Winners Announced
Thanks to everyone who took part in the giveaway this week, and special thanks to the kind people at Avatron Software! I’m excited to let you know that the winners have now been chosen. Congratulations are in order to:
Stef
Hector Lee
Nate
ffeld
Well done to the lucky winners, and we’ll be in touch soon. Sorry to those who missed out, be sure to check back for more great competitions!
Old Competition Post
Earlier this week Scott Danielson took a look at some of the great things it’s possible to do with Air Display, you can read his article here. Now I’m happy to announce that we have 4 promo codes available for some fortunate readers to get their hands on!
Air Display is a great app that gives you the ability to turn your iPad into a secondary display, by using your local Wi-Fi network. The possibilities are virtually endless, with Air Display giving you a whole new way to use and appreciate your iPad.
At $9.99 it’s a great buy, but here is a fantastic chance to get all of that functionality for absolutely nothing!
As someone who travels quite a lot, I know that it isn’t always easy to find something to do in your dead times. Whenever I find myself at a loose end, I usually just go for a walk to try and find an interesting place to eat or an interesting shop. But aren’t we living in the age of technology? Shouldn’t there be an easier and more convenient solution for finding things to do?
Well, if you are looking for a simple mobile app to get you going in seconds, Highlights has got you covered. It’s a great little iPad and iPhone app that can help you find all sorts of interesting places around you. How does it do it? Let’s find out!
There are over 65,000 iPad apps in Apple’s Appstore, wouldn’t you like some help in deciding not just what’s awesome and worth your time, but good value for your money too? Wouldn’t it be good to see what other people are buying, what’s hot just now, and what applications have stood the test of time with consistently good reviews?
App prices fluctuate all the time, so how about being notified when an app you’d like comes down in price? What about seeing the complete history of all app price changes?
All of this information is available through the excellent website, AppShopper.com, but recently AppShopper have released an update to their dedicated iPad app. And just in case you’re already wondering how much all this excellent information is going to cost you, AppShopper for iPad is free..
Earlier this week we reviewed Air Display, a fantastic app that turns your iPad into a second monitor for your Mac or PC. The simple fact is that there’s not a great deal to the app itself, once you connect it with your computer (with a downloadable client that sits in your menubar), it doesn’t really function like an app at all.
What Air Display does do, though, is turn your workspace into a rather unique one. With Air Display you have a second screen that, while not really big enough for you to call your set up a “dual monitor” workspace, gives you extra space that’s not only versatile but touch sensitive as well.
I’ve been playing around with Air Display, developed by Avatron Software, and I’ve discovered that it helps create a workspace that, particularly if you’re a creative, can improve your workflow in ways a standard second monitor can’t. Read on to find out how.
Last month we ran an intriguing poll that simply asked what type of iPad case you used, and the results got me thinking. The success of the iPad has allowed an almost laughably vast industry to grow up simply providing cases and covers of all shapes and sizes, covering every possible need while allowing you to spend up to $4,900 (for an iPad case made from the finest alligator skin) in the process.
No other item I can think of has caused such a strong bout of case-fever. Even the Nokia 3310 only had one actual type of case, albeit in an almost unwaveringly disgusting smorgasbord of colours and designs. The clearest thing that was highlighted by the poll is the surprisingly even spread of cases people owned and used, there seemed to be no clear consensus on the ‘best’ way to protect, carry, and augment the iPad.
I decided to give it some thought…
There’s no doubt that e-books are taking off like a rocket at the moment. Indeed, there are already dozens of articles proclaiming that the hardcopy book is dead, that bookstores will cease to exist within five years, and that authors should ditch their publishers and agents and go it alone in the brave new world of digital publishing.
I think we should take all such claims with a generous pinch of salt, but it remains true that reading books in electronic form is growing more and more popular, and that the range of e-books available is growing rapidly every day.
If you own a dedicated e-book reader like a Kindle, then your reading experience is going to be just as good, or bad, as your device. But if you own a multi-purpose tablet like an iPad, there are now many different e-reader apps available for you to consume your reading matter. Here I’m going to have a look at the top six e-book reader apps to see how they compare in usability and features (plus one web app as a bonus). To make the comparison as fair as possible, I compared the apps by looking at a public-domain work available in all stores.
In today’s world of light notebook toting individuals and mobile society, many of us forget the large displays of our desktop computers and look forward to the small displays of our Macbook Air and ultraportable devices.
Sometimes, however, the small displays on our notebooks just don’t cut it in terms of screen real estate for some projects or applications. Sometimes we need a little extension. External monitors are a great solution to this problem, but what if your iPad could fill that need?
Air Display solves the problem of normal external displays and lets you use your iPad as a wireless external display for your notebook or desktop Mac. Let’s check it out!
Winners Announced
Thanks to everyone who took part in the giveaway this week, and special thanks to the kind people at the Hot Apps Factory! I’m excited to let you know that the winners have now been chosen. Congratulations are in order to:
Jelleke
Cue
Choudhury
András
Rick
Lukas Schmidt
David
Kim Wickell
Florian Taltavull
John Hughes
Well done to the lucky winners, and we’ll be in touch soon. Sorry to those who missed out, be sure to check back for more great competitions!
Old Competition Post
Earlier this week we reviewed the excellent App Cooker, an extremely comprehensive app for planning, designing, and mocking up any iOS app. I’m hugely pleased to announce that we now have 10 promo codes to give away!
From my review of App Cooker:
I think the comprehensive set of tools provided by App Cooker could be invaluable to any level of app developer, from amateur to seasoned app emperor. Each section is carefully crafted to encourage great app development, something which I’m fanatical about!
The extra bonus here is that the developers of App Cooker are soon to be releasing some major new updates that should cement App Cooker as the premier app for iOS planning and development.
Get your app idea off the ground now!
This week I’d love to take a poll on a highly speculative, but nonetheless interesting, question. Is the iPad the final new product from Apple?
First, I should probably clarify the question a little.
I was inspired to create this poll after reading a fascinating article on Cult of Mac that makes a strong statement with its title; iPod. iPhone. iPad. Why Apple is Done Inventing New Devices.
By new devices (or products) I don’t mean the further iterations or development in existing spaces, such as the desktop or mobile phone, but rather the creation of entirely new categories of product. Such as the iPad and its creation of the spuriously named ‘Tablet Market’ (many have argued that there is really only an ‘iPad Market’ at the moment).
Do you think that Apple will now continue to push the bounds in its current areas of influence and leave pushing into new areas aside? Or, is it short-sighted to think that a company such as Apple won’t break ground in ways we can’t yet envisage?
I’d love to hear your thoughts! Log your answer and perhaps send a few words this way as well!
The App Store is currently on a fantastic trajectory, it’s becoming ever more a wonderfully self sustaining and profitable marketplace for entrepreneurial developers. One of the best things about the App Store in its current form is how remarkably easy it is for passionate developers to make a mark.
If you have a truly great idea, there’s a good chance you can succeed!
App Cooker is aiming to be the single, all encompassing, tool for designing and mocking up apps – helping you to plan and assess the viability of your idea. Now comes the real question; is it any good?
