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
Though I’ve come very close on several occasions, I still haven’t bought myself an iPad. After seeing this video for Flipboard, an iPad exclusive app that assembles a magazine out of the articles your friends are sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, I might need to finally pull the trigger.
The app, from a company of the same name (whose co-founder, Evan Doll, in full disclosure, is a friend of a friend), is absolutely stunning. The interactions, the formatting, the incorporation of video, the sharing capabilities — all of them are best in class. The iPad’s collection of RSS readers and Instapaper-like “read later” apps are very nice, but the premise here is different. It’s like Instapaper without having to choose what gets pulled down.
And I will say that this looks to me a lot more like the magazine of the future than that the digital version of Wired does. It’s available for free in the app store now, though from what I understand the company is frantically working to add more servers to allow new members to join. Maybe I’ll have an iPad by the time they have capacity again…
Apple has released an update to its iBooks application for the iOS and the latest version brings with it a few nice new features.
As well as the ability to now choose between 6 different fonts for your books, you can also double-tap images to see them in greater detail; and experience books that include audio and video.
In addition to new features, we also get welcome bug fixes, or, “stability and performance improvements.” I’ve lost count of the number of errors I get when opening a book in iBooks, so I’m hoping these issues are now fixed. So far, so good.
The full list of features from the app’s description is as follows:
• Double-tap an image within a book to view it in greater detail.
• Experience books that include audio and video.
• Enjoy substantial performance improvements when reading PDFs.
• Look-up definitions to English words inside books without a specified language.
• Addresses an issue that may have caused some book downloads to not complete.
• Includes many stability and performance improvements.
You can download the update through iTunes or the App Store on your device, or grab iBooks from the App Store for free if you don’t already have it.
It was just a matter of time before someone devise a way to let you wake up to a custom alarm from your iPad. The iPad dock, charger and radio called the iA100 — all the variations of iSleep or i40winks were apparently already taken — is being billed as an “amazing app-enhanced, Bluetooth-enabled FM radio alarm clock.”
Though its top-heavy looks don’t immediately appeal (and could be dangerous, depending how clumsy you are in the morning), it has enough features to keep you up at night tweaking your sleep habits: it comes with a Free iHome+Sleep app download that lets you set up custom alarms, sleep stats, social media alerts, weather and overnight news. The iHome + Sleep app can also customize your wake up and nap settings, so so you don’t have to fiddle with it to get a day’s siesta.
iHome wants to put this new model beside your bed, though they are playing coy and haven’t released pricing or availability yet. It also works with your iPod or iPhone, too.
What do you think — is a wake-up call worth using your iPad for or will you stick to an old school alarm or using your iPod or iPhone?
Via Chip Chick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhbGgLOxc-Y
For those one-foot-in-one-foot-out Cult readers who have an iPad and a Windows machine (or running Windows on a Mac), there’s now an iPad app called Maxi Vista that lets users turn their iPads into a second display — just like Air Display, which we reviewed last month, does for Macs.
We haven’t tried it yet (we’re somewhat allergic to Windows devices) but it looks like it works practically the same way as Air Display does, seamlessly creating additional screen real estate wirelessly over a wifi network. At $10, it’s even priced the same as Air Display.
If you’re a kid who grew up in the 80’s or 90’s, you might remember days spent carefully building slot-car tracks that would eventually overrun the entire floor; now all that fun can be had on the iPhone with HTR High Tech Racer — without the annoyance of hunting for slot cars sent unceremoniously hurtling off a sharp corner.
Build tracks, customize tires, chassis and motors, then race the creations. The game claims “realistic physics” and an “intuitive track editor.” And if the lure of racing slot cars on an iPhone isn’t enough, the app’s developer, Graffiti Entertainmant, says they’re also giving away an iPad to the top racer on the app’s race leader board.
HTR High Tech Racing is $2 on the iPhone, $5 for the iPad’s HD version.
TeamViewer released their free app that lets a user remotely control any computer over the Internet (with permission) back in March for the iPhone. Yesterday, they brought out an iPad version.
While it’s a pretty cool app to have sitting around on an iPhone, it practically gains Essential Status on the iPad because of the latter’s much bigger screen, making remote-access sessions much easier than on the iPhone’s tiny screen — not to mention the fact that the iPad is the kind of tool that lends itself to functioning as a remote client.
As with the iPhone version, if you’re using the app in any sort of professional circumstance, TeamViewer ask that you purchase a $100 license.
There’s no point debating exactly what collective aneurysm in Apple’s generally unassailable design hive mind has led to Cupertino’s corporate blind spot when it comes to their cross-platform Notes application and its inexplicable reliance on the hideous Marker Felt font.
The good news is, there’s no reason to use it: the App Store is filled with better and more attractive note-taking apps. The newest on the scene is HelvetiNote, a gorgeous note-taking app for the iPad that is as minimalist, muted and beautiful as another Cult of Mac favorite, Reeder.
It certainly looks gorgeous and functional. My only complaint would be the lack of syncing with other note-taking services… namely the likes of SimplenoteApp. If you’re looking for an alternative to the eye sore of the iPad’s default Note.app, HelvetiNote is three bucks well spent.
Animated Knots by Grog is a great app that teaches you to tie all kinds of handy knots. This is the first app we’ve reviewed to earn five Black Turtlenecks using our rating system!
