IPhone news and information

Buzz Contacts from Savvy Apps (US$0.99) is a fast way to reach contacts from your iPhone. Organize them into groups for one-tap access to phone calls, text messages, email or FaceTime sessions. The UI is about as clean and tidy as one can get and conveniences like pre-written text messages are quite helpful. Here's my look at Buzz Contacts for iPhone.

UI

The no-frills, utilitarian look of Buzz Contacts is appropriate for a handy utility. Once you've set up some groups (more on that later), they're laid out on a 4 x 4 grid. Each contact is listed by name and an icon depicts the action associated with each button (phone, text, email or FaceTime). If a group contains more than four members, a swipe to the right reveals the next grid of four while a swipe to the left produces a list view.

A toolbar pops up from the bottom of the screen allowing for group actions, so you can send an email or a text, for example, to everyone at once. The large buttons are hard to miss, so the risk of unintended taps is nominal.

Use

It's easy to create a group. I made one called "Family" which includes my wife, mother, father and two sisters. To begin, swipe to the right and tap "New Group." Next, double-tap the title to customize it and then tap the icon in the upper right.

A list of your contacts appears. Tap the one you'd like to add and chose the method of contact. Keep adding contacts in this fashion until "Page One" is filled, meaning you've added four contacts. You can re-arrage the order in this screen as well.

Make as many groups as you like, swiping to the right to toggle between groups. From there, you simply launch the app and tap the appropriate block to initiate just the type of communication you want: FaceTime with your sister, iPhone call to your co-worker, text message to your son or daughter. It's speedy and a time-saver.

Buzz Contacts also lets you call those not in a group from the dialer. To use the dialer, swipe to the right again and tap Dialer. A keypad appears. Start tapping a number and Buzz guesses which one you're after. Give it a tap and you're off.

There are a few thoughtful niceties in the app. Tapping a contact set up as an email or FaceTime session asks you to confirm your intention before placing the call, so you won't place accidental phone calls. Also, there's a list of pre-written text messages to choose from, like "Running Late. See you soon." and "On my way." Combine that with a group text message to send a lengthy message to the whole gang with little effort.

I love useful utilities and Buzz Contacts is one. Since I pretty much only call the people in my family group, I've replaced the phone app in my iPhone's Dock with Buzz Contacts. It's definitely worth a try at $0.99.

Buzz Contacts for iPhone offers fast access to contacts originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MakeGo is quite an idea. It's an iPhone app, available for $1.99 right now, that turns the touchscreen of an iPhone (or iPod touch) into a vehicle-style toy, where you can play around and generate sounds for toys like a racecar, ice cream truck, or even a riverboat. But the genius of this one isn't what's in the iPhone, it's what's outside of it. The idea is that you build a vehicle case for the iPhone out of whatever you want, be that Legos or wood or just paper, and then your custom-built case, along with the iPhone running the app, becomes a very professional, interactive toy.

Now, there are a few issues here, the first one being that when I played with vehicle toys as a kid, they almost inevitably ended up crashing in horrible ways, so I don't know how comfortable I'd feel giving any child an iPhone 4S to throw around. But lots of kids have access to old iPhones or iPod touches at this point, and this seems like a really ingenious way to inspire creativity and come up with a really great DIY toy. It's also super cheap, given that you already have the iOS device, because touchscreens for toys can send prices up through the roof.

And finally, it's a great example of just how much the iPhone and iPod touch have changed all sorts of industries. When powerful, touchscreen-based devices are this prevalent and this ubiquitous, why not use them to inspire some really interesting imagination play?

[via Wonderland]

MakeGo turns your iPhone into a vehicle toy originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.