version 1.2.1

FREE!

AppZapp has been around for quite a while and has brought us apps like “Do Not Press The Red Button”, and many more. They have somewhere around 20 apps in their catalog for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, and they have released a new app to try and sort through it all: Discover the App Store.

AppZapp has released a new app to easily guide you through the AppStore. “Discover the App Store“ is an easy walk through all the apps has to offer, with a simple easy interface. AppZapp also has a “PriceAlarm“ function, that will always inform you of sales or promotions of certain apps you love. You just set up a free account, and select the Apps you want to monitor.

“Discover the App Store” is a great tool to help you find what your looking for in the App Store. It features the same great descriptions and details you’ve come to know from the App Store. It supports App Stores in the US, UK, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

AppZapp Features:
- App offers, free apps and new apps at a glance
- Detailed overview of the apps with pictures and videos
- The feature “Preisalarm“ informs you about markdowns of selected apps
- Watch list for apps
- All changes and updates at a glance
- Browse through all the AppStore categories
- Top 100 list of the most popular apps, sorted by “iPhone“, “iPad“, “Paid“ and “Free“ Apps
- Browse the various AppStores
- Price chart history for each app (30/60/90 days)
- Share Apps via Facebook / Twitter / SMS / eMail

This is a great app for monitoring the App Store. Something the is missing from the actual App Store. Being able to keep an eye on certain apps that you may find a little pricey, and know when there are going on sale, is a terrific feature, that will probably never be included by Apple. The “Changes and Updates at a glance” feature is great, if you’re interested in knowing what has recently been updated, or want to ignore updates and focus on new releases only. Seeing as this app is free, there is no reason we cannot recommend this app.

You can get AppZapp: Discover the App Store now for free, in the App Store. Get it now!

© 2010, Davidh. All rights reserved.

Version 1.3

Review – “A highly developed application that is visually stunning. You’ll open it just to look at it!”

Weather Machine, developed by Massimiliano Torregiani, is gorgeous for starters. It looks nothing like the other weather applications out there. But that is not where it ends. Built within this application is most everything you want to know on a day by day basis when planning your daily or weekly adventures. A very intuitive application with a great interface means it will be something that you will continuously rely on for daily information.

Before I get into the features I *highly* recommend watching the tutorial and reading the hints at start up. There is so much information built into this that if you don’t know how to find it you will miss out on some great information!

Also, this app has numerous ways that you can get to your information. For example, to go through the days you can flip through the pages on the main window, you can click an icon at the bottom, or you can turn the device upside down. It’s very obvious that a lot of work has gone into this application!

Some of the features built into this application are:

- Current Conditions: Temperature, Humidity, Wind Speed, Precipitation Percentage, Visibility, Dew Point, etc. The app also shows a notification if there are any weather alerts for your area.

- Hourly Forecast, including temperature, wind, % of precipitation, and humidity:

- Viewing option to see a day in quarters, or see an extended outlook for multiple days:

- Lunar and Solar Details: Rise and Set for each, moon phase

- Satellite and Radar information:

There is a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to find everything, but once you do the program is easy to navigate through.

My suggestions for this app are that I’d like to see push notifications available as a feature in futures releases because many people, like myself value push notifications for those emergency weather situations.

In addition, if we could zoom in and out of the radars that would be a great asset. I personally like to see the extents of a weather system so I’ll know how long it’s going to last and that’s not always possible without the ability to zoom.

Once you set this application up and learn your way around it, you’ll instantly fall in love with it, both for how impressive it is graphically, and how much information it provides. Adding those two features will make this weather app one that will be hard to compete with!

This app is currently on sale in the App Store, 50% off it’s regular price, so I’d advise getting it while it’s on sale. You will be impressed! More information on this application can be found on the developer’s website, http://www.maxtorregiani.net/wm/Overview.html.

- Christina G

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© 2010, ChristinaG. All rights reserved.

The Weather Channel Max ($3.99)

Version 1.76

REVIEW – “The most informative and powerful weather app you will ever need”

Personally I have never really considered needing another weather app besides the one that is automatically loaded onto the iPhone. But I must admit that The Weather Channel Max is pretty cool.

The app has the basic info with current weather with all the usual information that you could ever ask which is followed by hourly weather, 36 hour forecast and the 10 day forecast. It even includes beach conditions, great for those of us in Orlando and on Spring Break!

But then the app continues to get interesting. By clicking Explore Map you can get a map that shows you the current and upcoming weather conditions in an updating map. It was just cool seeing the rain come in, even though it was sad to see such great weather get ruined by rain. The map was very interesting because it allowed me to see exactly what the conditions were like exactly where I am.

It even includes weather forecast videos for my area which allowed me to get real information without having to wait around for the news forecast. Though I did have the problem that if I watched the video, the audio would automatically play whenever I opened the app. I found this slightly annoying when I really had no interest in a weather forecast narration.

The app even includes severe weather alerts that can be accessed within the app or you can have them set as push notifications so that you can always be kept in the loop about the weather.

I honestly thought this app was a great tool to have, and it will probably keep me better informed about the weather than I have ever been because I rarely focus on anything beyond the current temperature and whether or not it is going to rain.

Even if thought that a simple weather app was enough, you might want to look into this app because it really takes weather apps to a whole new level and the amount of extra features available is rather amazing.

Stephanie S.

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Developer – The Weather Channel Interactive

© 2010, StephanieS. All rights reserved.

GrooveMaker D’n’B ($9.99)

Version – 1.0.1

REVIEW – “Create your own unique groove!”

Have you always wanted to create music even though you’re not really a musician?  Or maybe you are a musician and you just want to quickly create a new groove to listen too.  Well IK Multimedia may have just the tool for you!  GrooveMaker comes in several different versions. There is a free addition with just enough music to get you interested, and then there are several others. The version that I reviewed is called “GrooveMaker D’n’B”  and features “D’n’B” style grooves.

When you first open this app up you will be asked to register, which is a fairly quick and painless process.  By registering with the developer’s website you actually receive an extra set of grooves as well so it is definitely worth it!  Once you have registered all you have to do is select a song to get started.  If it is the first time you have opened that song it will take a few seconds to unpack all of the samples, but after that first time it just takes a few seconds to get started.

Once you’ve selected a song to work with you are taken to the main editing screen.  In the center of the screen you will see the currently selected “samples” that you have selected.  This can be anywhere from 1 to 8 different samples at the same time.  At the bottom of the screen are three light gray buttons that you use to edit which “samples” are selected and being played.

Once you have set up all the samples that you want to have playing you can set it as one of your “groove’s” by pushing the “Groove Snap” button.  Once you have several of these “groove’s” you can set them up to play in any order you want to make a complete song!  There are several buttons on the right side of the screen that will generate random mixes.  These buttons are labeled “Mix A” through “Mix D” and they will generate different types of grooves. You can even set how many tracks that these special mixes will have assigned within them by touching the “Prefs” button on the left side of the screen.

Tempo is easily controlled in this app by tapping the “Tempo” button in the bottom right corner in the rhythm that you want the tempo to be set at.  You can also bring up a scroll wheel and “+” and “-“ buttons for more accuracy by holding down the tempo button  until they show up just above it.  You can set a wide variety of tempos everywhere from 16 bpm to 320 bpm.

The quality of the samples in this app are pretty good, and it was extremely easy to play around and create different sounds with very little effort on my part.  One of the things that this app does the best is make itself easy to get started with, but without sacrificing to many of the “nitpicky” features that make apps like this fun for musicians.  If you are a casual musician, or even if you just like playing with computer generated music, this app will offer you hours of endless entertainment.  So what are you waiting for?  Check out the “GrooveMaster” titles for iPhone and iPod Touch, and begin by downloading GrooveMaster D’n’B today!

- David H.

Download FREE VERSION Now!

Download FULL VERSION Now! ($9.99)

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Developer – IK Multimedia

URL: http://www.groovemaker.com/home/

DEVELOPERS NOTES

Download FREE VERSION Now!

Download FULL VERSION Now! ($9.99)

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© 2009, Davidh. All rights reserved.

Weather Globe 3d ($.99)

Version 1.0

REVIEW – “A great little app for travelers but not enough features for the average person”

I have yet to put a weather app on my iphone and I really liked the look of this one. It has a unique idea but its limitations keep it from being a good app for the everyday person. While it looks cool and loads quickly most people will not find weather information that applies to them  (me included!).

When you first open the app you are graced with the look of a globe covered in little weather icons that indicate the weather for that city. Simply use your finger to circumnavigate the globe and find the location that you are looking for. Use two fingers to zoom in and out just like you would using Safari web browser.

Want to know the weather in Alice Springs, Australia? How about Magadan in the Russian Federation? Or maybe even Addis Abeba, Ethiopia? Well this app will give you those locations and many more which makes it great for someone who spends their time traveling to place to place. It quickly and easily allows you to find the general weather in many of the main cities in a variety of countries.

This is all well and good but once you return home it’s unlikely that the app will apply to your hometown. Many major cities are represented but as can be expected no where near all of them. For example, my hometown of Orlando is not located here, but rather the closest city is Tampa. Knowing the weather an hour or so away is not exactly the most helpful if I am deciding whether or not to hit the beach.

If the city you are in or are heading to is represented then you get a quick and easy view of the weather as well as a forecast for the week. The interface works quickly and works great which is something that I like quite a bit. The other interesting feature is that this app does not require a wifi connection, rather it will load from a cache.

The app also includes a moon feature which allows you to see what phase the moon is in, how old it is and how bright it will be in the night sky. It is a nice little feature that I appreciated.

Overall I love the interface of this app and the fact that it works quickly. I hope that the updates will include more cities and some more features. The only problem is that once the updates are released the price will go up, so you may want to pick this app up now and look forward to what the future brings to it.

-Stephanie S.

Download Now!

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Developer – Quantum Singularity Apps

URL: http://qiphone.blogspot.com/

DEVELOPER NOTES

#New# Sale!!!
Lots of cool features coming!
Get it before the next update as the price will go up again afterwards!!!

WeatherGlobe3D is a great way to view the weather all over the world with more than 700+ cities included!
It provides a quick and easy way to do so with a good amount of 3D eye candy to make this trivial task more fun!
The loading time is next to nothing and you can view the weather even when your iPhone/iPod touch has no connection to the Internet with it’s innovative cache mechanism! Heavily optimized for mobile connections to provide a fast response and minimum data traffic!

Features:

- Fast loading time less than 2 secs.
- Mobile connection optimized, less than 1KByte per request!
- View the weather with a simple touch on the city of interest.
- More than 700+ cities.
- Current and 5 days weather forecast with weather type, temperature, humidity and wind direction.
- 3D representation of Earth.- Great controls using touch, move and pinch.
- World Clock for all included cities.
- Sunrise and Sunset times for all included cities.
- Innovative cache mechanism for offline viewing.
- View of Moon’s current phase and info.
- GPS Support, view the weather in your current location.
- Localization, view Fahrenheit or Celsius based on you device’s localization selected.

Download Now!

© 2009, StephanieS. All rights reserved.

WeatherBug Elite ($0.99)

Version – 1.0

REVIEW – “Detailed weather without the ads!”

How would you like detailed weather information and forcasts delivered directly to your phone?  What if I told you that you would also be able to view several different types of radar, view a video forcast, and see pictures from your local weather cams?  Well what if I told you that you could have all this and more with no ads and it would only cost you $0.99?  Well now you can with WeatherBug Elite!

When you open this app you are taken to the overview screen.  In the upper left corner is a little house icon that takes you to an area where you can add locations that you would like to be able to check weather on regularly.  In this paid app you can have an unlimited amount of these locations saved.  This main overview or “Conditions” page shows you the current temperature, wind chill, humidity, dew point, wind speed and a variety of other things.

At the bottom of the screen is a menu with four other buttons to take you to different areas.  The other four areas are “Forcast,” “Maps,” “Video,” and “Camera.”  The “Forcast” tab allows you to not only view the projected highs, lows and weather conditions for the week, but also to look at projected hourly forcasts as well!

One of the best features of this app that is not in the free version is the “layers” and animations that you can view in the “Maps” area.  At the top of the maps screen you will see several buttons.  The one just to the right of the house button allows you to set how transparent the “layers” are.  The option to the right of that one will set what layers that you see on the map.  There are three different types of layers: Observations, Radar and Satellite, and Forcast.  You can view one item from these sections at a time or a combination of one from each section at the same time.  This allows you to see a graph of things like tomorrow’s projected high temperatures, current humidity or windspeed and current radar readings.

Another great feature of the “Elite” app is the ability to drop a “pin”anywhere and get current weather information for that specific area.  This allows you to check things like humidity, windspeed, wind chill and dew point in the exact area that you are looking at!

As far as other features go, the video feature is kind of nice.  It does not offer local video’s though, just one video that covers the entire United States.  The “Camera” feature is very nice though.  It allows you to see various weather camera stills and even a stop animation from the last few hours!

The information in this app is presented well and is easy to view.  Even just the fact that this app is ad-free is enough justification to go out and spend $0.99 on this app.  With all of the added functionality to the maps this app becomes simply a must have.  If you like to keep tabs on the weather at all times you simply cannot go wrong with WeatherBug Elite.  So what are you waiting for?  Head to the App Store and download WeatherBug Elite today!

- David H.

Download FREE VERSION Now!

Download FULL VERSION Now! ($0.99)

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Developer – AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc.

URL: http://weather.weatherbug.com/mobile/iphone-weather-apps.html

DEVELOPERS NOTES

Download FREE VERSION Now!

Download FULL VERSION Now! ($0.99)

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© 2009, Davidh. All rights reserved.

 Weatherbug (Free)

Version 1.2

REVIEW – “WeatherBug Lets You Stay on Top of the Weather, Good or Bad”

Weather junkies rejoice – WeatherBug will give you all the info you want and need, plus more.

When you first fire up WeatherBug, you will be greeted with all the basic (and not so basic) information you need. You’ll see the temperature, rainfall and wind speed. If it’s hot, you’ll see a heat index (or wind-chill factor in the winter season) and the humidity and dew point. You’ll also see a forecast for today.

But (and not to sound like an infomercial) that’s not all. Tap on “forecast” and you can see the forecast for a week. The app uses your current location to provide all this information, but you can change that if you wish. Tap on “maps” and you can see a radar map of your location. You can move your finger across the screen to see weather maps for anywhere you wish, including Canada and Mexico.

This app uses Microsoft’s Virtual Earth technology to bring you the maps, so they are accessible and usable. Use the guide on the top of the screen to help you decipher what you find (for example, what each color means regarding rainfall).

But it’s not just about radar maps and temperatures. Not at all. You can tap on “video” to see a short video that includes a weather forecast and newsworthy weather events in other areas. Tap on “camera” and you can see up to five weather cameras. This is handy if you know that weather your way is fine, but 30 minutes away it can often be foggy and cold. You can simply look at the camera before you head out to help you determine what to wear, or what car to drive.

Finally, add locations to your WeatherBug app so you can check the weather in whatever location you need to. You can add up to 10 total locations.

- Deb M.

Download Now!

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Developer – Weatherbug.com

URL: http://weather.weatherbug.com/mobile/iphone-weather-apps.html

Developer Notes:

WeatherBug is the only source for truly live, local weather – providing users access to the largest network of professional weather stations in the U.S. and thousands of locations around the world. This version of WeatherBug is a free, ad-supported version that also includes several additional features and enhancements. Look for our premium product — WeatherBug Elite (which is pending approval and will be available in the App Store shortly).

Features:

• Local, live weather conditions and forecasts
• 7-day and hourly forecasts
• National Weather Service (NWS) alerts
• Daily national weather outlook video
• Radar maps with zoom feature
• View live weather cameras (up to 5)
• Fast access to saved locations (up to 10)
• Cached weather data for offline viewing
• Map auto-center function (US only)

Download Now!

© 2009, amy. All rights reserved.

City Wave ($0.99)

REVIEW- “Navigate your world in a revolutionary way!”

City Wave is an interesting new app that combines the GPS capabilities of the iPhone with the latest technology and tidbits that make exploring fun. Upon opening the app, I was asked the usual—iPhone wanted to use my location for the program. I accepted and waited a long time for the app to find my location and start working. While the app was searching for my location, there was a radio static search sound in the background. I hope that developers can add more pleasant background music for future versions as well as make the app’s loading times faster. The interface of the app was simple and intuitive for users. Instead of waiting for what seemed like forever for the app to load a city, I would have liked to be able to enter the information in myself or view popular cities.

I was impressed with the overall theory of the app because it allows users to connect with the world around them in new ways—for example viewing Twitter updates about a specific location is awesome! I also liked that I was able to view the weather conditions in a certain area, even though I could easily do that with the native iPhone Weather app. I think that this app is great for anyone who is exploring major cities and wants to keep updated with what’s important.

I found this app to be useful and important to have when traveling to new locations. If you’ve got the travel bug, this app would be a great addition to all your navigation tools!

-Alyssa Z

 Download Now!

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Developer: Konstantin Gonikman

URL: http://www.kostik.de/citywave

Developer’s Notes

From the developer of “Aromatic”, a compass to the vast world of tea, “City Wave” is your intuitive yet very unusual city guide.

Just point your iPhone 3GS in any direction and see detailed information about found places like current weather conditions or last tweets.

Tap the city name to pause the magnetometer. And don’t forget to stay away from any interference!

Features:

-A clean, intuitive interface with nice sounds and animations

-Database with over 50 main cities around the world

-Lightweight twitter reader

-Choose your metric system (Celcius/Farenheit, Kilometers/Miles)

-Set allowed magnetometer inaccuracy and longest distance to discover

 Download Now!

© 2009, amy. All rights reserved.

The Seasons (Free)

Version – 1.0

        REVIEW – “Do you know what season it is?”

The Seasons is a simple application for the iPhone which does one thing, tell you what the current season is.

Upon launching the app you are shown a screen that resembles a clock except the 12, 3, 6, and 9 are replaced with Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. The single hand on this clock gradually travels around the face throughout the year which gives you a sense of how far along you are in the current season or how soon to expect the next one.

Tapping on any of the 4 seasons will bring up another screen with a little bit of information about the season, nothing terribly profound or that isn’t common knowledge. That is the extent of the app beside a small advertisement at the bottom.

It’s a nice little app to pull up every once and a while to see just how far into the season you are. It kind of resembles a desk clock in its simplicity and its pleasing aesthetics.

-Andrew C.

Download Now!

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Developer – fiddlemeragged

URL – http:/www.fiddlemeragged.com/fiddlemeragged/TheSeasons.html

DEVELOPER NOTES

The Seasons is a simply clock showing you where we are in the calendar of the year.

With one simple click you can get a feeling of where we are in the grand cycle of the season.

(I wrote it for a friend and thought someone else may like its simple, refreshing style)

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© 2009, amy. All rights reserved.

USA TODAY (Free)

REVIEW – “Get News, Weather, Even Gossip With USA TODAY App”

Every now and then an iPhone app comes along that makes the user say “ooh” and “aah” more than once. The USA Today iPhone app is one.

There are reports that the company realized after releasing the app they made a mistake. They realized that people will pay for an app that offers as much information as this one does and that they should not have offered it for free. Fortunately for us, they realized this too late.

The USA TODAY app offers as much as the daily paper does, and more. With this one little tool you can see the international and national headlines, business news, sports scores (which you can filter just to a specific league and sport), and weather.

But USA TODAY offers more than a few headlines. You can also check the weather around the country (and see it on radar maps) and in your current location. You can also look at the national weather radar maps.

You can vote in a daily poll about some topical issue, and see how your results stack up not just against people who voted around the country, but also in your state and city.

And in the spirit of truly putting your iPhone through its paces and letting you see the high quality photos it can display, USA TODAY allows you to scroll through a number of photos each day. These are broken into categories like “day in pictures” and “day in sports”. You can also see the “week in space” through pictures and the “week in travel” through pictures. True to its mission as a paper that offers a little of everything, there even a daily supply of new celebrity photos.

The photos are shown full screen on your iPhone, but if you touch the screen, you can go back and forward and see a caption for the photo. Without the on-screen controls, however, you can scroll through the photos just by swiping your finger across them.

- Deb M.

Download Now!

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Developer: USA TODAY

URL:
http://www.usatoday.com/iphone/

Developer’s Notes:

PLEASE NOTE: The current version (1.1.1) released May 1, is compatible with iPhone OS 3.0. However, previous versions of the USA TODAY iPhone application are not. If you are experiencing problems after an upgrade or restore, please try installing the most recent version from this page.

The latest news stories, sports scores, weather and photos you’ve come to expect from USA TODAY are now available for your iPhone and iPod Touch. Staying informed on te go has never been this quick, easy or enjoyable.

Headlines

–Browse and read stories from News, Money, Sports, Life, Tech and Travel. Stories can be shared via email, text message, Twitter, or Facebook.

Scores

–Review the latest sports scores for NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, college football and college basketball. Filter college scores down to your favorite conferences.

Weather*

–Get live weather conditions, up-to-the minute personal radar and the five day forecast at your current location, or for a set of your favorite locations. Review national weather maps including Doppler radar, temperature and precipitation forecasts.

Pictures

–Flip through the day’s best photos from news, sports, celebrities, science, travel and weather and play them back as a slideshow. Share your favorite photo galleries with friends via email.

USA TODAY Snapshots

–Sacn through USA TODAY Snapshots, and vote on a poll question for each. Review responses from all users and filter the results down to your current state and city*.

*Currently supports U.S. cities only.

Download Now!

© 2009, amy. All rights reserved.

The Weather Channel (Free)

 REVIEW – “Weather Channel App Puts Weather at Your Fingertips”

If you are someone who must know what the weather is where you are and where you’re going, the Weather Channel app is likely a must have.

While the iPhone provides a pre-loaded weather app, that app gives you the temperature right now and for the next few days. You might be provided with suns covered with clouds, or, simply, clouds. But for a weather junkie that might not be enough.

That’s where The Weather Channel app comes into play. This app provides dozens of tidbits about your weather. If you need to know the current wind speed, you can get that here. Think there might be a wind-chill factor? This app will tell you.

For the person who needs to know what’s coming as much as what’s going on right now, The Weather Channel app is a lot like The Weather Channel’s website. You can see weather for the next 36 hours and the next 10 days. You can also read any special weather advisories for your location.

What makes this app particularly fun is its usability. If you’re going on a trip, add the cities that you’ll be visiting. You can see what the weather is like now and when you arrive there.

Did we say weather junkie? How about this fun feature: You can see your location a map, and choose how you want to see the weather on that map. You can set it to show you the radar, the clouds, the rainfall and snowfall. If it’s the middle of a searing summer day, you can even check the UV index. You can even search for nearby golf courses. Tap on a course that might be interesting and you can see the current temperature.

If you want to replicate the experience of having a human voice tell you the weather, you can tap on “video” and watch a short video that tells you a bit about your current weather (or the weather of any city you choose).

In all, the Weather Channel app is a useful, fun interface for finding out what the weather is doing in your neck of the woods, whichever woods you’re interested in.

- Deb M.

Download Now!

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Developer: The Weather Channel

URL: http://www.weather.com/mobile/pda/iphone/

Developer’s Notes:

 The Weather Channel 2.0 takes your weather experience to the next level with in-motion radar maps, traffic cams (select markets), improved graphics and more.

 Features:

• Location-based conditions and forecasts

• Fully customizable in-motion radar maps

• Local and national severe weather alerts

• Local, national and international video forecasts

• Traffic cams (select markets)

• Share Alerts and Forecasts via email

• Store and nickname your favorite locations

 Download Now!

© 2009, amy. All rights reserved.