WorldDictionary

One issue on dictionary is the time you take to enter into your dictionary app, this is even true for words that are not easily type in for example chinese words. So normally I will be discourage to search up dictionary to know the meaning of the word because of the effort that I will need to put in.

Multi-Language Supports, Instant Translation

Penpower Technology got me to review their Worlddictionary iPhone/iPad app. It is an instant translation app, so what this apps does is instantly translate any words that it can recognize via your iPhone/iPad camera. This will not only help you save effort in typing in the word to find out the meaning, it will also help you when you don’t even know how to enter in the word.

It supports multiple languages, like English, Chinese, Dutch, Korean, Japanese, Spanish and more. So I don’t have to switch to any other apps, almost like a one app fits all dictionary.

Overview

After using this app for some time, I found out the on screen recognition software is pretty accurate, I don’t much mistake in the app, and the translation is instant. The only issue I found out is that for some languages, it need data network to lookup for the translation. This might be only issue, as we will normally use translation apps when we are overseas traveling and might not have data connectivity at that point of time.

You can get Worldictionary in Apple App Store @ $7.99

iOS Task Management App Showdown!

A few weeks ago, Macheist, Twitterific and Realmac Software Team have came out with a Task Management iOS App idea/Prototype/Promo Video called Clear. It is one of the most intuitive task management app I have ever seen. It almost make managing tasks a pleasure. Thus it created alot of hype and people are waiting for it to launch.

But makers of popular iOS IM client Verbs today launch a Youtube Video showing their up-coming Task Management App – Steps. It feels and looks very similar to Clear, but of course have its own taste of it.

Both of them looks very sleek and nice, and both will be launching soon. So which will you choose to purchase? And which app will win the heart of more iOS users? Let’s stay tuned and see.

For now, let’s what Clear and Steps bring to the table:

Clear:

Steps:

Alfred is my favorite App launcher Software on Mac. In short, Alfred works like spotlight, in fact alfred is kind of like a enhanced spotlight. It is much faster and looks much more cleaner than spotlight. Alfred is actually tapping on to spotlight’s database, thus whatever you can search in spotlight, alfred can too, but quicker.

You can download Alfred for free at the Mac App Store

Summary of changes for the Mac App Store version:
* Improved performance
* Drop folders directly into search scope list
* Allow for + for space encodings in custom searches to support more site searches
* Improved look to the “Alfred should have found something” fallback result
* Update to newer Growl framework
* Improve accuracy when using double tap hotkeys, ensuring that shift doesn’t interfere
* Better URL recognition, including .local, localhost and URLs without http
* Cmd+c now copies information for the current result in Alfred’s default results (e.g. file path or URL)
* Word based matching for the ‘quit’ keyword, e.g. ‘quit chrome’ will now quit Google Chrome
* If {query} is used in a custom search’s title, no longer automatically appending {query}
* Alfred can now eject all items in /Volumes (set this in the preferences)
* Improve the ‘play’ keyword to also look at file name as well as track name
* Run “empty trash” command in the background to prevent blocking Alfred with very many trash items
* Fix subtext for iCloud synced contacts for correctly showing in Alfred
* Make the numpad “enter” key work the same as the “return” key
* Work around Lion bug where isCaseInsensitiveLike was failing for certain strings causing a hang
* Stop custom search icon from being lost when adding a second custom search with identical URL
* Fix help text on reindexing shell script, changing ‘any key’ to ‘enter’ for continue
* Update the Google Docs web search URL so that it doesn’t show the old style theme
* Fix Alfred’s default window position quirks when using a second screen with Alfred’s preferences showing
* When running .scpt files with the ‘MS Office’ experimental option selected, ensure Alfred correctly hides
* Improve defence against odd unicode character entry into Alfred search box
* Pre-compile regular expressions to improve performance
* Added defensive code for rare situations where the metadata query may be invalid / null

Kevin Rose, who started digg and now on Milk finally launch their first iPhone app Oink.

Oink is a unlike other location based apps like Foursquare and Yelp, they don’t rate a place but the things in the location. Things like tea in the tea house, noodles in the chinese restaurants or even coolest roller coaster in the theme park. Users of Oink will not only see rating from strangers but also from their friends if they ever been to the place.

It looks like it will be an very useful app in time to come, especially for people like me who will be lost when I first enter a restaurants and don’t know what is good and what should I order. By checking out Oink, I will know what my friends have tried and rated or just everyone who have rated.

Download Oink App for free in App Store now!

Check out Kevin’s introduction on Oink:

Cool iPad Concept

Moritz Harrmann came out with this very cool concept for Ikea iPad App. Although he is not linked affiliate with Ikea, but this concept should be useful for not just furniture related iPad App, but even other retail apps.

The way that this app is created, users will be able to smoothly browse to items, zoom in and out and move around. It is hard to describe in words, so check out his demo video:

iPad fluid app layout concept from Moritz Haarmann on Vimeo.

Translate your speech instantly with Vocre

Vocre, an new iOS app, can instantly translate whatever you just said to your iPhone/iPad into another language. Pretty cool right? Using Nuance technology, Vocre will be able to translate your speech but needs data connectivity.

This apps should be very useful, when you are overseas in country which you don’t speak. This will not only allow you to understand what foreigners are speaking to you, conversation can flow via this app. But of cause the down side is the need of data network, which will most likely cost a bomb.

Demo Video below:

Vorce is free, and will be free for the first 10 translation. After which $0.99 will be charge for 10 translation and $8.99 for 100 translation. Try Vorce for free at iTunes App Store.

 

Mix your own music with MadPad

Smule has always been very innovative in iOS’s musical app industry, they can be said to be the leading music apps creators for iOS. They recently came out with MadPad, a finger tapping music mix box on your iOS devices.

So what is MadPad about? It is an App, which displays 12 grid of rectangles, each can record video and sound. By tapping on each rectangle, you can record a video/sound. So with that 12 boxes, you will be able to tap and mix music. Pretty cool.

You won’t realise how cool is it before watching the demo below:

You can download MadPad on iPhone here @ $0.99 and MadPad HD for iPad @ $2.99

Adobe Carousel

Adobe is unveiled an very cool iPad App – Carousel, almost like a Lightroom App for iPad. After watching their video, I can only say it is really very cool. Who knows it might replace Photo App in iPad?

From Adobe:

Adobe Carousel gives you a new way to enjoy your photos, making all of them available across your Mac and iOS devices, so you can browse, enhance, and share them easily. No manual syncing, no storage limits, no differences in what photos are available to you. Your photography is everywhere you are.

Wireless Sync, Cloud Storage, any devices

So, we will be able access our photo library from our Mac/PC from any iOS devices, including iPad and iPhone. There will be no need for us to do syncing or transfer photo manually, everything will be automatic and wirelessly. Sounds pretty cool right? It seems to be having some Lightroom features like filters, quick edit of photo like exposure, brightness and contracts.

Free download, but storage cost?

Carousel will be a free download from App Store and Mac App Store, but I think we got to pay for the “online cloud storage”. Let’s wait for more details once the App is launch. Although, asking me to pay for another cloud service is a bumper. How many cloud storage service should we have?!

Play games on Apple TV via iPad with iPhone controller

Joypad is very interesting app, with this app, you will be able to play iPad games on your TV via AppleTV and use your iPhone as controller! In other words, it will treat your iPad as a “console” and stream the game from iPad to AppleTV and uses your iPhone as controller.

Very cool right? It uses their special SDK and is able to stream gameplay to AppleTV via Airplay. iPhone is connected to iPad via Bluetooth, thus you will be able to as controller. But the amount of games support this SDK is quite limited. You can see the list of supported games here.

You will be able to download Joypad here.

Evernote bought Skitch and put it free on Mac App Store

This is one of the greatest news for Mac for far for the month. I love both Evernote and Skitch, and now Skitch is free on Mac App Store. How cool is that man.

Skitch is a easiest Screen shot taking App on Mac, not only that is also the easiest app to help you edit and share the screen shot! With just 1 click, you can take screen shot, with another few clicks, you can edit and upload the photo up to your server or skitch server. A very neat software which I will highly recommend any Mac users.

Here’s 60 Seconds about Skitch Video:

The ever better news is that although Evernote, my favorite note-taking app, have bought Skitch, but they will be keeping Skitch as a separate Mac App, and is free! So be sure to download the Skitch App from Mac App Store now!