By Daniel B. Kline
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Starbucks app
By: Starbucks
Price: Free
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android
Should you get it?: If you shop at the pricey coffee chain, the Starbucks app makes it awfully easy.

While a lot of companies have apps for their customers, the Starbucks app may be the best retail app available. The coffee chain has pioneered the use of your phone as a payment device, and it’s almost too easy to take a Starbucks gift card and make it your payment method through your phone.

Basically, a cardholder simply inputs some data and the balance gets transfered to your phone. You can set up automatic reloads that make sure your virtual card is never empty. This, of course, also creates an odd disconnect between buying something at Starbucks and actually spending money. When all you have to do is hold your phone up to a digital scanner to pay, it simply does not feel like spending money, which might lead to overspending.

By Daniel B. Kline
Boston.com staff

Reviewing: OpenTable
By: OpenTable
Available on: iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone
Price: Free
Should you get it? Yes

Having a useful website does not always translate into having a useful app. Take countless travel apps that perform poorly when compared to their online versions. So just because OpenTable has an easy-to-use, especially useful website does not mean that would carry over to the app.

In this case, however, those fears were unfounded as the OpenTable folks have delivered a perfect, simple, and elegant app. Like its online parent, the OpenTable app lets you make restaurant reservations. And while the website can sometimes feel cluttered and a little hard to navigate, the app offers the bare minimum. There are no bells and whistles; but in this case, you don't need them.

The OpenTable app makes it incredibly easy to use your phone to make a restaurant reservation – be it for tonight in Boston, or six months down the road in San Francisco. After registering (or logging in with an existing account), you simply pick a location, a date, and time. Once you enter that data, a list of available times at various eateries come up and finishing the reservation is just a couple of clicks away.

There's nothing fancy about this app. It doesn't do much to help you decide between the restaurants (though you can see menus and read reviews from other OpenTable customers). You can also get directions by accessing the Maps app from the OpenTable app, but none of that is the point. This is an app that lets you make a reservation in a few simple clicks and it does that fabulously well.

OpenTable also has a rewards system tied into your account where you get points for every reservation you make and keep. Those points can be traded in for gift cards good at any OpenTable restaurant. Since the app offers a useful service without offering a kickback, the rewards system is simply icing on an already delicious cake.

By Kristi Palma
Boston.com staff

Reviewing: Kids Trucks: Puzzles - An animated truck puzzle game for toddlers, preschoolers, and young children
By: Scott Adelman
Available on: Android
Price: Free
Should you get it? Yes

My 3-year-old daughter loves puzzles.

She will sit on the floor and do the same puzzle over and over again - putting it together, breaking it apart, putting it together, breaking it apart.

So you can imagine her delight over this animated puzzle app we recently downloaded on my Kindle Fire.

She doesn't even care that this app features trucks instead of princesses. What she cares about is the variety of puzzles offered all in one place (she loves to scroll through and choose them as much as she loves to do them) and the bonus of seeing the puzzle come to life after she's moved the last piece into place. Not only that, but little paint bubbles erupt when she finishes one, which she can pop with her finger. Her old-school cardboard puzzles certainly can't offer that!

The app features 13 different puzzles in the form of trucks, shapes, and numbers. The trucks and numbers have little eyeballs, to which my daughter Paige likes to say: "They're looking at their friends!"

This is a very simple app. Children drag a shape from the left side of the screen and fit it into the scene on the right side of the screen.

"See, mom?" said Paige after completing a puzzle. "It's easy!"

And it's easy to choose the puzzle you want to do or navigate back or forward through the puzzles if you change your mind.

But while my 3-year-old may delight in easy, her 6-year-old older brother gets bored. This game is geared for kids age 1 to 6 and may lose the interest of kids on the upper end of that range.

By Daniel B. Kline
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: SkyDrive
By: Microsoft
Available on: iPhone, Windows Phone, Android
Price: Free
Should you get it?: Yes, if your main computer is a PC.

Microsoft and Apple have worked together at various points, but it's usually a union full of mistrust.

In the past - before the iPod, iPhone, and iPad - Apple needed Microsoft. But in recent years, Microsoft has fallen behind its hipper competitor. Neither Microsoft nor Apple has ever seemed to want to work together. Even when Microsoft creates a version of its Office software for Mac users, both sides seem a little disgusted to need each other.

SkyDrive, however, is Microsoft admitting that some people will use Windows-based PCs, but refuse to adopt Windows phones or the Surface Tablet. Instead, these users will embrace Apple iOS or Android-powered products.

A few years ago, Microsoft would have made it hard on those users, forcing them to find workarounds to move their files between operating systems. SkyDrive, the generic name for Microsoft’s cloud-based storage product, shows that those times have changed and that the Windows-maker understands that it must allow users easy access to their files even on devices running competing operating systems.

The SkyDrive app (tested on an iPhone 4S) allows easy access to stored Windows files. In my case, the files were mostly Word documents created on a Microsoft Surface RT and pictures taken on a Windows phone. The SkyDrive app made those files readily available on my iPhone in a basic, easy-to-understand file folder structure.

Unfortunately, available is all that they were as the SkyDrive app does not offer the Web-based editing services the Web version of the product offers. To edit a Word or Excel document through the app, iPhone users must also have an app that allows for editing that file type. And even though there are lots of options for apps that allow for that, not having basic in-app editing tools in the SkyDrive app is disappointing.

Of course, Windows phones come pre-installed with a mobile version of Office, so this won't be a problem if you are one of the few who have one. Still, the SkyDrive app lets you read documents or forward them to another device – not perfect, but still useful. And if you have any of the apps that let you open Office files in iOS, you'll have full editing access and SkyDrive becomes an even better product.

By Daniel B. Kline
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Pandora
By: Pandora
Available on: iPhone, Android
Price: Free (paid version available without ads for $3.99 a month)
Should you get it? Yes

Pandora knows my musical tastes better than I do.

The app/website works off a simple premise: Tell it an artist or two whose songs you like, and Pandora feeds you music it thinks you will enjoy. Give a song a "thumbs up," and Pandora serves you more like it. Give a "thumbs down," and not only does the song stop playing, but Pandora knows to steer its choices away from that type of music.

I signed up for Pandora after downloading the free app in the iTunes store on an iPhone 4S. After a simple registration, I built a "radio station" by inputting a few bands I liked, starting with Buffalo Tom, The Lemonheads, The Replacements, and John Hiatt. Pandora used that info to start serving me songs from those artists and others its extensive database thought I would like.

Even the initial mix was pretty good, delivering me cuts from my selected artists along with some songs I had never heard, but liked. Yes, I gave the thumbs down when there was a little too much Weezer and my selection of Hiatt led to a bit too much country for my taste, but the choices were 80% accurate, and Pandora learned my tastes very quickly.

Since I had a free, not paid, account, Pandora served an audio ad every six songs or so and the app had plenty of graphic-based ads that got in the way when I glanced down while driving to see what song was playing. Non-paying customers also have a limit on how many songs they can skip in an hour. (A Pandora subscription offers an ad-free experience for $3.99 a month.)

Pandora has almost no learning curve. It's a very simple app to use, and while I appreciate that it gave me songs by my favorite artists, I also enjoyed that the app exposed me to bands and artists I was unfamiliar with whose work I now plan to explore further. This piece actually elevates Pandora above other music services as it does not merely play a mix of stuff I already like; it broadens my musical horizons in a way that rarely happens to a 39-year-old guy who never listens to music radio (and who wouldn't like much of what gets played anyway).

By Kristi Palma
Boston.com staff

Reviewing: Fruit Ninja Free
By: Halfbrick Studios Pty Ltd
Available on: Android
Price: Free
Should you get it? Yes

My kids love fruit. And they love ninjas. So I figured a game called "Fruit Ninja Free" would be right up their alley. And I was right.

I downloaded it for free on my Kindle Fire. It's not new, but it's new to us. The point of the game is to slash fruit with your finger as it flies across the screen. You can choose from three different modes: arcade (fast-paced), classic (no timer), and zen (no bombs = "peaceful and relaxing" ninja action). My kids love the fast-moving arcade mode because of the power-up bananas. They love bananas. And these special glowing bananas do things like double your points and send eruptions of more fruit.

When I read the reviews for this app, the biggest complaint was all the ads on the free version. But I haven't found the ads to be too intrusive. Sure, an ad pops up now and again. But my little gamers know how to hit "skip" quickly and make them go away.

At 3 years old, my daughter takes joy in the simpler aspects of this game. The graphics are pretty good. She loves the splatter action and giggles when the juicy-sounding fruit - watermelons, coconuts, strawberries, and more - splatter on the wall after she cuts them. I mean, c'mon, kids love making a mess with food (even a virtual mess!).

Now my son, who is almost 6, pays attention to the points. He has this technique where he scribbles on the screen with his pointer finger to slice multiple fruit at the same time, which scores combos and earns bonus points. But he has to watch out for the bombs mixed in! If he hits those, they will subtract 10 points.

There are more levels to this game that my young kids haven't used and that adults and older kids probably enjoy. Fruit Ninja Free offers OpenFeint support, which lets you post your scores online. You can go into the dojo and unlock swag with enough points. There are fun facts about fruit. You can find your friends by importing them from Facebook.

But my kids simply love slashing fruit.

And that works for me when I'm stuck waiting at the doctor's office and need something to keep them happy and still.

By Robert S. Davis
Globe Staff

Reviewing: 360 Panorama
By: Occipital
Price: 99 cents
Platforms: Available on iOS (tested on iPhone and iPad) and Android
Should you get it?: Yes.

From a viewer's perspective, there are few things more dramatic and immersive than a panoramic photograph. But for photographers, the production of such sweeping images can be an onerous task that at first required specialty cameras and film as well as time and expertise.

Digital photography facilitated production, allowing photographers to stitch together many photos in an image editor or via a camera's built-in software. And now app-laden smartphones that rival the image quality of point-and-shoot cameras make producing stunning panoramas easier than ever.

At 99 cents, Occipital's 360 Panorama app offers iOS and Android users a powerful tool to create not only standard panoramic photos, but truly immersive, 360-degree images with sweeping views from sky to shoes. Image quality is often excellent and the app offers several options for sharing photos.

By Eric Bauer
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Ad Hawk
By: Sunlight Foundation
Price: Free
Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
Should you get it?: Only if you're not already turned off by politics

We're all sick of campaign ads.

But let's face it, for the next few weeks you won't be able to avoid them unless you disconnect your TV, radio, computer, and phone. Your best defense against this political blitzkrieg is to be aware and informed.

Or so believe the makers of Ad Hawk, a free app that identifies the campaign ad you're listening to and tells you who's behind it, where their money comes from, and where they stand politically.

It relies on technology similar to Shazam, the hall of fame app that identifies the song you're listening to, and using it couldn't be simpler.

By Rachel Raczka
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Epicurious
By: Conde Nast Digital
Price: Free
Platforms: Tested on iPhone, available for iPad, Android, Nook Color, Windows Phone, and Kindle Fire
Should you get it?: Yes.

Let me preface this review by saying: I cook a lot. And I bake more than I cook. So I spent a fair amount of time using this app. But don't let that scare you away; I recommend the app for the experienced cook as well as the kitchen novice.

Touted as a portable version of the popular website that proclaims it's "for people who love to eat," the Epicurious app features the same seemingly endless supply of recipes sourced from the Conde Nast treasure trove of the likes of Bon Appetit, Self, and Gourmet magazines.

By Joel Abrams
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: [WordHero]
By: SVEN Studios
Price: Free
Platforms: Android
Should you get it?: Yes, if you want to heroically swipe words

As the Schoolhouse Rock song about zero taught me many years ago, there are all kinds of heroes. A word hero is apparently someone who can find words in a four-by-four grid and quickly swipe them. The mind boggles at this definition.

Playing [WordHero], you test the speed of your brain and your fingers against hundreds of people around the world, all looking for as many words as possible in the same arrangement of letters.

The app puts you in a league based on your average score, so beginners don't end up competing against folks with freakishly large vocabularies. The app does validate your words against a dictionary that is quite sizable.