This week’s roundup of new and updated apps for your iPhone and iPad has something for people who love sports, music, or William Shatner. That covers just about everybody, doesn’t it?
Already this week we told you about the launch of AT&T Locker, a cloud storage service, and an update to the Waze navigation app. We also reviewed Time Command, an app-driven alarm clock dock, and gave you a hands-on look at the latest version of Paper.
Here are other new and updated apps that caught our eye this week.
Band of the Day: If you’re feeling old and out of touch with what the kids are listening to these days, the free Band of the Day app for iPhone and iPad—see above—has always been useful, giving users free music from a different band every day. (Hence the name.) Version 3.0 of the app offers a number of new features, including a “Mix Tape” option that lets you listen to hours of songs at a time, a Pandora-style feature that plays music from bands that are similar to ones you like, and updates to the music player and band text biographies. Rock on!
DM1: On the other hand, some people prefer to make music instead of merely listening to it. One great tool for doing so is the $4 DM1: The Drum Machine for iPad, which is pretty much exactly what it says it is. New features in this week’s update include the ability to import sound samples directly from a microphone or from storage services like Dropbox; users also now have access to a new master volume track, and 22 new drum kits that let you create any rhythm you can think of.
HuffPost Live/LinkTV World News: Two new apps make it easier to consume video news on your iPad. The free HuffPost Live app lets you watch commentators from the Huffington Post discuss the news of the day—it also enables you to join the conversation as an “on air” guest of the online TV channel. LinkTV World News, another free offering, gives you access to free video news and documentaries from around the world, culled from more than 50,000 news sources.
Hueless/Polamatic for iPad: These two iPhone photo apps are going in entirely different directions. The $2 Hueless app helps users make great black-and-white photography using their phone; this week’s update included an overhaul of the user interface and the unveiling of new sharing features. Polamatic—a $2 offering which recreates your photos as old-style Polaroid pics—was also updated with a new user interface, as well as the option to save high-resolution versions of your photos.
Madden NFL 13 Social/NBA King of the Court 2: Love your big-league sports? Madden NFL 13 Social for iPhone and iPad isn’t the straight-ahead arcade football game that usually appears under the Madden name; instead, it lets you build your football team, adding free agents via in-app purchases. You can connect to Facebook and challenge friends to live games. Similarly, NBA: King of the Court 2 doesn’t recreate the five-on-five game with your favorite teams: Instead, you’ll be playing in a “street ball” format with graphics reminiscent of the White Men Can’t Jump era of gameplay.
Shatoetry: This is what happens when you combine refrigerator-magnet poetry and the voice of William Shatner into a single iPhone app.
ToDo Pro: The App Store is full of get-things-done offerings, but the new ToDo Pro for iPhone and iPad has the advantage of being useful across numerous devices— a Mac version of this app also launched this week. No matter the platform, ToDo Pro is featured-packed, letting users create projects and checklists, and allowing them to share information via email and text. But as the “Pro” moniker indicates, you’ll pay for the privilege—it’s $2 a month or $20 a year to subscribe.
Other apps of note: Netbot, the App.net client, has updated with push notifications and other improvements … TuneIn Radio Pro has more stations, including those for seasonal usic … and Path, the social-networking app, is now available for the iPad.
Author: Joel Mathis
Joel Mathis is a regular contributor to Macworld and TechHive. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and young son.