Android – Iphone – Applications

Last month, I highlighted the impressive, unexpectedly high download figures of magazine applications from published Condé Nast – 3.8 million to be precise. Since then, The Times have joined the wagon with Eureka, a digital version of the The Times’ monthly science magazine that uses the power of the iPad to present information in an interactive, enjoyable way.

Eureka embraces interactivity right from the get-go. Just like swiping to unlock, the application requires that you swipe to enter, after which you are greeted with a navigation and content video revealing the true extent of the information that Eureka holds. In this edition, How Science Is Changing The Human Race, there are five main categories, each with a plethora of subsets containing information that’ll amaze you as much as the application itself. Each category, subcategory and page hosts its own unique design and interactive integration, from audio and video to landscape mode and swiping. For the purposes of this review, I’ll focus on one category – Engineering.

Tapping the Engineering molecule once opens an introductory page, where six main headings are listed as well as an audio recording of Matthew Syed’s engineering comments. Heading one, an archive slideshow, is required to be viewed in landscape mode, with a graphic alerting users when this is the case. One rotation later a full Big Picture-style collection of images is presented, presented not only in high quality but with a morsel of information regarding each picture. Heading three is more magazine based content, where focus is placed equally on images and text. Again, the interface is very elegantly designed the only underlying trait between each section between Eureka’s trademark two blue parallel lines that give pages colour and separate images. In addition, pre-downloaded audio is accessible in a single tap.

Moving on, heading four reveals Formula One’s knock-on effect on car safety, allowing readers to take apart an F1 car and understand the complex steering wheels that go with each vehicle, all through tapping different parts of the screen. It’s such a beautiful, seamless interface. The designers haven’t thought outside the box, they’ve changed what the box should be: everything feels right.

Suffice it to say, I’m impressed with Eureka, even though there are one or two problems. The constant changing between landscape and portrait mode – and lack of ability to view content in both (only one or the other) – does mean that you are constantly moving the iPad about in your hands, which doesn’t make the user experience as enjoyable as it should be. In addition, the initial download is painfully large and the application looms over most others when it comes to installed size: over 500MB, because of pre-downloaded audio and video. Options to stream these, or download category by category, would be much preferred.

Nonetheless, Eureka pushes the boundary forward when it comes to magazine applications. It makes the iPad feel special and unique in a technological world where competition is fierce. And for that, Eureka deserves every bit of its 4.5 stars.

[ Times Eureka Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by Robertm \\ tags: Application, eureka, ipad entertainment, magazine, makes-the-ipad, matthew-syed, moving-the-ipad, overall-rating, price, rating, science, the-application, times-eureka, user

There is no shortage of art apps on Apple’s App Store, but the number of truly good ones is a short list indeed. Add Inspire Pro to the top of any and all of those lists, as it easily bests some of its top competitors.

I’m not an artist. Heck, I don’t even play one on TV. So I was concerned that I would not be able to give Inspire Pro the full rundown it deserves. Fortunately, I’m a teacher, and one of my good friends and colleagues is an AP art teacher. It seemed a good idea to hand my iPad over to her and see what she thought of Inspire Pro. Her reaction was more than off the charts – I almost didn’t get my iPad back. I can’t imagine a more glowing endorsement.

What struck my friend was the natural use of paint that the app engendered and the comprehensive set of tools provided for refinement of art pieces. It is amazing, I must admit, to have a creation tool of this calibre available for only $3.99. It is not the one and only art program you will ever need, to be sure, but it is a very effective and intuitive natural painting program.

Inspire Pro provides many of the conventional tools most have come to expect from a desktop art program. Starting a new work is as easy as flipping to a new page, and color selection via a color wheel is simple and straightforward. If there are custom colors you intend to use frequently, Inspire Pro provides slots for favorites so they can be quickly pulled up as needed.

The painting tools provided are a nice cross-section of brushes and there’s even a palette knife. Of course, all of these can be widened or narrowed as necessary, and the amount of paint loaded each time the brush is lifted can also be adjusted (and, in a nice touch, many of these advanced features can be turned off if unnecessary for a current project). Also wisely included are multiple undos and an erase function.

If there is any complaint I could level against Inspire Pro, it would be that I could not initially figure out how to access all of the tools. It took a bit of playing with the app to realize that you have to double tap on a canvas to edit it. This may seem second nature to some (and perhaps it should have to me) but it was a little frustrating at first. The app also assumes that you are painting with a brush and not, as you actually are, with your fingers. Thus, if you try to paint with more than one finger you wind up moving your painting around instead, as it cannot process multiple brush strokes at one time. This is a shame, and I’d like to see true multitouch painting incorporated into an update at some point.

These are minor, minor quibbles, however. Inspire Pro is a spectacular painting app for the iPad, and its price makes it even more enticing. Even those with more ability to appreciate art than create it, like me, will see the enduring value of an app like Inspire.

There’s a moment in Neil Gaiman’s famous run on the Sandman comic when I realized how many inspired ideas Gaiman has in his repertoire. A character is rattling off many, many ideas and scenarios for stories, and each one sounds better than the last. My mind was blown by the sheer volume of ideas in Gaiman’s head – apparently he has so many he can throw some of them away on a few one-liners in a comic book. As for me, I’m not so fortunate. Inspiration comes, but not always how or when I need it. That’s why Inspiro, a new app for the iPhone and the iPad, can be very useful, or at least very entertaining.

Inspiro is an “inspiration generator” for writers, a small app that generates random strings of potential. If that last statement seems a bit odd to you, you have probably never been in the position of needing inspiration for your writing. I’m not certain Inspiro is the be-all-end-all of creativity-inducers, but it has a slick interface and a charm to it that makes it easy to recommend.

Inspiro has three main components: the muse, scenarios and the daydream machine. The muse provides odd little tidbits and descriptions, juxtaposing words in a new and fanciful way that might actually spur a writer to think differently. Scenarios is exactly what it sounds like – the machine generates random sequences of scenarios that might help you start a short story or a poem. Some of them are truly nonsense, but even nonsense can engender a brainstorm of activity. Finally, Inspiro’s daydream machine is an auto-pilot mode that randomly generates sequences of text over and over again. I suppose a writer could leave it on his/her iPad while writing using a laptop. Something useful might pop up and provide some needed inspiration – or at least a good laugh when the tension of writer’s block becomes to much to bear.

One of the most interesting aspects of Inspiro is that it encourages user interactivity. Users can add any words they wish using the built-in database, and it is in this way that I think Inspiro could prove to be truly helpful. Imagine adding all of the character names, situations, etc from a short story you are working on to Inspiro’s database, then letting the system randomly generate possibilities. It could prove fruitful.

Inspiro is a fun toy, but it could also help break a writer’s rut. Anyone working in a creative field might be interested in trying it out. Everyone will have a different experience with and reaction to Inspiro, and some of those will be better than others. However, I have to applaud the developer for trying something new on the iPad. Now, if we could just get multi-tasking, so I could keep Inspiro AND Pages open at the same time.

[ Inspiro Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by margs \\ tags: $3.99, bpmboutique, entertainment, ideas, inspiro-review, ipad, ipad apps and games, ipad entertainment, Iphone, price, re-use-value

If an app is entertaining but lacks specific goals, does that make it a bad app? Jiggle Balls HD might just be an app whose only real purpose is to be a fun little toy, but as a well-made toy app, there’s certainly nothing wrong with it. The purpose, here, is to play around with physics, even if there’s not really any goal-based gameplay. You are given a screen with your choice of background to unleash a variety of different balls, from generic colored balls to sports balls, all of which you can adjust for size, weight, bounce, and stickiness to the walls. You then just tap on the screen to add the balls to the playing field, and shake, rotate, and twist your iPad to knock the balls around on the screen. Your ultimate goal is entertainment.

Jiggle Balls features great physics work from the underlying physics libraries applied to the game, to make the game feel very good; the ability to customize the physics down to minute properties allows you to really create the kind of experience you want for your time with the app. And it really does take advantage of the iPad’s screen, giving you a lot more room than the iPhone version does to play around with.

Of course, the question about Jiggle Balls HD is just what exactly the point of it is. It’s an app that features balls bouncing around on screen – there’s no ulterior goal to it other than that. There just isn’t much to the app beyond watching the balls bounce around and playing with the properties of them. Some kind of game or competition element (like on the iPhone with the game Jiggle Balls: Spikes) would give the app a lot more value than just as a toy app.

However, despite its seemingly limited utility, Jiggle Balls HD does serve its intended purpose of being a great novelty app and toy that you can play with whenever you feel like just watching the balls bounce around on the screen to let off some frustration, or if you want to show off a silly app to your friends on your iPad.

[ Jiggle Balls HD Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by simonivan \\ tags: Application, ipad, ipad apps and games, ipad entertainment, knock-the-balls, physics, rating, screen, time

The uses for the iPad are varied, and range from use as a simple media device, an eBook reader, or for interactive games. Sometimes, someone thinks of joining a few of these uses together and we get something that’s new and remarkable. Dracula HD takes this idea and brings the tale of Bram Stoker’s vampiric count to the iPad with style.

Not quite a book, but also not a game, this interactive graphic novel of sorts is a perfect fit for the haunted tale of Count Dracula and the weary traveller visiting his haunted castle in Transylvania. Page by page, the story unfolds (this is obviously an abridged version) along with fantastic art which sets your imagination in motion as you read. Another spellbinding aspect is the background music/effects that accompany each page. Honestly, I’m the type of person that usually likes to read in silence, but since this is more like a visual experience the audio is very welcome, as it is well orchestrated and appropriate!

As you read along, some of the pages are interactive. A glass might shatter if you touch it, the mirror on the wall might move if you lean your iPad left or right. It’s these little touches that really bring the app to life. This is basically the equivalent of a 21st century pop-up book, only better because you’re not going to tear off the little flap that lifts the barn door as on a traditional paper pop up book.

One downside, and this is really a shame, is that the app often does not remember on which page you finished last when you leave it. If you don’t read the whole thing in one sitting, you’ll have to flip back through all of the pages in order to reach the one you were last on. There really should be some sort of bookmarking feature.

The only other disappointment I have with this app is something that is not inherently it’s own fault. Once you’ve read through, experienced the story, graphics, effects and interactive bits, that’s it, there’s little to no replay or reuse value. Unlike a regular book, which you may pick up and read again, read certain chapters of, or use for reference this ‘novelty story’ doesn’t quite work the same way.

With that being said, I still think that this app is worthwhile, and I hope that there are more Interactive Graphic Novels and suchlike in the future of the iPad.

[ Dracula HD on iPad Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by nhiepphong \\ tags: book, bram stoker, disappointment, dracula, Games, graphic-novels, inverted pear, ipad, ipad apps and games, ipad entertainment, price, rating, spellbinding