iScopes: An app to live your life by.

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iscopes_icon_small First, let me say definitively that I do not believe in astrology. The alignment of the planets and stars does not, I believe, create a message with special significance to people based on their birthdays.

That said, I’ve had quite a few eerily specific and accurate horoscopes in the past, and though I am a logical person I tend to be unnecessarily superstitious. I always remember to make fun of myself later, though, so it’s a nice balance.

What's your sign?

iScopes is free, hence it is on my phone. I would never pay money for an astrological app. Nor should you. But whenever I am in a predicament or need some (broad and vague) advice, it’s nice to have an app to turn to with some horoscope-y goodness.

When I downloaded iScopes, it was the only horoscope app I could find that was 100% free. Looking at the iTunes store now, though, it seems there are quite a few free astrology apps. I can’t do a comparison as I haven’t yet tried these others, but I think I will soon. iScopes leaves a little to be desired.

Pick your poison.

Let’s start with the good. The interface is spiffy, with the home screen made of a big wheel you flick through to get to your sign. Once you choose a sign, you have a list of different, pointed horoscopes depending on who you are and what kind of advice you need. It includes options like: Daily Overview, Daily Extended, Daily Single’s Love, Daily Couple’s love, Daily Teen, Flirt, Work, Quickie, Gay, Lesbian, etc. This is by far the best thing about the app. There is a horoscope element to the Pocket Express app, but it is very short, simple, and straightforward. With this, I can check out horoscopes for nearly any question, state-of-mind, and life situation. Another cool feature is that it lets you look at yesterday’s and tomorrow’s horoscopes–you know, so you can gauge how “off” they were (or dread the future, as the case may be).

Now let’s move to the bad. If you are accessing the app on the Edge Network (and possibly 3G–I wouldn’t know, I have the other iPhone), you will notice a substantial lag when opening the app. You can’t even move into your specific sign without waiting for at least a few seconds, or much longer if you have a bad connection. This is very annoying. Once you are in, though, there is no lag at all. The only explanation I can surmise is that the app loads all its data at the onset. This is quite a waste considering I am usually attempting to check only one horoscope from one sign. It would be a good idea for the developers to create a more user-friendly “Load as You Go” approach. But I’m not a software developer; all I can say is the sucker is slow to open.

Nice pick, HAL9000.

The next big problem should be a no-brainer with a writing-based app: spelling, grammar, and punctuation. iScopes must not have an editor. Come on, guys, even our little site has an editor. I can’t tell you how many times I have had trouble piecing together fragmented sentences or re-reading horoscopes to decipher meaning. And when the “all-knowing” horoscope misspells simple words, it’s hard to take the advice seriously. [Yeah, it totally ruins the believability. -ed.]

Overall, there is room for significant improvement, but the app is a good start. I am hoping to load a few more (free) horoscope apps in the near future and let our constant readers know how they compare.

According to my ’scope today, “People are coming to you practically all day looking for answers.”