed whispers can be difficult, as there’s no search function, but there are a variety of sorting methods, including recent, popular, and nearby whispers. The idea behind the service is to get people sharing their secrets in a public forum. This emphasis on secrets works well because of the difficulty in tracking previous posts.

When a user is looking at a secret, they are given a small amount of information about the poster. Public display includes the user’s display name, location (if the feature is on) and when it was posted. Users also have a few options to interact with whispers. First, they are able to press a “like” button, which helps with the popularity sorting. Users are also encouraged to reply to whispers with whispers of their own. Creating a reply works the same as making a normal whisper, except replies can be easily accessed by checking out the original whisper. Users are also given the option to send direct messages to others, if they have that option available. Finally, users can share whispers on a variety of social networks, regardless of the whisper’s creator. (more…)

Turn Taker is a new iOS app from independent developer Malcolm Christie. It’s available now as a free download from the App Store, and carries no additional in-app purchases.

Turn Taker is a productivity app that allows teams to collaborate on various repetitive tasks and easily determine whose turn it is to do something. The examples given by the developer include mundane activities such as buying milk and taking out the garbage, but there’s no reason why it can’t be applied to more complex scenarios which involve repeated tasks.

To use Turn Taker, users must sign up for an account, which may be done using Facebook, if desired. Once signed up, the user then has a number of different options. They may create a new team, join an existing team or manage the tasks and teams they are currently involved with.

Creating a new team is a simple matter of giving it a name, tagging it with a location via GPS and determining whether or not it is “public.” The latter option determines whether or not any other Turn Taker users in the nearby area will be able to find the team and join it — this is good for situations where the team manager would like people to volunteer for the team rather than inviting people directly. The app does allow for direct invites too, of course — this may be accomplished either through the iOS contacts list or Facebook if the user has connected their account. If the team is set to private, inviting users is the only means of adding them — all team members must accept and join the team before they can participate in the activities. (more…)

Story is an iPhone app from Disney. It is now available for free in the App Store and carries no additional in-app purchases.

Disney’s Story looks to capture people’s moments and lives and allow them to show off the various stories that make life worth living. Story is a very basic app, but the services it provides and its ability to share with social networks make it an appealing photo and video management app for iPhone users.

Story will prompt users to sign in with a Disney account. If a user doesn’t have a Disney account, they can easily sign up through the app or with their Facebook credentials. Signing into an account isn’t required, but users who wish to share content or send emails through Story need to use a valid Disney login. Once the user logs in, they’re treated to the main screen, which contains two lists: “My Moments” and “My Stories.” Moments are created automatically when Story accesses the iPhone’s camera roll and attempts to sort the images by date and location. The goal is to sort every day and new location into its own moment and the process works well, though not always perfect.

The “My Stories” tab focuses on user-created albums put together as to tell a story. When a story is created, users are given three options for content: photo, video, and text. Photos and videos can be taken on the spot or uploaded from the device or the moments section. Users are also encouraged to add text, creating a bit of a photo album feel to the story. There’s not much room for text, as each entry has a 150 character limit, but Story’s idea is to tell a tale with video and images and not rely heavily on words. This is made easier with the organization in the “My Moments” section. The goal of moments is to arrange a story before the user makes it, and its accurate organization accomplishes this goal with high precision.

When the pictures, videos, and text, are set up and the story is finished, users are able to set a theme. Similar to a slide show presentation, certain themes fit with certain subjects. In Story’s case, there are only five themes, but their variety gives users a fair bit of choice. Once the theme is set, users may preview the story by simply watching it scroll from left to right. If they’re happy with the final product, they can either email the story’s link to someone, or share it on Facebook. Both methods generate a link to the story on the app’s official website. Published stories can be viewed by anyone, provided they have the URL, so users are encouraged to not upload personal information. Users who wish to remove a story from the website can delete the story in the app and it will soon be deleted online. Users who want to share their story through channels other than Facebook or email will need to wait, as Pinterest and Twitter support are still in the works.

Story is a very basic photo sharing app, but it’s simple charm and it’s ease of use make it an appealing option for users who want to share certain moments with friends and family. It’s limited sharing options hurts some of it’s appeal, but future updates look to fill that void. Story isn’t the best presentation maker, nor is it the best photo and video manager, but it does a fine job on both ends and allows users to tell a story in the process.

You can follow Story’s progress with AppData, our tracking service for mobile and social apps and developers.

Frame My Photo is a new iOS app from Unity Apps. It’s available now as a free download from the App Store with no additional in-app purchases — though the app description suggests it will only be free for a limited period.

As the title suggests, Frame My Photo is a simple app designed to allow users to quickly and easily add a picture frame effect to photographs from their device’s camera, photo library or their Facebook photo albums. The resulting framed images can then be shared via Facebook, Twitter and email or saved to the device’s camera roll.

Using the app is a simple matter of choosing the image source (camera, Facebook or photo library) and then picking or taking the photograph. This process is occasionally interrupted by pop-up advertising alerts offering free games and the like, but not so often as to be too obtrusive. Importing a photo from the camera or photo library is very straightforward — the photo library option also allows photos to be pulled from iCloud Photo Stream if available — but the Facebook option appears to be broken at present. Tapping on the Facebook option opens the Facebook app (if installed) and then should open the app’s permissions page and allow the user to install it to their social network account — however, when tested, this option steadfastly refused to work, instead giving a non-specific error message (“An error occurred. Please try again later.”) and simply returning to the social network’s News Feed when cancelled. It’s not clear if this is an issue with Facebook or the app itself, but the problem persisted regardless of whether the device was connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data, and happened repeatedly.

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Phoster is an iOS app from Bucket Labs. It’s currently a free download from the App Store at the time of writing due to its feature spot as Apple’s App of the Week — its normal price is $1.99.

Phoster’s stated aim is to allow its users to create their own posters using a combination of templates, images and text. These posters may then be shared to a variety of social networks or printed out. The app comes pre-loaded with a wide variety of different templates for users to use, many of which use recognizably modern, attractive styles, and each is customizable.

To create a poster, users must first pick a template from the available options. Templates are divided into categories according to the shape of the poster — square, portrait or landscape — and may also be marked as favorites if the user finds a particularly appealing design they would like to reuse. All templates come with placeholder text and space for an image — either in the background of the whole poster or in a dedicated area, depending on the design — which can then be manipulated in various ways.

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Postale is an iOS app from 7twenty7 LLC. It’s available now as a free download from the App Store, and carries additional in-app purchases.

Postale’s remit is simple: it allows users to create virtual postcards, then send them to people via Facebook, Twitter or email. Postcards may have one of four different layouts — a portraitwise image with text to the right; a landscape image with text to the right; a vertical layout with a photo at the top and text at the bottom; and a “panoramic” layout featuring a letterboxed image with text above and below.

The first time the user fires up Postale, they are walked through the rather simple process of creating a postcard a step at a time. The tutorial is relatively unobtrusive, but it’s questionable if it’s even necessary, since the app is extremely easy and intuitive to use.

Creating a postcard consists of several steps: choosing a layout, choosing a visual theme from those available — additional packs are available via in-app purchase for $0.99 each — and then customizing the layout with a photo, title and message. Photos can either be taken with the camera or imported from the camera roll, and the app makes use of Aviary’s SDK to allow for fine-tuning and adjustment of the photograph in various ways. Titles and messages can be entered independently, and each may have their own style set by changing the color, size and font of the text. There are a fairly wide selection of commonly-used fonts available in the app, though the widely-despised Comic Sans is nowhere to be seen.

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Moovee is a new iOS app from the company of the same name. It’s available now as a free download from the App Store, with no additional in-app purchases.

Moovee is a very simple app indeed: its sole purpose is to allow its users to shoot short video clips of up to 10 seconds in length, then share them online both via Moovee’s own mobile-social network as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Upon starting Moovee and signing in using either a proprietary account or Facebook, the user is immediately taken to the service’s main feed. From here, videos are displayed one at a time, automatically advancing to the next when the previous one is finished. Each video shows how many times it has been viewed along with any likes and comments it has received, and also provides the viewer the opportunity to do either of these things. A simple double-tap on a video quickly provides a “like”, tapping starts and stops the video and tapping and holding restarts it from the beginning. All content may also be shared via Facebook, Twitter, email, SMS/iMessage or the iOS clipboard with the tap of a share button in the corner of the screen.

Shooting and submitting video is a simple matter of tapping the camera icon in the corner of the screen, which immediately takes users to a standard-looking iOS camera display. From here, the user may shoot as much video as they like and subsequently “crop” it to 10 seconds or less using the standard iOS video-editing interface. After the video has been saved and compressed, the user may add a short description, their location data and decide whether or not they would like to include audio. Once this step has been completed, the video is posted online for everyone to see. It’s a quick and simple process with a lot of immediacy.

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HitMeUp is an iOS app from the company of the same name. It’s been available for a while now, but has recently released a major update to version 3.1.0 of the app, which has caused it to be featured in the “New” section of the App Store’s Lifestyle category. The app is available now as a free download.

HitMeUp doesn’t make its purpose particularly clear, either in the App Store description or in the now-obligatory pictorial “tour” it displays before prompting users to sign in using either Twitter or their email address. It appears to be an app designed to allow users to see photos in an area along with where they were taken and then vote them as either a “hit” or a “miss,” but the exact reasons for doing this are not made particularly clear.

In order to use HitMeUp, as previously mentioned, the user must register and/or sign in to the service using either a Twitter account or their email address — the latter option was newly-added in the version 3.1.0 update. Once into the app proper, they are shown a map of their current location and are then able to snap a photo, which must have a caption attached to it — the app won’t allow photos to be posted without at least something being written in the caption box. This captioned photo is then recorded at the user’s current location for any other HitMeUp users to stumble across should they be browsing that particular area.

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Nudge is a new iOS app from Christian charity Tearfund. It’s available now as a free download from the App Store, but presently only in the United Kingdom due to its focus on contacting members of the U.K. government to take action on various issues.

Nudge is an app designed to raise awareness of pertinent social issues ranging from global warming to charitable relief efforts, and which allows users to quickly and easily “take action” on these issues by contacting the relevant people in local or national government.

Upon opening the app, the user is presented with a list of current issues. Tapping on one reveals the full details of the issue along with how many other people have “taken action” through the app. Tapping the “Nudge” button beneath the details of the issue brings up a pre-composed email designed to be personalized and sent to the appropriate member of local or national government. The first time the user does this, they must enter their personal details, including their name, email address, U.K. postcode and address, which is calculated using the postcode. The postcode and address are used to determine exactly who the “Nudge” email should be sent to, as users in different locations around the country will have different people to contact. The postcode finder was a little unreliable at the time of testing, occasionally complaining of being unable to reach the Nudge servers. Closing the app completely from the iOS multitasking bar and restarting it resolved this issue, but judging from App Store reviewer comments, this is not an isolated incident.

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GoComics is an iOS, Android and Windows Phone app from Uclick, a division of Andrews McMeel Universal. It’s available now as a free download for all three platforms, and carries optional in-app purchases to temporarily remove advertising through a subscription to the service’s “Pro” account.

GoComics is a companion to the Web service of the same name, which has been offering electronic versions of classic and contemporary comic strips to Internet-based readers since 2005. Content on offer includes political and editorial cartoons as well as established classics such as Garfield, Calvin & Hobbes and Peanuts, other syndicated content and original Web-based comics. The available comics are updated daily, with featured content displayed on the app’s front page in a “slider” interface as well as quick access to both popular and new strips. The archives are also searchable, allowing users to quickly find their favorite strip and, once located, jump back to a specific point in time to view the comic for that day.

The GoComics app is much like using the Web service. It is not necessary to sign up for an account to browse the available content, but doing so provides a number of benefits — most notably the facility to add individual installments of a comic to a “Favorites” list and the whole series itself to a “My Comics” list for easy access at a later time. The user may also connect their account to Facebook, though the exact benefits of doing this are not made particularly apparent in the app itself. Other social features include the facility to share an individual comic on Facebook, Twitter or via email — doing so provides a link to the comic’s Web-based version for anyone to read, regardless of the device they are on.

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