This week’s selection of must-have iOS apps features a brand new social news experience called News.me. Created by Bit.ly, with backing from The New York Times, this app shows you not just what your friends are sharing, but also what they’re reading.
Sony’s new Crackle application offers a library of over 100 great movies and TV shows, such as The Da Vinci Code, Ghostbusters, Seinfield and Spider-Man – all of which are completely free to watch.
RockMelt also makes this week’s must-haves – a web browser that seamlessly integrates social networking and syncs with RockMelt on your computer.
Find out more about the applications above, and check out the rest of week’s must-haves – including Seamless, Photosynth and FindOne – after the break!
News.me – (Subscription) iPad – News
News.me is a social news experience from bit.ly unlike any other currently in the App Store. Not only does it provide you with a list of content your friends are sharing like applications such as Flipboard and Zite, but it also allows you to view the content they are reading. It claims to offer a “seamless interface for immersive reading” that uses “science to find the most relevant content in every user’s stream.” Explore your own News.me stream based on the people you follow, explore others’ News.me streams to see the news that they are reading, read full articles ad-free from major publishers, and save stories for later in your News.me reading list. The application features a free trial for one week, then you’ll need a subscription to continue using it at $0.99 per week or $34.99 per year.
Crackle – (Free) Universal – Entertainment
Crackle is one of the fastest-growing digital entertainment networks, offering hundreds of high quality Hollywood movies and TV series from Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics and more. Fans of the service couldn’t previously enjoy this content on their iOS device due to its Flash-based website, but now there’s an iOS app; allowing you to access high quality content over Wi-Fi and 3G and build your own queue of content for viewing online or on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
RockMelt – (Free) iPhone – Social Networking
RockMelt is a new web browser perfect for those who can’t get enough of social networking. It connects with Facebook and Twitter to provide instant updates from your news feed, notifications, comments, mentions, replies, and retweets. You can share and save any content to read later, and sync with RockMelt on your Mac & PC to give you a seamless online experience – giving you access to your bookmarks, favorites, and ‘view later’ items wherever, whenever.
Seamless – ($0.99) iPhone – Music
Seamless allows you to transition from playing music on your Mac to playing music on your iPhone in a single tap. You can begin listening to a track on your Mac, then transition it to your iPhone and carry on listening from where you left off – and vice versa. No longer do you have to find the song in your iPod library, then slide the scrubber to the point at which you left the song – there’s finally a Seamless link between the two. (See what I did there?)
Photosynth – (Free) iPhone – Photography
Microsoft’s latest iOS offering has hit the App Store in the form of Photosynth; a fantastic photography application for taking 360º panoramic photos on your iPhone. Simply tap the screen to start and then move your device around to capture images automatically – there’s no need to move your device bit by bit while tapping a button to capture each tile. When you’ve finished, Photosynth will ‘stitch’ all of your images together to create your panorama. You can then share your creations with your friends via Facebook or the Photosynth service.
FindOne – (Free) iPhone – Utilities
If you’re still taking time out of your day to call every Apple reseller in your area in the hope of finding that iPad 2 you’re after, the new FindOne app for iPhone could save you a lot of time and effort. You select which iPad 2 you want and FindOne checks the inventory of every Target and Walmart store in your vicinity to see if they have your chosen device in stock. You can specify whether you want the Wi-Fi or 3G model, whether you want 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of storage, and whether you want device in black or white. When the app has finished its search, it will present you with a list of stores that currently have your chosen device in stock; as well as the address, distance from your location, telephone number, and opening hours for each. Support for Best Buy and Toys ‘R’ Us is also coming soon.
