Best Free iPad App of the Week: Google+

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Google Plus iPad app

One of the best things about using an iPad is all the great apps that we can run on it. There are excellent apps for just about any purpose you can think of. Better still, there are lots of great free apps for the iPad. Our Best Free iPad App of the Week posts highlight these apps.

This week’s pick is Google+, the iPad app for Google’s social network. It took Google a long time to bring out an iPad version of Google+ but it turned out to be worth the wait – and I’ve ben meaning to feature it as a Best iPad App of the Week here for a long while now.

I was fortunate enough to get an early Google+ invite right around its initial beta launch. I liked it right from the off and it has become my favorite social network. I find myself spending more and more time on Google+, as I enjoy the lively discussions on a wide range of topics that interest me. And the excellent Google+ iPad app helps me to keep up with all the latest anytime, anywhere.

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Notable New iPad Apps: MLB.com Home Run Derby

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MLB Home Run Derby

The new MLB.com Home Run Derby iPad app is just what the name sounds like – an iPad game that lets you test your long ball hitting prowess, playing as one of the home run hitting stars from the last three MLB All-Star games.

The game lets you choose from any of the 24 sluggers who took part in the last three All-Star Home Run Derby events – though many of them require you either to collect a large number of ‘MLBucks’ as bonuses while you play or to pay up via In-App purchase. The game starts you off with 100 MLBucks, which will allow you to choose from around 9 of the sluggers who cost that much to select. Others range from 300 to 700 – for instance Robinson Cano from the 2012 Derby and Prince Fielder and David Ortiz from 2011 are 700.

Some of the other stars you can play as include Miguel Cabrera, Matt Kemp, Jose Bautista, Andrew McCutchen, and more.

There are single and multi player options and two playing modes:

ARCADE MODE: Hit as many home runs as you can before time runs out. Multiply your score with targets and combo bonuses.

DERBY MODE:Enter the authentic Home Run Derby tournament and see if you can survive against baseball’s top sluggers.

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Notable New iPad Apps: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony

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Beethover's 9th Symphony iPad app

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is a wonderful new iPad app celebrating this famous and loved piece of music. I’ve never been a big fan of classical music but something about the look of this app grabbed me and I decided to give it a look.

Wow, I am so glad I did. This is just a fantastic app, even for someone like me who’s not knowledgeable about the music. Here’s a bit of the App Store intro for it:

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for iPad presents four of Deutsche Grammophon’s legendary recordings of this iconic work, with the amazing ability to switch instantly between each performance at any point in the piece. As you listen, you can watch the synchronized musical score, be guided by expert commentary, follow Beethoven’s 1825 manuscript or immerse yourself in the hypnotic graphical BeatMap of the orchestra, precisely highlighting every note. The app also includes a treasure-trove of specially filmed video interviews with musicians, writers and great conductors discussing Beethoven and his masterwork.

Here’s some of the app’s features that I’ve found gripping:

– The music itself of course. The app offers four of the ‘legendary’ performances of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – and you can switch between these as you listen with just a single tap.

Ferenc Fricsay’s first stereo recording of this work from 1958 with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Herbert von Karajan’s famous 1962 recording with the same orchestra; the widely loved and charismatic maestro Leonard Bernstein’s video recording from 1979 with the Wiener Philharmoniker; and the ground-breaking 1992 recording on period instruments conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.
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App Store Hits 50 Billion Downloads: All Time Best Sellers for iPad

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50 Billion App Store Downloads

Apple announced yesterday that the App Store hit the much-anticipated 50 billion app downloads milestone:

Apple® today announced that customers have downloaded over 50 billion apps* from the revolutionary App Store℠. Customers are downloading more than 800 apps per second at a rate of over two billion apps per month on the App Store.

In iTunes on the desktop you can see a listing of the Top 25 All-Time Paid Apps and Free Apps, with separate listings for iPad apps and iPhone apps. There are no huge surprises in the iPad Top 25 list, but here’s a few things I find interesting:

– Skype for iPad is the Number 1 All-Time Free App. I think Skype’s iPad app is great, better than its desktop version – but I’m still a little surprised to see it right at the all-time chart.

– 10 of the Top 25 paid are not games, and 6 out of those 10 are Apple apps – Pages, Keynote, Numbers, GarageBand, iMovie, and iPhoto. Another reminder of the huge piles of money Microsoft is leaving on the table by not bringing Office to iOS.

– Facebook is Number 6 on the Top Free list – I’m a little surprised it’s not higher.

– Angry Birds HD and Angry Birds HD Free are the highest listed games in the Paid and Free lists.

Anyone want to start a pool on when downloads hit 100 billion?

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Google’s Hangouts App for iPad Is an Ugly Mess

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Hangouts iPad app

At yesterday’s Google I/O event Google announced the very promising Hangouts app, a sort of unified messaging app / service for iOS, Android and web. And the Hangouts app for the iPad and iPhone was released yesterday too.

The iPad app is a horrible, ugly mess. There a number of very good iPad apps with simple, basic user interfaces. But Hangouts has a drab, clumsy UI that looks very much like it was slapped together with little to no thought or effort.

That’s one of the app’s main screens above. It’s just sad looking right? Hit the break for a couple more screenshots of the app in all its glory.

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Notable New iPad Apps: Write for Dropbox

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  Last week Write for Dropbox, iPad edition hit the App Store. It’s another good text editor app for the iPad, with Dropbox sync and strong Markdown support. The app’s full title in the App Store is Write for Dropbox – A Beautiful Note Taking App (iPad Edition) – but I’m just going to refer [...]

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