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.
Espresso [ v 2.0.1 ]
Picked by: Alex Jordan
My pick this week is Espresso, a web development tool from MacRabbit. I am currently enrolled in a web design class at my local university, and on occasion do paid web development. I’m not particularly great at it, and certainly can’t handle the more advanced Javascript functionality. However, I am pretty comfortable with HTML and CSS. That’s where Espresso shines, with tag highlighting, code collapsing, and other helpful goodies. It even allows you to preview your website from within the app.
Although Panic Inc.’s Coda is a wonderful, competing tool in the marketplace, I prefer Espresso. If you do any sort of web development, and don’t want to shell out the big bucks for Dreamweaver, this is a great tool.
Espresso can be purchased from MacRabbit’s website for $79. A free 15-day trial download is also available
$79 [ Link ]
15 Day Free Trial
Cloud [ v 1.5.3 ]
Picked by: Joe Tomasone
There’s lots of ways to exchange files that are too big to be emailed – but hardly any this easy.
Cloud App is a small app that resides in your menubar and exists for one purpose – to make it easy for you to share files, pictures, and even URLs with other people. It couldn’t be easier to use – just drag a file to the icon in the menubar and the file is uploaded. Click the icon, select the file you uploaded, and you’re presented with a link that you can give out. Cloud App operates under the Freemium mode; you can share 10 files per day and have a maximum file size of 25MB. Paid Pro accounts get unlimited shares per day of files up to 250MB in size. The web site (which is conveniently linked through the icon) allows management of your uploaded files.
It’s tough to beat the simplicity of Cloud App; it’s earned a place on my menubar, ready for the next time someone says, “Our mail server won’t accept…”
Cloud App is free in the Mac App Store and requires free or paid service at http://getcloudapp.com/.
Free [ App Store ]
Lose It [ v 3.7.2 ]
Picked by: PatrickJ
I’ve been trying to lose some pounds to enhance my girlish figure over recent months. It’s been going pretty well and I’d honestly never thought of needing or wanting an iPhone app to help me along. Lose It! was mentioned to me by a friend and I’ve been using it for a little over a week now, and I love it. It’s become an instant favorite for me.
It’s based on simple, common sense principles – tracking the food you eat each day and the exercise you do to burn calories and keep fit. Which sounds like no big deal, but for me the devil is in the details and this app has been a huge help on the daily food intake side of things. I have been trying to eat healthier for quite a while, but one thing I never pay enough attention to is portion sizes – I think because I’ve always relied on doing a lot of exercise to burn it all off. Anyway, just the simple act of logging all my daily food intake in this app has made me so much more aware of portion sizes. I’ve only adjusted my portions a small amount, but it is already making a big difference.
The app makes it very easy to log what you eat, and what exercise you do. It’s got entries for tons of brand label food and drink, and a good general search for foods and common exercises – and each provides details on the number of calories taken in / burned. You can also create your own foods and exercise entries – so if you can’t find one listed, or if the nutritional info is out of date, you can make a new entry with all the correct info.
For now I’m meticulously logging everything I eat and do during each day. I may or may not stick to that long-term, but I feel like even if I don’t the app has helped me greatly by making me more portion-conscious. It’s great to see that with just some minor adjustments you can stay within a better over calorie count each day.
Free [ iTunes ]
Keynote Remote [ v 1.3 ]
Picked by: AliciaB
Some apps you discover while idly browsing the tips sections of various blogs or recommended lists, others you stumble upon when you really need an app to help to accomplish a real task in the real world. Such a need was born one day ago while preparing to give a powerpoint presentation for my fellow team members at work. My husband suggested I deliver it using my iPad, using my iPhone to navigate the presentation remotely. And presto! So came the iPhone app Keynote Remote into my life – my Pick for this Week.
It does exactly what it says, letting you use your iPhone as a remote for Keynote on iPad, wirelessly via bluetooth or wifi. Incidentally it works also for Keynote on mac as well as iPod touch. It also works well, is easy to set up and quite easy to pair between devices. One thing that I really like is that you view a preview of a slide and its related notes together on the screen. In this way I was able to face my audience and connect with them, rather than consulting notes on a laptop or sheet of paper, and also did not have to look at the projected presentation that often.
It worked absolutely perfectly today. Needless to say my colleagues were really, really impressed. So impressed in fact that one told me afterwards that he could hardly concentrate on what I was saying for the first few minutes, he was so taken aback at the technology and ease of it.
The question on whether to spend 0.99 cents on this app is a no-brainer in my book. If you use Keynote on iPad and you have an iPhone or iPod touch then you should get definitely this app. Here is the link to the App Store (link).
$0.99 [ iTunes ]
Reckless Racing 2 [ v 1.0.0 ]
Picked by: Brandon
My POTW is Reckless Racing 2 by Polarbit!
The original Reckless Racing was an absolute joy of a top down racing game to play, but sadly it was entirely too short and lacked any sort of customization. It was very much a one size fits all top down racer. Fast forward a little over a year and Reckless Racing 2 (out from underneath the EA thumb) has hit the app store with what can only be described as a “this is everything the game should have been” feeling, not to mention it’s finally a universal download. Costing (an app store pricy) $4.99, Reckless Racing 2 is simply spectacular and I couldn’t be happier with the money I spent. There’s a little bit of everything in here – TONS of tracks, a big career mode, lots of cars and big customizations.
If you’re at all a fan of top down racing (or racing games in general), you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not picking up Reckless Racing 2.
$4.99 [ iTunes ]
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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