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.
Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy [ v 1.0.1 ]
Picked by: Alex Jordan
My pick this week is Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy, the same game that was demoed at the new iPad’s announcement event. Rarely do I have any interest in a game that involve planes, nor any interest in games that require you to move the entire device to play. I’m lazy. However, at the event, the demo impressed me. After I received my new iPad, and Sky Gamblers was released, I snapped up a copy. It is gorgeous. Graphics in mobile devices are rapidly catching up to their desktop and console counterparts.
The game isn’t perfect, and the controls are a bit wonky at first even after following the tutorials. There are also several options for setting up controls which range from fervently waving and the device, to static control buttons on screen. The soundtrack and storyline are also really flat. All things considered, it’s a great game to try out on your new iPad, if for no other reason than to stare at eye candy for awhile.
Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy is a universal app, but shines the most on the iPad.
$4.99 US [ iTunes ]
FingerPrint
Picked by: Joe Tomasone
I’m going to be lazy this week and let Collobos, authors of FingerPrint for OS X and Windows, tell you about their product since they wrap it up so succinctly:
Don’t feel like buying a new printer so you can print from your iPhone™ or iPad™? Now you don’t have to. For under $10.00, you can AirPrint™ enable your printers. It’s easy. One click, and you’ll be printing from your iDevice in no time!
What I can add is that FingerPrint is one of those fantastic apps that just works. For $9.99 (with a crippled trial version available), your iOS devices will instantly see any and all of the printers you’ve configured on your PC or Mac whenever it is powered up. You can select which of the printers that are configured on your system are presented to your iOS devices, and they just simply show up.
That would be worth my $9.99 right there, but FingerPrint has a few more neat tricks up its sleeve. You can also choose to open the item you’re printing on your PC or Mac, send it to iPhoto (Mac only), or even send it to Dropbox!
I tested FingerPrint with two laser printers, a photo printer, and even the PDF print converter software installed on my PC. It worked flawlessly each time. I highly recommend this software if you have non-AirPrint printers and want to print to them from iOS devices.
$9.99 US [ Link ]
Free Trial
NOAA Weather Radio [ v 4.0 ]
Picked by: Jay
Now that it is spring, and another nearby tornado (Branson, MO) on Feb. 29, my suggested pick is the NOAA Weather Radio. There has been some improvements since I last looked at this app, and I am much happier with how it functions. Select your county in the Alert setup menu and from the Push menu, select which county watch or warning should be pushed to your device. The sound of the familiar National Weather Alert blare is never lost in its importance here in tornado ally.
Also available, though not easily navigable, is direct online links to the 172 Forecast Offices, the national Forecast Map, and Storm Prediction Center (I still prefer Weatherbug for radar and local conditions). You can also stream a favorite weather radio to your device if it’s available as an RSS Feed – either by selecting from a list or entering the URL yourself.
As a midwesterner in tornado ally who braces for extreme weather, having a backup to the usual weather radio is reassuring.
$4.99 [ iTunes ]
Angry Birds Space [ v 1.0.0 ]
Picked by: Brandon
My pick of the week is Angry Birds Space. If you haven’t played Angry Birds, well then you’re missing out. After 3 games (original, Seasons, Rio) frankly the series was getting old and I had my reservations about Rovio releasing another dammed Angry Birds game… but they absolutely nailed it. Angry Birds Space is more than just fresh paint on the same old game. I’m not going to ruin it for anyone, but if you at all enjoyed Angry Birds – you’re going to love Space. Gravity + birds with new attacks = a whole lot of new fun on the old franchise. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have important things to do. Stupid pigs are mocking me.
$0.99 / iPhone [ iTunes ]
$2.99 / iPad [ iTunes ]
Smash Your Food HD [ v 1.1 ]
Picked by: PatrickJ
This app is a winner in Michelle Obama’s ‘Apps for Healthy Kids’ competition, and deservedly so. It’s a fun, lighthearted bit of education for all of us, and especially our kids, on how unhealthy some popular foods are. The app lets you smash and smush 40 foods – things like a can of cola, a pile of jelly donuts, french fries, potato chips, corn dogs, and lots more. And they are smushed to smithereens in full HD video. The game aspect of things is that you have to guess the amount of sugar, salt and oil in each food before you can smash it. There are just two levels and it’s pretty easy to get through them with even relatively close guesses.
My 9 year old daughter found the smushing videos hilarious. Better still, it didn’t take long at all for here to start saying things like ‘That’s disgusting’ and ‘Ew, look at all that oil’ while watching the results. These are not revelations for her, as we talk a lot about healthy foods – but it still has an impact seeing this bold, graphic reinforcement of it. The app is well done and doesn’t feel like it’s preaching – it makes the taking in of the lesson big fun.
$2.99 [ 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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