iProtect is a recently released security application for your iPhone or iPod Touch. It allows you to password protect applications, lock your SIM, disable the ability to move icons around on the SpringBoard, disable the application to delete application off the SprigBoard and the ability to disable the Home Button double-tap.

When you first open the application, you will need to enter a password and a security word. Once you are in the application, you can choose to lock All Applications, Unlock All Applications or choose to lock specific applications. You can lock both App Store and Cydia apps.

Once an app is locked, when you tap on the app on the SpringBoard, you will be required to enter a password in order to open the application.

The downfall with this application is that many of the options are not available unless you purchase the application. You are unable to use the SIM lock feature, the Disable Icon Moving feature, the Disable App Deleting feature and you are not able to lock all the important apps (App Store, Cydia, Mail, Phone, Messages) without purchasing the app for $8.99 USD.

Honestly, I’m not sure why you would purchase this app when you can use Lockdown for free. The only difference is that iProtect allows you to lock your SIM… though, I’m not sure it is worth $8.99. You can get iProtect via the BigBoss source.

ScreenShots

I’m not a huge business card user. In fact, I carry a few of them mostly so I can throw them into a fishbowl in order to win a free lunch at a restaurant. However, I can imagine how useful it would be to have an application that would take business cards and effortlessly import their information into your contacts list. CardSnap attempts to address this by using a proprietary method similar to OCR but not really (or so says the app’s description).

Upon opening (and waiting for) CardSnap, you are given the option to use the camera to snap a picture of the business card. You can also load photos from your camera roll or from your photo library. However, since the main selling point is to use this application in real time, I wanted to focus on the camera option. After taking a picture, you can move and scale your picture before deciding to upload to the servers at CardSnap. Once you’re satisfied with your business card’s readability (this may take some time with the iPhone’s pitiful camera), you submit the card, and wait for a response. Other options in the application include a menu to review your submitted cards, an info screen that offers a user’s guide, and a settings screen that allows you to use groups with your contacts.

I submitted a few business cards several times and was impressed on occasion with the response from CardSnap. We all know that the camera on the iPhone is not very good, and the picture quality is marginal at best. To the application’s defense, the user guide strongly recommends the use of Griffin’s Clarifi case. I was unable to test with this, so I had to rely on the standard camera app as I imagine most iPhone users would as well. With my work business card, the app said that there were some illegible fields, and I should probably review these before accepting it as a contact. Indeed, there was an error in my name, and a wrong digit in my work phone number. Other than that, though, I was impressed with how many of the details were picked up by the service and assigned to the correct field. On my wife’s business card, CardSnap got everything right, though interestingly, it did choose to skip a few items like a web address and part of her title.

Thankfully, there have been a few updates since CardSnap’s original release. When I first downloaded this app, stability was a major issue as the initial load time was long, and I had to reopen the application quite regularly. If you were to use this application on a regular basis, you might want to invest in the Clarifi case, though there’s no guarantee that the application will still get all of the fields correct. One positive test included a submission that I made using my Nikon D60 camera. CardSnap read this photo within hours and it did a perfect job of interpreting all of the fields correctly. Unfortunately, this is not a practical solution, and you might as well spend the time inputting your business cards by hand.

In the end, I would think the goal for CardSnap is to be an application that can scan business cards efficiently, effortlessly, and accurately. So far, the application succeeds in only some of these areas. It has a very simple interface, so it is possible to scan multiple business cards in a short amount of time. The program integrates well with your built-in contacts list, and it has shown high levels of accuracy when photo quality is high. I would love to see push notifications for business cards that have been reviewed as I had to open the application to check on the status. I understand the high price tag ($9.99) since CardSnap is more of an advanced application that recognizes fields rather than just translating images to text. However, for this price, one needs to demand better recognition for blurry images or wait until the camera on the iPhone improves. Perhaps, the 3GS will have better results. If you would like to try CardSnap before plunking down $10, there is a lite version, but it will still cost you $0.99. The limitation is that the app will only read 6 fields as opposed to 17. My recommendation is that CardSnap will be worth it if you receive and need to store a lot of business cards on a regular basis and you are willing to invest in either the iPhone 3GS and/or the Griffin Clarifi case.

Note: This application is currently only compatible with English keyboards.

ScreenShots

I’ve never been much of a card game player. From time to time, I’ll break out the Bicycle decks for some Texas Hold’em at home with friends. On the computer, I’ll play Solitaire, maybe Hearts on occasion. I think I tried Bridge once, but that adventure ended quickly. However, one card game does come to mind that I often enjoyed. It was called “BS” in college and another version that I often played with my family was called “Rich Man, Poor Man”. Apparently, this game is referred to as “Big 2” in Asia, and the developers of “Big2Poker” claim that it is one of the more popular games overseas. Honestly, my first thought when seeing the name “Big 2 Poker”, was that this was just going to be another form of Texas Hold’em or another version of an online poker game. Thankfully, I was wrong.

Overview/Settings
Before you start playing, you can set a limited number of options. Game sounds can be toggled on/off, and play rotation can be set for clockwise or counterclockwise. There are three difficulty settings (easy, medium, hard), four sets of card themes, and a mysterious wage amount setting ($1, $5, or $10). Other main menu items include a fairly detailed rules section and a brief blurb about the origins of the game.

Gameplay
Once the cards are dealt, the player with the 3 of diamonds starts the game. As viewed in the screenshot below, you can view your cards at all times and have the option to sort your cards by rank or suit. You are also given the number of cards remaining for each player. Unfortunately, there was a minor glitch here (also seen in the screenshots below), as you cannot view the number of cards remaining for the computer user on the right. Play proceeds as each player tries to “one-up” the other by playing a higher card (by rank or by suit if cards have the same value). 2’s are the highest cards in this game (hence, the “Big-2” part of the name) and suits are ranked from highest to lowest (spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds). The “Poker” part of the game’s title comes from the option to use poker hands such as pairs, three and four-of-a-kinds, straights, and flushes as playable hands. You can always choose whether to play a hand or to pass. The winner of the hand (highest overall card(s) played) then gets to start the next hand. The game ends when one person uses up all of his or her cards.

Analysis
Once I began playing, I was immediately brought back to my college days or those times when I played this game with my family. I like the rules of this card game a lot and feel that there is a bit of strategy to the game overall. In terms of this particular version on the iPhone, I was fairly pleased with the interface. The game play drags a little bit as you wait for the computer users to play their hands, but it is not too painful. TIP: if you touch the screen, the next move is forced, so game play does speed up. If you need to leave, the game will remember where you left off, but be careful not to press the “Menu” button, as this will reset the game (with a warning). The wages concept is a bit unclear, but I believe that it is designed to lengthen gameplay, so if you want the game to last longer, you’ll set the wage (per remaining card) to $1 rather than $10.

When I played “Rich Man, Poor Man” with my family, there was an additional part of the game that involved exchanging one’s best and worst cards with each other depending on one’s status as a “Rich” or “Poor” person. Perhaps, this can be added as a variation. Finally, a logical update possibility would be the inclusion of online multiplayer capabilities. If this game is as popular overseas as the developer claims, then there should be a vast pool of players to draw from for an online game. An extremely snappy interface and some sort of online ranking system would be essential in making this a successful venture. Note: The developer has indicated that an update that will include multiplayer is in the works, but may be accompanied by a price increase (update will be free).

Conclusion
Overall, I feel that this game has a lot of potential. As a stand-alone card game, it is solid enough to keep players engaged and coming back every now and then for a game. I am not convinced on the long term playing options. The wage bets didn’t offer me enough incentive to continue playing. The upside to Big2Poker lies in its implementation of online multiplayer and possible addition of variations to the basic game. I mentioned the glitch about the number of cards in the right computer player’s hand, as well as the potentially misleading option to return to the menu without saving the game. I did experience a few crashes, so stability should be addressed in updates. Overall, my opinion is that this game is slightly overpriced at $2.99 and would be worth a solid recommendation from this reviewer at either a lowered price ($0.99) or with an updated version that featured the above changes.

First I installed the app on both iPhones. The first thing I noticed was that I could only move one contact at a time to the SIM card. If you want to do more than one at a time you have to pay. It’s $12.95 USD/$9.95 EUR. This should be ok though because we just want to move a few specific contacts. I started tapping some contacts I wanted and it would pop up the Name and Phone Number of the contact and I selected “ok” to transfer to the SIM card. I tried it on a few that just had email address and it didn’t do anything.

I did about 10 to 15 contacts through the letter A and then exited the app. I moved my SIM card to Brooke’s iPhone and all worked fine. Her iPhone is unlocked, so it connected to AT&T just fine. Brooke’s iPhone saw all the contacts on the SIM card right away through iSIM. I copied them all to her iPhone one at a time… I also tested making a call from iSIM which worked perfectly. I closed iSIM and went to Brooke’s contacts to see how things went. Unfortunately it doesn’t work as well as I hoped. For AT&T it only copied the name and work phone number. It didn’t copy the billing number, the image, or the business name field. Here’s a screenshot from both iPhones:

It also didn’t transfer the web address, address, etc. Only the first Phone number and Name. I tried a contact that was already in Brooke’s iPhone and it didn’t make two copies. One thing to be aware of is when you first insert the SIM card you need to wait a few seconds for the iPhone to connect to the carrier before opening iSIM. I had it crash a few times when opening it too soon. So, for basic contact transfer it works well but don’t expect all information to transfer. iSIM is available through the Makayama Source.