Apple iPad Apps | Gear Diary

Pimp Your Screen – Your Device Never Looked Cooler for iPhone/Touch and iPad

We all know that iOS is not the king of customization, but sometimes a little change is a breath of fresh air. I have been through the jailbreak stage with plenty of themes and fancy alternate icons, each time causing my phone to become deathly slow. About the only way iOS users can set their devices apart is through custom lock screens and backgrounds. It is fun to have some pictures of my kids or a cool Apple background, but it still is not exactly custom. As I scoured the app store this week I came across a little gem…

Game Diary, Reviews

The Bard’s Tale for iPad Adds Classic Bard’s Tale from 1985!

I am still finishing up my dual review of The Bard’s Tale – I had been working through the PC game for a retrospective review when the iOS version launched, so I have now completed both! But the game just got a HUGE update that makes it a more compelling buy than ever – and trust me, it is already a great game! Here are the notes from the update: New Features: • Includes the original classic game The Bard’s Tale I: Tales of the Unknown! • Earn free gold through TapJoy offers! Spend gold on in-app-purchases, or buy in-game…

Music Diary, News & Features

Stochastik Gives Us the Probability-Based Drum Pattern Machine for iPad

The term ‘stochastic’ means ‘non-deterministic’, or a process influenced by a random factor or variable. The new Stochastik drum pattern machine takes a weighted random factor approach to pattern generation for the iPad. You are actually setting a probability at each step in the sequence that a sound will trigger. The result is amazingly varied patterns – and you can export the results to GarageBand or other apps. The one thing missing in version 1.0 is MIDI, but that is coming soon according to developers. Here are some details: 15 Samples at a time, arranged in 3 banks of 5…

News & Features, Vehicles & Gear

Disney Unveils The Lion King & Tangled Interactive Apps for iOS!

If you or your kids are fans of the classic Disney movie The Lion King or the recent retelling of Rapunzel called Tangled, you will definitely be interested in checking out these new apps. These interactive apps include original scenes from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ The Lion King (1994) and Tangled (2010), as well as new animation and interactive surprises, and allow kids and adults to experience these stories on their mobile devices, in a whole new way. Here are some details: Disney Publishing Worldwide today unveils two new storybook apps featuring original scenes from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ feature…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Adobe Brings a Better-Than-Ever Photoshop Touch to the iPad 2

Like many techies, I have been using my iPad for almost 2 years, and if you ask me ‘what do you use it for?’ … I would reply ‘just about everything’. And as of today that is getting enhanced as Adobe is bringing Photoshop Touch to the iPad 2! From their press release: Adobe Photoshop Touch offers core Photoshop features, as well as new capabilities for creating and sharing in an app custom-built for tablets. The app is a central component of Adobe Touch Apps, a family of six intuitive touch screen applications, inspired by Adobe Creative Suite software. iPad…

Game Diary, Reviews

Fly with Me for iPhone/Touch

We have all flung birds at enemy pigs and used our tiny wings to navigate the hills of an unknown world but how many of us actually get to fly on our iOS device? Do not ask me to explain it, but bird games seem to be fun. As I was scouring the Appstore trying to bring you the best of the bargain apps, Fly With Me jumped at me. I knew being from EA and having a bird as the main character I could not go wrong. The app is actually free as of this writing, on sale…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

George Harrison iPad App Tests How Much You Will Pay for Nostalgia and Guitar Info

Had you heard that George Harrison had an iPad app launching this week? I have been anticipating it for a while, knowing that aside from music there would be loads of context and history about his guitars and what he used for which song and so on. Cool info for a music geek, in other words. But today when it launched, the $10 price made me pause for a bit before buying. Recently we have seen apps from Jimi Hendrix and Sting, both of which were free, as well as Rock and Jazz histories which are ~$5 each. The Sting…

Editorials

OS X Mountain Lion; Yeah, It’s a Big Deal

Mike posted word the other day that Apple outed their next operating system, OS X Mountain Lion and gave it a late summer arrival date. Yes, just as Apple Computer lost the “Computer” from its name as it began to shift its company positioning, they have now dropped the “Mac” from Mac OS X. Mountain Lion is, in my opinion a bit of good news and a bit more good news. The good news is that they are continuing to bring OS X into line with iOS. The additional good news is that they are doing it in a manner…

Reviews

Squrl for iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch

That’s right, its baaaack! After a short hiatus, the Blue Plate Special is back! I will be tweaking the format a bit to hopefully bring you more applications more often. Some of the apps may be on sale and require immediate download for the low price and some posts may contain several apps. Get your phones, iPads and iPod touches ready and check back often for the best deals in the app store! Without further ado, let’s get to saving! There are tons of options for everyone to get news and blog posts on a daily basis. Just look up…

Gear Bits

SoundHound, the Awesome iOS App of the Day

I was driving in the car and a tune came on that was awesome. It wasn’t familiar and I wanted to make sure I could hear it again so… at the stop sign of course, I pulled out my iPad, fired up SoundHound, and I searched for the song.

Editorials, Reviews

Gear Chat 2012 Episode 2, Tablets, Apps and Games… Oh My!!

We’re back with the next edition of Gear Chat. This time out Mike is bringing us some gaming news and Thomas and I talk tablets, apps and iPad 3.

News & Features

Vonage’s New Mobile App is Easy to Use, and It Saves You Money

This is a sponsored post, all opinions here-in are mine. Make Calls, Save Money As crazy as it sounds, there are still people in the world who use their iPhones and Android handsets to … make voice calls. I know, Crazy! Right? If you are one of them, and, especially, if you travel internationally, the cost of those calls can add up quickly. Vonage has been around for quite some time, but they’ve just released a new iPhone and Android calling application that is pretty impressive. I’m already using it for calls when I’m in a WiFi network; although the…

Music Diary, News & Features

FingerLabs Pounds the Beat with Awesome DM1 iPad Update!

The sophistication of music production tools for the iPad is simply staggering. I can do more on my iPad than my entire multi-thousand dollar mini-studio from the 90’s could ever hope to accomplish! It has gotten to the point where a solid app that lacks a few features – MIDI in, AudioCopy, etc – will get passed over by musicians. Such is the case of DM1, and excellently designed and implemented drum machine and sequencer. It has loads of great programming flexibility and features – but lacking the aforementioned features kept it off of many folks iPads. Now with the…

Game Diary, Reviews

XIII Lost Identity iPad Game Review

Almost two years ago I did a review of the 2003 PC game called ‘XIII’, which took a French intrigue-filled graphic novel and brought it to life in a unique graphical style. Late last year the game made the jump to the iOS platform as a hidden object adventure. Let’s see how it did! The Hype: Imagine waking up to discover you’ve led several different lives. Based on the comic book series by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance. A man suffering from amnesia is found washed up on a beach by an elderly couple. He has to unravel who…

Gear Bits

Quick Tip: Transcribe Audio and Video for FREE

Have you ever had a YouTube video or audio segment you wanted to transcribe but didn’t have the patience to sit and manually type out what the speaker/s said? I ran into just such a situation yesterday and, instead of it taking hours for me to listen, pause, type, listen, pause, type etc I was able to transcribe the two YouTube videos I needed in under ten minutes. Here’s how…

News & Features

Adonit JotStudio App Designed With Hardware in Mind

Adonit’s Jot and Jot Pro Stylus for the iPad is an unusual animal. We reviewed it here and had this to say What sets the Jot and the Jot Pro apart from the crowd is the disk at the top. Rather than having a relatively wide rubber tip for darting or writing the Jot and Jot Pro have a ballpoint tip that then attaches to a clear disk. The ball-point tip gives you accuracy while the disk protects the screen from scratches. It looks rather odd and does take a few minutes of adjustment but, after that, it REALLY WORKS!!…

Game Diary, Reviews

Royal Trouble: Hidden Adventure iPad Game Review

Even after reading the description of Royal Trouble I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect in terms of gameplay – and frankly I was nervous that I was getting burnt out on hidden object games after Spirit of Wandering (though ‘Letters from Nowhere 2’ tells me otherwise). Fortunately this is an entirely different sort of casual adventure game – and an absolute blast that you simply MUST try! Let’s take a look! The Hype: In this critically acclaimed adventure quest, help two charming royal heirs escape from a secluded island! Princess Loreen and Prince Nathaniel find themselves locked in a…

News & Features, Travel

TripIt gets “iPadified” with New “On-Map” Interactions and Planning

Judie turned me on to TripIt about two years ago, and I have been a devoted user ever since. And today we got word that TripIt.com just got “iPadified”, and now “Travelers can interact with their trip plans on a map and create directions instantly online.” This is a new way for TripIt users to access trip maps and get directions and makes the service even more valuable than ever. As the news release we received explains, Now, when travelers log onto TripIt.com, they’ll have the option to view their itinerary alongside an interactive map, or select the traditional detailed…

Gear Bits

Mental Case Mac and iOS, a Study Tool That’s Good for Everything from Tech to Bar Mitzvah!

Last week Apple worked to make the iPad an even more important educational tool than it already is. The textbooks and their own publishing app Apple set the stage for some really huge increases in iPad-in-education adoption rates. The iPad as study tool is nothing new and one of the best educational apps for it has been around for some time. Mental Case is a flashcard creation and study tool for both Mac OS X and iOS. The Mac version of the app is $29.99 and can be found here. The iOS version is $4.99 and can be found here….

Reviews

PDFpen for iPad is Powerful and Simple to Use, Review

Smile software makes some of the mainstay apps I use on my Mac. Their PDFpenPro is an amazing application for working with PDFs and I’m honestly not sure what I would do without their TextExpander application. It lets me create shortcuts for terms, phrases and especially HTML code that I use all the time. Now, for example, if I want to put in the site’s URL instead of typing out the entire thing I simply type “ggd”. TextExpander sees it and replaces it with the address. There honestly isn’t a post or an email I writer where TE doesn’t jump…

News & Features

OS X Moves Yet Another Step Closer to iOS

If you still weren’t convinced that Apple’s desktop/laptop Mac OS X operating system and their mobile operating system iOS were moving closer and closer to one another here’s yet one more example. If you have a Mac go to software update and download the Airport Utility update. Once you do you’ll be greeted with a utility that will be rather familiar if you have used the recently release iOS Airport Utility.