The Bookcase is a three-dollar pocket database for your book collection, one that takes its role very seriously and might be best suited to people with a professional requirement to manage a large library.
Drafts, the default inbox for text on your iOS device, has just been updated to version 1.5 on the iPad and v2.5 on the iPhone. And, man, what an update!
Previously, Drafts was a great way to scribble down a note, and then send it off to pretty much any text-based app you could think of. Now, with two big new features called “URL Actions” and “Dropbox Actions,” Drafts not only becomes more powerful than you could possible imagine, it also lets you automate a whole lot of notetaking tasks.
How powerful are we talking about here? How about controlling your Mac at home from your iPhone by just jotting down a note?
These snazzy keyboard decals from MyBanana are a relatively cheap and simple way to add a splash of color and protection to your Mac.
Priced at £17 ($27), and available in a number of styles — including Lego bricks and rainbows — the decals are made from a waterproof vinyl that’s designed to last, no matter how often your greasy fingers caress them throughout the day.
If you want to protect your Mac’s keys from everyday wear and tear, these decals could be ideal. But do they work?
Meet Carrot, the getting things done app with an attitude. If you’re good and you actually do the things you add to its list, you’ll be rewarded. But if you don’t … actually, things get much more fun if you don’t.
If you’ve ever wished you could stream audio wirelessly to your car or home stereo, Blue Ant’s Ribbon ($69) might be just the gadget for you. Ribbon, tiny as it is, adds Bluetooth streaming to any set of headphones or any device with an auxiliary input. But, as you might’ve surmised from its unique shape, its abilities don’t stop there.
New on the App Store today from Lucky Frame is a fantastic musical adventure called Wave Trip. And what a trip it is: a trip into amazing.
I don’t do spreadsheets. Well, I do, but unwillingly. Numbers give me the shivers, they always have. I’m a words person. But everyone’s different – my wife is the opposite. She spends more time in spreadsheets than anything else. She might like this little app. It’s called Tables, and it does spreadsheets right on iPhone. Small, simple little spreadsheets.
Skitch used to be my go-to Mac app for annotating images. Now I just use OS X’s Preview to get basic editing done in a pinch. As a blogger, I frequently deal with screenshots and images for posts. Sometimes you need to draw an arrow or draw attention to a certain part of an image. There’s never really been a good tool to do so, until Napkin.
Created by the guys at Aged & Distilled, Napkin is a new app in the Mac App Store that aims to help you with “concise visual communication.” If you’re a creative type, then this app should be in your tool belt.
Calendar Paste is a calendar events templating app for iOS. It’s a place where you can store calendar events that don’t repeat in a predicable patten, or that only need to be in your calendar at certain times. It’s one of those apps you never thought you needed.
For a game that’s been downloaded over 170 million times and spawned countless ripoffs, the sequel to Temple Run came as a complete shock. The smash-hit endless runner started sneaking into App Stores around the world yesterday, and it went live in the U.S. late last night. Imangi Studios, the small company behind Temple Run, had no promotional material or teasers leading up to the release.
But now that Temple Run 2 is here, fans of the original can sprint, jump, slide, and fall through a new and improved world. With zip lines, new power-ups, characters, and a mine cart, Temple Run is better than ever.
You know what I hate? Detangling the cables, chargers, headphones, and other electronic accoutrements that always weave themselves into a ball while stored in my backpack.
Cocoon, makers of the Grid-It “ultimate organizer,” want to solve that problem. The Grid-It ($20), stows your accessories against a flat surface, all held tidily in place with a series of interwoven elastic bands. That sounds a heckuvalot better than what I’m doing. So with Earpods, chargers, and lightning cables in hand, I put one to the test to see how well it works.
This is not Pacman. No. It looks like Pacman, it sounds like Pacman. But it’s called Not Pacman for a reason: it’s not Pacman.
How does it play?
Like Pacman. A bit.
I was a big fan of the original BookBook case for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, but it did have a number of drawbacks that its creators, Twelve South, needed to address — such as the lack of a camera cutout on the back of the case. With the iPhone 5 version, however, drawbacks have been eliminated.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the BookBook, is a luxury, handmade leather wallet case that’s designed to look like a pocket-sized, vintage book. In addition to carrying and protection your iPhone 5, it carries up to four credit cards and has space for cash.
BookBook for iPhone 5 comes in vintage brown and classic black, and it’s priced at $59.99.
Pangolin is a cute little puzzle-platformer for iOS that might either drive you mad with rage or mad to the point of insanity. Or both. It’s tricky, challenging, and offers plenty of repeat play opportunities.
As an Apple guy with a whole lot of photography gear, I’m usually forced to slug my computing devices in one bag and DSLR and accoutrements in another while traveling. I hate doing that.
Think Tank’s new rolling camera bag, the Airport Navigator ($249), with two wheels, a telescoping handle, and space for a DSLR, lenses, and an iPad and Macbook Pro, seemed to be the perfect portable home for all my devices to live. But how well would it perform on the road? I decided to pack it full, take it to Vegas, and cart it around with me on the over-crowded floors one of the world’s biggest technology shows, CES 2013, and find out.
This Day in the Rolling Stones is the latest app for music lovers of a certain age who want to find out exactly what Mick and the guys were up to every day of their careers. It wants to be all Hot Stuff) but ends up more like a Biggest Mistake.
If you’ve been around on the internet for any length of time, you’ll have probably heard about a site called Xtranormal, which converts text you enter into a simple little video starring cute animal characters. (If you haven’t heard of it, go and have a play there now, it’s fun.)
Tellagami is a new free iOS app that does something similar. I say “similar”, but the two are not in the same league. Tellagami is very simple, and its features limited. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with it, though.
This post was brought to you by Time Space System, creator of TS Translator.
Don’t find yourself lost for words while in the Far East on business, taking a tour or visiting relatives — just download TS Translator app onto your iPhone or iPad, select a phrase and allow your tablet to do your talking for you. It’s as quick and easy as instant noodles!
The best ideas are famously (stereotypically, perhaps) captured on the back of a napkin. That’s the thing that’s been closest to hand at a zillion restaurant or coffee shop tables when great minds have got together and come up with something new.
Ink is a new, free digital napkin for the modern era. It’s also an exercise in minimalism, designed to replicate that napkin and the pencil you’d scribble on it with and nothing more.
Here’s a new free puzzle game for young and old alike. It’s called Quento, and it’s colorful, addictive, and more difficult than it looks.
This is Hundreds, a game from the same people who brought you Canablat and Wurdle, among others.
Hundreds is a multi-touch tapping challenge for your mind and your reflexes. Rather like Letterpress, it has a gorgeous minimalist look to it. Where so many games are all about collecting stars, this one encourages you to look for empty spaces.
Izik is a new web search app from the makers of Blekko, a web search engine for people who are looking for a change from Google.
You could be forgiven for saying “Blekwhat?” there. Although it’s been around for a few years now, Blekko isn’t what most people think of when they go looking for somewhere else to search.
But that doesn’t mean you should dismiss it without trying it. Blekko does search pretty well in your browser, and this app is a decent attempt to do search differently on your iPad too.
iGuy is a new iPad and iPad mini case from Speck that’s built for one thing: taking a beating from sticky little kids. It’s design buries your device inside a bed of flexible foam that ensures no matter how many times its thrown, dropped, or sneezed on, it will come out looking as good as new.
The iGuy’s handles make the iPad easy to hold onto — not matter how small the user’s hands are — and the feet allow the device to be stood up when watching movies and cartoons. And despite all that EVA foam, you can still access all your iPad’s ports and buttons, as well as use its cameras.
iGuy comes in four colors — orange, green, red, and purple — and it’s likely to be the best iPad accessory you buy.
You like robots? You’re gonna love this. This is an iPad app all about robots. Just robots, nothing but robots, loads and loads and loads of robots. It’s made of robots, in the same way we are made of meat. It’s fantastic.
As a photographer, I love playing with new lights that can change the look and feel and my portraits. So when Adorama asked me if I’d like to review their new $99 Flashpoint Ring Light, I was intrigued.
Could such an inexpensive piece of lighting equipment perform as well as gear that costs hundreds more? I’ll answer that question in a moment, but before I do, let me tell you a little bit about what ring lights do.