Blog Archive

Ah, Valentine’s day. That wonderful day where those in relationships set huge expectations for perfect romantic escapades that can seldom be met by their partner and singles wish they could share in the homage to Hallmark and Cupid. Finding the right thoughtful token or date locale doesn’t have to be an expensive ordeal, however. As always there are a bevy of holiday-themed apps that claim to help make the day either more special or more commercial depending on your point of view. We have collected our favorite four apps for singles and couples looking to make the most of February 14 without waking up broke on the 15th.

Build-a-Card Cupid Edition
Heartfelt words, to a lover, relative or friend, can make them feel special and cherished. Greeting cards are the most traditional way of sending sentiments, but printed brick-and-mortar shop cards are expensive and seldom say exactly what you want. e-cards are less expensive, but it’s still hard to find the right one and harder still to keep them out of spam filters. Build-a-Card Cupid Edition is packed full of love-themed templates and graphic elements to allow users to customize valentines with their own words and photos. These particularly pretty cards can then then be sent via email, Twitter or Facebook and you can send as many as you like for less than the price of a single dead tree card.

iWrite Love Poems
If sending a card is touching, nothing is more romantic or traditional than sending an original stanza or three of romantic poetry to your beloved. Sadly, however, not all of us are gifted wordsmiths. If you are looking for some help in composing a grand romantic ode or a simple rhyming couplet, iWrite Love Poems, an App Store Valentine staple, can help. It offers eight types of poems from seductive to wistful, general style tips and if the creative juice still won’t flow, the app creates its own loving verses. The GUI would benefit from an iOS 5 makeover, but there is in-app email sharing to pass along the love notes.

Urban Spoon
A classy dinner date to a hot spot or intimate eatery doesn’t have to break the bank. With Urban Spoon’s apps, not only do dates have endless dining options worldwide, but all you have to do to impress and stay solvent is pick a location, cuisine, and price range. A shake or spin will provide a hip dining spot to enjoy and a way to impress that special someone with your culinary savvy.

OK Cupid
We promised we would’t leave out singles, and we haven’t with card makers and restaurant suggesters, but if you are looking for a hot Valentine’s date, or for that perfect someone, OK Cupid, the app for the well-known dating site, can certainly help. Subscribers can access all the profiles and interact on the fly from the privacy of their palm. Based on the community size there should be someone for almost everyone. And if you still don’t find that perfect someone, at least not in time, there are a ton of valentine updates to popular iPhone games to tide you over until Mr or Ms right finds you.

Forget paying for a personal trainer. The App store is overflowing with personal trainer replacements in the form of health, exercise and diet-related apps. But with hundreds of apps to choose from, users might feel overwhelmed with options. Indeed, it’s difficult to figure out where to start. That’s why we’ve come up with four of our favorite fitness apps that will give users the resources of a personal trainer, without actually having to hire one.

Wellness Tip of the Day

This app is great because it offers a variety of broad health-related information. The app updates daily with health and wellness tips from the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Enterprise. Tips are classified into different categories, such as Food Favorites, Mind Favorites, Body Favorites and Misc Favorites. The app features two different interface styles – one that lets users pop bubbles to view tips and another more traditional, calendar view.

Daily Burn

Part of staying healthy requires balancing one’s diet and exercise routine to achieve optimal results. That’s why Daily Burn makes my list. The app helps users gain weight or lose weight, depending on their needs. Users can choose to follow a plan that’s low-carb and will lead to weight loss, use a bodybuilding routine that will lead to increased muscle mass or choose from one of the app’s many other programs. In addition to tracking calories, protein, carbs and other nutrients related to diet, Daily Burn also helps users by providing a fitness training program that will lead towards accomplishing their goals. And with stat-tracking and data analysis through the app’s website, it’s difficult not to love this app.

Fitness Builder

This is the most expensive app on my list of recommendations, but there’s reason for it. Fitness Builder contains over 200 different workouts, spread out across 5,600 images and videos, as well as specialized tracking tools and fitness plans. This is a truly comprehensive exercise app, hence the subscription cost. Users aren’t coughing up money for nothing, though. The app also allows users to ask the company’s physiologist their own personal questions. Definitely a nice extra that separates this one from similar fitness apps.

Ease into 5K

I recently started running, and this app is an awesome companion. Ease into 5K is designed to help train users to be able to run 5,000 meters. The app tells users when to switch from walking to running, providing interval training spread out across 3 sessions a week, each being 30 minutes. Ease into 5K also tracks session stats, so users can easily view their progress. What’s more, the app runs in the background, so users can listen to music while using it.

Last week, as part of our Health & Fitness themed month, Lisa looked at how apps can help people keep track of the calories they consume. That’s great but weight loss and general improved fitness levels won’t be achieved without some exercise thrown into the equation. While iOS apps can’t force anyone to exercise but they can go a long way to encouraging someone to work harder to achieve their goals. We round up four of the best apps when it comes to tracking progress.

RunKeeper

RunKeeper should be the first port of call for anyone planning on partaking in some outside exercise such as running, walking or cycling to get fit. Other exercises are catered for like swimming, skiing and rowing too with the app’s strength stemming from its GPS functionality although indoors use is also possible. RunKeeper tracks more than just how far the user has travelled with speed, pace and calories calculated. Via the GPS functionality, the app even tracks the route taken. All that information is then synced to the RunKeeper website for additional stats and profiling. Interval workouts and target pacing can also be set for the competitive user.

Fleetly

Fleetly is an incredibly simple idea that taps into one key thing that all humans react well to: a feeling of achievement. Within Fleetly, users enter the workout that they’ve previously performed with the app then allocating points according to how tough the exercise was. Those points then go towards a levelling up system and a global leaderboard with numerous challenges to join and medals to gain. There’s a workout generator and coaching side to the app too but the real beauty is in the way it makes its users compete with themselves as much as with others.

All-in-Fitness

All-in Fitness sets out to encompass everything possible fitness wise with 100 ready-made workouts, 1000 fitness & yoga exercises and a calorie counter. The focus here however is on its tracking. The app allows its users to enter numerous different kinds of exercise in order to track calorie consumption and general performance levels. It’s a very in-depth app that seems determined to miss nothing (it even includes sex in exercise type) so it might take a little time to fully figure out, but it’s ideal for those who need both guidance and a way of tracking all in one app.

Gym Hero

In comparison to the previous app, Gym Hero is incredibly simple. That’s where it’s ideal for experienced gym rats. For those who don’t need to be told what exercises will work for them or how to achieve better results, Gym Hero enables a simple and quick way of entering workout progress without the need to repeatedly enter words like sets and reps. It’s even possible to set up different workouts making it incredibly quick to use for those juggling different routines depending on the day.

As we mentioned in our favourite four apps for keeping New Year resolutions, weight loss (as well as getting into and staying in good healthy shape) tops most people’s list of desired self-improvements. Few other goals are harder to achieve, however. We don’t have the secret formula, but we do have four iPhone apps that make getting into the right shape a lot easier. Hit the break for our favorite four apps to do just that.

Continue reading Favorite Four iPhone Apps for Sticking to a New Year’s Diet »

OK, so it’s already five days into 2012, and if you are like some of us, it’s very likely you are already off track, or about to get there. But, of course, there are a slew of iPhone apps that can help. Whether you are looking to make a proactive change for the better or eliminate an old habit, now or any time of year, here are our favourite four apps to help.

Commit

Commit is a new app, and we love it. The simple iPhone offering is all about keeping the most important commitments: the ones we make to ourselves. There is little to this great app – upon launch users are greeted by a simple fill-in-the-blank. “I will ___ every day.” Just pick something, jogging, writing, mediation, whatever, and set a reminder time. A push notice will prompt the action, and the app will log streaks. The unobtrusive GUI makes it fun to try again too.

Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal

If there is one resolution that is repeated annually – almost ritually for every big occasion in fact – by most everyone it is losing weight and to getting into or staying in good, healthy shape. No app makes all that possible, and does it as well, as this one by MyFitnessPal. It’s easy to use, has a vast database of calorie counts and other important nutritional information on food choices, and has 350 exercises for strength and cardio fitness goals. The app is social, feature packed, as has so much important information anyone serious about health should check it out.

LIVESTRONG MyQuit Coach – Dare to Quit Smoking

Ok, so in 2012, are people even allowed to admit they smoke anymore? It may not be on TV and in movies much today, at least not here in North America, since there are laws in place making it costly to show people doing it, but statistics suggest the reality may be better than 20 years ago, but millions worldwide are still hooked on coffin nails. No one really needs to tell a smoker why quitting is a good idea, but cancer avoidance tops most lists. So what better branding, and in this case, a system and an app worthy of it, to help make the very difficult process easier than LIVESTRONG. MyQuit Coach helps identify triggers, set a realistic quitting schedule, has social network support and even game-like achievements to reward progress.

Ideal Me

Ideal Me is ideally suited to anyone who anyone wanting to stop or start a common or wholly unique habit or goal. The app has some suggestions for a broad range of users from students to travelers, to those facing serious addictions, but encourages us to create our own aspirations as well. After a goal is set, the app allows users to create a step-by-step plan including a time frame, for, say the stages of writing a novel, or adhering to a work out regimen, and positively reinforces reaching benchmarks – their apt term for not just starting a New Year’s resolve, but getting it done too. A free “lite” version is available too.

It’s four days until Christmas and if you are like many of us, you likely have some last minute holiday shopping to do. Inside stores lines are long and prices change daily, and at this point if you order online you might want to upgrade shipping, but if you still have some people on your “nice” list here are our four favorite apps to help you find a great gift at a great price even at this late date.

Amazon Mobile

What’s there to say. If you want to find anything, and get last minute shipping the best place online is amazon.com. Amazon Mobile allows iPhone shoppers to navigate Amazon’s labyrinthian site quickly, compare prices, read reviews and purchase directly through the app. Search options include keyword searches, as well as barcode scanning or even upload a picture.

Bakado

With Bakodo on their iPhones shoppers can scan barcodes for in-store price checking , but there that’s not all. Bakado includes product reviews, and can search by keywords too. The app makes shopping social allowing the indecisive to post what they are looking for on Facebook and get feedback from their friends.

Gilt on the Go

Have a taste for the finer things in life, but not necessarily the budget? Gilt has been providing a service that offers deep discounts on highly sought after items for some time, and they also have several apps. To use Gilt, you need to be a member and have an account on their site, but in-app shoppers can browse before they decide to sign up. For the brand name bargain hunter, Gilt is a guilt-light shopping experience.

Target

Target is not only considered upscale compared to Wal-Mart, while still offering deep discounts, their app is preferred too. The Target app allow seasonal spenders on a budget to shop at any Target store. The app sends daily deals straight to the iPhone, locates the nearest store and keeps track of gift lists with TargetLists. This app also includes a bar code scanner to make extra sure Target’s deals are the best.

As Christmas fast approaches there are gifts to be bought, lists to be made, and of course children, old and young, whose anticipation needs to be kept in check. As always, during a holiday season the App Store gets a slew of half-baked themed offerings, so we’ve put together our favourite four apps for getting through the pre-Christmas madness for you here.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas! – Dr. Seuss
The beloved Dr Seuss Christmas book-turned tv-holiday-special comes to life in this digital rendition for young and old alike. For the little ones there is a read-to-me as well as a read-to-myself option. For everyone else, there is wonderful narration, classic illustrations, and the timeless tale of a decidedly green Scrooge, a town full of friends awash in Christmas spirit and Cindy-Lou Who to open the Grinch’s very small heart.

Christmas!!
An all-purpose seasonal app and a classic of sorts, Christmas!! is a countdown and Advent calendar full of surprises. But, the app also has games to keep kids occupied, jokes, songs, holiday wallpaper to dress up your iPhone and even a shopping list.

Elfster
The website, by the same name, known for helping make all group holiday gift-giving and ecard-sending a breeze is now an app. Elfster keeps gift lists for anyone, has hot gift ideas, and is ideal for planning office or school parties and Secret Santa exchanges.

Robot Unicorn Attack Christmas Edition
For those of us who are a bit older but still find ourselves wishing the big day would arrive, Adult Swim has a new version of its hit endless runner, Robot Unicorn Attack, all dressed up and ready to race us through the holiday season. If this offering proves as much fun as previous ones in the franchise, players will still be addicted right into the new year.

As a writer and iPad owner, I’m always looking for ways to use my iPad to write effectively. I do not need complex word processing software for my work – I just need simple plaintext editors that can sync with Dropbox, as I need a way to get my text on to an actual computer! WordPress is still a pain to use effectively on mobile, though an app like Blogsy helps out tremendously. Here are my favorite 4 solutions for cloud-based text editing on iOS.

iA Writer: This text editor’s greatest strength is its simplicity: pretty much the only setting that needs to be configured is Dropbox syncing, because it’s the only setting. Files can be saved anywhere on Dropbox, and there’s even iCloud support, which works with the Mac version of the software. The focus mode makes it much easier to just type without distraction, and the additional controls above the software keyboard make typing and editing text on the iPad screen far easier than any other app.

Notesy: This app’s strengths are twofold: first, it features great automatic saving to Dropbox. While it only can sync up to one directory for saving files, it does have subdirectory support. The app also offers universal support, something that iA Writer lacks, which makes it easy for me to type up articles on my iPod touch when I’m not near my iPad, or in a situation where it’s easier to use than the iPad.

Daedalus: What this app does differently is that it uses a stack-based interface, where text documents can be stored in logically-arranged groups of files. This works well for multitaskers who need to work on just specific sections of text at a time, like when composing lists, or for those who want some kind of visual arrangement of their work. Daedalus also has multiple display themes, customizable buttons above the keyboard, and multiple file export options.

Nocs: This app is designed for those who use Markdown; while it does type up plaintext and support editing of txt files in Dropbox, what this app brings to the table is the ability to convert Markdown to HTML easily. For those unaware of Markdown, it’s essentially a variety of HTML formatting commands that are designed to be easier to type in than most HTML formatting is, and to look presentable when viewed as plaintext. Nocs can convert Markdown-formatted text into HTML files, suitable for pasting into WordPress or anywhere else needed. Did I mention it’s also free and universal?

It’s surprising sometimes, after accumulating so many apps, to see what we actually use on a regular basis. While setting up so many new iPhones recently, we really had to think – in a post iOS 5 world that rendered many staples obsolete – which of the dozens of utility apps we’ve stockpiled we still actually use. Here are our favorite four “classics” that we can’t get through most days without.

Flashlight

If you have an iPhone or iPod touch with a front-facing camera, no flashlight app we have seen is better or simpler than this one. The app uses the LED camera flash and a simple slider as a switch to provide bright reliable illumination in dark parking lots, while stumbling for door keys after a late night, or when trying to make a quiet escape from a dark room.

Mobile Mouse Pro

Many people use larger widescreen iMacs as TVs, alarm clocks or to manage urgent morning reminders. We’ve tried pricey wireless controllers that work with no flat surface, say from a bed, but none are more comfortable, much less so affordable – particularly for browsing and playing media – than Mobile Mouse Pro. Setup is so simple and the interface so intuitive, using it feels like something Apple would, or more aptly should, have made. The shake-to-toggle keyboard feature is wonderful, particularly when a locked screensaver kicks in after a period of inactivity. An iPad version is sold separately.

Pastebot

While not iPad native, we use Pastebot on all our Apple gear, and can’t imagine getting much done at all with out it. Aside from being a robust iOS clipboard manager, it integrates seamlessly with Macs so users can instantly send copied links, text or anything else including images, back and forth from pad to phone to ‘puter with no effort after simple set-up.

Evernote

We’ve all set up iCloud and like what we’ve seen, but when it comes to simple file sharing there is still no better app around than Evernote. The cloud storage app and its integration both into iOS and OS X are so smooth, users will forget it’s not just part of their hard drive that they can share with anyone, anytime. For work, for sharing photos, or just to send notes to oneself, it’s still our go-to cloud app and the GUI is as gorgeous and intuitive as ever.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Families gather, feast, celebrate and then get ready for a Black Friday shopping bonanza. The hottest deals mean the biggest crowds will be mobbing stores. With this celebration of conspicuous consumption putting huge pressure on holiday shoppers in a tough economy, how does one find the very best deals? Well, an iPhone loaded with the right apps can make things a lot easier. This week we look at our four favorites for saving time and money.

TGI Black Friday

Powered by two major shopping resources, TGIblackfriday.com and DealCatcher.com, TGI Black Friday is the go-to app for finding the best bargains from the biggest chains like Walmart, Kohls, Best Buy, Target, Old Navy and far too many more to list. The updates come fast and furious and users can see all the Black Friday deals well before they bulk up the morning paper. Push notifications alert shoppers to new deals, users can compare prices and share finds on Facebook and Twitter.

Red Laser

Finding good deals is awesome. Finding great ones is even better. One thing brick and mortar retailers are worried most about this year is what impact mobile devices will have, even in the check out line. Price-matching offers used to be taken up by only a few, but now with bar code scanners, shoppers can quickly scan the items unique product number and Red Laser will find them all the competing offers, many of which are online. That means while standing in a three-hour check-out queue one can just pop out an iPhone, find a better deal online and have it paid for and on its way before they move forward a single inch.

Black Friday App

Black Friday App provides the same basic features as TGI Black Friday, and many of the stores and deals are the same, but there are retailers one app carries that the other doesn’t. This app doesn’t just look for deals in physical stores, but online-only bargains, too, so consider it another tool in the arsenal.

TGI Cyber Monday

Just as in-store bargains are selling out, online retailers pick up the slack. The new mega-shopping day has become known as Cyber Monday. TGI Cyber Monday, from the same folks as TGI Black Friday, again helps consumers sort through the best deals – this time from all the major online retailers.

Last week we looked at the best camera replacement apps for the iPhone native app. So, this week we wanted to continue the theme, this time looking at apps that focus on adding those ever-popular effects and filters. Many of the choices feature a camera replacement component, but all do unique things to produce end results that are anything but the average cell camera shot, no matter how high the resolution. All of these apps will make even casual photographers look like virtual experts.

Instagram

Instagram is all about effects and sharing and it’s completely free. This long-time user favorite allows shutter bugs to shoot right from the app or use existing images in the photo album and easily add custom filters. Most photo apps have social media integration but Instgram can actually be classified as a social networking app. Users can share on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, but also less common options ike Posterous and Foursquare and even has a huge community that interacts with likes and comments.

360 Panorama

For panoramic images 360 Panorama is our choice. This universal app allows users to take ad then patch together photos seamlessly to create breath-taking immersive images. The app uses the gyroscope to give users a full 360 view and stitches the images with amazing speed.

Pro HDR

For truly detailed images, high dynamic range photography (HDR) is the way to go. Pro HDR takes a lot of the hassle out of getting the images to look sharp and brilliant in all conditions. This app takes multiple pictures of the same thing with different settings to highlight or fix specific areas and them merges them together. The results are near 8 mega-pixel image quality. This is the only HDR camera app that automates the process, but for those with advanced photography skills there is also a manual option for setting exposure of the images that will make up the final composition.

Hipstmatic

For vintage effects like we got in the 1970′s with plastic encased toy-like cameras which gave very analog results, Hipstamatic is the go-to app for iPhone photographers. It uses what were once considered flaws – like overexposure, odd colour balance and blurring – to create photos with an authentic feel. The app comes with 10 effects for the initial price and five additional effects packs can be purchased in-app. Hipstamtic features a lot of social network integration as well.

Apple has done a lot to improve the native camera app with iOS 5 and lucky iPhone 4S owners are already taking the highest quality iPhone images ever. But, even with the tune up, many of the most requested features from manual adjustments to photo bursts, darkroom effects to more sharing options (Facebook anyone?) are still lacking. But, the app store is filled with alternatives so this week we look at our favorite four camera replacement apps.

Camera+

Camera+ has been the top camera replacement app almost since its launch in June 2010 and gets frequent updates keeping it at the top of the charts and this list. The app allows uses to users to set focus and exposure manually like a real camera, uses the iPhone 4 LED flash as a continuous fill light to brighten up dark settings, has image stabilization and a 6x digital zoom that really pulls the action in. Camera+ allows for photo editing, has a lot of effects, and has plenty of social media integration for easy photo sharing.

Camera Genius

For still and video Camera Genius replaces the native camera app with 6x digital zoom, a full screen button to make it easy to snap pics on the fly, a timer, image stabilization and a mini burst mode which will take three action shots rapidly. The app also helps iPhoneographers and videographers shoot clean with a Photo Composition Guide and of course, lots of sharing capabilities.

Camera Plus Pro

Camera Pro Plus is all about speed. The developers claim it is the fastest camera app, and while we can’t verify that, it is zippy. This app features live video and still filters so users can preview effects before snapping and add them in one step. Burst mode is particularly useful for action settings allowing for 40 shots to be taken in rapid succession and the app has an array of editing and darkroom effects, private photo and video collection storage, even photo transfer via Wi-Fi along with the requisite social network sharing options.

King Camera

King Camera is a newcomer to the App Store. It’s a powerful, fast and responsive app with some cool features missing from others on this list including the ability to shoot time lapse photography and stop motion animation. The app controls the video camera too and adds a big button to both along with a rule of 3rds grid and integrates a flashlight feature for low-lighting situations. For stills there is also exposure and white balance lock, a self-timer, anti-shake even photo backup. The app also has some fairly robust photo editing abilities, the requisite fun filters and, you guessed it, lots of easy social media sharing with a tap. The French Canadian company behind the app even had a commercial shot for local TV using only images taken with an iPhone and the King Camera app – judge for yourselves.

Blogging. Everyone is doing it. It’s become simple for anyone, even with no coding or web design skills, to sign up for a free home on the internet and start sharing the ideas and pictures. Whether you host a casual photoblog on Tumblr or Flicker or have a full-functioning, say, app review site, there is a bit more to blogging than just jotting down some thoughts. The text needs to be formatted, the photos and videos have to be placed, and if all goes well, traffic needs to be managed. This week we look at four apps that take the blogging experience mobile. If we missed your favourite be sure to leave us a comment below.

WordPress

WordPress has become one of, if not the, largest free and paid blog hosting sites around. WordPress, the app, allows owners with blogs hosted by them to create posts with a fairly full-featured visual editor or work with HMTL to post on the go. The app allows bloggers to manage comments, add photos and even check stats.

BlogPress

Perhaps the most popular app for blogging, BlogPress has video and multi-photo uploading along with text or simple HTML input. It including support for tags and categories and allows for a fair amount of layout ontrol. The app lets bloggers upload to a vast number of blog hosting sites including Blogster, WordPress, Tumblr, Moveable Type, MSN Live Spaces, Live`journal, Drupal, Joomia, Sqaurespace, My Opera and has Facebook and Twitter integration built in.

Blogsy

Blogsy is iPad only because it uses the full screen to let bloggers really gain control over blog layout on the go. The drap and dop features provides a visual editing experience unlike others on this list since it takes full advantage of the multitouch screen. HTML is supported as well of course, but note -Blogsy is not for post creation. Blogsy can create or edit existing posts. The app integrates with WordPress, Blogger. Posterous, Flickr, Picassa and YouTube.
Note: At first posting it was erroneously reported that Blogsy can not create new posts. This error has been corrected.

Analytics Pro

Once you have a blog, you’ll want to see how it’s doing. Bloggers need to keep track of how many visits they get, which of their posts are doing well and how the ads on their site are performing. The industry standard for checking stats is Google Analytics and Analytics Pro gives bloggers or any site owners access to all the statistical information Google has in an easy to read and easy to interpret iOS-friendly format.

For those accustomed to adding feeds to their Google Reader account as they surf the web, finding the right iPad client is essential. Some focus more on features, some on the reading experience and others combine elements of both. This week we look at our favorite four Google Reader apps for iPad. If we missed your favorite please let us know in the comments.

Feedler

Feedler RSS Reader for iPad and iPhone is a free zippy Google Reader client with a lot of functionality. The app supports multiple accounts, allows for extensive feed management, and caches feeds for offline reading. The support for notes and comments is especially handy. The Pro version also includes syncing subscriptions, photo caching and much more social media support.

Reeder for iPad

For a simple, clean Google Reader experience Reeder for iPad is a great choice. Feeds are displayed as stacks of unread paper. The reading experience is smooth, marking items read or unread is all done with a single finger swipe and articles can be saved to ReadItLater, Instapaper or Readability for offline access. An iPhone version is sold separately.

Mr Reader

Mr. Reader has both style and substance. The interface is intuitive and clean, and background updating makes it very fast. The app allows for a great deal of feed management and has a thumbpad for easy navigation. Like most readers, there is support for offline reading via the likes of Instapaper and social network integration, but Mr. Reader even allows articles to be sent to a Kindle, Mac and more.

River of News – RSS Google Reader

A critical darling, River of News focues on simplicity. The key feature, “infinite scrolling” allows readers to navigate their feeds using simple gestures in a clean interface. The app syncs with Google Reader in real time, has extensive social network integration and just looks good.

Sudoku has become as popular as crossword puzzles and iOS devices of all sizes make ideal companions for this particular brand of endless (and paperless) number puzzle solving. With so many Sudoku games on the App Store, finding the one that fits best can be as big a puzzle as the game itself. So we’ve collected our four favorites for you here. Did we miss yours? Please let us know.

Sudoku 2 Pro

Classic Sudoku has a great uncluttered look and comes with a special scoring system that lends itself well to Openfeint leaderboards. In this version of the game a win counts only if the puzzle was solved with less than three mistakes and easy levels must be solved before unlocking harder ones.

: ) Sudoku +

This Sudoku game has a full 16 levels of difficulty all of which are unlocked from the start. This version has a “multi-stage hint system” where first the game just reminds a puzzler to double check a square followed by more clues up to a complete illustration of how the puzzle should be solved. The standout feature for us is that : ) Sudoku + allows users to enter puzzles from any print source for endless portable solving.

Big Bad Sudoku Book

Apple’s choice for their Game Starter Kit, Big Bad Sudoku Book has an intuitive interface, allows background apps to run, and like >Sudoku there is a scoring system, but here the leaderboards are on Game Center. Its key feature is “highlights” which allows players to highlight rows, a specific number on the grid, or whatever helps focus attention on problem areas. Challenge mode is particularly fun with 50 increasingly difficult puzzles that must be unlocked sequentially.

Social Sudoku

The classic with a great twist, Social Sudoku, as the name implies allows solvers to compete against one another via Game Center. There is even a cooperative mode for solving together. In both cases both players see the same puzzle and solve in sync. This game contains six different versions of Sudoku from Classic to Killer to Kakuro.

Last week we looked at apps that help manage weight by offering simple tools to get nutritional information. In keeping with that healthy theme, this week we look at recipe apps for those seeking to add more veggies to their diets, for vegetarians and even for vegans. These apps are full of healthy and tasty choices for anyone looking to make a change to, or maintain a healthy lifestyle with the help of their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

Vegetarian How to Cook Everything

Part of the wildly popular How To Cook Everything series, this cookbook, written by Mark Bittman, offers over 2000 recipes for delicious meat free dishes – by far the most we’ve found in one app. The emphasis is on great taste, but also keeping it simple. The app includes vegan recipes along with tons of how-to’s, illustrations and planning guides. Easy searching and shopping list creation that can be sent by email make this the ideal choice for anyone, whether a person looking for the occasional veggie pasta dinner or a true tofu addict.

Do Eat Raw

There are health conscious meat-avoiders, idealistic vegetarians, hard-core vegans and then there is the raw foods movement. Touted as being not just a way to lose weight and stay fit, but also to increase longevity and health, it may not be for everyone. If raw is on the menu, however, Do Eat Raw is the app to get. The app has over 300 raw vegan recipes along with information on everything from how to dress up a dish to what to drink. The app is divided into sections for easy browsing, and users can rate dishes and see user ratings to see what’s, well, cold?

Whole Living Smoothies

Prefer a nice refreshing drink of fruits and veggies to a full-on vegetarian meal? From the kitchen of none other than Martha Stewart herself comes Whole Living Smoothies. Assembled by dieticians, this recipe app comes with 12 Essential Recipes, 12 Meal-in-a-Glass recipes and 12 Allergen-Free recipes. Additional sets for Weight loss, Immunity Boosting and Detox are available as in-app purchases. The app also contains a comprehensive glossary explaining the specific health benefits of the key ingredients, tips on buying organic produce and even email and Facebook sharing.

Veggie Love Cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens

While not for vegetarians, this app from Better Homes and Gardens provides 50 family-friendly recipes that teach moms and dads how to sneak veggies into everyday food so their kids will get the required servings without having to give up burgers, tacos, pizza or even bacon. This is not a weight-loss cookbook, but with a good search function, cook-together tips to get families interacting and invested in what they eat, a shopping list creator and built-in timer it’s sure to help kids – and parents – get their daily allotment of veggies. And not just by hiding them, but by showing them how fun and tasty they are to cook and eat.

There is a massive industry related to losing weight, but most doctors agree eating healthy foods in moderation along with exercise is the real key to weight loss success. If being healthy, not just thin, is the objective, quick dieting isn’t the answer. The permanent solution lies in making lifestyle changes that last. So we’ve compiled our favourite four apps to help track calories eaten and burned and find comprehensible nutritional information about foods for iPhone to make the journey to fitness a little easier.
 

Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal

This app boasts the largest database of foods – over a million – and provides a calorie count along with information on fats, protein, sugars, fiber and other nutritional facts. But the app does a lot more. It allows dieters to enter entire meals, or add favorite foods, even recipes for fast access to comprehensive and useable information. The app also includes a web companion to track your food intake online and it syncs with the app. There is a barcode scanner for packaged foods, and even push notifications if a user forgets to log a meal. On the fitness end there are more than 350 exercises included for both cardio and strength training, and the app keeps track of calories expended. Create goals, generate reports and start shedding those pounds.

Fooducate Plus

Fooducate is all about helping those on a diet, for weight loss or any health reason, make wise choices at the supermarket. With a database of over 200,000 unique products, this app uses the iPhone camera to scan barcodes and then tells a user about what’s really in that can or box. It will reveal any veiled information from the use of chemical food colorings that may not be safe to excessive trans-fats while also highlighting that item’s health benefits. The app allows for side-by-side product comparisons and even provides healthier alternative suggestions. The free version is ad supported.

Weightbot – Track your Weight in Style

If regular apps are too lo-tech, how about a weight-tracking robot? Weightbot is weight loss – or gain – for geeks. Users just enter their goal, their current body specs, and the app calculates their BMI and shows progress on a graph. Rotate clockwise to view weight loss progress over time, or turn the iPhone the other way to view the goal and expected arrival date.

Dotti’s Food Score

We have apps to count calories in raw foods, packaged products, even favorite recipes, but most of us do a lot of our eating out. Getting the nutritional information from a restaurant menu can be difficult and even embarrassing. Dotti’s Food Score uses information from Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone web site to serve up the skinny on almost 600 restaurants. The app has information on the most popular food chains, gets regular updates, and is particularly well integrated with the Weight Watchers program, offering scores based on their program.

There is a lot to get done at this time of year and dozens of apps to help us stay on top of all of everything. There are some great full-featured task-managing systems and calendars on the App Store, but this week we wanted to focus on apps that keep it simple. Here are four to do list apps that will keep users on task and on budget. If we missed your favorite be sure to let us know.

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is a robust cross-platform task management app . It uses cloud syncing to keep information up-to-date across all of a user’s iOS devices. Wunderlist allows for list sharing, email reminders and push and badge notices and even lets users customize the look. The app allows for a lot of detail, sorting is easy and best of all it’s not ad-supported and there are no in-app purchases. Wunderlist is completely free.

InstaTodo

InstaTodo allows users to quickly enter and manage a to do list. The app uses task hierarchies to keep a user focused on what’s most important and allows for sub-task lists to handle complicated projects. It also has reminders, sharing and all the task management features expected from a full-features to do app. What sets InstaTodo apart, however, is its use of templates. The app comes with dozens of general use templates that can be further customized, or any user-created list can be saved as a template for future use.

Do It (Tomorrrow) HD

A procrastinator’s friend, Do It (Tomorrow) is the simplest of task managers. This has a gorgeous GUI and a single focus- what needs to be done today, and what can be put off until tomorrow. Users quickly and easily create a to-do list that looks handwritten, and either tick off completed tasks or shunt projects to tomorrow. While it sounds simple, it actually is really helpful when managing the small details that come up every day – the ones that no one has time to enter into a complicated calendar app. The paid HD version syncs lists across devices.

List Buddy

This to do app prides itself on simplicity and flexibility. The GUI is clean and uncluttered and the app allows unlimited list and sub-list creation. List Buddy has “One Touch Delete” for removing multiple lists or items at a time and an internal search function. List Buddy even remembers previous entries – when it recognizes the first few letters of a new item it will fill in the rest. The sorting options are extensive, sharing is easy and multiple list management is built right in.

The passing of Labor Day marks the unofficial start of fall. With back-to-school and back-to-serious at work, staying on time is essential. Telling one alarm clock app from another with so many similar names and features, must less finding the best one, can be tricky. So this week we look at our favorite four full-featured alarm clock apps with built-in weather forecasts for this changeable time of year.

Night Stand HD – Alarm

Night Stand HD is a full-featured alarm clock app that has several gorgeous and genuinely unique clock-looks to choose from. Even better this app recently become universal. There are nine clocks designs all of which allow for multiple and recurring alarms, iPod integration to awaken users with music, and it keeps working in the background. Of course, the app displays the current and global current weather and forecast.

Night Stand for iPad – Social Reader, Weather & Alarm Clock

Night Stand for iPad is the only iPad-only app on the list, but it needs the extra screen room. This is a lot more than a simple flip-style alarm clock. It packs all the features one would expect and global GPS-based weather forecasts with video loops or a photo album slideshow backgrounds. But, that’s the window dressing – what makes this unlike any of the other choices here is the way it integrates easily with a user’s choice of RSS feeds, as well Twitter and Facebook timelines to serve up all the morning’s necessary information at a glance.

Magic Window

The app is more about style than substance, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a full-featured alarm clock and weather app. It’s filed under entertainment, however, not utilities because it is really like looking out a virtual window at any number of tranquil fully animated displays. 15 gorgeous scenes are included, like sunrise in Costa Rica or sunset in Tokyo and each come with soothing ambient sounds to help lull a user to sleep, not just wake them up. If the 15 included scenes aren’t enough, 30 more are available in bundles for in-app purchase. Magic Window is function meets eye candy, and looks and sounds best on a high-end speaker-dock.

Lifelike Alarm Clock and Weather HD

For really neat looking clocks including a pair of retrofied dial clocks and maximum iPod integration, Lifelike Alarm And Weather HD is the fun choice. Activate night mode by pulling a curtain, or use the built-in iPod player anytime, with full playlist creation support. With animated real-time weather simulation that works world-wide, a big snooze button and some silly-cute chimes, this one should appeal to the young and young at heart.

The multi-touch screen has allowed the creation of apps that make digital painting feel as natural as dragging a finger across a canvas. That’s because that is precisely what they do. The iPad changed the digital painting scene even further with its large bright screen capable of replicating the size and feel of a sketchpad or canvas. This week we’ve collected or four favorite apps that let us paint and draw like the pros.

Procreate

With a powerful paint engine, desktop-quality tools and brushes Procreate is a standout. Work effortlessly with up to 16 layers with 100 undo/redo levels. There is zero lag –painting is in real time. The interface is clean and intuitive. What separates procreate from other painting apps is the brush selection. There are 12 pre-sets, which allow for an amazing amount of configurability, but Procreate is also the only app that allows users create and import their own brushes. This gives the serious and detail-oriented artist the tools to create precisely what they need.

Sketch Club

Aside from offering high quality standard painting and sketching features Sketch Club also lets users create pixel-art. Another feature that makes Sketch Club an original is that users can record themseves making art and upload the video to YouTube from within the app. There is also an active user-community where are masterpieces can be shared and even critiqued.

Zen Brush

Whether for sketching, doodling or calligraphy, Zen Brush is an amazingly simple, elegant and fluid app. Background templates simulate 29 surfaces, many porous most distinct. Users control brush size and opacity, but that’s about it. Its simplicity is truly Zen and the results anyonecan achieve regardless of training or experience are stunning. Easy posting to Twitter is incorporated.

ArtRage

ArtRage may not the professional’s choice, but no other painting app we’ve tried does so much so easily. It keeps track of how much paint is on the canvas, so users can blend colors under the brush, or lay down thick lines of pigment from a tube for flattening with palette knives. Watercolors react to the wetness of the brush and paper beneath, and canvas grain affects the look of brushstrokes. Drier pigments break up on the surface to create textured effects. ArtRage allows photo to be imported and converted them to oils for smearing. Pics can also be pinned to the canvas to serve as a guide.

Stocks took a serious tumble this week, and it’s no secret the global economy is precarious to say the least. But there are small things we all can do to make at least our home finances and debt management work better and start saving for the future. We have collected our favourite four apps for that purpose, with the hopes that making small local changes prompts everyone to push for big global changes too.

Economy

For most of us, making heads or tails of all the information, and misinformation, on the US economy is all but impossible. Cascade Software offers a quality at-a-glance solution for making sense of the headlines and reports, and more importantly, what they mean to us. The app, while not officially endorsed by any federal or state agency, is powered by FRED API which is the Economic Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The app provides users with information on key economic indicators and visual data in the form of easy-to-read graphs that track everything from GDP over time, to which party was in power during any dips. Find employment, housing, inflation, manufacturing and other stats, as well as current North American exchange rates. All 50 states are tracked by five key economic indicators as well, to make sure local information is as clear as national trends.

Pageone Pro – Money And Bills

Pageonce – Money and Bills allows users to track and organize credit cards, investments, bank accounts and cash. The app sends real-time alerts when a payment is due or other action is required. It’s a very versatile expense tracker allowing for monitoring of frequent flier miles, cell minutes, data usage and other features, iOS will users will find especially helpful. The app even alerts users to potentially fraudulent charges, and helps track and mange debts, The free version is ad-supported, for the $12.99 Pro users get an ad-free interface as well as a “refresh all” option and unlimited tracking of manually entered expenses and bills. Both versions sync securely with many major US banks, credit unions and credit card providers.

Bills ~ on your table

Looking for something a bit simpler to just stay on top of recurring bills? Bills ~ on your table has a beautiful interface, especially on iPad. This award winning financial app lets users track regular expenses with ease. The app is not meant to track one time charges, it’s a monthly (or weekly) reminder system that sends a push notification and accompanying sound-alert to remind users when it’s time to pay that credit card bill, mortgage or car payment or tuition. The app uses clound syncing to make sure all members of the household have the same information, and it allows for partial payments which is helpful for managing large debts. There are 170 currencies supported making it a truly global app. A free online user account is required.

iAllowance (allowance and Chore Tracker w/Sync)

Remember piggy banks? Well, while teaching kids the value of money has never been more important, leave the breakable cute containers in the past and get serious about money with kids using iAllowance. It’s a universal app that allows parents to create banks for multiple children and sync those accounts with the rest of the family across devices. The app can handle automatic payments, chore tracking and even calculate interest on the various banks as required. This app allows not just for multiple kids, but multiple accounts, so if your teen has an iTunes allowance and a recreation allowance they can be easily created, managed, and funded separately. In lieu of actual money, parents can opt for a star rewards system, and the app has AirPrint and Dropbox support and parental controls.

Trivia games are always crowd pleasers, and just about every game show has a iOS game counterpart. So do the biggest board games. But, while often top sellers, they don’t always represent the best games. We’ve collected our favortie four trivia games for you here. If we missed your favorite let us know.

Big Brain Quiz

For traditional trivia buffs looking for a broad range of subjects, we really like Big Brain Quiz. It’s free and the questions are all over the map from technology to music, sports to celebs. The animations are well done and there is Facebook integration with a decent-sized community. The game comes with over 3000 questions, and there are a lot of add-on packs available for purchase in-app. The developers add seasonal content for free and host periodic contests with deluxe question sets as prizes.

You Don’t Know Jack

If genuine humor served up with anything from Shakespeare to flatulence is more appealing than straight trivia, You Don’t Know Jack is a fantastic option. The game is done in a pseudo tv-show style, like something you might find on MTV – it did actually lead to a short lived broadcast. The game is clever and polished with real laugh-out-loud moments and integrated Facebook score posting. A free light version is also available.

MovieCat!

MovieCat! may actually be funnier than You Don’t Know Jack – at least it gives it a good run for the money. It’s certainly the most original title of the bunch. Instead of clips from actual films players get movie trivia from scenes performed by the “kitty cast of players” and nine lives to beat five rounds of inventive puzzles and trivia challenges. There are additional puzzle packs for in-app purchase with extra “cat scenes” included and Facebook bragging is built in.

Animal Planet: Trivia Challenge

Ok, so we have to forgo Facebook with this one, but animal lovers can still show off their skills in Game Center with the trivia game brought to iOS by the cable television channel that bears the same name. As one would expect, the variety of animals and facts have outstanding breath and the app has a library of high-quality images of animals in their natural habitats from the channel’s archives. The game comes with 2000 questions and an additional 1000 for in-app purchase, has multiple difficulty settings to engage kids but challenge adults, and has great video.

There are so many different types of travel apps we decided to focus this week not only on those that simplify travel in general, but those geared to air travel and travel abroad. Most of the apps are useful for road trips and or as general reference apps as well. These are our top picks that work on all iOS Devices and will help make getting to, staying at, and getting home from any destination easier.

TripIt – Travel Organizer

Travel can be a hassle, especially when flying and dealing with delays and cancellations and landing in a new place with a rental car and no idea where to go. Tripit is a one-stop app for travel organization and flight information. Users can access all their travel plans on a single device no matter where a flight was booked. Fliers do have to forward their confirmation numbers to the tripit website, but then they get “smartineraries” which include driving directions and maps to relevant destinations. The app will send alerts if a booked flight is late or off the tarmac altogether – even provide alternative travel options. There are additional services available to pro users for an annual subscription fee.

Flight Track Pro

Import flight data automatically from any airline confirmation email and get push notifications of real-time changes to any flight. Also access flight itinerary updates, and detailed zoomable maps that work offline. FlightTrack has fewer bells and whistles than the Pro version, and is suitable for occasional travellers. The Pro version has everything frequent fliers need to stay on top of the most complicated intineraries. Features include automatic itinerary synching with TripIt (see above,) iPhone calendar sync, and the ability to share flight status by email, Facebook or Twitter.

Packing Pro

Packing Pro is a must-have travel app. As the name suggests, the app ensures a single traveller or someone packing for a group doesn’t forget anything at home. The universal app is feature-packed with packing features. There is expert list assistance which are essentially several packing templates for both genders and different ages. Also, users have the ability to create up to eight lists at once. The app has themes and includes suggested lists for everyone from campers to business travellers. There is a master list of over 400 items and of course, users can add their own items. The best part – the app syncs across devices so users can create lists for everyone in their party or family and share them easily.

XE Currency

Travelling internationally this summer? Then we hope you remember how many Euros there are in a US Dollar. Having the right currency and understanding its worth in Dollars or Pounds or Rupees can make the difference between an easy trip full of shopping and even saving, to being left without local currency when needed most. No app can guarantee exact rates, but XE Currency has close to real-time information and generally trusted information. This a great app for day-to-day international commerce as well.

There are so many ways to express ourselves creatively with iOS apps. There are apps to paint with, apps to help animators, video editors, apps for playwrights and musicians, and iPhononography has become an art form unto itself.

But, what’s equally wonderful about apps is that there are amazing ones out there that allow people with not all that much talent to get creative, and end up with impressive results too. In this week’s Favorite Four, we look at our favorites apps to help bring out anyone’s inner artist.

TypeDrawing

This is a simple app that produces spectacular typography and word art. Users simply input text, choose a style and professional art that’s fit to be shared follows. Educators report this is a terrific tool for making “word splashes” – creative usage of words and art to help kids express themselves. All that’s required is typing in a sentence and drawing with a finger: ta-da! – typographical art. There are 15 fonts and as many ways to get creative as there are words in a multi-lingual dictionary, emojis included.

Instant Poetry HD

Remember that fridge magnet game with a bunch of words, largely poetic or descriptive, cut into little strips that could be arranged to create a short insta-poems? Well, Instant Poetry HD ports the concept exactly to iOS except instead of a fridge, would-be poets need an iDevice. This is a lot of fun to play with, and the results can be anything from “mad-libs” hysterical, to some decent, if lexically limited, descriptive imagery. Don’t be put off by the HD, the app is universal and for those who write real poetry, but are shy on inspiration, it can double as a brainstorming device.

Songify

We’ve all heard of apps that can help the tone-deaf make music without any training, but what about an app that turns spoken words into autotune-like songs that, while even less original that a Rebecca Black hit, are in tune, and often yield hilarious audio clips that can be shared with social media. Songify can really do that, quickly and seamlessly, and best of all, the app is completely free, although additional songs and song packs are available as in-app purchases. This app is so funny, we went with saying the strangest things we could think of and having them, well, songified. That said, you can find what seem to be serious attempts at songifying, but we don’t think this app is going to make you the next YouTube sensation. Try it on an unsuspecting friend instead – just ask about about their date last night and let the musical hilarity begin.

Flowpaper

Oh how wonderful it would be to buy a high-end painting app, a world-class stylus and use all the complex features to create original masterpieces. There are a bunch of apps for that, but what about the rest of us who can’t draw our way out of a paper bag, but want to make pretty pictures nonetheless? Flowpaper allows a user to draw with a finger and physics instead of virtual paint. Just pick a “brush,” place a finger on the screen and drag. Behind the appendage will be a trail of stunning results that can look like anything from a computer-generated trail of intricately entwined light to a detailed black and white sketch with absolutely no talent required.

One of the great things about iOS devices is that they bring both traditional and newer online news outlets to users in almost as many formats and GUIs as there are news sources. And, like the best digital sources, the best apps are free. From world news to national politics to sports and entertainment and anything in between, there are likely a dozen apps for that. Picking only four isn’t easy, but while our home page has two folders full of news apps, there are really only a few we use daily. So this week we are going to look at our favorite four news apps for iPad and iPhone.

Pulse:

Pulse earns its spot here because it serves up customized news from myriad sources, in a clean, user-friendly app. Users can pick from a vast selection of preset news feeds on topics like world news and politics, but also sports, tech, entertainment and even fashion from the biggest websites around. They just added summer sources including cooking and crafts, too. Pulse allows allows users to add their Twitter, Facebook and other social network feeds and it functions as a Google Reader. Headlines and photos appear in rows, and a clean browser offering text or web views sits to the right. Users can easily scroll through up to five pages of headlines and dig into only those stories that are of interest. This is an all-in-one news app, and a must have for news nuts.

Zite Personalized Magazine:

Zite is the only entry this week that is iPad-only, but it serves up the news in such a fresh and comfortable fashion it belongs on any news app list. The app does what it claims to: it creates a personalized magazine divided into clean, easy-to-navigate sections that make getting today’s headlines feel more, well, personal. The GUI is gorgeous, and this app too will pull your Twitter feed and Google Reader news, while offering a large number of preset news topics. News hounds can pick as many as they like across a comparable array of topics as Pulse.

What makes Zite a standout, however, aside from its glossy magazine feel, is that it is truly customizable and it gets to know individual user preferences while introducing a seemingly endless number of new web sources – it’s like a news discovery app as well as a customizable news aggregator. Using what they call a “smart auto-suggest tool,” readers can “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” an article, opt for more from the same source, and can even pick which of the sub-topics discussed within an article they would like to see more of in the future. Within a week of use, Zite creates not just a good looking, but a wholly relevant magazine, one that’s updated several times a day, not a month.

Reuters:

If simplicity and news from a single reputable source that uses iOS to maximum advantage is the preferred means of getting a news fix, Reuters – one of the most reliable syndicated new sources around – has the go-to brand name app. Reuters News Pro covers a broad cross-section of interests including an excellent market watch section, as well as award-winning photojournalism with the ability to customize the app to a user’s location. Reuters does not just serve up text news – the app has video coverage of top stories as well. Reuters News Pro also includes their popular “Oddly Enough” weird-news feature, and everything can be read on or offline with no user setup required.

Breaking News !:

No list would be complete without a news app the uses push notifications. We want our news in-depth, but when something major happens, we like being notified instantly. Several news apps offer this feature, but none of the biggest names do particularly good jobs with the GUI, and most are single-source apps. Breaking News delivers headlines from CNN, BBC, WSJ, and MSNBC in realtime to your iPhone. It would benefit from the AP or Reuters feed, but it’s a solid choice for both coverage and push-notification reliability.

Using the iPhone and iPad as a tool to quickly lookup something (often to settle a bet!) is an often under-appreciated and useful feature (it’s even the biggest folder on our homescreen for some of us!). While one can argue that a Wikipedia app or just using the browser is sufficient for looking up everything, a dedicated and specific reference app can’t be beat in its category. So this week lists our favorite four reference apps.

iBartender
This app (which is surprisingly the #7 top paid iPhone reference app) is the ultimate companion for a bartender. iBartender is a simple enough app to explain, it’s one of those books that can be found behind a bar listing all kinds of alcoholic drinks no one knew existed. iBartender trumps all of those bar books with an easily browsable encyclopedia of drinks, a search feature, and the ability to save specific drinks as favorites. This app is a must-have for anyone, not just bartenders, looking to find and try out new drinks.

Wikipanion
It would be a horrible list of reference apps without a good Wikipedia app. While some of the best reference apps are dedicated to specific topics, Wikipanion is the goto app for all other topics and therefore a must-have for anyone who frequently uses Wikipedia. While it’s nothing complicated, Wikipanion provides a clean, quick-loading interface for Wikipedia on the iPhone and iPad.


Qwiki (iPad only)
Qwiki is definitely the most unique reference app in the App Store. Qwiki pulls information, pictures, and videos from various sources to create a multimedia experience for almost any topic imaginable. Qwiki might not be optimal to quickly look anything up, but it’s definitely fun to browse the popular and daily Qwikis. It’s an awesome app to play around with and learn something in the process.

IMDB
The IMDB app is a clean and well-made app that provides an iOS experience for the popular movie database, IMDB.com. Get into an argument about a specific actor/actress in a specific movie or TV show? Whip out the iPhone and look it up on IMDB. The IMDB app is a great companion app to play around with while watching TV.

The iPad is a perfect two-player gaming device. Specifically, the iPad is awesome for playing board games. While the following board games aren’t all iPad-only, these are my favorites for use on the iPad. This week’s Favorite Four are my favorite four board game apps.

Risk
Risk, the classic strategy game, is probably my most played board game on iOS. My girlfriend and I play it constantly on my iPad. The war game has a decent AI system, but the AI has only beat my girlfriend and I in a three person game once. What’s nice about Risk on iOS is that there are two options for claiming the original territory. I’m not sure which is the correct way but it’s an awesome option to play around with. Risk is a must-have app for any board game fans.

Ticket to Ride – iPad only
Ticket to Ride is the iPad adaptation of the popular train board game by Days of Wonder. It’s is one of those German-style games that’s somewhere between a strategy board game like chess and a party game like Pictionary. The game consists of claiming routes between cities according to cards each player receives. I’m still learning the game, but it’s one of the most fun iPad games I’ve ever played.

Carcassonne
Carcassonne is another German-style board game recreated for iOS. Unlike Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne is a universal app. Carcassonne involves placing tiles on a board to create a medieval landscape with cities and roads. Carcassonne is one of the few games on the App Store that’s so popular and so well-done that its rating for the current version is the full five stars and 4.5 for all versions.

Game Table – iPad only
Game Table was one of the first apps I grabbed for my iPad when I got it a little over a year ago. I immediately realized how cool it would be to play board games with people to give them an example of the iPad. Game Table has various board games including an awesome chess app, checkers, backgammon, reversi, a card app with chips, and Go (the Chinese board game). No AI here; just beautifully crafted game boards to play with other real humans.

With the iOS 5 announcement, many have been speculating on the “death” of certain apps that provide some of the same features that iOS 5 will be coming out with. This week I’ll talk about four categories and specifically four of my favorite apps that might be killed off by iOS 5.

Dropbox – Cloud Storage
iCloud was a huge announcement. While it contains more functionality than just cloud-based documents, iCloud offers 3GB more free storage than Dropbox does. With my documents, calendars, pictures and more being automatically synced between all of my devices (Mac/iPad/iPhones), I doubt I’ll continue using Dropbox once iOS 5 is released.

Camera+ – Photo editing
Camera+ was the must-have, quick photo-editor for the iPhone. If anyone is even remotely interested in doing quick touches to his or her pictures, Camera+ was the app to buy. The Photos app in iOS 5 will now add quick touch-up features like cropping, red-eye removal, and an auto-enhance feature. Unless an editor is incredibly powerful or has specific features that I would want, I’m likely to just use the Photos app after the iOS 5 release.

Wunderlist - To-do
There are so many varying types of to-do apps on the App Store that I doubt Reminders (iOS 5’s to-do app) will kill off to-do apps. But there’s a specific to-do app that I just started using, Wunderlist, that does exactly what Reminders will do – cloud-based to-do. With a free, to-do list app synced with all iOS devices, I find it hard to believe that to-do list apps will be as popular as they once were.

Instapaper – Offline Reading
Instapaper isn’t the only service that provides an offline reading list (another popular one is Read It Later), but both services cost money. Built into the new and improved Safari on iOS 5 will be a reading list feature. The offline reading list in combination with the new “Reader” view (which presents text in an easy to read format) presents an experience similar to Instapaper. I’m a huge fan of Instapaper, but I tend to prefer native Apple apps over third-party apps if they’re available. I’ll definitely be checking out the reading list feature in the new Safari and I have a feeling that it may win me over.

Some game genres have had a rough time in their induction into the App Store (like action hack n’ slashes), but a few genres seem like they’ve been waiting for devices like the iPhone and iPad. Case in point? Word games work out perfectly with iOS. This week, we’ll showcase our Favorite Four word games.

Crosswords
Released ages ago in App Store years, Crosswords is the one word game to rule them all. At the high price point of $9.99, it’s a tough one to buy. We eventually just took the plunge about a year ago and the app has been well worth the cost. The reason it’s worth such a steep price (for an app) is that it’s the last crossword-related purchase anyone will ever need to make. The app is updated from a ton of free sources as well as some paid ones that require subscription info, like the New York Times. We will never run out of crossword puzzles. Our queue is a little backed up currently at 787 puzzles (and we’re not even using all of the free sources, just our favorites!). In our homescreen folder titled “Favorite Games,” Crosswords is the first app.

Words with Friends
It was obvious that a Scrabble-type game had to make the cut for this Favorite Four, but choosing between Scrabble and Words with Friends was quite difficult. We decided on Words with Friends simply because more of our friends play it (it’s cross-platform). While Scrabble would seem to provide more real-life friends to play with (by linking it with the Facebook Scrabble app), it’s simply easier to play with people we know via Words with Friends.


War of the Words (iPad only)
This app is a hidden gem. The app was released last year and still hasn’t had enough ratings for the App Store to display an average rating. We’re hoping that we might change things for the better with this post. War of the Words includes something that more iPad games should: players sitting across from one another. In War of the Words, when a player forms a words, the letter blocks go over to the other player. Whoever fills the other player’s side of the screen first wins. It’s a simple concept but provides some fast-paced wordy fun.

Wheel of Fortune
We can’t leave out one of the most popular word-based game shows: The Wheel of Fortune apps are great. There are plenty of puzzles to solve and the graphics are impressive on the iPad version. Give them a try!
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Most come to 148apps to learn which apps to spend their hard earned dollars on. Today I’ll mix it up, because my favorite four are apps with free video content.

Crackle

Crackle, a division of Sony, adds 20 new movies and TV episodes to its app monthly. It’s 100% free and a must-have app for anyone. It’s always there for me to just whip out and watch whenever I don’t really have a preference. Some of my current favorites available are 21, The Nines, The Karate Kid I and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

SnagFilms (iPad only)

SnagFilms is an app dedicated to nothing but documentaries. While documentaries aren’t for all movie-lovers, those of us who like them will jump at the chance to have an app filled with free documentaries. The app is currently boasting over 80 films and I’m hoping for more in the future. To highlight some available, it has “A to Zeppelin” about Led Zeppelin, “Close Encounters” about the existence of aliens, “Hell on Wheels” about a group of women trying to bring back roller derby, and “MacHeads” about us Mac fanatics.

ABC Player (iPad only)

The ABC Player is a free app dedicated to catching up on various ABC shows. As far as I know, all shows available to watch on their website are accessible on the iPad app. This is an awesome app for anyone who’s a fan of at least one show on ABC. Currently, some popular shows on the app include Dancing with the Stars, Castle, Desperate Housewives, and Grey’s Anatomy.

TED

While TED talks aren’t movies or TV shows, they’re definitely free video content – arguable the best free video content available online. It’s arguable because to say otherwise would be to argue with me! I love TED talks. Basically, they are talks almost any subject imaginable delivered by field experts. Some of my favorites include one from Adam Savage (Mythbusters guy), Pattie Maes about her SixthSense device, Malcolm Gladwell about spaghetti sauce (but it’s much more general than that!), and Sal Khan about his educational video program, Khan Academy.

And it absolutely has to be noted that, we’re I living in the UK, the BBC iPlayer app would be at the top of my list for favorite free video content.