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
Noteshelf (v4.1 )
Picked by: Brandon
($4.99) iTunes Link
It’s Playing (v2.0)
Picked by: Jack Hickman
What can I say about It’s Playing but that’s it’s an awesome video and audio playback app.
I threw everything I had at it–.avi, .mp3., .m4a, .mov, flash video, .wmv, and it played all of them with ease. The videos open quickly and look really nice and crisp, with only the slightest of stutter here and there.
When playing an audio file, such as an .mp3 or .m4a, the app displays a player with the usual buttons, as well as an info button to view information about the file as well as the ability to rename it within the app:
When I tried .m4r, .png, .txt and .pdf files, however, all I got was an info screen similar to the audio info screen.
The video player within the app has several controls such as brightness, contrast and volume as well as the slider/scrubber, and the info button once again shows you all the info you need to know about your video.
The website has an enormous amount of info on all the features, such as hi-def and subtitle support, so I highly recommend paying it a visit after getting this app.
($1.99) iTunes Link
Note Taker HD (v6.0.1)
Picked by: Thomas
($4.99) iTunes Link
Dropbox (v1.4.3)
Picked by: PatrickJ
Dropbox is one of our maybe the best online service I’ve used over the last 5 years. It does online file sync and backup. There are a number of good services out there that do these things but none of them hold a candle to Dropbox. It is by far and away the most effortless and fast and effective file sync service I’ve seen. You install it, throw things in the /Dropbox folder, and forget it – it syncs flawlessly.
And it has a universal iOS app (designed for both iPad and iPhone) that works well too. So you can view and download photos and documents synced to Dropbox on your iOS devices. You get 2GB of storage space for free and 50GB for a reasonable $9.99/month. It offers free desktop apps for Mac, Windows and Linux.
This week I’ve been trying out a Windows Phone 7 device, and the lack of an official (or even really good 3rd party) Dropbox app has been a great reminder of just how useful and essential this service is to me. iCloud will have to be very, very good indeed to match the standards set by Dropbox.
(Free) iTunes Link
Marine & Lakes: USA (v2.1)
Picked by: Renkman
Immediately after launching Lakes: US South you realize that this is a full feature application, with many layers of useful tools. Even though the main focus of the app is freshwater lakes, main roads are represented, but not named. Navigating is as simple as touching the screen and moving your finger around like a pointer. You can also zoom in and out with two fixed buttons in the upper corner, or utilize the iPhone’s pinch to zoom in and out and double tap gesture.
Other fixed buttons include GPS to center your current location, a powerful search button for finding marinas, waterfront restaurants, and local lakes, and a user friendly manual Latitude and Longitude dialer to pinpoint a location from known coordinates. You can create, display and save up to 100 tracks, routes and waypoints. In addition, you can capture geotagged pictures of your day on the water and share them, along with all your saved waypoints, with friends via email and facebook. You can even view them on Google Earth or Google Maps.
The basics like the lake names, depth lines, and POI’s (points of interest) are about the only labeled features displayed on the map, so they remain clean, uncluttered and easy to read and interpret. You can lock the screen with a tap on the lower left corner of the screen. This is very helpful when you might want to leave the application open and running, but you want to set your iPhone down or put it in your pocket for an extended period of time without worrying about changing your current view. Without being confusing or too technical for most users, I found Lakes by Navionics to be an invaluable tool for boaters of all skill levels.
($9.99) 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:
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- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
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