Erica Sadun
- http://
Filed under: iPad
First look: OmniFocus for iPad
Copyright 2010 The Omni Group. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
With OmniFocus for iPad just now hitting the App Store, I haven't yet had as much time as I would like to use the application to its fullest potential. My initial interaction has, however, been positive. Costing a rather steep $39.99, OmniFocus for iPad brings another professionally priced tool for professionals into the App Store iPad arena.
OmniFocus offers a way to create to-do lists on steroids. You can brainstorm out ideas, then start organizing and classifying them into separate projects, tasks, and "contexts"; contexts allow you to make tasks relevant to where and when you are working on things. Items related to working at home will not intrude into your "Office" context, for example.
Filed under: iPhone
First Look: Rocknor's Donut Factory
Rocknor's Donut Factory is due to hit App Store on Monday. It is an iPhone update of a Windows game that was critically acclaimed back when it was released in 2003. It offers terrific puzzles and fun gameplay that's unfortunately hampered on the iPhone by a too-literal transition from the original game.
In this game, you move dough through a factory -- shaping it, cooking it, topping it, and shipping it out -- using a variety of assistive machines. You have to be clever. Some of the factory floor layouts are fiendish. Getting each donut produced to order to meet your quotas isn't as simple as you might think.
Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, iPad
Dear Aunt TUAW: Where's my Michael Jackson Zombie?
Dear Aunt TUAW,PopCap Games recently released an update to Plants vs. Zombies boasting "multiple performance enhances and bug fixes" (sure, but I never had an issue on my 3GS). Now, the King of Pop Zombie is nowhere to be found! He's replaced with a zombie with an orange Afro, white 70s leisure suit and orange shoes.
Thank you from your loving nephew,
Alejandro
Filed under: iMac
iMac line refreshed by Apple
After some early morning downtime, Apple's store is now back and featuring new iMac configurations. Full details are on the iMac technical specifications page. The new systems offer Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processors (no more Core 2 Duo!) with improved graphics and new Magic Trackpad support.Graphic options on the new machines include the ATI Radeon HD 5750. The new machines add support for the SDXC memory card format as well. The 27-inch model also supports dual hard drives as a BTO option.
Apple's press release covers the new models' speedy goodness.
Filed under: iPhone
First Look: Word Driven offers fun license-plate inspired game
Word Driven from Headlight Software, Inc. transforms a cherished car trip game into a fun iPhone application. You're given three letters to work with (in the real world, you'd get those letters from passing license plates, but here they are automatically generated by the application) and must produce a word using each letter in the proper sequence.
The underlying dictionary seems pretty robust, handling nearly all the words I threw at it. At each possible completion, the application chimes to let you know you can submit the word as-is. If your word continues on further, you can keep typing, otherwise you can tap to submit.
Filed under: iPad
Watch AVI videos with yxplayer
A month or two back, I shelled out US$4.99 to pick up a copy of yxplayer, a video playback utility available on the App Store. Yxplayer isn't particularly user friendly or over designed. I am also about as far away from yxplayer's core demographic as anyone can get. (More about that later.) And yet, I'm going to give it a double pair of thumbs up and recommend it to anyone who owns a video-capable camera that shoots AVI video.I am a mom. I own an inexpensive Creative Vado unit. Right now they're selling at Amazon for about $50. We picked ours up at a Newegg sale for something like $25 shipped last year. It's a great little Flip-like video system that my 7-year-old can happily use and that works well with our living-room media Mac mini. It takes pictures (they aren't fabulously good) and shoots AVI video (ditto) and my son loves it to pieces.
Filed under: iPhone
Library of Congress rules in favor of jailbreaking
Today, the Library of Congress has ruled in favor of both jailbreaking and unlocking phones according to an Associated Press Statement published on the New York Times. The Library of Congress statement can be found here if you'd prefer to read the original. The Washington Post has also picked up this story.This ruling responds to an EFF petition, one opposed by Apple, that maintains the current status quo, allowing iPhone owners to continue both practices, and pushes things even further. Jailbreaking allows iPhone owners to download third party applications outside of Apple channels and unlocking offers a way to use iPhones on third party GSM networks, typically T-Mobile.
Filed under: iPhone
RocketBoy offers blam blam blam fun
RocketBoy 2D from PowPowGames (great and appropriate name!) is a bloody, graphic side-scroller shooter game for the iPhone. It's also amazingly well realized with a strong design aesthetic that's sure to please both visually and through its sound design. The graphic designer did a bang-up job (pun reluctantly intended) creating a coherent visual feel that tickled my fancy. Despite its juvenile look, RocketBoy 2D is not for kids. I meant it when I said "bloody". Watch the video.
Filed under: iPad
Riskternatives: Conquist and Strategery
I looked at two world conquest-style games that follow from the original Risk board game: Strategy and Conquist. Admittedly, I'm not a big Risk fan. I much prefer games that involve more building and planning and less random dice rolling. With that confession on the table, I did find that both games were well made and offered many nice features.
For US$3.99, Conquist for the iPad offers an app that, of the two, is closer to real Risk. The map is the standard Risk world (see the screen shot above) and Risk-style grace notes like those cards you collect and trade in are included in game play. Conquist provides multi-player interaction using a single interaction board, so you don't have to "pass and play" your iPad around. If you don't have friends around, it's easy enough to set up two to five bots to play against.
Filed under: iPhone
TUAW Braintrust: Choosing an iPhone 4 case
The iPhone 4 bumper/case program has finally launched via Apple's new Case Program application. Now it's decision time. Which case do you choose? If you're like me, you haven't really tested out a lot of these options in real life. I've used the Bumper for the past few weeks and can recommend it. It is pretty minimal and unobtrusive, but is a bit of pain to keep putting on and taking off in order to work with my old dock. It has a good reputation in crash tests and I do like the way that the bumper offers physical extensions to the built-in buttons -- but it's not my iPhone 4 in question here, it's yours.
So let's turn this matter over to the TUAW braintrust. Tell us which of the cases on offer is best, in your opinion, and why? Can you recommend any of these choices as a better option over the bumper? If so, how does that case excel in day-to-day use? Let us know in this handy poll and don't forget to add your thoughts in the comments for this post.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
