Currently Browsing
Sponsors
The competition has now closed — congratulations to our winners, @marcoutsider, @CharlesTreece, @prudyleaf, @Speed2024 and @MT36000!
This week’s weekly sponsor is PDF Max Pro, an advanced PDF reader with support for annotations, note-taking and form-filling.
I personally am not a fan of the default PDF reader on the iPad, Preview, as it’s simply a very watered down version of the Mac version, with almost every single useful feature stripped out. There’s no support for annotations and all you can do is read PDFs in it – there’s no iCloud sync (like in iWork on iOS) with your Mac and, unless you succumb to iBooks, you can’t store PDFs natively on your iPad. Hence, most iPad users turn to third-party PDF readers which provide far more features, often at a tiny price.
Read on to find out how to win 1 of 5 free promotional codes for PDF Max Pro!
This week’s weekly sponsor is DraftCode, a fantastic new PHP development tool for the iPad.
DraftCode features built-in code execution which allows you to develop PHP offline without requiring access to a server or the internet. The app includes standard PHP 5.4.10 and supports a growing list of popular PHP extensions, POST and GET forms, includes and linking to other PHP files in your project, along with a whole host of other features. With its easy to use workspace for all your files, the option to hand over your code to other apps like Dropbox and an extended iPad keyboard, you can take PHP development into the creative and casual habit field of an iPad.
(more…)
This week’s weekly sponsor is ProShow Web Slideshow Creator, an app that lets you import photos and videos and create personalized videos and your own slideshow.
I have kids — well technically, one kid at the moment, the other is just about four weeks away. Needless to say, I take a lot of pictures of my son and soon I’ll have even more shots of my daughter. When it comes to showing them off, I usually pull out my iPad and show them in the Photos app, but I’ve wanted a way to do things a bit more professionally. Something with flair that incorporates custom music and so on. ProShow is that app.
You start by picking your images from either the shots you have on your iPad, or via various social networks including Flickr, Instagram, 500px or SmugMug. Then you pick the music you want to use (either from your iPad or from one of hundreds of tracks included with the app) and finish it off by picking one of dozens of themes, adding titles or custom effects. When you’re done, you create the video right there on your device and you can watch it, or send it off to your favorite social network including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest and Smug Mug, or via email or AirPlay to your AppleTV.
The app does require you to establish an account, but it’s free, so that’s no big deal. If you want HD output, custom branding or longer videos, that will take a subscription fee that’s described in their pricing guidelines online. That said, the free option is still quite excellent, it’s just that if you want pro features, you’ll have to pay a bit more.
Go Get It!
If you’re looking for a custom slideshow app like I was, pick up ProShow Web Slideshow Creator today. I know it’s already done worlds of good for me and my family so far, and I can’t wait to see how it does in the future.
Our featured sponsor this week is Dinosaur Zoo, a fun and educational app to teach you about dinosaurs.
When I was a kid, I loved dinosaurs. I had them as toys, watched them on TV and soaked up all the info I could about those giant beasts. But today, as a father of one (with one more on the way), I think about how fascinating these beasts were to me, and how I can pass on that info to my children. Now I have the answer.
On the surface Dinosaur Zoo is about roaring, biting, feeding, snarling dinosaurs in all of their glory. Open the app and you’re presented with beautiful moving images, like there was someone in the forest with a GoPro taking shots while the dinosaurs were roaming the Earth. But beyond the great imagery, there’s also a lesson to be learned. The images are all digital reconstructions, some of which have appeared in scientific papers. The Natural History Museum of Ireland even uses the app for educational purposes with mounted iPads in their displays. Now that’s some street cred.
But as you get deeper, you can learn where the dinosaur lived, what it ate and even what the world looked like when the animal wandered the planet. And if you think there aren’t enough dinosaurs built in to the app, just look for updates — new dinosaurs come in free “Dino Packs” that allow you to add whatever ones you want.
The app has won several awards, including Educational App of the Year 2012 by the Telegraph print edition, Kids App of the Year by App magazine and “What to Buy For Your iPad” in Apple magazine. You don’t get press like that without having something quality to show off.
Dinosaur Zoo
Go Get It!
Dinosaur Zoo is just $1.99, and it’s well worth every penny. If you’re interested in dinosaurs, or you have a child who wants to learn more, go get it now!
Our featured sponsor this week is Budget Notes HD, the easiest and prettiest way to get your finances in check.
Does anyone really like to do bills? I’m sure someone out there gets a real kick out of coordinating and budgeting their finances, but for the rest of us, we usually need some kind of help to make life easier. Enter Budget Notes HD, a simple and clean way to make a budget, enter your expenses and income, and look great doing it.
So how does this bad boy work? Simple. Start by making a plan in the first column, showing your income and expenses for the month. Then, once all that drama is sorted out, use the middle column to enter expenses and income as they happen. The app automatically calculates out the info you need to know, making it easy for you to track all of your data. Then you can use the reports in the right column to determine where your money is going, and whether or not you’re doing it right, or there’s a huge problem on the horizon.
Budget Notes HD is easy on the eyes, too, particularly on the Retina display iPad. Not only does it look great, but the reports and charts all seem nice and fluid, in a very aesthetically pleasing way. Sure, there’s a bit of skeuomorphism involved, but it’s so subtle that it’s hard to even notice. Besides, shouldn’t everyone’s ledger look this good? And isn’t it easier to open an app every day if it’s good looking and fun to use?
Budget Notes HD
Go Get It!
Budget Notes HD is available in the App Store right now, and better yet, it’s free! There is a $2.99 in-app purchase available if you want additional budgets, but that’s completely up to you.
Our featured sponsor this week is Mighty Deals, an awesome site that offers amazing and exclusive deals for web professionals!
Mighty Deals is a great place for any, and every, web professional to frequent – offering a wide range of deals perfectly suited to designers and developers! The deals range from Apps, to WordPress Themes, to Vector Icons, to eBooks – head over to the site to check them out.
Grab a 15% discount off any deal using the coupon: envato
Here are three current deals to whet your appetite…
- The Mac Photo Bundle – 3 Apps for only $20! – Take advantage of this Photo-Packed Mighty Deal Bundle consisting of three fantastic photo applications for the Mac: Snapheal, FX Photo Studio Pro, and ColorStrokes.
- The Web Designer’s eBook Bundle – only $6! – You’ve heard the buzz words: Responsive design; HTML5; social media. They’re all hot industry terms, but it’s tough to keep up with the technology they’re tied to. You can bounce around the Internet, reading an article here or a blog post there, or you can read some truly helpful eBooks and keep your coding cutting edge. This Mighty Deal eBook bundle features three helpful books for young web designers and developers: Responsive Web Design, Learn HTML 5, and Web Design Trends.
- Ultimate Web Designer’s Bundle – only $39! (reg. $202) – Resources are a web designer’s best friend. From icons to wireframes to UI sets, having pre-built pieces of a website can truly save time and effort. With this Ultimate Web Designer Bundle from Vandelay Premier, you’ll get everything you need to create the coolest-looking website around! The bundle is packed with UI sets, icons and wireframe elements.
Our thanks to Mighty Deals for sponsoring AppStorm this week! Head over and check them out, who doesn’t enjoy a deal!
Our featured sponsor this week is Wedding Planner for iPad, an amazing app for organizing and planning your big day.
Almost five years ago, I married the love of my life in a beautiful ceremony next to a bubbling fountain. But planning the wedding? Forget it — that was a nightmare. Between coordinating guests, vendors, photographers, videographers and everything else that comes up, we had more spreadsheets than the average accountant.
If only we had Wedding Planner for iPad. Not only is the app beautiful — no seriously, this thing is really pretty — but it’s intuitive and easy to use. You start by entering in you and your fiancee’s names and the date of your engagement, then it’s on to the planning. Establish the big day, schedule things out, coordinate seating plans and plan your budget, all within one spot. Even better, everything is visible on a main dashboard that shows you exactly where you’re at and what comes next. You can even plot out your color scheme and prepare your thank you list. How convenient is that?
Wedding Planner for iPad
Go Get It!
Wedding Planner for iPad is just $9.99, which is a great price considering all of the extras in this thing. And if you’re a professional wedding planner, you can even buy multiple plan options within the app, making it the ultimate tool for a professional.
Our featured sponsor this week is Toy Defense, a fresh look at the Tower Defense genre.
It’s a great game that brings back childhood memories of expansive battles with plastic soldiers, tanks, and airplanes! Prepare to become closely acquainted with flamethrowers, riflemen, ack-acks and cannons. It’s dynamic and challenging, but also a perfect time-filler.
A little graphical appetiser...
Toy Defense is already available for your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch and will be soon available for Mac, PC and Android.
Our featured sponsor this week is MindNode, an easy and intuitive application for collecting, organizing and
outlining your thoughts and ideas as mind maps.
Mind maps can be used for many different tasks;
- To-do lists
- Brainstorming
- Holiday planning
- Research
- Writing
- Project management
MindNode is a great app for creating mind maps on the iPad, it’s intuitive and easy from the moment you open it. It has an automatically expanding work space and allows a wide array of customisation.
MindNode on the iPad.
MindNode is also available on the Mac and iPhone.
MindNode
Our featured sponsor this week is iDraw, a superb, and feature-packed, vector drawing and illustration app for the iPad!
Professional Vector Editing Comes to the iPad
Josh reviewed iDraw a while ago and found it to be an excellent application, really one of the first apps that made you feel like you had a professional layout tool on an iOS device. Since then it’s only improved!
Alongside great features like layers, text, images, multi-color gradients, RGB color picker, brushes, pen tool, customizable canvas styles, grid snapping, masking, and PDF export, iDraw has added features such as;
- Shape libraries
- SVG Import and Export
- Dropbox Integration
- Dimension lines
- Boolean path combinations
- Canvas scale, Rulers, and Units (mm, cm, inches)
- Pen tool multi-point selection and editing
Grab a copy of iDraw and create mockups, illustrations, and vector designs on the iPad!
