First of all, thank you ALK Technologies for giving Aweezon a free copy of CoPilot Live 8 Europe ! We downloaded it, we tried it, and we enjoyed it !

The idea was to review three GPS apps for the iPhone : TomTom Western Europe, Navigon MobileNavigator Europe and CoPilot Live 8 Europe. Why those three ? They are the first real GPS apps to appear on the App Store, similar price tags and developed by leading companies in this field.

Unfortunately, Aweezon only received CoPilot Live 8 Europe for testing. So I will not be able to properly review and make comparisons. On top of that, my existing knowledge on general GPS technologies is not great, based on the fact that I never used one before. So I am going to review only one.

This review is not for the ones that want a in-depth view of the app, but for the general public to get an understanding of what is GPS and why you should buy this app.

What does GPS means and what does it do ? GPS means “G”lobal “P”ositioning “S”ystem and it allows you to position and locate yourself on a “live” real time map (within a screen based mobile device). Based on that position and criterias you input, it can calculate and show you ways from A to B.

CoPilot Live 8 Europe will do that and more : it will calculate you trajectory based on your preferences, map with day and night vision, you can choose how you are traveling (car, bike, etc…), 2D and 3D maps, and even more. Please visit there web site for more info and full list of features. Most comments from the users on the App Store mentions that CoPilot does and has more features than the two other apps mentioned above.

For me, tons of features are not the most important part of choosing an app, and in this case, does the app actually works and take me reliably from A to B ? Yes it does ! Tried in the public bus and in my own car.

When tried in the public bus, the app calculated a trajectory that the bus was following. Strange feeling but it proved successful for a simple trip. One negative point, it is that the GPS did not like when the bus was stopping frequently : it takes around 10s for the dot on the GPS to move when the bus stops and take off again. I would tend to blame more the GPS chip than the app itself.

In the car, it calculated a trajectory that my partner was following. No problems at all beside it could not find our starting point (it could not find our house number but did find our neighbor). Then once arriving near the destination, the app showed us that our restaurant was on the right, when actually it was half a mile down the road, on the left.

The GPS map is clear and you can choose how much info you want to be displayed on the screen. As well, I enjoyed the app telling me where to go (you can choose different voices of different genders) and of course you can mute it if it gets on your nerves.

My first experience of GPS has been good and proved that my iPhone is just more than just a phone with features to show off. This app has more features than the two other ones mentioned earlier on, it’s price tag is cheaper, there is more positive reviews for it than for any other GPS app, and the company seems very active on the development and update releases for CoPilot Live 8.

If you need a good alternative to a GPS kit, then get CoPilot Live 8 !

The “Mail” app from Apple is great. But it does lake a feature : Automatic backup of all email accounts WITH the emails. One could say that “Time Machine” does the job, but you cannot set it up to only backup Mail ! I am a freak and often had bad experience to recover my data that got copied, partly because of the app and partly because my Hard Drive went on fire (Yes ! It was a PC). So now I say “Always have two copies of everything” !

I have Time Machine that backup my whole system, Personal Backup X5 to backup specific folders, and now “Email Backup Pro” for “Mail” ! I do have to mention that it also works for other email clients such as Microsoft Entourage and Thunderbird. I only mention Mail because this what I use daily and tested on.

Email Backup Pro does exactly what it says on the tin : it backups your emails, in a easy to use interface with only the features you need. You choose your email client you want to backup, then you choose the destination where you want your backup to be. You can then backup whenever you want by manually activating it or by asking the app to do it at specific days and times, automatically. So you can forget about it while it is doing it in the background.

What the app does, it creates one backup file of all your email accounts with the emails, and then archive it in the destination folder you specified. Then you can browse your archives and restore the file, all within Email Backup Pro (and only within because it copied all emails in one Email Backup Pro file, that is then stored your specified folder).

The interface looks somehow old style and is not really “eye candy” (it is more like “old aqua” on older Mac OS X). But it is very straightforward and simple to use. At the same time, it does not really matter how it looks because once setup, you will not see it very often.

And there is, nevertheless, some bad sides to the app : First of all, when doing the backups, it has to quit Mail in order to continue, and that is a pity because I feel it disturbs my work. Already mentioned above, it has to create a proprietary file to store your emails in, so you cannot browse your folder like in Time Machine. And at last, the User Interface is not great looking on the latest Macs running Leopard but at least it is clear and simple.

Conclusion, Email Backup Pro is the best app I ever used in order to backup my emails. I now have used it for a while, and even needed to restore some emails… bref, it works like a charm !

You can get Email Backup Pro from Squashed Software. Go and grab a copy !

The Mac computer is the best of all (in my opinion) and the Mac Operating System is wonderful, bundled with little applications (apps) such as Mail, Safari, QuickTime, iTunes, Time Machine, etc… but the weird part is, it does not come with an uninstaller. It is so easy to install apps, and most often just “Drag and Drop” in the application folder, and thats it.

So what about uninstalling ? My friend that converted me to Mac, a few years ago, said I should just “Drag and Drop” the apps to the Trash bin. So I did so, but somehow, I realized it just deleted the apps itself, but not the files linked to them, that have been scattered in the system (for example : Adobe Master Collection CS3). And, personally, I hate that. I want to be sure that when I delete the apps, then they are fully deleted.

So I searched for a software that could uninstall my apps, in a simple and clean way. I found AppZapper, quick to understand it and easy to use. You “Drag and Drop” the apps inside AppZapper, it shows you the other files that are linked to the apps, and then you just “Zapp” (delete). But the problem is that it does not always find you the linked files (Afterwards, I Spotlighted my computer to be sure and it showed me some files still remaining in the system).

So I looked for another uninstaller, and I found CleanApp : It does the same than AppZapper, but way better. First, it scans your whole computer for apps and list them (you can also decide what you want CleanApp to scan), then it stays in the background and scans all new apps that you are installing, meaning that it knows where the linked files are in order to uninstall properly. Also, when selecting the app you want to uninstall, it give you the choice of what you want to delete and keep, amongst the linked files. And of course there is other bits that makes this software a great one, and needed for any Mac users.

Design and layout wise, it is fairly straightforward : The window of the app is divided into four : The top part shows what is happening (mostly it shows you that it is scanning your computer and what it finds), the left part is the navigation menu that list what is inside your apps (and there is a file counter for each section), the right part shows the apps and files on your computer (and informs you of the location, size, time and date, version of the apps), and finally the bottom part includes a search box.

Not to forget to mention, you will meet a sleek interface, colors that reminds you of Apple Pro applications and the whole blends into Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard style.

I hope this review has been useful for you, and I hope you will look further into CleanApp.

First of all, I will not go in great details about this game because I do not want to spoil your fun and the effect of surprise. This review is to give you an idea of the game and hopefully you will try it, and maybe even buy it !

“And Yet It Moves” (AYIM) is one of the most original and inovative game I ever met. I rarely get “taken” into games in order to be bothered finishing it, but this one clearly knows how to keep me amazed at each level. All members of my family enjoys watching and playing this lovely game. Despite a slight claustrophobique feeling when playing, because of the type of world your character is in. Nevertheless, It is suitable for childrens over 6 years old..

It is a truly addictive and mind blowing universe in which you have to move a character for finding the way out by spinning the world (this gives you a whole new dimension on how you play and the way you think), running and jumping, and scratching your head resolving the solutions for the challenges (a mix of puzzles and labyrinth). The difficulty is medium, and throughout the levels, you have a few checkpoints, so if you die, you will start again from the last checkpoint, and not from the beginning of the level.

The graphics and sound effects are original and excelent. Basically, the graphics for the whole game is made out of paper “bits”. From menu to textures and characters, another way of looking at “collage”.

Sound effects seems to be “voice-made”. You could think it is “cheap” but I think it is genius. You can easily imagine yourself drawing in your notebook, and doing corresponding sounds, and suddenly you see you the content of your notebook taking life.

“And Yet It Moves” is a game designed and made by independant developers from Broken Rules. It comes to Mac at a very attractive price. My family and I, we cannot wait for a sequel ! And for the record, we still have not finished the game.

Try and Buy it > And Yet It moves

I cannot remember how I found Watchmac on the Internet, but when I read the details and looked at the screenshots, I thought… God ! That is a clean neat cute little app (software) that is useful – discreet and that the User Interface (UI) fully embrace Mac OS X 10.5 style.

One would say that I have said everything in the above few lines. But NO ! I am personally using this app on my high end iMac, and it works great !

So what does Watchmac do ? Well, it basically monitors physical intrusion, such as kids, colleagues that are a bit too nosy, etc… It records the intrusion and automatically let’s you know in order for you to review it before it keeps it in the history section.

So for example : I go away from my lovely iMac and of course I leave it in screensaver mode that is password protected. One of my kids decides, without my permission, to use it and he does not find the right password after typing it multiple times. Later on, I come back, type the screensaver password, return to my desktop and, alarmed, I see my screen flashing a lite red-orange color around the screen and the Watchmac icon in the menu bar, flashing a warning. I go and check it out and shows me the following “Someone tried to authenticate using your user account, but failed to enter the correct password for your username” (it also shows you the date and time the intrusion occurred). One of the neat features is that Watchmac used my iMac built-in iSight camera and took photos of the dear child.

Watchmac from Bloo7 is a useful application for home use and for a working environment.

As I already said, this app is very user friendly and blends extremely well with the Operating System (OS) and other applications. It is a stable (and until now, reliable) app that is under active development (I already applied a second major update) by a little German company called Bloo7. What took my by chock after trying the trial version, it is the very affordable and low price tag. Once registered, you will enjoy for ever the full featured Watchmac !

So please, go and check out Watchmac web site, check out some screenshots and give it a try.