iPad app of the week: Songza

Songza is a streaming music app for iPad, iPhone and android that provides 100% free music streaming with handmade playlists by music experts.

Some of the other key features are:  No audio advertisements & no monthly listening limits;  Stream thousands of original playlists;  Let Songza's "Music Concierge" find the right music for you at the moment;  browse all playlists by activity, genre, decade, & mood;  save your favorite playlists & share them via Facebook, Twitter, and email.

This app seems great and the fact that you can stream this app on your mobile device without having to have a premium account makes it very appealing.  

iOS 6, What we got, what we didn't.

As always when it comes to our iPhones and iPads we get all crazy on our wish lists of what we would like to see.  Sometimes we get blown away and sometimes we get disappointed in what we didn't get.

For me all in all it was a good update to a good functional operating system.  My favorite announcement is that Siri will finally be coming to the iPad with this update!

Speaking of Siri, she is getting, well useful, haha.  You will be able to ask to to tell you the score of a game, stats on a player, or better details on a restaurant that you are looking for.  She can launch apps now!  Finally for all us lazy people who hate using your finger to find things, hah.  Also a neat part of this is no lists with possible answers here.  She finds exact info now, and will launch things straight up with out having to show you a list of things you might be asking for.

Next big thing was Apple finally introduced their own Maps App.  Now I know we can all say we saw this coming a mile a way with all the buying of the Map making companies, so bye bye Google Maps.  What we get with this new Map app is turn by turn navigation (finally)  and it is narrated by Siri herself no less.  It seems to be a very good implementation of a navigation app and shows you your ETA in real time based on crowd sourced traffic info and can even reroute you if you are coming up on a traffic jam.  You also can get 3D overlay of cities and a nice sky view.  Now the only thing I will miss from Google Maps would be street view, I can't tell you how many times this has helped me find an obscure place I was trying to get to but I had no idea what it looked like.  I hope Apple will implement their own version of Street View in the near future.

Next feature that I really like is the ability to block certain phone calls and notifications during certain periods of time.  Need to get some sleep or take a nap without being disturbed then you can easily set this up to be able to block phone calls or any notifications at all.  Or you can even tell it to allow certain numbers to come through but block the others.  Now this I can think of many uses for.  Now don't worry all you stalkers out there if you call enough times the iPhone will think it's an emergency and actually allow your call through.  A well needed addition to the OS for sure.

Another feature that I liked that has been a long time coming is the ability to text back an answer to any phone call.  Say you are busy and someone calls you can just hit an answer with message button and select the message you want to send.  For example:  I'll call you back later.  or What's up?

Here is a really cool thing and the beginnings of what Apple has planned for a mobile wallet.  It is called Passport.  You can store card information here, have plane ticket, and movie ticket info.  Say you bought a movie ticket online and you pull up to the movie theater, it will detect that you are close to a theater and bring up your ticket on your homescreen.  Or you are trying to catch a plane and you are delayed, Passport will notify you of any delays, or gate changes as soon as they happen.  Pretty neat and well organized app.  I can't wait to see this develop out.

Now there are many many more features being added to iOS 6 but these are my favorites.  Let's focus now on what we didn't get.   Biggest thing we didn't get a redesigned app icon, or layout change of any kind.  Now yes I know the iPhone layout and icon's are getting kind of old in the UI phone race.  But Apple is not one to rush in to too much change to quickly.  So it doesn't surprise me that we didn't see any major graphical changes with this iteration of iOS.  I'm still holding out that they do something similar to the live tiles on the Windows phones.  Those are just really nice and user friendly. We also got no mention of what this update will do to the Apple tv, but that is a post for another time.

Get your Vjay fix with this new iPad app.

Algoriddim, which also makes a great djay app for the iPad has just released their new Vjay app for $9.99 in the app store.  This new app will turn your iPad into a "mashup machine."  Vjay will allow you to take your videos or music stored on your iPad to beat-match it and mash it together to create  your own art.

It comes with features such as looping and tempo detection, and even low latency and 2D scratch pads.  These control surfaces can manipulate video effects and transitions in real time, in addition to offering precise audio control. 

Once you are done you can output your creations through Apple's HDMI adapter.  The Vjay app requires an iPad 2 or later to work correctly and is now available in the App store for just $9.99

Gaming on the Go: MotoHeroz

This game got a brand new update recently and with that update the game went free. No word if it will stay free. The concept is that you are driving off road to a goal at the end. Well lets just say off road is a bit of an understatement. Check out the video below to see a better explanation than what I can give. This game is available in two versions iPhone and iPad. I am not sure if there is an Android version. Leave a comment below if you have an Android device and can confirm that it does exist for Android.

 

 

 

Gameplay video for Infinity Blade Dungeons.

This video was suppose to appear on my original blog post about this game yesterday but for some reason didn't want to show up in the final product so here it is.  Enjoy!

Infinity Blade Dungeons: The Diablo III for iPad!

Epic games, the company that has brought us both Infinity Blade and Infinity Blade II have released information about a new project that they are working on. From the official trailer to the gameplay describtion it seems that we will have ourselves a beautifully done dungeon crawler.

Gameplay is described as very touchscreen friendly, something you would ecpect from an Epic games project. As with the other Infinity blade titles simply making slashing marks on the enemy creates basic attack moves but other gestures around your character will create special attacks and magic effects. For example drawing a simple circle around your character will cause a spinning attack.

This wouldn't be a dungeon crawler if it didn't have loot, and it apparently has lots of it from head, neck, chest, puts and legs, you will find any type of armor upgrades you will need. The one thing that you will not find is weapons. The uniqueness of this shows in the fact that there is a mini game where you create your own weapons. This mini game looks extremely well done and depending on how well you do with the mini game depends on the quality and attributes of the weapon. The better and faster you make the weapon the better stats it will have and less you have to spend points on making it stronger. You can also add gems to these weapons which determines the type of magic moves that you can do while using this weapon. I think this sounds really cool and should be a heck of a lot of fun itself!

Epic has also created this game the same as they have their others being able to play on the go or when time is short and you want to pass some time. Each dungeon should be completable within less than 10 minutes each. They are also created to be non linear so that you can explore to find hidden treasures and armor as well as other surprises along your path.



It is rumored that we could see this game within a few months. With the amount of info and the detail that this game is already showing I wouldn't be surprised if this game doesn't come around sooner rather than later.

Gaming on the Go: Extinction Squad.

 

Adult Swim has released another fun time wasting game for the iphone. Basic consept is that you and your team of zoological defenders have to rescue the endangered and helpless animals from around the world. And how better to do this than to hold out a trampoline for them to bounce to safety. Yeah I know just watch the gameplay video above. It's definitely a fun time waster.

Oh look more iPad 7" rumors.

Seems that this rumor just won't die....ever...  iMore is reporting that they have a source telling them that a 7" iPad will be released along side the next iPhone in October.  IMore, who is usually pretty accurate with rumors has also reported that this new 7" iPad will sport a Retina Display and smaller memory.  Starting at around 8 gigs at a $200 to $250 price point!

Refurbished iPad's get another discount.

If you are looking to buy an iPad and really do not care if it is brand spanking new then Apple has  deal for you!  They just made their refurbished iPad 1's and 2's even cheaper by taking off an additional $20 - $50.  Refurbished products from Apple come with the same warranty as new ones and have been inspected and confirmed in working order and pretty much look like they did when they first came off the assembly line.  Head on over to the apple.com website and under the store tab look on your left hand side toward the middle of the page for the refurbished section.  It is a good place to not only get refurbished iPads but Macs as well.

Apple sneaks in a really nice upgrade to the iPad 2

Those sneaky fellows over at Apple have updated the iPad 2's with a smaller processor this according to people who like to buy things just to tear them apart...  Anywho, according to several of these sources of people with way too much money on their hands and a need to rip beautiful tech apart ( I'm not jealous I promise) the iPad 2's dual core processor has shrank from 45 nanometers to 32 nanometers and offers up some great improvements to battery life compared to the older iPad 2's as well as a slight boost to performance due to the new enhanced design.  What does this mean, well for a cheaper price of $399 you are actually getting a really nice piece of hard ware with longer battery life.  If you can handle not having the retina display, I would definitely recommend getting this improved version of the iPad 2.

iOS update 5.1.1

Apple has rolled out an update yesterday for all iOS devices which offers a few tweaks and improvements. These include:

*  Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the lock screen shortcut.

*  Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks.

*  Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances.

*  Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List.

*  Fixes an issue where "Unable to purchase" alert could be displayed after successful purchase.

Spotify finally gets an iPad version and it's great!

Spotify the streaming music service that lets you make your own playlists of any song has finally released a dedicated iPad app. It was worth the wait, with the retina graphics and the very intuitive design, This is a great upgrade for iPad users of Spotify.

The full screen "now playing" screen (pictured above) gives you a great picture of the album art and to change tracks you can simply swipe up or down depending on where you are in your playlist.

 

This is what your playlists screens looks like. Your menu bar on the left, playlists next to it and the full details of the selected playlist is on the right.

 

The what's new section on the iPad app is expanded greatly compared to the iPhone version with a what's trending section for both your friends on Facebook and also a what's trending in your area. At the top you are greeted with a recommended section that I am assuming predicts what you might like from your playlists and what you have played in the past. I wouldn't say mine was very accurate but then again I really haven't played around with it much at all.

 

If you have an iPad and use Spotify this is definitely an update you will want to get. Also if you haven't ever tried Spotify on your mobile device download it free and you get s free trial of their premium service for 48 hours.

Blogging with the iPad

So since I just bought an iPad I decided I wanted to see if I could blog from my iPad without any issue. As I use blogger I decided to look in the AppStore and what I found was that google only has an iPhone app and not an app for iPad so I started surfing around looking for a good alternative. What I came upon and decided on was blogsy. It is a dedicated blogging app that allows you to design, edit, and post blogs to all the major blogging platforms out there.

After downloading and opening the program you are greeted with a setup guide and how to videos that are available from within the app. After watching the videos it was a snap to sign into my blogger account and get started blogging. My most favorite part of blogsy is the ability to add all forms of media directly from the app without having to leave the app to copy/paste links or images. It makes adding images as simple as clicking your desired source from the menu and dragging the object onto your post and bam you are done!

I would definitely recommend blogsy for anyone who would like to blog from their iPad. You won't believe the difference you will see after using this app.

My first purchase at an Apple Store

I had made up my mind I was going to buy a new iPad and I am too impatient to order something online and wait for it to come when I can just hop in my car and go a few miles down the road to get it.   Well I decided to go to Best buy because I had a left over gift card from my Birthday to spend.  I went inside hopeful yet doubtful that they would have a 16 gig wifi version in stock.  After making my way through all the people and making my way to the iPad station I looked around for an employee to help me.  Now I want to first start off by saying that usually when I am in Best Buy a million employees ask me a thousand times if I need help when I usually am just there to browse.  I finally got ones attention and asked if they had any new iPad's in stock.  He said, "Ummm I'm not sure I'll have to find the guy who knows.  BRB."  About 15 minutes later another guy finally came up and I explained I was waiting to here if they had any new iPad's in stock.  His response was, "Oh I guess he forgot to tell you.  We don't have any and it will be really doubtful you will find one this early since release.  I said ok and left the store a little let down and decided to go where I should have gone to begin with.  I ventured across the road to our local mall and into the Apple Store there.

Take your movies and music with you anywhere!

I found this gem this morning while surfing the inter webs.  It is the GoFlex Satellite Wireless from Seagate.  What is it you ask?  It is a wireless external hard drive that works over wifi to deliver all our media content on the go to your iPad smart phone or other tablet.  So this means you can take up to 300 movies or tons of songs with you where ever you go with your mac.

Some of the mentions features are:
The ability to stream up content to 8 devices at once.

Automatically sync content from your Mac or PC.

Up to 7 hours battery life.

This sounds like a great idea and comes at a price tag of $199.  This is the first drive of this type specifically designed for this type and seems like a brilliant idea.  It has gotten a lot of great results from online retailer sites.

If you are one of those people who wish they could take it all with them on your iPad then this would be a great accessory for you!

iHome introduces the iDM5

iHome introduced a new product of interest this week, the iDM5.  What is so interesting about another keyboard for the iPad?  Well this one is meant to be a stand, keyboard and bluetooth speaker system for your home and not for traveling.  It's a neat idea although a rather expensive one I think.  At $129 dollars I suppose for an iPad peripheral that has a bluetooth keyboard, speakers, two usb charging ports, and a stand it really is probably a bargain as all of those things would cost you a lot more separately.  iLounge did a great review giving it a B and slightly recommended.  Their biggest gripers were with the keyboards responsiveness and not having an actual bottom dock charger built into the device.  However it is providing two usb ports for you to charge any devices or phones with it and you can keep the iPad in landscape position and charge it at the same time.  I feel that it would be a good buy for someone who is looking for their iPad to be a portable device it is but needs a good keyboard/office kind of platform to type on and play their music or skype calls with.  check it out at iHome.

Install songs on your iPhone from iTunes wirelessly.

This question was brought up to me by my fellow coworker Amerah.  So you have your brand new iOS device and you forgot to sync your songs you purchased from iTunes to it.  Have no fear with the introduction to iOS 5 you can simply download any song that you have purchased directly from your iTunes app without having to sync your iPhone, or iPod touch.   This is a very simple and easy process that I will walk you through.
Click Read more to find out how.