It’s probably safe to say that if I polled the readers of 148apps, there would be more owners of plastic guitars (Guitar Hero guitars) than real wooden ones, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t all pay homage to the craftsmanship that goes into guitar making. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is currently running a special exhibit (February 9 through July 4, 2011) that is celebrating the extreme guitar-making craftsmanship of Italian immigrants living in New York. Focusing on the work of John D’Angelico, James D’Aquisto, and John Monteleone, three of the most renowned lutheries in the world, Guitar Heroes takes you on a tour of amazing craftsmanship and wonderful performances.

In addition to the wonderful exhibit, the Met has released a solid iOS app that is meant to guide you on your tour, but doubles as a solid history lesson. The app takes you through the exhibit virtually, starting in Northern Italy, travelling with you from Naples to New York, and then highlighting the life and performances of the three aforementioned guitar heroes. The majority of the app comes in the form of full video of photo guided audio, but there is a bit to read for all you lovers of text. If you happen to be in the NY City area and are planning to visit the exhibit in person, there is also a keypad entry that will take you directly to information about what you are looking at. For the unorganized museum-goer, this feature is priceless.

Whether you have a guitar obsession or are just casually interested in the craftsmanship of a fine, hand made product, you should definitely pick up Met Guitars (it’s free!). Maybe, just maybe, the works of John D’Angelico or James D’Aquisto will convince you to pick up a real guitar to replace your plastic Guitar Hero rock fantasy. If so, the world will be a better place.

FREE!

Met Guitars

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-02-05 :: Category: Education

The Tap Tap Revenge franchise is already a huge one and it just became even bigger. Developer Tapulous has just released Tap Tap Revenge 4, and the newest edition of the game bundles the franchise’s huge back-catalog of songs together into one massive app. As if that weren’t enough, the game comes pre-loaded with over 100 free songs to tap along to, featuring bands such as Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance. The crew behind the game has also been updating the store, adding tracks from artists such as Nelly, Katy Perry and more.

The app is also showcasing a slickly redesigned interface, optimized for the iPhone’s new Retina Display. The game is also integrating Game Center, as well as a like button which will show you which tracks are most popular amongst you and your friends, as well as constantly updating leaderboards to show who’s got the fastest fingers. This is easily the most comprehensive game in the series, and there’s really no reason for franchise fans to skip out.

The genius of Tap Tap Revenge is the freemium model it follows, tempting users with free songs and then hooking them into buying premium tracks. The fact that Tapulous releases a new free song every week means that players are constantly checking back into the app, and while they’re browsing they may just find a song or two they wouldn’t mind paying to add to their collection. Granted, the music in the game tends to skew towards the Top 40 charts, but its hard to blame the developers for that, they’re just giving the people what they want.

Though Rock Band and Guitar Hero may own the console scene, Tap Tap Revenge dominates iOS, and rightly so. The sheer volume of content available and free price tag is music to the ears of gamers, and this latest edition only serves to further cement Tap Tap’s place at the top of the heap. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to tap some Katy Perry, take that sentence in whatever way you want.

$2.99

Tap Tap Revenge 4

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-12-19 :: Category: Games

[via PocketGamer]

Aaaand…we’re back! Phew. Is it Friday already? Well, here are our weekly five app selections, culled from recent App Store releases. We’ve got plenty of new stuff this week, from feed readers to music games, so let’s get started!

Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero was demo’d at the WWDC keynote earlier this week, and made its official App Store debut shortly afterwards. Talk about big-name apps. The game costs $2.99 and comes with six songs, allowing you to unlock others via in-app purchase. (The included songs include hits like “We Are the Champions” by Queen and “Say It Ain’t So” by Weezer.) It looks a lot like the Tap Tap Revenge and Rock Band games on the surface, but Guitar Hero introduces some new “swipe” and “strum” mechanics that add some new spice to the somewhat-stale tapping games. To put it succinctly, the game looks awesome—we’ll have a full review up later, of course.

$2.99

Guitar Hero

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-06-07 :: Category: Games

Camera+
Camera+ comes from TapTapTap, makers of excellent, succinctly named apps like Convert and Voices. It includes tons of tools, ranging from digital zoom to an image stabilizer to a grid that helps you avoid crooked pictures. There are also plenty of scene modes (Beach, Night, Sunset, Backlit, etc) and filters (from a dirty Grunge effect to the more humorous So Emo). Toss in a digital flash effect, borders, and the ability to share photos across a variety of social networks, and Camera+ has just about every feature covered. The app itself is elegantly designed, and on the whole, Camera+ seems to be another worthy addition to the ranks of photo apps in the App Store.

$0.99

Camera+

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-06-06 :: Category: Photography

HECTOR: Badge of Carnage
This is not your typical adventure game, folks. HECTOR proudly declares itself to be “half-decent,” but don’t let that fool you. This point-and-click adventure game stars Detective Inspector Hector and is cheekily irreverent. The dialogue is crude (not for the young’ins) and witty, and the game features genre mainstays like interactive locations and an expansive inventory. HECTOR certainly takes a different tack than most App Store games. Point-and-click fans should check it out.

$3.99

HECTOR: Badge of Carnage Ep1

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-06-02 :: Category: Games

Sudoku 2 Pro
Sudoku 2 Pro is (you guessed it!) the pro version of the popular Sudoku port. This version strips out the ads, tracks your “runs” (uninterrupted win streaks), auto-deletes solved notes, and allows you to hide the timer if you so wish…among other things, of course. Naturally, the features that make Sudoku 2 loved by so many App Store customers are still intact: ease-of-use, graphics, etc. If you’re looking for a good Sudoku game and don’t want your screen cluttered with ads, check out Sudoku 2 Pro.

$2.99

▻Sudoku +

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-06-03 :: Category: Games

Pulse News Reader
And finally, one for your iPad owners. Pulse News Reader was also demoed by Steve Jobs at the WWDC. Pulse is a clean and visual news reader for iPad. It imports up to 20 news sources and then creates an elegant mosaic of your news stories. Tapping on a block brings up the article in full. Just take a look at the picture…the app looks gorgeous, and even supports both landscape and portrait. Yum!

FREE!

Pulse News for iPad: Your News, Blog, Magazine and Social Organizer

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-05-12 :: Category: News