Techlada – Tech news and random reviews

Welcome to a special rapid-fire edition of iPad + iPhone Gems. We’re clearing the decks of queued-up applications in the lead up to next week’s release of new iPods, so most of the 10 apps below are all getting only quick writeups designed to let you know whether to invest your cash and time, or move along. Without further ado, let’s dive right into this grab bag of titles. Our top picks are ABC Wildlife!, Let’s Create! Pottery…

While we tend to care most about new applications that actually do something, there’s also a warm place in our hearts for titles that just show off what Apple’s devices are capable of doing—at least, when they have cool features and sell for the right (low) prices. In today’s Small Apps + Updates, we’re looking at three titles that might be understood as next-generation interactive screensavers, each using interesting…

The iPad’s value as an educational tool continues to increase every day, as new applications arrive for preschoolers, grade schoolers and college students alike. It really says something that the four ABC alphabet-teaching applications we’re looking at in today’s edition of iPad Gems are capable of being featured in such a narrowly-focused roundup; just for fun, we’ve also included a number-teaching application from one of…

It’s been a slow week for major game releases—Electronic Arts’ iPhone version of the classic Irem shooter R-Type may change that as it begins to roll out across the world today and tonight—so today’s Small Apps + Updates focuses on a few minor releases that may be of interest to some readers. None of the three apps merited a B+ or higher rating this time out, but Blaze: Fire Puzzle did receive our general recommendation.…

Welcome to this week’s educationally-themed edition of iPhone + iPad Gems! Some of the applications featured in this roundup are amongst the most exciting teaching tools we’ve seen for the iPad since Apple announced the tablet this year—two are book apps for older kids or college-aged students, while two others are phonics and letter-learning applications for young children. All of the applications below merited at least our general…

Welcome to our latest edition of Small Apps + Updates! Today, we’re looking at updated versions of flight tracker and Internet radio applications we’ve reviewed over the past two years, as well as a new RSS reader with a somewhat different spin on presenting Google News-synchronized feeds for iPad consumption. Our top picks are Mobiata’s FlightTrack, Oogli’s ooTunes, and Weather Underground’s Wunder Radio. Read on for…

Welcome to the latest edition of Small Apps + Updates, our occasional brief looks at apps that we’ve either previously covered or felt were worthy of only micro-sized reviews. Today, we’re looking at three small but highly publicized games from a developer named Halfbrick Studios, as well as recent free updates to three big apps and games we’ve written about either in reviews or news. Like many small developers in the App Store,…

Welcome to the latest edition of iPhone and iPad Gems! Today’s collection of applications includes a selection of titles that range from niche to broadly appealing, and from kid-friendly to adult-specific. Four of the five apps were worthy of B+ or A- ratings due to impressive designs, features, and/or pricing, which as frequent readers will recognize is a relatively high number of titles to receive our general or high recommendations. Our…

Welcome to this week’s first gaming edition of iPhone + iPad Gems! We have a couple of legitimately exciting games to share with you today, including two universal iPhone/iPod touch/iPad-compatible titles that could broadly be classified as “casual games” due to their simple gameplay, but wind up transcending their seemingly retro roots. There’s also a new pinball game compilation, released in separate and buggy versions…

Welcome to the latest collection of iPhone + iPad Gems! Today’s app roundup is a “catch up” edition, in which we look at several high-profile applications that we skipped when they were originally released, along with one that’s brand new and noteworthy. Below, we discuss two separate Articles apps for Wikipedia browsing on the iPhone and iPad, the TV and movie streaming apps Hulu Plus and Netflix, and finally the newsreader…