Welcome to our weekly installment of Picks of the Week at iSource where we provide our expanded coverage of Apple accessories and applications. After a one week hiatus for a much needed vacation, we are back to 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.
Clear [ v 1.0.1 ]
Picked by: Alex Jordan
My pick this week is the new reminders application from RealMac software called Clear. It has a simple user interface structured around the idea of importance. If an item is at the top of the list, it shows up as a deep red, which indicates the most important task. As you go down the list, items fade to yellow indicating lesser-importance. The UI is a joy to use– pinch, swipe and scroll to manipulate your list, check things off, and create new items. The word “intuitive” is over-used in this day and age, but describes this app perfectly. Some may complain that it is overly-simplistic, while I would argue that it is one of those polished apps that does one thing, and does it well. The aesthetic may be a bit too garish, but that certainly sets it apart from the pack. I wish Apple’s own reminders app was this well thought out.
Picked by: PatrickJ
I know Alex has already made this his pick for this week, and Thomas did a nice writeup about it on the site the other day – but I’m hoping for some bandwagon-jumping leeway here as this is the runaway winner for my favorite new iOS app this week (and last week) too. It’s the most innovative iPhone app I’ve seen in a long while, and that includes jailbreak tweaks and apps.
It manages to remove all buttons and have virtually no UI at all and still be wonderfully easy and intuitive to use. I don’t find its design that garish either – just bright and kinda fun.
It’s not going to replace a serious task management app of course, but I love it for keeping track of simple personal / home-related lists and tasks. It found a place within my iPhone dock within minutes of installing it and it’s not going anywhere.
$0.99 [ iTunes ]
HT Recorder for iPad [ v 4.81 ]
Picked by: Jay
This week I am selecting a reminder app called Clear. No… wait. I’m not sure I get the big deal of Clear (yet), but for $0.99, I’ll try it out. Maybe it will be my pick for next week. 😉
Instead I am selecting Applied Voices app called Happy Talk Recorder for iPad, or HT Recorder. As a person who not only presents to many adult groups, I also attend many, many meetings, conferences, and workshops of other educator/presenters. There are many times I wish I’d audio recorded what was said by a presenter. This handy app has replaced my usual go-to audio recorder and Pick from Dec 2010, I Said What?, which failed after an iOS 5.01 upgrade when I wanted it the most.
HT Recorder for iPad is superior. I recorded several keynoters in January and each recording was excellent. The user interface is fairly attractive though I think the primary buttons of record, pause, play, etc. are awkwardly positioned. File organization within the app is a bit wieldy and complicated, but the option to rename and organize the audio files in folders is a huge plus for me (organized by event, speaker, etc.).
Beyond being an excellent recorder, this app offers so much more:
- automatically skips silence during a recording session
- record and edit (cut, copy, paste and trim) the recordings
- share files as .wav (or .m4a) via email, ftp, wifi, and iTunes file sharing
- records in the background while using notetaking apps like Pages or Mail
If you’re wanting an audio of your business meeting, conference speaker, classroom lecture, etc. I highly suggest investing in HT Recorder for iPad!
$6.99 [ iTunes ]
League of Evil 2 [ v 1.11 ]
Picked by: Thomas
League of Evil 2 is a 2D platformer for the iPhone and iPad that derives its fun factor from dodging death traps and punching scientists right in the mouth. Levels are portably portioned so that you can pull your iPhone out to finish a quick level or two between bus stops, and the game rewards you for completing levels as quickly as possible. The controls are suitably simple, as well: arrows to move left and right on one side, and two more buttons on the other side of the screen to jump and punch.
The premise in League of Evil 2 is basic, but it’s the execution of that premise that makes this game so much fun. I’m not normally a fan of platformers, but something about this game feels right and there’s a tuned momentum to the way you jump, uppercut, and fall – in much the same way that Super Mario Bros. just play so well. This is something that a few other prominent platformers, like Star Marine: Infinite Ammo, just haven’t gotten quite right.
As a final bonus, League of Evil 2 has finally gotten their iCloud saved games to work. The first few patches messed a few saved games up, but you can now play a few levels on your iPhone, come home to your iPad, and continue playing from there. LOE2 not an incredibly challenging title, but it is some good platforming fun, which is still relatively rare on iOS.
$2.99 [ Link ]
Messages for Mac [ Beta ]
Picked by: AliciaB
My Pick this Week is Messages app for Mac desktop. Last Thursday a silent bomb called Mountain Lion dropped. Apple gave us a brief preview of the next iteration of OS X (10.8), the lovechild of Mac OS X and iOS5 – a sleek unified experience for Mac users, which will launch in summer. Among other things, we learned that Apple will bring apps already familiar to iOS devices to the desktop and make devices work together in many wondrous ways.
Messages for desktop gives us a taste of Mountain Lion today. It is the second app in 4 months that Apple has chosen to release under a “beta” label (after Siri), meaning we beta testers forgive them if performance is half-baked and buggy. Of course I downloaded it immediately, and took it through its paces. It still has the taste of iChat (which I haven’t used in at least 5 years) but has the ease of iOS 5. There is lots to like with the app, including the possibility to send images or audio files. But let’s not overlook the beauty of the basic premise. I love it that I can now send someone a message from my desktop, without opening Mail and without reaching for my iPhone or iPad. It almost makes me want to spend more time on my desktop 😉
Free [ 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
TAGS:
