This Week's App Store Updates, iPad Special! - 2nd July 2010

Videos iPad Store App from Youtube

Browsing the App Store this weekend? Here are ten new or updated apps especially for the iPad worth taking a closer look at if you are:

Wondershare iDraft.

This is a simple notepad for the iPad, where you can draw or write anything you like on the screen. Pages can be saved in the iPad's photo album, or emailed out to friends as PDFs too. The app is currently free until the 7th July. Free.

Crystal Defenders for iPad.

Available for the iPhone too, the iPad version of Crystal Defenders has enhanced graphics to take advantage of the higher resolution offered. From Square Enix, the team behind Final Fantasy, this is a strategy game where you must position units on a battlefield to defend your position, or attack enemies. $7.99/£4.99.

Splash Duel HD.

It's Breakout underwater! Play against a friend or the iPad as you try to break down the wall and score goals against your opponent. There are 100 levels, 12 bonuses to collect and a selectable difficulty level. $2.99/£1.79.

Way of the Warrior HD.

Samurai fighting game for the iPad, with stunning graphics and manga-style comic cut-scenes. The control system relies on swipes and gestures rather than a virtual d-pad to carry out all the different movements and attacks. $4.99/£2.99.

Dragon Checkers.

A checkers game filed with dragon graphics inspired by the StosyBoy application All About Dragons. Play against the iPad or with a friend. $0.99/£0.59.

Olsynth.

A monophonic synthesizer for your iPad, with four waveforms, modulation, oscillation, filters and several other tweaks. If you've got the ability, you could create some amazing stuff with this! $6.99/£3.99.

iReadPDF.

A sister app to iAnnotatPDF, this is a PDF reader where yot can also search and share them, plus open them directly from an email or sync them via iTunes. You can't complain about the price either! Free.

The Little Mermaid and Other Stories by H.C. Andersen.

When done properly, interactive books really do make the iPad come alive, and this is one of them. This includes The Little Mermaid, Emperor's New Clothes and The Happy Family, spanning 65 pages with 40 interactive sections. This update brings more sounds, interaction and animation. $8.99/£5.49.

iTinis HD

A collection of many common cocktail recipes, all presented in a very attractive way. You can search, browse, bookmark and rate recipes, and view the latest and highest rated ones too. $4.99/£2.99.

Blogshelf

A news and blog reader for the iPad, with a visual style lifted from iBooks. There are plenty of user definable traits from a black or white theme and font sizing to language translation onboard, so if you're a keen blog reader, this could be worth a look. A bit pricey though. $4.99/£2.99.




By Andy Boxall, www.iphonefreak.com

Term "jailbreak for iPhone Users

iPhone users in the larger American, these products are also increasingly popular around the world, such as the successful iPod music through the variants, Apple also provides passed iPhone Smartphone

Do you have a "jilbroken" iPhone? Eves since the iPhone first came on the scene, there has been a large group of users who believe Apple tries too hard to control what works and what doesn't on the iPhone. The minute a new iPhone firmware update is released from Apple, a whole slew of people search for ways to unlock the device, letting them download apps that have never had to go through the App store acceptance process. This means that apps that would have otherwise never seen the light of day can be used on an unlocked (or "jailbroken") iPhone.

I personally have no opinion about those who jailbreak iPhones because I believe in the free-flowing open-source idea of software, while also believing a company ought to have some control over their products.

In other words, I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. But I have never jailbroken my iPhone because part of my job is to review apps that everyone has access to (in the iTunes Store) and I need to have the same user experience with the iPhone that most people have. Also, I would say I'm happy with the iPhone as is.

According to Applelnsider, a recent releaso to Apple's iPhone firmware makes the device invulnerable to the usual jailbreking tactics. I guess we'll have to wait and see how long it takes the community to jailbreak the latest version (if they can), but you can bet they're working on it right now. If you have a jailbroken iPhone, please tell us all about it in the comments.

This week's apps include an excellent product bar code scanner and a four-wheeling ATV game that's probably the best of its kind in the iTunes Store.

RedLaser ($1.99) lets you "scan" products to give you a list of prices from online retailers. There are a few products that perform a similiar function at the iThunes Store and
several have been made for other devices, but RedLaser is surprisingly effective using only the built-in camera on your iPhone.

Simply tap the lighting bolt icon and line up the bar code in between the guidelines on your screen. You have to remain still for about a second, but soon RedLaser beeps, indicating it has scanned the code. Once scanned, you are presented with a list of matches from various stores so you can find the best price.