Extra Lives TV went to the SF App Show last week to get an exclusive preview of some amazing applications. We have some amazing footage form the show which you can watch on our youtube channel via this link.

Without further ado, though, he’s a list of the apps which were previewed and a short description about each one.  We’ll add more detailed reviews momentarily! Enjoy.:

Distant Suns : Unleash your inner astronaut.  This is the ultimate star-gazing app which was originally developed for the Amiga computer. This is significant because the developer, Mike Smithwick, has been polishing it up for over two decades. And it sure seems like he has.

Basically, the App gives you the location of the stars (and even 10 of Saturn’s moons!) in real-time, and uses your location to give you an accurate representation of what the stars look like in the sky.  And even if you’re not into astrology, there’s actually a lot you can learn from this app. You can even click on the name of a star and it will zoom you into it. Take a trip to Saturn to see it’s rings, or even get a high resolution image of the moons surface. This app is a no-brainer purchase, especially on the iPad. It also looks amazing. Check out our video demo.

DoubleDutch is known as the hot new check-in startup that is similar to foursquare.. except that it is able to be entirely white labeled, aimed at being branded for events, hotels, conferences, companies, universities, etc… Regardless, consumers can still download the app for free to get a preview of Double Dutch.

As it stands right now, I don’t think it has enough to pull people away from other applications such as Foursquare or Gowalla though I do not think that this is their aim.  On the advertising/branding end of the spectrum, there is probably no big reason why restaurant owners and the likes would avoid using this application. As far as I know, the brander is in charge of what kind of stickers and trophies are available, therefore, giving them more control. For example, restaurant owners can award free meals for consistent customers, and customers who consistently bring in new friends to the restaurant. Overall, brilliant idea.

Econtact Pro is the best manual transcription business card scanner and reader “guaranteed accurate manual transcriptions of business cards”. This is how it works: You take a picture of a business card, they manually transcribe them, and then the contacts are automatically stored and synced with your iPhone contacts. Easy. Plus, it’s cheap. The app cost $3.99 to download and each business card cost 10-25cents to transcribe, depending on the package you purchase. It’s a great deal considering that it takes us more than a minute to enter in all these details.

For frequent conference goers and people who have to deal with a large amount of business cards, this is a very cheap and efficient alternative to what’s out there. The beauty of it is really how effortless it makes syncing contacts seem.

PatternMusic is probably one of my favorite music app for creating music on your iPhone and now iPad. I was fairly skeptical at first, but I was proven wrong. The interface looks a little bit confusing. You can scroll in both the landscape direction and the portrait direction, making it seem more confusing than it should. You have 64 keys, 4 octaves, voice, instrument, drums, etc… to play with as well. You can overlay patterns with each other, etc… It works exactly like any sound mixing software, so if you’re familiar with that, this app should give you no problem. If you aren’t, then I wish they had an interactive tutorial mode for you.

Cons? It does lack an export feature but if you’re just exporting as a mp3, you can hook up your audio to a recorder jack and record from sound directly on your phone. Try the Zoom for quick cheap-fix. The app is free on the iPad so definitely check it out.

Slingshot Safari “a fun cartoonish game with the real feel of shooting a slingshot”. That’s right, you slingshot animal and you get points based on the distance and accuracy with which you hit the target. This game is free on the iPhone, but Ad supported, and $4.99 for the iPhone non-ad version. There is also a special introductory iPad price for $1.99.

Now, the main problem I have with this game is that it’s hard. Very hard. Typically, I enjoy tough games, but I constantly felt like I was losing. In addition, found this game to be a bit repetitive and the replay value was relatively low. Regardless, I think it’s worth the $1.99 purchase on the iPad. It’s cheap, it’s a slingshot game, and who doesn’t like shooting a slingshot? As a $4.99 iPhone game though? Hmm, it seems a little bit too steep.

SugarSync is a iPhone and iPad app for file sharing and backup. It’s kind of like a DropBox for your mobile devices. Get what you want off your desktop and onto your phone in no time.

The app is free to download on the app store and even has a 45 day trial. A starting plan of 30 GB starts at just $5/month or $50 per year, or 60 GB for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. So for less than a meal, you get the security of having your PC data anywhere, any time!

Personally, I don’t have use for this app so I didn’t purchase it. However, if you find yourself constantly traveling, at conferences, etc… it’s a great way to have your PC and all your travel documents in just your pocket. It’s reasonably priced and from the demo we saw, it works amazingly well.

Moe’s Notes is the #1 app in Productivity, and now on the iPad as Moe’s Notepad. Moe’s Notes does everything you want it to do for a notepad: it stores text, audio, photos, videos, tags, and GPS coordinates. You even have in-feature editors to help you crop photos, trim audio and video, etc… And since you’ll probably be using this app a lot upon purchase, they’ve included a very powerful search feature within the app itself.

And now that you’ve made all these notes, you’ll probably want to share them. Not a problem. Moe’s Notes has an impressive multimedia integration with facebook, so you’re ready to share wherever you are. Great app. The $3.99 price tag is a bit steep, but if you’re a constant note taker, it’s worth the purchase.

The Mongoliad is not currently available in the app store but has already gained a lot of traction in the webosphere. That is because The Mongoliad is a one of a kind Neal Stephenson app that is actually an interactive book. Essentially, it is a reinvention of the novel where gaming and social media events would revolve and be within the novel. A user will even have a user profile within the Mongoliad community where the users interaction will give him or her a higher standing.

According to their facebook page, the story is such: “The Mongoliad is a rip-roaring adventure tale set 1241, a pivotal year in history, when Europe thought that the Mongol Horde was about to completely destroy their world. The Mongoliad is also the beginning of an experiment in storytelling, technology, and community-driven creativity.”  The first set of stories will be developed by the application developers, writers, and designers. Later, they will open up the story telling to the community.

The Mongoliad will be available over the web and through mobile devices starting out with the iPad, iPhone, Android, and Kindle applications. We look forward to it!

UberCab “the great new app for on-demand car service” is currently available in San Francisco, but will come to bigger cities very soon. This app lets you request a car (limo only right now) service with just a few clicks from your iPhone, and uses your location to give you an approximation of when a limo will arrive for you. You can monitor your car’s arrival, rate your driver, and pay through the UberCab app so you don’t have to worry about not having cash on you. This means you get get quality service, the limo experience, and you don’t have to deal with waiting around for a taxi.

While I’m excited about the passenger-side of things, I’m mostly excited about what this may mean for drivers. When UberCab scales and gains more traffic, this could mean several things. One, that the drivers waste less time driving around and more time picking up passengers. Two, that they have a higher caliber of customers and ones that would potentially tip more. And three, not having to deal with credit cards which are a time-consuming transaction.

I’m excited for the UberCab guys, so check them out. They’re also giving out free rides every so often.