AppAdvice App Of The Week For April 20, 2012
Every week, our staff will handpick an app from the past seven days that we believe is a must-download for your iPhone or iPad. These apps will always be from various categories, but they are chosen because our own staff members love it and have been using them daily. So here are this week’s picks! Enjoy!
Pocket (Formerly Read It Later)
Sometimes, we just don’t have the time to read long articles that we come across on the web. That’s why there are services such as Read It Later, now known as Pocket.
With the latest version, the newly rebranded Pocket features a gorgeous new interface, and a new focus on being your “pocket” for the Internet. Rather than focusing on just articles, Pocket now features better ways of viewing video and images as well.
If you have an iPad, prepare to be amazed with the brand new grid layout for viewing your saved links — this new view emphasizes multimedia, and does it beautifully.
Even though the facelift focused on the shift from reading to viewing, that doesn’t mean that the reading experience is gone. In fact, it has been improved. The reading view is much cleaner and intuitive. The old fonts have been replaced with two gorgeous new ones — FF Mobile Yoga Pro and Proxima Nova.
Previous Read It Later users can still use their old login information, and the 300+ apps that supported Read It Later will still be able to send stuff to the service, so nothing needs to be changed.
The app is now free as well, so everyone can enjoy it (this effectively replaced the Pro version of Read It Later). Make sure to check out this gorgeous app on your iPhone and iPad.
Check out my original review here.
Honorable Mentions
Iris App
There may not be an official Instagram app for the iPad yet, but that doesn’t mean that the third party developers can’t come up with their own solutions. Iris App is one of the most beautiful ways to browse Instagram on your iPad so far.
The app features a Tweetie-like sidebar for navigating through your main feed, popular photos, profile, and search. It even features a beautiful rainbow-glow whenever you navigate to a new view, which is a great finishing touch.
Photos will be on a Polaroid-like frame that is set against a light background — together, this makes the photos really “pop.” A simple tap will bring up a larger version of the image, and you can easily “like” and comment on images as well. There are even options for sharing the photo with others.
The coolest thing about Iris is when you view someone’s profile — tapping the globe icon will bring up a map and you can see where the user has uploaded photos to Instagram (assuming that they geotagged it). It’s definitely a great way to see where someone has been just through their photographs.
Iris App is $1.99 in the App Store, and it’s simply one of the best ways to browse Instagram on the iPad. If there is going to be an official app, this is how it should be done. Make sure to check it out.
Check out my original review here.
Debt Snowball+
Debt is a pain, but the “snowball effect” can help you efficiently pay it off.
What is the snowball effect? You put the minimum down on each of your debts, but you also pick one to focus on, applying any extra funds you have left on this debt. Once it’s paid off, you would take the money you would have normally put on this debt and apply it on another one.
The app itself features a beautiful interface that is easy to use, and makes tackling your debts a little better. You can get it for $0.99 in the App Store.
Check out our original review here.
