While many people somehow are praising the design of this app, I detest it completely, because everything I see here is ugly as fuck comparing to the rich and pure awesomeness of Wunderlist or Reminders app in iOS. Yes, this is the downside of blending in disastrous basic Android design, but seriously, who in their right mind would want this travesty?

So, getting your UI stripped of everything is not always a good thing. But in UX it can sometimes pull the Baron Münchhausen out of a swamp: all you get with this app is just a copy of Google tasks (a service-wide feature, most commonly used inside Gmail web interface), nothing more, and this is good.

I’m not sure if it’s worth its price, maybe only if you are already get yourself committed to Google and Android ecosystem and do use task services on a daily basis. Otherwise, move on to visually and functionally better apps, which are plenty.

The best thing about this release is that Android users are not separated from existing iOS user pool, so you can easily find and add your friends with iPhones and vice versa. For instance, on a launch day I’ve got more than 30 new followers. Downside of this is a heavy server hardware load, which causes numerous problems lately such as user profiles won’t opening, feeds working slower than usual, etc. Not if this wasn’t unexpected, but still they should’ve been more prepared to green robot invasion.

Another classic Android problem people used to encounter is an extreme phone models diversity, and of course there are lots of older ones that can’t run it or do it incorrectly. Even if you’ve got Android 2.2+ it doesn’t guarantee that new app will run without a couple of occasional crashes. It will probably take months for devs to cover all bugs and stabilize Instagram on the vast majority of smartphones. I can only wish them good luck and godspeed on this hard work.

In my case the elder HTC Desire with custom MIUI interface got it for good and everything seems fine, except for writing speed due to poor SD Card bus bandwidth. But the 1GHz processor is more than enough to process filters within reasonable amount of time. Sadly, it’s not as fast as on an iPhone 4S, but absolutely faster than on an old iPhone 3G, and about the same as on a 3GS model.

Instagram was the must-have exclusive for any iPhone user and the platform defining featured app. Now almost all people can (and should) use it, which is absolutely awesome.

★ Sync tasks over-the-air on multiple devices running 2Do (including iOS) using Toodledo
★ Projects, Checklists or a simple Todo list
★ Repeating ToDos with end dates
★ Tabbed Calendars / Folders for easy organization and grouping
★ Hide or re-arrange calendars
★ Password Protection: Lock all your tasks or individually picked Calendars
★ Drag & Drop tasks from and to Calendars
★ Smart Calendars: Dynamic lists based on saved searches with an optional dynamic date range
★ Powerful date range searching and filtering
★ Easy sorting by dates, calendars, priority, status, title or manual sorting
★ Scheduling of tasks using Start Date & Time
★ Tags: create keyword tags; search for tags or attach contacts as people tags
★ Alarms: Easily create multiple alarms per task
★ Attach Photos to your tasks using the Camera or the Gallery
★ Instant Previews: Preview and edit notes or attached pictures from the main list with a single tap
★ Focus: Quick toggle between your tasks and a refined ‘focus’ list from any view
★ Actions: attach contacts or other ‘action’ information to tasks
★ Starred Tasks
★ Batch Operations: Edit, Delete, Move, Tag, Share and more
★ Multiple Themes: Graphite, Wood, Leather, Fabric, Grass, Pink Fabric
★ Share Todos
★ Optimized for an unlimited number of tabbed calendars with hundreds of Todos per calendar
★ Backup & Restore: Create easy backups of your database or restore from an existing one at any time
★ Flexible task manager: Use GTD (Getting Things Done) principals, Franklin Covey or your very own

Sounds good, right? Maybe it is not as good looking as, say, Wunderlist, but for a hardcore time/task management you can hardly find anything better. Also, it is pretty expensive.

The ultimate downside for me here is graphics. Everything looks cheap and shitty. In our age of pixel perfected UIs and stunning mobile apps, to release such a bad looking product is unacceptable. I want them to take the gameplay, the core mechanisms, strip them off all the poorly drawn crap and hire a couple professional artists.

Also, they can put a decent price tag on the game then (now it’s obviously free).

What I didn’t like the most here is the visuals. Game looks cheap enough even for Android, not to mention iOS (where it is free as well) with crappy menu and backgrounds. They didn’t even bother with proper left and right switching: it just mirrors the picture and neon sign on a building becomes reversed.

What I like the most is fun of throwing balls into a basket. It may seem primitive, but somehow manages to grab your interest and make you do this again and again. First, you try to score at least 2 in 3 times, then you go for the bonuses, then for some wicked shots and bounces, and so on. When game runs out of content, you can pay up to buy some expansions like speedy ball etc.

Worth trying!

Controls are easy: move the spaceship by tilting, unleash the claw by tapping on the screen and snare anything unlucky enough to be under it. Once you’ve caught something — be it a human, animal or vehicle — you can either tap on the ship to abduct, or swipe across the screen to throw away.

Some of the poor fellows on the ground have arrows above their heads. Picking one of these up starts a side mission like collecting a number of cows, blow up some cars by throwing them at other cars, or knock down a few towers. This missions are time limited to encourage action and pace. There’s some new equipment to unlock that upgrades your grappling hook, and secret areas for you to explore.

But be careful: there’s a fixed amount of shots for each stage, so the more accurate you are, the higher your score will be! More stars means more upgrades to unlock in order to achieve a higher score.

There are seven different Things and they are somewhat adorable little creatures with suction cups for mouths. They cling on to platforms and suck in bubbles as they go through three different unlockable worlds.

Play sessions are short, which is good for a bus ride or a 5 minute break. The content is appropriate for any age, and the controls are so simple even a three year old can play, and this game is challenging for any age or mental condition. So even if you’re a 10-yo prodigy, or 30-something lazy moron, feel free to try it!