原创 An abundance of iPad apps (Part 3)

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 [grin]). .

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. .