Picks of the Week
Welcome to our weekly installment of Picks of the Week at iSource where we provide our expanded coverage of Apple accessories and applications Here we will promote our favorite iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac and Apple TV related items, as well as bring you occasional tips and tricks. Hopefully many of our favorite items will also be of interest to you. Please feel free to comment on our selections, and suggest picks of your own. Check out this week’s picks after the break
TweetMag (v1.0)
Picked by: PatrickJ
Not a Twitter client, you can’t compose new tweets with it. It’s a Twitter news magazine, and it’s gorgeous. The layout, typography, and images in it make it a pleasure to read. It’s easy to make your own customized magazine sections out of provided categories, lists, or individuals you follow.
For those who get more and more of their news and web links via Twitter, this is a great resource.
($4.99, iPad only) iTunes link
The Monster at the End of This Book for iPad (v1.1)
Picked by: Jay
My pick this week isn’t really mine – it’s my 3-year-old son’s! Since the download and my recent review of Calloway Arts’ The Monster at the End of This Book, my youngest son has played and re-played this app multiple times each day during our winter break. For example, although I’ve seen it multiple times he still insists that I watch how Grover knocks down the brick wall when my son interactively touches the screen of this iPad-only e-book.
Although the app itself has received mixed reviews on various blogs, the irritating crashing issue was eliminated by updating the iPad iOS to 4.2 and rebooting after installation – just as instructed in the iTunes store. From multiple sources of feedback, the developer has also personally reassured me that future updates will iron out the suggestions the company has received, and his 2-year-old daughter will continue to be his most discriminating tester.
If you have an iPad and a youngster, you cannot go wrong with this classic title – especially at the introductory price of only $0.99!
($0.99) iTunes link
TuneUp
Picked by: Brandon
TuneUp is one of those applications that you never knew you really needed until you found yourself really wanting something like it. What is it? TuneUp is an app/service that runs along iTunes and allows you to regain control over the metadata that every file in iTunes has… things like genre, album art, artist etc. In a way you can think of it like Shazam for stuff you’ve already got. If you’ve used Shazam, you know it samples a song you’ve got playing, then goes out the the webz and examines that song. When its done, it reports back to you what song it is. Well, TuneUp does a very similar thing, only it works on songs that live in your iTunes library.
I know you’re thinking “Why would I need that?”. Well, unless every song in your library has been purchased through iTunes or Amazon, there’s a good chance you’re missing some vital information. In my case, a friend supplied a library of music for us to use at a recent Christmas party, but the library was a mess. Every song was classified as the “other” genre and they all showed from the same album with no album art. Huge problem when you’ve got a couple thousand songs to get organized before you can play what you need to for a party. TuneUp (it took a while) went through those tracks and figured out a good 95% of them, recategorized and updated all the metadata. Now that once nasty library is perfectly sorted and the albums all have the correct covers. Saved me DAYS of work trying to clean up.
($19.95-29.95) TuneUp
App Cleaner (v1.2.2) Mac
Picked by: Thomas
My pick of the week is App Cleaner (v1.2.2) for the Mac. It’s not terribly exciting, but it is terribly useful. It’s also terribly free.
The default method of uninstalling on the Mac (dragging something right into the trash) tends to leave all sorts of little files and dependencies around the Mac and I think that’s just plain sloppy. So I whenever I uninstall something I tend to load App Cleaner up first so that it helps me get rid of every trace of the app (not for privacy’s sake, but for nuking’s sake).
(Free) App Cleaner
ESPN Bowl Bound 2010 (v1.0)
Picked by: Renkman
Since we are in the thick of the 2010 College football bowl schedule, I wanted to make my pick ESPN Bowl Bound 2010. This is a great application for following all 35 bowl games starting with New Mexico Bowl on December 18th, and ending with the BCS National Championship game January 10th. It’s loaded with Bowl predictions, video highlights, and all the news, analysis, scores and schedules you can handle. For all those hard-core fans, there is even an in app purchase available loaded with premium video alerts, injuries, news and on-site ESPN interviews.
(Free) iTunes link
There you have it! Hope you enjoyed this week’s installment of Picks of the week. Please let us know what you think, and share with us some of your favorites.
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
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