It's Time To Recall All Of Those Great Recommendations
Recall - Reminders for Recommendations ($0.99) by Overcommitted, LLC is the app you'll want to have for keeping all of those recommended items together in one place. Think of it as being like Todo Movies, except it's for just about everything.
This app has made quite a splash with the people that I follow on Twitter, so I was excited to hear about it and give it a try when it would be released. And now that I have it, I’m definitely not disappointed.
Of course, the first thing I noticed about Recall is the extremely clean and elegant design. There’s no clutter since it only shows what you need, and the side panel navigational menu is extremely smooth. There is a basic tutorial that will show you how to use the app, though it is pretty self-explanatory once you get the hang of it.
The main view will be “My Items.” The bottom will feature various categories: Music, Movies, Apps, Books, and More. The More tab will have TV Shows and All by default, and there will be an “Other” category as well. These are all configurable as well, done with the “Edit” button. I like how the tabs look, though, because it definitely fits in well with how Apple has designed the iTunes and App Stores on the iPhone.
To add a new item, just navigate to the category you want and tap on the “+” to search. Recall searches in real-time, so results are instantaneous. When you find what you’re looking for, you can see information like when it was released or is coming out, if it is in iTunes or not, Rotten Tomatoes ratings for movies, and more. Just tap Add to put it on your list. These items will be marked in search results and lists so you know what you have already added at-a-glance.
For those times when you want to find something new, but have no idea what you’re looking for, Recall has the solution with the New Releases and Top Charts lists. With New Releases, you can view all of the stuff that is out this week, last week, and even upcoming items.
The best thing about Recall, though, is the fact that you can add reminders for your recommendations. For upcoming releases, you can get a notification when it is released. For all other items, you can actually set a day and time to be reminded of it. By default, the reminder time is 9 a.m., though you can change it in the app settings.
If you checked out the recommendation, you can archive it. Simply navigate to the item, tap on the “Share” button, and put it in the archive. There are other options too, like emailing, posting it on Facebook and Twitter, or just removing it. The email option includes a thumbnail, item information, and a link for Recall so the recipient can easily add it to their own recommendation list.
So far, Recall is off to a very strong start. It has the basics covered, it is incredibly easy to keep track of the items that you have been meaning to check out, and send recommendations to others. However, a few improvements can be made to make the app even better.
There should be a section for video games, because I’m pretty sure people still recommend games to others. And the Apps section for New Releases needs a bit of work, because it seems a bit outdated. Oh, and movie trailers would be nice to see. There is no mention of a syncing solution, and the app is currently iPhone only. Hopefully an iPad version or universal update is in the works, complete with iCloud backup for keeping all of your data intact.
Recall is still a very polished app that can definitely be of use to many people. I'll definitely be keeping this around on my phone, and hopefully I can manage to get it on my home screen. I only see this one getting better and better with each update, so I recommend picking this up now while it's cheap. It's currently on sale for only $0.99 in the App Store for your iPhone.
UPDATE: Recall is currently U.S. only.
