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Are you interested in learning about wine, but bored with droll instructional books or turned off by elite wine-tasting groups? Maybe you’re looking to better understand the foreign words on wine labels or grasp the intricacies of pairing food and wine? The learning curve to becoming a wine aficionado may seem steep, but the creators of Pocket Wine want to change that perception. The sellers, Wine Paradigm, offer their wine knowledge and experience as a model to give you an enhanced understanding of the wine world. The result is a very useful wine reference tool for iPad, loaded with in-depth information on grape varieties, wine regions and tasting notes along with an extensive glossary of wine terminology.
This app is unlike any wine app in that it claims to give you the knowledge and guidance to make your own informed decisions about wine, rather than relying on the reviews of experts or social media. Both novices and more experienced wine hobbyists will appreciate Pocket Wine, where information is presented in terms a layman can understand, without dumbing down the content.
Wine geeks, read on to begin the journey of discovering your palate and understanding grape growing regions around the globe.
Did you ever play the original Scribblenauts game for the DS? If so, you’ll love this. If you didn’t, you’ll like it even better.
Scribblenauts: Remix is a game that allows you to conjure any object in order to complete an equally imaginative set of objectives present across a large array of well-designed levels. It operates on the premise that the sky is the limit when it comes to how you want to complete a level. Read on to see if the iOS version retains the magic found in the DS versions.
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The iPad continues to flex its musical muscles, with many developers and composers coming to terms with the fact that it can be a legitimate and powerful studio tool. But as exciting as it is to have a fully featured audio workstation in your bag wherever you go, sometimes it’s nice to scale things back to the basics.
Propellerhead is well known for its famously integrated music software, Reason, which is designed to be as streamlined as possible. It’s no surprise then that their latest iOS venture is an app designed to be fun, accessible, and mobile. Figure is a delightful musical sketchpad, and we’re eager to take it for a spin…
Twitter applications aren’t the most difficult ones to find on the App Store, but most people either stick to the official application or popular ones, such as Tweetbot or Twitterrific. There are, however, a certain number of alternative apps that can suit some people better. Examples include clients like Osfoora HD and Echofon, but also TweetCaster, a full-featured iOS Twitter application few people know about.
It was at the launch of the iPad 2 that Steve Jobs predicted we would soon be ushered into a new era. One in which the predominance of PCs would fade away and our reliance on them to get work done would be greatly reduced. Fast-forward a couple of years and thanks to better hardware and a steady release of increasingly powerful apps we inch closer to that reality day upon day.
A perfect example of this is writing. I love the freedom and mobility the iPad affords me. I can write up a review or blog post from pretty much anywhere. The only piece missing for a streamlined workflow was the ability to resize images. While there are many capable image editing apps, most are overkill for this simple task, but fortunately Reduce came along to solve that small friction point.
Just released to the iTunes App Store on Monday, Codex is a notebook app that strives to combine all of the best aspects of Moleskine with the iPad. Codex isn’t affiliated with the notebook giant but has definitely captured what makes them so special. Not just a place to jot down a to do, Codex is also where you can sketch out your art, write notes to yourself and your friends, or just do any of the things you would do in a paper notebook.
We’ll try out this brand new handwriting app and see if it has the features to get you to make the switch from pencil and pad to fingertips and iPad! (more…)
Sometimes, an app comes along that fits a small niche in a really interesting but kind of absurd way. How many people really need an app that combines ambient music with police radio? And out of those who think they need that app, how many are willing to actually pay for it? Any development time is a gambling risk as wasted time spent developing an app that doesn’t work out is potentially wasted money, or so the saying goes (don’t ask me — I’m still trying to earn pennies by saving them so I fall for these scams all the time). Regardless of this, somebody did put this app together and it’s called La Vue. It’s a universal app and it’s available on the App Store for the low price of just 99 cents.
There’s no denying that the concept is pretty cool however cool concepts with weak implementations are never any good. The real question that I had going into this review isn’t why anybody would bother putting this together — rather it’s such an original and cool idea that the real question is why somebody wouldn’t. But I did wonder if the design was any good, if the app matched or exceeded its value and who could really use an app like this. My answers actually surprised me.
Back in March, we had a little debate concerning keyboard cases for the iPad and whether they were a productive accessory or just an unnecessary burden. Jonathan Kizer argued that typing on an external keyboard is much easier than on the iPad’s software keyboard, whereas Pedro Lobo mentioned that they were more of a hindrance than a tool to speed up your productivity, citing the useful shortcuts built into many apps such as WriteUp.
Soon after this, we were contacted by The Snugg, a popular manufacturer of a wide range of iPad and iPhone accessories and I thought in keeping to our theme, we would review their Bluetooth keyboard and case offering. Here are my thoughts.
Imagine a book in which you could become one of the main characters, choosing how to interact with other characters and even affect the plot. This is how stories in Versu work — you can determine your character’s objectives, actions, attitude and more as you explore the interactive stories.
Disclaimer: The stories fall into the Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice realm of literature. So if you’re a fan of those, you’ll be a fan of the currently available stories. And if you’re not, you might want to pass on this one.
Ready to read on? Click “more” to take a look at the future of story-telling. (more…)
If you have a local library, you may well be used to visiting and borrowing books from it. But, did you know that there are many titles available to borrow as digital works? All you need is your library card, and a little app called Overdrive Media Console.
As well as borrowing written works, you can also borrow audiobooks, just as you would in person. The main difference is that with digital borrowing the digital title will check itself back in automatically and there are never any late fees.
So, grab your library card and follow us through a little walk-through of Overdrive Media Console.
