The app is really just two pages, one for today, one for tomorrow. Each one displays the proper date, and you just tap to add an item to your list. If you decide to postpone a task, just tap the arrow and it moves to tomorrow. Anything left on today’s list at the end of the day will automatically be moved to tomorrow. When tomorrow becomes today, everything you didn’t get done will be there waiting for you. Make sense? When you complete a task, just tap to cross it out.

The perfect example of less-is-more, you won’t have to schedule an hour each day to organize your to-do list, just add a task to the list and don’t worry about it again until it’s done, when you can cross if off. I love the handwritten font, and the coffee ring stain on the tomorrow page is a nice little touch. If you’re looking for a simple way to keep track of the things you want to get done, give Do It (Tomorrow) a try, it’s a gem of an app!

Enter Teach Me Sushi, an app developed by real-life sushi chef Jake Davidow. With thirteen different videos, Jake walks you through every step of the process. He covers everything from choosing your fish, to how to make a rainbow roll. The videos are concise and informative, and being able to watch as the sushi is made is invaluable for aspiring sushi chefs. Jake obviously has a lot of enthusiasm for sushi and for teaching, and I found his excitement charmingly contagious. The videos themselves are well-done, but seem slightly amateurish, more like really well made home video rather than professionally produced. Rather than finding this off-putting, however, I think it makes sushi-making in my own kitchen that much more accessible.

In addition to the forty-five minutes of video instruction, there are some other nice features, like a rice timer and a where to buy map that will find your nearest source of sushi-grade fish. Lists of ingredients and equipment are handy for getting prepared, and many of the videos include supplemental step-by-step photos and more info about each type of sushi.

Teach Me Sushi has a nice, whimsical design, with it’s bamboo roller background and notebook pages. It’s easy to navigate, but there’s plenty of information there to get you started making sushi rolls and nigiri like a pro.

At $4.99, it may seem a little pricey (but then, I say that about most apps over $2.99, which is ridiculous of me), but it’s far, far less than a live sushi lesson, so I can justify the cost. Being a sushi fan and a home cooking fan, I give Teach Me Sushi four jars of applesauce.

Thanks to Jake Davidow, who kindly provided a promo code for this review.

The Bookmark app solves these problems with a nice, bold interface featuring big buttons and a slider to move forward or backward in increments from 30 seconds to 30 minutes.  Other features, like the ability to add bookmarks with notes while listening, and full-screen swipe to pause/play, make Bookmark the perfect player for audiobook aficionados. Just sync your audiobooks to your phone in iTunes (podcasts work too!), and you’re all set.

Bookmark has a prominent spot on my homescreen, and is used nearly every day. I love the clicking slider for easily finding my place, and the big pause button makes it easy to stop listening in an instant. It’s well worth the $2.99 price tag if you enjoy listening to books and podcasts on your iPhone.

Hipstamatic, what else?

While I may still often write out my shopping lists by hand, I love the way I can use Diacarta to create a graphical map of my day.

With over fifty icons to choose from, plus a blank badge that may be customized with your own text, you can schedule just about anything you’ll be doing. Double tap an icon once you’ve added it, and you can enter more information.

Each day has two screens, differentiated by the AM and PM clock faces, and you just swipe right and left to alternate between. Tap the calendar icon to select a future date.

Diacarta is wonderfully simple, but some may want a little more. The ability to sync with common calendars, such as iCal or Google or at least the native iPhone calendar, would be nice, as well as being able to add recurring appointments. I’d love to see these updates, but the vintage office vibe of the graphics and ease of use are enough for me to regularly use and enjoy this one. Plus, it’s just $1.99, and easily worth the price.
Thanks to Squnch for kindly providing a promo code for this review.

This is one sleek calendar. You may not be able to fill your days with your important appointments, but you can color-code each day and add a note or numerical data. There are several preset color schemes, but you can amend them or create your own. I especially like the way the (approximate) phases of the moon are shown on each day. The current date flashes slowly, and you can choose to have your weeks start with Sunday or Monday.

For all you stats dorks (like me), you can view graphical representations of your days. I’m not sure what I’ll use that for, but I’ll think of something. I like a good line graph, and if you use the colors to represent an emotion or biological state, you can see how the moon phases may be affecting you.

I’ve relegated my plain old calendar to a distant folder, far, far away from my home screen, and refer instead to my Colorendar. It’s simple, perfect, and just 99 cents in the app store. I have to give it four jars of applesauce, especially for it’s outstanding design.
Thanks to Mitsuhiro Sugimori for the promo code for this review.

Taken with Gorillacam, edited with The Best Camera.

At the disc golf course. My first time playing, and I realize I do not have a future as a professional disc golfer. Luckily, I don’t find this to be a tragedy.

• Multi-genre music content, with news, music streams, live concerts and interviews organized by genre.
• A searchable artist directory of content from over 5,000 bands, musicians and singers, including interviews, reviews, performances, features and news from the NPR Music archives.
• Signature programs and popular series, such as All Songs Considered, Mountain Stage, First Listen, Song Of The Day and Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. The app directs to a station stream when any given program is on-air.
• Updated daily. Hundreds of new music stories added monthly.
• Backgrounding, allowing users to listen to a stream or playlist while using other functions and applications.

There’s even more, but I just love that I can listen to The Thistle and Shamrock for the first time in years. There are a few problems that I’ve noticed and read in the reviews that others are having similar problems. The Streams, Artists, and Playlists screens are blank. I did a hard re-start and they appeared. I tried streaming a station, but it kept going silent every few seconds, and this was over wi-fi. I just re-visited all the former screens, and they’re back to being blank. The top stories and Programs however, have worked flawlessly so far, and there’s enough there to keep me entertained for quite a while. I just hope they fix the problems and release an update quickly. I’m willing to cut them a little slack, since it was created for the new iOS 4, and bugs are to be expected. It’s free in the app store, and definitely worth checking out.

Now for today’s post. I am not a huge sports fan. I watch the Super Bowl, and go to the occasional Padres game, but I generally have no idea what’s going on in the wide world of sports. This World Cup thing, however, is impossible to avoid. So I thought I’d feed your thirst for all things World Cup with these two cool little apps.

Since the games are on during odd hours for much of the world, the Telegraph World Cup app is a good way to keep up on all the latest World Cup news. The app is really well designed. The main page is packed with information that grabs the attention of even non-sports fanatics, like me. Upcoming and current matches are at the top, so you can see at a glance what’s happening right now. Just below this, you can quickly scroll through all the latest news. Articles are thorough and informative. At the bottom is a nice gallery of photos you can scroll horizontally.

If all that isn’t enough, you can view the different groups and go to your favorite team for all the related news. The app really drills down to all sorts of details, so you can see point totals, rankings and more. You can even vote for who you think will win and few the poll results around the world. As of this writing, for example, the polls show the U.S. just ahead of Ghana, 49% to 44%, with 8% voting for a draw.

There’s tons of information to explore, and the best thing about all this? The app is free! So even if you just have a passing interest, it’s well worth the download.

Now that you’re all inspired, you can play a little soccer yourself, with Penalkick 2010. Actually, Penalkick narrows the game down to the funnest part: the potentially goal-scoring penalty kick.

Gameplay is simple, and makes good use of the Unity engine, which makes for some really nice 3-D effects. You can choose your team from those currently playing in the World Cup. In training mode, you get a chance to perfect your technique. When you’re feeling confident, go to championship mode, which features the actual World Cup matchups.

When you’re ready to kick, tap the screen. Watch the goalie carefully for clues on which way to send the ball, and swipe to aim and kick. The developers obviously had some fun while creating this game, as the goalie’s thoughts vary from the direction he’s planning to move to a big juicy hamburger.

Simple as Penalkick 2010 is, it’s delightfully addicting. The 3D graphics are terrific, and the game has lots of fun little details. It’s on sale now for just $1.99. Goooooooaaaaaalll!
Thanks to Creative Patterns, for kindly providing a promo code for this review.

Taken with Gorillacam, edited with Plastic Bullet.

I know flowers are kind of a trite photography subject, but I just like them so much. Peonies are a special favorite. I like how the Plastic Bullet app made it look sort of waxy.