Merlin Bird ID

I got a great app a couple of months ago on my iPhone called Merlin Bird ID.

Moving to the USA all the wildlife is different so I didn’t really know what anything was called and we have a bird feeder in our garden (or yard) but I hardly knew any of the birds that came to it. Enter the Merlin Bird ID, it works in every country, you just register your email and it’s all free. It’s been designed by Cornell University and you download the packs for your area e.g. North America, UK etc. When you see a bird you log where you saw it.

The date you saw it.

You select the size of the bird.

Then you pick what colours the bird is.

Then you select what the bird was doing.

Then the app guesses what bird it was you saw, it shows you photos and gives you a description you can hear clips of the bird song etc.

It also has a function where you can upload a photo of a bird and it will guess what it is if you don’t want to go through the selection stages. I’m not exactly a bird watcher but it’s been really nice to know what all the new birds in the garden have been since I’m not used to them. It’s a shame I didn’t have the app when I lived close to the Norfolk Broads because there were so many unusual birds there. I’m hoping there’s a similar app for plants so when the spring comes round again I can find out what else I have in the garden and what our trees are.

Covet Fashion App

I’ve been holding out on you guys. I have neglected to tell you about an app I got for my tablet that is so brilliant and so good, that my friend went out to buy a tablet just so she could play it on a bigger screen then her mobile phone. That’s how good it is. I am talking about Covet of course! Now I’ll be honest, probably not a thrilling app for men but stay with me.

Covet is a fashion game app, every month features a different celebrity who’s the host for that month. This month it’s Vanessa Hudgens.

Covet is available on all android and iphone/pad type smartphones and tablets and is free to download and to play – I have never spent any actual money on it and neither have my friends. Covet is a bit like those paper doll dress up games meets real life fashion. The game gives you fashion challenges where you dress up a model (who’s appearance you choose) with brand name clothes that you can purchase and wear for yourself in real life.

You purchase different items with in-game cash or diamonds, submit the look using tickets, other users vote on their favourite looks. Depending on the score you get you can win new clothes or diamonds as prizes. You also get a small diamond allowance every day. Each challenge you enter gives you money, there is an extra easy challenge each day that gives you money and you vote on other players looks to earn tickets to enter more challenges. Much like the circle of life in the Lion King only it’s the circle of procrastination in my life. I digress…

So you pick a challenge, and each challenge comes with a themed photo and a little description of the look you’re aiming for.

And then you can get to work picking out items from your closet (inventory of clothes you’ve bought for previous challenges). You submit your look and then after the challenge closes you get your results. For example, this look I did rather well on, it shows me the clothes that I used and how many stars I got.

They have some pretty funny themes too. There are lots of different skin tones, make up styles/faces, hair styles etc to choose from. I’m usually boring and just stick to the same ones but some of my friends mix it up quite a bit. Advancing up levels by having your closet be worth a certain amount of money brings new hair styles and make up.

Like I said, all of the items in the app you can buy from actual stores (not that I do because I’m hideously unfashionable) but should you so wish to; you can. Sadly you have to use your own real money for that though.

To get more tickets to enter more challenges you vote on other people’s looks.

Simple as that.

So far I’ve converted 3 people to my strange app addiction but I do hope you’ll join them and connect your app to Facebook because then I can borrow your stuff. Fun times.

 

Monument Valley

Every now and then there’s an app that I absolutely fall in love with, and so readers, welcome to Monument Valley.

It’s for the iPhone (although I’m not sure if it’s available on Anderoid) and it was on sale so it cost me 79p.

It’s all about helping a princess through crazy mazes so she can eventually get her crown and she collects crazy jewels on the way and I… didn’t really pay attention to the story line. Look how pretty it is!

And challenging (OK maybe not for you but for me I definitely got stuck a few times!).

Just look at the beautiful mazes would you?

It’s so effing artistic I can’t even handle it.

In no time at all you’ll have played out all the levels and you’ll be wishing for more… which you can find in the expansion pack for more money.

Just get it ok? You’ll love it if you even have half a brain cell, it’s beautifully designed and makes you feel all accomplished when you figure stuff out.