Everyone knows that Apple creates products that are great for creating. But part of what makes that statement true is the deep selection of third-party gadgets that make the most of artistic impulse. We’ve painted this next section, Gifts for the Imagination, with examples that’ll help nourish the next Pissarro, Satriani or Cartier-Bresson.
These days of spectacularly gloomy news just might be getting you down. If you’re looking for an antidote to the “If it bleeds, it leads” media mentality, a do-good iPhone app might be just the thing.
Called “Boom Boom!” it’ll feed you a diet of good news and shared acts of kindness to go. The free app is based on a feel-good game called Boom Boom cards, which has 26 acts of kindness that you (or your kids, or teens) perform and keep track of.
Personally, my favorite thing to do after having any picture taken is seek out the “delete” button. (Even if that entails arm wrestling the well-meaning friend to get at it.)
But you may embrace the idea of having your nose or midsection appear in all its glorious 3D in a photo – if so, a new iPhone app called Snappily 3D is for you.
For $1.99, it promises to bring photos from your iPhone 4 or iPad 2 into a new dimension. Snapily walks you through the shooting process and you can view the pic in 2D or gyroscope and anaglyph mode if you want to check them out with your 3D specs.
Flipboard released its official iPhone app last night. Many users were frustrated initially with error messages during installation and adding services.
The initial surge in traffic caused Flipboard’s servers to buckle under the strain, but the app came back online for most people this morning and it’s been working fine for me since. After playing with Flipboard on the iPhone, I love the way that it aggregates my news and social network feeds into a personalized magazine. The future of media consumption is here, and it’s all about curation.
Flipboard has launched its official iPhone app with a gorgeous design and the new “Cover Stories” layout, or “the feed to check when you’re in line at the coffee shop, commuting on the train or just hanging out at home.”
Riding the coattails of a phenomenal iPad app, Flipboard is looking to be the best place for reading the internet on your iPhone.
We heard it was coming, but now, we’ve got a release date: Grand Theft Auto III is coming to iOS next week!
The smiling faces make it look like a rowdy night out, but this jubilant photo was snapped with an iPhone in the back of a Russian police van.
Yesterday, Moscow-based blogger Alexey Navalny was carted away by the authorities while documenting the massive protests following the country’s contested parlimentary elections.
“With my lads on the police bus. They all say hi,” Navalny tweeted in Russian. An hour later, he posted another Instagram photo, this time a group portrait in the Izmailovo jailhouse of everyone arrested.
Occupy Wall Street protestors are not allowed to “amplify sound” outdoors while protesting in New York City (NYC), but a new iPhone app could be used to get around the ‘megaphone’ ban that NYC has in place.
Since physical microphones are not allowed, people typically chant in unison to create the same effect. The Inhuman Microphone app for the iPhone has the potential to bring the art of protesting into the 21st century.
If you have a micromanaging boss, watch out. GPS Punch! is a new iPhone app that promises to “track employee attendance in business situations.”
And what are those situations? The free app says it can use the iPhone’s GPS to “eliminate slacking off” as employees are on sales trips, since managers can see where their employees are and track their moves. It follows those sales employees on the road, ostensibly boosting sales calls by monitoring location history, so you can’t hole up in a cafe somewhere instead.
Those road warriors can now get the “punch” from babysitting bosses in Japanese and English. (An Android version of the app is next up, they say.)
The latest iTV rumor is hitting the web today as Gene Munster told the crowd at IGNITION: Future of Media that the new Apple Television Set has been in the works for sometime now but should be released next year.
Munster is so certain that the new device is coming that he told everyone to wait before buying a new TV because Apple’s is going to be awesome.
There seems to be a lot of noise made about the still camera abilities of the iPhone 4S recently, and for good reason; but let’s not forget that it’s also a very competent filmmaker (and the 3Gs and 4 aren’t slouches either). And if you’re even semi-serious about shooting video on your iPhone, you might want something like FiLMiC Pro, a video-production app with real video-production muscle and features.
For those of you heading over to gawk at Sonic and the other floats at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC tomorrow, there’s a new tool this year that’ll help you make the most of the day — that’s right, the parade has its own free iPhone app.
It’s that time of the year. The busiest shopping day in existence is nearly upon us: Black Friday.
As Apple and iOS fanatics, we naturally look to the App Store for useful apps when life’s obstacles are thrown our way. The topic of Black Friday is no exception, so we’ve collected some of the best, free iPhone apps available to help you make the most out of your shopping experience this year.
Myxer, which just released its iPhone app, is alot like Pandora, only with a huge side of friends. Instead of being based around a solitary experience, Myxer encourages users to listen to what their friends are into — which is great for discovering new tunes.
AOL has completely redesigned its popular messaging service, AIM, from the ground up with a beautiful, new look for the iPhone, Mac, Windows, Android, and web.
The new apps look absolutely stunning, and several compelling features have been added. AIM’s free apps integrate with popular social networks, like Facebook and Instagram. There is support for Facebook Chat and Google Talk. Users can video chat and group chat. Conversations are synced across apps, and messages sent offline are saved for sending when connectivity is restored.
Starbucks has launched a new iPhone app for the holidays that gives customers special offers and deals on the drinks we all crave. Not only that, but the Starbucks Cup Magic app also lets you play with augmented reality by tracking and taking pictures of special Starbucks characters.
Users can also send a Starbucks Card “eGift” to loved ones.
Reallymet is a new app that claims to be about making those real-life social contacts important – but perhaps the real utility is showing your boss or your spouse that you really are where you said you’d be.
The free app is billed as a “check-in service” for people suffering from cyber-friend fatigue (“Do you ever get tired of the long list of friends you don’t really know on your social network service?) and seems plagued with the usual gamefication features (you earn points if your friends confirm the check-ins; “It’s the social game of your real everyday life!”).
Ever faced with one of those situations where you need to give out your phone number, but you feel a bit iffy about doing it? RingShuffle is a free app that’s ideal to have on your iPhone for exactly those occasions.
I could tell what Sonos and its PR firm thought about the product as I walked in.
Festooned over a thousand square feet of penthouse atop one of San Francisco’s finest boutique hotels were samovars of fresh coffee, pitchers of fresh-squeezed juices and a banquet table overflowing with edibles under picture windows filled with panoramic views of Union Square and the San Francisco skyline. The layout was also outfitted, front-to-back, in a couple thousand dollars worth of Sonos gear — including the subject of this review, the Sonos Play:3 ($299).
Smule’s been racking up the hits with apps like Ocarina and I Am T-Pain. Their latest is called MadPad, and like the others, it’s well-polished, cooler than an arctic popsicle and impossible to put down. And today, it’s free.
Take the winning pic on your iPhone with Hipstamatic’s new Nashville HipstaPak and you’ll get to party like a rock photographer.
Online retailer extraordinaire Amazon wants to become your steady real-world shopping companion.
They’ve launched a free augmented reality app called Flow for your iPhone. It works like this: you see something in a store, point your iPhone at its UPC code and a stream of information comes to you including product information, customer reviews and related products.
Two iPhone apps tied for first place won the top two spots in a national challenge on safety and emergency for young adults.
There were a total of 33 entries in the “Apps Against Abuse Technology Challenge,” but the top two places went to iPhone apps. Both will be available for free download in early 2012.
Snap your Halloween party pics right by taking photobooth-style shots from your iPhone with Hipstamatic’s Incredibooth — offered free over the weekend.
Last week was just a little more sweet than bitter for Apple devotees who also happen to be fitness junkies. That’s because Abvio’s trio of fitness apps — Runmeter, Walkmeter and Cyclemeter (which we’ve raved about) — have been granted two big upgrades, namely iOS 5-style notifications, and something we’ve been waiting a long time for: the ability to gather data from ANT+ dongles like Wahoo’s Fisica.