For busy people on the go, list keeping iPhone apps are heaven sent. But the holiday season can make gift tracking frustrating if your list app is too complicated. Holiday Gift List, by Mobile Simplified, is an easy to use gift-tracking app that simplifies holiday gift giving.

Holiday Gift List is a straight forward gift list that is very user friendly. The main page has 4 categories: Family, Friends, Work, and Other. Each group allows you to track multiple people and multiple gifts. To add people or change names in each group, simply press the Edit button and make changes. The main screen can be customized to be more simple, showing only the name of the person in each group, or you can use the Details feature to view each person’s gift details from the main screen.

When you have set up the people you want on your gift list, you can then set the budget, and the gifts and prices for each person. To set the price of each gift, just write in the price after the item name in the description. The app will then keep a running tally of how much has been spent on each person.

Another nice feature of Holiday Gift List is the gift wagon icons. When you select “Still Shopping” for a person on your list, the wagon icon appears empty. When you are done buying gifts, check off the gift description and choose the “Finished” option. This will show the wagon icon filled with gifts, and let you know at a glance who still needs gifts and who doesn’t. Do you have snoopy friends or family members who can’t wait until Christmas? Put a lock on your Holiday Gift List by going to your iPhone’s Settings app and creating your 4 number passcode.

Holiday Gift List has a very simple design and intuitive interface, so it is easy to get your gift ideas put into the app without too much hassle. This is great news for busy people who have a lot of gifts to buy. And you can use this app for any holiday, not just Christmas. I like that the user can set a budget for each person and track their spending. This is a great feature, and may even keep post-holiday stress to a minimum.

Holiday Gift List is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch; requires OS 3.0 or later

iDrop Dead: Flower Edition is a physics playground from ttursas Ltd that gives you control over how teddy bears are disintegrated into candy and flowers.  Apparently, iDrop Dead’s previous revision was too brutal, and now ttursas has gotten the game out the door by making a handful of graphical tweaks.

iDrop Dead is a physics based game, which basically means that all of the challenges and gameplay is based around a reasonable model of world physics. You’ll be given limited control over your avatar and tasked with specific challenges, usually revolving around destroying the character with the perilous objects included around the map, which include boulders, saws, revolving machines, and burnable objects.

iDrop Dead is separated into four modes, all of which are essentially the same game, but with slight tweaks. There’s Normal Mode which is the only mode available to the player when they first start the game. You’ll learn all of the basics in Normal Mode and you’ll also unlock the other modes here too. As you play, you can unlock Free Play which removes the scoring, clock, and other limitations in Normal mode, Time Attack which challenges the player to race against the clock and score as many points as possible, and 1 Pull mode which gives the player 1 pull to start and the opportunity to earn more pulls by grabbing pull-coins.

Obviously, with Normal Mode being the only mode unlocked at the start, you’re probably going to spend most of your time there (as I did).  Normal mode allows you to choose from 6 different worlds (you unlock these as you continue to score more and more points), and each of those worlds is separated into specific maps. Each world is varied and the different maps do a good job of exploring the mechanics introduced in each. My favorite world was the last one, Bounce World. The trick there is that green objects repel the rag doll back up into the air. This made puzzles a bit more challenging than the other worlds.

iDrop Dead is an enjoyable physics-based game and it’s also very accessible, so if you need an introduction to the genre before you graduate to other rag-doll games, iDrop Dead will make a good transition. While the graphical changes do tone down the carnage, there’s no mistaking what’s happening to the rag doll as it’s broken down into its bits and bytes. That serves as a fair warning to the violence present in iDrop Dead (watch this Youtube video for an idea of what the game is like). With that warning out of the way, I can recommend iDrop Dead as a great time-waster and well rounded pick-up-and-play game.

iDrop Dead: Flower Edition is compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch.  It requires the iPhone OS 2.1 or later.  This reviewer played iDrop Dead on the first generation iPhone (EDGE), but the developers recommend it be played on the iPhone 3G or 3GS.

Kluckr is an app from the website of the same name that allows you to find the best possible chicken wings in your neighborhood.

When you first load up the app, your iPhone will ask you if it’s OK for Kluckr to use your current location.  If you have an iPhone 3G or 3G S, Kluckr will be able to use your GPS to help locate the nearest place to eat chicken wings.  If you you have an original iPhone, you’ll have to make do with the iPhone’s general guess at your location (cell tower triangulation).

Kluckr enables you to choose whether you want to find a place to eat wings from the city list, or by using your current location. Should you select “Near Me,” a list of cities around you will pop up. Each city is detailed by the number of locations Kluckr has in its directory. If you select “Choose a City” you’ll be able to search for the city you’re looking for, or select from a list of major cities.

I live in San Jose, CA and Kluckr helped me select from a list of 25 locations. After I selected my city, Kluckr provides a wheel of factors to choose chicken from (Service, Variety, Heat, Atmosphere, and Value). You can spin the wheel, or select from the categories for yourself. Spinning the wheel doesn’t have to be completely random though because you can select which categories the wheel displays. Don’t like hot wings? You can take that factor off of the wheel and choose from other points that might be more important to your dining experience.

Kluckr (the iPhone App) also ties into the Kluckr website by allowing you to log in and earn Kluckr rewards points when you send messages to your contacts list of where to meet up and chow down. Tying the app and the website together also allows users to add to Kluckr’s database of places to get great wings.  Do you have a favorite spot that only the locals know about?  You can help put it on the map by hitting the add button towards the bottom of the app.

Kluckr wraps up a lot of options, community building features, and ease of use into a neat little package.  As it’s not a free app ($0.99), Kluckr may only be for the most dedicated of wing eaters, but it’s still cheap enough that if you can’t find a good spot in a bind, it’s not really going to to be too hard on your pocket book.

Kluckr is available on the iPhone and iPod Touch (2nd Generation).  It requires the iPhone OS 3.0 or later.

One of the really amazing things about living in a digital age is the ability to edit your favorite photos and make them better. Digital photo enhancements have even become a widely recognized art form. Even if you can’t paint or sculpt, you can still create you own artwork through digital photo enhancements. Camera FX BlackBox, by the developer Artwerkz, is a photo effects tool that creates new photos, even artwork, from your old ones.

The concept of Camera FX BlackBox is very simple: you take a photo or choose one from your library, and the app automatically changes the camera filters and effects for your photo. The app simply runs through many special effects variations, with changes in saturation, hue and more, just like a slide show, and you pick the ones you like best. You can pause the process by tapping the photo or the pause button, and you can fast forward or rewind to other effects. The effects can also be changed by the accelerometer in your iPhone or iPod Touch, so tilting and rotating the device will add new photo effects to your slide show. Once you have found a special effect that you like, you can save this picture, e-mail it, or use it as wallpaper.

While the effects in Camera FX BlackBox are interesting and unique, it is difficult to control the effects and the rate at which they continue. The user interface is supposed to be intuitive, so there are no instructions for use. The controls are thus a little vague: the user has to guess what the controls are and how to use them. It would be great if the developer added some instructions and controls that were easier to understand and use. Camera FX BlackBox is a neat photo app, but it needs some a few little updates and improvements to make it great.

For a video demonstration of CameraFX BlackBox click here.

Camera FX Black Box is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch, and requires OS 3.0 or later.

If you are a University of Kentucky sports fan and want to have all the key game day information readily available to enhance your experience, then Kentucky Football GameDay developed by Singing Bridge, LLC is the app for you!  You’ll find game info, venue info, roster info, player/coach tweets, schedule and links to all the key Kentucky Football websites.

Kentucky Football GameDay gives you all the information you need before and after the game. There is a page devoted to information about the stadium (are your seats near my seats?) with a link to the weather so you will know if you should be bringing your parka, raincoat or sunglasses.

You can read tweets from your favorite players and coaches and see their comments about today’s events and games. Kentucky Football GameDay pulls you into the game. The app provides you with links that are valuable to every Kentucky Football fan. You can quickly jump to the Kentucky Roster, Cats Pause, KSR, A Sea of Blue, WKYT Sports Page, Coach Cal and many more. When you jump to the internet, unfortunately you cannot just hit the back button and get back into the app. It would be nice if you could, but I found that since I spent a significant amount at each site I didn’t really mind.

I tested the app on Halloween as Kentucky was playing Mississippi State. I don’t live in Kentucky, so having this as a tool really made me feel part of the game. Before the game I read the player and coach tweets. There were even a few thrown in there from Coach Calipari. As game time approached, I switched to the KSR website and followed the online blog. When the commentators mentioned the wind on the field I jumped over to weather to see what was going on (49 degrees and only seven m.ph.). I followed the story of our successes and all the controversial plays. I had the scoop on injuries minutes after they happened. That game did not turn out as I hoped, but the app delivered.

Kentucky Football GameDay developers have been involved in sports and it shows. There are three former U.K. basketball players, a Wofford College baseball player, and technical resources that include a Carolina Fan and a former High School Coach and Lexington native (and closet UVA fan). These people know sports.

The bottom line is that Kentucky Football GameDay will appeal to University of Kentucky fans whether they are in Lexington or scattered throughout the world. Go Cats!

Kentucky Football GameDay is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch and requires iPhone OS 3.1 or later.

Books, reports, papers, blogs, emails, tweets…with all this reading to do every day, who wouldn’t want to read faster and more efficiently? I subscribe to over 50 blogs, but checking out new posts is just a tiny fraction of my daily reading.

Enter QuickReader, an app designed by Inkstone Software, Inc. Not only is it extremely functional, it’s also one of the classiest apps I’ve come across.

QuickReader provides you with over 20 classic novels, including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Heidi, Little Women, The Last of the Mohicans, and A Tale of Two Cities. You have the option of reading any book normally, with guided practice, or as part of a speed reading test.

After reading through the user guide, I chose Pride and Prejudice and read a few pages to check my time. I read around 300 words per minute (I’ve read that average is 200-250 according to some sources, 250-300 according to others.)

Not bad, but clearly there’s room for improvement! I spent a little time in Guided Reading mode. Before starting, I adjusted the settings – this app is highly customizable, and you can access the settings from the main menu or while you’re reading in any of the modes (normal, guided, or speed test). I love that you can adjust the fonts and colors of the background and text. I’ve heard that, when reading on a screen, a darker blue background with lightly shaded text is easier on the eyes than good ol’ black on white, so I adjusted.

For guided practice, you can adjust how many words per minute you want to read, and how many guide stops there are per line or per stop. The “guide stops” make sense once you use the guided mode for a few seconds; it basically allows you to adjust how big the block of text is that the app highlights.

Guided Reading mode trains you by highlighting groups of words and moving through the text in chunks. Your eyes follow the highlighted sections at the speed you designated in settings. Over time, you can speed up the tempo and change the guide stops to highlight larger blocks. The trick is to let your eyes relax, taking in phrases rather than each individual word. QuickReader also provides you with helpful hints, like using your peripheral vision, and holding the iPhone further away.

No matter which mode you’re in, the app bookmarks your last spot. Another feature I love is that while you’re reading a book, you can switch from one of the three modes to another by tapping its icon at the bottom of the screen.

Does it work? After about 30 minutes of guided practice, I switched to the speed mode again. My new result – 327 wpm! Definitely an improvement. Getting it closer to 500 wpm would really help me get through a lot more of those blogs in my Google Reader!

The bottom line: this is a beautifully designed, extremely useful app. Highly recommended for anyone that wants to read faster.

QuickReader requires the iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch.

KiwiPixel’s new app, Inspire, takes the fun and ease-of-use native to basic painting apps and adds the professional look, feel, and functionality that you would never expect from an application that remains so simple and enjoyable to use.

As one who never graduated to an artistic sophistication beyond watercolor painting in kindergarten, I immediately found myself utterly enamored with the very activity I had long shunned as a result of my sorely lacking artistic talents. Although I still possess no legitimate skill as an artist, Inspire has a way of inspiring one’s artistic imagination more than your standard, run of the mill desktop or mobile painting tool ever could.

In other words, when KiwiPixel promised a professional-style application, they didn’t fail to deliver.

Hands-down, Inspire is the most addictive and fun painting app available for the iPhone, largely because of its ability to simulate wet paint on a canvas, which can then be blended and twirled into an array of stunning effects courtesy of four different brush types: flat brush, round brush, fan brush and palette knife.

Despite a somewhat hefty price tag of $4.99, a host of neat features makes the expense worth it. They include:

• Each brush comes in many different sizes to allow large, sweeping strokes as well as fine, precise strokes.
• Brushes can be loaded with different amounts of paint, including no paint at all for a dry brush.
• Varying amounts of pressure can be used with a dry brush to achieve many different kinds of blending effects.
• Brushes can be rotated a full 360 degrees to allow a variety of different strokes.
• 200 levels of undo and redo are available.
• Choose any paint color quickly and easily with the natural color picker.
• The eyedropper tool can be used to select paint colors that are already on the canvas.
• Save up to 25 paintings in your gallery and easily export any painting to your Photos.

If you spring for the app, be sure to read the tips & tricks section or you may fail to realize just how much this application can really do.

One of the coolest painting apps ever devised, Inspire just might inspire the artist you never knew existed within you.

Inspire requires the iPhone OS 3.1 or later and is compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

AbbStore, a new app from Wouter Veldhuis, is a one-stop shop for any medical definition, abbreviation, and acronym that even the most accomplished hypochondriac can think of.

By far the most comprehensive and efficient of any application offering a searchable medical database, AbbStore allows users to search, add, edit, and save thousands of medical abbreviations and acronyms. Version 1.2 will even contain an extensive list of medical eponyms.

Perhaps the most impressive attribute of the app, which will run you $1.99, is the ease with which a user can access and archive an impressive slate of researched findings. Best of all, in the new version 1.1., users can backup/restore the abbreviation database to any computer through a WiFi connection regardless of whether the computer has iTunes. A web browser is all that’s needed – a particularly astute functionality given that many older users who don’t have iTunes can at least have a friend or loved one transfer AbbStore findings to a computer for their review.

Additional key features include:

• App comes with a preinstalled Base List of medical abbreviations
• All abbreviations are editable, deletable
• Fully transparent internet searches
• Also browse Google or Wikipedia directly from within the app
• Switch between searching for abbreviation or searching within definitions with a single click
• Base List can be disabled or even completely deleted to only search User abbreviations

For now, the only alternative to the function served by AbbStore is to sit at one’s computer and manually Google the terms or acronyms you’re looking for. Instead of what could be a long, drawn-out, time-consuming process, this handy app simplifies and expedites the search process exponentially.

Before I tried it, I thought I would never have a need for AbbStore.  But since deciding last weekend that I would probably never use it, I’ve opened the app at least a dozen times.

It isn’t flashy, it isn’t colorful, and it certainly isn’t entertaining. But it’s a valuable app that provides in a straightforward fashion the service it was designed to provide. Overall, it’s an impressive and surprisingly useful app that everyone should have on their iPhone for reference purposes or to help someone else looking for more info about practically any medical definition, abbreviation, and acronym known to exist.

AbbStore requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with both iPhone and iPod Touch.

Flying has always been one of life’s great pleasures. Now, you can get the excitement and fun of piloting your very own light aircraft on your iPhone. Sky Racer, developed by Warelex, offers players a relaxed atmosphere where you can fly around, complete challenges, or just leisurely explore a number of unrestricted environments.

Sky Racer is a one-of-a-kind application in terms of gaming. Unlike many other iPhone games of a similar genre, in Sky Racer you can fly around for hours – with no time limit, “wrong way” signs, or other things bugging you. If you want to stray from the path, go ahead! It’s up to you in this app.

Although Sky Racer is very fun when you originally purchase the app, the novelty does soon wear out. There’s nothing to beat in the game, so there’s not really anything to work towards.  Warelex would be wise to could include some kind of mission-type challenges in the next update, which would give some added depth and longevity to the the game.

On the flip side though, Sky Racer has a lot of great things going for it – it boasts great graphics, a good selection of planes, ranging from gliders to fighter jets, and a great (and I mean great) music selection. If you’re looking for a laid-back flying game, Sky Racer is your app. Even though there could be an improvement in specific challenges to direct the gameplay, I’m still pulling out Sky Racer weeks after I first tried it. Whether you’re stuck in traffic, or waiting at the doctor’s office, you’ll find some quick, easy entertainment with Sky Racer.

Sky Racer is a great app for aviation enthusiasts and fans of flight simulators – with accurate aerodynamics, weather conditions, aircraft handling and performance. If you’re a serious “gamer” who’s looking for action-packed gameplay, you may be dissapointed. Sky Racer’s awesome music, wide open environments, and attractive graphics provide one of the best pure iPhone flying experiences out there. It’s a cheap alternative to X-Plane, and it can be a whole lot of fun.

Sky Racer requires the iPhone OS 2.1 or later and is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch.

Are you looking for an app that easily records notes at business meetings or captures classroom lectures?  One that provides you with push reminders?  If so, Audio Notes Recorder, developed by Petr Jankuj, is just what you are looking for. It’s a snap to capture your thoughts and set up reminders.

When you open Audio Notes Recorder you see a list of your current notes – with the most current note on top. You can play the notes, add a reminder or delete them. Or, you can tap “new” and instantly start recording. A large display appears and you can record your thoughts – or record a meeting. You simply tap “save” when you want it to stop.  You also have the option of setting the app to record when launched. I thought the audio quality was exceptional. The only difficulty, and this is true of all audio recorders, was that it picked up the noise I was making as well as the presentation I was recording.

You can also easily organize your notes. Audio Notes Recorder allows you to name the recordings, set the color of the sticky-note like icon beside the name and send yourself a push reminder. These push alerts come through whether you have the app on or not. Setting different colors for the icons helps you organize your messages – you can make all yellow messages personal and work ones red – or whatever scheme suits you.

To play a clip back you just tap the note. You can stop it by simply taping again or you can use the bar at the bottom to advance the recording, back-up, pause or restart.

Another valuable feature of Audio Notes Recorder is the ability to send the recordings to yourself or others. You simply tap the symbol in the bottom left corner and a bar appears that allows you to choose between email, FTP or WeScribeIt. The ability to quickly share your recordings could be really helpful in a business setting.  A few taps and you could send the audio notes to all participants or export a copy of the recording to your PC/Mac.

The user interface in Audio Notes Recorder is simple and easy to use, and with the great recording features this app offers I’ll definitely be incorporating it into my weekly routine.

Audio Notes Recorder is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch (2^nd generation) and requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later. This App supports English, German, French, Spanish, Norwegian, Czech, Italian and Hungarian.