Blog | Eric Paul Snowden » Applications

Must have apps for the iPad 2

Eric Snowden — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:00:40 +0000

It’s thinner. It’s lighter. It’s faster. None of these are the real reason to love the iPad 2. Ultimately as evey device in our lives gets thinner, lighter and faster comparing specs tells you very little. The iPad is the software and these apps are the reason I use my iPad more than my iMac, iPhone or Macbook Pro.

GarageBand

GarageBand on the iPad is spectacular. Not only is it the only touch app that doesn’t leave me wishing for the desktop version, but it is the first touch app that is clearly superior to its desktop counterpart. It splits up mixing and recording in the clearest way I’ve seen, takes advantage of multitouch and the smart instruments are actually smart. The best thing I can say about this app is I’m in the process of exporting all my Logic recordings to Garageband so I can start using my iPad as my primary recording device.

Download GarageBand

Screens

Screens lets you login to remote Macs and control them using your iPad. It’s a simple IP based setup with no extra software to install and can remember multiple machines. It also has great multitouch functions to make your Mac feel like a touch device.

Download Screens

Stash Pro

Stash is a password protected library for videos, images, documents and a private browser with separate history from Safari. The app has a decoy library, shortcuts to hide the screen (boss mode) and secret gestures that unlock your private stash. Not a replacement for multiple user accounts in iOS, but the best alternative I’ve found.

Download Stash Pro

Air Display

Air Display lets you use your iPad as a second monitor. It requires an installation of a Mac app to connect to your iPad, but is otherwise will auto connect when you open the app. Great for adding extra real estate when using a laptop.

Download Air Display

iSwifter

Say what you will about battery consumption or playback performance, but there are a LOT of sites that require Flash. And even sites that support iOS often have premium content blocked. iSwifter a basic browser that runs Flash (no bookmarks, multiple windows or even history) but it does that one task well. And when it’s a choice between a laggy version of Flash or nothing, I’ll take Flash anyday.

Download iSwifter

Textastic

While I’m not convinced Textastic is the ultimate code editor for the iPad, it works. It stands out when tweaking CSS or Javascript for a site meant to run on the iPad. It would be difficult to code an entire site in the app, but for editing up files via (s)ftp or dropbox this app let’s you make simple changes on the go.

Download Textastic

Flud

When Pulse was first released I loved it. The interface was different, it was easy to use, but over time I found myself using it less. The interface for Flud is VERY similar, but it’s ability to easily add rss from Google and auto categorizing content by type have won me over. It’s probably is more of a Pulse version 2 than it’s own idea, but better is better.

Download Flud

Zite

Zite is one of my favorite RSS readers two reasons – it’s simple to set up, and customizes your content the more you use it. My problem with TweetMag and FlipBook (both stunning apps) is I spend more time getting the app set up properly than using it. Zite hooks seamlessly to Google Reader and Twitter and automatically creates categories and stories based on what you already follow and groups them automatically.

Download Zite

Air Video

This app requires a little setup, installing a free video server on your mac, but allows you to stream almost any video from your Mac to your iPad. It can play back most videos, even non-supported video formats like FLV. You can have it play back as it encodes or save an encoded version on your Mac for realtime playback later.

Download Air Video

Muji Notebook

Notebook is great for sketching wireframes and taking notes – I rarely use paper for these tasks anymore. The interface is understated (in a good way) an it has a virtual screen that protects the iPad from receiving input from your palm while writing. Unfortunately, the handwriting recognition is terrible, see WritePad for this.

Download Muji Notebook

Sketchbook Pro

This is THE drawing app for the iPad. It has multitouch shortcuts for menus, powerful brushes and pinching / sliding to control the size and transparency of your selected tool. It’s downsides are the lack of a good blending tool and the limit of 5 layers.

Download Sketchbook Pro

Honorable Mentions

Twitter for iPad – This is my favorite Twitter client on any platform. It may not be the most advanced, but it’s the easiest to use and allows you to get through a mass of tweets easier than any other app. It also makes great use of multitouch allowing you to drag on a tweet with two fingers will show a full conversation, or pinch and zoom on a tweet will reveal a users profile. Download Twitter

MyFav.es – Although this is a web based service, it’s a great visual launcher for website bookmarks. Visit MyFav.es

Aweditorium – A new image based music discovery service. Clicking on thumbnails of bands reveals music and videos by the selected artist. It doesn’t make it easy to find a specific artist, but you will stumble onto great new music. Download Aweditorium

Get Glue and Atlantic Records Launch 3 Trey Songz Stickers

Eric Snowden — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:10:39 +0000

Last Monday, Atlantic Records launched our first campaign with entertainment check-in service Get Glue and Trey Songz. Get Glue helps fans tell their friends what they are watching, listening to, or reading and earn stickers for doing so. Fans who check-in to the Get Glue widget on Trey’s website, or through one of the Get Glue apps, will get one of three Trey Songz stickers: “Love Faces”, “Team Trey” or “Trey’s Angels”. Get Glue lets fans redeem virtual stickers for physical stickers upon collecting 20 stickers across all Get Glue promotions.

Within a few days Trey Songz skyrocketed to the #1 musician on the service, and the #3 entertainment property overall with nearly 10,000 check-ins.

Check out the Trey Songz profile on GetGlue.com.

Check-in to the Get Glue on TreySongz.com.

Rob Thomas Android Launch

Eric Snowden — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 19:43:14 +0000

Today we launched a new version of Fanbase on the Android platform. Rob Thomas is our first artist, but we have launches planned across several WMG labels coming in the next few months. This compliments our Nokia and iPhone implementations of Fanbase Mobile and ads one more touchpoint to our group of desktop, social, mobile and connected TV applications.

Get the app in the Android Marketplace.

EGO – All your web stats in one mobile app

Eric Snowden — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:02:55 +0000

EGO is a mobile application that lets you check all of your web statistics in one place, from a mobile device. It supports Google Analytics, Twitter, Vimeo, Tumblr, Feedburner, Ember, Mint and Squarespace all in one application, with new services being added frequently. While the iPhone version only lets you view high level stats, like page views and follower counts, the iPad app lets you dig deeper and view the full sites associated with you analytics inline. A must have for anyone who wants to keep tabs on their website and the social web surrounding it.

Check out EGO here.

My Pic In Billboard Magazine

Eric Snowden — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:26:06 +0000

A picture of the panel I was on at NARM 2010 showed up in Billboard Magazine this week. I’ve been interviewed by Billboard before but have never seen my picture in print without knowing about it beforehand. While this may only be interesting to my friends and family, I wanted to post it here for posterity.

With the cover

Detail

NARM 2010 Mobile Applications Panel

Eric Snowden — Mon, 17 May 2010 22:47:29 +0000

Today I was on an amazing panel at the 2010 NARM Convention discussing the use of applications in the music industry. While the focus was on mobile apps, we discussed desktop apps, widgets and the mobile web as well. The panel was moderated by Tom Constabile from Verizon Wireless and contained experts in design, development, and publishing. It was a great honor to be included in a healthy debate on an important part of the music business. I’ll be posting a link here once the video is online.

NARM 2010 Convention link.

NARM 2010 schedule of events.

Stickybits – Attach Comments or Media to any Barcode

Eric Snowden — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:16:41 +0000

Stickybits is a service that lets you attach comments or media to any barcode. Instead of generating QR codes, you can make an object social by using the barcode it already has. To tag an object without a barcode you can either download a custom code to print yourself or buy Stickybits barcode stickers.

Download the Stickybits iPhone or Android application and track down a barcode. Using the app you can tag an object, view your tag archives, or see what other people have tagged near you. Each item gets its own page on Stickybits.com where you can comment, upload media and follow the conversation from the web.

Frankly, I’ve been waiting patiently for QR codes to matter but with companies like Stickybits using pre-existing targets, and the huge advancements in image recognition software QR has a hard road ahead. Stickybits is currently only on the iPhone and Android platform, but their unique strategy around making codes social may push them to the front of the pack.

Check out Stickybits and get the app here.

Thanks to Jeremy Kutner for introducing me to this one.

Adobe Flash Video: One Web. Any Screen.

Eric Snowden — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:48:39 +0000

Adobe released a new video today showcasing their upcoming Flash 10.1 and AIR 2 technology running on a multitude of devices. As part of the Open Screen Project you can see one of Atlantic’s new videos for artist B.o.B running in Flash during the piece.

Check out the video on YouTube.

SXSW – The Future of Online Music Videos

Eric Snowden — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:15:24 +0000

Yesterday I spoke on a panel at SXSW titled The Future of Online Music Videos with Nick Stahl from Brightcove, Alexander Kisch from VEVO, John Sasso from SONY Music Entertainment, Inc and William Wilson from NARM. We discussed different delivery points for video online, from band’s direct to fan sites to large destinations like YouTube and Vevo, and how the right blend of these options can help build a band’s brand and drive revenue.

Read the full description on the SXSW website.

Read the review on Pop Matters.

Online iPhone Mock-up Tool

Eric Snowden — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:24:08 +0000

Lukas Mathis has created a really nice iPhone mockup tool in Flash. This web based tool lets you create wireframes for iPhone apps by dragging and dropping simple components onto a phone and sharing the url. You can create final pieces that look like either illustrations or sketches. A nice tool for simple mocks when a napkin just won’t do. Check it out here.