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
BeatBurn Elliptical Trainer (v1.0.0)
Picked by: Jay
In the interest of all things healthy for the new year, my pick this week is BeatBurn EllipticalTrainer. Lolo, the developing company, also has a keen outdoor running or indoor treadmill app which was my very first Pick of the Week and initially reviewed here, prior to a vital upgrade. Since I continue to use it as my regular exercise app for weeks (Day 39 – used 2 to 3 times a week) with its tempo shifting technology, I am optimistic and eager to use the lolo”s BeatBurn Elliptical Trainer app. I’ve used it only once and found the powerful technology, which partners with your favorite music to speed or slow the tempo without distortion, to be comforting in the image of an elliptical training app. I intend to play with it more, and if becoming more healthy is part of this year’s resolutions, I suggest you do too.
($3.99) iTunes link
2Do: Tasks Done in Style (v2.4.4)
Picked by: Killian Bell
My pick of the week, and one of my favorite iOS applications in the App Store, is a wonderful task management application called 2Do. It features a stunning, simple to use user interface that makes it a pleasure to manage your to-do list, tasks and projects on your device. It’s comprehensive list of features includes repeating to-dos, task sharing, support for voice notes, tabbed calendars, and a whole lot more to help you stay organized. The application syncs with Toodledo or MobileMe, so you have access to your todo list wherever you are, on any device. It’s also a universal app which means it features native support for both the iPhone and the iPad. 2Do is by far the best task management app I’ve come across in the App Store so far, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
($6.99) iTunes link
iFixit Repair Manual (v0.8)
Picked by: PatrickJ
iFixit: Repair Manual is a recently released iPad app from the excellent team at iFixit.com. These guys provide the very best (and free) repair guides for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and a very broad range of computers, electronics, and lots more. I had very high expectations for their iPad app, as I’ve often used their guides to get DIY repairs and upgrades done – and I’m happy to say they were met and exceeded. I’ve already used the app for one memory upgrade – and find the iPad is just about a perfect medium for these guides. If you are at all interested in doing your own repairs and upgrades to your devices, this should be a must-have app. Oh, and it’s free.
(Free) iTunes link
Ecoute for Mac (v2.0)
Picked by: Thomas
Ecoute is an iTunes-based music player. It uses your iTunes library as the source for all of your tunes (and even syncs metadata like “play count” back to iTunes when you quit), but it’s a lot lighter and smaller than Apple’s gigantic media app.
You might find Ecoute useful if you use iTunes to occasionally sync with your iOS device, but want something else to manage your everyday desktop music experience. Ecoute has support for global shortcuts, quick and easy text searches, and even provides quick access to lyrics and YouTube videos for your songs.
Unfortunately, Ecoute and I just haven’t been able to click, and this is probably because I’m too reliant on iTunes as a kind of media powerhouse. I use iTunes daily for iPhone syncing, managing my music collection, and link searches in the App Store (though I realize I could also use google for this) — none of which Ecoute is really designed to handle. I want to be clear that that’s not a criticism, though: it’s simply a case of this software not quite fitting my current workflow. I’d still highly recommend you at least give Ecoute 2.0 a shot — especially since it has a rather generous 14-day trial period.
($9.99) Ecoute 2.0
Caffeine (v1.1.1)
Picked by: Renkman
Ever get tired of your Mac going to sleep at the wrong time—enter Caffeine. It is a very simple app that’s sole purpose is to keep your Mac from automatically going to sleep. All you have to do is click on the icon to activate it—simple! The Mac App Store automatically puts the app in your dock. Apparently, the one complaint I have read about Caffeine is that if you rely on the docked app to indicate whether or not it is currently running, you won’t be able to tell. However, if you remove it from the dock and just reference the cup of coffee in the menu bar you will be fine—it’s grayed out when it is off, and has black steaming coffee in it when it’s on.
(Free) Mac App Store 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.
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