3.8

The camera on an iOS device is perfect for scanning and sharing documents with other people. However, a simple photograph is not sufficient. Not only does the lighting rarely work for photographing a white piece of paper, there are cropping and saving issues. That's why a tool like JotNot Scanner is so useful by cropping documents, removing unwanted background colors, and creating enough contrast in the final image to easily read the document.

JotNot Scanner is not the only scanning app on the App Store, but it is one of the easier-to-use apps. When you first open it, you … Read more

With the large number of photo editing programs available, choosing a useful one can be difficult. Image Tricks for Mac does have some good features, but it appeared to be missing one of the most basic editing options. And with its muddled interface and lack of user guidance, less experienced users might feel that the learning curve is too steep.

Tricks for Mac offers a free trial version with some filter restrictions. The full version requires a payment of $19.95 to activate. The download completed quickly and there were no unnecessary user agreements to accept, which was welcome. Unfortunately, … Read more

Tangram puzzles are a fantastic tool when teaching young children geometry, spacial relationships, and art concepts. The iPad is a perfect device for completing tangram puzzles, so when the two are combined, you have a well-structured educational app that is a lot of fun to play. Perhaps that is why Swipea has created nearly a dozen versions of their very popular tangram puzzle apps, each with a different theme. The Swipea Tangram Puzzles for Kids: Houseware edition is identical to the others, but with a focus on household items.

The app's interface will take some time to get used … Read more

A tangram puzzle requires children to move and rotate sharp angled geometric shapes into a specific configuration to match a picture provided. Swipea has created a series of apps that makes these puzzles easier and more accessible for kids, perfect for a young child eager to use your iPad. In the Swipea Tangram Puzzles for Kids: Handy Tools edition (one of more than a dozen variations of the same free app), children will use those shapes to create household tools.

The concept of the game is very simple. Children are given a collection of rectangular and triangular shapes and must … Read more

The Swipea line of Tangram puzzle apps is impressive. These apps, including Swipea Tangram Puzzles for Kids: Transport, manage to take a very popular puzzle game that children have been playing for decades and transform it into an engaging, colorful mobile experience that takes full advantage of the features of the iPad and touch screen controls. While the lack of clear labels can be confusing as you get started, once the game is underway, your children will have a blast.

One thing that makes Swipea Tangram Puzzles for Kids: Transport so much fun is that nearly everything in them is … Read more

Who needs cards or puzzles when you have a smartphone to help your child learn? Baby Learns Pairs 1kids will help your child learn matching, colors, and other vital skills. The games, however, are repetitive, annoying, and overly cute. That means you're bound to hate it, but it could very easily become your child's favorite game.

As the name implies, this game is designed for young children. That means it's chock-full of simple games and cute characters. More often than not, the characters are almost too cute. They make goofy noises and do silly gestures as repetitive … Read more

As new game consoles continue to come out, users often want to re-experience old games they played when they were younger. Stella for Mac allows you to play Atari games on your Mac, although its controls are problematic.

Available as a freeware program, Stella for Mac installs quickly without any problems. The program immediately prompts the user to designate a location where Atari game files are to be stored on the computer. Users should note that the program is an Atari emulator. There are no games included with it and users will have to find their own sources of ROMs … Read more

When viewing videos created from broadcast television or from certain camcorders, interlaced video can create distortions. With JES Deinterlacer for Mac, you can convert these files to remove these flaws, as well as perform other changes.

JES Deinterlacer for Mac comes free of charge and installs easily. Along with the main program, there are several Readme files that contain information on how to use the program. These instructions and explanations would be welcome for even the average person, since the program itself is not easy to use.

The interface lacks graphics and appears dated. Technical support also does not appear … Read more

Sizerox is an app for Mac OS X that lets you resize, crop, watermark, and perform other manipulation of digital images. It's not available through the App Store, but it is from several Web sites. The demo version (which superimposes gray squares over your images, rendering them essentially useless) can be upgraded to the full version for $14.95.

The Sizerox interface is clean and easy to use. Most of the interface windows show details about the source and destination pictures, while additional dialogs let you select preferences. Fully supporting drag-and-drop, Sizerox lets you select one or more images … Read more