Official iPhone and iPad APPS Discussion thread - Page 2

Ok you just cost me $6 pal, 2 for the phone version and $4 for the iPad editor!

http://gallery.me.com/sposten#100016/3d%20elephants

Looks great! I take it the paid version exports larger-size images?

 

I'm going to need better 3D glasses. My colors aren't a super match to my monitor or iPhone colors.

It allows more in depth editing

Tron from Disney is free:

http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?threadid=61334

Tried the Tron app. Not quite my cup of tea: I'm no good at Robotron with real joysticks :) and have even more trouble with virtual sticks.

 

Anyone use textPlus (text+)? I don't quite get it...it's an app to send SMS messages for free, and receive them for free via its system if your friends also use it. It seems like I should use it, to save $120 a year on AT&T's outrageous text plan. But, I keep waiting for a catch: if texting is so expensive, how is there a textPlus?

Holy mother of Zeus -- the first true killer app for the iPad has arrived: Flipboard. And it's free.

Basically a combination of social media (your Facebook, Twitter) and a curated RSS feed, delivered in breathtakingly beautiful, highly readable format.

What with lack official Facebook and Twitter apps on the iPad, Flipboard has arrived right place, right time.

Flipboard's servers are getting slammed (no wonder) so you may have to retry logging in a few times, but once you're in it is smooth sailing, and you will quickly see what the fuss is about.

Edited by Ted Todorov - 7/21/10 at 1:14pm

I've been trying to register for 18 hours, no dice.

Not an app, but a pretty good site for ringtones

 

http://audiko.net/

Flipboard connectivity to Facebook and Twitter is working now.

I wouldn't call it a killer app just yet, but I like the interface.

I am currently using my new favorite app on my iPhone 4, Logmein Ignition. I am making this post from my MacPro at work by accessing it remotely with Logmein, over 3G, from a Carl's Jr.

 

I use the free version of Logmein but the app is $30. A bit pricey but for me well worth it!

 

-Keith

I'm waiting for Citrix to get there gotomypc app out the door and that will make me happy!

Anyone use loopt? is it " fun"? Is it safe to it my cell #?

I really like the Lonely Planet City Guides for different cities.  I stumbled upon them when most of them, if not all, were free for a day.  They're fun to imaginary-travel on my iPod and learn about cities that I'd like to visit or reminisce about places that I've been to before.

I also like using language study apps like Human Japanese and Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese.  And the mobile version of Antidote -- full of French dictionaries and guides -- is really fun as well.  I also use some different language Collins dictionary apps, the Oxford Deluxe app, and an app called 100 Words Every Word Lover Should Know is fun to browse through.

 

I don't play many games except for Sudoku.  I've just downloaded Sudoku 2 based on what I saw in this thread to try it out.  

 

Another essential app for me is Air Video.  And I think once the Netflix iPod/iPhone app comes out, I'll be pleased enough until I might decide to get the next generation iPad next year.

Tilt to Live

 

I posted about Tilt to Live when it was free, in the iPhone 4 thread. And I downloaded and, played it...and immediately gave up. It made no sense. The screen was filled with circles and a wonky tilt control system. Sometimes I died and sometimes I lived and I never knew what the heck was going on.

 

This week, I tried it again. It clicked.

 

Tilt to Live is awesome!

 

You are a triangle. Red dots are out to kill you. Your weapons are balls that float about the screen that when touched activate something useful: red nukes obliterating anything nearby; yellow homing missles that kill up to five dots; green shields that explode on contact, and more. Tilt the iPhone to steer your triangle around the green playing filed to touch one and activate the weapons and obliterate the red dots as fast and furiously as you can.

 

As as you play, unlock achievements, which lead to new weapons.

 

If I didn't know any better, I'd think a game about keeping a white triangle away from red dots would be dull. But not only is the game mechanic tight, it overflows with style. The music is punchy, even ironic. The weapons' sounds are marvelous. And the dots...ever surprising. At first they are just a few loose dots. But then...think about the groupers from Finding Nemo. Form of: dastardly arrows. An impromptu game of Pong, where you're dodging the ball and paddles. Walls sweeping across the screen to mow you down. And they keep coming.

 

There are four game options, all variations on the theme. Be sure to try the control positions to find the right one -- once I found the right style for me, everything fell into place. And now I'm hooked.

 

For a quick, fast-paced game with pinache I recommend Tilt to Live wholeheartedly.

My-Cast Weather Radar

 

My-Cast really gets it right. The basic forecast screen gives the week at a glance with percent of precipitation for each day. Rotate to landscape view for a graph showing predicted temperature variations over the week with a graphic display of upcoming weather predictions. For me, it's an easily grasped look at the weather. Tap to the Maps tab for the last hour of weather radar, something I find very helpful in understanding rain and snow predictions in my area.

 

Add in Location services to automatically use your current location, additional detailed views and other various weather maps, and this is a packed weather app with about every feature you want, all very accessible and attractive.

 

I wasn't sure about paying $3.99 for a weather app, but it's been a great purchase. Apple's built in app was too simple for me, and I never used it. My-Cast however is a front-page app for me and I use it regularly.

Edited by DaveF - 8/26/10 at 7:14pm

Netflix for iPhone has appeared.

The weather channel app and weatherbug weather apps are great also, and free.

We've had a pair of 64gig 3G iPads in our house for a little over a month now, and here are my personal favourite apps:

 

NEWS

- NPR: the best news app around, with the ability to stream and audio recording of most articles as well as the hourly news broadcast.  You can also pre-load thd audio if you plan to be out of internet range.  Best of all, you can listen to one source, say the news, while reading another.  Great stuff.

 

- BBC News: slick interface, and a lot more world news than the average app.

 

- Reuters News Pro: another good international news source with a good interface.

 

- Slate: Slightly more pop-culture content than the other world news sources, but on average the writing is better (a lot more editorials and non-news stories, too).

 

- Fluent News: my favourite "news feed" app, if you want the "breaking news!" feel instead of the newspaper feel.

 

- Guardian Eyewitness: a very interesting app, where it shows you a single picture of the day, complete with a brief comment by the photographer on how the shot was achieved (lighting tips, composition, specific equipment, et cetera).  A cool way to spend 30 seconds per day.

 

WEATHER

- Accuweather: a great, free, weather app with a really professional look to it.  The best at-a-glance weather app.

 

- WeatherBug: more features than Accuweather, but it takes slightly longer to get at the info. you need.  My secondary weather app, if I need detailed info.

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

- ComicZeal4: the absolute best comic book reader for the iPad, no contest.  Fast page turning, intuitive-yet-minimal UI, and an auto-pan feature (it pans from dialogue box to dialogue box, like Marvel's reader).  It reads every digital comic format.

 

- Zap2it What's On?HD: basically a tv guide app, but it takes advantage of the iPad platform.

 

- IMDb: much quicker than firing up Safari and browsing that way.  Solves a lot of movie/TV "arguments" in a pinch.

 

- Flixster: the best app around for finding showtimes at local theatres.  Entries have the rotton tomotoes meta-review data, the ability to buy tickets within the app, and, best of all, trailers.

 

- iBooks and Kindle: of course.

 

- NFB: very cool app from the National Film Board of Canada, where you can watch literally everything (I think) they have ever made, for free.

 

- Epicurious: the best cooking app, no question.  Great interface, high resolution pictures, ingredients and shopping lists, and user reviews.

 

GAMES

- Angry Birds: I think enough has been said about Angry Birds.

 

- Trundle HD: very interesting platform game that makes use of the accelerometre.

 

- Stick Golf: basic premise and simplistic graphics, but still a fun side-view "golf" game

 

- Scrabble: it's $9.99, but basically just as good, if not better, than playing the actual board game.  A must-have app for fans.

 

- Jumbline2: fans of yahoo's text twist will love this.  Very fun for free (the paid version adds 7-letter words).

 

- Chess Free: the best free Chess app I have found.  Pretty much does everything a chess app should do.

 

MISC

- Google Earth: really cool way to show off the iPad, even though it's basically the same thing as the computer version.

 

- Dropbox: if you use the dropbox program on your computer, this is a no-brainer.  Toss an ebook or pdf into your dropbox, open it in the app on your iPad, and it will automatically save it to iBook for you--a quick way to move stuff without syncing.

TomTom Now, from Bacon Bear

 

MacWorld Review

 

I read the MW review last month and thought that TomTom Now was a curious idea. It seemed like a solution looking for a problem that didn't exist. Then I left town on business for two weeks, and discovered the purpose for TomTom Now: getting a restaurant address from Yelp! to TomTom quickly and easily! :)

 

When traveling, I put key addresses in my address book; hotels, airports, car rental services, all go in my contacts so I can easily get them into TomTom via its Contacts integration. Skipping the details of my travel needs, this is a good solution for me. And when driving, I tend to use TomTom's Google Local search to find nearby locations on the fly. And so I didn't really see the point of TomTom Now: if I needed an address in TomTom, it would be in my Contacts or I'd find it within TomTom itself.

 

Then I leave on business travel. My wife isn't with me (she's really the brains of our travel navigation) so I don't have her to manage the TomTom for me. And I'm using Yelp (or similar) to find good places to eat lunch and dinner. Aha! I download TomTom Now ($1.99), turn on its Auto Copy and Auto Launch features, and its value is immediately seen.

 

Find a restaurant in Yelp. Copy its address. Launch TomTom Now. It grabs the address from the copy buffer, launches TomTom (feeding it the address) and TomTom generates the route directions. No messing with the drill-down GPS address entry. No being limited to TomTom's restaurant search method. I'm using this for restaurants. But of course it will work for any address you're copying from some other source, like Yelp!, Google Maps, Urban Spoon, emails, etc.

 

This is a pretty specific-needs app, limited to use with either TomTom or Navigon (see Navigon Now). And it does only that one thing: feed address to the GPS program. But what it does, it does perfectly (in my brief usage). It was well worth the $1.99 to reduce the friction of getting address from outside sources into TomTom.

 

If you have this sort of "problem", I highly recommend TomTom Now (or Navigon Now).

Anyone play Words With Friends?

Yup, send me a game request, I'm Kadath, I average around 375ish or so

I could probably get you connected with my wife (and likes playing with others, since I don't play :) )

Open to more games, have her send me an invite!

I'll pass along your invites to her

Alert!  World of Goo for iPad is 99 cents today only, down from $9.99 - if you only get one iPad game this year make it this one!

 

Dave, thanks!

Mirrors Edge has been on sale for $0.99 thus week. I bought and am playing it. It's good, if not great. It has superb style and graphics, iPhone 4 optimized. The mechanics feel a bit slushy for a game that seems to expect precision at times. But for a buck, it's well worth it to me.

And now for something completely different:

Figure

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/figure/id511269223?mt=8

 

For a buck, you can indulge dreams of being a Techno Dance DJ genius. Keyboard "auto-play" meets Tracker meets modern sounds, all it does it let you indulge in audio noodling for a bit. It has no save, no export, no nothing (as far as I can tell).

 

This video will tantalize with the notion of creating music on the Metro that you're not nearly good enough to make. But it's a hoot trying.

http://www.propellerheads.se/products/figure/

 

I'll warn you though, this app is neither simple nor relaxing. The music is kinetic, and the app is deceptively complex. But as a pure impulse buy, it was well worth the $0.99 I paid for some audio fun.

 

 

Most useful app I have is easy: GasBuddy.   I save more money with that thing.. and it's free.   100% worth it.  Maybe 1000% worth it when you're traveling to strange cities..

 

Outside of that, the major news apps do me well.

 

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gasbuddy-find-cheap-gas-prices/id406719683?mt=8

Installing Gas Buddy - realized it could be useful in a new location.

 

If you listen to Podcasts regularly, I recommend Downcast.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/downcast/id393858566?mt=8

 

The Apple experience got better with Wifi syncing, but if you're away on vacation or just don't sync regularly, the Music app is a poor podcast player manager. Because of that, I bought Instacast over Christmas -- I'd seen a recommendation. It was a big improvement, with automatic syncing on launch. But after three months of use, I realized it was badly designed. Its navigation is bad. Most egregious of sins: no "Now Playing" button to quickly get to the currently playing selection and access play controls. So I spent another two bucks and bought Downcast, another app i've read good things about. It has a much simpler menu hierarchy, a "Now Playing" button, and gesture controls (similar to Audible app). It made much more sense, much more quickly than Instacast did. The tradeoff is that Downcast is less well polished. It's less responsive and not as attractive. But easier to use.

 

And then a week later, Marco Arment on "Build and Analyze" explained how he had the exact same conclusions between these two apps.