Posts tagged iPad Apps
PEOPLE Magazine for iPad available, free for print subscribers
Aug 21st
PEOPLE magazine is now available for iPad. The application is free to download, but each issue is a $3.99 in-app purchase. However, if you are a subscriber to the print version of PEOPLE, you get the iPad version for free! Unfortunately, there is not a subscription model in place with the app. So subscribing to strictly the iPad version is not an option.
In addition to the content of the print version of PEOPLE, the iPad version offers even more:
- Double the number of Star Tracks pics, plus bonus, iPad-only, photo galleries throughout the issue
- Special celebrity videos
- Movie trailers, TV previews, song samples and other entertainment extras
- Instant breaking news updates on our top stories throughout the entire week
It’s great to see big media making a step in the right direction concerning digital distribution. I initially found it odd that PEOPLE magazine did not implement an in-app subscription model, but this decision was likely made because Apple gets a 30% cut from subscriptions. If I’m interested in a digital subscription to PEOPLE magazine, I can subscribe to the print version and get the iPad one for no extra charge. Meanwhile, PEOPLE is getting 100% of my sign-up fee instead of only 70%.
Is this a smart choice, though? PEOPLE would cut the cost of making and shipping prints if they had an iPad-only subscription available to customers. But would these savings balance out the 30% cut to Apple? Also, it’s much less convenient for me to sign up for the print version than just a quick tap for the iPad version. I likely may never actually sign up for the magazine even if I intended to. So PEOPLE magazine just lost me as a customer. How many potential customers are being lost by not having an iPad subscription available? These are all things that PEOPLE magazine and Time Inc need to take into serious consideration.
One exciting thing about PEOPLE magazine’s iPad release is that it’s a good sign that other Time Inc magazines will be hitting the app store soon. It is expected to see the rest of their apps in the next 30 days.
Any PEOPLE subscribers taking advantage of their free digital copy? I purchased the most recent issue and find the app to be very well made. Does availability on the iPad entice anyone to purchase a print subscription? Are you subscriber to a different Time Inc magazine and eagerly waiting the release of an iPad app? Lastly, what are your thoughts on their current business model? Are they making a good choice, or do they need to provided an in-app subscription to customers?
Sound off in the comments below!
[All Things Digital, PEOPLE Magazine - iTunes link]
PEOPLE Magazine for iPad available, free for print subscribers is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Awesome iPhone and iPad apps and updates – August 19, 2010
Aug 19th
We’re shifting our focus from iOS 4 compatibility updates to any iPhone or iPad app or game, new or updated, that seems especially awesome. So if you guys see anything you think deserves some special attention, let us know in the comments and we’ll look at including it in a future roundup! Continue on to see what we found this time!
Pandora
Pandora recently updated their current app to support hi-res images on the iPhone 4. It also fixes several issues with the last version of Pandora. This will also change control settings for volume control and fix crash issues. Since downloading this update, Pandora’s been a lot more stable for me. How’s it been for you guys?
Box.net
Box.net is a great service for sharing files and viewing them on the go. They offer free accounts as well as paid accounts. There’s a lot of options for file storage and sharing out there, and Box.net is definitely a worthy competitor. This update adds fast app switching as well as some tweaks to the general UI. It also adds speed improvements for viewing files by adding caching. If you have it, grab the update, if you don’t, try it out and let us know what you think!
Cannon Cadets
Cannon Cadets is a new game coming to us by the same people responsible for Little Metal Ball. (If you don’t have Little Metal Ball, check that one out too!) Most of their games are physics based games that require maneuvering and use of the accelerometer. This game combines a story into puzzles and 80 graphically awesome levels. Definitely worth a try. You can also choose an in-app purchase that’ll allow you to unlock all the levels if you want to skip around instead of playing in order. If you pick it up, let us know what you think!
Photoshop Express
Photoshop has long been a favorite of many graphic junkies, and while the iPhone and iPad (yes, I said iPad) versions of Photoshop won’t do you any good for hardcore editing, for on the go picture editing and adding fun little tweaks to your pictures, Photoshop Express is great. This version adds compatibility for iPad too! This version also allows native uploading to Photoshop.com and Facebook. The general UI seems to be revamped a bit as well as some of the workflow spaces.
Dragon Medical
This app is mainly focused on professionals in the medical industry. You can use voice controls in order to look up drug interactions, diagnosis information, and much more. It aggregates from some of the more popular databases on the internet. So if you’re a medical professional or student in the medical field, it may be an app worth a second look.
Awesome iPhone and iPad apps and updates – August 19, 2010 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Let’s Golf 2 for iPad- app review
Aug 9th
I was excited to see that Let’s Golf 2 just appeared in the App Store! I am not a golfer in real life, but I enjoy a good golf game every once in a while. Let’s jump right in and see what this new version has to offer.
Let’s Golf 2 is not meant as a real golf simulation like a Tiger Woods Golf. Instead, you are greeted with cute, often funny characters in outlandish environments that are beautiful and colorful. This does not mean that the levels are easy, in fact they become quite challenging later in the game (how can that be a par 4, impossible!)
There are several new characters to select. But in the beginning of the game, you one have two to choose from; Vincent and Jane. As you progress through the levels, you unlock a lot of customizations including clothes, hair, golf balls and clubs. A fun addition is the new Skill for each character. I am using Jade for example and her power is “Power of Charm”. This move is useful when putting as no matter how hard you hit the ball when putting, you can use her power to stop it anywhere on the green. The character powers, once used, have to replenish over time and can’t be used again and again without replenishing; use your characters power wisely.
Single Player has a few different modes to choose from; Instant Play where you play across three random holes from a variety of courses. Career where you complete against other virtual players for the trophy. Challenge where you play a series of “challenges” and score the highest points. Free Hole where you can setup the course you would like to play. As you play courses you earn points and medals that go towards unlocking courses and character customizations as well as increasing your character’s abilities.
Multiplayer uses Gameloft Live for online play, but you can also play locally with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Once online you can create or join a room and view the leaderboard. The game is a blast online as you complete in matches against a competitor from around the world.
Gameplay in Let’s Golf 2 is really straight forward. You can tap on the course map on the left of the screen to view where the ball is going and tap left or right on the screen to adjust or use the zoom controls to pan away form the action for a big picture of the course. You have the option of changing your clubs as well, but I have found for the most part the AI does a good enough job that I don’t have to change clubs too often, I can typically control the outcome of my swing by adjusting the strength I am swinging. Swinging your club is accomplished by tapping the golf ball on the right to start swinging and then tapping it again to center the swing for angle and strength. One feature that is missing is some sort of advanced club swinging mechanic. These swinging moves are typically accomplished by swiping your finger in a direction and letting go at the strength you want. Alas, this feature is not available that I have been able to find it.
I really enjoy Let’s Golf 2, but there is one issue that really bugs me. The framerate/accuracy of your club swings is not spot on. Depending on the course I often find that I have to touch the swinging meter ahead of when I plan to swing in order to assure accuracy. This is really frustrating sometimes as golf is a game that focuses on the smaller number of strokes in a game and I often find that through no mistake of my own, I miss a swing or calculate the incorrect swinging strength because of this flaw.
Don’t let my previous statement sway you from getting this game. Granted, the timing of some swings can be frustrating but the online play coupled with many characters and unlockables makes for a fantastic golf game.
[$4.99- iTunes Link]
Pros
- Colorful graphics
- Diverse courses
- Unlockable characters
- Unlockable character customizations
- Online and local wireless play
- Many different types of golf games to play
Cons
- Framerate can be slow at times
- Easy to miscalculate swing due to input latency
Let’s Golf 2 for iPad- app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
iOS4 Apps Updated: Readdle, WeeMee Avatar Creator, Wolfram Alpha, Trism, Reel Director
Aug 8th
And the iOS4 app updates just keep on coming. We’re finding more and more by the day. Whether it’s adding support for the iPhone 4’s awesome retina display or taking advantage of new APIs within iOS4, we’re still watching for them. Here’s the ones we found this time around, and as always, if you see any we missed, be sure to let us know in the comments!
Readdle
Readdle is an incredibly easy to use app that allows you to not only view all kinds of files right on your iPhone, but also allows you to manage and save attachments. It’s one of the better apps we’ve found to handle documents, not to mention reasonably priced. Not only did Readdle’s newest update add multitasking support, it also adds support for USB file transfer through iTunes. Better yet, you can now save attachments via the Mail app.
WeeMee Avatar Creator
WeeMee is an incredibly cool app that allows you to create your own avatars on the fly. (I bet all of you could have guessed who the above avatar was without a name attached!) It’s a great time killer and an awesome way to express yourself on Twitter or whatever social medium you choose. This update fixed a couple bugs found in their initial iOS4 update. It also adds tons of in-app purchases to choose from. If you decide to check it out, let us know!
Wolfram Alpha
If you need a hardcore math application that can handle any formula or calculation you throw at it, Wolfram Alpha is definitely for you. Leanna reviewed this app a while back and had good things to say about it. I don’t know nearly as much about math as she does, so coming from her, you know it’s decent. I use this app for easy to semi-complicated formulas and it’s always performed incredibly well. This update adds support for the iPhone 4’s retina display as well as optimized images. It also adds multitasking support for fast app switching.
Trism
Trism is a long time favorite on the iPhone platform. It was released not long after the app store initially launched and it’s still a favorite of mine. It takes a newer approach on puzzle games like Tetris. This version of Trism adds HD puzzle pieces to support the iPhone 4’s retina display. So if you’re in the mood for a game that never gets old and never ends, Trism is definitely a great time killer at a great price.
Reel Director
Reel Director was here before iMovie for iPhone 4, and unlike Apple’s offering it supports not only older iPhone models but iPod touch and iPad as well. That’s right, it’s a universal binary and the latest update includes:
- Import music from iPod music library (iOS 4 only)
- Support iPhone 4 retina display
- Upload to YouTube within app
- Improved HD video quality on iPhone 4
- Improved photo render quality
iOS4 Apps Updated: Readdle, WeeMee Avatar Creator, Wolfram Alpha, Trism, Reel Director is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
We Farm for iPad – app review
Aug 6th
We Farm for iPad is a real-time farming game by ngmoco. If you’re familiar with We Rule, We Farm is very similar except that your are building a farm instead of kingdom.
As with most ngmoco games, you must have a plus+ account to play. If you don’t have one already, signing up is simple. When you first start playing We Farm, the game takes you through a little tutorial which is pretty helpful.
The goal of We Farm is to raise money and build your farm. You raise money by growing crops, raising animals, and receiving and placing orders with friends. Almost everything you do yields experience points. As you level, more items are available for purchase; higher level buildings will output more money. You will also be able to upgrade your farm as you level which gives you more space and gives you a nicer looking farmhouse. You can also turn on notifications to alert you when certain tasks are complete. However, they do not work for me. I’ve asked around and apparently I’m the only with this problem.
There are two currencies used in We Farm. The first is gold and is what you make doing various farm tasks and buying items. The other is Gro. This is used to instantly complete tasks like growing crops, building buildings, fulfilling an order, raising animals, and increasing your animals’ happiness. You earn Gro every time you level and is also available as an in-app purchase.
My biggest complaint of We Farm is animal raising. To make your animal happy, you have to periodically “pet” it. Each pet increases the animal’s happiness by 5%. The happier your animal is, the better chance he has of winning a prize at the fair. Once you win a prize, your pen/coop/pasture becomes available for your friends to place orders at. This means you make a lot more money from it. The problem is that if you have an animal that takes 2 hours to raise, you must come back every 6 minutes during that 2 hour period to get the happiness to 100%. This is an unrealistic expectation in my eyes. Of course, you can get around this by using Gro, but We Farm doesn’t provide enough Gro to use it on all animals before needing to spend real money. However, the happier your animal is, the less Gro it takes to bring him to 100% happiness, so my strategy is to pet my animals as much as I can, then use grow at the end to bring it to 100%.
Another small complaint I have is that there isn’t a way to quickly return to your own farm when visiting someone else’s farm. I’d like to a small icon to tap in the corner of all farms that quickly takes to your farm.
All in all, I enjoy playing We Farm. However, you must like time management games to have fun with this one. I have been impressed with the performance of the app; it runs smoothly, I’ve never received a memory error (a common problem with We Rule), nor has it ever crashed. So if you’re a fan of these types of games, check out We Farm – it’s free!
Screenshots after the break!
[Free - iTunes link]
Pros
- Good performance
- Fun
- Easy to tailor around how much you want to play
Cons
- Can’t quickly return to your farm when visiting someone else’s farm.
- Animal petting requirement for a ribbon is unreasonable
- Push notifications not working (for me)
We Farm for iPad – app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Pottery HD for iPad- app review
Jul 26th
Pottery HD is a unique virtual clay pottery app that can really only be done on the iPad. It shows what an enterprising developer can do with a large multitouch interface. This game is fun and relaxing.
When the game first launches, I was caught a little off guard as I had no idea what to do. You have a “Create” button and that is it. So, I started to create, experimenting with the controls. You can make the clay taller and shorter, wider and thinner. That’s about it. So, I made a pot and fired it up in the kiln. When it was done, it gave me an option to sell it. I thought to myself, “Who is going to buy it?”. As it turns out, no one regretfully as it is all virtual. Once I sold my pottery I earned some virtual money. At the main menu a new feature appeared, “Shop”. Now I had access to paints and brushes. I had a new feature appear as well, “Inbox”. So it appears that as you play the game you are given different objectives; unique pieces of pottery to make. You can reference the photo given to you and once you make it, you can send it off to the virtual requestor. You can play Pottery HD independent of the virtual quests and just have fun adding lots of different pottery creations to your collection. If you like, you can even share these creations with friends via email.
I have had a lot of fun with this game, however, I left it me wanting so much more. For example, I would like a way to regulate the spinning of the pottery wheel; it stays at a constant speed. Also, you can’t add or remove clay either. It would be great to add globs of clay to truly make your pottery any size you want, but instead, you are limited by the vertical size of the screen. The biggest enhancement I would like to see is the ability to share online. The marketplace is limited to a virtual settings, you can’t see other users creations. This is such a wasted opportunity in my opinion.
Overall I really enjoyed Pottery HD, but it’s glaring lack of features and options lend me to recommending only for the most casual of users.
[$4.99- iTunes Link]
Pros
- Pottery looks beautiful
- Sensation of actually making pottery
- the Inbox adds hours of creative fun if you are stumped on what to make
Cons
- Not completely fleshed out with features (missing ability to control clay wheel rotation)
- No Internet- based way to trade with others
Pottery HD for iPad- app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Flipboard turns your social streams into an iPad magazine
Jul 21st
Take all your social media streams like Facebook and Twitter, flow them into a daring, dynamic iPad magazine and you have Flipboard. Billed as “everything you care about in one place” it will no doubt delight those who live for what our friends and those we follow are recommending, and annoy those who think the social web is a noisy, confusing crap-shoot. (Those deliberately without a social graph, of course, need not apply).
For me the key will be wether it gets stuck on meme-heavy, oft-repeated (or re-tweeted) content or whether it helps me better discover those little gems discovered by my more adept friends.
But why am I still typing, there’s an @lonelysandwhich video after the break!
[iTunes - Free]
Flipboard turns your social streams into an iPad magazine is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
