FLIPBOARD For the last year, iPhone users could only watch as iPad owners used Flipboard to deliver beautified versions of Facebook, Twitter and other graphically challenged online services. Earlier this month, though, Flipboard delivered a long-awaited free iPhone version, which has quelled any doubts that it would live up to the standard of the big-screen version. Flipboard is fast, slick and smart. The Twitter app’s scrolling feature may be faster, but I find myself clicking through to more information about Twitter posts when I view them on Flipboard, and it’s great to flip quickly to other feeds in the same app.
BAND OF THE DAY If you live in a radio wasteland and you don’t want to pay a lot to Slacker and Pandora to hear new music without ads, Band of the Day (free) is a great choice. The app daily features five songs from a new band, along with artist bios, videos and reviews. You can listen to each song five times, and if you don’t love one day’s selection you can scan backward through the calendar to find others you missed or tune into the day’s mix tape.
TIGER WOODS: MY SWING This is the year’s best entry for athletic types. This app isn’t even for avid golfers as much as it’s suited to beginners. As long as you know how to grip a club and you understand the basic elements of a golf stroke, My Swing ($5) can help you avoid a hack-fest on your next trip around a course. After you use the device to record your swing, the software overlays graphics onto the video to show how well your stroke conforms to the specifications of Mr. Woods. His tutorials, though brief, are highly useful.
SKYVIEW This is the new leader among iPhone astronomy apps — at least for the money. SkyView ($2) features a dead simple interface with just the right amount of cool features to keep casual stargazers enthralled. Point your phone at the sky, and the app transforms the camera view into a labeled map of the heavens. The graphics are lovely, and you can click for more information on various planets and stars, or, with the sweep of a finger, learn when they will be in a particular spot in the sky. The free version is also good, but it offers just a glimpse of the paid version’s extended features.
GOOGLE TRANSLATE Google offered a gift to Apple owners this year when it released a slightly pared-down version of its stellar Translate app for Android. Like that version, the Google Translate for the iPhone (free) quickly translates your spoken phrases into text, and for 24 languages, Google Translate will speak the new phrase in a foreign tongue. The spoken-phrases-to-text feature works for 17 languages, so you can hand your phone back and forth for more extended conversations. To save on overseas data charges when Wi-Fi is not available, you can store translated phrases, like ones explaining to others how to use the app.
VIDRHYTHM This is ridiculously fun, foolproof software. VidRhythm (free) guides you through the process of recording a few sound and video samples, and then drops those fragments into one of roughly 15 music video templates. The random scrambling of your samples, set to rhythm, is a bit of musical and humor brilliance, and will appeal to people capable of laughing at themselves. The app includes pitch-correction technology, so the tonally challenged needn’t fear the results. You can export videos to Facebook or YouTube, or import original music and let VidRhythm twist your tunes.
DRAGON GO People who have an iPod Touch or older iPhone and are tired of hearing about Siri from iPhone 4S owners can find relief with this genius little app. Touch a button and tell Dragon Go! (free) what you need, and it scans the Web for results. Say “great sushi” or “great plumbers,” and it’ll suggest nearby restaurants and contractors. You can sort results quickly, so if you just want a Wikipedia entry or a YouTube video, a flick of the thumb will get you there. Dragon Go! won’t speak cute answers to your cute questions, but as a productivity tool, it’s a winner.
WUNDERLIST Awesome Note is in the iPhone App Hall of Fame for good reason, but it offers more features than many people need, and it costs $4. For a simple, elegant and free app that’ll help you build to-do lists and send reminders to all your devices, Wunderlist (free) is ideal. The app makes it easy to set up a task list and prioritize and organize items. The layout is clean and attractive, and the app has intelligent flourishes, including a feature that lets users add tasks through e-mail.
GARAGEBAND Apple’s desktop version of GarageBand has long been a standby for hobbyists and professionals, but the mobile version ($5) is better suited to the masses. Instead of clicking through a drum track or a bass line, you can tap on the device’s glass as if it were the real instrument. Tracks are easily built and tweaked, so you can peck away at a musical idea for months or sketch something in a matter of minutes. Using an external device like the Apogee Jam or the GuitarJack, guitarists can plug their instrument into the iPhone and add layers of stomp-box sound.
PHOTOSYNTH This extremely cool panorama technology from Microsoft is highly refined and a breeze to use. Stand in place and point the phone’s camera straight ahead, and Photosynth (free) snaps a picture. It then prompts you to drift in different directions and to stop when it detects the next photo in the panorama sequence. The app takes a minute or two to process the shot, but when it’s done, you have an amazing photo that you can rotate in any direction, enlarge and share as you would any iPhone image.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=83a86d0f76c4b2159fbdfa05896130dc
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