Apple iPad App Review Marathon [Part2]

We just got done reviewing another bunch of applications. Check out pictures and more reviews coupled with download links for another slue of iPad apps. Remember that we are also willing to review any apps on request, just drop a comment below, message us on twitter, or contact us on the forums or the contact form, we will review it, and put it up for everyone to see! The apps that were reviewed in this part of our marathon include:

LogMeIn Ignition

Apple iBooks

Digits Calculator

Accuweather

Twitterific

Scrabble

Tap Tap Radiation

Fieldrunners

Labyrinth

MLB At Bat

IMDB

iPDF

eBay

The Dossier

IM+

Wikipanion for iPad

This is [Part2] of our iPad App Review Marathon, be sure to also check out [Part1] for reviews of several other apps as well. Also note to App Developers: If you want us to take a look at your app, send over some download codes.

LogMeIn Ignition

 

LogMeIn is a VNC remote access app, which will allow you to access your computer from anywhere. It takes care of all the firewall and NAT work for you, breaking the install process down to just installing the software onto your PC or Mac. The controls are a little complicated due to the iPad being a touch tablet. Scrolling around and clicking are the main two complilcated controls. The conveniene of the app still outweighs the quirks although the price tag is a bit hefty. $30 [iTunes]

Apple iBooks

The app that comes pre-installed on your iPad is simply amazing. Apple did a great job with making the iPad a top choice contender in the e-reader market. The bookstore doesn’t have a library as large as Amazons but the color screen and backlight as well as the screen dimensions and the ability to swap between portrait and landscape view just simply makes the iPad great for reading e-books. The app functions well and often feels like you are reading a real book.

Digits Calculator

A calculator app which works nice and looks good but we expect there to be a free calculator app sometime in the near future. We’d recommend holding out. $0.99 [iTunes]

Accuweather

A great looking app that shows current weather (as well as meteorological data) and a two-week forecast in portrait view and the forecast in landscape. The views are slick; there is a circular hourly mode, video weather forecasts, and a weather map. There are a few bugs (such as not being able to properly add a city in the landscape mode), which should be worked out quickly. All in all a good free app if you don’t mind occasional ad popups from the bottom of the screen. There is an option to pay a dollar to remove ads permanently as well. Free or $1 (no-ads) [Free Paid]

Twitterific

Another twitter app that is definitely more eye appealing than Tweetdeck. The fonts are large, there are big individual tweets, and a spacious design which should be enough for regular users that don’t have a large number of searches going on at once. The app comes with an in-app upgrade option which you can purchase to get no-ads. Free with option to upgrade in-app. [iTunes]

Scrabble

The Scrabble app is a really polished version of the game and has support apps for the iPhone/iPod Touch which are free and allow you to play with the iPad being the center board and each subsequent iPhone/iPod Touch being a specific player’s letters. Although much better played out with the use of iPhone’s and iPod Touches, not everyone can afford to pay a $10 game at the cost of $1700 but the app is good nonetheless. $10 [iTunes]

Tap Tap Radiation

Tap Tap Radiation is similar to Tap Tap Revenge on the iPhone but is bigger and the targets move around. The song list isn’t huge but is growing and the app is free so it’s definitely worth a shot. The visuals are great and there are some hidden features on it (such as the ability to doodle for the creation of a visual finger trail and to create sounds) on the menus. There is also a free 30-song pack available as of right now so pick it up, it can’t hurt! [iTunes]

Fieldrunners

Very similar to Fieldrunners on the iPhone with the key difference being a resolution increase for the iPad. The game looks beautiful, the gameplay is smoothe, and the sound effects are great. Tower defense at it’s finest. $8 [iTunes (iPad)]

Labyrinth

Very similar to Labyrinth on the iPhone, in fact you can even play the iPhone levels but in 3D and on a bigger screen. The 3D graphics are pretty awesome and there is also an option to play user-created levels, which is pretty cool. There are two versions for the game, a free version and an $8 version. Its worth a go, so you might as well try the free version atleast. [iTunes]

MLB At Bat

The official baseball app that has been upsized for the iPad delivers everything you are used to from the iPhone version and more. You get live game stat streaming along with a strike zone graphic that is automatically updated. You can also stream live TV broadcasts of games and if you aren’t live streaming, you can watch highlight clips from the games you are following. This is definitely worth it for the baseball fans out there. $15

The super-popular official baseball app has been upsized for the iPad, and it delivers everything you're used to from the iPhone version. You get live game stat streaming with a strike zone graphic that's automatically updates. You can also stream live TV broadcasts of games, provided you aren't in a blackout zone. And even if you aren't live streaming, you can watch highlight clips from the games you're following soon after big plays happen. For hardcore baseball fans, this one is gonna be tough to pass up, even for $15. [iTunes]

IMDB

An app that allows you to look up movies and actors easily with an intuitive and elegant user interface. Searching for top titles is a breeze with the splash page and the search bar. You can also view TV schedules, top 250 lists, Moviemeter, and local show times all in the same spot as well. The photo galleries are fine tuned to play well with the iPad and produce crisp, clear images that can be browsed easily. Despite all of its pros, it still has a few glitches. Switching between portrait and lanscape mode makes the lower IMDB and Browse buttons flicker back and forth. Movie trailers fail to launch, and if you quit the app, it doesn’t resume where you left off, making renavigation a pain. It’s a great start for the app and if they can sort out the bugs, it’ll definitely be worth having. Free [iTunes]

iPDF

iPDF is a free PDF reader that fails to be useful. The only way to load PDFs to the app is to use the built-in PDF search engine. No way to open a specific PDF file you have that you may want to read. What’s the point? Free [iTunes]

eBay

The eBay app works as you would expect it to, allowing you to search through and bid on auctions. The search results utilize the large screen to their advantage with large crip images making scrolling through auctions a good experience. Many forms of instant payment aren’t supported yet by the app though which defeats the purpose of having the app. It is still good for casual browsing and the auctions that you can bid on while in the app. Free. [iTunes]

The Dossier

The app is definitely unique but strange at the same time. It has one entry per person in your Contacts list, which you can fill out with notes and photos plus tie in their Twitter stream. You can put little observations (including clothing size reports) on your friends. It’s like being a private investigator and investigating people on your Contacts list. It is definitely a new and unique idea but would also lead to a very awkward conversation when found by others searching through your device. $5 [iTunes]

IM+

IM+ is an instant messaging app which allows you to connect to multiple messenging services suhch as AIM, GTalk, Twitter, and MySpace. It also has a built-in web browser so you can surf the web while you chat. It is nice on paper but in practice it feels really hard to use. It also crashes occasionally and a few times, pulling the keyboard up didn’t actually do anything. If you want to be connected to lots of services at once and be able to surf the web while you chat, this should be a decent option once they fix the bugs. As of right now, it isn’t worth the money. $10 [iTunes]

Wikipanion for iPad

The app is just a straight version of Wikipedia. The iPad version of the world’s most popular iPhone Wiki and it is faster than ever. Bookmarking pages is a snap an quitting the app isn’t a problem since it resumes where you left off. You can browse the main page for popular news or hit the random button for information on the most obscure topics. There are also different ways to read the article itself, big or small, serif or sans, there isn’t a wrong way to read your article. The one issue we noticed was the swap from portrait to landscape being a little slow but not too bad otherwise. Free or $5 for the Plus version which allows you to view info offline. [iTunes]