Entertainment

Review: The Sonnets by William Shakespeare for iPad

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The Sonnets by William Shakespeare iPad app

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare is a superb new app that brings Shakespeare’s sonnets to the iPad and presents them in a way that draws you in and helps you to gain a rich understanding of them.

Here’s a portion of the App Store entry for the app:

The Sonnets presents William Shakespeare’s immortal collection of love poems in an interactive digital edition that allows you to explore, appreciate and understand this great work of literature as never before. All 154 sonnets are performed to camera by a star-studded cast including Sir Patrick Stewart (Star Trek, X-Men, Royal Shakespeare Company), David Tennant (Dr Who, Hamlet), Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City), Fiona Shaw (The Waste Land, Harry Potter), Stephen Fry (The Hobbit) and Dominic West (The Wire). These performances – all specially filmed for the app – are synchronised to the text, which highlights line by line as each sonnet is spoken.

The performance videos, running over two and a half hours, are just the beginning. Also included are the complete Notes and Introduction from the Arden Shakespeare, offering unsurpassed scholarly commentary and insight. Touch a mysterious line or difficult word in any of the poems and the corresponding Arden Note highlights to provide comprehensive explanation. An alternative commentary on every sonnet comes from poet and musician Don Paterson, whose humorous and accessible style complements the academic rigour of the Arden Notes.

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Bazinga – TBS’ Big Bang Theory iPad App Is a Lot of Fun

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Bazinga Join Live Event

TBS Presents: The Big Bang Theory app brings a slice of the popular and hilarious sitcom to the iPad. This is a bit of its App Store intro:

There’s a new way to watch Penny, Sheldon and Leonard. Now, you can play along on your mobile device while watching The Big Bang Theory on TBS.

Here’s how it works:
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10pm, open the app while watching The Big Bang Theory on TBS to get exclusive content and conversation presented in sync with the show.
Behind-the-scenes insights, polls, trivia and more will be at your fingertips, and all of it can be shared with your friends. Log in with your Facebook or Twitter accounts to join the live conversation with other fans during the episode.

If you’re using this app outside of the 10pm broadcasts of The Big Bang Theory on TBS, don’t worry, you can revisit previous episodes or set a reminder for the next live event.

NOTE: This app does not allow you to view full episodes on your mobile device. You’ll have to download the TBS for iPad or TBS for iPhone apps for that.

My wife and I are both huge fans of The Big Bang Theory and I’ve only just recently noticed that there are a number of iPad and iOS apps relating to the series. This one looked the most promising to me and I gave it a try last night.

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Review: Monty Python: The Holy Book of Days for iPad

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Monty Python: The Holy Book of Days for iPad

Monty Python: The Holy Book of Days for iPad is a wonderful, typically Python, journey back to the filming of Monty Python & the Holy Grail. The app was developed with the Pythons themselves and the short story here is that if you’re a Monty Python fan you’re going to enjoy the heck out of it.

Just to give you a quick idea of the Pythonesque feel of the app, here’s a bit I love from its App Store page:

Early buzz for The Holy Book of Days:
“HOW DO I GET OUT OF THIS THING SO I CAN CHECK MY EMAILS?” — John Cleese
“WILL IT SYNC UP WITH MY VHS COPY?” — Terry Gilliam
“MICHAEL IS OUT OF THE OFFICE RIGHT NOW BUT WILL BE BACK ON THE 10TH APRIL” — Michael Palin
“WOW!” — Eric Idle
“I CAN’T SEE A THING WITHOUT MY GLASSES” — Terry Jones
“WHAT’S AN IPAD?” — Graham Chapman

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Review: A Charlie Brown Christmas for iPad

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A Charlie Brown Christmas for iPad

A Charlie Brown Christmas is a new app that turns the beloved animated classic into an interactive storybook for the iPad (and iOS). It was released on the App Store last week, picked as the App Store App of the Week, and looks sure to be a holiday hit.

I installed the app on the day it came out and have been able to spend some time with it, and get to know it along with my 8 year old daughter. The short story is this is a great holiday app, especially for those who are already fans of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang (and who isn’t really?)

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Jiv3D – The iPad App Your Photos Are Waiting For

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Jiv3DCube1

Jiv3D is one of those rare iPad apps that I love within less than a minute of use – and the feeling persists as I get to know it better.

It’s a unique app that’s a little like a digital photo frame on steroids, or more like on happy pills. A brilliant way to enjoy all the photos you’ve got on your iPad, have them shown off in a funky 3D slideshow, and with a great soundtrack pulled from your own library. Here’s its short but sweet App Store intro:

Jiv3D uses photos from your iPhoto library to display and move to the music in your iTunes music collection or favorite radio streams.
No configuration necessary, Jiv3D will automatically select photos from your iPhoto library and display them in 3D moving with all of the nuances of your iTunes music collection.

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Quick Look: The Funnies for iPad

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The Funnies for iPad is a new app that brings popular comic strips to the iPad. It’s probably not the first app of this type for the iPad, but it’s the first that’s caught my eye and I’ve been giving it a look over the last several days. Here’s its App Store elevator pitch: All [...]

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Quick Look: Ocean Blue for iPad

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Remember when the Koi Pond app first hit the iPhone?  It was, and is, quite a neat little app that let you watch koi swim around gracefully and tap the water to create ripples in the pond. Since then, many similar apps have been added to the App Store. Ocean Blue for iPad takes this [...]

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