This week, I was tasked with reviewing three, relatively new apps. I had to review one educational app, one lifestyle app, and one gaming app. I used the new and noteworthy section of the App Store to find my educational and lifestyle apps, but I already had a gaming app in mind that I wanted to review.
The first app I reviewed falls under the education category. The app is called GoodNotes 5. This app received the Editor’s Choice Award in the Apple Star and has been reviewed by over 198 thousand people with a 4.8/5-star rating. This app is under the productivity category and is intended for those ages four and up. GoodNotes 5 is available in 14 languages. The developer for this app is Time-Base Technology. It is only compatible with iPhone, iPad, and Mac software. It is free in the Apple App Store. However, only the first three notebooks in the app are free. After that, a one-time purchase is required to create unlimited notebooks and get full access to the app.
GoodNotes 5 works with the Apple Pencil, Logitech Crayon, and other capacitive styli. Users can choose from templates such as blank paper, ruled paper, Cornell paper, checklists, to-do’s, planners, music sheets, and more. You can also annotate slides, PDF’s, and other documents. There can be multiple collaborators on one note sheet and notes can be exported and shared as a PDF, JPG, and more. The app has flashcards and folders to keep users organized. An important feature is that the notes are searchable by keyword. When you pay for unlimited access, it allows the app to scan your handwriting and search for notes.
The target audience for this app is high school students, college students, and young professionals who are digitally integrated. This app has excellent features. However, a drawback is that it is mostly intended for the iPad in conjunction with the Apple Pencil. The app has the same interface as many Apple applications that come autogenerated on your phone or iPad. I intend on getting an iPad this summer and I will definitely download this app when I do.
The next app I reviewed is SLEEP by Max Richter. This app is free in the Apple App store. It is compatible with Apple products including iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, and Apple Watch. SLEEP by Max Richter is intended for those ages 4 and up. The develop is U-Apps. The app has 919 ratings with a 4.8/5-star rating.
SLEEP by Max Richter aids with sleep, meditation, and focus. It also has a journaling feature that allows you to keep track of your experiences in each category. The app lets you fall asleep and wake up gently with music. You can set daily mediation goals that keep you accountable.
The home screen of SLEEP by Max Richter has three main options: sleep, meditate, and focus. Each option clicks off to a screen that allows you to either set a wake up time or set how long you want to meditate or focus for. When the alarm or timer ends, meditative music will play, taking you out of your sleep, meditation, or focus gently.
The target audience for this app is someone mid-twenties to early forties that is interested in self-betterment. This individual likely takes their mental and physical health seriously. They likely take yoga, Pilates, or some workout class variation and try to eat healthy, whole foods. They seek enlightenment.
I personally love the interface of this app. It is a dark interface with a very mature, space theme. It adds to the ambience of the app and definitely feels very calming. I feel I am approaching the target audience criteria for this app, so SLEEP by Max Richter definitely sparks my attention. As someone who practices yoga and barre multiple times a week, lifts weights every day, tries to eat healthy, and is overall seeking self-enhancement, this app feels like the perfect fit. I am excited to explore this app and potentially others in the same genre. I like that SLEEP by Max Richter connects to my Apple Watch because I feel that it gets more access to my physical data and I can be more in tune with the notifications and alarms the app sends out.
The last app I reviewed is a gaming app called Wordle!. This app is a replica of New York Times’ daily word challenge called Wordle. This variation, Wordle!, is found on the Apple App Store and is compatible with Apple products including iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac. It is free in the App Store. The Developer is Lion Studios Plus. The app has 286 thousand reviews with an overall rating of 4.5/5-stars.
The app allows users to take on daily brain teasers and train their brains with word games. The app offers several game modes including 6 Guesses mode, Secret Word mode, Word Puzzles, Play at Your Own Pace, and Flex Your Brain Muscles. The 6 Guesses mode is the one replicated off of the New York Times’ Wordle game. Each time a letter is guessed correctly, the tile will turn yellow if it is just in the word or green if it is in the correct spot. The app promotes itself as an adult mind game that is like taking your brain to the gym. The target audience for this game would be adults older than their late-twenties, early-thirties but younger than mid-sixties.
I think this app marketed itself perfectly since the New York Time’s Wordle went so viral and people wanted more than one word a day. However, it definitely feels like a capitalized knockoff. A common complaint in the reviews is that there should not be advertisements after two guesses. I agree with this wholeheartedly. There are too many advertisements and it makes the app feel cheap. I would use this app if I wanted more than just one word a day to unmask but I think the New York Time’s version is much classier and deserves the hype.
コメント