FirstLooks
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First Look: Accordéon for the iPad
Here, at TUAW, we are all about the cool, the awesome, and the amazing, as well as the surreal. Accordéon for the iPad, a new App Store application, falls solidly into the latter category. Alex Komarov was kind enough to send over this video, showing the $3.99 app in action, complete with a text-to-speech voice over monkey. As fellow TUAW blogger Steve Sande put it, this video is "a really weird dream that you keep hoping you'll wake up from." This application offers a virtual accordion playing experience, as its name implies. It has buttons, it has keys, and it leverages multitouch technology so you can press buttons and keys at the same time. No word on how you can "pump" the app, like you would a real accordion though. For everyone who has held off on deciding to buy, waiting until an accordion app finally debuted, well -- you can rest easy now. The squeezebox has landed. On the iPad. With Accordéon, you'll be able to Weird Al yourself to new levels, both in major and minor keys. I wonder if we can rent that monkey for some TUAW videos...
First Look: Air Hockey for iPad
I started watching this video on YouTube and, within seconds, my son was almost magically drawn into my office, staring transfixed at the screen. "This is air hockey?" he asked. "Yes," I replied. "I want it," he said. "It looks fun." My enthusiasm is slightly more tempered, but I think that this is a brilliant choice for an iPad game. I'm hoping that the game will properly use portrait mode for all uses, regardless of what the video looks like, and that there will be, both, two-player on one device, and the over-the-air Bluetooth support shown on the iTunes description page. For that matter, it would be great to be able to play against a fake opponent, although that is not listed as part of the product description. According to Bryan Duke of Acceleroto, Air Hockey will sell for $0.99 on the iTunes Store. There's a free "Gold" version as well.
First Look: Weather HD for iPad
VIMOV's Weather HD combines standard weather forecasting with video backdrops. Although I doubt the application comes with the new age music track, you can tell from this preview that it focuses on looks. I was a little surprised to see the floaty utility-style palette. You'd think that new weather applications would provide some kind of "Find Me" Core Location-powered feature, but I guess people do want to check on places they're about to visit or are away from as well. Weather HD is availablel for US$0.99 on the App Store.
Confirmed: The mythical "iProd" is the real-world iPad
Last summer, the Apple web was abuzz with the discovery of a mysterious "iProd" device in the iPhone's USB identifier list. Leaving aside the obvious jokes, and noting with some astonishment that Erica actually presaged the name back in 2006, we now can say for sure: the iProd was, in fact, the iPad. Full explanation after the link below.
First Look: CourseNotes for iPad
CourseNotesApp developer Jon Klein was kind enough to send over this video of his upcoming iPad app. Aimed at students, this app not only simplifies iPad note taking, but helps keep those notes organized by time and subject. I showed this video around to a student-heavy group and the video received an overwhelming thumbs up. "I think the most exciting thing about the iPad is that it's like the iPhone but it's bring it into new areas, where the iPhone wasn't practical," Klein told me over the phone. "Education is a perfect example of that. The iPhone OS will be a great platform for taking notes but the iPhone form wasn't there." With the iPad-based CourseNotesApp, now it can be.
First Look: Mag Canvas for iPad
Here's a video of a sweet little iPad application that was sent over by Ken Matsui of mkftr. It's for kids, based on those old magnet drawing toys. There's not much to it, but what there is looks simple and easy-to-use. This seems like the perfect type of application that works better on a bigger screen like the iPad -- while there are a few of these available for the iPhone already, having a larger touchscreen to create some temporary art on will be a big benefit for the new device. I know my littlest guy would have fun using it, and if you've got small kids and a long car ride, Mag Canvas may entertain for as much as five or ten minutes. That might not sound like a lot, but to parents, those few minutes can be a really blessed break. Mag Canvas should be available for the iPad right at launch.
First Look: Sudoku Real Edition
According to its developers David Jones and Amy Burton, Sudoku Real Edition offers a game play experience that aims to be "as real as possible, almost as if you bought a Sudoku book and sat down at a table to play." As this sneak peek video shows, that goal is not too far off the mark. Priced at $2.99, this new iPad app was built using real world graphics that were digitized for game play. If you're into Sudoku, you'll probably be impressed by this application's beautifully designed interfaces. It's nice to see how thoroughly the developers created a custom iPad experience. One discordant note is that they used standard Apple switches (ON-OFF buttons) in their Settings dialog instead of creating a custom choice control that better matched their other UI elements. Also, it's not clear whether you'll be able to use full screen play in addition to the tabletop presentation in the video; it seems like a natural transition for landscape to change into a full screen portrait view. That having been said, it looks lovely. I particularly liked their sliding bookmark element, that keeps track of an on-going game. All in all, it looks like a beautiful game and a worthy member of the new iPad App Store community.
First Look: Neon Wallpaper for iPad
Newly "Beta 5 approved" according to AppVision Product Director Mark Chamberlain, Neon Wallpaper for iPad lets you create backdrops for your new device. As this video shows, you can combine elements of pictures and text to build your own personalized wallpaper. This, like so many App Store offerings, is going to be a "matter of taste" application. Either it does exactly what you want, namely to create strongly styled images, or it does not and you'll give it a pass. The reason this video jumped out at me is how the AppVision developers took advantage of the iPad's large screen space to lay out a complex tool space. There's nothing really novel in terms of their choice of interactive elements (also called "controls") -- they are quite standard SDK offerings -- but the app showcases how many of them you can put onscreen at once while keeping the interface relatively uncluttered. Is this an app that I'm dying to start using? Honestly, no. I did, however, appreciate the peek into how this workmanlike application made the jump into the iPad design space, and I thought that you might too. There are 9 million custom wallpapers in the wild, according to their marketing material (no word on actual install customer base) due to Neon Wallpaper, so who am I to pass a call on taste?
First Look: dPad drum sequencer for iPad
I'm not a big drums person. I have no rhythm. I wouldn't know a drum kit if I tripped over one. Overly complicated interfaces confuse and scare me. Nevertheless, I thought I'd bring you this sneak peek video from Stu Helm, who ex-TUAWian Dave Chartier tells me is renown for "Agile and International Mac Podcast fame." I know that a certain subset of you (1) wear jeans with dark, rock & roll-themed tee-shirts, (2) do have some sort of functional relationship with music and rhythm, and (3) will actually enjoy playing with a dark, minimally designed, overly-complicated series of dots to build drum sequences. Although it's pretty feature-limited for an app that's supposed to debut at US$3.99, the developers promise to keep enhancing the app going forward. They are looking to add in-app purchases for drum sound packs, a left-handed use mode, sequence saving and loading (apparently you can make sounds now, but you cannot save them), and recording to audio files. Let me end by consulting my dictionary of "Hip Phrases for Young People(TM) " and adding, "Er,...rock on, good chaps, rock on."
First Look: Ship Finder HD for iPad
We had a rather in-depth discussion about Ship Finder HD over in the TUAW back channel this morning, trying to decide whether or not to feature it in our First Look series. In the end, we determined that the cool functionality outweighed the iffy design and that it was just really a neat thing to be able to track ships around the world in real time. And that's exactly what Ship Finder HD does. It uses AIS coverage from across the globe to position ships on maps. Lee Armstrong of pinkfroot, a small iPhone OS development house, was kind enough to share this video showing Ship Finder HD in action. He writes. "[T]he new iPad's form factor enables the app to be much more functional for just the casual user and the professional mariner." Obviously, the application would benefit from the touch of a graphic designer, especially for the ship icons. The popover views could use a makeover as well. But leaving the pretty-factor to the side, this functionality is compelling and will provide a better fit to a larger interaction screen. The iPhone version of Ship Finder retails for $4.99 on iTunes. No word yet on the price or date of availability of the iPad "HD" version. Interested in an plane-locator version? A second video follows after the Read More...
First Look: Carter's Encyclopedia of Health and Medicine for iPad
When I first heard about Carter's Encyclopedia of Health and Medicine, I thought: "Why aren't they just publishing this on the iBooks store?" After all, what can an app offer that an actual iBook won't? This video offers some answers. Instead of just a static book, this app provides searchable interactive skeletons (cute touch!), a topic-specific search history, and of course, all of the medical detail that a hypochondriac could wish for. The video shown here was provided by Keith Ahern, the CEO of mogeneration, an Australian development company. I'm a little surprised that so many developers are going head-to-head with the iBooks arena, but with a niche area like a medical reference, it looks like Carter's has a chance to stand its ground. This encyclopedia offers a beautiful reference work, but it may struggle with its relatively limited feature set when compared to a normal iBook offering. Carter's Encylopedia will debut at a $9.99 price point on the iPad App Store.
First Look: Kobo for iPad
Here's yet another iPad app that caught my eye via a video preview. KoboBooks takes advantage of iPad-style design to offer a simple, elegant eBook reader. I love how all of the attention to detail (from bookmarks and page views, to brightness, font, and background settings) really exemplifies how apps can work on the iPad. Check out those gorgeous pop-up menus! Long time TUAW friend Jim Dovey sent over this video for us to look at. It's unclear whether Apple is going to (or, really, should) give this app a green light. KoboBooks is in direct competition with its iBooks reader and their support for Project Gutenberg eBooks. Though, if Apple does reject it, that would be a shame. Kobo is beautiful to look at. It is designed with obvious love, and a clear simple feature set. This is another app that I'm looking forward to trying, assuming that it makes it to App Store.
First Look: GL Golf
If you're the golfing type (and I must admit, I'm no golfer), then you may like a new game/simulator for your iPhone/iPod touch. GL Golf [iTunes Link] allows you to play golf on your iPhone in a semi-realistic 3D world. The game consists of 5 golf courses, and you can play with up to 4 people. I really like the ability to change variables in the game. You can change things like weather, time of day, season, ball color, difficulty of play, and the type of course.The game play is solid. To swing the club just double tap on the screen; when the power meter reaches to a spot you want, just single tap and the club will swing, hitting the ball. You can change the type of club you have by dragging your finger up/down the screen, thereby changing the range. The game does pause itself when you tap the home button, so if you get a call while playing, you won't lose your game. The game is almost perfect with the exception of two things that could be easily changed with an update. First off, the graphics are not the best that you're going to find on an iPhone game. Second, not being able to move the camera (view point) around is a big downfall in certain circumstances. Sometimes a tree or river bank might be blocking your view and you cannot see if you're hitting the ball in the right direction (see screenshot 6). Despite that, the physics model in the game is amazing and very accurate. Overall, this is a solid game and should definitely be on every duffer's app download list. You can purchase GL Golf from the App Store today for $7.99. Be sure to look at our gallery of screenshots. %Gallery-32124%
Delicious Library 2: First Look
One of the most anticipated applications in recent memory, Delicious Library 2 is finally nearing release. Earlier this week, the guys over at AppleInsider showed off an in-depth sneak peek of the application and its new features and revamped interface.I have had the opportunity to play with the beta as well, and I must say, I'm impressed. For the last six weeks or so, I have been working on a little something I like to call Project DVD -- wherein I try the various DVD cataloging programs (though most can catalog more than just DVDs) and find the best one to tackle my truly mammoth collection -- and it's great to have DL2 in the mix.Just from my own experiences, what has impressed me most about the beta -- aside from the various UI changes/eye candy -- is just how much easier it is to add items.Because I have so many DVDs, it's often faster for me to enter in titles by hand rather than relying on the iSight scanner. No matter how accurate the scanner may or may not be, holding a title up to my laptop is usually going to take longer than just typing in the name (granted, using a USB scanner like Motorola CS104 is a great solution, but at $100 OEM, you really have to weigh the expense to convenience). My biggest problem with Delicious Library (and in fact, almost all of the programs I have tested for Project DVD) has been that adding multiple titles at one time (say, multiple seasons of a TV show) has been either really difficult or impossible. No more. With Delicious Library 2, adding multiple titles is a snap. Thus, I can search for "Scrubs" and add all six seasons in one fell swoop, rather than having to enter in the name six times into the search engine, or having to scan each title. Since about 1/2 my collection is TV shows, this is is a huge productivity bonus.Read for the rest of my thoughts, and be sure to visit the gallery below for all the screenshots.%Gallery-17981%
First looks at Viva Pinata
After the Microsoft press briefing today, we managed to get a demonstration of Viva Piñata, the upcoming 360 title from Microsoft and Rare. At first glance the game seems extremely colourful and inviting; the game is based around a single garden, which starts as a desolated area.By building up the garden and its ecosystem (of piñata creatures), more and more piñatas are attracted from nearby gardens to live in the player's -- the first piñata that will venture in is a worm, which needs nothing but some soil to flourish, but more demanding creatures come along later. By balancing all their requirements -- some creatures will want to eat each other, for example -- the player can create a happy environment.The game seems very much like a cross between Animal Crossing and traditional God-game titles like Dungeon Keeper. Although it looks to have immediate appeal to children and younger players, it's likely to reach out to Sims fans too -- possibly even the elusive female demographic. We'll have more on the title during E3.
