Interesting: iPhone App: Crosswords
= 5 stars
Crosswords is an iPhone app that has proved well worth the $9.99 price. Puzzles come from several websites (Houston Chronicle, Thinks.com, New York Sun, NY Times Classic, Wall Street Journal, Sydney Morning Herald, The Onion, Village Voice, Sydney Morning Cryptic, Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday, and the Chronicle of Higher Education) and a keyboard and clue interface lets you solve them by tapping on the iPhone screen.
The Good
- New puzzles are available through the Internet, and are free.
- A good amount of thought in regards to usability, making the puzzles workable on the small iPhone screen. You can flip through clues using the right and left arrows, and switch between across to down by tapping on the clue. There’s also a master list of all the puzzles with a progress indicator.
- There are several “views” giving many options to tackle a puzzle. Tilting the iPhone to its side displays clues in a column on the right that you can scroll through. There’s also a “clue” view in which you can just see all the clues in a list without the puzzle.
- Various hint types are available, easing frustration.
The Bad
- The small screen ocasionally feels rather cramped, especially with long words. It’s hard to get an overview of an entire puzzle at a glance.
Conclusion
If you’re used to doing crosswords in the traditional manner, this app takes some getting used to, but I’ve found it well worth the effort, as it provides an unlimited amount of puzzles in a pocket without the crumpled-up newpaper and pencil mess. I’ve gotten comfortable enough that I can fiddle with a crossword using one hand and my thumb to page through clues and poke at the keyboard. All in all, it’s easily worth the $10.
Note: There’s also a free version called “Crosswords Lite” that you can try out before ponying up for the $10 version.
iTunes App Store Link: 
Both Crosswords and 2 Across came out with demo versions of their respective crosswords apps.
2 Across seems to have better reviews, but after using both for this past week (while traveling), I’ve opted for the more expensive “Crosswords” (which you have reviewed above).
I much prefer the Crosswords UI to the 2 Across interface. It’s much easier to use and much more elegant. The 2 Across interface is not immediately intuitive (to me) and required some extra “trial and error” to figure out. Additionally, entering your responses in 2 Across is cumbersome and requires a couple of extra clicks (since the keyboard is not always present onscreen). I think 2 Across gets a lot of fans on account of its price as well as the ability to view the entire puzzle onscreen at once (which I don’t think is so important).
Anyway, I’m loving this app. I think it’s well worth the 10 bucks.
I’m thinking the iPhone may get me back into “portable gaming”…but instead of getting me into portable gaming via cutting edge stuff (a la the psp), it’ll be via crossword puzzles!
Hey Dave, you know what — I came to pretty much the exact same
conclusion as you. I bought the 2 Across app just to check it out, and
have a review slated in a few days, which notes that I prefer
Crosswords. I think the kicker is 2 Across uses the standard iPhone
keyboard which takes up more space than Crosswords (looks like they
designed their own keyboard), making it harder to see the puzzle in 2
Across… anyhow, more details when that review goes up…
[…] of fairness I checked out 2 Across, another crossword puzzle iPhone app. It’s cheaper than Crosswords yet promises to do the same thing — download crossword puzzles from the web and let you solve them, […]
Nice write up and good site layout
regards
free online puzzle game
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