Crackle

There’s no shortage of video entertainment available on the iPhone and iPad: the iTunes Store as well as dedicated apps from Netflix and Hulu Plus offer an array of television shows and movies that will satisfy the most avid couch potato. But you have to pay for those services. Not so with Crackle, a universal app that offers a modest-but-entertaining selection of TV and film for your iOS device—and does so for free.
As a streaming service, Crackle is every bit as reliable as its competitors. It’s also very social: Videos can be shared from the app to Facebook, Twitter, or via e-mail. You’re not required to register to watch the shows, but doing so offers the ability to stop the movie on your iPad, and re-start it at the same point later on your iPhone or PC. (iPhone 4S and iPad 2 owners can also stream video to your TV via Apple TV using iOS 5’s app mirroring feature, though AirPlay streaming isn’t supported on other devices.) If you really like the show or movie you’re watching, there’s the option to buy it directly from iTunes.

Crackle

Top Camera - photo / video app with HDR, slow shutter, folders and editor

One of the most common pieces of advice for those who want to take their iPhone photography more seriously (yes, people do take it seriously) is to avoid shooting photos in Apple’s built-in Camera app. Many third-party photo-taking apps offer more control and features, turning the iPhone’s camera into a powerful tool for professionals and hobbyists alike.
One camera alternative is Lucky Clan’s Top Camera, which packs in numerous photo-taking modes, impressive photo-editing tools, and more into a single package.
Top Camera comes with more features than other all-in-one camera apps like Camera+, and is similar to such offerings as Camera Plus Pro. Not only does it include different still-shooting modes such as HDR, Burst, and Slow Shutter, but users can also shoot video from within the app, organize photos into different folders, and edit and add filters to photos directly from within the app.

Top Camera - photo / video app with HDR, slow shutter, folders and editor

Newstream

There have been countless news apps introduced in the years since the iPhone launched in 2007. Newspapers have often led the way, with apps that usually amount to little more than a vertical list of headlines. Aggregation services and personalized news apps have usually been more fun to use—but often the best efforts (like Flipboard and Zite) live exclusively on the iPad.

Newstream

GarageBand

When reviewing the 1.0 release of GarageBand for iPad, I wrote: “This amazing tool—complete with eight-track recording, easy-does-it interface, customizable and easily played virtual instruments, on-board loops, sampler, guitar amps and effects, drum machine, and tuner—may be the most inspiring musical iOS app I’ve ever used. And at a meager $5, it’s an astonishing bargain. Musician or not, it’s a must-have app.” To underscore the point, I slapped a 5-mouse rating on it.
So how does Apple improve on what was already a remarkable music app? By making it a universal app compatible with the iPhone 3GS and third-generation iPod touch and later; adding support for 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures; allowing you to configure custom chords for autoplay instruments; providing new swing and triplet quantization settings; adding an arpeggiator feature to Smart Keyboard instruments; and tweaking GarageBand’s velocity sensitivity settings for more predictable results.
I understand that, after running your eyes over these improvements, non-musicians may be thinking, “Ohh-kay, not for me.” I implore you to stick around. GarageBand was developed, in large part, with you in mind. Sure, “real” musicians will find it an invaluable tool for sketching out their more harmonious thoughts, but it also exists to allow those without a dominant music gene to experience the thrill of creating a tuneful composition.
My colleague, Serenity Caldwell, has taken an admirable first look at GarageBand 1.1 and many of its new features, so I needn’t repeat her efforts. What I can do is provide a bit more perspective on how these features can help musical newbies as well as those with more sonic seasoning.

Subtext

You can join a book club or sign up on a site like Goodreads to have conversations about the books you’re reading, but neither feels as easily interactive as reading in Subtext Media’s Subtext. This new social e-reading app for the iPad lets you comment and read other users’ comments directly in the pages of a book. That, along with other social elements, offer a uniquely enhanced reading experience.
Like other e-reading apps, you can read full ebooks in Subtext. But the app offers much more than a reading platform; Subtext functions as a social networking app as well. Once you launch the app, you’re prompted to sign in through your Facebook or Google account (Subtext currently accesses your Gmail contacts only, not your Google+ circle). Immediately, the app will add any friends you have on Facebook or Gmail that are also using Subtext. You can also invite your friends by posting on their Facebook wall or by sending them an email. For me, having to sign in with Facebook or Gmail was not a problem, though I can understand how it might be a hassle for people who don’t have accounts on either service.
As soon as you’re signed in, you’ll see a homepage that features a rotation of nearly full-screen book covers. You’ll also see a scrollable social bar showing the latest Subtext news and your friends’ latest in-app activity, and a navigation toolbar at the bottom of the page. You can tap any of the links in your social bar, which will take you to that specific item, whether it’s a message someone sent you or a featured bookshelf. The

Stats of the Union

Stats of the Union, a free iPad data visualization app from Fathom Information Design, appears at first glance to be a demography nerd’s dream, offering a color-coded county-by-county overview of the nation’s vital statistics. In reality the app is a disaster, offering up information that is sometimes incorrect, and doing it in misleading ways.
Here’s a striking example of how badly this app performs: I live in Philadelphia—sometimes known, unfortunately, as “Killadelphia” because of its high murder rate. But when you summon up the homicide-rate visualization in Stats of the Union, Philadelphia County is represented by a dark shade of blue: The color indicates my city has a low murder rate.

Stats of the Union

Mailing Desk - Gmail and what not with style!

Mailing Desk is a Gmail and Google Apps client for the iPad that provides an elegant standalone interface to Google’s offerings in addition to a lightweight browser interface that works well for previewing Web pages that are linked to from within the app.
The layout of Mailing Desk is the main selling point of Thought Out Apps’ free Offering. It has a polished look with vertical “flick” bars bracketing the left- and right-hand sides of the main window, which is set up well for using as a Gmail client, but can in fact be used to view or work with other Google apps, such as Google Docs, Calendar, and even YouTube.
In all three panes you can access all Google apps via the familiar “More” drop-down menu, and in the two side panes, large icons for Tasks, Calendar, Docs, Facebook, and Google+ are arranged along the bottom. It’s very simple and intuitive to select the primary apps you want to access on the left and right—say the Calendar on the left and Google Docs on the right—and view one or the other while keeping Gmail (partially) visible.

Next!

More than a few of the task management apps for iPad are complicated affairs, lacking intuitive ease and sometimes drowning a user under a sea of organizational options. Often, they bear hefty price tags to boot. Next, a $10 offering from LefTurn Labs, is easy to understand and use, but sometimes it leaves you wishing it had a few more bells and whistles to help you really get things done.
What Next does, it does well: It lets you make lists of projects and goals, and it offers the ability to link your projects to overall goals. Within projects, you can create a list of actions that will help you complete the job, and you can set start and end dates in each category; you can even designate a task as the “next” one that must be completed. Goals, projects, and actions can all be tagged—either with a pre-set list of tags already available within the app, or with new tags that you create. As you complete actions and projects on your way to a goal, a progress bar measures your efforts. And when you complete a task, just check the box next to the entry: Next! sends it to the archive.

Next!

Verbs IM

iMessage works great for sending and receiving pseudo-text messages with your iOS-using friends. But until Apple releases a Mac OS client for iMessage, or an iOS version of iChat, there’s no Apple-provided way to exchange instant messages across popular networks like AOL Instant Messenger, Facebook, or Google Talk from your iOS devices. Were Apple to provide an IM app, however, I suspect it would look an awful lot like Verbs IM, from Include Tech.

Verbs IM

Mighty Fin

The App Store is home to a number of worthwhile side-scrolling games, and the clever Mighty Fin clearly belongs in the top tier of that category. The iPhone and iPad game from Launching Pad Games blends stylish graphics, lively gameplay, and plenty of challenges that are sure to hook casual gamers.
As with most side-scrolling games, you’re trying to get from Point A to Point B, avoiding any obstacles along the way. In the case of Mighty Fin, you’re a fish bobbing along assorted aquatic settings and capturing valuable bubbles along the way. The obstacles you’re trying to avoid include everything from jagged reefs to hungry penguins to sharks that seem far less lovable than the ones you’ll find in Finding Nemo. You can steer Fin away from danger by tapping down on your device’s screen—holding down a finger causes him to dive, while releasing your hold makes the fish swim toward the surface. The controls are relatively simple, though it takes some practice to fully harness the size of Fin’s dives and jumps.

Mighty Fin

Rising Tide: Mighty Fin leaps out of the water to avoid a dangerous jellyfish and captures some valuable bubbles in the process. The ear muffs are, of course, optional.

Dermandar Panorama

For capturing the vastness of a wide-open space, there is nothing quite as effective as a panorama photo. While many iOS apps offer panorama stitching, or even capturing and stitching, few make it as easy as Dermandar Panorama.
The beauty of the $2 iPhone app from Dermandar is its simple and speedy interface. Instead of asking you to follow a grid or import photos from your library, Dermandar lets you take photos from within the app and automatically stitches them together for you. The Capture screen is simple and has only three buttons: Start lets you begin taking your panorama shot; Info brings up handy instructions and tips; and Gallery takes you to thumbnail images of Dermandar shots from around the world.

Connect the Halves: The yin-yang is used as a simple visual representation of how far you need to go before the next photo is automatically taken.

Textastic – Text Editor with Syntax Highlighting

Programmers and Web-page coders have specific needs when using a text editor to write and edit. Textastic, an iPad-only app by Alexander Blach, fulfills those needs superbly. The app can access files across many protocols and services, uses colored type to distinguish programming or formatting elements, offers a powerful floating selection tool, correctly handles uploading changes even in complex circumstances, and has the fluency you need for a touch-based interface without losing any of the requirements for working in text.
With any tool intended to write or manage code, you want to be know that you can open a file, make changes, and have those saved back to the source, whatever that source may be. There shouldn't be any management stage in retaining bookmarks to reach remote file servers, nor to upload changes.