It’s beginning to look a lot like review time… EVVERYWHERE I look! …. Okay, that was I think maybe the single lamest and most festive segway (ever) in to this week’s app review. Today we’re going to be looking at “Christmas List” by Better Day Wireless! As I am a Holiday nut, and frequent shopper, I was really anticipating the amount of use that I’d get out of this application.

I’d first like to praise Better Day Wireless on their use of every little function in this app. You really take it from something very small to big. You’re able to see how many days you have left until the big day, how much of your set budget that you’ve met and how much you’re saving throughout. These are just a few things among the many!

First, let’s look at the main screen, and as you can see, there is not a lot going on and everything is pretty simple. I have a few gifts listed here that I purchased for my family. From there you can really not only organize your shopping but your pre-Christmas organization. This way there is no, “Did I wrap Dad’s present?” Or the, “Oh wait, I won’t be able to see Erin on Christmas, did I ship her gift?” With a quick tap of the finger I can settle any doubts by reminding myself that I’ve not only purchased the gift of an Xbox 360 for Erin, but that I’ve also wrapped and shipped it.

By now, I know what you’re thinking, there’s can’t be more to a “Christmas list” app. But as I commended them on before, there is, and it’s quite beautiful. If you are thinking that, prepare to have your mind blown! BDW (Going to keep calling them this from now on) puts out a very handy budget tab. On this tab, as you can see I’ve set limits on how much I want to spend on a specific gift, and then either how much I’ve spent or if I’ve spent anything on that. Using Microsoft Excel-like formulas, we have both totals added up to see how much we’re spending and how much we’re saving (or going over board) on our original budgets. Which, I think is brilliant in today’s economy. What’s worse than maxing out your credit card on Christmas gifts when you’ve set a budget it? Realizing that you’re going to be paying that card off until next Christmas. Having a budget in tact and sticking to it is going to be mighty helpful! All Santa and elf jokes aside, this is on hefty helper when it comes to money management and saving yourself a few extra dollars around the holiday season so that you can send you favorite review blogger a special something this Christmas (*cough* Ronnie Brown jersey anybody? *cough*)

So let’s talk about the MAIN feature of this bad boy. ADDING PRESENTS! Who doesn’t love getting presents? I love getting them any day of the week. This year you’re buying your 4-year old nephew a bunch of Power Ranger related gifts! I just generalized his gifts into “Power Rangers” but I ended up spending about $30 on a movie, some action figures, and a book bag + lunch box set (on clearance). My only hope for an update is that the add the ability to search for a gift online somewhere and you can link it directly back to the app so that there is a picture or at least some more information on said gift. Could just me being giddy over Christmas gifts, but I like knowing every single thing about something I buy or receive.

Another good feature in this holiday humdinger is the ability to edit present lists and leave notes for your self. Maybe you’ve pre-ordered Inglourious Basterds on blu-ray for your brother and you want to say that it IS a pre-order and it won’t be hear until December 16th or so. You can note that. Or maybe you want to go crazy and silly and say, “Now that Erin has a 360 to play on, she can get her butt kicked by me!” You can do whatever your heart desires. From this screen you can edit the gifts status (Bought, Wrapped, and/or Shipper), the budget and amount spent, and even the title. The feature may not be a frequently used one, but it’s essential nonetheless. Maybe in a pinch (like I ran in to) you wanted to buy your brother a World Series Yankees jersey that had Derek Jeter or Johnny Damon on it and when you get to the store you learn that they’ve been sold out since early November. Just go in, tap tap tap, and you’ve changed that special jersey to a Yankees hat. It’s THAT simple, I kid you not.

The last page to report on is probably the easiest to function around and also the one that requires the least amount of effort to do so. I know people that have made a collage of pictures, typed up very elaborate lists on the computer, and have even recorded their Christmas shopping list so that they know what they want to get for people. Here in the application world, we have it all setup for us! If you add a gift to your main list and don’t mark it as “bought” it will automatically be placed on your Shopping List until you’ve purchased it. No intricate little text fields or crazy buttons to press on this page. When the app does everything for you, all you have to do is marvel at it with sparkly eyes and rosy red cheeks!

It’s at this point that I’m glad to finally say that this is the reason I have been giddy as a school boy all week! You can view a gallery of other screen shots below the score. For now, let’s get down to the nitty gritty and see how it scores among other apps.

Look and Feel: The overall design, for such a festive holiday, is not all that festive. Sure there are a few “Christmassy” icons and colors but I’m a Christmas nerd, I expect more! But if we’re grading this respectively, I’ll be honest… all Christmas aside, this is a pretty good application design. Nothing is too OUT THERE, but we’re not dealing with a dull black & white design. In scoring it, I’d give it about a 6/10!

Ease of Use: The ease of this app is beyond astounding. Easiest app to use that I’ve encountered so far! I can’t even say anything bad about it. As I mentioned, I thought it’d be neat and cool to be able to link a gift to an online website of your choosing so that you can click the link and it’ll take you to Safari or whatever browser app you use so that you can see it’s full info. That’d be such an easy feature to use; though, I’m not too sure how easy it would (or will) be to code that in to the application itself. Ease of use gets a great score of 8.5/10!!!

The Good, The Bad, and the WTF: We’ve run in to all of the good parts. The good thing is that with all of the easy use and design to this, you’ll be a happy camper. The bad news is that I’m sure everybody who uses this app could think of something to ADD to it. I know I sure as heck did. I thought of a lot that I’d like to send private to BDW so that my ideas aren’t stolen by you crrrazy readers! I kid. I do have a few good ideas on how they could develop this app in to something totally (MORE) amazing! The WTF portion of this system is putting out a 7.5/10.

Total Score
73/100

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Review written by Chris of ToTheGalaxy.com. If you’d like to submit a product, application, film, or anything for him to review please visit his contact page for more information as to how you may properly reach him. With that in mind, thank you for taking the time to read this review of “Christmas List” by Better Day Wireless and here’s to hoping your holiday season goes smoothly, safely, and surpasses your expectations. Enjoy!