The 3 best iPad apps
Posted by David N. Guy | May 31, 2010 | Comments Off
To celebrate the iPad’s third day on sale, our chief Technology writer David N. Guy rates the three most must-have apps currently available.
#1. The Electromagnetic Spectrum
Making superb use of the iPad’s extreme audio/visual strengths, this interactive trip through the spectrum of light, from the psychedelic beauty of the rainbow to the plasma osccilations of the sub-infra, is an intellectual treat. Narrated by Stephen Fry.
#2. Videodrome
The Videodrome app displays a huge close up of Debbie Harry’s face on the iPad, the sub-pixel rendering making her look even more beautiful than she ever did in reality. Pushing your face directly into the screen is surprisingly refreshing, the feel of the your corneas pushing themselves flat against the tactile touch interface one of the most exciting sensations available.
#3. The Loop
The Loop, brought to you by the Guardian’s dedicated team, is a constantly changing and never-edning fractal-powered visual search. Loading up the app brings up the Guardian website’s front page. The screen then begins to zoom onto the first picture of the iPad it can find. Displayed on this iPad will be another Guardian feature about the iPad, which you can briefly read the headline from before the camera zooms into the article’s glossy iPad picture. Displayed on this iPad is yet another Guardian article about the iPad. It is strangely mesmersing, and after 72 hours of use, I have yet to see any repeated articles. For £1.99 this app provides perhaps the most startling content-to-cost ratio of any software yet sold.