标签: applications

In case you are in a hurry, I should say early on that I've saved the best for last, so if nothing else please you make sure you peruse the last two applications presented in this blog. Just to set the scene... In Part 1 we discussed the following iPad apps: NetFlix , Compass , ArtRage , Fluid Monkey , The Weather Channel , Google Earth , Digital Geiger Counter , Notes Plus , and GoSkyWatch Planetarium . In Part 2 we introduced Public Radio , Dictionary , Angry Birds , Caveman Bowling (I love this one), and Talking Tom (I REALLY love this one). . In fact I just powered up my iPad to check which other apps I've downloaded, and one thing that I should mention is the way in which they automatically get updated so you have the latest version. I personally think this is very cool. OK, here we go.... iBooks This is a free app from Apple. The idea of course is that they want you to buy e-Books from the iTunes Store. It comes with a delightfully illustrated version of Winnie The Pooh , which immediately sucks you in. Now, I have to say I really like the Amazon Kindle that my wife gave me a year or so ago – especially the fact that you can read it for a week (24/7) on a single battery charge, which makes it great for long journeys. But I also have to say that the touch screen user interface on the iPad is wonderful for this sort of thing; for example, it's a delight to see the way the page appears to flip over when you drag your finger across the screen (I can play with this feature for hours without actually reading a word ). . In fact there's also a Kindle app for the iPad – I just haven't gotten around to downloading it yet. One thing I did find in the iTunes Store (while perusing the plethora of free books) was one called The Lost Bradbury , which is a compilation of forgotten short stories by Ray Bradbury. So this little scamp is now sitting on my iPad waiting for me to find the time to read it. . Calculator for iPad This app has a bit of a boring name, but it's certainly descriptive of its function. This was billed as offering both "Standard" and "Scientific" views. As far as I recall the base version was free, but I purchased the upgrade (for something like $0.99) so as to allow me to play with different skins. . I started with the iPad being held in "Portrait" orientation (tall and thin) if you see what I mean. I enjoyed playing with the skins and picking the look-and-feel that suited me best, but for the life of me I couldn't get it to present me with the Scientific interface. The application's "info" didn't say anything about this, so there was much moaning and groaning and gnashing of teeth, let me tell you. Eventually, after much muttering under my breath, I happened to rotate the iPad into "Landscape" orientation (short and wide), and lo and behold it automatically swapped over into its Scientific interface. Once you know the trick it seems obvious, but I still felt like a fool (I know, I know, the correct response when someone says "I feel like a fool" is to reply "Me too, but where are we going to find a fool at this time of the day?" ) . UkuTune I downloaded this free app just after I'd ordered my build-it-yourself Ukulele (see my blog "Is it possible to be in bad mood while playing the ukelele?" ) As far as I'm concerned it's a little gem. When you want to tune your ukulele you can "pluck" each string on the iPad and compare it to the corresponding string on your real ukulele. You can make the string on the iPad sound like a string or like a tone – and you can turn the "Loop" mode on so that the iPad keeps on plucking the last string you requested; also you can "strum" all of the strings. Last but not least, UkuTune supports five different tuning options: standard tune and half-step/full-step up/down. . NLog Pro One really amazing app that I simply couldn't resist is NLog Pro , which looks and feels like one of the old analog music synthesizers. At $14.95 this app is at the more expensive end of the scale, but when you see everything that's gone into it I think you will agree that it's more than worth the cost. As you can see in this YouTube video , there are lots of lovely knobs and sound effects to play with – plus there are a wide variety of preset effects from which you can choose. . Although it may seem as though you have only a few keys available, in fact you can scroll the keyboard left and right so as to obtain a much wider range. Also, you can switch into a dual keyboard mode in which you have one keyboard with one set of effects at the top of the screen and another keyboard with a different sound at the bottom. This really is an amazingly clever piece of software that I highly recommend to anyone with a musical nature. . Riven Generally speaking I really am not big on computer games, but there's an exception to every rule. Do you remember Riven ? The original version, which was delivered on five compact disks, was released in 1997, which seems to be way back in the mists of time. In those days of yore, most home computers didn't have powerful graphics subsystems. Riven got around this by having thousands of pre-rendered photo-realistic images that you clicked your way through (these were combined with small areas of animation and video). The creators of Riven also furnished incredible background music and sound effects. The result was an audio-visual experience that was awesome at the time. . The idea is that you have to make your way around five islands solving clues to locate and free someone and save the world. As I recall, the original version of Riven cost around $30, which was a lot of money back in 1997. On the other hand, the sophistication of the puzzles and the overall awesomeness of the experience made it worth the money to a lot of people. I remember two of my friends getting "hooked" and spending a month of evenings and weekends working their way through the game and being exhilarated when they finally solved everything and saved the day. . The reason I'm waffling on about this is that I discovered that Riven is available in the iPad app store for only $4.95. Wow! I immediately downloaded it (all 1 GB of it) and started to root around. This is just as good as I remember it. The graphics and sounds are WONDERFUL. If you enjoy solving puzzles, then this will keep you happily employed for weeks and weeks – so as far as I'm concerned this is absolutely worth the $4.95 asking price. .

Before we begin, in case you are in a hurry, I should point out that I've saved the best for last, so if nothing else please you make sure you peruse the last two applications presented in this blog. Just to set the scene... In Part 1 we discussed the following iPad apps: NetFlix , Compass , ArtRage , Fluid Monkey , The Weather Channel , Google Earth , Digital Geiger Counter , Notes Plus , and GoSkyWatch Planetarium . In Part 2 we introduced Public Radio , Dictionary , Angry Birds , Caveman Bowling (I love this one), and Talking Tom (I REALLY love this one). . In fact I just powered up my iPad to check which other apps I've downloaded, and one thing that I should mention is the way in which they automatically get updated so you have the latest version. I personally think this is very cool. OK, here we go.... iBooks This is a free app from Apple. The idea of course is that they want you to buy e-Books from the iTunes Store. It comes with a delightfully illustrated version of Winnie The Pooh , which immediately sucks you in. Now, I have to say I really like the Amazon Kindle that my wife gave me a year or so ago – especially the fact that you can read it for a week (24/7) on a single battery charge, which makes it great for long journeys. But I also have to say that the touch screen user interface on the iPad is wonderful for this sort of thing; for example, it's a delight to see the way the page appears to flip over when you drag your finger across the screen (I can play with this feature for hours without actually reading a word ). . In fact there's also a Kindle app for the iPad – I just haven't gotten around to downloading it yet. One thing I did find in the iTunes Store (while perusing the plethora of free books) was one called The Lost Bradbury , which is a compilation of forgotten short stories by Ray Bradbury. So this little scamp is now sitting on my iPad waiting for me to find the time to read it. . Calculator for iPad This app has a bit of a boring name, but it's certainly descriptive of its function. This was billed as offering both "Standard" and "Scientific" views. As far as I recall the base version was free, but I purchased the upgrade (for something like $0.99) so as to allow me to play with different skins. . I started with the iPad being held in "Portrait" orientation (tall and thin) if you see what I mean. I enjoyed playing with the skins and picking the look-and-feel that suited me best, but for the life of me I couldn't get it to present me with the Scientific interface. The application's "info" didn't say anything about this, so there was much moaning and groaning and gnashing of teeth, let me tell you. Eventually, after much muttering under my breath, I happened to rotate the iPad into "Landscape" orientation (short and wide), and lo and behold it automatically swapped over into its Scientific interface. Once you know the trick it seems obvious, but I still felt like a fool (I know, I know, the correct response when someone says "I feel like a fool" is to reply "Me too, but where are we going to find a fool at this time of the day?" ) . UkuTune I downloaded this free app just after I'd ordered my build-it-yourself Ukulele (see my blog "Can you be in a bad mood while playing the ukelele?" ) As far as I'm concerned it's a little gem. When you want to tune your ukulele you can "pluck" each string on the iPad and compare it to the corresponding string on your real ukulele. You can make the string on the iPad sound like a string or like a tone – and you can turn the "Loop" mode on so that the iPad keeps on plucking the last string you requested; also you can "strum" all of the strings. Last but not least, UkuTune supports five different tuning options: standard tune and half-step/full-step up/down. . NLog Pro One really amazing app that I simply couldn't resist is NLog Pro , which looks and feels like one of the old analog music synthesizers. At $14.95 this app is at the more expensive end of the scale, but when you see everything that's gone into it I think you will agree that it's more than worth the cost. As you can see in this YouTube video , there are lots of lovely knobs and sound effects to play with – plus there are a wide variety of preset effects from which you can choose. . Although it may seem as though you have only a few keys available, in fact you can scroll the keyboard left and right so as to obtain a much wider range. Also, you can switch into a dual keyboard mode in which you have one keyboard with one set of effects at the top of the screen and another keyboard with a different sound at the bottom. This really is an amazingly clever piece of software that I highly recommend to anyone with a musical nature. . Riven Generally speaking I really am not big on computer games, but there's an exception to every rule. Do you remember Riven ? The original version, which was delivered on five compact disks, was released in 1997, which seems to be way back in the mists of time. In those days of yore, most home computers didn't have powerful graphics subsystems. Riven got around this by having thousands of pre-rendered photo-realistic images that you clicked your way through (these were combined with small areas of animation and video). The creators of Riven also furnished incredible background music and sound effects. The result was an audio-visual experience that was awesome at the time. . The idea is that you have to make your way around five islands solving clues to locate and free someone and save the world. As I recall, the original version of Riven cost around $30, which was a lot of money back in 1997. On the other hand, the sophistication of the puzzles and the overall awesomeness of the experience made it worth the money to a lot of people. I remember two of my friends getting "hooked" and spending a month of evenings and weekends working their way through the game and being exhilarated when they finally solved everything and saved the day. . The reason I'm waffling on about this is that I discovered that Riven is available in the iPad app store for only $4.95. Wow! I immediately downloaded it (all 1 GB of it) and started to root around. This is just as good as I remember it. The graphics and sounds are WONDERFUL. If you enjoy solving puzzles, then this will keep you happily employed for weeks and weeks – so as far as I'm concerned this is absolutely worth the $4.95 asking price. .  

In one of my recent blogs , I talked about a few cool apps for my iPad 2 that I'd run across in the app store ( NetFlix , Compass HD , ArtRage , Fluid Monkey , The Weather Channel , Google Earth , Digital Geiger Counter , Notes Plus , and GoSkyWatch Planetarium ). Note the 'HD' part of the Compass app. I'm seeing a lot of apps with this annotation but I don't know what it stands for. Does it indicate "High Definition"? If so, what does that mean in this context? Does it just stand for a higher definition than an equivalent app on an iPhone? Inquiring minds want to know (grin). Did you know that there are currently more than 90,000 apps for the iPad according to the App Store page on the Apple website? Personally I find this to be somewhat intimidating. If I evaluated one every two minutes without taking a break or sleeping, it would take me 125 days to go through them all. What this means in reality, of course, is that I am never going to know everything that's out there. I don't know why, but this makes me feel a little sad (unhappy face). But turn that frown upside down into a smile (happy face), because I'm having so much fun with the few handfuls of apps that I do have; speaking of which... Public Radio If I happen to be driving in my car between 9:00am and 10:00am on a Saturday morning, I rather enjoy listening to Car Talk with "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers" on the National Public Radio (NPR). A couple of Saturday's ago I was at home and decided to listen to the show, but my son had taken the radio into the shower with him (OK, into the bathroom if you want to be pedantic). "Hmmm," I thought. Then my eyes passed over my iPad sitting on the table and I decided to take a peak in the app store. And yes, there is a Public Radio app, which I immediately downloaded. This is really cool. First it allows you to select any public radio station in the country. And then, when you are listening to a program, if you miss a bit (because your wife comes in and starts waffling on about something or other ... to give a really crazy example), you can easily pause or rewind the program and pick up where you left off. Of course it may be that this is all "old hat" to you, but I've not spent a lot of time playing with Internet access to the radio or television, so a a newbie in this area I'm really impressed. Dictionary This is another app that's not got a lot of "bling" associated with it, but that is incredibly useful on occasion. When I'm writing articles and suchlike on my main computer, I'm always checking things out on www.Dictionary.com and its counterpart www.Thesaurus.com. Similarly, when I'm reading a book or watching TV, I often become interested in better understanding the meaning or origin of a word. So I was delighted to discover that there's a Dictionary app for the iPad. This includes nearly two million words, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and audio pronunciation. Amazing! Angry Birds and Cave Bowling As I've mentioned before, I'm really not much of a computer games player. On the other hand, if you have an iPad and there are a bunch of free game apps out there, it seems silly not to at least take them for a spin (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). Thus it was that I downloaded two apps: Angry Birds and Cave Bowling . First I tried Angry Birds. The idea is that you have a sort of catapult that you use to hurl a bird into the air to knock over a structure. Using your finger you control the angle of the shot and the launch speed.   Angry Birds The result was a bit of a laugh, but it didn't really "Grab me by the short and curlies, swing me round the room, and leave me gasping for more," if you see what I mean. Maybe I just didn't try hard enough or work my way through a sufficient number of levels. Based on this experience, I left Cave Bowling on the back burner for a couple of days... If the truth be told, I might never have even powered the Cave Bowling app up. It was just that I was messing around with the iPad one day and I had a few minutes free and I saw this app and I thought "What the Heck" and I fired it up.   Cave Bowling In many ways this is similar to the Angry Birds app in that you control the launch speed and direction of a hurled object. In this case, however, you are a cave man throwing a bowling ball. The first level is trivial – I got in in a single throw. "Ha," I thought, "take that!" You immediately move on to the next level, which is just a tad harder. This unlocks the next level, which unlocks the next... and so it goes. When next I looked up, half an hour had slipped by without my noticing it, and I think I've only scratched the surface of all the possible levels. This really is rather addictive. Not something I'd do every day, perhaps, but I can certainly see myself whiling a few minutes away at an airport while waiting to board a plane. Maybe I'll take another look at Angry Birds ... Talking Tom I've saved the best to last ... at least for this blog (just wait until you see Part 3!). I started off with the free version of this app, but it didn't take long for me to want to upgrade to the full-up version so as to get more "goodies" (I think it cost $1.99 or $2.99 to upgrade, but I can't remember; whatever it was it was well worth it). This is just so clever. I'm speechless with admiration. There are so many nuances to this that I can't cover them here, so let's just stick to the main functionality. If you start talking to the cat he puts his paw to his ear while he's listening to you. When you stop talking he repeats what you said in a silly voice.   Talking Tom I know this doesn't sound like much, but it gets better. You can make a dog appear at the window or you can make the dog come in and blow up a paper bag behind the cat, causing it to leap into the air. In fact there's a whole bunch of things you can do. The best thing is that you can click the video icon and record a little skit with the dog and cat doing things, including the cat talking (playing back the silly version of your recoded voice). When you've finished recording, you can save the video and play it and/or you can email it to someone. I saw a review where someone said that he had found that using Tom to convey his message was a particularly good way to get out of the doghouse (pun intended) if he'd done something to upset his wife. By some strange quirk of fate I almost immediately found myself in just such a position (with my wife, not his, you understand), so I used Talking Tom to send my wife a message. Believe it or not, she sent a really nice email back... addressed to Tom... they now have a real "email buddy" thing going. It's a funny old world...  

In my blog a few days ago , I discussed a few cool apps for my iPad 2 that I'd run across in the app store ( NetFlix , Compass HD , ArtRage , Fluid Monkey , The Weather Channel , Google Earth , Digital Geiger Counter , Notes Plus , and GoSkyWatch Planetarium ). Note the 'HD' part of the Compass app. I'm seeing a lot of apps with this annotation but I don't know what it stands for. Does it indicate "High Definition"? If so, what does that mean in this context? Does it just stand for a higher definition than an equivalent app on an iPhone? Inquiring minds want to know (grin). Did you know that there are currently more than 90,000 apps for the iPad according to the App Store page on the Apple website? Personally I find this to be somewhat intimidating. If I evaluated one every two minutes without taking a break or sleeping, it would take me 125 days to go through them all. What this means in reality, of course, is that I am never going to know everything that's out there. I don't know why, but this makes me feel a little sad (unhappy face). But turn that frown upside down into a smile (happy face), because I'm having so much fun with the few handfuls of apps that I do have; speaking of which... Public Radio If I happen to be driving in my car between 9:00am and 10:00am on a Saturday morning, I rather enjoy listening to Car Talk with "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers" on the National Public Radio (NPR). A couple of Saturday's ago I was at home and decided to listen to the show, but my son had taken the radio into the shower with him (OK, into the bathroom if you want to be pedantic). "Hmmm," I thought. Then my eyes passed over my iPad sitting on the table and I decided to take a peak in the app store. And yes, there is a Public Radio app, which I immediately downloaded. This is really cool. First it allows you to select any public radio station in the country. And then, when you are listening to a program, if you miss a bit (because your wife comes in and starts waffling on about something or other ... to give a really crazy example), you can easily pause or rewind the program and pick up where you left off. Of course it may be that this is all "old hat" to you, but I've not spent a lot of time playing with Internet access to the radio or television, so a a newbie in this area I'm really impressed. Dictionary This is another app that's not got a lot of "bling" associated with it, but that is incredibly useful on occasion. When I'm writing articles and suchlike on my main computer, I'm always checking things out on www.Dictionary.com and its counterpart www.Thesaurus.com. Similarly, when I'm reading a book or watching TV, I often become interested in better understanding the meaning or origin of a word. So I was delighted to discover that there's a Dictionary app for the iPad. This includes nearly two million words, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and audio pronunciation. Amazing! Angry Birds and Cave Bowling As I've mentioned before, I'm really not much of a computer games player. On the other hand, if you have an iPad and there are a bunch of free game apps out there, it seems silly not to at least take them for a spin (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). Thus it was that I downloaded two apps: Angry Birds and Cave Bowling . First I tried Angry Birds. The idea is that you have a sort of catapult that you use to hurl a bird into the air to knock over a structure. Using your finger you control the angle of the shot and the launch speed.   Angry Birds The result was a bit of a laugh, but it didn't really "Grab me by the short and curlies, swing me round the room, and leave me gasping for more," if you see what I mean. Maybe I just didn't try hard enough or work my way through a sufficient number of levels. Based on this experience, I left Cave Bowling on the back burner for a couple of days... If the truth be told, I might never have even powered the Cave Bowling app up. It was just that I was messing around with the iPad one day and I had a few minutes free and I saw this app and I thought "What the Heck" and I fired it up.   Cave Bowling In many ways this is similar to the Angry Birds app in that you control the launch speed and direction of a hurled object. In this case, however, you are a cave man throwing a bowling ball. The first level is trivial – I got in in a single throw. "Ha," I thought, "take that!" You immediately move on to the next level, which is just a tad harder. This unlocks the next level, which unlocks the next... and so it goes. When next I looked up, half an hour had slipped by without my noticing it, and I think I've only scratched the surface of all the possible levels. This really is rather addictive. Not something I'd do every day, perhaps, but I can certainly see myself whiling a few minutes away at an airport while waiting to board a plane. Maybe I'll take another look at Angry Birds ... Talking Tom I've saved the best to last ... at least for this blog (just wait until you see Part 3!). I started off with the free version of this app, but it didn't take long for me to want to upgrade to the full-up version so as to get more "goodies" (I think it cost $1.99 or $2.99 to upgrade, but I can't remember; whatever it was it was well worth it). This is just so clever. I'm speechless with admiration. There are so many nuances to this that I can't cover them here, so let's just stick to the main functionality. If you start talking to the cat he puts his paw to his ear while he's listening to you. When you stop talking he repeats what you said in a silly voice.   Talking Tom I know this doesn't sound like much, but it gets better. You can make a dog appear at the window or you can make the dog come in and blow up a paper bag behind the cat, causing it to leap into the air. In fact there's a whole bunch of things you can do. The best thing is that you can click the video icon and record a little skit with the dog and cat doing things, including the cat talking (playing back the silly version of your recoded voice). When you've finished recording, you can save the video and play it and/or you can email it to someone. I saw a review where someone said that he had found that using Tom to convey his message was a particularly good way to get out of the doghouse (pun intended) if he'd done something to upset his wife. By some strange quirk of fate I almost immediately found myself in just such a position (with my wife, not his, you understand), so I used Talking Tom to send my wife a message. Believe it or not, she sent a really nice email back... addressed to Tom... they now have a real "email buddy" thing going. It's a funny old world...

I could hardly believe that I got my iPad just about a month ago becuase I can no longer imagine what life is like without this little scamp. ( Click Here to read my blog about my iPad purchase.) Seriously, I wouldn't have believed just how useful this little rascal has proved to be both for business (taking notes, sending quick emails, checking facts...) and for personal use. The battery up-time of 10 hours on a single charge has proved to be more than adequate for home use, and I also love the fact that the iPad is "instant on" (the iPad is based on solid-state memory – there's no hard disk drive; also I got one of the smart covers, which activates the iPad as soon as you open the cover). Of particular interest is the cornucopia of apps that are available for the iPad (just click the App Store icon on your iPad and you will be up-and-running in a few seconds). Most of the ones I've downloaded are free – the rest typically cost only around a dollar or a couple of dollars. Thus far, the most expensive app I've purchased (NLog Pro as discussed below) cost $14.99 and it was well worth the price. Anyway, I thought I would share some of the apps I've found with you... NetFlix (Free) Note that you will need a NetFlix account for this app to be of any use. I think such an account currently costs $7.99 a month to stream as many movies and TV programs as you wish. The thing is that if you already have an account at home (which I do – we stream movies and suchlike through our Wii), then you can use this same account on your iPad.   Compass HD ($0.99) This isn't a particularly amazing app. All it does is to turn your entire iPad screen into a compass. This isn't a tremendous amount of use at home (although having said this, I have to add that I have personally enjoyed playing with it). However I have a feeling it will come in very handy one day (watch this space). ArtRage ($0.99 to $6.99) The reason for the range of prices is that this depends whether or not they are having one of their sales. As I pen these words, they are having a $0.99 sale until 28 July. This is a really clever image-creation application with a simple, easy-to-use interface designed specifically for the iPAD's touch screen. ArtRage lets you create images that look like watercolors, oils, and ink pens – the results can be astounding if you are skillful enough (which sadly I am not :-)   Fluid Monkey (Free) This really doesn't do anything useful per se – but it does help you relax. By dragging one or more fingers across the screen you trigger swirls of moving colors in what looks like liquid – once you've set a swirl running you can select a different color and start mixing things up. As one reviewer said "What a beautiful app – I bet my blood pressure went down in the few minutes I played with it."   The Weather Channel (Free) My 16-year-old son Joseph turned me on to this. In addition to your local weather forecast for the next few days, you can also see dynamic radar and cloud images showing the past few hours or the projections for the next few hours. Using the touch screen interface you can zoom in to see your very local area and – thus far – the predictions have proved to be surprisingly accurate. You can also stream the live TV program and the app will ping you with weather alerts is you ask it to.   Google Earth (Free) What can I say? I LOVE this app. When I'm watching a TV program and some country or city is mentioned with which I'm not familiar, I whip out my iPad and access Google Earth. Just the other day, for example, on the HGTV program International House Hunters a couple said they wanted to move to Uruguay. My having iPad access to Google Earth and the Wikipedia means I have a wealth of information at my fingertips that dramatically improves my TV viewing experiance.   Digital Geiger Counter ($1.99) On the one hand this is relatively expensive considering that it's just a bit of fun – especially when you compare it to something like the Notes Plus app as discussed below. On the other hand I have had a lot of fun with it, so I guess the price is fair enough. Basically this app (which is really an iPhone app that will run on your iPad) makes the display look like a digital Geiger Counter. The trick is that you can increase or decrease the count rate (with accompanying clicking sounds) by surreptitiously moving your thumb on the screen. This allows you to, for example, convince your 16-year old son that he must have stood in something radioactive because his sneakers make the count rate zoom up (not that I would do anything like this, of course).   Notes Plus ($0.99) Even if I'm being kind, I have to say that the iPad's built-in Notes app is rudimentary at best. So for only $0.99, the Notes Plus app is an incredible bargain. In addition to typing your notes, this little beauty also supports handwriting (with a stylus or zoom in and use your finger) and voice recording. It also allows you to mix in simple sketches (for which it boasts automatic shape detection for things like lines and circles and triangles).   GoSkyWatch Planetarium ($3.99) Frankly I find this app to be amazing. All you have to do is hold your iPad up to the night sky as though you were looking through a window. The iPad screen displays the same stars you see in the sky, but with annotations for the planets, stars, constellations, and much, much more. It also provides you with a wealth of information on whatever you are currently looking at when you tap the "Info" icon with your finger.