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iPhone/iPad App Recommendations & Reviews

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More baseball apps:

MLB At The Ballpark (iPhone/iPod Touch, FREE) - This was baked into last year's At Bat app, but now it's a standalone. It lets you check-in at any MLB park, has offers, schedule and ticket information. The killer feature though is the ballpark map/directory. Wanna know where the closest ATM is? Heard there's a stand that's selling pulled pork nachos? This'll help you find it.

MLB Full Count (Universal, FREE) - Provides a nightly stream of highlights and live look-ins from around the league. It's like having MLB Tonight on your iPad or iPhone. It's not the same feed or broadcast personalities, and the production value leaves a bit to be desired by comparison, but there are no commercial breaks and no banner ads.
 
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Google Chrome is now available for iOS. I've tried several alternatives to Safari, but this is the first one to make a serious push to replace it. It might take a few days of use to figure that out for sure though.
 
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TUAW: Tiny Wings update tonight brings iPad version, new modes

Tiny Wings 2.0 is now available on the New Zealand App Store, and is currently making its way around the world, to be available here in PDT around midnight or so. We heard about the game last week, but it turns out it's not a full game -- it's just an update to the incredibly popular iOS app, along with a separate new HD version for iPad.

The iPad version (available for $2.99) is called Tiny Wings HD and includes iCloud support, which a lot of Tiny Wings players will surely appreciate. There's also a new mode called Flight School in both apps, which features four different Tiny Wings birds flying across the landscape, trying to reach a goal first. And there's also a two-player same screen multiplayer mode, where two players touch on either side of the same screen.

Creator Andreas Illiger agrees he probably could have released the update as a second app, but he says he instead wanted to give it away for free, "as a big thank you to all my fans for changing my life." That's a nice sentiment (though if you want to play the game at native resolution on iPad, you'll need to buy it again anyway). The Tiny Wings update for iPhone, version 2.0, should be available on the App Store near you soon.
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One of my favorite iOS games. If you don't already have it, you should buy it. Simple to learn, difficult to master, beautifully polished and addictive as hell. I'm looking forward to playing it on my iPad for the first time.
 
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Some I use all the time:

Flipboard
Newsify - for reading Google Reader feeds
Songza - I've been using this more than Pandora or Spotify
Band of the Day - fun music app
Stitcher - great for podcasts
Fanhattan - for finding TV shows and movies
SongPop - fun music trivia game
Kittens - yes, my cats are addicted to this :p
 
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Anyone try Waze? You're supposed to run it while you're driving and it'll upload realtime traffic info to other people using the app. Also lets people report on traffic, accidents, police, and it'll try to route you around traffic.
 
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CleveBucks;2191210; said:
Anyone try Waze? You're supposed to run it while you're driving and it'll upload realtime traffic info to other people using the app. Also lets people report on traffic, accidents, police, and it'll try to route you around traffic.
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I just started using it again. The maps and everything are crowdsourced back when I first started using it, it wasn't all that good. I recently used it on a trip to Baltimore and it was great though. I don't encounter the map errors that I used to, the options for searching POIs are robust, and I don't have problems with it pulling map data from the servers on the fly. Before, I preferred a GPS app that had all of the map data stored locally, but it's nice that I can now count on an app that doesn't take up 2.5 GB on my phone.

I guess Apple agrees that Waze has come a long way, since Waze is one place they are going to be getting map data for the new native navigation app that will be included in iOS 6.
 
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jlb1705;2172371; said:
Google Chrome is now available for iOS. I've tried several alternatives to Safari, but this is the first one to make a serious push to replace it. It might take a few days of use to figure that out for sure though.
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I've used Chrome for iOS pretty much exclusively since I posted the above near the end of June. My verdict: Safari is better and it's time to switch back.

Chrome pros:
- Superior look and feel.
- Supports favicons.
- Able to keep an unlimited number of tabs open (Safari has a limit of 9 tabs).
- Menu option allows you to call up the desktop version of most websites.
- Allows you to more readily open images in a new tab, which is handy to retrieve URLs for embedding.
- Can automatically have access to open tabs across multiple devices.

Chrome cons:
- Painfully slow. From what I've read, this is the case for all 3rd party browsers since apply requires them all to use the Safari webkit but does not give 3rd parties access to the full engine (or something like that). I didn't notice a speed difference at first, but it has become more evident over time and crystal clear upon using Safari again for the first time in weeks.
- Unstable. Lately I've had at least one freeze or crash a day. It takes several attempts at killing and re-opening the browser to get it to come back.
- Cannot directly use bookmarklets.
- Cannot set as default browser without jailbreaking.

I'll probably keep it on my phone and iPad as a backup browser, and keep an eye on updates to see if it improves.
 
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jlb1705;2191245; said:
I've used Chrome for iOS pretty much exclusively since I posted the above near the end of June. My verdict: Safari is better and it's time to switch back.

Chrome pros:
- Superior look and feel.
- Supports favicons.
- Able to keep an unlimited number of tabs open (Safari has a limit of 9 tabs).
- Menu option allows you to call up the desktop version of most websites.
- Allows you to more readily open images in a new tab, which is handy to retrieve URLs for embedding.
- Can automatically have access to open tabs across multiple devices.

Chrome cons:
- Painfully slow. From what I've read, this is the case for all 3rd party browsers since apply requires them all to use the Safari webkit but does not give 3rd parties access to the full engine (or something like that). I didn't notice a speed difference at first, but it has become more evident over time and crystal clear upon using Safari again for the first time in weeks.
- Unstable. Lately I've had at least one freeze or crash a day. It takes several attempts at killing and re-opening the browser to get it to come back.
- Cannot directly use bookmarklets.
- Cannot set as default browser without jailbreaking.

I'll probably keep it on my phone and iPad as a backup browser, and keep an eye on updates to see if it improves.
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Your issues with chrome are the ones I've heard from most who tried it out. Although if you are jailbroken, there is a tweak called nitrous, I guess it speeds things up quite a bit.

And I hate that we can't set defaults for apps
 
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Mac;2192313; said:
Your issues with chrome are the ones I've heard from most who tried it out. Although if you are jailbroken, there is a tweak called nitrous, I guess it speeds things up quite a bit.

And I hate that we can't set defaults for apps
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I've seen where you can set Chrome as the default thru jailbreak tweaks as well.

The thing for me is, I have no desire to jailbreak. Back in the pre-iOS days, I hacked into every phone I owned. It was necessary back then to do something as simple as creating and uploading your own ringtones, or to get access to tethering because mobile browsing was so miserable that you would never actually want to do it. One of the main reasons I bought into iPhone and iOS is that I became disinterested in manipulating my phones to that degree, and the iPhone allowed me to do pretty much everything I wanted to do in a fairly simple and straightforward manner. For me, jailbreaking strips away some of the simplicity of maintaining the device.
 
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THe wife wants to get an ipad...neither one of us knows a thing about them.
THey are advertised for 599 and 499 which one does she want and what type or internet hook up charges are there?
 
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Best Buckeye;2193819; said:
THe wife wants to get an ipad...neither one of us knows a thing about them.
THey are advertised for 599 and 499 which one does she want and what type or internet hook up charges are there?
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The options for which one to buy are going to be broken down by storage capacity and data connectivity.

I have the 16GB. I'm constantly running up against the storage limits on my device, but I consider myself somewhat of a power user. There are higher capacities available, but most people can do fine with the 16GB model. There are plenty of cloud storage options (iCloud, Amazon, Google, Dropbox, etc.) that can help with a lower amount of on-board flash storage.

The other option to consider is data connectivity. Where will she be using it? If there is wi-fi avaialble everywhere she'd plan to use it? If so, you could go with the wi-fi only model, save some money on the price of the iPad and not have to bother with a separate data plan.

If she's thinking she might use it in areas where wi-fi is not avaialble (or even if you think she might want to use it while traveling, then it might be better to spring for the wi-fi + cellular model. It will cost you more, but it will give you more flexibility. That's the model I have, and the nice thing about it is that the cellular data plan is not mandatory. I use it 99% of the time on wi-fi. Last year though, I went out of town for a week and stayed in a hotel that charged $15/day for wi-fi. Instead of doing that, I activated the cellular data on my iPad - paid $30 for one month/3GB of access, and I was good to go. The nice thing about the cellular data is that it's automatic billing thru your debit or credit card, and you can come and go as you please, so you can subscribe for a short time and cancel it when you want and go back to using just wi-fi. That's what I did - I've had this iPad for about 16 months now, and have only subscribed to cellular data for one of those months.

Check the rates and find about about the service in your area you can get iPads that are compatible with either AT&T or Verizon. The monthly prices are probably similar between the two, and and may seem kinda steep - but they are a bargain compared to what some hotels charge for wi-fi. Cellular data is only a backup option for me, but it's worth having the capability.
 
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NBC Olympics Live Extra is now NBC Sports Live Extra. It's not quite ESPN3, but it's more first screen content now available on the second screen. Should come in handy this fall. I didn't see USMNT matches mentioned, but I assume that's lumped in with MLS.

press release:

"NBC OLYMPICS LIVE EXTRA" APP RE-LAUNCHES TODAY AS "NBC SPORTS LIVE EXTRA"

NEW YORK - August 30, 2012 - The NBC Olympics Live Extra app, which provided more than 3,500 hours of Olympic live stream content during the London 2012 Olympic Games to TV Everywhere customers, will re-launch today as NBC Sports Live Extra. In the coming months, the new app will live stream an abundance of live sporting events that air on NBC, NBC Sports Network or Golf Channel, including MLS, NHL, Notre Dame Football, PGA TOUR, LPGA, European PGA TOUR, Ryder Cup and more, with the vast majority of content only available to TV Everywhere customers.

The NBC Sports Live Extra app will include companion features such as in-game highlights, social media interactivity, and other elements that will enhance the viewing experience. In partnership with cable, satellite and telco distributors, a larger, secondary re-launch will occur later this year highlighted by numerous NBC Sports Network and Golf Channel live events being provided strictly to TV Everywhere customers.

"Whether used as a primary or secondary screen, the NBC Sports Live Extra app will provide an exceptional viewing experience for mobile and tablet users," said Rick Cordella, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital, NBC Sports Group. "Working with our cable, satellite and telco distributors, we will extend the expertise we have accrued by streaming some of the most popular sporting events to our year-round sports on multiple devices."

Users who downloaded NBC Olympics Live Extra will automatically receive NBC Sports Live Extra when they update the app. For those who did not download the Olympics app, NBC Sports Live Extra is available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and on select Android handset and tablet devices within Google Play.
Viewers consumed 23.8 million live streams and 4.5 million live stream hours on the NBC Olympics Live Extra app for the 2012 London Olympics. NBC Sports has a rich live streaming history and plans to stream more than 400 live events in 2013. In February, NBCSports.com and NFL.com live streamed Super Bowl XLVI, the first-ever live stream of a Super Bowl. The game attracted 2,105,441 users, making it the most-watched, single-game sports event ever online, according to data provided by Omniture and mDialog, surpassing any previously reported record.
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