Easy JP

Easy JP App for iPhone
     Have you ever wanted to learn a little basic conversational Japanese?  Just can't seem to take the time to read the books or take a course?  Love those Japanese cartoon characters?  Well, you might want to try out this application then.
     You will have the opportunity to chat with three different female student characters.  I have provided screen captures of each of them for this review.
     The character will provide a speak bubble with the Kana (Japanese characters).  Above the Kana is the Romanji (roman characters allowing you to read the character phonetically).  This will help you with pronunciation   If you aren't quite sure, even with the Romanji, you may click the "Play Voice" key at the bottom center of the page.
     You also get the translation of this phrase in a bubble near the character.  it will be translated to simple English.  You will get another bubble, in addition to the translation bubble.  This one provides any notes such as when to use this phrase and so on.
     Think you have that phrase down?  Click the next button to move on to the next phrase.  You can also go back at any time by clicking the "prev" button.
     You may notice a "help" button at the top left.  This basically just informs you of the button functions, as I just have.
     You may get tired of learning the same 10 phrases over and over again.  If you feel you've mastered the available phrases, you can purchase additional phrases for 99 cents by clicking the "buy" button at the top right.  You will then be provided phrases 11-40.  I'd say 40 phrases of a new language is pretty fair for the price.
     It's a simple application.  Easy to navigate and easy to use.  The phrases are all very basic and could be very useful if visiting a new country.  The characters are standard Japanese school girl cartoons.  But you don't need to like cartoons to find this application useful.
     I really think this is a good application for someone learning Japanese for the first time.  The bright colours and cute character voices will also make this app appeal to a younger audience.  Learning a new language while you're young is always a step in the right direction.
Rating: 4.5/5

• Free
• Category: Education
• Released: Feb 17, 2012
• Version: 1.0
• Size: 17.7 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: Daidai Inc.
• © Daidai Inc.

Rated 4+

MoeAlarmClock -Talking Alarm Clock-

Moe Alarm Clock - Talking Alarm Clock App for iPhone
     For those of you that enjoy 'clock applications' to use when your phone is just sitting on your desk, doing nothing of any importance, this could be a nice application for you.  It really depends on your preference and how picky you are.  As for me... I'm not one for clock apps.  If I were to use one though, you had better believe I'd be very picky about the quality.
     I'm going to start off with the colour scheme of this application.  The bright primary colours make me think of a Kindergarten class and a box of Crayola.  It doesn't seem cute or professional or even well thought out.  I do not like the colour scheme at all.  It almost seems like they just chose completely random colours.
     The artwork: I'm not impressed.  mind you this artwork isn't 'bad'.  I'm glad the artist is working on their style and trying to use their creativity in a fun and possibly new way.  however, when I download an application, I expect a certain amount of 'professionalism'.  This includes the quality of the artwork.  I wouldn't even consider my own artwork to be app quality, and I've sold a lot of art.
     Alright, let's move on to the features.  What does this application do, besides just tell time?
     Well, it is called a 'talking' application.  When you start it up you will be greeted by the maid.  She will refer to you as "Master".  However, this is all spoken in Japanese.  The voice acting is good, but the sound quality is not the best.  You can hear some background static when the audio is playing, and the voice is a bit muffled.  Sometimes you can even hear what sounds like background noise I believe this is on purpose, and supposed to be 'digital sounds', but it just sounds like noise.
     The red "A" in the top right corner is for the audio settings.  You can change the audio to be low, medium or high.  Click the Mario "?" box ripoff icon to make her speak, so you can test that volume.  She says several different phrases.
     It looks like the maid character should be in the bottom left corner, but she's hovering over the text at the top, leaving the bottom corner barren.  It looks like it may have been improperly coded.
     The red clock in the middle is for setting an alarm schedule.  It is in military time.  You can set up to 2 alarms.
     The "T" icon is for posting to Twitter.  It is a means of promoting this application to your Twitter followers.  Now, if I knew the app creator and I wanted to support them as a friend, I would Tweet about their application.  But as someone who downloaded the application and was disappointed by the quality, I shan't be doing that.
     Now I can tell this was probably just made by a person just starting out making applications, or perhaps a group of people, and not by a professional company.  I have to give them respect for putting themselves out there.  However, I can't be bias and have to judge this application the way I would judge any application.
     I don't like the art, or the sound quality.  The concept is good (Over-used, perhaps, but it's popular) and the voice acting is good.  The character animations are single frame animations.  The colour scheme needs to be changed.
     I do like that you can set two alarms instead of one.  However, the clock can not run in the background.  So unless you plan to turn off your lock feature, and let this run all night, I don't see how useful an alarm is going to be.  That is my concern for most alarm clock applications though.  So that's not an issue with just this app.
     If you really like this application from what you see in the screen shots, it 'is' free.  But there are just so many 'cute' alarm clock applications out there that have much higher quality (That are also free)...  I just can't really think of a reason to chose this one over the others.
Rating: 1.8/5

• Free
• Category: Entertainment
• Updated: Jul 07, 2010
• Version: 1.3
• Size: 11.2 MB
• Languages: English, Japanese
• Seller: Masahiro Kurokawa
• © 8casette

Rated 4+

Talking Linda

Talking Linda App for iPhone
     Have you ever wanted a virtual friend?  A female virtual friend?  A virtual friend that dances like a stripper and lives on a suspicious diet of bananas and hot dogs?  Well then this is your lucky day!
     The information on this app claims that Linda is your virtual friend and companion.  But I don't think this is the sort of digital friend you want your young children hanging out with.  Not that she actually does anything pornographic.  It's just clearly targeted at a 'different' audience.
     When you speak into the iPhone Linda will repeat what you say back at you.  I can't tell if it alters the voice or if my voice sounds exactly like Linda's voice... Because when she repeats me it doesn't sound any different.  But I have to assume it's not going to repeat a male's voice back.  But then... Maybe it will?  So Linda could sound a little manly if a male talked into it.
     Linda has 4 different looks, as you can see to the right.  Each one is a tiny top and tight bottoms, with long pony tails.  So I suppose the looks aren't very different when you really get right down to it.
     Other than talking and standing there in slightly different outfits, she can also dance for you.  She does a provocative stripper-esque dance to music that seriously sounds like it was taken from a porno scene.  If you tap her she'll make a noise and move around a bit.  You can also feed her a banana or a hot dog.  However, don't expect her to eat it in a sexy way.  Because you may be disappointed.  She can also drink a glass of what I assume is milk.
     Maybe you want to record your new friend performing some of her classy skills.  You can do that.  Click the record button at the top and interact with her.  Everything she does and says will be recorded.  You can play it back, save it to your library, upload it to your Facebook or Youtube or you can email it to someone.
     Alright, now for what i think of this application.  I don't understand what the point of it is.  But then there are a lot of applications like that.  It's not really something I'll be keeping on my phone.  The artwork and animation is average.  nothing special but not bad.  The interaction is limited and a bit random.  It seems too much like it's trying really hard to be sexual while still being safe enough for the app store.  I suppose it reminds me of those pens with the photos of the models in them.  The ones where when the pen is upside down her clothes come off.  This is the iPhone version of that pen.  But with more features.
Rating: 2.5/5

• Free
• Category: Entertainment
• Updated: Aug 11, 2011
• Version: 1.1
• Size: 77.1 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: Kong Ching Hong Alan
• © Panorama Concepts

You must be at least 17 years old to download this app.

• Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes
• Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity