Best of AppStorm in April

iA Writer: An Astonishingly Simple Way to Write

The concept of a minimalist writing app is nothing new. These programs abound on the Mac, and it seems like everyone has a different take on why or why not these programs do or do not work, including myself. So what makes iA Writer so different?

Instead of just rambling on about it, I decided that for this review I would write the entire document in iA Writer and see how it works in the real world. Is this the best writing app for the iPad, can it possibly eclipse Pages? Let’s take this show on the road and find out.

60 Stunning Wallpapers for Your iPad

One of the most compelling and immersive things about the iPad is, without a doubt, the gorgeous screen. If you’re like me then when you’re holding it you become completely enthralled and oblivious to the outside world.

What better for refreshing your enjoyment of your iPad than giving your lock screen and home screen an overhaul?

Today we’ll be looking at 60 examples of beautiful wallpaper design, from landscapes to abstract art, each tussling for the chance to make their debut on your iPad!

The Future of Handwriting: Noteshelf (2/4)

Continuing with our series about handwriting apps, we’re now going to take a look at an app that takes the functionality of the previously reviewed Penultimate even further.

Meet Noteshelf, your digital collection of notebooks of all kinds. Noteshelf has full support for image placement, icon usage, and even zoom, which allows for even greater control of your handwriting.

Read on to transform the way you take notes!

Real Racing 2: Console Gaming on the iPad

Real Racing HD. The name really says it all. This game is one of the best examples of a racing game on any platform, not just iOS. If you couple the stunning graphics with the intuitive and responsive gameplay, it’s seriously hard to beat.

Today we’re going to take a look at what Real Racing 2 HD has to offer, and look at why it’s a shining example of iPad game design.

Customize Every Aspect of Your Android Experience

One of the biggest advantages of Android’s open source roots is that users have complete control over pretty much every aspect of the operating system. If you don’t like any aspect of the stock Android experience, there’s a good chance that someone somewhere has already done something about it. If you own an Android phone that is not a Nexus (One or S), you have probably already experienced this. HTC’s Sense UI and Samsung’s TouchWiz are examples of phone manufacturers’ attempts to providing device-specific Android experiences.

This is often misunderstood by the less tech-savvy, who assume that what you see is what you get. But with a few downloads, you can completely overhaul the way your phone looks and acts.

Thinking Space: Mind Mapping on the Move

Have you ever been sitting somewhere and fallen into one of those abstract productive trains of thought? Did you want a way to get these thoughts down quickly in a structured form rather than just fly back to reality and lose it all? There is an Android application that lets you do that.

Thinking Space is an innovative application which allows you to mind-map on the move and get your thoughts down quickly whilst still keeping them in a structured and organised layout. With extensive customization, and the ability to export your mindmaps, Thinking Space is hardly short of features.

Prop Up Your Phone in Style With the Clingo Universal Podium

Ever since I started getting interested in mobile technologies some five years ago, I have been looking enviously at pictures of desk stands and hoping I would find one that looked great, suited my needs, and wasn’t limited to one mobile device, given how often I’ve switched phones over the years.

Enter the Clingo Universal Podium. I spotted a picture of it a few months ago online and I knew it would be “it”: a surreal looking sturdy stand that fits any mobile device and would look perfectly cool with my HTC Desire Z.

Honeycomb: Can It Sting iOS’s Rule?

Google is wanting a slice of a market which is still predominantly dominated by Apple and it hopes that the latest version of its popular Android operating system, Android 3.0 (codenamed Honeycomb), will knock Apple off that top spot. Honeycomb is the first version of Android that was designed specifically for tablets, and you really do get whiffs of this whilst scouting round their brand new OS.

Read on for a detailed review of Honeycomb, including a look at the new features, how it fares up to other versions of Android, and the crucial question: is it up to the iOS standard?

Pulse vs. FLUD: Two iPhone News Readers Square Off

In the past we’ve given very positive reviews to both FLUD and Pulse as standalone apps. Both are innovative, attractive and just plain fun to use on the iPad and both have made the transition to iPhone.

The two readers are so similar to each other that it’s hard not to compare them and wonder which is the best. Today we’ll answer this question by tearing them both apart feature by feature to see which app is ultimately superior.

100 Apps for Taking Notes on Your iPhone

Note-taking applications are some of the hottest items on the App Store. More and more these utilities make it easy to record data in a fast and convenient way and the fact that this information lives on our phones means that we can access it anytime we need it.

The 100 apps below will help you accomplish all your iPhone note-taking endeavors. Whether you want to collect random bits of information, remember something about a specific place or even record some thoughts about your favorite wine, we’ve got you covered. There’s even a section containing our favorite apps so you can get a good idea of where to start!

Tweetbot: It’s Time for a New iPhone Twitter App

One short year ago, Tapbots announced that they had started working on a new Twitter app: Tweetbot. Twitter had just announced that they were buying out Tweetie, and soon turned it into the new free Twitter for iPhone. Since then, Twitter has made it obvious that they want their own apps to be the only standard consumer Twitter apps, and recommended developers find other things to focus on.

Overall, though, Twitter for iPhone is still a nice app, and is quite popular. However, it has had some recent problems including the recent addition (and quick removal) of the extremely unpopular Quick Bar, which showed trending and promoted topics on the top of your tweet stream. Even though Twitter has now removed the Quick Bar, the episode has left many iPhone users considering other Twitter apps again.

How to Save a Wet iPhone or iPod Touch

You just dropped your beloved iPhone into the pool! Now what? Today we’ll take a look at the best way to ensure that this isn’t the end of your device.

In addition to outlining which recovery methods work best, we’ll also tell you some very important actions to avoid if you don’t want to ruin your phone while trying to save it!

Top 10 Apps: Web-based Task Managers

I’ve been jumping from app to app, for as long as I can remember, in search of the best web-based task management app. I’ve never really been satisfied until recently when I discovered Flow. Finding the perfect task manager is a little like searching for a unicorn — it’s just not going to happen. But, you can find one that fits your tastes and needs better than any others.

Hopefully our list of the 10 best web-based task management apps will help in your search, if you haven’t already found yours.

CloudApp vs Droplr: Is There a Clear Winner?

Of course not! There never is. However, by comparing them we might be able to help you make a decision better suited to your needs. I, for one, have been torn between the two for quite a long time but always stuck with Droplr. We’ll take a look at the pros and cons of each and why you might want to choose one over the other. Take a look!

Flow: Task Management With Mac Sex Appeal

I’ve never really been happy with the task management apps I’ve tried. There were always features missing, a less than ideal design, over complicated, too simple and so on. I’ve been jumping from app to app for as long as I can remember and somehow I always end up with a desk littered in bright yellow sticky notes, covered in lists of tasks, notes and all sorts of info.

I recently spent yet more time using some of the most popular task management apps in an effort to find “the one.” While there are many out there I like, only two really fit my tastes and needs — Producteev and Flow. Between those two, I decided on Flow (after using both) and I couldn’t be happier with Flow.

I’ll take a look at Flow, by MetaLab, and why I think I’ve found “the one” task management app for me.

10 Great Apps to Measure & Monitor Social Media

For long businesses have ignored the real concerns and feedback from ordinary consumers. They did things their own way without much of a risk of negative publicity. With the advent of social media, the cozy cocoon they had built has been taken down. Today, social authority is much more widely spread.

Twitter and Facebook gives every average Joe a unique voice and global reach. Brands can be built or brought down in 140 characters or less. Responsible businesses take social media seriously and after the break you will find a list of apps to monitor and measure the social pulse.

25 Marvellous Mac Menu Bar Apps & Utilities

Today we’re going to take a close look at 25 different apps that offer really useful menu bar functionality. Each has a short description, and a example video of the app in-use.

I’m not for one moment suggesting that you download and run all of these. That would be crazy. Rather I hope that you’ll find one or two that particularly stand out for you, and become a permanent resident in the top-right corner of your display…

In-Depth Showdown: 5 of the Best Twitter Apps for Mac

In our world of Social Networking, Twitter has emerged as one of the most-used and most useful points of connection to our world. Whether you use Twitter as a news source, celebrity gossip engine, or for just keeping tabs on your friends, having a dedicated app on your Mac can take your experience to a new level.

In this in-depth showdown, we’re going to take a look at a few of the most popular Twitter apps out there, analyse their features, and compare them against one another.

Read on past the break to see how the contenders stacked up.

Weekly Poll: Do You Use an Application Launcher?

For speedy application launching, few options are better than a piece of software such as Quicksilver, LaunchBar or Alfred. For the purists among you, OS X’s built-in search tool – Spotlight – is perfectly adept at this. Just invoke it using Cmd-Space and type the name of the application you’d like to start!

But which do you prefer to use on a daily basis? Or are you perfectly happy with the OS X Dock? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The MacBook Buyer’s Screen Size Dilemma

As my three-year-old 15? MacBook Pro starts to show its age, I’m starting to think that I’ll soon be in the market for a new Apple notebook. It’s been a fantastic machine to own, but after three years of lugging a 15? portable around, I’ve decided that a laptop this big isn’t particularly… portable.

Last year, Apple released a series of new MacBook Air machines that have received rave reviews – both in the major press, and from those equally in the know. The big dilemma here is whether an 11? or 13? screen makes the greatest sense. And are either of these really adequate to replace a 15? display?