Tag Archives: best iPad apps ever

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a spectacularly great iPad eBook and app. So much for review verdict spoilers eh? I couldn’t help it – this is just a fantastic and charming app. One that I already love, and one I know my daughter will love equally – and I can’t wait to show it to her.

Here’s a bit of the developers’ description of the app:

Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) award winning author/ illustrator William Joyce and Co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a new narrative experience that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals. “Morris Lessmore” is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.

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Entertainment, iPad App Reviews

Today’s Best iPad App EVER: Video Time Machine

June 24, 2011 Patrick Jordan 16 Comments

Video Time Machine is my pick for today’s Best iPad App Ever. Hands down. This is one of those very rare apps that grabs you from the first moment that you open it, and just keeps you gripped and fascinated on every visit to it. It’s the equivalent of a great book you can’t put down, you just keep wanting more.

As the app title states, it’s a video time machine, from the guys who created the YouTube Time Machine (YTTM) website. It contains over 10,000 hand-picked videos – from 1860 right up to 2011. So if you want to see a John Kennedy campaign ad from 1960, it’s easy to find. Or you want to watch Michael Jordan drop 63 points on the Celtics in the 1986 NBA Playoffs, oh yeah, that’s just as easy.

I love the backstory for how the website came to be, with a couple of friends out for beer and pizza and a fantastic idea fleshed out on a napkin. Here’s just a piece of the About page for the app on this:

Following many a beer (and PIZZA!) I was regaling him with the tale of my previous night, in which I had been up very late watching Michael Jordan videos from 1996. It made me feel so awesome deep down inside … like it was Sunday afternoon, and I was 14, sipping on a milkshake and watching my fav team play. That Jordan-fest lurched into a 4 am search for Primal Rage videos, and countless other mid-90s stuff.

I realized then, that it wasn’t specifically Jordan or Primal Rage videos I was searching for … it was 1996 … the feeling of being in 1996 … As I was lost, in the mists of time, Del broke me out of my ponderous silence and said ‘DUDE! THAT SHOULD BE A WEBSITE!!’ I said ‘YES!’ he said ‘YES!’ – and then we probably high 5’ed. …

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