Filed under: iPod Family, App Store
My favorite iPod touch apps: Mike R.'s picks
In contributing my share to our ongoing series of favorites for Mac and iPhone apps, I think I'm the first of our crew to focus on the iPhone's sleeker sibling. The iPod touch may not have the communications and GPS capabilities of the motherphone, but what it lacks in circuitry it makes up for in panache. I've found apps that are kid-pleasers, apps that leverage the touch's native WiFi location capability, and apps that challenge the brain. (All links are directly to the App Store.)Comic Touch from Plasq. Although the iPhone's camera is absent, the ability to edit, annotate and humorize synchronized photos on the touch is a delight. Comic Touch may not be the only app in this space but it's proven its worth to me during evenings out or when traveling, as my daughters derive endless fun from captioning family snapshots with thought balloons.
Pandora Radio. Making the portable device into a full-featured internet streaming tool is a work in progress, but a WiFi-connected iPod touch with Pandora is an astonishingly fun and surprising music source, a glass-front Airport Express. I love the Pandora web app, so I was prepared to like the miniaturized version -- what I didn't expect was how connecting it to a stereo and letting it play would lead to "Wow, who's this?" moments. Lacking a microphone, I can't run Midori or Shazam on my touch -- but I can make iPhone users want to use those apps to find out what Pandora is playing through my speakers.
Scrabble. Yes, I know that Facebook users have dartboards covered with pictures of Hasbro's legal team -- I still enjoy the EA version immensely. It's colorful, easy to play and has the feel of the tabletop game and the tactile letter-dragging fun you expect. Shaking the device to shuffle the rack aside (it feels gimmicky and I never do it), all I really want to add is a copy of the Scrabble dictionary for training and reference.
Location-aware touch. Even without the GPS of the iPhone, I've been pleased that so many location-aware apps work just fine on the touch. Where To?, Twitterrific, Urbanspoon and Now Playing -- assuming there's a WiFi network around -- behave just as they would on the iPhone, and whether it's due to the solid location frameworks or thoughtful work by developers, I'm appreciative.
Honorable Mention: Simplify Media, Dot Game, City Transit NYC, and Facebook.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Erik R. said 1:16PM on 8-29-2008
The Scrabble app page says it already uses the official Hasbro dictionary. $10 is a little steep for a game I'm not sure I'd really play, though.
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Kev Orng said 2:17PM on 8-29-2008
The problem with the scrabble using the Hasbro dictionary is that the Hasbro dictionary uses US spellings, which isn't a bad thing if you're American, but you can't change it.
glad said 2:10PM on 8-29-2008
Comic touch has to be the one for me as it provides lots of fun for my facebook contact everytime I upload them.
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Kev Orng said 2:17PM on 8-29-2008
My favourite app for touch was a 1.1.4 jailbreak app. I haven't checked yet to see if it's 2.0 ready yet, but I'm not going to bother to jailbreak until it is.
It was called NemusSync and it synced my Google cal with the iPod cal, which then it turned synced up with my computers' calendars as they normally do.
It was a two way sync as well, so if I added an event on the iPod, it synced it up to GoogleCal.
If I added an event on my Mac's iCal, it synced to the iPod, which passed it on up to Google cal.
I know I can accomplish this with mobileme, but I need the google cals for all those family members who aren't going to shell out for mobileme and use google cal regularly for family events.
We want NemusSync for iPod touch 2.x!!!
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Kev Orng said 2:32PM on 8-29-2008
Nemus sync for 2.0 is now up, minutes after I made my original post (it wasn't there this morning, anyway)
This was the Best App Ever for 1.1.4; now I'm going to Jailbreak and load it up for 2 and see how it goes. Well, I'll do that after the long weekend, I don't need to look at any calendars for a couple days.
josh said 2:38PM on 8-29-2008
Uh, Google Calendars support CalDAV now, so you can two-way sync them on your mac now, free.
delight1 said 2:29PM on 8-29-2008
ok, really... do you really have to have ~7 of these articles in two weeks?
it's fluff 'news'... and it is getting annoying now...
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mjgrothaus said 2:37PM on 8-29-2008
OMFG. Stop trying to fill up inches on your front page. These "Favorite iPhone App" features are getting lame. Give us some real news.
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Tired_ said 10:00PM on 8-29-2008
You're in luck. TUAW has a new page, just for you, where they don't try to fill in inches. Just point your browser to about:blank and you'll see it.
vandlism said 3:32PM on 8-29-2008
I like these articles. They give us exposure to apps that we may not have known about otherwise. I love Comic Life from Plasq and wouldn't have otherwise known that there is a Comic touch.
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Terf-Work said 3:57PM on 8-29-2008
I totally agree with you. People need to stop hating. There's only so much news they can bring in. It's a blog, not CNN
Toby said 3:56PM on 8-29-2008
May I add my voice to the masses?
I personally do not think these stories are interesting. I stopped reading a week ago.
Long time reader ... annoyed enough to be a first time commenter
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Nadav said 8:36PM on 8-29-2008
PLEASE can you write the price of each app in the post?
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tomh said 7:26PM on 8-29-2008
The Scrabble app doesn't work in the UK. And they've taken away our Scrabulous. Those fossils at Hasbro wouldn't know technology if it slapped them around the face.
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Maxintech said 8:05PM on 8-29-2008
Pandora only works in U.S.
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OmniGeno said 12:55AM on 8-30-2008
Wait, Mr. Rose, so are you saying that even if there are wifi hotspots around but I'm not able to connect to them, I can still use these location-aware apps? Seems unlikely to me. I haven't had any luck doing so.
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D Birchall said 6:37AM on 8-30-2008
we don't have the scrabble app here in the UK; something to do with ownership of the copyrights in other countries. I think mattel have the rights to it here. Sure hope they release it in England too, anyone know if they will? Also they've neglected us from the eBay app too! Anyone know when these are gonna be released?
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J Sam said 8:38AM on 8-30-2008
I just found a game called Arabela. I played that game on a palm 10 years ago. Very cool. Best $2 I've spend on a game...
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glad said 11:57AM on 8-30-2008
Google calendar is only one way not two way synching
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G said 2:18PM on 8-30-2008
I can add events in iCal or on the Google web calendar and they appear on the other.