Apple iOS 5 Cards App Demo

Apple's new "Cards" application for iOS 5 allows you to create and send cards to friends, family, and loved ones for $2.99 in the United States or $4.99 worldwide. Cards is available for free in the Apple App Store.

YouTube 

Fruit Ninja: Taking Someone Else's Idea Done Right

It is very difficult to come up with a novel idea that becomes successful. For every successful channel such as Freddiew and FinalCutKing, there are thousands of imitators who attempt to emulate their traits with little success. One of the most popular and imitated videos on Youtube is FinalCutKing's "I am Fruit Ninja" with over sixty video responses. Our team wanted to take advantage of the popularity of the video and game without looking like another cheap carbon copy.  The video ended up being the most liked, viewed and commented video response by far. How did we do it? The first thing we did was study all the differences we could find between the original video and the video responses. Such differences included camera placement, background, presentation, acting, pacing and seemingly trivial details such as size and color of the fonts.  The next step was to figure out how we could make it better. First, we realized that all the backgrounds were either black, a hastily photoshopped image or took place in someone's living room. We set to find a background that could pass as a place in which a Ninja would train. More importantly we noticed that not a single video out of all the video responses had martial arts, which is one of the most known characteristics of the ninja! Luckily for us, we had martial artists in our team. Good things can happen from taking someone's idea, but only if you put the effort in to contribute your share and make it better. After all, it's not just the idea that brings success, it's the execution. I'm certain we all know plenty of people who could learn this.

AppFeast: The Best iOS Apps of August

AppFeast is a new monthly segment in my channel where I give a preview of 3 noteworthy apps that follow a common theme. August's theme is food games. Be sure to watch all the way through the video for a little something extra at the end!

YouTube

Todolicious Review

As a die-hard user of Things, a task-managing application for OS X, it was really hard for a while to get me to switch to another task managing app (especially since the app is $50, but trust me, if you forget a lot of things, it's worth every penny). However, a few weeks ago, I came across a nifty app called Todolicious, which is a very simple to-do app for the Mac. I was a beta tester for about a week or so, and I've gotta say, it really doesn't get more simple than this. 

Upon opening the app, you'll be greeted with a few stock to-do's in which you can delete. To add a to-do, you simply click the + button and a small window will pop up asking what you want to do. Once you type in what you want and press enter, it will add the to do. Once you completed the To-do, you simply check on it and it will disappear. You can view a full logbook of completed items by clicking the icon on the bottom right corner. Sounds for adding and completing to-dos can also be tweaked in preferences, as well as choosing between three different themes - a light theme, dark theme, and a notebook-like theme (similar to the iOS notes application). 

The app is very simple, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to keep a small list of what they need to do. The app is unobtrusive to your desktop space and works just as it promised. Todolicious is $4.99 in the Mac App Store and is available for download. 

Twitter

My Top 5 iPad Applications of 2010

With the year of 2010 closing its curtain to get ready for 2011, I thought I would share my top 5 iPad applications for the year. The iPad also runs a similar operating system to the iPhone but it is specially made for its form factor. It is one of the most revolutionary devices that has been introduced this year as it is the first of its kind. I have previously posted my top 5 iPhone applications for 2010 and if you are interested please check it out here. 

5. Weather HD

Weather HD is one of the essential applications to have on the iPad since it does not come with any weather applications out of the box. This application feature beautiful sceneries in conjunction with the weather on the places that users have selected. 

4. Twitter for iPad

This one is a must. Twitter for iPad is a very simple application for all of your Twitter needs. This application uses screen real estate quite well and my favourite feature is that you can continue browsing through all the tweets when you have tapped on a link. This application is available for free on the app store. 

3. Scrabble

Scrabble is one or if not the best word game. Scrabble for iPad is currently on sale (as at 22/12/10) and it is worth purchasing as it will also allow  multiplayer game sessions, weather it would be "pass n' play" or party play. There is a companion application available on the app store that makes your iPhone to be the tile rack of the letters and it connects to the iPad via Bluetooth.

2. Goodreader

The iPad would be incomplete without this application. Goodreader basically allows people to open and download documents (e.g. Word, PowerPoint, Excel) so that it would also be available for offline viewing. This is one of the essential applications that needs to be installed right now on your iPad if it has not been installed already. 

1. Remote

This is my favourite application installed on the iPad. Remote for the iPhone has been available since 2009. However, with the launch of the iPad, Apple has decided to update this application to be also optimised for the iPad a few months later. This application is a godsend as it will allow people to control their iTunes library on their computer or even control the Apple TV! Better yet the interface of this application is very similar to iTunes on the computer whether you are controlling the Apple TV or the iTunes library on the computer. Download this now!

So that is my top 5 iPad applications of 2010. What are your top 5 iPad applications? is it similar to mine or is it something completely different? Please comment on this post to share your top applications for the iPad. Happy holidays!