Aug 06

Dang, it’s August already. Time for Back To School Specials and the slow waning of summertime, at least in the northern hemisphere. Here’s another weekly dose of new releases onto the App store from the past week. Enjoy!

Osmos 150x150 Five For Friday: Aug 6. 2010Osmos – Apple’s App of the week. Our first look here.
The #1 hit iPad game, now available for the iPhone, with full Retina display support! Enter the ambient world that GameAndPlayer called “a work of genius,” and IGN called “a beautiful, absorbing experience.” Osmos features elegant, physics-based gameplay, dreamlike visuals, and a beautiful electronic soundtrack. Your objective is to grow by absorbing other motes; propel yourself by ejecting matter behind you; but be wise: ejecting matter also shrinks you. Progress from serenely ambient levels into varied and challenging worlds.

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iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-08-05 :: Category: Games / Arcade

yertletheturtle 150x150 Five For Friday: Aug 6. 2010Yertle The Turtle and The Big Brag – If you’re like me, you’ve grown up on Dr. Seuss books. They’re a cultural touchstone for many of us, reaching deep into our consciousness, ethics, and worldview. Now that I have kids of my own, it’s become important to me to pass along these treasures. I can do so, now, right on my iPad or iPhone. These apps will read to your child, either with a tap on each page to advance the story, or auto advancing through the whole book. They’ll also allow a more traditional book experience, with the “Read It Myself” option, for those big boys and girls in your life that are reading on their own.

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+ Universal App – Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-08-02 :: Category: Books

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+ Universal App – Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-08-02 :: Category: Books

feeddlerRSS 150x150 Five For Friday: Aug 6. 2010Feeddler RSS Reader Pro for iPhone – Big Google Reader user? RSS fan? Feedler has quickly become the cream of the crop with their Universal App for the iPhone and iPad. They’ve just released an iPhone-only version, which comes in at 2.8 Mb, as compared to the 5.0 Mb of the Universal App. They’re also selling it for $.99 as a launch special, so if you want just an iPhone version to help your device save a bit of space, this is the one to grab. The devs continue to add great features to the app, like unread list filters, mark as read synchronization and the like.

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iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-08-03 :: Category: News

loopesque 150x150 Five For Friday: Aug 6. 2010Loopseque for iPad – As a musician, I’m always having fun with music in some way. This new app looks to be a cross between a music beat creator and a rhythm game. The developers have tried to make it as simple and intuitive as possible, which could lend itself to some great experiences for kids as well as adults. Two modes provide the interface for pattern creation, Big Wheel mode (for easy pattern creation) and Wheel Matrix mode for switching quickly between patterns. There’s even two team play modes, Tap and Sync. Save your patterns and load them for further editing or just listening.

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iPad Only App – Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-08-03 :: Category: Music

lifewonders 150x150 Five For Friday: Aug 6. 2010LIFE Wonders of the World Photography Book – Retailing for $22 in the dead tree edition, this truly breathtaking photography coffee table book from the amazing photojournalists at LIFE magazine is priced for launch at a much lower $4.99. It’s for your iPad, and wow won’t you love paging through this. Wait, I mean wow won’t you love showing your iPad off with a total of 100 images of 50 wonders of the world. While it doesn’t look like you can set it up as a slideshow (yet), there is a clickable Table of Contents and a filmstrip tool for easier navigation.

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iPad Only App – Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-08-05 :: Category: Books

[ Five For Friday: Aug 6. 2010 is a post from 148Apps ]

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written by gunturbabu \\ tags: , , , , , , , ,

Aug 05

Developer: NewsGator Technologies, Inc.
Price: $4.99
Version: 2.0.3

Design Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Features Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Integration Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 2.67 out of 5 stars

IMG 0164 200x300 NetNewsWire Premium ReviewNetNewsWire operates in conjunction with Google Reader, a website that allows you to compile a list of RSS feeds into one simple list. This application pulls the unread content from Google Reader and provides it in a simplistic way.

The design of NetNewsWire is really, really simple (like RSS itself). The front page provides starred items, a list of feeds and all of your unread news. Here lies the first point of confusion. NetNewsWire says that this latest news is all in the past twenty-four hours, but this isn’t the case – it was every unread item. Of course this is preferable, but I don’t understand how a deceiving error on the front page could go unnoticed.

One neat feature that no other Google Reader application I’ve tested has is the ability to hide feeds. This is an easy way to filter your feed without actually removing the feeds itself, something that makes looking for specific news a lot easier.

The article directory is clean, with approximately four articles visible without the need to scroll. The only button on screen is “Mark All as Read”. Articles themselves are equally plain, but disappointingly there is no built-in browser, meaning every time you want to read an article in full the application closes and Safari opens. Integration for Instapaper (to read later) and Twitter (to share) is provided.

There are other problems. Most notably, you can’t see your read items – your feed is limited to unread only. There’s no search either, a limitation that a number of NetNewsWire’s rivals also suffer from. With no icon badge for the home screen, you won’t know how many unread articles you have until you open up the application.

Overall, NetNewsWire feels unfinished in comparison to its rivals like Byline and Reeder. Until its current problems are resolved, I’d try an alternative.

[ NetNewsWire Premium Review is a post from 148Apps ]

Popularity: 1% [?]

written by gunturbabu \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,