Finding apps is hard work. Seriously, folks, there are over 500,000 of them out there, each with their own iTunes page, ratings, and version history. It’s confusing, disheartening at times, and just plain difficult. There are several discovery apps out there, including the recently purchased Chomp [1] and AppShopper. Today’s tip is about the discovery app that won the Best App Ever Award for Best App Bargain [2] , the app that voters thought was worth way more than they paid for it.
Appsfire is a website that helps users find great apps on iPhone and/or iPad, sorted into top apps, trends on Facebook, and app deals. The Appsfire app, then, called Appsfire Deals, focuses on this last bit. They have some sort of algorithm that takes into account apps that are free, on sale, and top ranked in the App Store, and then some sort of “quality†index is applied to apps. This way, you’re not stuck with a long list of awful apps with ugly icons and horrifying names to sort through on your own.
Once you download the app for free, launch it on your iPhone (or iPad â€" it’s Universal) and tell it what iTunes store you want to access, geography wise. The app will then try to personalize things for you, letting you pick one or more categories from a visual list of things like Gamer, Geek, Parent, Networker, and the like. The app then goes to work putting a personalized list of free and on sale apps based on those categories.
Across the top of the app, you’ll see tabs that say Now Free, Top Free, Price Drops and Me. That last one? It’s me, not you. Wait. No, it’s you, not me. Um. It’s whoever the person using the app is. I think.
Anyway, tap on that last tab and you can create customized watch lists for apps you want a notification when they go on sale. You’ll also see the apps you looked at in the App Deals section, as well as ones that you visited in the App Store itself. This is a great way to keep track of what you looked at. I know I find myself thinking, “man, what WAS that app I found scrolling through the app store the other day?†Seems like this feature could help with that.
Above the category tabs are a search icon, a notification section, a quick setting bar that looks like an EQ on a stereo, and a gear icon for preferences. The EQ icon lets you toggle whether the app will exclude iPad apps, display new apps first, and lets you personalize your streams. Tap on Edit there and you’ll be able to change the order of display of the categories, and delete categories you care nothing for.
While this is a tip and not a review, the app is free and seems to have many good features in it. Give it a looksee and let us know what you think of it.
Source: Best App Ever Awards [3]
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Links
- ^ Chomp (www.cultofmac.com)
- ^ Best App Bargain (bestappever.com)
- ^ Best App Ever Awards (bestappever.com)
- ^ Cult of Mac (cultofmac.com.feedsportal.com)
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