Reuters’ new iPad app is called The Wider Image, and it’s dedicated to showing off the news agency’s photographs. It’s free, and if you want to spend the next few hours lost in amazing photojournalism from around the world, whilst learning a bit about that same world, then go download it now.
If you have any idea what an ollie is, or a 50:50 grind, or a heel-flip (or — if you grew up in the 1980s, an acid drop or boneless), then you should buy True Skate right this minute. Seriously. I’ll wait.
Why? Because — despite some v1 limitations — True Skate is the closest you’re going to get to a dead-on skateboarding sim in 2012. The only things missing are the security guards to come and harass you, and bad fast food.
Although I’ve used a Mac exclusively since 2005, before that, I was a PC guy, which means I have lots of gauzy memories of halcyon days well-spent in front of a menagerie of beige boxes falling backwards in time through a decade of classic PC gaming, starting with the old 8-bit Ultima games and Nethack under DOS and continuing well into the Windows era with games like Grim Fandango, Half-Life, Planescape: Torment and System Shock 2.
I love the Mac, but the one thing I miss about having a PC is easily playing classic PC games without loading them up in Boot Camp or Parallels. Luckily, it looks like that’s about to change, as GOG.com — a digital distributor of classic PC games updated to work on modern machines and distributed without DRM — is now releasing their titles to work on Mac.
Be-be, wo-wo, boo-bee. These are the kind of phrases a human being can only get away with uttering in public if still under the age of two. Fortunately, these are also the only words these underdeveloped fools can manage. There’s probably a lesson about ability vs. ambition hidden in there somewhere.
Which is to say that the Belkin Wemo baby monitor is probably the best-named baby monitor ever. Even your dumb infant can ask for it by name.
Checkmark, the supper-slick location-aware reminders app for the iPhone, has gotten a feature bump in its newest update that almost (almost!) makes it a new app.
And if you don’t already have Checkmark, then shame on you — the $2 app not only makes location-based reminders on your iPhone way easier and way better than the built in reminders, but it also works on your iPad.
QuickOffice Pro HD — an app which takes not only its feature-set but its naming conventions from Microsoft Office — has gotten a big, big new feature. Now you can not only edit office documents, but you can track changes and comments in DOC and DOCX files.
Lawyers, editors, authors and anyone else forced to use office on the Mac or PC can now do their work from the bar or bus, as God intended.
Drive is a tool for drivers who want to get basic tasks done on their phones with just a tap or a swipe, controlling your phone just as you’d control the other dashboard gadgets in your car.
Plain text geeks, prepare for nerdgasm: Jesse Grosjean’s Folding Text app is out of beta and in the Mac App Store. Folding Text, as you may remember, is a Markdown-compatible plain text editor with special superpowers.
I’m a borderline weather geek. I don’t just like to know the temperature — both inside and out — I even keep a hydrometer in my home so I can keep tabs on the humidity, cause you know, that’s important.
So naturally, when I found out about the Netatmo Weather Station ($179), I was a little excited. With its indoor and outdoor weather modules, the Netatmo tracks a lot more than just the current temperature. Plus, unlike my crappy $5 hydrometer, it relays all its readings in a unified way, presented beautifully in an iOS app optimized for both my iPhone and iPad.
Here’s how it works.
Imagine that you are chatting to somebody on your iPhone. Now imagine that — at the touch of a button — you can cause a fragrance to squirt from their iPhone and into their unsuspecting nostrils. Amazingly, there is a device which will make this nightmare scenario real, and — of course — it comes from Japan.
Been looking for an excuse to exercise? Then look no further than the App Store, for a new app from Striiv — the people who brought us the “smart pedometer” — will count your steps and turn them into gold. Virtual gold, that is. Metaphorical virtual gold. Whatever. Rewards?
In some fields, the iPad just isn’t suited to take over from a PC. And that’s cool, because it can still help out. Take pro-level Photoshopping, for example: without actions, multiple windows and keyboard shortcuts, no iPad app is going to be better than PS on OS X. But you can put your tablet net to your Mac and let them work together.
Today’s example: Colorotate, a color editing app for your iPad.
Dropbox photo-sharing just got a little more handy. Now, if you head over to Dropbox.com in Mobile Safari, you get a fantastic new mobile view which lets you swipe and tap your way through your photos.
Scapple — a cross between scabs and Snapple? Thankfully not: Scapple is in fact a brand new (as in beta) mind-map app for writers. What’s that, you say? There are already a ton of mind-map apps out there? That’s true. But none of them comes from the developer of the awesome Scrivener.
Kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup is a brand new Newsstand publication that’s “loosely about technology,” from Instapaper developer Marco Arment. We also have an awesome new email client that turns items in your inbox into tasks and to-dos, a great little iPhone app for remembering recommendations, the ultimate unarchiver, and more.
The Washington Post’s WP Politics app for the iPad is an excellent resource for anyone interested in United States politics. I spent a few days with this free app and found it to be an excellent tool for tracking and understanding the 2012 election season. While not without its flaws, this app does two critical things exceedingly well. First, it aggregates media and information from a broad range of sources into one tool. Whether you’re looking for the latest news about a particular candidate or economic data from years ago, it’s all here. Second, it organizes and contextualizes the information in a way that helps the casual user to understand it. It classifies news articles by genre, organizes Twitter feeds by source, and breaks candidates down by their stances on the issues. If you’re looking for an app to help you follow the upcoming election, or politics in general, look no further.
Go a GoPro HD Hero2? And an iPhone, iPad or (ahem) Android device? Then head over to the App Store right now, because — with a new free app — you can use one to control the other.
The SlingPlayer app for both Android and iOS has been discounted to $14.99 (50% off) after receiving a long-overdue update. SlingPlayer is one of the more expensive apps so grabbing it while it’s half-off is a must for anyone considering the purchase of a Slingbox. The SlingPlayer works in conjunction with a compatible Slingbox and smartphone or tablet, allowing users to watch live or recorded TV while on-the-go.
Sure, Rovio just announced its new Star Wars Angry Bird iteration, but they certainly haven’t forgotten about the OG Angry Birds that started it all. Today, Rovio has updated the original Angry Birds with a ton of new content. Chock full of new power-ups, this update includes 15 new Surf & Turf levels as well as 15 pig themed levels.
I hope you haven’t grown tired of dismembering the undead because Gameloft plans on unleashing another horde of zombies onto Android an iOS this Halloween. You’ll soon have the opportunity to play the part of Stuntman/Movie Star extraordinaire, aimed with ridding the entertainment capital of the world of walking corpses (and I’m not talking Joan Rivers). Arm yourself with weapons sporting wacky names like “Widow Maker” and the “Cyclops,” then annihilate anything without a pulse (pretty much all of Hollywood).
One of the things that was fantastic about vintage PCs is the way your hands never had to leave the keyboard: everything was just a command away. The graphic user interface first introduced to the world with the Macintosh is obviously a big step forward when it comes to general accessibility, pointing an onscreen at an object to click on it can often be a step backwards when it comes to speed for die-hard power users.
If that sounds like you, Shortcat is a new, free app that you should download which aims to bring the command line to the GUI.
You know how it is with iOS-enabled fitness trackers: they’re like busses. You wait around for ages, and then three (or more) all turn up at once.
And the sweetest, cleanest-looking of those busses looks to be the Lark, a clever, wrist-mounted sensor which tracks your whole day, from daily exercise to nightly sleep.
If you live in the UK, or if you know how to make your iPhone think that it’s in the UK, then you can now listen to BBC radio from a new dedicated app. It’s called iPlayer Radio, and it turns your high-tech, $700 pocket computer into a 1980s clock radio.
This, if you were wondering, is awesome.
Well that didn’t take long. It’s only been three days since Rovio teased us with the possibility of an Angry Birds Star Wars game, and today, it’s official. Rovio has announced that they will be launching Angry Birds Star Wars worldwide on Novemeber 8th and a barrage of merchandise starting October 28th (in time to get your kids into Angry Birds Star Wars costumes).
The rocket scientist (yup, he kinda really is) behind last year’s dual-iPad Halloween trick is back at it again. Only this time, having the best Halloween costume in the neighborhood won’t require two iPads — just an iPhone (or Android phone), a special t-shirt and some duct tape. And the results are really, really cool.
