Capture all your child’s moments with Snapbrite (review)

As parents, we want to capture all the silly and wonderful moments of our children’s lives. Now you can do it easily with Snapbrite.

Overview

Snapbrite is an app that allows you to upload pictures, videos, and audio, and organize them into a neat and easy timeline, highlighting all the special moments of your child’s life.

Once created, you can share your timeline with family and friends through social media or email. One great feature is the ability to sync online to access your timeline on other devices or via the Snapbrite website. This is great if you have different pictures on separate devices.

You are limited to 1gb of online storage but can unlock more as you invite friends to join. This is okay, and I definitely will recommend this app to everyone with kids, but an option to straight up purchase extra storage would be better.

Another feature includes a slideshow presentation of your timeline. It can be customized to show all the timeline photos, or certain sections only, and have a song playing in the background if you like. I found it a nice option, but did have some difficulty playing it with music, but this is not a deal breaker for me.

Design

The overall design of the app is very easy to use. The main screen gives you three tabs to navigate between your individual timelines, a combined timeline, and all photos you upload, with the menu button always on the top right.

When viewing a specific child’s timeline your events or pictures will be in the order that you organize them. The other two tabs just show the pictures and events in the order that you uploaded them.

When in the main menu, the menu options will be different than when in a specific timeline.

Set up

Creating an account is not necessary to use Snapbrite. However, if you want to have access to the online features, such as cloud sync and inviting friends, an account is required.

To create an account, you will need to use your email address. You can use your Google plus account, or your Facebook account to make signing up a little faster. Signing in with Facebook or Google plus will allow you to access any pictures associated with either account.

The first time you open the app, you will be asked to create a timeline. Once created, the Photo Wizard will ask to start uploading pictures. This is the best option if you have a lot of pictures to upload, as it will automatically organize them for you. The Photo Wizard can be accessed from the menu in any timeline.

What we liked

• Easy to create and organize your timeline
• The option to sync over multiple devices, with access via the web.
• Invite family and friends to add to timelines.

What could be better

• More online storage
• Improved settings for the slideshow

Summary

I really enjoyed using this app. And with the ability to view it in an internet browser, you can easily share your child’s moments with Snapbrite.

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YouTube Music is just what we (don’t) need [App Review]

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War Piggy: Jetpack Pig Warrior (game review)

 Overview

Jetpack Pig Warrior is simple game that puts the player in the position of a highly skilled pig operative that flies around the screen in the direction of the player’s command. The enemies in the game, General von Rat’s minions, will drop in from the sky above or from the right side of the screen to attack the player. Rack up as much points as you can from defeating these enemies, and try to stay alive as long as possible.

Gameplay

To start off, the game will greet you with the main menu that directs you to the “Play” button. Once tapped, the player can choose a weapon, a head start bonus, a companion, and miscellaneous perks. From the weapon menu, you can choose from the default pistol, or spend in game points for a Shotgun, Bad Boy, Missile Launcher, Flame Thrower, Chainsaw Gun and WWII SMG. I had a good time with the Bad Boy gun, which shot out cannonballs that spewed fire around them, causing a wide area of damage. The companions menu consisted of War Piggy’s four different friends to bring along to back him up.

This game is not very sophisticated, and you’ll find yourself familiar with the game almost immediately. Tap and hold on any part of the screen to move War Piggy to where you want to go, while he is automatically shooting enemies. Keep in mind, ammunition is unlimited, so you never have to worry about how much the pig is firing away. Power-ups will be dropped down from the sky such as health, armor and different guns.

I found the gameplay to be uninspiring, however. Never did I feel like I was playing something different and special. I enjoyed the theme and the ridiculousness of War Piggy wreaking havoc on General von Rat’s minions, but the gameplay didn’t quite match the creativity of the style. Once reaching the end of the first tier, you get into a classic boss fight with von Rat’s ship, but the best way to describe the fight was boring and tedious. Not much skill was required of you, other than dodging the ship’s bullets as War Piggy automatically fires back for you. But taking down this boss took much longer than it should have.

What we liked:

• The game’s silly style and characters
• the pre-game power-ups and different weapon choices

What could be better

• Needs more gameplay diversity
• Less tedious and more enjoyable boss battles

Conclusion

I had some fun with Jetpack Pig Warrior, but it needs more polished gameplay that will keep players hooked. There wasn’t much about this game that wasn’t a skinned over version of Jetpack Joyride or the many other similar flying games on the Google Play Store. I look forward to more updates from developer Yuri Nudelman, and possibly more games in the future.

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Become a master of sketching with Sketch Master (app review)

Ever since touch screens were invented, people have wanted to create art on those devices, and many people have. It seems like companies continue to make that easier with new technologies. Samsung with their S pen, and Apple with their Pencil. Developer Barilab has tried to make it easier on the software front with their Sketch Master app. Read on to see if they have succeeded.

Sketch Master overview

To put it simply, Sketch Master is a drawing app. That’s where the simplicity ends. Barilab brings features to the table that enable the average guy like me to sketch together a decent looking picture. Here are some of the features the app brings to the table.

• Two finger pan & zoom navigation with 3000% zoom
• Maximum size is determined by screen resolution
• Available unlimited layers (consumed disk space)
• Duplicate, Merge and Reorder Layers
• Toggle visibility and adjust Layer Opacity
• 7 brushes, including flood fill
• Text on the path
• Smooth brush stroking using hands corrections.
• Import images from Photo Library
• Import from Camera
• Save or share images
• Color select with HSB color space
• Color Swatches
• Color Picker

Sketch Master usage

The app is fairly simple. There is no tutorial, but just by clicking around on buttons, one will figure things out pretty quickly.  One thing that I figured out pretty quickly is that if you do not have a Galaxy Note device with a fine tipped stylus, it can by a little hard to draw with just you finger. You can zoom in quite a bit to gain better control, but then it becomes difficult to see the whole picture. If you’re drawing with your finger then I recommend using a tablet with a larger screen.

Speaking of tablets, one thing that I would like to see in the app is a landscape mode when using a tablet. As of right now, the app only supports drawing in portrait mode. This isn’t a deal killer for me, but I’d like it better none the less.

One of my favorite features are the layers. By using the layers, you can add elements after the fact or easily remove elements that don’t look good. In my sketch, I placed an image as the background layer and traced the outlines of the image and used the color picker to match the colors in the image.

 

The other items are all customizable. You can change the brush type, color of the digital paint, and brush size. This will allow you to more accurately draw what you have in mind to draw and you can even add text and virtual stickers to your images.

What we liked

• Layers
• Image imports
• Color picker

What could be better

• Tablet support
• Better sticker selection
• Updated UI

4 out of 5 stars

This is a great app for killing some time, creating sketches, or even just taking down handwritten notes. The developer offers the app for free on Google Play and monetizes the app with adds. The ads are not very intrusive. If you’re looking for an app like this, I suggest that you give Sketch Master a whirl. You won’t regret it.

Sketch Master (Playboard) | Sketch Master (Play Store)

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Amazon Prime Now. Skip the trip, one hour delivery. (app and service review)

Amazon.com recently became the world’s largest retailer in 2015, surpassing the mighty Walmart and has established themselves by offering great prices, quick and reliable shipping, with other free services as well.

Amazon also recently made its Prime Now service(requires an Amazon Prime membership) available in San Diego, and being a HUGE fan of Amazon, I had to give it a try.

What is Amazon Prime Now?

Prime Now is a new same-day delivery service from Amazon.com, local grocery stores and merchants. In San Diego, Northgate market, Sprouts grocery, Sprinkles Cupcakes and Amazon.com are the five retailers that will deliver to my zip code. The nearest Northgate market is a 30 minute drive for me, and I like to shop there as it isa specialty Hispanic foods store. There’s nothing like authentic food, and I can’t find many of those foods in my local Ralph’s or Whole Foods.

Prime Now connects local businesses to Prime customers and can deliver frozen and refrigerated foods, fresh baked goods, laundry detergent, or almost any other need you might have around the house.

Two-hour delivery is FREE and one-hour delivery is available in most areas for just $7.99. Prime Now is available from early morning to late night, seven days a week. Currently available in select areas including:
Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles & Orange County, Miami, Minneapolis & St. Paul, New York City, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle & Eastside

• Shop for groceries, gifts, goodies and more from your favorite local stores:
– Los Angeles: Sprouts, Bristol Farms, and Sprinkles Cupcakes
– New York City: Westside Market, D’Agostinos, Gourmet Garage, and Billy’s Bakery
– Portland: New Seasons Market, World Foods, Uwajimaya, and Cupcake Jones
– San Diego: Sprouts, Bristol Farms, Northgate Market, and Sprinkles Cupcakes

• Seattle: Get delivery from your favorite restaurants
– Cactus, Skillet, Wild Ginger, Marination Station, Mamnoon, and many more.

My experience with Prime Now

Prime Now offers free same day delivery, Sundays included, and charges $7.99 if you want it within the next hour.

Since I am cooking dinner for my sister and brother-in-law for Thanksgiving, I remembered I needed to go grocery shopping last night while I was laying in bed. Luckily Amazon is running a special GETITNOW promotion where you can save $20 off your first $50 dollar order. All you have to do is enter the promotional code at checkout to save $20.

I downloaded the Prime Now app from the Google Play store, signed in with my account and saw the five merchants available to my zip code. I first went shopping at Sprouts, which is a local grocery store chain that offers really fresh produce and meats at a fraction of the cost of Whole Foods.

I ordered a fresh 12-14 pound turkey, celery, carrots, fresh french bread, oranges, sweet potatoes, yams, white potatoes, onions, green beans and more. There was a $50 dollar minimum order, but with delivery being free I didn’t mind at all as I really needed to stock up and prepare for Thanksgiving. The nearest Sprouts to me is five miles away, and for many of you that isn’t far, but for me this is more about convenience. I do live a block away from a Ralph’s grocery store, but it is expensive and I also hate grocery shopping. Being single, I prefer to just get food from the many restaurants around me.

Once I was done with my Sprouts order, rather than driving 20 miles to the nearest Northgate market, I simply tapped back to the main menu and clicked on Northgate market. Magically I appeared in the Northgate store without even moving from my bed! I ordered beans, local tortillas, marinated meats, and I ordered a ton of Monster Energy drinks. I ordered Monster energy drinks, because Northgate is having a sale on them for 52 cents, which is far cheaper than the stores around me at $1.99 each and I drink them on a daily basis. So not only did I get my local ethnic foods, but I also got a great price on energy drinks. Fresh coconuts were also on sale and if you like coconut water, there’s nothing better than an actual young coconut.

After about 30 minutes of shopping through the categories of interest and picking out what I needed, I placed my order through the Prime Now app and scheduled a delivery time from 10am-12pm the next morning. I placed two orders, one for Sprouts and one for Northgate market.

A tip was also suggested for my drivers, and Amazon suggested $5 which worked out to be $10 since there were two delivers. I’ve read reviews on the Google Play store and the Amazon Underground app store, and many people complain about having to pay for a tip. Amazon doesn’t force you to add a tip, so don’t tip if you don’t want to tip. In my case, I don’t mind tipping because these drivers work hard and are providing a service for you. They aren’t UPS or FedEx drivers, they are local employees who have their own needs as well. The drive alone to and from Northgate market would have cost me ten dollars in gasoline(CA residents pay a lot for gas and I have a truck), but more importantly the Prime Now service saved me a whole three hours of shopping. Sometimes the complaining about paying for convenience really gets annoying.

Summary

My fresh produce, bread, and other items all arrived in fantastic condition. As soon as the first order arrived, I opened up a young coconut and enjoyed my juice while browsing the web. Both of my drivers were highly professional and friendly. They brought all 15 of my bags to my doorstep, and the cold items arrived cold and intact. We even chatted about what other items the stores will be offering within the next three months too. I hope to see both of them again in the near future.

Prime Now is a free service as long as you’re a member of Amazon Prime which costs $99 per year. Amazon Prime offers free two-day shipping on most items bought from Amazon.com on top of free movies, TV shows, music and now free local same day delivery from some of your favorite merchants.

If you have Amazon Prime already, check to see if Prime Now is available in your area by downloading the app at the Google Play store. If you have an Amazon device like a Kindle Fire you can click here to access the Prime now app through the Underground app store.

If you have yet to give Amazon Prime a shot, you can try it free for 30-days with no strings attached, and you will have the same access to all benefits that paying members have. If you don’t like grocery shopping, don’t like waiting in lines, Prime Now is definitely worth trying out as you might find it adds more time back into your life, for no additional cost. In my case it saved me several hours of shopping and driving, savings on gas and wear and tear on my truck. I now look forward to grocery shopping while I am sitting on the couch, lying in bed, hanging out at the dog park or doing cardio at the gym.

I have to try those Sprinkles cupcakes and give Bristol Farms a try next. I even was invited to a get together tonight where my friend has a toddler. I think I will order a little gift from Amazon.com and have it delivered within two hours before I head over to their house.

Give Prime Now a try. It’s worth it.

 

 

 

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View your photos with RotoView Photo Viewer (app review)

At some point in our photo taking adventures, we have to zoom in to view all the details of our pictures. With RotoView Photo Viewer, you can now scroll your magnified pictures with a simple tilt of your screen.

Overview

RotoView Photo Viewer is an alternative photo viewer for your android phone. You can easily find photos stored on your phone to view, start slideshows, and easily zoom in and view the fine details. When zooming in on a picture, you can long tap the screen to start scrolling around the magnified picture by simply rotating your phone sideways, or up and down. You can also choose to show a map of your photo, allowing you to easily see where you are on the photo. Your videos will also show up in your picture albums, but require a separate video app to play them.

Usage

When opening the app, you are given several viewing options. You can either view your photos by the albums they are in, by date or time, people, or tags. It would be nice if they could add viewing of pictures in your cloud storage, such as Google Drive or Dropbox. You can view each folder’s pictures as a grid or a filmstrip. I personally like the grid view more, as you can view more photos at once.

You can also select to view the folder as a slideshow. It’s a nice feature, but it displays the photos in order, with no option for shuffling. You can also rotate pictures left and right, delete or crop pictures, and easily set the photo as a contact photo or wallpaper.

The app also uses your phone’s accelerometer, for older phones, and the gyroscope, on newer phones, to allow you to rotate your screen for easy scrolling of the magnified picture. To use the smart scroll option, all you have to do is select the picture you want to view, zoom in, long tap the screen, then start rotating your phone in the direction you want to scroll. You can also shake your phone to start the smart scroll. If you don’t like rotating your phone, you can easily turn off this feature by tapping the picture and selecting the RotoView icon at the bottom left of the screen.

If you keep your finger on the screen, it gives you the option to easily control the scroll speed by moving your finger as you scroll. If you are like me and don’t like this option, you can use an alternative way to adjust the scroll speed. You just select the map icon, once scrolling, and drag it up or down to adjust the speed. I like this option more, but found it difficult, sometimes, to properly adjust the speed. You have to be rotating the phone in order to use this option, so it would be nice if there was an easier way to adjust the speed settings.

If you need help getting started, or remembering all the different functions, you can tap on a photo and select the “?” at the bottom left of the screen. This will walk you through everything you need to know.

 

What we liked

• Multiple viewing options of pictures
• Multiple options for scrolling magnified pictures

What could be better

• Easier speed control options for scrolling
• Shuffle pictures option in slideshow
• Integration of Google Drive, Dropbox, and other cloud storage services.

Summary

This is a great alternative to your basic picture gallery you have preinstalled on your phone. With all the basic options covered, and the addition of new features, you will enjoy looking at your pictures even more.

Google Play Store: RotoView Photo Viewer

 

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Raindar is a simple and powerful weather radar app (App review)

Weather apps are a dime a dozen. Today we’re going to take a look at Raindar, who does it a little bit different. Raindar focuses on one thing, and does it incredibly well. If you haven’t figured it out yet by name alone, Raindar is a simple radar app that gives me relevant information quickly and with just enough options to make it powerful.

Raindar is one of my favorite apps because it checks a lot of boxes for me. First off, it’s incredibly easy to use. In fact, it’s easy to use “right out of the box”. When you first open Raindar, it detects your location, centers map directly over you with about a 250 mile radius and shows you what’s on the radar in the area. Super simple.

Raindar is also very fast. It loads almost instantly, and displays the information in a straightforward way. You can be in and out of the app in seconds with the information you need. If you’ve ever used Google Maps, then you’ll instantly recognize the maps and the weather systems will be easy to find. Weather Underground supplies the weather data.

Not only is it fast to get the information for your area, but if you’re looking to see what the weather is like at your destination, you can quickly search, have a list of cities that match your search and be taken to that location fast.

While you’re in the app, it detects your location and refreshes the doppler radar every 30 seconds. This is a fantastic feature, especially if you’re sitting watching a storm system roll toward you.

If you’re ever in a severe situation, you’re going to want relevant information quickly. Raindar will display weather tracks in these situations with icons for Thunderstorms (yellow circle), Hail (yellow square), a rotating Thunderstorm (yellow diamond) or a Tornado (magenta triangle). Clicking on any of these icons will show you more detailed information in an effort to keep you safe.

While Raindar is pretty simple out of the box, there are a few options for you to tune the app to your liking. First off, you can turn the storm tracks on and off if you like. Also, you can toggle the display from either just a regular map or you can switch over to a satellite image. I prefer the map because it’s a little cleaner and the information is a little more clearly displayed.

You also have the ability to turn up the reflectivity within the app. You may be wondering what exactly that means. Have you ever been watching your local weather man and his radar shows it’s raining where you are, but it’s maybe just a bit foggy? Those are called false reads, and they show up because the reflectivity is turned up too high. Doppler Radar, or in this case “Pulse-Doppler” works by picking up reflections off water in the atmosphere, and depending on your reflectivity setting, your radar will be a little more sensitive at the cost of some false reads.

Raindar certainly isn’t perfect. It hasn’t been an updated in a few years, and even though its core functionality is entirely intact, it could use a facelift. But, for what it does, it’s brilliant. Simple and fast are generally two of the most important factors in a weather app and Raindar kills it on both. This isn’t going to be your seven day forecast app, but it isn’t trying to be.

I generally don’t write about many apps because I don’t use many. I’m the type of person that generally doesn’t want to install an app on my phone if I can get a task done in the mobile web browser, but Raindar is one of the first apps I install every time I switch to a new phone.

Play Store Link: Raindar

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Texture by Next Issue: All you can read magazine subscription [App Review]

You may have heard of Netflix and all you can eat buffets before. If you haven’t, come out from under that rock and live a little. Netflix and all you can eat buffets offer unlimited video content and food for a fixed price. You can digest all you want for a flat fee until you want no more.

Like both of those services, Texture aims to bring you well known magazines for a fixed price of $9.99 or $14.99 per month with back issues included. That subscription includes unlimited access to over 100 titles which include some of the most read magazines like Time, Cosmopolitan, Motor Trend, CNET, Wired, Men’s Health, Self, Real Simple, Popular Science and many more.

Texture offers a free 30-day trial and all that is required is a credit card or PayPal account. No strings are attached, as you are free to cancel at anytime within the trial period, and if you happen to enjoy your subscription you just let Texture bill your account. I opted in for the $14.99 per month subscription which differs from the cheaper plan by offering unlimited access to the entire catalog of content. The $9.99 subscription plan is limited to monthly titles, so magazines like Time and Businessweek which are weekly publications are off limits.

At $14.99 per month, that works out to about $180 per year which isn’t a bad deal if you read lots of magazines. For various reasons, I am still subscribed to print media as well as magazines on the competitor app Zinio. Zinio is a digital magazine app as well which offers a la carte subscriptions or single issue purchases. After totaling my subscription fees for Men’s Health, Wired, Saveur, National Geographic and Maxim I easily fall under $100 dollars for my subscription fees. But if I consider sharing my account with my mom, you can access Texture on up to five devices, who pays for Better Homes and Gardens, bon appetit, Martha Stewart, O The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Sunset and Consumer Reports the subscription to Texture makes a little more financial sense.

Free 30-day trial

I went ahead and downloaded the app from the Google Play store. The app is free to install and set-up required me to input my PayPal information. A credit card would have worked too, but the PayPal option was much quicker. As soon as Texture verified my information, I was off to explore the digital library.

Beyond making financial sense, having access to more magazines naturally piqued my interest. I have always enjoyed reading magazines since I was a child and if they’re in front of me I will read them. After a solid week of having access to Texture, I found myself reading every night before bed and ignoring Netflix. Netflix is usually my go to entertainment app before bed and quite frankly I get tired of watching movies and TV. Magazines are a great alternative as I find myself reading about backpacking trips from Backpacker, or reading about Northern Canada in National Geographic Traveler and considering my next vacation destination. I’m not limited to current issues and I found myself looking up back issues from publications soaking up tons of useful information.

I’ll be hosting my lovely sister and brother-in-law for Thanksgiving this year and I learned why the most important thing on the plate is Thanksgiving gravy and how it is so easy to screw up. I kind of already knew this because I always let my older sister make the gravy. I’ve extracted a few recipes for Thanksgiving, from Texture’s Thanksgiving Central category, which include Cornmeal Butter Cake with Pomegranate sauce, Buttermilk Cardamom Pumpkin Pie, Cheesy Brussels Sprouts and Chorizo Bake and the one I am looking forward to most – Roast Turkey with Polenta stuffing.

 

I don’t use tablets anymore now that phones are easy enough to read with 5.7″ displays. I have been using the Google Nexus 6P and actually have enjoyed reading magazines on my device. Texture intelligently breaks each magazine up into a table of contents and you can read each category or title without having to turn through each page. This feature makes it incredibly quick to browse through magazines and see what is worth reading. The layout of the articles are just like actual magazines so you will have to zoom in to magnify the text. The articles aren’t like web pages where they automatically resize to adjust to your screen. I found this to be a little cumbersome initially, but got used to it pretty quickly and can see Texture providing a much better experience on a tablet. Maybe a Nexus 9 would be worth picking up if there’s a good price for Black Friday.

I have a few business trips planned over the next three months, and one thing I always do when I am waiting for my flight at the airport, is go and browse the newsstand and buy a magazine or two for the flight. I usually end up spending $5-15, read the magazines and leave them on the plane for the next passengers. Now I can go ahead and download a bunch of magazines for offline use, and not spend an extra penny at the airport. I’ll probably even download a couple for the time I spend at the dog park while my pup plays with other dogs.

Conclusion

Texture brings back the nostalgic feeling of being in a book store like Barnes and Noble, where there are rows of magazines broken up into categories. I’m in my 30’s and grew up frequenting book stores and my favorite area was always the magazine section. I would read the magazine title, look what was on the cover, and if it grabbed my attention I would flip through it and purchase the magazine to read at home.If the magazine was a complete joy to read, I would most likely sign up for a subscription. The downside to yearly subscriptions is that there are times when you no longer read the magazine and they continue to auto charge your credit card. This can also be quite painful if you happen to switch addresses.

With Texture, for $14.99 per month I not only to browse the aisles of every magazine, but I get to read them all at my leisure. I get to read them at the airport or in bed, and if I decide I no longer want to read magazines for a bit, I can cancel at any moment. My mailbox no longer needs to get stuffed with magazines and I can help save trees too.

When my free 30-day trial expires I will most likely be switching to the $9.99 plan as I rarely read weekly publications. I do believe I will easily get my money’s worth in entertainment and will definitely be sharing my account with my mom.

If you like reading magazines, you should at least give Texture a try for 30 days.

If you want to download Texture head on over to the Google Play store and install the app or go to Texture.com to learn more.

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Destiny Companion app: The one every Guardian needs [App Review]

Through the use of the Bungie mobile app you’ll be able to utilize the Companion. It’s Bungie’s second-screen experience that will keep you connected to the game, while you’re in the world of Destiny and while you’re away from it. It has a ton of features that are very useful, such as checking your gear, checking on what’s new for the week as far as Daily Heroic Strikes, Nightfall Strike and even the capabilities of transferring items to and from your vault to your character(s). The official app is available for iOS and Android, and there is a third-party app (Destiny Stats) for Windows Phone users.

Visually the Destiny app captures the hard sci-fi feel of the game with its subdued, but not bland color palette, and clean, easy to manage menu system. Within the app players have access to regular news from Bungie, regarding in-game events, updates, patch notes and easy access to the game’s forums. Very useful to check and read every Tuesday morning when reset day comes along and you’re already at work for the day and can’t get to a computer.

There is a fantastic Grimoire section, presented as a collectible card set with great art work on one side, and flipping over to reveal informative blurbs about Destiny’s lore, tips and general knowledge. It’s beautifully presented, providing great incentive to explore and collect. To me personally it’s my favorite part of the app as there is a ton of information to absorb from this section of the app.

Functionally, players have hands-on access to their weapons and equipment, with the ability to change your set-up, which then reflects within the game itself the next time you load it up on your console. Or, if you forgot about something in the vault, and you’re in the middle of a big boss fight and need something like a Heavy Ammo Synthesis, then you can quickly pull up the app and transfer any that you have in the vault to your character and it will transfer immediately and be ready to use in-game.

There is a ton of stats that tell the story of your successes and failures in numbers within the game itself. All your story missions and competitive runs in the Crucible are displayed such as kills, deaths, assists, scores etc. Again all of this is presented in a very easy to read, clean style and accompanied by some great art work depicting where the mission was carried out. It’s a great way to measure up your adventure with friends in the real world.

Then there’s the Vendors section where you can check any vendor within the game to see exactly what they are selling as far as special items, weapons, armor or anything else. One downfall is that you can’t purchase items from these vendors via the app and that’s something that I certainly wish Bungie would add.

You can even go as far as to check on your current bounties that you have and how close you are to completing them. And now with Year 2 here, you can also check in on your progress of any quests that you are currently working on within the game.

Whilst the Destiny Companion doesn’t really add anything essential to the game, nor is it something that you have to have installed for any reason, it is a nice accompaniment, tastefully designed and a joy to navigate. The collectible card system of the Grimoire alone is definitely worth the 27MB download.

What We Liked:

• Easy to use and to navigate
• Very informative
• Well designed

Where It Comes Up Short:

• Can’t purchase gear or armor
• Can’t get any gear from the new kiosks

Google Play Store: Destiny Companion App

The post Destiny Companion app: The one every Guardian needs [App Review] appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Source: AndroidGuys » AndroidGuys | Destiny Companion app: The one every Guardian needs [App Review]

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