iPad apps - page 30

Rockstar Games’ superb iOS entry into their infamous Grand Theft Auto series has finally hit the iPad with Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD, a native port that improves the already superlative game’s lighting, polygon counts and even the games’ already impressive explosions.

The biggest advantage, though, is the controls: while an up-sampled Chinatown Wars was technically playable (if ugly) before, the control scheme really needed some tweaking for more adept thumb control. The new iPad accomplishes that quite nicely.

Ultimately, it’s a fine update… but it’s hard to recommend because it’s not a universal app. Instead, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD is a whole new $9.99 to spend on a game you probably already own, if you were interested at all to begin with, on the iPhone, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. If this is your first go at the title, though, Chinatown Wars is an easy recommendation: it’s one of the best games on the App Store.

The popular open-source media player VLC is headed to an iPad near you thanks to App Store developer Applidium… and while it’s currently waiting for approval, there’s every indication that this time, Apple will let it through.

That wouldn’t have been the case a few months ago: Apple had tended to reject media playing apps from the App Store for “duplicating functionality.” This was an extraordinary headache for individuals who wanted to watch media on their iOS devices without first undergoing the cumbersome conversion process to QuickTime compatible MP4.

Recently, though, that’s started to change, with Apple approving more universal media-playing apps like OPlayer and CineXPlayer. If the new VLC is subject to the same standards, it should have no problem getting through the approval process.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it does. VLC has long obviated QuickTime on my Mac. I’m ready to let it do the same for my iPad as well.

A new app launched today should go a long way to eliminating iDevice storage limitations. ZumoCast is a free app that lets users stream content — videos, music or images — from their computer to their iPad, iPhone or iPod.

I’ve spent the last few days playing around with an advance copy, and I’m pretty stunned with how well this app is put together. Streamed movies are transcoded seamlessly on the fly in the background, and streamed music sounds fantastic — even over 3G. The whole thing is also incredibly user-friendly, works with a minimum amount of fuss and does things like automatically import your iTunes playlists. Content can even be downloaded from your computer to your iDevice, and it also allows browsing, viewing and downloading documents.

And surprisingly, it’s completely free.

What is it?

SplashShopper is an app that allows you to make shopping lists of all kinds on your iOS device or Mac (and Windows to if you are so inclined).  The lists can be managed and synced across platforms with the Mac OS X or Windows companion software. If you are Santa Klaus or someone who cannot live without lengthy complex shopping lists in your life you’ll find SplashShopper to be very useful.

The lack of an official, native version of the Twitter client for the iPad has been a puzzling omission, but now the big blue bird has set things right, having pushed their native iPad app to iTunes.

I haven’t had a chance to play with it, but it seems that a big part of the native client’s delay was because Twitter had big ideas for the app, grafting a truly unique (and, perhaps, a bit quirky) interface on top.

Gizmodo’s Matt Buchanan explains the new interface:

The interface starts out straightforward, like a simple cross between the Tweetie for Mac and the iPhone app. But Twitter for iPad is actually a bit more complicated than it lets on—it’s the most complex of the three. Rather than sticking with the iPad’s standard split-pane views, like in Mail, Twitter is kind of like its own desktop environment, with overlapping, stacked panes that move from left to right. So, on the far left, you’ve got the main control panel, like Tweetie for Mac, which is the bottom pane. To the right of that, and on top of it, you’ve got the tweet list—either the main feed, mentions or direct messages. Whenever you touch on a tweet, a third pane opens to the right, on top of the other two. If there’s a link in the tweet, it’ll open the browser. If not, it’ll open that person’s somebody’s profile. (And if you type a direct message, that’s layered on top of everything else via a popover, for four total layers.) You can switch back to the main tweet list or control pane by touching it, and it’ll load browser pages in the background while you browse through other tweets. It can get cluttered quickly if you’re opening sub-menus and other things—at the same time, it gives you a lot of flexibility.

Buchanan ultimately finds the new interface bold, but quirky, but Techcrunch’s MC Siegler declares it a triumph, announcing that it completely and totally obviates not only any other Twitter app out there, but Twitter’s own website. Then again, I thought pretty much any Twitter client had killed the need to visit Twitter.com over a year ago.

Twitter for iPad is a free download, and it’s available now on iTunes

iPad-slash-Pogoplug users, quit yer whining that your iPad doesn’t print, find an iPad-sans-Pogoplug user and launch into an obnoxious victory dance in their immediate vicinity.

That’s right, Pogoplug has just begun rolling out a firmware update that’ll enable printing from any iDevice (so iPhone/iPt users get to shake a little booty also) to any 2005-or-newer vintage Epson or HP printer. The release says the rollout will stretch out over a week, so be patient.

All-business, pink-hating Pogopluggers and ‘Pluggers with their ‘Plugs way over on the other side of the room from their routers will be happy to hear that the $300 Pogoplug Biz (which ditches the hot pink highlights for stark grey and comes with a whole bunch of enterprise upgrades) and the $30 Wireless Extender (a USB dongle that obviously obviates the need for an ethernet cable connection) ship today. More good news: Current Pogoplug owners get the Wireless Extender for free.

In the wake of work produced by the Stanford Laptop Orchestra and the many people worldwide using Smule applications on the iPhone, you knew this was coming: Four creative youngsters calling themselves the iPad Orchestra perform a nice piece of modern orchestral music here, using Seline HD, a new live performance and improvisation app optimized for the iPad.

Seline HD features an ergonomically designed playing surface called ioGrid, suitable for players of all hand sizes. It’s intended to support the playing of melodies with two hands, while keeping the iPad on the knees or on a table. A fully adjustable 16-note scale is divided into 2 parts (odd and even), which are then mapped to the left and right grids.

The app is capable of playing any melody but produces its own character and sound. A player can choose from 20 built-in factory voices (flutes, bowed strings, reeds, synth leads and more) and 9 drone voices. Drones (chorded synth pads) are generated on-the-fly, based on a complex analysis of the player’s melody line, courtesy of the app’s CrystalClarity HD sound engine, and provides an excellent background layer for melodies.

Seline HD player is also equipped with a full range of recording possibilities, including direct recording to .wav files, deleting, and doubling tracks. Overdubbing (layering tracks) is possible and encouraged as an excellent way to create complex orchestrations. Two available onboard effects – grand stereo reverb and dub delay – provide finishing touches to any composition.

Seline HD is available now in the iPad AppStore at the introductory price of $5.99.

This week’s must-have iOS games features plenty of zombies, addictive games galore and some fantastic bargains guaranteed to keep you entertained this weekend. There’s also two retro classics thrown in for good measure. Check out Cult of Mac’s favorite games from the past week after the break!

This week’s must-haves include applications to view and manage your CloudApp account, keep track of your to-dos in style and translate tweets from your foreign friends. Check out Cult of Mac’s favorites from the past week after the break!

Looking for something to keep you entertained this weekend? Let Cult of Mac’s weekly must-have apps & games feature help you out.

After some feedback on last week’s post, we’ve decided that this week we’re going to split up apps & games and give you a dedicated post for each.

So here’s are a few of our favorite games; check them out after the break!

Looking for something to keep you entertained this weekend? Let Cult of Mac’s weekly must-have apps & games feature help you out.

After some feedback on last week’s post, we’ve decided that this week we’re going to split up apps & games and give you a dedicated post for each.

So here’s a few of our favorite apps from the last week; check them out after the break!

Sonos’ awesome-looking iPad app has been delayed until the end of September, the company just said in a statement:

“Delivering the highest quality products that exceed our customers’ expectations has always been our mission at Sonos. Nothing less will do. Which is why we are postponing the shipment of our new Sonos Controller for iPad app until the end of September. We’re disappointed, but know that the result will be worth the wait. In the meantime, customers can continue to use the Sonos Controller for iPhone app on their iPad.”

We got a sneak peek of the app earlier in the summer and were very impressed. Sonos sells wireless music players that make it easy to get multi-room audio around your house. The iPad app that makes digital music very easy — especially listening to online music services.

Elements is a fantastic new app for iOS devices that doesn’t really do anything new, except for how well it does it: it is a lovely and versatile text editor for iOS that deftly integrates with Dropbox and TextExpander to allow you to create and edit documents across multiple devices, from your iPhone to your Mac.

As a fiction tinkerer, I love it: Elements will slurp in any document in your Dropbox folder and allow you to easily edit it, versioning any changes every thirty seconds. It even gives you statistics on what you’re writing, like word and line count. The interface is just the way I like my text editors, devoid of any fancy rich text formatting. I’ve been using it in conjunction with my favorite OS X text editor, WriteRoom, and it’s like the two applications were umbilically entwined from birth.

Another fantastic feature? A scratchpad: a pop over panel where you can jot a note or paste some text for easy use later. As Gadget Lab’s resident hungover bike poloer Mr. Charlie Sorrel agreeably writes, this feature “should be standard in any app, mobile or desktop, which uses text.”

Elements is a fantastic program for any iOS writer. It can be purchased from the App Store now for just $4.99.

OPlayer, from olimsoft, is an iOS application for both iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad, that claims to boost your device’s media capabilities by allowing playback of a huge list of audio and video file formats.

The list of supported formats is pretty impressive, and will save you a great deal of effort if you often find yourself having to convert movies to watch on your device while you’re on the move. A fairly big video file can take a while to convert and it’s not the most exciting of tasks. But with OPlayer conversion isn’t needed – simply transfer your media to your device.

The full list of supported formats includes MP3, WMA, RM, AAC, WMV, AVI, MKV, RMVB, XVID, MP4, MOV, 3GP and MPG.

You can transfer files to your device using the File Sharing feature within iTunes or you can download them using the built-in browser from your computer, from the internet or from an FTP server. It’s also possible to stream media to your device over Wi-Fi and 3G.

The release of OPlayer, and of CineXPlayer last week, in to the App Store certainly suggests that Apple is relaxing some of its restrictions on app approvals, most likely in a bid to discourage users from jailbreaking their devices. Will this open the doors for other third-party media players?

Get OPlayer for your iPhone & iPod Touch from the App Store here, or get the HD version for your iPad here.

One of those alternatives is a new browser called iLunascape from Lunascape, Inc. and it is available for free (iTunes link) in the iTunes App Store.

This browser takes a new approach to browser user interfaces (UI) on the iPad and I’m wondering why no one else has thought of this yet. The developer’s new specialized UI called the “In Reach Interface” has clustered most common movements and tabs down near the bottom of the iPad display where the user generally holds the device. In addition to this the iPad user experience is the center of attention, but now includes desktop-class tab browsing, easy screen capture and storage, fast and smooth scrolling, simple bookmarking, and iPad rotation controls.

iLunascape may not be for everyone, since not everyone holds their iPad the same way. However, if you are looking to replace Safari this app is a good start with its unique interface and useful desktop like features. Its free and if you care about your browsing experience on the iPad — go get it.

The iPad version of a book featuring photos and recipes favored by Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini sits at the number two spot of the top paid apps in Italy’s iTunes store.

Titled “A Tavola con Il Duce” (literally: sitting at the table with Il Duce), the €0.79 ($0.99) book is currently available only in the Italian language but can be purchased in the US and other international iTunes stores.

Promising never-before published anecdotes and pictures from Mussolini’s daily life, it is the iPad version of the 2004 book written by Sophia Loren’s sister, Maria Scicolone, who was married to il Duce’s son Romano Mussolini.

With hundreds of thousands of applications and games already in the App Store, and more and more added daily, it’s often hard to notice some of the great apps that are available for your iOS device. That’s where Cult of Mac’s weekly must-have shortlist comes in: we’ll compile a list at the end of each week to showcase a few of our favorites and pick out the best of the bunch. Check out this week’s after the break!

If you’re a photo editing professional, the news that Photoshop has finally come to the iPad will probably produce some swelling of ebullience within your breast, but you’d best be served by tamping your enthusiasm down: it is not the finger-controlled Photoshop for iPad that you’ve been dreaming of.

Rather, all we’re looking at here is an updated binary of the old Adobe Photoshop.com Mobile app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, bringing native iPad support to the mix. That app will allow you to do some cropping and rotating and color adjustment on your photographs, but not much more than that.

If that’s all you want from an iPad photo-editing app, fantastic: Photoshop.com Mobile is absolutely free. I just wish we’d seen a more meaty update to indulge my desire for more substantial couch-side putzing about.

I like to keep my todo list nice and simple, so for a while now it has been a plain text file that sits inside Dropbox.

That still meant that remote edits of the file using my iPhone were tricky and fiddly. They won’t be any more, though, because I’ve just spent a dollar on Nebulous Notes, a new text editor for iOS devices that’s designed for dealing with documents stored in the cloud.

Specifically in this case, documents stored inside Dropbox. You have to tell Nebulous Notes your Dropbox sign-in credentials, and it offers to remember them for you (with added protection of a four-digit PIN for security’s sake).

The editor itself offers a choice of a handful of fonts and colors (including green-on-black for you green-on-black text editor fans).

There are a few other basic Dropbox-level functions, too: the app can create new folders and text files, as well as delete stuff you’ve already got in your Dropbox. It is strictly limited to displaying and editing plain text, though: it can’t handle rich texts, and it won’t display images or PDFs. But if – like me – the main thing that matters is the words, that’s not going to be a problem.

In a surprise move, Apple has today approved CineXPlayer for the iPad, which is a free application that allows you to watch Xvid movies on your device.

Great news for those of you out there with a collection of Xvid video files you would previously have had to convert before you could watch on your iPad, but is this just another app that’s temporarily slipped through Apple’s net? Apple doesn’t normally approve apps of this kind for the App Store and famously stands by the MPEG-4 and H.264 formats, brushing other formats aside.

It could mean, of course, that in an attempt to deter us from jailbreaking our devices, Apple is beginning to loosen up on its strict control of the App Store approval process. Many applications have passed Apple’s approval process, however, only to be withdrawn from the App Store hours later. And I get the feeling CineXPlayer will be next on the list.

Only time will tell whether CineXPlayer remains in the App Store or whether it will soon be pulled, but I’d advise you get your hands on it quick just in case.

Osmos for iPad is a unique game for Apple’s new platform. It reminds me a little bit of Spore from Electronic Arts, but only a little. I got bored with Spore on my Mac and iPhone pretty quickly, but I cannot say the same about Osmos.

The app makes good use of the iPad’s graphic abilities, touchscreen interface, and audio hardware. The latter provides nice music and sound effects that make playing the game for long periods of time enjoyable. However, the rapidly changing game play, that made me feel immersed in a totally new gaming experience, was what really made me fall in love with this game.

One of the prettiest apps for iPad just got even better Tuesday with new support for iPhone 4’s Retina Display technology enhancing the concert and music poster app, Rock Show.

Portland-based developers Neutrinos, LLC have been steadily improving Rock Show since its initial release and with version 2.0 announced an exclusive mobile-only poster sale that sold out in just two days. Rob Banagale, Neutrinos CEO, said, “As far as we know, Guy Burwell’s 7/29/2010 Silversun Pickups poster was the first retail item that could only be bought on an iOS device, not the web.”

Rock Show lets users browse, share and order directly through the app hand-made, limited edition concert and music posters that are often hand-packed and shipped directly by the artists who created them. With over 250 posters in the current catalog, Banagale feels his company is on to a good — and growing — thing.

To celebrate their 3rd anniversary, Readdle have started a 48-hour sale from today which sees all of their iOS applications reduced to just $0.99. In addition to this massive sale, Readdle are also giving away an iPad to 3 lucky winners who retweet their anniversary message on Twitter.

To be in with a chance of winning, just follow these 3 simple steps:

For more information, visit the Readdle 3 years anniversary page. To get your hands on one of Readdle’s great applications, check out their App Store page.

The iPad can be a handy to have on your next vacation, whether you need to research flights for a quick escape from your cousin’s wedding, keep the kids entertained on the plane or figure out which road is the least congested in a strange city.

Here are five free iPad apps we wouldn’t leave home without.

Kayak Explore + Flight Search
Kayak is the Ferrari of cheap flight search info — and a lot of users (including me) think the search engine works better in the iPad version than it does online. One thing is certain: the roomy iPad screen makes it easy to search for your flight, drilling down results by airline, number of connections, airport, times and price.
And, in the latest version, if you’re trying to figure out just how many miles you can put between you and your ex with the cash wadded up in your pocket, there’s a handy budget/distance calculator that will tell you just that. The caveats: hotels and car rental info is provided through Safari and you can’t book flights directly from the app.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siWJuJPGeeI

Unable to walk and chew gum at the same time, I’ve always admired how musicians can play and turn the page on sheet music without losing the plot.

They may need a little less coordination now thanks to a new iPad app and a Bluetooth foot switch called BT-105.

Still a prototype, maker Airturn says this Bluetooth version of their wireless, hands-free automatic page turner will be compatible with Bluetooth-enabled computers including the iPad.

With the tap on a foot switch, you turn to the page forward, if you hit it too soon, another tap turns the page back.  On the demo, the musician flips the switch using a third-party app with a zoom feature,  moving the sheet music half a page at a time.

Expect to see start seeing this page-turning app in late 2010.

Via Wired