Hijinks Reviews: Kate

Pros: Easy to use settings interface, adds a few nice functions.
Cons: Not worth the price. Or the possibility of bricking of your iPhone.

Platform: iPhone

Version reviewed: 1.3

Developed by: Rip Dev (ripdev.com)

Pricing: Subscription based. $20 for 6 months, $35 for 1 year, $45 for lifetime subscription.

The developers of Kate (formerly Caterpillar) describe it as being “a commercial package of tools and toys to extend your iPhone”. While offering an all in one approach and slick settings management, Kate doesn’t really bring much to the table that can’t be gained from using multiple free packages.

Admittedly though, there is a certain appeal to only having to install one program to do a bunch of things.

The coolest thing Kate has to offer in my opinion is the ability to uninstall applications from the SpringBoard, just like delete a WebClip. In fact, as you can tell from the screen shots below, its uninstall system actually uses the built-in WebClip delete dialogue, which is strange considering this is a commercial application, so one would think they would at least write their own dialogues.

Another handy feature is µCalendar’s support for displaying a calendar on the unlock screen. Offering both calendar view and event list view, it’s a simple and easy way to check upcoming events. The only thing that might be a nice addition would be the ability to add events, those the developer appears to be quite proud of the fact you can’t add events:

Ever wanted to quickly find out what day of the week is a certain date within the month from today? Or, even more, quickly check a list of pending events for today without having to unlock the phone and launching Calendar?

µCalendar makes it possible — and it does just that — a quick access to your current agenda. No adding of new events, no previews for five years ahead — why make simple complicated?

Kate adds its own section to the Settings menu, which allows you to edit everything from one place. I’ve included screen shots of a few of the more interesting settings menus, but things like the System Font menu are left out because it does just what you would assume, allows you to specify the default system font. Also, the EQ settings are a far more customizable than the iPhone’s built-in system, but the menu is just as boring as its predecessor.

Reminder adds the one feature I hate most about my Razr v3, the annoying beeps every 5-10 minutes informing me I missed a call. Sure it can be handy once in a while , but it’s more annoying than anything else.

You only have three days to try Kate before you have to purchase a license. Boo! As mentioned at the beginning of the post Kate is subscription based, with the following options available: $20 for 6 months, $35 for 1 year, $45 for lifetime subscription.

While Smart Dialer is a nice idea, it wasn’t actually working in 1.3. The idea is you can toggle back and forth between your standard dialer screen and the Smart Dialer by pressing #, then you start typing a name on the numeric keypad and Dialer suggest a list of contacts, great idea, except for the part where it didn’t suggest any names to me.

FaceLift is basically SummerBoard on steroids, which is nice because it supports any existing SummerBoard theme right out of the box. Plus it adds in some Customize like features, adding a 5-icon dock, dock reflection, icon name plates and more. FaceLift also supports more detailed theme control. RipDev is also offering free licenses to “well known theme authors” who contact them wishing to port their existing themes over to Kate, no word yet as to the length of the free subscription. Or what constitutes “well known”.

Overall the idea behind Kate is a good one, though at this time it’s no where near robust enough to be worth actual money. Though I will probably submit a theme see if I’m “well known” enough to get a free license, just so I’ll at least have more than three days in which formulate an opinion and pass judgement.