Tag: Pulse »

One year after another, everyone always gets consumed with the latest and greatest games. People are usually focused on what’s next, and that was the case for me as well in most situations. However, after not giving much appreciation to shmups on iOS, my mind was changed after reviewing Danmaku Unlimited 2 earlier this year. All of a sudden I didn’t mind the idea of using my finger to play shmups rather than my previously preferred method of a console controller. This year, being focused on the present also reminded me of previously-released games and making a journey into familiar addictions; but this time on iOS.

One of the best things about shooters is that they usually come with a good scoring system for the leaderboards. I love shooters, so I am greatly addicted to high score runs and placing myself near the top of the rankings. So naturally with my new found love for shooters on iOS came an even bigger addiction to placing as high of a score as possible on Game Center leaderboards. All of a sudden I wasn’t just reviewing games like Danmaku Unlimited 2, Plasma Sky, and Liberation Maiden; I was learning to master them by earning a respectable placement on the leaderboards and then sharing that with friends.

I pretty much did my best to put up a quality time or score on all games I reviewed this year that came with a leaderboard. 2013 was also a year of Game Center addiction.

Social newsreader Pulse updates its iPhone app to include iPad in this new update, adding a fully redesigned interface and other great features. Will it replace Editor's Choice recipient, Flipboard, as the king of the hill? Check it out and let us know in the comments below.

★ Unlimited Pages: Add as many sources as you want to follow via Pulse!
★ Improved Navigation: Access any page, settings, catalog and your saved stories effortlessly via a brand new sidebar!
★ Comprehensive Search: Search for any website, person, brand or topic and find results from Tumblr, Youtube, Reddit, Facebook, Google, Flickr, Blekko, and more!
★ Simpler Customization: Edit button on every page to quickly personalize your Pulse.
★ Infinite Scrolling: Keep swiping horizontally to read as many stories as you want from any source in Pulse.

Pulse, the news aggregation app based in San Francisco (natch) is getting into video. In a post on their tumblr blog yesterday, they announced over 30 new channels with video, including video sites like CollegeHumor, Meet the Press, The Verge, The Daily Beast, The Wall Street Journal, Mashable, Fox Sports, Allrecipes, IGN, Newsy, The White House, FORA.tv and more.

Pulse plans on bringing video content from a wide variety of types of media as well, from television shows like Meet the Press, The Rachel Maddow Show, Nightly News, The TODAY Show to sports from ESPN and Fox Sports.

Pulse competes with apps like Flipboard, Zite, Editions by AOL, and Google Currents, so the addition to video to its already successful news aggregation system will be a test of how much users want video as well as RSS feeds from their favorite websites.

To get the new video content, simply update Pulse on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch (or Android device) or download Pulse from the App Store.

Via: The Appside

With the launch of the new iPad and its Retina Display, it may take some time for apps to catch up with the new high-resolution art requirements. Not for these ten apps, which have all been updated to support the new iPad's high-resolution screen.

ABC Player: Want to catch up on ABC shows, but don't want to lose out on resolution? Well, the ABC app now supports the new iPad Retina Display, which should make high-resolution video available from the app shine. It would even be possible, if ABC supports it, to stream 1080p, which is even higher resolution than what local ABC stations display at.

Pandora: How would a music app benefit from a higher-resolution display? Well, it might not, but choosing and discovering new artists and songs to play will look better than ever. As well, the LTE in the new iPad means higher-quality audio is easier to stream while on the go.

Pulse: This news aggregator recently added support for local content, but it got a second update this week adding support for the new iPad. Image previews for articles come through clearer than ever, and reading articles is even easier now with sharper text.

Evernote: The popular service for sharing notes, audio recordings, and pictures to the cloud supports the new iPad with its latest update. Now, all that shared content can be pulled down and viewed more crisply than ever. Well, besides the audio, the Retina Display won't change the sound. Apple can only do so much.

Readability: Don't lose any viewability when viewing the web through this app's easier reading experience. The 1.0.3 update introduces Retina Display support, making the title of the app continue to ring true.

iA Writer – One of the finer writing apps available for iPad, this crisp and clear writing app loses none of its visual fidelity on the new iPad. As a bonus, it now is universal for the iPhone and iPod touch, and still supports iCloud for syncing between devices as well as the Mac version of the software.

Tweetbot: Arguably the best third-party Twitter app available, Tapbots has updated the assets to make the iPad version of their client shine. The new update also brings live streaming of new tweets, but only over wifi, so no need to worry about wasting that LTE data plan.

Kindle: Still not giving in to the Apple ecosystem entirely? Well, good news: at least one third-party ebook service is supporting the new iPad, so Kindle books will read clearer than ever. Well, the text will be. The actual content may still be confusing.

BeoClock: Normal alarm clocks are just too low resolution to be any good any more. Wake up to a beautfiul alarm clock displayed by the iPad's Retina Display, and possibly everything in the world will be more beautiful. Or everything will pale in comparison to this alarm clock's beauty. Either way, it'll probably look really nice.

CalcBot: Tapbots' calculator app may just be the most beautiful calculator on earth, and with its new update, the new iPad can display it in full Retina Display glory. It makes the TI-89 look even more pathetic by comparison. Plus, the iPad doesn't have a built-in calculator app, so this really comes in handy!

Pulse is about to pick up on what's important locally for users, not just nationally. The new Local category in Pulse adds special local categories for users based on their current location. This includes sports categories provided by SB Nation, Bleacher Report, and CBS Sports, to help read up on local teams. Publications that track food reviews are also available, to find the newest delicious eats in the area. As well, deals from LivingSocial and Groupon are collected and available in the app. This is along with special categories for local publications that can provide relevant news and happenings in the local area, such as Gothamist for New York, and The Bold Italic for San Francisco users.

These categories appear identically to national sources in Pulse, and articles can be read and shared from them just as national publications, making for a seamless fit into the app. The free update is available now for both the iPad and iPhone/iPod versions of the app.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!