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 ]

Spotify is a popular music service that provides access to plenty of music and they just released a version for webOS that works with Palm Pre, Palm Pixi, Palm Pre Lus, and Palm Pixi Plus.

In case you didn’t know it is easy to search and stream (even playback offline) music while using Spotify, and you can also share the songs via Facebook, email, or IM. While the application is available for download for free, you must have a premium subscription in order to make use of Spotify which costs approximately $15.

Drive Safe.ly is a mobile application that lets you read e-mail or receive/send SMS messages while you are driving. This makes it easier to communicate while you are driving. The way it works is simple: Turn it on before you start driving and incoming e-mails and text messages will be read to you. If the application messes up when you say the text message that you want to send out, you can always say “Try again.” The e-mail and SMS read/respond application costs about $13.95 per year or $3.95 per month. The application download is free on BlackBerry App World and Android Market. [Drive Safe.ly via Lifehacker]

One of the pitfalls of Apple iOS is the lack of a good notification system. By notification system, I mean a panel where one can view all their notifications in a consolidated panel, much like the notification panel of Android OS.

Instead, we have a system that, with every pushed notification, you get a popup alert, a sound and a badge on the application icon which presents itself as a useless system once you dismiss the popup alert. Once the popup is gone, the risk of forgetting the notification opens up.

LockInfo, by David Ashman, picks up where Apple slacks by providing us with a very useful notification panel that can be set as your lockscreen, your first Springboard page and/or a panel activated by Activator (known as InfoShade). The latter provides Android-like functionality with a panel available from any screen, whether from within an open app or not… Read More

Rhapsody has come to a lot of mobile platforms like the Rhapsody 2.0 for the iPhone and beta for Android.

For those have a BlackBerry should enjoy that Rhapsody is out for that platform. It is available in beta, and you can get a 14 day trial and then for $9.99 after that. You can then do unlimited streaming for more than 10 million tracks.

Source