Welcome to another edition of iSource’s weekly list of Apple accessories and apps. This is our little slice of the internet wherein we promote anything Apple-related that has caught our eye and we think our fine audience might like. Without further delay, here is this week’s picks: SongzaPicked by Thomas I’m not usually one for […]
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iSource Picks of the Week

Nov 2nd 2012 by

Welcome to another edition of iSource’s weekly list of Apple accessories and apps. This is our little slice of the internet wherein we promote anything Apple-related that has caught our eye and we think our fine audience might like. Without further delay, here is this week’s picks:

Songza
Picked by Thomas

Photo 2012 10 30 7 13 45 PMI’m not usually one for using music streaming services, but Songza was recommended by my sister (who happens to have rather discerning tastes – she takes after her brother). I’ve been using Songza for two days now and I’m enjoying it as a way of simply sitting back and working, without fussing over what to play. I load the app up, tell it what kind of mood I’m in, and select one of three ready-made playlists. What’s interesting is that these moods are quite specific. This isn’t just happy, sad, or angry. Songza knows that it’s Tuesday evening specifically, so it suggests music for:

  • working (with lyrics)
  • working out
  • unwinding
  • evening commute
  • cooking
  • playing video games

That last suggestion, in particular, is surprising to see.

There are a few iAds from time to time, and I can only skip five songs per hour of play, but these little things haven’t really bothered me thus far. My only gripe is that I can’t highlight specific songs I’ve enjoyed, only the playlists that contain them (so I use screenshots instead).

I can’t say that I’m completely sold on the Songza experience – simply because I’m not well versed in the music streaming scene – but it has made me curious about this particular category of apps. I think I’ll be checking out a number of other music streaming apps in the future, if only so I can take full advantage of my new 6GB data plan.

Price: Free


Disp Recorder
Picked by PatrickJ
 

Disp Recorder

 
This app made a brief appearance in the App Store back in June and got removed by Apple. It was formerly known as Display Recorder, which reflects what the app does – screen recording on the iPad and iPhone. This has been possible for quite a while of course, but before this app it required AirPlay Mirroring to a Mac or Windows PC and using a screen recording app on the PC. Disp Recorder lets you do it all – capturing audio and video – on the iPad or iPhone.  It also lets you save your recordings to the photo library or upload directly to YouTube.  
 
I haven’t tried the app on the iPhone yet, but overall it works quite well on the iPad, with a few notable glitches – for example, the direct upload to YouTube always errors out immediately for me, and the app seems inconsistent about when exactly it starts recoding audio. Hopefully these issues will be fixed in an update soon. In the meantime, this is still a super useful app to have on an iPad or iPhone. 
 
Just for reference, the goofy name change is likely due to a dispute with the developer of a jailbreak app with the same name – hopefully now resolved. 
 
Price: $9.99 – for a universal app designed for both iPad and iPhone
 
Letterpress
Picked by Alex Jordan
 

IMG 2033

 
Letterpress is a new game, and it reminded me of a mix of the games Boggle and Scrabble. It is a multiplayer game, and powered by Game Center so you can invite your Game Center friends, or be paired up with a stranger. I do wish you could send a friend request from within the app to one of your competitors that you enjoy playing against, but I digress. Anyway, the app is free to download and play, and if you want to keep more than one game going at once, it’s a buck to upgrade. It’s addictive, helps keep the mind busy, and is totally worth a look.
 
Price: Free; upgradable for $0.99

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