Posts in reviews

On Stage: iPod Companion App with Wikipedia Integration

On Stage, a new app by German developer Fabian Kreiser, is a lightweight companion to the iPhone’s iPod application that, together with a custom UI design, comes with neat Wikipedia integration that also supports Sophiestication’s Articles out of the box.

If you’re looking for a more powerful iPod replacement that does a bunch of things like Wikipedia lookup and recommended artists, make sure to check out My Artists, which we reviewed a couple of times on MacStories. On Stage is a smaller alternative with a feature set focused on letting you pick music from the iPod library and display Wikipedia information for the playing album, song, or artist. The app also displays lyrics like in iPod.app but has a function to retrieve lyrics online if missing. Read more

iPad 2 Camera Examples & iMovie

The iPad 2 is outfitted with a pair of cameras that allow for intimate FaceTime and HD recording sessions, but how do these cameras rank on the still photo front? Several blogs have posted some pics already, but I wanted to do a few examples of my own (including a homemade movie) that really shows off what you can expect to do with your new tablet.

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Frenzy Public Beta Available: A Dropbox-based Social Network

Back in September we talked about Frenzy, nothing more than a teaser at the time that was promising to bring a “Dropbox-based social network” to the Mac. Today, Aptonic Software (makers of popular utility Dropzone) has released the first public beta of Frenzy for Mac and, indeed, it works like a private social network powered by the Dropbox backend. We took the app for a quick spin earlier today and we were impressed. Read more

AirTuner Turns iPhones and iPads Into AirPlay Receivers

Speaking of AirPlay apps, here’s a $0.99 one that Apple’s isn’t featuring in its custom section, but should: AirTuner turns any iOS device into an AirPlay receiver that can display videos and photos coming from another device or iTunes.

Entirely hardware-accelerated and based on the same interface design Apple uses for AirPlay, AirTuner is universal for iPhones and iPads and in my tests worked perfectly with the Youtube and Photos apps, iTunes, Safari and other third-party applications thanks to the improved AirPlay support in iOS 4.3. For what it’s worth, the app’s icon is also nice on your homescreen.

With the iPad 2 featuring two cameras, it makes more sense now to be able to instantly stream photos and videos from one iOS device to another. Imagine checking out some photos on your iPad 2, and also have the possibility to beam them to your friend’s iPad. AirTuner is a $0.99 download here.

Byword: Distraction-less Writing App For Mac

Byword, a new app by Metaclassy, aims at bringing a minimal, focused writing environment to the Mac. The OS X platform isn’t new to this kind of applications that want to take the distraction away from your writing experience: Ommwriter for Mac tried to provide an uncluttered background for your text that, eventually, turned into a distracting experience for many due to the use of sounds and animations; the usual Text Edit, on the other hand, still maintains a strong hold on users with its minimal UI and powerful text editing features. When combined with apps like Think, Text Edit can become the ultimate writing app for the Mac.

Byword, however, wants to step up the game with a really minimal interface made of no toolbars, and just text on a light background. You can run the app in its own window, but Byword is meant for distraction-less fullscreen mode that will feel just right on Lion, but works well on Snow Leopard as well. When you’re writing in Byword, nothing else is on screen. Just you and the cursor. Read more

ScreenFloat: A Better Way To Capture Information with Screenshots

ScreenFloat by Eternal Storms Software – the same developer behind Flickery for Mac – is a new app released in the Mac App Store last night that allows you to take screenshots that will float above other windows on your Mac. Why would you want to do that, instead of the classic CMD + Shift + 4? Because sometimes information can’t be copied & pasted, and a screenshot is the best you can do to have the information you need a few clicks away. With OS X’ default screenshot-taking capabilities, you’ll still be forced to switch between the main app you’re using (say, the browser or a text editor) and the screenshot you just took, perhaps opened with Preview or Quick Look. So Eternal Storms thought that, when screenshots are the best way to quickly capture information, your Mac should be able to let you easily and quickly take a look at the image. Read more

The Smart Cover: Revisited & Reviewed

When I wrote about the genius of Apple’s Smart Cover for the iPad 2, I didn’t need to have it in hand to make my bold assertion. The Smart Cover had sold itself before anyone needed to touch it, thanks in part to Apple’s well done product showcase. It is the first accessory offered as you purchase an iPad 2 online, and the Apple store representative I was with made sure I knew all about the must-have covers. Apple is aggressively putting the spotlight on Smart Covers wherever they can, and for good reason. Put simply, this is the accessory you’ll want to buy with your next iPad.

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Zen Viewer: iPad File Manager With A Unique Design

Of all the features Apple is expected to implement in iOS 5, one has gained particular interest from iPhone and iPad users recently: better file management options for documents and files created inside applications, and a way to get these files out of an iOS device quickly. Many have speculated iOS 5 will get some sort of direct integration with the Finder, with Lion’s AirDrop feature leading to think that, eventually, iOS will be able to easily communicate with a Mac nearby. But for now, we’re “stuck” with a variety of apps from the App Store that aim at providing what Apple left out – a way to group documents together, manage them, share them, edit them.

In the past months, we reviewed several of these apps with most of them being iPad apps meant for a larger screen and easier file viewing. iFiles is my app of choice with lots of features and deep cloud integration (something that’s vital for my daily workflow), but I was also impressed by the quality of Berokyo and Cloud Connect Pro, two apps to manage files in a visual grid and access documents stored on external Macs, AirPort Disks and servers, respectively. iFiles, for many reasons I outlined in my review, still wins the file management space for iOS with a universal app for iPhone and iPad, built-in WebDAV server and Rackspace / Dropbox integration.

Today we take a look at Zen Viewer HD, the new kid on the block of file managers and viewers. The app is on sale right now in the iOS App Store for $0.99, and it’s quickly climbing the charts of Productivity and Top Paid apps. What differentiates Zen Viewer from its competitors is the unique design that brings a Finder-like column view to the iPad (the app doesn’t have an iPhone version) and a bottom tabbed toolbar to access a series of functionalities with a couple of taps. Zen Viewer is a powerful application that can preview almost any kind of file, from PDFs and images to .mp3, .rtf, .xls, iWork and HTML files. Read more