Comparison

GEN vs Elements

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

GEN

This tool generates professional video reference signals and offers display analysis capabilities for broadcast engineers and AV professionals. It helps test, troubleshoot, and evaluate video paths, routing systems, and displays with advanced signal quality features.

Highlights
  • Professional test patterns
  • Video reference clips
  • Multiple video formats and frame rates
  • RasterScope Analysis
  • SWEEP technology
  • External display output
Read full description

GEN-B is a professional broadcast signal generator and display analysis tool designed for broadcast engineers, AV professionals, system integrators, technicians, and anyone who needs reliable video reference signals for testing, troubleshooting, and display evaluation. Built for portability and real-world workflows, GEN-B turns your device into a powerful signal generation and analysis platform capable of producing high-quality video references while providing practical display analysis tools. VIDEO REFERENCES GEN-B includes a comprehensive library of professional video reference signals designed to evaluate displays, video paths, routing systems, converters, switchers, processors, and monitoring equipment. Features include: • Professional test patterns • Video reference clips • Multiple video formats • Multiple frame rates • Geometry references • Grayscale references • Color references • Luma references • Gamma evaluation patterns • Resolution and focus references SIGNAL QUALITY GEN-B was developed with signal quality as a primary objective. The application provides high-quality video references suitable for professional evaluation workflows, including progressive and interlaced formats across multiple frame rates. Selected reference content supports advanced color reproduction, up to 12-bit video precision, and 4:4:4 chroma sampling, helping preserve fine image detail, color fidelity, and signal accuracy throughout the testing process. DISPLAY ANALYSIS GEN-B goes beyond traditional signal generation by incorporating display analysis capabilities. Using RasterScope Analysis and SWEEP technology, GEN-B can evaluate display behavior using generated reference signals and mathematical analysis techniques. Analysis functions help users better understand: • Active display area • Aspect ratio behavior • Image positioning • Display utilization • Side matte detection • Signal-to-display mapping SWEEP TECHNOLOGY At the core of GEN-B’s analysis system is a programmable RasterScope White Box Scanner. The scanner moves through the generated raster while mathematical analysis is used to interpret positional behavior and produce meaningful display evaluation information. Rather than relying only on assumptions, GEN-B generates a known reference signal and analyzes how that signal is represented on the connected display. This approach provides practical engineering insight using a portable mobile platform. TROUBLESHOOTING GEN-B was created to assist with real-world troubleshooting scenarios. Use GEN-B to: • Verify display operation • Evaluate video paths • Test display scaling behavior • Identify aspect ratio issues • Validate system performance • Troubleshoot signal routing problems • Confirm display response to known reference signals FLEXIBLE CONNECTIVITY GEN-B supports multiple external display workflows, allowing users to work in a variety of environments. Supported workflows include: • Direct external display output through compatible adapters and cables • USB-C display connections where supported • DisplayPort-compatible workflows • Wireless Output using Apple Screen Mirroring when available When using direct external display connections, additional analysis features such as RasterScope Analysis and SWEEP may be available depending on the connected hardware. RasterScope Analysis and SWEEP Analysis require direct output verification and are not available through Screen Mirroring, since mirroring may scale, composite, or reinterpret the image before it reaches the display. A TOOL DESIGNED BY ENGINEERS GEN-B was designed from an engineering perspective. The application combines signal generation, display analysis, mathematical modeling, and troubleshooting tools into a portable solution that remains simple to operate. Generate known reference signals. Analyze real-world display behavior. Transform observations into meaningful engineering information. GEN-B by Precision Broadcast Engineering.

About

Elements

Features
Read full description

Aesthetic widgets that match — because you designed them that way. Most widget apps hand you a pile of unrelated widgets. Elements gives you a design system: set the typeface, the accent, the background and the density once, and 32 kinds of widget wear it — on the Home Screen, the Lock Screen, StandBy, CarPlay, and on your Mac. 145 designed faces. 206 backgrounds, 118 of them photographs. 12 accent colours, or your own. 180 finished looks you can apply in one tap and then keep tweaking. WIDGETS THAT KNOW SOMETHING • Weather written as a sentence — "31° now, feels 35°. Haze till 6pm." • Your next event, your month at a glance, and how long until the next thing • A groceries list you tick off from the Home Screen • Steps, distance and sleep, read from Health • Sunrise, sunset, the moon's phase, and how much daylight you lost since yesterday • Prayer times, computed on device from five published methods • Currency at the day's published reference rate • Battery, storage, world clocks, countdowns, a verse, a word, your own feeds CUT OUT A SUBJECT AND STICK IT ON YOUR SCREEN Pick a photo and Elements lifts the subject out of it — no background, just the thing. Size it, turn it, nudge it, give it a paper edge. Keep a shelf of them and let the widget rotate through. MINI-APPS YOU FILL YOURSELF Habits you check off. Tallies you count. Subscriptions with renewal reminders. A focus timer. A fasting window. Readings your own Shortcuts write into. A canvas you compose from blocks. All of it stays on your phone. FED BY YOUR SHORTCUTS Four Shortcuts actions let your automations write straight into a widget: update a reading, check in a habit, adjust a counter, set a canvas block. State how often your shortcut runs and the widget will say "as of 9:41" when it misses — a stale number never poses as a fresh one. CORRECT, OR IT TELLS YOU WHY The most common complaint about widgets is that they go stale, blank, or wrong. Elements treats that as a feature to build, not a bug to apologise for. Every widget knows how fresh its data is and says so. Every failure is named — "no location fix", "offline", "not allowed" — instead of one shrug. There is a Widget Health screen that shows what actually reloaded today against the system's own budget. NOTHING HERE IS A SCORE No badges. No XP. No streak repairs to buy. No confetti, no leaderboards, no red marks for a day you missed — a missed day is an empty dot. The reward is that the number is right and the typography is good. THREE THEMES, LIGHT AND DARK Ink Bento is near-black panes and feather numerals. Dawn Glass is warm paper. Pop is flat saturated colour. Every design can pin its own theme and its own light/dark, so one widget can be dark while another follows your phone. PRIVACY Calendar, Reminders, Health and everything you type stay on your device. Health access is read-only and the widget extension never touches it. Weather sends your location — or the place you pin — to Apple to get a forecast, and a few widgets fetch public data like exchange rates or the headlines from feeds you add yourself. There are no accounts, no analytics and no tracking. Four finished widgets — clock, weather, next event, battery and storage — fully styleable, no ads, no watermarks. Elements Pro unlocks the rest of the catalog, saved designs, and the mini-apps. Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

GEN4 screens
Elements4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: GEN at none against Elements's shown. GEN also leads on iOS requirement (17.5 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. GEN sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Elements sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

GEN ships an update every 3 days, Elements every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
GEN versus Elements: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGENElements
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 4 days
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS17.5 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size208 MB98 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPrecision Broadcast Engineering LLCTouseef Hassan Nasir

In-app purchases

1 purchases

GEN

One-time1
  • GEN-B Lifetime Unlock$29.99
3 purchases

Elements

Subscriptions2
  • Elements Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Elements Pro Yearly1 Month trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Elements Pro Lifetime$49.99

Questions

Is GEN free?
GEN is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Elements free?
Elements is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do GEN or Elements have ads?
Elements shows ads; GEN does not.
Which is updated more often, GEN or Elements?
GEN ships an update every 3 days, and Elements every 4 days. Most recently, GEN was updated on October 15, 2026 and Elements on October 4, 2026.

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