Outliner7 wants to be the Clear of project management apps

The App Store isn't short of productivity tools so finding a project management tool that matches your routines and habits shouldn't be a problem. If you're already using any pure outlining software on your desktop the most obvious choice is to check if there's an iOS companion — OmniOutliner and Circus Ponies for the iPad come to mind — otherwise, you can begin your search from scratch. 

Despite my addiction to good apps I don't have any go-to solution for planning projects. I tend to use a combination of emails and ToDo lists that aren't helping me to get things done but to have an idea of the tasks to complete before the next one. Some of the most advanced GTD iOS clients such as OmniFocus already have a forecast section that cover these needs. With this limitations, I miss some of the desktop-type experience when it comes to organising my mind on the go: indentations, hierarchies, fluid lists I can rearrange and steps I can check as completed.

Then I find Outliner7 by Ambi Apps, a self-proclaimed outline manager for the iPhone that promises to be easy to use as well as fully-featured. With the amount of alternatives on the App Store I could have picked something else, but the use of gestures here really caught my eye. If you remember Clear by the Brightonians from Realmac software, the typical interface elements to navigate apps disappeared in favour of multitouch gestures. The great use of colour, font sizes and a list view chunkier than the usual on iOS standards made for a very exciting experimental app. What does it have to do with Outliner7 then?

All about the gestures

While I never considered Clear an everyday useful app, Outliner7 has adopted that playful spirit introducing some gestures to manage information. There are still a lot of conventions — specially true when it comes to navigation — that follow Apple interface guidelines, but the attempt to do something different convinced me to give Outliner7 a go.

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Pastry Panic - The sweetest arcade fun

Back in December when I interviewed Underground Pixel's visible head Kevin Drew we were promised more games for 2012. I learned from him all the hard work that goes into producing a game and assembling a team when you go for this radical retro style. After the Christmas-themed Holiday Havoc I was expecting more shots of arcade-inspired games with all their chunky pixels: once you get a taste you only want more! The indie studio is back with more chiptunes, more gameplay modes and some characters that will be very familiar to the iOS gamer.

Pastry Panic is an arcade high-score game where you help your little friend the green monster to clear all the bolts, nuts and springs that accidentally fall on the conveyor belts of a pastry factory. Our hungry hero — possibly Yoshi's cousin — will also take good care of the sweets and doughnuts as they come out of the oven. The master baker doesn't mind it as long as the metal scraps are removed from the line as quickly as possible.

The same premise comes with two modes that help to extend the game's replayability although they follow essentially the same rules. In Mad Dash you move around three conveyor belts trying to collect everything while in Tongue Tied you remain static in the centre trying to grab everything with your chamaleon-like tongue. Pastries eaten count towards your high-score, with a series of combinations to boost your numbers.

Some special pastries act as power ups and mess a bit the game as it ramps up in speed. Every now and then you get the chance to collect letters to form the word 'sweet', which may be a wink to the classic Tony Hawk 2 collecting the word 'skate'. Is this just me?

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Tractor Trails - Addictive family friendly farming

You can't help getting exited when you see a new game by Origin8. The London-based studio is behind some of the platform's most impressive games since the early days of the App Store. Remember the Sentinel series, Space Station: Frontier and MonsterKill? They have good reputation among sci-fi nerds for a reason. It's only when you hear that you its latest release is a farming game when you begin to worry and wonder if this casual leap has been too risky. Don't worry, this type of farming has nothing to do with the time grinding games you see on Facebook.

Tractor Trails is a classic puzzler where you plant trees on a field trying to obtain the maximum yield. You ride your trusty tractor Red and leave behind an impressive kind of tree that grows instantly — unfortunately blocking your way and forcing you to move only forward. This is a new take on the typical gameplay were you have to cover a maze without crossing your own path.

This premise allows for a very strategic gaming experience where you'll find yourself planning ahead, experimenting and replaying levels lured by the high score. There's a bit of memorisation involved and some swiping skill as your movements need to be extra-tight in medium and advanced levels to obtain all the rewards. 

Each game finishes the moment you're stuck and plant a fast-growing tree under the tractor (with an amusing animation), complete every bit of soil available or crash your machine. Tractor Trails isn't particularly punitive and will allow you to progress to the next stage even without every star, obtained for driving over a mole, planting a set number of trees and for doing so in the required time limit.

The game comes with corn collectibles that are the soft currency of the game. These are available in every level can be spent on tractor upgrades. As you imagine, you can also buy some more corn with real money. Without being too exaggerated, I felt the game was balanced until halfway through, where getting a third star to complete the level might require investing in vehicle upgrades.

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Essential countdown app London Bus Checker gets better

The majority of the time I write about apps it's just for the pleasure of playing with them and be able to advise others. Only in a few cases I keep using the app and it becomes a basic part of the way I work and my daily routine. Then there's the duty of a blogger of updating those old entries, just like I did with Instacast a couple of days ago.

Commuting in London is a forced activity that many have to cope with but for me, it's the perfect opportunity to put apps to my advantage. Bus Checker has become an excellent ally for my bus journeys, giving the information of the live departure boards the way I need. In my original review I commented about the interface with a mock bus stop sign, the pseudo departure boards with the dot matrix display and the surprisingly well done customisation of the map. 

"I found very convenient that [the map] shows the letter of the bus stop, specially in those very close to each other. It can get slightly confusing to zoom in and tap on the right one, as you'll normally have another bus on the other side of the road doing the route on the other direction."

After some months of polishing, I'm really happy to see the new version 2.0.5 addressing some of my initial criticism. In the build I previously tested, I found quite confusing to have a blinking dot suggesting the app is continuously updating. For me it looks like the blinking dot in the corner of the display of the Brita jar — pretty much it only counts seconds.

After some clarification from the developer about the meaning of it, the new version has implemented an actual countdown text that explains what's really going on. The dot is still there but at least you know it might have something to do with the "Refresh in 25s" text below.

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