I Heart Etsy is a new iPad app that promises to make your Etsy shopping experience on the iPad fun, easy, and addicting. Etsy is the popular online marketplace for a wide array of creative and handcrafted products – including lots of fun and unique iPad accessories.
I’m a fan of Etsy and like to take a regular browse through it for cool iPad and Mac related items – so I’ve been giving this app a look this evening to see if it lives up to its App Store promises.
iF Poems is new poetry app for the iPad, described as ‘a poetry app for school-age children and for adults of any age’. It’s the first great poetry app I’ve seen for the iPad – apologies for the spoiler but I needed to mention that right off the bat.
The app includes 270 classic poems which have been carefully selected as works that the publishers feel are ‘a joy to pass down the generations, to share, to educate and enjoy’.
Many of the included poems have audio clips. These are read by the actors Helena Bonham Carter, Bill Nighy, Harry Enfield and Tom Hiddleston.
Here are some of its other key features:
You can record yourself reading a poem.
You can email a poem and email your recording of a poem.
You can tap on any word for a dictionary definition.
You can save poems to a Favourites page.
You can search by title, author, first line or by any word.
You can get a dictionary definition of any word.
If you’re after some truly stunning and unique images to use as iPad wallpapers, then you’re going to want to take a look at Trey Ratcliff’s Wallpaper Menagerie.
Ratclif is a world-renowned travel photographer. He runs the immensely popular travel photography blog, stuckinicustoms.com, and one of his photos is the first ever HDR photo to hang in the Smithstonian. He’s famous not just for his incredible photography but also for his tutorials and knowledge sharing.
And his Wallpaper Menagerie app is full of amazing photos for use as iPad wallpapers. This is definitely an iPad wallpapers app that is all about quality not quantity. You get 17 images free with the app, 10 of them in the Starter Pack and 7 more in a pack called Beautiful Landscapes. The starter pack is included in the app and the Beautiful Landscapes pack can be downloaded for free within the app.
Etsy.com is described as ‘the world’s most vibrant handmade marketplace’ – and Etsy for iPad is a relatively new, unofficial app that offers to let you discover the wonderful world of handmade and vintage products from Etsy.com.
I’ve often spotted fun and unique stuff for iOS devices on Etsy, and I know there’s a ton of items for iPad 2 on there, so I thought I’d give this new app a look as a potentially slicker way to browse for cool Etsy items right on the iPad.
Sadly, the app really doesn’t have much to offer, or to recommend it over just visiting Etsy in the Safari browser.
Technode is a new magazine title that came to the iPad (and iPhone) a few weeks ago. Here’s a slice of its App Store intro:
Technode is an ace new quarterly technology magazine from the team behind ShinyShiny.tv and TechDigest.tv
In issue 1 we pick the summer’s 20 top gadgets, look at how 4G Mobile will change, look at the impact of coding on digital art and discover why Facebook has turned us all into liars.
I’m a fan of tech magazines and, of course, a big fan of iPad editions – so I was keen to give this title a look. Sadly, it was only worth a very brief look and I never really delved into it, as it just isn’t a real iPad edition. Here’s why:
– The app works in portrait mode only. For me, this is a very poor starting point for most iPad apps, but even more so for a magazine title. With any reading app, whether it’s an eBook, newspaper, or magazine I want to be able to read it in whatever mode I’m most comfortable in, and switch between modes as I shift where I’m reading, and so on. Being stuck in portrait mode makes for a lousy reading experience right off the bat.