Free iPad Apps that Are Awesome

February 25th, 2012Curious Stuff, Device Reviews No Comments

We mulled over the blog title “These Are the Free Apps You Are Looking For” but decided rehashing Star Wars for the millionth time is a wasteful passion best left to George Lucas (yes, you heard us, G.L!)
Old iPads and iPhones are a huge part of our treasure trove, and so with a trusty used iPad on the desk, here are a few top apps we love for every Apple tablet!

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)
Hundreds of free video talks about everything from astrology to farming, game design to hacking advice (how to avoid it, not how to do it!) TED is basically an outlet for experts, freaks and geeks to say their piece. Full of great info (we loved Brian Cox’s talk on exploration), clever people and plenty of inspiration.

Cracked (satire and humour)
If you, like us, enjoy the art of procrastination, get the Cracked.com app to feed daily articles, lists, photo contests and videos to your iPad. Favourites from our own freaks and geeks include “The 6 Weirdest Dangers of Space Travel” (kidney stones? Seriously?), “Instructional Diagrams for People Who Suck at Everyday Life” and “Lost in Translation: 20 Baffling Foreign Movie Posters” (Robotic disco puma? Were we younger we might ROFL!)

FileApp
Ok, so not the most riveting free app for the iPad, but a simple, effective way to transfer documents from your PC to your iPad via Wi-Fi or USB cable is pretty essential. The free version is a teeny bit limiting (no renaming folders) but perfectly workable.

One more free app for the cheap seats at the back?

Words with Friends (game)
When folks sell iPads or trade in iPad 2s with us, we find this little beauty on most of them! Totally addictive, fast, easy and applicable to both the super-smart and less wordsy amongst us! Play with friends or connect with random folks for a new challenge.

We Love the iPad Planets App!

February 21st, 2012Uncategorized No Comments

Even your old iPad will run the brilliant Planets app. We’re based in the deepest, darkest, full-on Wuthering Heights-style countryside, so it’s fair to say a few late office evenings have been spent testing used iPads creatively by indulging in a little star gazing! We reckon it’s okay to veer off the tech straight and narrow sometimes in our blog, so rather than harp on about old Kindles, iPad 3 spec predictions and industry chatter, here’s a bit of the astronomy knowledge we’ve picked up along the creative device testing Milky Way!

• It’s really, REALLY hard to point out celestial odds and sods using your finger – lots of “How can you not see?? I’m pointing right at it!” The Planets app Sky 3D option is great for this issue!

• The speed of light is about 180,000 miles per second. A light year is how far light travels in a year, so about six billion miles (or as far as the M25 feels!)

• The definition of a star is “a luminous ball powered by nuclear fusion” We like how this makes us sound learned in conversations that permit the sentence “Actually, I think you’ll find a star is basically just a luminous ball powered by nuclear fusion” Use in conversations with small children and in-laws to best effect. And just for an add-on, the surface temperature usually ranges between 3000° to 50,000°C (the sun is about 5505°C, according to Wikipedia and the smug serious astronomer in our office)

The free iPad app – Planets – is a great way to kill time on late nights in the middle of nowhere, and becomes strangely addictive, especially during meteor showers when the sky seems to be an exciting novelty. The next one is the Lyrid meteor show in April.