APPS
Bacon is pretty popular these days; it is used in chocolate, ice cream, and on every and any sandwich imaginable. Have you ever wondered how bacon is made? Wonder, no more! There’s now an app for that. For $4.99, cheaper than the real thing, you can buy the Better Bacon Book: Make, Cook, and Eat Your Way to Cured Pork Greatness app for your iPad. The application is sleek and minimalistic, easy to navigate, and has a notes and bookmark section.
New year, new you, right? Every January, millions of people pledge to take on a challenge to better themselves. But according to the online Goal Setting Guide, 20% of people drop their resolutions after the first month and by July it's estimated that over half of the remaining resolution-keepers give up. Often times it's easier to keep a resolution when you have someone, or something, to hold you accountable. Try out some of these highly recommended apps to keep you on track all year long.
If you haven't noticed by now, Spotify has taken the world by storm. And why shouldn't it have? Nothing beats an endless library of free streaming music that you can easily share with the world, or at least your tight circle of Facebook buddies.
According to Mashable, music's biggest new destination just got even bigger, as Spotify just announced it's own series of internal apps. With partners such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Fuse, Spotify's apps are meant to integrate news, lyrics, and deeper overall interactivity with the streaming service's massive library of tunes.
Google Shopper: This app finds products at the lowest prices in your area. You also get access to special offers from "deal sites" like Groupon and Living Social.
Gas Buddy: If you're one of the lucky travelers who can drive to your destination this holiday season, you'll definitely want to download Gas Buddy. This app locates nearby stations and gives you gas prices so you can find the best deal.
Odds are some of us have already spent a wad of cash on food or fireworks to celebrate Independence Day over the long weekend. No worries. iPad, iPhone, and iPod users can still feel like they’ve got disposable income no matter what today. EA Games is having the biggest sale in its history and users can get some great games for under a dollar. Usually around ten dollars, most of these are 90 % off. They’re not alone. Joining them on the sales front is NAMCO, Gameloft, Glu, and several other publishers.
These are some of the biggest developers for phone gaming, so many of these are a big steal. Classics like Tetris, Pac-Man, Galaga, The Oregon Trail, and Tamagotchi are on the list. Extremely fun and popular modern games such as I Love Katamari, Rayman 2, Mass Effect Galaxy, and Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies are slashed in price. For those that prefer games that increase intelligence and flex their mind’s muscle, there are games like Brain Challenge HD, Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima, and Scrabble available.
Here is the list of recommended games according to Engadget:
Since the touchpad began making its debut many wondered how the change would affect art and editing. After all, touch screens were somehow bringing us closer to the pad and paper. Using your own hands is a big part of having a touch screen device or tablet. Many were that Adobe, makers of Photoshop, the most popular software for photo editing and creating art via computer, to jump in to accommodate the new experience.
While a fully fleshed out Photoshop program has not been made for tablets or the iPad yet, a few alternatives have been cropping up. Photoshop Touch, a free update for users that already own Photoshop CS5 Extended, will allow the program to communicate with iOS, Android, and Blackberry devices. Touch screen devices would be able to control things like paintbrush movements and layering, essentially functioning as a control panel and art tablet at once. This update will also make it possible for any app developer to work Photoshop into their creation.
Although still a work in progress, the Facebook facial recognition option has been present for about a month now. What it does is “helpfully” tag users using facial recognition technology. The idea is that it saves the time and effort of users finding each picture they’ve uploaded, highlighting a friend’s face, and tagging them. “Tagging” for those who don’t know adds a name to a face when the image is moused over. It also places the photo on the person in question’s profile under “Photos of You”. This sort of creates an ever-evolving photo album for users and highlight’s one of Facebook’s mission statements—to keep friends connected.
Premiering today is Amazon’s application store for Android users. To sweeten the deal Amazon is making Angry Bird Rio free to download for the entire day. An offshoot of probably the most famous cell phone game, it’s probably a nice little bonus for new users.
Amazon’s app store will also let users try out apps that cost money for 30 minutes. This is a luxury usually not afforded to app customers. The “try before you buy” idea might be great for people looking through a myriad of similar games or eReaders only to find that the one with the best description was the lousiest out of the 10 or 20 available for the same exact price.
Although it seemed for a while there that Facebook was out the door due to constant updates and changes in features, The Social Network seems to have made the site more popular than ever. Most of us already know the basics of how to get by on Facebook, but like any website, there’s a lot of coding to play around with, and as with any popular website, there is going to be users there to exploit it.
The Firebird X, said to be Gibson’s stake in revolutionizing the guitar industry and changing the future of instruments, is part guitar and part machine. A homage to the original Firebird, the X has new features such as automatic robotic tuning head, inner modulation, echo, reverb, compression, EQ, and distortion. The guitar even boasts Bluetooth capability.
While guitar aficionados may find the features completely unnecessary and the price tag of $5,500 a bit bloated, some interesting news trickled down the tubes today that may save grace for Gibson. They’ve recently announced the Pure-Analog Engine, an electronic system within the guitar that is user replaceable and can be upgraded according to the wants and desires of the player. The best part of this change is that Gibson has opened up creation of the devices to third party developers, a move which will rapidly lower the price tag for these items over the course of time. Pure-Analog will get its own app. store as well.
 |
 |
 |
 |
