Daily iPhone App: Spellcraft School of Magic

I’ll be honest: I have come down with a pretty bad case of freemium ADD. Pocket Frogs was my first real freemium hookup on the iPhone (and it’s still pretty great), but since then, I’ve made my way through a train of freemium games, including We Rule, Tiny Tower, Battle Nations, We Farm, more Tiny Tower, DragonVale, and now all the way over to Spellcraft School of Magic. If you’ve played any of these before, you probably know how it goes: The game is completely free to download, and free to play, though you can spend money on in-app convenience items if you want to save time or level yourself up more quickly.

But Spellcraft has caught my attention for quite a while this time, because it’s a little more “game”-y than some of the other games. Instead of just managing a farm or building a city, you’re actually delving through a dungeon, casting spells against bad guys and uncovering various treasures. The idea is that you’re a magical student who needs to delve the dungeons to find your professors, and you can cast spells to fight bad guys from scrolls that you can carry and make.

Scrolls are created from spell ingredients that at first you just find, but you can also grow them in the greenhouse, which is where the “freemium” cycle comes in: plants can be planted, and then you need to wait real time to let them grow. The gameplay itself is actually pretty well done — the graphics are nice and polished, and there’s a fun arcade-y element to casting spells that allows you to do better or worse depending on how you time your casts.

Unfortunately, the in-app purchases aren’t quite as “nice” as, say Tiny Tower — your plants can die on the vine, losing you lots of money, and later in the game, you can also get pets that won’t necessarily die, but will get very pitifully sad if you don’t feed them (shame on Appy Entertainment for tying the sadness of a hungry animal to an in-app purchase — that’s a little below the belt if you ask me). But the game is definitely playable even without the in-app purchases, and the fact that you can lose plants does at least provide a little encouragement to log in to the game and play it.

If freemium isn’t your thing, you won’t find much new here. This game runs about like a Facebook game, and while there is some nice polish, especially on the iPad, there’s not a lot here that you won’t find in, say, DragonVale or We Rule. But as is always the case with freemium, the price is right, and it’s at least a game that will hold your attention and scratch that freemium obsession itch — at least until the next fun candidate comes along.

Daily iPhone App: Spellcraft School of Magic originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Newsstand in iOS 5 helps magazines grow subscriber base

With the introduction of iOS 5 Apple introduced what was to be the savior of Newspapers and Magazines, by giving publishers their own virtual shelf space in a highly visible app. Several other publications have already touted their success stories with Newsstand, and now Popular Science is joining the chorus.

Popular Science is probably most popular among the tech crowd recently the company released their cumulative subscription numbers. As you can see from the table below and as reported by AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka the magazine not only saw a leap in subscriptions the second week of October, when newsstand was released, but has at the same time seen a constant increase in subscribers.

It has been interesting to see how the release of newsstand has helped different magazines grow in popularity and subscriber base, how about you have you started reading more magazines since they have been released through the newsstand app?

TUAW Help Line: holiday gift questions & answers

The goose is cooked, the cookies crumbled, the wrapping paper thrown away and the relatives released to their neutral corners. Finally, you can get down to the post-holiday fun of setting up your new iPad, or transferring your data from your old PC to your new Mac! Unfortunately, the end of a long day of cooking, eating, drinking and merry-making might render your personal IT skills a bit less than optimal. Whatever shall we do?

We’re here to help. Got a pressing Mac, iPhone, iPod or iPad setup question? Wondering how best to arrange your iTunes store accounts, chat with Siri or configure iCloud? Leave a comment here, hit us up on our Ask TUAW Twitter account, or swing by our Facebook or G+ pages. We may not be able to answer all the questions, but we’ll help as much as we can.

TUAW Help Line: holiday gift questions & answers originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 20:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

TUAW Best of 2011: Vote for the best iPhone music app

The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you — the readers — and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We’ll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often!

TUAW is asking for your votes for the best iPhone music app of 2011.

There are six nominees in this category. The first, while technically a game, has you dress up pugs in hats to make music (I am not making this up). Pugs Luv Beats (US$2.99) was a surprisingly popular nominee, followed closely by the much more musically-oriented Hexaphone ($2.99). Hexaphone uses simplified musical scales, drum loops, a motion filter, and recording tools for real-time performance and improvisation.

For those who want to wirelessly control music and video between iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, Tango Remote Control Media Player ($4.99) is a powerful tool that captured the imagination of many TUAW readers. Smule’s free Magic Piano was a big hit with readers as well, especially for gamers and those who just dabble in music.

Musicians appreciated Nano Studio ($14.99) enough to launch it into the final voting for the TUAW Best of 2011 award for an iPhone music app, while Spotify (free) captured the final spot in our voting.

And now, let the voting begin! The results will be announced on December 28, 2011.

View Poll

TUAW Best of 2011: Vote for the best iPhone music app originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Dropbox is the top iPhone productivity app in TUAW Best of 2011 voting

Merry Christmas! Although today is officially a holiday and we’re all spending time with our families and friends, the voting elves at TUAW have been working hard to continue the coverage of our TUAW Best of 2011 awards.

Today’s winner is an app and service that should be on everyone’s iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC — Dropbox. The Dropbox iPhone app (free) pulled in 38.6 percent of the votes from TUAW readers, topping Evernote (free), which came in second with 28.0 percent.

Dropbox provides 2 GB of synced cloud storage to everyone at no cost, 50 GB at $99.99 per year, or 100 GB at $199.99 annually. There are team account options as well.

Congratulations to the Dropbox team, and we look forward to more from this astoundingly good productivity app in the future.

Dropbox is the top iPhone productivity app in TUAW Best of 2011 voting originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

App Store Now Worth More Than All of RIM

As if RIM wasn’t in enough trouble already these numbers really won’t make them feel better, according to writer and smartphone market analyst Brian S. Hall Apple’s App Store alone is worth more than all of Research In Motion, the guys behind BlackBerry devices. That’s pretty interesting. Hall noted that with the current share price RIM is worth $7.04 billion at the same time however the Apple Store is worth more than 7.08 Billion dollars.

With 2011 drawing to an end, things really look bleak Research in Motion, the guys behind BlackBerry, Co-CEOs Michael Lazaridis and James Balsillie have led the company from a major player on the smartphone market into technological obsolescence and obscurity.

If RIM was hoping that 2012 was going to be the year of their revival then they really need to start changing their strategy, the company recently announced that their next major device, BlackBerry 10, won’t stock start shipping until the second half of 2012 – an eternity considering the Android and iOS devices set to be released before then.

RIM’s stock is now trading at 52 week lows, marking a 75% loss year-to-date, and finished last week with a total value of $7.04 billion. To put that into perspective, the entirety of Research in Motion is now worth less than Apple’s App Store alone.

If the company can’t correct itself after a year like this, what’s it going to take?

TUAW wishes you a Merry Christmas

From all of us at TUAW to all of you who celebrate it, our heartfelt wishes for a very merry Christmas. It’s also Hanukkah this week, so best holiday wishes there too. Belated blessed Solstice? Early Kwanzaa & New Year’s regards? We wish it all for you.

In the holiday spirit, we’d like to take this opportunity to let you know about some of the other wonderful things that our contributors have been up to this year.

Erica Sadun, Steve Sande, Michael Grothaus and Dave Caolo have all collaborated on various Apress books in the “To The Max” series, including the most recent title Taking Your OS X Lion to the Max. Erica and Steve also produced the ebook Talking to Siri, and Erica’s iOS 5 Developer’s Cookbook will be appearing in a revised edition in January.

Mike Schramm’s new short story & essay collection The Shape of Teeth is now available, and you can find him on Twitter as well. Mel Martin’s biography of filmmaker Samuel Bronston is on sale at Amazon. TJ Luoma’s essays and posts can be found on his site, and Megan Lavey-Heaton’s web comic Namesake is also online.

On the app front, Erica’s apps are available in the iOS App Store. Michael Jones’s Kiosk and Tremors are both in the Mac App Store. Brett Terpstra’s Marked and his other projects like NValt are also downloadable.

TUAW wishes you a Merry Christmas originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Like Peas & Carrots: OmniFocus and Siri

I am quite the fan of OmniFocus, the GTD app for the iPhone, iPad and Mac, because it’s helped me sort out all of the crazy things in my life. After all, I’m not just the editor of this very site, I’m also a writer for other places, a father and a husband, so there’s quite a bit of things that need doing throughout the day that if I don’t capture somehow, I’m just going to forget. It has absolutely changed my life for the better.

But when the iPhone 4S came out complete with its own Reminders app with Siri integration, I wondered if I was going to have to work that into my system, and how the heck that was going to happen. Turns out that I didn’t have to think about it for too long, because now OmniFocus and Siri can work together in harmony. I’ve been using the system for a month or so now, and I’ve got to say, it’s super sweet. Let me walk you through the process so you can get an idea of how it works.

The Setup

Before you go full hog on this, you first have to make sure you have an iCloud account. They’re free, and chances are you already have one, but let’s just make sure you do before you proceed.

OK, got that covered? Now you need to have OmniFocus for your iPhone, but you’ve already got that, right? Of course you do.

Tweak Your Settings

Pop open OmniFocus and let it do its thing for a bit, syncing with the server if necessary. Then tap the gear in the bottom right of the screen, then scroll down until you see the following screen:

This section is at the bottom of the screen, so scroll down.

This section is at the bottom of the screen, so scroll down.

Now tap on iCloud Reminders under Capture until you get to this window:

Just enter in your iCloud info and get going.

Just enter in your iCloud info and get going.

You want to turn on your iCloud reminders, then you enter in your iCloud info and tap Connect. Once that’s done, you’re connected and ready to go.

Putting It Into Practice

With OmniFocus now syncing with your iCloud account, making a note with Siri is pretty easy. Just hold down the button as you usually would, and then add your reminder. When you’re done and you’ve confirmed the task, the magic of iCloud takes over and your reminder is now synced with the Inbox of your OmniFocus account.

Now all this is well and good, but what about the added location reminders that come with the Reminders app? Isn’t part of the coolness of the feature being able to get a reminder right when you pull into your driveway? Turns out that OmniFocus can do that too.

Adding Locations

To add location reminders to the system, it’s back to OmniFocus you go. Location based reminders in OmniFocus are under Contexts, so tap on your Contexts and then tap on Edit to pull up the delete buttons to the left of each context. Tap on the context you want to make a location.

Turning contexts into locations is easy.

Turning contexts into locations is easy.

There’s a location part at the bottom, so tap that and make it whatever location it needs to be. This tends to be easiest if you’re at that spot, because you can just use the built-in GPS to pinpoint your location. Once the location is set, now you’re ready to use that with Siri. Seriously, it’s that easy.

Why This All Matters

As a devout follower of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, one thing that I always struggle with is capture. The goal is to take whatever it is you need to do out of your head and put it into your notation system, whether it’s a pad and pencil or an application such as OmniFocus. This process isn’t difficult for me when I’m in front of the computer, because I always have OmniFocus open on my desktop. But if I’m out on the road, or maybe driving somewhere, having a way to just talk into the phone and get it noted down is just so much easier.

Here’s an example: Last night, right before I fell asleep, I’m thinking about what I had to do today for the site. I think of this very column and say to myself, “Oh crap! I’ve got to remember that for tomorrow!” I had a few options for how to proceed.

  1. Get out of bed, walk to my office and type in the entry into OmniFocus.
  2. Pick up the iPhone and type in my entry into OmniFocus, and then hope I remember to sync the Mac version when I wake up (otherwise, I won’t get the notice on my Mac, which is my primary version).
  3. Hold down the home button and tell Siri what to do.

Laziness is the enemy of my productivity, and if I had to get up to take down the note, then it just wouldn’t have happened. It was cold, I was nuzzled up under the blankets and I had a dog on my side — would you get up in that situation?

By integrating Siri, I now have everything perfect. My reminders pop up when they need to, everything is in harmony with OmniFocus, and life is good.

If you want more info on this process, check out The Omni Group’s blog post on the subject.

Path: A Personal Network

Path has received a lot of press recently with the release of Path V 2.0 and its user interface overhaul. The app started just over a year ago in November of 2010 with a focus on being a personal social network with just 50 of your closest friends. Reviews around the web were mixed, and the limitation of 50 friends was something many people weren’t too happy about — the app didn’t live up to expectations.

After realising that some serious changes were in order, the team spent many months churning out what was to be a vast improvement on the original version. Head past the break to see if the team had a successful relaunch.

The Basics

Upon first getting the app, you are required to either sign in as an existing Path user, or create a new identity. While I had absolutely no problems signing up, there have been reports of people having trouble with this process (however that may simply have been due to the ginormous demand on the launch day of Path 2). From then on, you are given the option to add a cover , which is essentially a clone of the Facebook cover, and a profile picture — although neither are obligatory.

Once this is done you are ready to get socialising.

Setting up Path

Setting up Path

There are other details you can add, such as your birthday or linking up your Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Foursquare accounts — these can be difficult to find, but they are in the bottom right corner of a new post.

Design and Functionality

Those of you who used Path before the redesign will appreciate the new simplicity found within the second version’s interface, as well as the extremely well performing functionality of the app.

Navigation

Following a trend originally set by Facebook, Path offers a fantastic new method of navigation. The way it works is that there are three sections to the app, and you swipe left or right to navigate your way around. It’s very intuitive, and rather than swiping first followed by an action, the navigation is in real time and it’s more like your pulling the view across in a very fluid movement.

To the left you will find the sidebar, which is the parent of the main view. You can select from here what screen you wish to switch to. The centre (main) view houses your feeds and thirdly there is the Friends screen on the right, whereby you can see your current list of buddies as well as add new friends.

The centre view is shown just enough to hint its possible to swipe to bring it back

The centre view is shown just enough to hint it's possible to swipe to bring it back

The core design

The main view is where you will spend the majority of your time, with the default being Home. This is where you see all your posts and those of your friends, along with all the rather annoying notifications such as X is now friends with Y, and Z is sleeping. Despite the bombardment of tiny and (mostly) irrelevant notifications, this area is a pleasure to use.

The home view, a post with comments and showing more details

The home view, a post with comments and showing more details

If the post has comments attached they are elegantly displayed below along with any of the emojis your friends have used to portray their feelings. Right aligned to each post is the little smiley face emoticon along with a number that represents how many people have seen the post. Tapping on it will bring up in a popup the avatars of the afforementioned viewers as well as the ability to humble their post with an emoticon, or comment.

Delightfulls

Clearly the design team at Path HQ have been working hard to keep the design to a minium. For example, there is no time stamp fixed to each post. Instead, a small animated clock will appear as you scroll down, telling you the time posted as you reach each one.

The scrolling clock

The scrolling clock

If you’ve heard anything about the pleasure people have had using the app, you’ll have no doubt heard about the “magical” plus button. Stuck on the bottom left of your view is the red + where you can update your path. You can add a picture (or video), add that you are with someone, update your location, tell your friends what music you’re listening to, update your status and the notorious asleep/awake updates. The reason this element is receiving a lot of attention, is because of the way is elegantly spings out, with the + changing to an X to dismiss it in an equally captivating mannor. It may not be the best thing in the world, but it sure adds some personality to the app and makes updating your path that much more interesting.

The wonderful pop-out '+' button

The wonderful pop-out '+' button

Another example of a “delightable” found within the app is when you add a post. You’ll see a very smooth animation jump out of the little dot below your avatar. It’s subtle, yet another way to make the app feel a bit more, um, sexy.

Lost in design

These design decisions are very difficult to make, and while they can make the user interface nice and cluster-free, it can also make certain tasks more difficult. For example, deleting a post is not a simple swipe to the right as you might expect (that will bring you to the left view), you have to click on the small smiley face on the right hand-side and in the bottom right corner you will find a trash can. Similarly, it took me while to find out how to integrate my Twitter account, expecting it to be within the settings menu. Instead,  it’s embedded within the Add a Post section once you are ready to post it.

Deleting a post and attaching other social networks

Deleting a post and attaching other social networks

The Concept

While we’re about reviewing apps, and the main purpose behind this post is to share the experience of using the app, it is also to help you make a more educated decision as to whether you might want to get it.

When the app first came out, the number of friends was limited to 50, on the idea that this social network would have to differentiate itself from Twitter and Facebook. In order to do that, they went for the less explored domain of a personal network for just your closest friends. Now the number is at 150 friends, still within Dunbar’s number but more open due to the comlpaints of 50 being just too small a number.

In theory, there is a great deal of potential here. After all, we care a lot more for our close friends and what they are up to, based on the fact that not only is it nice to know what they are up to, but also, since they are close friends, you are more likely to be interested in what they are are recommending. Many people on Facebook have hundreds of friends, and to be honest, there will likely be many on there that you are not interested in where they are right now, or what they are watching. So Path has the potential to be your “Facebook Elite” if you will, and being those friends you want to know about.

However a problem arises here — for this to work, you will want every one of your close friends to be in this network, otherwise you’ll find yourself switching back to Facebook more and more if you want to find out about the people not in Path. Currently Path only offers clients for iPhone and Android — suitable for most apps, but not for a social network. Unfortunately, most of my close friends don’t have these phones, many having Blackberrys (god bless) or dumbphones. To make things worse, you can’t use a web client, so if you don’t have your iPhone/Android then you could be completely out of touch from your Path peers.

Final Thoughts

Personally I love the app. It’s got a great design with some fantastic elements in it, and it works very fast. The underlying concept of Path however, makes it a bit more challenging for me to recommend to anyone. Although people may say it’s a social network in its infancy and it just needs time to develop, the truth is that it’s a fast paced industry and you don’t have much time to dawdle.

Basic aspects like having a bio and being able to message people directly within the app would make it so much more functional for me, as well as having an app for the web and other mobile platforms. If these sort of changes were made I could really see myself using this app a lot, but it seems that the way Path is going with the “personal network” approach, it makes it unlikely most of these changes will be made. I want to use Path, and I’m trying to find a place for it, but they’re not making it easy for me.

iPhone Game Friday: New Releases

Happy holidays, everyone! This time of year brings us a huge number of seasonal updates to our favourite games, so make sure to check out the latest updates in the App Store for classics like the Angry Birds series, Cut the Rope, Junk Jack, Jetpack Joyride, etc.)

There is more to this week than updates though, as some developers have been releasing amazing new games just in time for the festivities. Click through as we show you our favourites …

Grand Theft Auto 3

Grand Theft Auto 3

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Rockstar’s breakout title, they’ve released Grand Theft Auto 3 for iOS, allowing everyone to journey into Liberty City on the go.

The transition from console to phone is surprisingly smooth, with the content largely intact and an extra layer of polish applied to the graphics to bring them up to today’s HD standards. The controls have been adapted for touchscreen play and are fairly typical of other third-person games you may have played, so you’ll have no trouble picking this up and playing immediately. The game itself remains as complex and compelling as ever, and the added nostalgia of playing through it again makes for an all around winning proposition.

Beware of some lingering stability issues on older devices, but don’t hesitate to grab this masterpiece and enjoy reliving an incredibly influential title in gaming history (You can also check out our full review of the game here).

Price: $4.99
Developer: Rockstar Games
Download: App Store

LostWinds

LostWinds

Speaking of ports, here’s a slightly more obscure one for you. Although it was very highly acclaimed as a WiiWare title, LostWinds didn’t really take off until it was announced that it would be coming to the iPhone. Now that it has finally made it, a huge audience will be able to enjoy this tremendously unique and attractive platformer.

LostWinds tells the story of Toku, a young boy from the world of Mistralis who’s destiny it is to cleanse the world of the evil Balasar. You actually play as Enril, the wind spirit, who guides and protects Toku through the adventure. The environments are some of the most rich and interactive of any iPhone game, and it’s a joy to simply navigate through them and explore their nooks and crannies as you make your way toward the final showdown.

With puzzles, engaging platforming, amazing graphics, and the usual array of GameCenter achievements, you’ll find it hard to resist this one.

Price: $3.99
Developer: Frontier Developments Ltd.
Download: App Store

Zenonia 4

Zenonia 4

One of the definitive iOS titles is back with another sequel. Zenonia 4 presents a new threat to the realm and challenges you to gather your party and go forth to defeat the new evil.

You’ll immediately notice the Retina-ready graphics because they’re absolutely breathtaking, with vibrant colours and lively sprites for monsters and characters alike. Different difficulty levels make it easy for anyone to jump in even if they haven’t played a previous game in the series, and the expanded gameplay options (including more robust PvP) offer something for everyone.

Zenonia remains a classic example of iOS RPG gaming done right. Fans will find a familiar but noticeably improved experience, and newcomers can delve into a new world and enjoy its riches, all for free unless you want to accelerate your levelling with some gold or zen purchased from within the app.

Price: Free
Developer: GAMEVIL Inc.
Download: App Store

The Adventures of Tintin

The Adventures of Tintin — The Game

Normally, movie tie-in games are pretty weak and forgettable. Normally they fail to capture the spirit of the story and have gameplay that feels hollow and formulaic. Normally this is the case. With The Adventures of Tintin, you will be pleasantly surprised to find a wonderful and authentic gaming experience that expands upon the film and mythology of the series admirably.

Variety is what sets this game apart; there is an incredible diversity of gameplay situations you’ll find yourself in, and the fact that you’ll play as several different characters as the plot unfolds adds an extra layer of challenge. Besides serving as a good cross-section of the characters and environments from the film, you’ll also be treated to a visual presentation that remains faithful to the art direction, with slick 3-D models and detailed stages.

This was a pleasant surprise on many levels and is easy to recommend, especially for fans of the Tintin legacy.

Price: $4.99
Developer: Gameloft
Download: App Store

Tiny Places

Tiny Places

Napoleon the Chameleon is a funny fellow who spends his life escaping from tight spaces by catapulting himself around with his tongue.

In Tiny Places, you get to control Napoleon and help him make his way out of the many colourful stages. The gameplay is very simple, but you’ll find that the puzzles get more and more challenging, involving levers, conveyors and more to spice things up. Nab flies out of the air as you bounce around to rack up some extra points, and earn badges for nimble acrobatics, which you can later show off on the Wall of Wonders.

Tiny Places is hopelessly cute and simple enough that anyone can pick it up and play it. A great stocking stuffer for passing some time over the holidays.

Price: $0.99
Developer: Gogogic
Download: App Store

What Have You Been Playing?

From all of us to all of you, we wish you a very merry holiday season and are eager to bring you more App Store games next week. In the meantime though, go deck some halls and drink some eggnog!

Holiday Gift Guide: Procrastinator’s Edition

holidayrelax.jpgYou know who you are. It’s Christmas Eve, your stockings are yet to be hung with care, and there’s a dismayingly large gap in the “gift gotten” column of your personal Nice list — or maybe you haven’t figured out what the last three days of Hanukkah are going to look like when it comes to gift exchanges. Don’t panic; we’re right there with you.

While physical gifts may be more difficult (though not completely impossible) to get at this stage, the intangible options are still on the table. Some of the best ideas for late gifting were summed up this week by Andy Ihnatko in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chris Breen at Macworld, so be sure to check their lists (twice, even).

If you’ve got a pair of giftees on your list who are craving new cellphones — or, more to the point, slightly previous-generation cellphones — MacRumors notes that Best Buy stores are running a special 2-for-1 deal on the iPhone 4 32GB model, today only. Apple no longer has the 32GB iPhone 4 on the product list, so this is an inventory dump; still, it’s an inventory dump that works in your favor. Both phones need new 2-year contracts.

The growth in the installed base and reach of iOS devices means that you no longer have to head for a specialty retailer (or an Apple store) to get compatible accessories. Every local Radio Shack, Walgreen’s, CVS, Staples or Rite-Aid carries iPhone and iPad accessories, albeit often cheap and crappy ones. An extra pair of iPhone-friendly headphones or a set of iPad screen covers would make a dandy ‘light’ gift, and an SD card or Bluetooth mouse could make the holiday brighter.

As Chris Breen’s story points out, sometimes the best gift is the one you give of yourself. Assisting a family member with app updates, backup setup or remote access configuration might help them all year long. Making sure that Logmein or iChat are properly configured for remote support can also save you aggravation and travel time later on when that new Mac starts behaving oddly. You can always send a pretty email certificate that your relatives can print out and stick up on the wall for quick reference.

The list of digital-only gifts is, of course, very long — Andy I’s story cites most of the usual suspects, including of course gift certificates for all the nicest places. He points out that a Flickr Pro account is ideal for shutterbugs, and that while Spotify doesn’t offer gift subscriptions, streaming music competitors Rdio and Pandora both do; so does Netflix, for that matter.

playlist-gift.jpg

Andy also noted something I knew long ago but had forgotten: you can gift an entire iTunes playlist, even if you don’t own all the songs in the list. Just drag tracks directly from the iTunes store listing into the playlist, then under the Store menu in iTunes, choose ‘Share Playlist…’ — you’ll get a dialog offering to publish or gift the playlist. Keep in mind that gifts of individual tracks or full playlists are only redeemable in the country of purchase; you can’t do iTunes gifts for far-flung overseas family.

Finally, there are the gifts that really keep on giving: learning opportunities and charitable contributions. You could simply send some dough to your recipient’s favorite cause, but the fun of giving might be enhanced by one of these charitable apps.

For the Mac or iOS user who wants to expand their horizons and sharpen their skills, there are plenty of solid last-minute additions to place under the virtual tree. Both the Amazon and Apple ebook stores include instructional titles like the Missing Manual, Apress or Take Control offerings. (New Mac OS X 10.7 Lion users might particularly appreciate this one.) For visual learners, it’s easy to get great tutorial content from vendors like lynda.com, covering a wide range of creative computing topics. This year’s crop of screencast content is particularly rich for Apple’s new Final Cut Pro X, with great courseware from Larry Jordan, Manhattan Edit Workshop and Izzyvideo among others.

As you scramble to find something perfect at the last second, take a mindful moment to breathe, relax and enjoy your blessings with your family. Of course, thanks to the honey-voiced hypnotherapist Andrew Johnson, there’s also an app or two for that.

Holiday Gift Guide: Procrastinator’s Edition originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

TUAW Best of 2011: Vote for the best iPhone navigation app

The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you — the readers — and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We’ll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often!

TUAW is asking for your votes for the best iPhone navigation app of 2011.

The readers have spoken, and the nominees for best iPhone navigation app are (in no particular order) Motion X GPS Drive (US$0.99), Navigon ($29.99 for Navigon USA), the popular and free crowdsourced nav app Waze, and TomTom ($39.99 for TomTom USA). All of these apps have one thing in common — they provide point-to-point navigation to points of interest.

Another app that uses the iPhone’s GPS capabilities but doesn’t provide directions to anything except virtual treasure gathered a nomination as well. Traveler’s Quest ($0.99) is a virtual treasure hunt that has been around for a few years but is constantly adding in-app purchases for new maps and treasures.

And now, let the voting begin! The results will be announced on December 27, 2011.

View Poll

TUAW Best of 2011: Vote for the best iPhone navigation app originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Nominate your favorite iPad game app for TUAW’s Best of 2011

During December and January, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is soliciting your nominations and votes for the best products for Mac, iPhone/iPod touch, and iPad. We’ll start with nominations in a category, and then tally your votes for the top-nominated products a few days later. The winner in each category receives the highly-coveted title of TUAW Best of 2011.

In the next category for the TUAW Best of 2011 awards, we want to know what you consider your favorite iPad game app.

This is a huge category, with many deserving apps ranging from action titles to word games. Maybe you’re addicted to FIFA Soccer 12 (US$0.99) or spend time in meetings at work playing Grand Theft Auto III ($2.99) with the sound turned off.

Are you the Dark Knight playing Batman Arkham City Lockdown ($5.99), or do you prefer to play classic board games like Scrabble and Monopoly (both sale priced at $0.99) with the family ?

It’s up to you to tell TUAW about your favorite iPad game app. Leave your nomination in the comments below. Voting will start soon!

Nominations close at 11:59 PM ET on December 26, 2011.

Nominate your favorite iPad game app for TUAW’s Best of 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 24 Dec 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Last-minute apps for Christmas Eve

With the clock ticking down the hours until Santa arrives, here are some last-minute holiday apps to load on your iPhone or iPad as you go out caroling, do last-minute shopping or visit your friends and family:

Santa’s Big Helper ($.99): This has a number of features, and if you’re looking for one good Christmas app, this is the one to grab. It has a Santa tracker, a naughty/nice list, the ability to write to Santa for those last-minute Christmas wishes, ask questions and more.

FOOD52 Holiday Recipe & Survival Guide ($3.99): If you need a guide to hosting a holiday party or a good recipe for a family gathering, this app is great for doing everything from making pie to crafting a gingerbread house. There are eight suggested menus that will make fighting the crowds at the grocery store a bit easier, and you can follow community links to get help from other people. And if it’s too late to take advantage of the app this Christmas, it’ll be on your iPad for the next holiday season. For other cooking apps, take a look at Epicurious (free) and How to Cook Everything ($9.99 for full app, free for essentials), which are always great go-tos for recipes.

A Charlie Brown Christmas ($.99): We took a look at this iPad app in November, and it turns the classic Peanuts special into an interactive storybook that brings a new dimension to the story. If A Charlie Brown Christmas is part of your Christmas Eve traditions, then it’s worth the download and is currently on sale for $.99.

Christmas Carols ($.99): You’re out singing Christmas carols tonight and suddenly forget the words to “The First Noel.” Instead of humming along awkwardly, pull out this app and look up the lyrics to a number of carols. It might not help you carry a tune, but you’ll at least know the words.

Cards (Free): It’s Christmas Eve. You open your mailbox to find a Christmas card from your great aunt, and you realize you’ve not only forgotten to send her one, but you’re out of Christmas cards and she doesn’t use the Internet. Pull out your iPhone, grab a photo of your Christmas tree and quickly use this app to create a last-minute Christmas card. It won’t get to your great aunt until next week, but it’s the thought that counts … right? You also might enjoy the new Postcards on the Run, which was one of our Daily iPhone apps this week.

Last-minute apps for Christmas Eve originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments