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Five apps for Father's Day
It's Father's Day weekend, which means it's time to look at those apps that'll appeal to the Dads in our audience. I solicited suggestions from the guys on our team at TUAW and came up with a list that will help the Dads grill in style and take control over their TV (not that they need any help with that one, right ladies?). If you have any additional app suggestions for the Dads out there, please share them in the comments. MLB.com At Bat 2012 (Free; subscription required for some features) At Bat 2012 is the official iOS app for Major League Baseball. It works on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch and lets you keep up with the 2012 baseball season while on the go. Users can read breaking news, track player's stats, view game highlights and watch current games as well as archived games from the previous season. At Bat requires a subscription, but the pricing is very reasonable. You can get a full season of access for $15 or pay $3 each month. Weber's On the Grill ($4.99) What guy doesn't like to grill? They all love the smell of burning meat over a fire, which is why I added Weber's On the Grill to my Father's Day list. This app is an excellent companion for grilling fans looking for some cooking tips or a new way to prepare a steak. It has 280 grilling recipes and 40 recipes for rubs, marinades and sauces. You can favorite the recipes, share them with friends, and even use them to make a grocery list. National Park Maps HD ($3.99) Though they might not like asking for directions, guys do love maps and a useful mapping app for travelers is National Park Maps HD from National Geographic. The app has detailed trail maps and other point-of-interest information for 20 National Parks. It uses GPS to track your location and lets you find nearby campgrounds, picnic benches and other facilities. You can even use it to mark your camping site so you can find your way back easily after a long day of hiking. Logitech Harmony Link (Free) Think of the Logitech Harmony Link for the iPhone as a digital dashboard to control all your electronics. You'll need a Logitech Harmony Link device, but once you have it, you'll be in remote control nirvana. The Harmony Link app for the iPhone lets you control up to 8 devices from 5000+ brands of electronics. It uses gestures for common commands and has a customizable interface you can tweak to your liking. There's even support for activities so you can select "Watch a Movie" and everything is switched to the right device with all the correct settings. Send a Tip: Grooming Lounge (Free) We've all been there, done that. You have a friend and you don't know how to tell them that their breath stinks. You make a polite gesture and offer them gum, but nothing works. Your hair still curls every time they turn to talk. No worries, because, now, there's an app for that. Just download Send a Tip: Grooming Lounge and send your friend an anonymous tip that'll alert them of their social gaffe. You can read more about the service at the Grooming Guys website. It's hilarious, yet uncomfortably useful.
5 apps for Moms on Mother's Day
It's Mother's Day here in the US and in a handful of other countries around the world. To celebrate this holiday, I've compiled a list of five outstanding apps that are perfect for all the iPhone-toting mothers out there. These titles will help Mom get organized, share memorable moments and have some fun. If you have any suggestions not on this list, please add them in the comments. Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms and Moms-to-be! iAllowance ($3.99) iAllowance is a versatile chore manager that lets you set up comprehensive chore charts for several children. Besides listing each child's responsibilities, you can assign a value to each task and let your child earn money, stars or time for each job they do. The app keeps track of each child's earnings, so you can dole out rewards when they reach a specified amount. iAllowance is chock full of features that'll make doing chores as much fun as possible for both parents and their children. Pic Collage (Free) Pic Collage is a free app that lets you choose the best photos of your kids and assemble them quickly and easily into a collage. You can import photos from your camera, your photo library or even Facebook. All photos are dropped onto the canvas and you can resize, rotate and move them to get the right look. Once you've arranged your photos to your liking, you can change the background, add some text and send the masterpiece off to the grandparents. Day One ($1.99) If want to remember those precious times with your kids, you can't go wrong with Day One, a terrific journaling app that makes it easy to jot down your daily thoughts. Day One's strongest feature is its cross-platform availability. You can use Day One on your Mac, iPhone or iPad and sync your entries across devices. Unfortunately, Day One doesn't let you import photos, so you can't add that precious photo of your baby to an entry. Photo support is on the developer's list of upcoming features, and, for me, Day One is such a good journal that I am wiling to wait. If image support is a must-have, then you should check out alternatives like MyOwnDiary HD, My Daily Journal or Dailybook for the iPad. SpellTower ($0.99) There are so many iOS games, but one that always seems to be at the top of my list is SpellTower. The word puzzle game challenges you to spell words using adjacent letter tiles. The game includes several modes including a Tower mode that lets you spell as many words as possible, and a Puzzle mode that adds a row of letter tiles every time you spell a word. There's also a local multiplayer mode, so you can challenge your spouse or kids. AllRecipes Dinner Spinner Pro ($2.99) AllRecipes Dinner Spinner is a cooking app that'll help you find the perfect meal. The DinnerSpinner lets you add an ingredient, shake your phone and retrieve a matching recipe. You can read reviews for each recipe and add the ingredients to your shopping list. If you're an AllRecipes member, the Pro version of Dinner Spinner lets you view your recipe box on your iOS device. You can also share your favorite messages with your family and friends via Facebook, Twitter or email.
Five apps that'll help you celebrate the Easter holiday
Easter is just around corner which means it's time for spring flowers, lovely dresses and time with family and friends. Below are five apps to help you celebrate the Sunday holiday. If you have any suggestions of your own, please add them to the list (all prices are USD). Wood Puzzles Easter Color HD ($0.99) Wood Puzzles Easter Color HD is an iPad app that features 15 different Easter-themed puzzles. The puzzles are your standard wood puzzles with colorful, chunky pieces that are perfect for the younger set. Easter Egg Coloring Book (Free) The Easter Egg Coloring book is a finger-painting app for children that chock full or rabbits and eggs for your child to color. It's cutesy and will keep your children busy coloring for hours. Olive Tree Bible Reader ($0.99; bibles and study guides available as in-app purchases) If you are a Christian, then you should consider adding Olive Tree Bible Reader to your list of must-have apps. It has a variety of bibles and study guides that you can add to your iPhone or iPad. Use it to bookmark and then review those passages that celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. iCookbook ($4.99) Eggs and candy are a big part of Easter, but we can't forget about the all-important Easter brunch or dinner. If you need some cooking tips or recipe ideas, then go no further than iCookbook. The cooking app features 2,000 recipes with detailed instructions and stunning photos. The app has some compelling features like voice command which lets you use your voice to work your way through a recipe, set timers and more. Egg Dyeing 101 from Martha Stewart ($0.99) Egg Dyeing 101 from Martha Stewart was on our list last year and is back again for a second round. The app has detailed instructions on how to cook and dye Easter eggs as well as fun crafts that you can do once the eggs are done. It's 99-cents and worth every penny.
Five apps to help you file your taxes (updated)
With only a few weeks before taxes are due -- the federal deadline is on April 17, and many states have followed suit -- plenty of Americans are scrambling to file before the clock ticks away. We've gone and found five apps that will help you make Tax Day, and waiting for that refund, a bit easier. TurboTax SnapTax (Free, but has in-app purchases) This app from Intuit allows those who are eligible to file with the simple 1040-EZ to do their taxes straight from the iPhone. Snap a photo of your W-2, answer the questions and hit the button to zip your return to the IRS. While the app itself is free, actually filing a return costs $24.99. TurboTax 2011 (Free, but has in-app purchases) Those who use TurboTax for their taxes can now do so via the iPad. The app itself is a free download, but like all of Intuit's products, filing the return will cost you. Those who have used TurboTax in the past will find the interface familiar. Filing returns starts at $49.99 for federal taxes and $39.99 for state. H&R Block Mobile (Free) This app from H&R Block allows you to check your Federal return status. It also allows you to create checklists for doing your taxes and estimate your refund, and it provides access to a tax help center that allows you to look up questions, define tax terms and more. And, if you throw up your hands in defeat, the app also provides directions to the closest H&R Block location. If you're a 1040EZ filer, you can use H&R Block at Home 1040EZ Tax to file for free. Receipts Pro - Expense Tracking with Reports ($4.99) Receipts Pro keeps track of all your business expenses as you make them so you're not struggling to recall them when doing your taxes. The app lets you take photos of your receipts and organize them into groups or categories. Custom fields can be used to attach tax or payment information to each receipt. An overview graph helps you keep track of spending and a reporting feature lets you print up a detailed list of expenses. IRS2Go (Free) Finally, we have the app developed by the IRS itself. Like other apps, it will allow you to check refund status. You can sign up to get tax tips emailed to you, how to contact the IRS, and you can follow the IRS Twitter feed from it. However, it does not provide access to tax code, forms or the sort of tools found in Tax Central. Still, if you feel more comfortable using the official app to check your refund status rather than Intuit or H&R Block, this app is not a bad way to go. [Kelly Hodgkins contributed to this post; updated to reflect separate apps for H&R Block]
Five apps to entertain and educate your toddlers
One of the best toys I had for my kids was Professor Owl, a talking owl that taught them the alphabet. Sadly, Professor Owl stopped working a few years ago and we've never been able to find a good replacement. Instead of continuing to buy cheap learning toys that break, my husband and I decided to use an iPad or an iPod touch filled with educational apps for our younger ones. In an earlier post, I listed five apps for the pre-school group. Now, I will list five of my favorite apps appropriate for toddlers (18 months to three-years-old). If you have any recommendations, please add them in the comments. Wood Puzzle (US$1.99) Wood Puzzle is a chunky puzzle game for toddlers. It has several different puzzles, each with six to ten pieces. The puzzles are colorful and have objects that appeal to kids like a train, princess and frog. Just like a traditional wood puzzle, your child grabs the pieces and places them in the right spot using a single finger or two fingers if they have enough dexterity. There's also an automatic mode that'll solve the puzzle for your child and animate the solution. Scratch a Sketch ($0.99) Scratch a Sketch is a unique toddler games which has a colorful kids picture covered by a layer of black. As the child touches the screen, the black is erased, revealing the image underneath. It's fun for the toddlers who enjoy seeing the picture pop out at them and entertaining for the under-two set who can randomly wipe the tablet screen and gradually see the picture. Barnyard Games for Kids (Free; $1.99 in-app purchase) Barnyard Games for Kids is a series of mini-games that's perfect for kids four and under. It has bright colorful images and catchy sounds that'll attract your child's attention and hold it. It's more than just farm animals and sounds. Barnyard Games for Kids has games that'll teach your child his or her shapes and colors, alphabet, and numbers. The app includes two free games for free and a $1.99 in-app purchase unlocks the rest. Little Sky Writers ($1.99) Little Sky Writers is an alphabet app that teaches children how to write their letters. It uses an airplane that sky writes each way through each letter. It's easy for your child to trace along and my kids just love the airplane theme. There's even a control tower voice that helps your child learn the sound and usage of each letter. Thomas & Friends: Engine Activities ($1.99) What child doesn't love Thomas the Tank Engine? Both my boys and my girls have enjoyed the Thomas and Friends animated series. That's why I had to buy the Thomas & Friends: Engine Activities when I spotted it in the App Store. The app includes three coloring sheets, three animated puzzles, and three collectible engine cards from Pop Goes Thomas and three of each from Creaky Cranky. There's also a matching game that uses the engine cards that your child has collected. When your child has exhausted the content in the app, you can buy additional activity packs for 99-cents each.
Five apps to keep your young children entertained and educated
Earlier this week, I wrote a post about letting your children use an iPad. I mentioned locking it down, filling it with apps and letting them use the tablet in small increments. In a minor oversight, I didn't mention any of the apps that I put on my iPad. To make up for that mistake, I've decided to do a series of posts on educational apps for kids. Below you will find five apps that are both entertaining and educational for three to five-year olds. In the next few weeks, I'll do another post for older kids and one for toddlers, too. If you have a favorite, feel free to share it in the comments. AniMatch ($0.99) Made by Lima Sky of Doodle Jump fame, AniMatch is a fun, matching game for youngsters with cute graphics and whimsical sounds. The game has a grid of twenty tiles and hidden behind each one is a cartoon animal. Each animal makes a sound when you touch it. As expected, the cow will moo, the lion will roar and so on. It's a cute game that combines memory training with sight and sound recognition. See.Touch.Learn (Free) See.Touch.Learn is a multimedia-rich flash card game for little kids. The app is available for free and includes several free flash card libraries. You can even more flash card libraries or create your own via in-app purchases. There's also a premium version for $24 that gives you access to 1,700 images and 1,300 exercises. The game is fun for kids and powerful for parents. Monster Coloring Book ($2.99) Monster Coloring Book is high on the fun value as it combines monsters and coloring- two topics kids love. The app lets you pick different brushes, patterns, and stickers to color your monsters. WHen you are done, you can save it to your iOS device or send it to an AirPrint printer. The Monster Coloring Book is available for both the iPad and iPhone, but it works best on the larger screen of the tablet. Lakeshore Learning Phonics and Letter apps (Free to $1.99) Lakeshore Learning has a series of inexpensive apps to your children about the letters in the alphabets and their sounds. The company makes a basic alphabet game which introduces a new letter each day. There's also a tic-tac-toe phonics game and an interactive game that teaches beginning sounds. Jr. Bingo ($0.99) Jr. Bingo is a Bingo-style game that teaches little ones about colors, shapes, numbers, letters and letter sounds. Its is one of three games by ABCya that uses Bingo Bugs. These colorful bugs are given as a reward when a child completes a game of Bingo without a mistake. The more games the child completes, the more Bingo Bugs they earn. When the children are done with the game, they can then play with the Bingo Bugs which hop around the screen and can be flicked all over the place.
Five apps for Super Bowl Sunday
The Super Bowl is just around the corner which means it's time to get ready for the big game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. Rather than our usual five apps, I couldn't contain myself and, instead, put together five categories of apps that'll set you up nicely for food, football and fun this coming Sunday. Official NFL and Team Apps if you want to learn more about the Patriots's offense and the Giants's defense, then you should download each team's iOS app. The Giants have a free app for the iPhone, while the Patriots have chosen to go iPad-only with a magazine-style app. The Patriots Football Daily app has a free 7-day trial followed by a paid subscription. The NFL also has a suite of apps to commemorate the game. Each Super Bowl XLVI app is filled with statistics, images and more about current and past Super Bowl match ups. Party Prep and Post-Game Pictures The best part of the game (besides the commercials) is spending it with family and friends. You can use Red Stamp to prepare your guest list and send out party invitations. Once you know who is coming, you can use 170,000+recipes from BigOven to start cooking for your crowd. When the party is over, you can use Pic Collage to assemble your pictures and share them with your party attendees. Social Apps That'll Let You Share The Game Part of the fun of the game is sharing it with others. Now that social apps are a dime a dozen, you can share your thoughts and comments with the world, not just your friends in the room. Besides Facebook and Twitter, you can use Football Connect to play along with the game and talk trash with your friends. If you want to know what other NFL Pros are saying about the game, then check out NFL Pro Tweets which will give you a stream of tweets from players who are watching from the sidelines. There's also IntoNow, a social app from Yahoo that gives you content exclusively for the game while tracking the TV broadcast. The app includes a StatTracker, a way to share the play-by-play action and a sports news feed from Yahoo. If you tag the Super Bowl using the IntoNow app and watch the Pepsi Max ad, you can enter the Pepsi MAX for Life sweepstakes. Apps For Watching and Listening To The Game For the first time, the NFL will stream the Super Bowl over the internet. If you're a cord cutter, you'll finally be able to watch the game on your MacBook Air. If you're going to be mobile, then you'll want to download Pro Football Radio Live. You won't be able to watch the game, but the app will let you listen to it live. If you are a Verizon Wireless customer, you can download the NFL Mobile app. It's free to download and requires a US$3 daily or $10 monthly subscription to watch the video streams. The Super Bowl will be broadcast live over Verizon's airwaves on Sunday, so make sure you have the app, an Internet connection and some cash to watch the game. Football-Themed Games While you wait for the big game, you can fill your time with football-themed games like Pocket Passer QB, a natural football throwing game with several fun mini-games. If you prefer to be a kicker instead of a quarterback, then NFL Kicker might fit the bill. It's a flick-style game that lets you hone your field goal kicking skills. Lastly, there's NFL Pro 2012 from Gameloft, a full-fledged football game that lets you become a gridiron champion.
Five apps to help you track your finances
It's January, which means you're probably thinking about your finances for the upcoming year. Tax season is right around the corner. There might be employment changes coming or large purchases on your mind. Here are five apps to help you keep track of your money as it goes in and out of your wallet. iBank ($4.99) iBank is an all-purpose financial organizer for the iPhone that keeps track of your checking, savings, credit card and cash accounts. It lets you enter purchases on the fly and has some nice features like split transactions and multi-currency support. It can be used as a stand alone app or as a companion app that syncs to iBank for the Mac. iBank lets you sync multiple devices so you and other members of your household can always have up-to-date financial information on your handset. TaxCaster (Free) TaxCaster is a tax calculator for the iPhone and the iPad from Intuit. The app lets you add in W2 income, business income, withholdings, deductions, tax credits and more. It's one of the most feature-filled tax estimators I've used and does an accurate job of estimating your taxes. The app uses sliders so you can easily adjust the values and see how it affects the amount you owe (or will be refunded). Loan Calculator Pro ($0.99) If you have a house, car or a personal loan, then you should have an app like Loan Calculator Pro on your iPhone. The app lets you enter in the terms of a loan and produce an amortization table to see how long it will take you to pay it off, how much interest you'll pay and so on. It includes a "what if" scenario so you can see how your loan will change when you make extra payments. You can also track your loans and add in payments as you make them. Receipts Pro ($4.99) Receipts Pro is a valuable tool for anyone who needs to keep track of receipts. It's a flexible app with advanced features like custom receipt fields and repeating receipts. It'll let you take a picture, save a voice memo and add other attachments like an email to a receipt. Receipts Pro helps you keep track of your money by letting you assign a receipt to an account and a category, too. This information then can be used to generate reports and graphs which show you where your money is being spent. All reports can be saved as a PDF, Excel or CSV file and uploaded to Box, Dropbox and other cloud services. Wikinvest Portfolio HD (Free) Wikinvest is a stock portfolio manager that lets you import and track your accounts from Etrade, Schwab, Ameritrade, Fidleity, and other brokers. It updates nightly, so you always have the latest information on your investments. Wikinvest includes tools to chart your portfolio's performance, both on its own and in comparison with major indices. Pair this with the Bloomberg app for stock news and you have the right tools to maximize the return on your investments. Have any other finance favorites you'd like to tell us about? Leave us your comments below to let other TUAW readers know what is keeping your personal finances in the black.
5 apps for Black Friday
It's time to get your plastic out, and your game face on as Black Friday is almost here. The busiest shopping day in the year is two days away, and we have singled out five apps that'll help you find the best deals. Black Friday from DealNews (Free) When it's not Black Friday, DealNews is one of the best websites for finding deals on everything from clothes to cameras. On Black Friday, though, DealNews has one of the best apps to track individual deals as they are announced. Besides deals, the app also lets you add deals to a shopping list, search for specific products and even pull up online deals from a retailer's website. The best non-deal feature is the app's ability to find local stores so you'll know where to go when that HDTV hits a rock bottom price at Best Buy. Be sure to watch TUAW's Steve Sande interview Dan de Granpre from DealNews on today's episode of TUAW TV Live. TGI Black Friday (Free) TGI Black Friday is an app that focuses more on the ad scans from Black Friday promotions than individual deals like its DealNews rival. Each retailer's ad is scanned and available as a downloadable PDF. You can view sale items on a store-by-store basis or by browsing through categories. You can also search for items and save them to a shopping list. When you are done, you can email your shopping list to you or a loved one. You can also share the deals on Facebook or Twitter. Road Tripper (Free; US$1.99 ad-free) Road Tripper is a basic route planning app. It lets you add multiple points onto a map and save the route between them. It'll let you add all your shopping destinations, so you can plan the best way to travel from the mall to Target and then to L.L. Bean. Once your route is planned, you can print your map or send it via email. You can also share it on Facebook. The app is available for free, but includes advertisements. A US$1.99 in-app purchase will remove these ads. Google Shopper (Free) An essential part of shopping on Black Friday is making sure you get the best deal. Even if you have planned every last detail of your shopping trip, you will inevitably stumble upon an item that you want, but did not know was on sale. To make sure you get the best deal, you should use Google shopper to check prices at competing retailers. The app lets you scan or photograph your sales item and pulls down pricing information from Google's online shopping search engine. Your Favorite Retailer's App (Free) Most major retailers have an iOS app that'll let you find sales information, store locations and inventory. Most apps will let you make purchases that can either be shipped to your doorstep or held at your local store. Before you start shopping on Friday, you should fill your phone with the app from your favorite retailers. Stores like Best Buy, Target and Walmart are some of the top choices for Black Friday shoppers. Apple also has an app that'll let you browse its Black Friday sales, place online orders and arrange for in-store pick up. It will even let you checkout on your own when you are in a busy retail store.
5 apps for the Zombie Apocalypse
It's much harder to put together a 5 Apps post for the Zombie Apocalypse than you might think. Do we focus on serious topics like first aid, or do we try to inject a little humor like Plants vs. Zombies for "training skills"? In the end, we came to the conclusion that this was simply too complex a topic to limit to just five app titles. We give you five app topics instead -- and we've skipped the entertainment component. In that spirit of deadly serious preparedness training, we give you "5 App Categories for the Zombie Apocalypse." First Aid The app store is brimming with first aid applications. We liked the free Know-it-All First Aid refresher app, which seems to have plenty of good reviews and cover the basics. Other well-reviewed apps included Pocket First Aid and CPR ($3.99), and Emergency First Aid & Treatment Guide ($0.99). Emergency health response is a vital component of survival during the apocalypse. Maps During the Zombie Apocalypse, you'll want access to a navigation application that uses cached maps. These apps tend to be quite large (typically over a gigabyte) but when the zombies are after you and the Internet is dead, cached information may be a lifesaver. We recommend Navigon (various prices based on region) and TomTom (ditto). Survival manuals The App Store is home to any number of survival manuals. You may wish to check out iSurvival ($1.99), iSurvive ($1.99), the Army Ranger handbook ($2.99), Wilderness Survival ($3.99), or Survive It ($1.99). TUAW recommends against Zombie Apocalypse-specific titles (e.g. Zombie Apocalypse Manual, $0.99) as they do not provide as balanced coverage as the general topic apps. Flashlight apps There are a bajillion free flashlight apps on the App Store, many of them that can enable your built-in LED like this one. Flashlights can help you find your way through the moonless night as you run across the gravel pits. Be careful though. They can draw more attention to you by the hordes of the undead, who can see just as well as the living (especially when their glazed, bleeding eyes chance upon warm prey). You can use a free Safety Flasher to signal your compatriots once you know they haven't been infected. TUAW recommends against picking up multitool versions of flashlight apps. You don't want to be measuring shelves or using a level at the same time you're fleeing for your life. Also skippo the virtual Zippos. They won't do you any good in a real-world zombie face-off. Camouflage Consider picking up the free Zombie Nombie Lite if you think you may need to enter situations where you must camouflage yourself amongst actual zombies. Hold the app in front of your face, shuffle and make a lot of moaning sounds. You'll blend in perfectly. As a final note, let us point out that apps like the Zombie Survival Guide Scanner are meant for entertainment purposes only. Do not attempt to use these in real-life apocalypses.
5 apps for Diwali
TUAW wishes its Hindu readers - Diwali ki hardik shubhkamnaye. This holiday rejoices in the Inner Light and the underlying reality of all things. In its spirit as the festival of lights, we offer you a special edition of "5 apps for...". Here are an assortment of iOS applications to help celebrate Diwali. Interact with a Diwali diya (free) on your iOS device using swipes and puffs of air. The app provides musical background songs and various styles of ceremonial diya lamps. The $0.99 Diwali Greetings lets you create and share e-mail holiday cards with friends and family Desi Calendar (free) provides a yearly calendar with festival dates and listings for each month full moon (purnima) and new moon (amavasya). Create traditional Diwali sweets ($2.99) using this iOS recipe collection. Celebrate with Diwali Firecrackers ($0.99) with "5 firecrackers and 25 engaging levels" by illuminating the earth with bursting firecrackers. TUAW reader Sunilkumar K. Meena tells us, Diwali is the festival of Laxmi, the Goddess of prosperity and wealth. It is believed that Goddess Laxmi visit everyone during Diwali and brings peace and prosperity to all TUAW reader Raghav Sethi adds that Deepavali (Diwali) is a festival where people from all age groups participate. They light earthen 'diyas' (lamps), decorate the houses, light firecrackers and invite family and friends to feasts. Lighting lamps is a way of praying for health, wealth, knowledge, peace, valor and fame. Shubh Deepavali! Thank you Raghav Sethi and Sunilkumar K. Meena
5 iPhone apps for hiking
Now that the weather is cooling down here in the States, it's time to spend some time outdoors. I love a good hike, and they're made even more enjoyable with a good app by my side. Track distance, brag about your workout or even find a hidden "treasure" during your excursion with these apps. Have fun (all prices are USD). iMapMyHIKE (Free lite version, $1.99 pro) I used iMapMyHIKE all summer. When you start out, launch the app and note your location. As you move, the app tracks your course. It's fun to see where you've traveled as well as build a real-time map back to your starting point, should you get confused. Of course, that's just the beginning. You can share your hiking stats with friends (like distance travelled, pace and so on), spot hiking companions running the app on a map and log your data to keep track of your outdoor workouts. It's a lot of fun and was a good companion this summer. BoxFinder ($1.99) and Geocaching ($99) Here's a two-for-one deal. BoxFinder and Geocaching are apps for letterboxing and geocaching, two similar hunt-and-find games that can enhance any hike. Geocaching is the practice of finding small boxes (often Tupperware containers) that have been hidden at specific geographic coordinates around the world. Each typically contains a log book and other goodies. Letterboxing is similar, but directed at kids. Upon finding a letterbox, the "hunter" marks its logbook with his signature "stamp," while placing the box's stamp in her own log book. Both apps make the adventures much easier and enjoyable. Since the iPhone 4 is a GPS receiver, finding that box is quite easy. Use the coordinates, description and virtual logs left by other "players" to find just what you're looking for. Both apps offer to find boxes within your area and, in my experience, excel at directing you right to them. If you're interested in either of these pastimes, grab these apps. They truly enhance the experience. MyNature Animal Tracks ($6.99) When I was a Boy Scout, I loved making casts of animal tracks we found in the woods. Today my own kids like finding them, too, but I'm out of practice and can't identify them as reliably as I used to. Fortunately, MyNature Animal Tracks is here to help. This great little app features a huge database of animal tracks, both hind and forepaws. When you come across a track, perform a quick search to find what you're looking for. Once you have, the app provides an image of the animal, plus its gate, call and typical range. Best of all, the data is all within the app so it works without an Internet connection -- a likely scenario in the middle of the woods. Star Walk - 5 Stars Astronomy Guide ($2.99) Staying overnight? Then you must have this with you. There are plenty of astronomy apps out there but this one never fails to impress. When pointed at the sky, Star Walk identifies the stars, planets and other heavenly bodies overhead (including satellites!). It's extremely impressive. As you slowly move it across the sky, Star Walk points out what you're looking at. A search feature will guide you to a certain object with an arrow. For example, type "Mars" and the app prompts you to face the right direction. There's also a calendar of celestial events for planning purposes and a red-light "night mode" to preserve your dark vision. It's one of the first apps I use to show off my iPhone (iPad, too). There you have five great apps to accompany you in the great outdoors. One more thing -- grab an environment-resistant case while you're at it. The rivers, streams and hard rocks are pretty, but they don't care a tinker's cuss about your iPhone.
5 apps for the dead
Sometime a wiseacre editor (we have a few) suggests we do a Five Apps post for a particularly offbeat area of interest. And sometimes we actually start brainstorming these. While "Five apps for the lemur owner" isn't likely to hit TUAW any time soon, "Five Apps for the dead" is about to have its day. The last thing you want to worry about (literally) is whether or not your estate is in order. Last Will by Cybermill (US$9.99) provides an interactive legal form (US only) for you to fill out on your iPhone or iPad. Create a last will that details your beneficiaries and other final wishes. The app then uploads your details to Cybermill's servers, where a customized PDF or RTF version of your will is created for you to download. Wills are specific to individual states and regulations vary, so Cybermill recommends that you still have legal counsel review your documents. Frankly, trying to produce your will just on the phone is counterproductive since you still need to deal with the downloaded file eventually. While there was a Mac OS 9 version of Quicken's WillMaker product, the current version is Windows-only; however, you can use Nolo's online will tools to do the same thing. Speaking of your final wishes, for just $2.99 the scarily named PTAJ Marketing will help you understand further details about Estate Planning, helping you to learn what it means to die intestate, what kinds of estate plans are available, and, well "much more." Three dollars isn't that costly, but you can probably get as much information or more from Ye Olde Google, the aforementioned Nolo.com site or even (gasp!) your local public library. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is supposed to help you navigate through the afterlife where your sins will be weighed, compared against a feather, etcetera. You're also going to meet up with Anubis, who -- if you believe the Red Pyramid -- is supposed to be rather hunky. You'll probably not be in any state to appreciate that then, but right now you can appreciate this lovely free companion app to the British Museum exhibition that closed this past March. For those newly dead folk looking to understand what bits aren't working any more, we offer you the Human Anatomy App by Enlightened Games. Retailing for $1.99, this application shows all the wiggly parts under your skin, including "all the major processes and anatomical features of the human body." Finally, we round out this five-app collection with the Arlington Cemetery app. For $6.99, David Berndt introduces "some of the less known and most remarkable stories behind each and every headstone and marker." Full of maps and photographs, it's a way to honor the fallen who rest at this special United States military cemetery by preserving their memories and stories.
5 iOS apps for Tax Day
With roughly a week to go before taxes are due -- the federal deadline is on April 18, and many states have followed suit -- plenty of Americans are scrambling to file before the clock ticks away. We've gone and found five apps that will help you make Tax Day, and waiting for that refund, a bit easier. TurboTax SnapTax (Free, but has in-app purchases): This app from Intuit allows those who are eligible to file with the simple 1040-EZ to do their taxes straight from the iPhone. Snap a photo of your W-2, answer the questions and hit the button to zip your return to the IRS. While the app itself is free, actually filing a return costs $19.99.
5 apps for the conference-goer
Heading off to a conference? Here are five little apps you might want to consider adding to your iPhone before heading off to the airport. They all provide functionality that may come in handy when you're on the go. SpeakerClock ($0.99) provides a bright easy-to-read display showing you exactly how much time you have left to present your paper and take questions. It's a deceptively simple application full of lovely little design touches. I used it at a recent conference and found it an absolutely valuable tool to have around. This app works well both on the iPhone and the iPad -- as a conference organizer, it's really great to use the iPad's larger screen from across the room. As a speaker, the iPhone version works particularly well when placed on a small business card stand on the speaker's podium. Want to easily share your contact information? Contxts offers a simple solution. You can sign up for a free account at contxts.com, where you can enter your details. Anyone with a phone (it doesn't have to be an iPhone) and an SMS plan can text a short phrase (like "demotuaw") to 50500 and they'll receive the information you set up at their website. Their free iPhone app lets you edit that information directly. What's more, when you turn the iPhone on its side, you can display a "HELLO my name is" contact sheet that instructs people how to retrieve your contact data. What's great about Contxts is that it's a solution that works with any group of people, whether they've hopped onto the Apple iPhone train or not (of course, if they have an iPhone or an Android phone, there's always Bump).
5 Apps for leaf-peepers
It's autumn here in the northern hemisphere, and where I live, in New England (and elsewhere around the US too), that brings leaf-peepers. What's a leaf-peeper? It's a tourist, typically from New York or New Jersey, who visits rural New England to observe the beautiful autumn leaves. It's a big deal for us. Each year we New Englanders take a break from eating cranberries, disavowing the Red Sox and pahkig the cah in Harvard yahd to view nightly news reports on peak leaf-viewing projections, which states are changing first and at what rate, etc. Fortunately, there's an app for that. Five, in fact, and here they are. Rest Area If you're traveling from out-of-state, you could encounter unfamiliar highways ... not good when you got to go, if you know what I mean. Is the next rest area 5 miles away or 35? Rest Area [iTunes link] knows the answer. It displays the nearest pit stops as well as what facilities each one has, like bathrooms, vending machines, restaurants, etc. Rest Area costs $0.99US. %Gallery-74446%
5 Apps for the Gastroenterologist
Sometime this summer a wiseacre commenter (we get a few) suggested we do a "Five Apps" for a variety of somewhat offbeat topics. One wasn't so far-fetched however: gastroenterologist. One could say that a gastro doc has about the same needs as any doctor, of course, and that's an easy out. So here are 5 apps that are great for gastroenterologists and possibly any medical specialist... Coming soon: 5 apps for the lemur owner. Epocrates Rx - This free app looks up drugs and is updated weekly. Epocrates [iTunes link] has already been available for other mobile platforms for a while, this is a must-have for physicians, I would think. There's also a Pro version that is designed for medical professionals, and it requires a yearly subscription fee to work. It's $99 for one year, which is pretty reasonable for what this does -- which includes an amazing pill ID tool. DocWrite - Another free app with a service you subscribe to, but this may appeal to more than doctors. DocWrite [iTunes link] is a transcription service that sends your ramblings securely and sends you back a complete transcription in PDF or Word. DocWrite has a web-based dashboard for your stuff, too, so you'll never be without those documents in text or audio. PubSearch - PubMed is a massive database of medical research papers and PubSearch (free version) [iTunes link] is an iPhone app that'll search them. Yes, of course you need a subscription to the database (noticing a trend here?). PubSearch also has a Mac desktop app, although there does not seem to be any coordination between the two. I'd imagine something like sharing bookmarks would be helpful. PubSearch Plus [iTunes link] costs $1.99 and is really the more functional version as it will show full articles and use EZProxy (where supported). Medcalc - A free medical calculator? Yep, Medcalc [iTunes link] includes a ton of formulas for doctors, plus a few indices and charts and whatnot to keep a handy reference for those who need it. This app seems to cover a lot of ground, although I'm not sure how much applies to the field of gastroenterology. Mobile MIM for iPhone and iPod touch - Sadly, this has yet to be released. But I'm guessing it'll be at the top of many doctors' wish lists. MIMvista makes real-deal medical imaging stuff and the MIM app for iPhone was demonstrated at WWDC. The demo was astounding, showing how doctors could merge CT and PET scans right on their iPhone and make notes for later use. The app is pending FDA approval, with no release date or price set.
5 Apps for the weekend warrior
Getting through the work week is hard enough for most of us... but the minute Friday afternoon rolls around, there's a certain breed that face the weekend with a long list of "honey do" projects and household duties. Yes, the weekend warriors need iPhone app love too -- whether to help with those maintenance challenges, or find ways to make the break from the day job a bit more enjoyable. Here's a five app collection just for you, my brothers and sisters in the two-day sprint; enjoy. Weber's On The Grill™ [iTunes link] for iPhone, at $4.99, would seem to be a bit pricey compared to other grill-centric cooking apps selling for $0.99 (dadoo's Grill Guide) or the large number of free and well-regarded cookbook apps on the store (check out Epicurious Recipies & Shopping List, for one). Nevertheless, if you're serious about getting the most out of your grill, the $5 you spend on this app will be well worth it. Weber may be the world's largest grill manufacturer, but the relationship of Weber owners to their grills feels more personal than mass-marketed; in fact, the slightly obsessive and cultish fandom around the Weber brand may seem a wee bit familiar to, uh, owners of a particular company's computers, music players and cellphones. Ahem. The iPhone app takes the Weber customer very seriously, providing a great collection of hundreds of recipes along with grilling technique guides (including videos from chef Jamie Purviance), time and temperature recommendations, a handy shopping list manager, and a convenient cooking timer right in the app. About the only thing that's missing is an optional meat thermometer to plug into the dock connector (which I would totally buy if they made one). %Gallery-70121%
5 Apps (Mac & iPhone) for pilots
People who fly airplanes, either professionally or for fun, are an interesting bunch. When they're not flying, they are usually doing something to keep their skills sharp or to learn something new. This selection of five Mac and iPhone applications is a sampling of what's available for Apple platforms for the very frequent fliers who read TUAW. 1) X-Plane from Laminar Research is not just one application, but a collection of flight simulation programs for Mac and iPhone as well as "those other platforms." If you're just curious about what it takes to fly an airplane, the X-Plane mobile apps for iPhone and iPod touch are a fairly low-cost way to see if you have what it takes to be a pilot. You can actually start for free with X-Plane Trainer [App Store], which provides your iPhone or touch with a Cessna 172 in which you can learn to take off, fly, navigate, and land. X-Plane Trainer also provides you with constant tips, somewhat akin to having your own flight instructor sitting next to you correcting your mistakes. The original X-Plane app for iPhone / iPod touch was X-Plane 9 [App Store, US$9.99], which has six different aircraft and configurable weather and daylight features. Laminar Research has also added X-Plane Airliner [App Store, US$9.99, see screenshot below] for budding airline pilots, X-Plane Extreme [App Store, US$9.99], X-Plane Racing [App Store, multiplayer, US$9.99], and X-Plane Helicopter [App Store, US$9.99]. To make life interesting, Laminar also came out with X-Plane Space Shuttle [App Store, US$1.99] so you can learn how to land an orbiter.
5 Apps for the lawyer
It's official. The iPhone has come into its own in the legal world. It took a little time, and lawyers are notorious Luddites (you can pry the WordPerfect out of their cold, dead hands) but they do like Bright Shiny Objects, and nothing fills the lapel pocket like an iPhone. The iPhone finally cracked the law-firm standards stranglehold by virtue of its compatibility with Microsoft Exchange, which freed lawyers from the non-choice of "would you like a Blackberry, or a Blackberry?" Granted, the Blackberry still seems to have a better handle on business needs, but for some, the iPhone is worth getting to know. It should go without saying -- I will say it, though -- many of the productivity apps that are useful to everybody are useful to lawyers, so two of these apps are not strictly law-related. (See if you can spot them! It's a brain teaser and a post!) Also, certain obvious apps don't exist yet, such as a standalone LexisNexis or WestLaw legal research app. That said, the web will suffice for now. In fact, though I've artificially constrained myself to only standalone applications, the iPhone really shines for accessing web research sites given that Mobile Safari is (mostly) a full-featured browser. So, without further ado, here are five apps that give a glimpse into what the iPhone can do for attorneys. 1) DataViz's DocumentsToGo. Nobody expects to write a brief or a memorandum from start to finish on an iPhone (though I am waiting for a good enough voice-recognition app so that getting a draft started is feasible), but any legal writing usually goes through more revisions than your average pre-1.0 beta software. Often this happens right as you were planning on leaving for the day. DocumentsToGo allows you to edit and change documents, as well as email them over Exchange (requires $9.99US Exchange version) to other team members. Of course, iPhone OS 3.0's cut/copy/paste was a prerequisite to making any word processing application workable, but now document editing has become at least moderately feasible. Nothing replaces your desk, covered in open books or a large monitor with LexisNexis or WestLaw opened to 18 different searches, but this gives you just a bit more flexibility and just may save you a panicky trip back to the office at 11:30pm on Saturday night.
