Apple applications reviews: Tip or Skip; Amazon Instant Video

Tip or Skip

In the early 2000s, there was a website called Hot or Not that gave users two simple choices for rating the attractiveness of total strangers.

Now imagine if you took that concept and added a dash of Pinterest, and you’d have Tip or Skip.

This social shopping game — started by two men who have been friends since the second grade — shows you pictures of user-submitted products, asks you to say yay or nay, then gives you the option to share your opinions to Facebook.

Recommending an item means you have to spend your limited social currency, known as “sway,” to share the item. If other people also tip the things you like, you earn sway. Players can upload their own photos with URLs of where to buy the items or link back to retailer websites.

The app is a fun tool for discovery, but be warned: You have to earn sway from others to keep playing, so fans will likely be roping in their friends by the dozen. Free, for iOS devices.

Amazon Instant Video

Amazon’s Instant Video service — which showcases free and paid shows — has steadily been building out its catalog, but its player format had so far kept it from the most popular tablet on the market.

With the release of a new app last week, Amazon has brought its video service to the iPad, with mixed results. Playback through the app is smooth and easy to navigate, but the same is not true of the app at large.

Amazon has broken its content into categories, but has thus far neglected to include a search function or a viewing history function, making it frustrating to find exactly what you want.

It’s also worth mentioning that users with an Amazon Prime membership ($79 per year) will get much more out of the app than those without. Free, for iPad.