Twitter for iPad – App Review
Slick new free iPad Twitter client
Sight Words HD for iPad – First Look
With school back in session or just a weekend away, many parents are on the lookout for educational apps to build on the skills their kids are learning in school. Sight Words HD is a good tool to help kids learn their sight words and boost reading skills.
Designed by a dad to help his son, Jason Jardim’s latest educational app is helpful and easy to use. Based on Dolch SightWord lists, there are over 280 sight word “flash cards” available for review. Kids can practice alone or sit with parents as they read the words that appear on the screen. Click “Next Word” or “Previous Word” to move through the list and mark the incorrect ones with “Flag Word” for kids to go over again later. Parents also have the option to enter as many words as possible to create their own unique lists.
The more exposure kids have to words, the more they boost their reading skills. Start the school year off right this year and check out Sight Words HD in the App Store for $1.99.
Thumbelina for the iPad – First Look
Looking for an interactive story to enjoy with your toddler or preschooler over the three day weekend? If so, Thumbelina for the iPad from Touchoo is worth a look. Based on the children’s classic by Hans Christian Andersen, this modern interpretation lets readers lead Thumbelina on her journey to find happiness with the use of their iPad and its touchscreen.
Colorful illustrations of little thumb-like people and animals, along with interactive adventures on each page, will keep kids engaged as they participate in the journey of Thumbelina. It’s easy for kids to follow along as the story is read and they move through the text. Little hands on the screen will show kids how to help Thumbelina with different situations and what to do to get the job done.
Written by Keren Essigman, this interpretation of the story lets readers enjoy rhyming text in several different ways: listening to the story, reading the story or recording their own version. Kids will get a kick out of this interactive story as they open pretty flowers, move lilly pads down the river and rescue Thumbelina from dark holes. In addition to fun adventures for children, parents have options for four different languages, sound effects and other settings. They’ll find high quality original narrations in English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese with additional translations in the works.
Thumbelina for the iPad is a cute colorful adventure fun for toddlers and preschoolers to enjoy with their parents. It was a finalist in the App Star Awards and is available in the App Store for $1.99. Enjoy it with your little ones this weekend!
Toy Physics for iPad – First Look
If you like challenging physics games and have been looking for a good one to play on your iPad, Toy Physics HD should be high on your list. The premise of the game is simple, catch toys as they drop from the top of the screen into waiting crates below. It sounds easy, but as with any good game it’s definitely more challenging than it sounds.
Toy Physics has 40 puzzles for you to play at three different difficulty settings. Each puzzle combines great looking graphics and good sound effects with a realistic physics engine to create a game sure to keep you busy for hours.
As the toys drop form the top of the screen, they fall through a gauntlet of spinning wheels, water spray, hydraulics jacks, and other obstacles. Your job is to guide the toys into a crate moving along a conveyor belt on the bottom of the screen. Your only tools are lines that you can draw on the screen to help you guide, nudge or direct the toys into the waiting crate. If you let three toys hit the conveyor belt , you’ll have to start the puzzle all over again.
Skyfire’s Mobile Browser to Play Flash on iOS Devices
Since the iPad’s launch back in April, many companies have started supporting the web-based HTML5 standard. It’s been somewhat of a slow process, but one that is becoming more prevalent everyday considering the iPad’s success worldwide.
Yes, there are still several sites out there with video content that do not support HTML5 yet. However, many sites have already started supporting it, and more will do the same very soon, with YouTube being the latest example.
There are also companies like Skyfire that believe that mobile browsers should behave just like your normal computer browsers. In other words, Skyfire believes all mobile browsers should not only support HTML5, but also any kind of Flash-based content.
Skyfire released a statement this week saying they are planning to bring Flash to your iOS devices (iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch). They have submitted a mobile browser to Apple’s App Store capable of playing Flash video while adhering to all Apple’s guidelines regarding HTML5 open-video standards across iOS devices.
OpenFeint PlayTime – Multiplayer Gaming for iOS and Android
Yesterday’s announcement by Apple about their new Game Center app brought a lot of excitement to the gaming community. Of course, Game Center brings social networking capabilities to your gaming experience. It allows easier access to online multiplayer games and will give you the ability to see what games your friends are playing and their results.
Today, it looks like iOS gamers have more to celebrate. Aurora Feint, a mobile gaming company, announced that it plans to release a development kit called PlayTime that will allow its OpenFeint social network to enable inter-connectivity between iOS and Android devices. In other words, game developers will be able to create games that can be played in real-time across iOS and Android devices. Aurora Feint mentioned it will launch PlayTime later this year.
According to Aurora Feint, their Open Feint PlayTime service will allow gamers to enter into a multi-player gaming experience, do matchmaking, and do real-time voice chat during gameplay. PlayTime will be fully compatible with Apple’s Game Center. In addition, the service will include a feature that allows multiplayer games to stay in play even if one player drops out due to a bad connection. The service provides the ability to substitute a computer opponent for a dropped player.
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Logitech Wireless Speaker Z515 – A Great Companion for your iPad
If you heavily rely on your iPad to listen to music or watch movies/shows, you must have noticed that the embedded speaker is good, but not great. An alternative is to use headphones, but wearing headphones constantly can quickly get annoying.
If you happen to have $99.99 to spare, a great alternative is the new Z515 wireless speaker from Logitech. The set works with any device offering connectivity via A2DP Bluetooth, just like the iPad and the iPhone, and also works with desktops/laptops via a USB adaptor (supplied with the speaker).
The Z515 uses the 2.4GHz band to wirelessly connect to your iPad: simply make your iPad discoverable, and the speaker will find it in a matter of seconds.
Logitech advertises a range of up to 50 feet, more than enough to let you move around your house without losing connectivity. The speaker features a pair of two-inch drivers, and can work up to ten hours with a single charge. The Z515 will be released later this month.
Twitter for iPad – App Review
Twitter has just released their new Twitter for iPad client and it’s a slick little app. This new iPad client release comes almost five months after app developer atebits, maker of the popular Tweetie iPhone and Mac Twitter client, was acquired by Twitter.
With the new application, Twitter has focused on making it easier to work with content links in tweets. Twitter for iPad has a revamped user interface making it simpler to deal with media in links and much quicker to move around in. The app has several new and unique features.
Panes – The interface is divided into moveable panes allowing you to swipe to move between a list of messages, individual tweets or content (web pages, photos, video, etc) that might be linked in a tweet. The pane based setup takes a second to get used to but is a cool and easy way to quickly move through your tweets on your iPad. In no time you’ll be swiping left and right to move around in this new app.
Epic Citadel for iPad, an Impressive Game Demo
Epic Games just released Epic Citadel, the iPad game demo showcased earlier today at the Apple event. The demo uses the Unreal Engine 3 for iOS, and is nothing short of amazing: the graphics are as good – if not better – than what an Xbox 360 can do. Yes, you read correctly, we’re talking about Xbox 360 grade graphics here!
The full game will not be released for a while, and for now you are limited to wandering around a gorgeous medieval city.
If you want to see what your iPad can really do when it comes to 3D graphics, get your copy of Epic Citadel as soon as possible – the demo is free.
Second Generation of Apple TV Available in 4 Weeks
What started as a “hobby” for Apple four years ago has now been streamlined to create the second generation Apple TV. The answer to requests from many Apple customers, this updated device is one-fourth the size of its predecessor and, according to Steve Jobs, promises to be a “phenomenal way to watch Hollywood movies and TV shows in your living room whenever you want.”
The new hardware comes with Apple’s powerful new A4 CPU but lacks a hard drive so all content must be streamed over the Internet or from a local PC or Mac. The new Apple TV includes HDMI, optical audio out, Ethernet and USB ports. Apple has dropped component video and analog audio support that was previously available on older Apple TVs.
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Explore the Universe with NASA, Right on your iPad
If you want to know more about the Universe, or simply want to look at pictures of the worlds around us, NASA App HD is for you.
The app features tons of content, including:
- Thousands of images
- On demand NASA videos, as well as live streaming of NASA TV
- Current NASA missions info, such as launch dates and countdown clocks
- Current visible passes for the International Space Station (ISS), as well as ISS and Earth orbiting satellite trackers
The app is extremely polished, and besides pictures of the Universe, NASA App HD features gorgeous pictures of the NASA satellites, rockets, space stations, and telescopes. Best of all, the app is free. Note that to have access to all the content, you will need to be connected to a WiFi access point, or via 3G.
