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Closet makes it super easy to take your wardrobe with you – if you're willing to put some effort in first.
iPhone Integration Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.33 out of 5 stars
Not just for the fashionista set, clothing organizers like Closet are awesome for clothing-adverse people. In fact, they probably work even better for the fashion-unconscious, as they provide a visually appealing and lower-stress way to organize and assemble outfit options in private.
In order to realize the app's full potential, a startup commitment is required, and then regular maintenance is needed to keep the database up to date. Everything needs to be photographed and entered individually with associated metadata, but once this is done the fun begins. Closet offers several different ways to visualize outfit possibilities. Start with the outfit tab and choose a category — some common ones, like “Casual” and “Work”, are already provided — create a new outfit. Pay attention, because this is where all the time spent entering and classifying clothing really pays off. If “Item Grid (All Items)” is selected, Closet will create sort of an outfit spinner that's very easy to flick and choose parts of the outfit.
Not feeling inspired? Toss fashion fate to the wind and hit the “Random” button, and Closet will concoct an outfit instantaneously. If it turns out to be a keeper, the outfit can be marked as a “Favorite.
The thumbnail pictures in Closet’s default view are really too small to see clearly. Fortunately an alternate landscape mode gives a much clearer view. Individual items can also be tapped to see them full-size.
Closet also makes it easy to window shop from the web in a store. See blouse that would be perfect with that pair of shoes? Snap a picture (or save it from the web), create a new wardrobe item in Closet, and try it out with other items already owned.
For those who like to plan ahead, like for an upcoming vacation, Closet allows users to assign outfits to different days on a calendar. Additionally, buried in the “Tools” area is the option to create a Packing List, which is basically an unhelpful text input box.
After spending all that time entering wardrobe items nobody wants to lose the data, and Closet thoughtfully offers a backup option (a .zip file accessible via iTunes). For those who are curious, the app will also offer wardrobe stats, so a girl can tell at a glance how many shoes she really has.
Overall, Closet is a highly polished and very functional app. A couple nitpicky UI points: imported photos, whether they are taken from the Camera Roll or saved from the web, are cropped around the edges, so when taking them be sure to leave some padding on all sides so clothing items can be seen clearly. I noticed in a few places the font size was too small to read comfortably, especially in the aforementioned “Packing List” area. Lastly, it would be nice to be able to create a new outfit without having to select a category first, but this can be worked around by choosing the “All” category and then reassigning the correct category later.
It’s becoming a habit to see which new games powerhouse Chillingo will serve up each Thursday. They seem to be entering every genre. This week they have a casual universal title, racing themed, but standard fare. But they also launched a free game souped up with in-app purchases, a serious tower defence-shooter title and something we haven’t seen from Chilingo before – time management.
Dream Track Nation
This game has players racing on fun, sometimes downright silly tracks jumping over obstacles and getting power-ups, while collecting up to three stars in the usual progression formula. There are 20 tracks set in Texas, Alaska and New York. The game is physics based, and the type of great casual game one expects from Chillingo. Dream Track Nation has a level editor to add an extra dimension to the game, and uses both Game Center and Crystal Network for multiplayer action locally and online. Chilingo calls the design “patchwork quilt” style – it looks hot.
One Man Army
One Man Army is a more serious game. It’s a tower defense title in which Earth is a desolate planet under threat of mutant invasion. Players mix shooter elements with classic tower defense gaming. There are six zones to defend with a total of thirty-six levels in all with high-end graphics meant for retina displays.
Monster Mayhem
Hack and slash at monsters galore in something new – a freemium game, not a lite or trial version – called Monster Mayhem. It’s bloody, cartoonish and vibrant and it’s something Chillingo hasn’t done before – that is making a game free to play, but making advancement almost dependent on IAPs. Insane monsters are lurking in the dark and gamers playing as The Gate Keeper have to keep them out by any gory means available. It also has castle defence elements, but served up with humor. There are 20 monsters to kill and five distinct bosses to battle. Upgrading the arsenal is key to progress and that’s where the IAPs come in, but they aren’t necessary to buy in order to enjoy the game – there is no pay wall, just ways to advance quickly for a fee.
Jet Set Go
Jet Set Go is the biggest departure for Chillingo and the most intriguing. With the free game released last week and Chillingo and parent EA’s increased used of incentives using its Crystal Network integrated with social network sites like Facebook and Twitter to unlock items in some newer titles, one can’t help but wonder if they aren’t thinking of moving into not just time management, but also the lucrative freemium market?
Jet Set Go, however, is a premium game with everything included for the one time purchase. The game is universal and only $.99. Nothing extra here to buy, and it’s from the team that brought us classic iOS time management title Sally’s Spa. Players help April build her new travel agency empire and fly customers around the globe. The game has five different types of time management systems built in so there isn’t much waiting around and there are a total of 12 locations from Montreal to Hong Kong, with 14 different types of customers, each with their own specifics likes and needs to learn. All these games look great but, we especially can’t wait to give this one a try!
Do you have serious skills?
This time of year gives me a thrill; the type that renders implicit memories of the smell of new text books, the feel of freshly churned pencil shavings between my fingers, and industrial chemicals faintly tinged with fake orange scent for the sole purpose of snuffing out vomit. It’s been nearly 10 years since I went to graduate school. Still, when I walk down the aisles of big box stores filled with rows of cuddly kitten notebooks and an array of superhero backpacks, I can’t help myself from filling my cart with crisp, lined notecards, expanded boxes of sharp crayons, and cheery-bright folders in a rainbow of options ripe for the nabbing.
Take then my opportunity to try out Skill Game developed by Good Apps UG. As I began, the visuals brought back days of crossfired spitball shooting and rubber band popping. I landed on a crumpled piece of paper that directed me to "connect the numbers without touching the lines." This was easy at first, but it became more difficult, frustrating, and the need to satisfy my obsessions led to compulsive and zealous attempts at mastery. The game is adaptive, a feature that is smart and sensitive to the player's abilities and personal skill sets. Pulling my fingers across the screen led to inevitable intersection of lines, which sprang back like rubber bands complete with an onomatopoeiac "pop."
A new variety of papers complicated my efforts as I completed remaining levels, including "Mania" mode, which is random and requires faster action and less strategizing And then, oh yes, I discovered the Magic Pen!! The Magic Pen allowed me one opportunity per level to cross through a line previously drawn. A magnifying glass permitted me to observe my finger as it navigated numbers. Skill Game became nearly impossible as "one way streets" were introduced. Drawing lines outright restricted the bendy blue lines from thwacking back.
My Magic Pen ran out of ink, and it didn't take much time. As with many games, Skill Game provides "endless play" via endless mathematical possibilities and, naturally, an endless bank account. I enjoyed the concept, design, easy instructions and pop-ups, and the sound of clapping hands and shouts earned when I reached a new variant of paper and fresh blue ink. I only wish that I didn’t have to shell out $0.99 every time I wished to refill The Magic Pen.
Skill Game is a must-try for those who are up for a challenge to solve puzzles that are fun and non-intimidating. I'm still excited about school. I will definitely take myself back-to-school shopping and load up on armfuls of trinkets and supplies I will likely never use. I'll even treat myself to a pair of new school shoes just because I can.
Why don’t we live in a world where seeing Batman walking down the street is normal? Such a shame.
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