Zephyrus of the Anemoi

So yesterday, Stanza for iPhone received a rather significant update, which was rather surprising to me. I say it’s surprising, because Amazon (the makers of the Kindle and the Kindle DX and formerly a rather large competitor to the Stanza application) purchased Lexcycle, the makers of Stanza, back in April of this year. Since that time, Stanza has seen no major update and it was unknown if Amazon would even be supporting the application any further, instead focusing their efforts on improving the Kindle app for the iPhone.

Well, yesterday we got our answer. In its first major update since its inception, Stanza has been completely overhauled. After spending a little time with it, I was able to determine that nothing appears to be broken so far, and the app shows the same great features and attention to detail as it always has, with some slick new interface designs.

But that wasn’t enough for me, as I decided yesterday to add the Kindle app back to my iPhone to see what had changed since I had last used it. Turns out, quite a lot. For example, my biggest complaint in the early builds of Kindle for iPhone was that you had to slide your finger across the screen to turn the page, which could be rather frustrating in long-term usage. I was happy to see that was no longer necessary. A simple tap on the left or right of the screen turns the page, just like in Stanza. I even found a large number of free books to sync to my device so that I can test out the app in the future and see if it will work as one of my top 3 methods for reading books (the other two methods being Stanza and good, old-fashioned paper bound and held in my hands).

I will say this, however. One feature the Kindle app has that really beats out Stanza, is the ability to store any books that you buy online and resync them at any time. While I have a large collection of books available to Stanza thanks to Calibre and the Stanza app for the Mac, should something happen to the data on my computer, I would lose them all. Not so with Amazon and the Kindle store. Perhaps one day they will integrate the two apps into one and I can store books from other ebook stores online and sync to the Kindle/Stanza super-hybrid.

It’s worth wishing for.

When the iPhone was first released, I quickly bookmarked a specially-designed web app for Mobile Safari that allowed me to access IMDb content quickly and clearly. Unfortunately, as time progressed, I grew tired of the various glitches and missing information that cropped up in the site from time to time.

So when I discovered that an official app was released today, I was overjoyed. I am rather consistently checking IMDb from my iPhone, so I knew that as long as they didn’t frak up their own application, I would make a special place for it on my Home screen.

The first thing that I noticed when I loaded up the app was that they have included more than just the simple movie database in their app. While the search box is at the top of the screen, they’ve made it possible to browse movie showtimes, check box office results and much, much more.

Searching for a movie (or show, video game, person, etc.) is simple: just type something into the search field and get the same results you’d find on the IMDb website. Tap on the result you’d like to view and you’re taken to the same info you’d find on the website, but formatted specifically for the iPhone.

As you can see from the image above, IMDb has ensured that all of the information you’re used to finding is easily accessible. Just scroll downward and you can see the top-billed cast members, trivia, quotes, and all the other info you’d expect.

Here’s a sample screenshot of the trivia section.

Lastly, here’s an example of what it looks like to check showtimes for a movie. The only drawback that I could see is that there’s no links to online ticketing solutions from within the app. However, after clicking on the theater that you’d like to visit, the app does provide you with a phone number for ticketing by phone.

All-in-all, I really love the app and hope that it will gain additional features as time goes by, although online-ticketing is the only one I really want at the moment. Suffice to say, I will be moving this app to a prominent position on my Home screen as soon as I can decide which app no longer makes the cut. Grab the app here.

So, a couple months ago, I got an invite to the Lockerz.com website (thanks @davidzumini!). While there’s a lot of speculation out there whether the site is a scam or not, I’m not here to talk about that. I will, however, briefly say that if it is a scam, so far I haven’t had an increase in spam, cold calls, or anything else of the sort. Personally, I think that what others are considering a scam is just a startup trying to meet the demand of the ravenous hordes looking for free stuff. It happens.

Anyway, in order to earn PTZ (virtual currency) for the Lockerz site, you have to log in once-a-day and answer the daily question (2 PTZ for each action). Today’s question I rather enjoyed, as it gave me an excuse to talk about my favorite band.

I’ve been a big fan of Ludo for several years, and have met them twice: once when I came in second for a costume contest at their Halloween show in Columbia, MO (where Andrew Volpe told me that the band thought I should have won) and shortly after danced on stage while they played the Ghostbusters theme (my costume was a ghostbuster), and then again when they played at the Apple Store in Kansas City, MO. So obviously, the answer to the question above was a no-brainer.