Daily iPad App Digest – 08/18/10

Burlington, New Jersey – Independent app developer Dante Varnado Moore today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Songwriter’s Pad(TM) 1.0.3, a professional lyric writing app designed specifically for the iPad. Songwriter’s Pad(TM) allows songwriters to write, arrange and store all of their lyrics and song concepts in one app. It also includes a digital audio recorder for capturing vocal ideas when inspiration strikes. It contains "powerful idea generating tools that are designed to inspire creative expression and eliminate writer’s block" says independent app developer Dante Varnado Moore.

Based Idea Generator – Eliminate Writer’s Block:
Unique to Songwriter’s Pad(TM) is its emotion based idea generator. Songwriters can randomly generate words and phrases that reflect their mood by tapping on a category such as ‘Love’, ‘Hate’, ‘Desire’, ‘Hope’, ‘Fear’ etc. The words and phrases that are generated can then be posted on sticky notes for later use or inspiration.

Essential Tools:
Songwriter’s Pad(TM) includes a searchable Dictionary, Thesaurus and a 70k + word Rhyming Dictionary – all of the essential tools that any serious songwriter would expect.

Digital Audio Recorder:
Also included is a built in digital audio recorder which is handy for capturing vocal expressions.

Songwriter’s can:
* Create and edit songs by individual sections (i.e. verse, chorus, bridge)
* Re-order sections of a song (i.e. swap positions of verse 1 and verse 2)
* Create ‘Extra’ sections within a song to keep ideas and edits
* Export lyrics .txt files via e-mail

Apple featured Songwriter’s Pad(TM) as the #1 New And Noteworthy App for all categories in the UK app store during the week of August 8th. It was also featured as the #1 New And Noteworthy App in the US in the music category during the week of July 12th.

"I love everything about this app. It is a great piece of software, and more and more of us are going to start writing on our iPads…" – Neal Coty, Country Music Songwriter – Nashville

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later
* 4.5 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Songwriter’s Pad 1.0.3 is $9.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Music category.
Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/songwriters-pad/id380151611?mt=8

Readdle today announces Calendars 1.2, the latest version of its Google Calendar client for iOS. Calendars supports all important functions of Google Calendar, including search, event reminders, invites and even can work offline. Carefully redesigned for the iPad’s large multi-touch screen, Calendars is now a Universal application and works natively with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. With the updated version iPad owners now can use drag-and-drop to move events, and more.

Odessa, Ukraine – Today, Readdle is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Calendars 1.2, the latest version of its Google Calendar client, which is now a Universal iPhone/iPad application. The application is deeply integrated with Google Calendar online service, enabling users to keep track of their schedule and manage events stored on Google Calendar.

Calendars has been carefully redesigned for the iPad’s large multi-touch screen. With the updated version iPad owners now can use drag-and-drop to move events, which comes in handy for rescheduling appointments or just shifting them to another day.

Extending Calendars capabilities, the update adds a range of new features based on user suggestions. Among notable improvements are the ability to select calendar default view (list/day/week/month), create custom repeating events, set Monday or Sunday as the first day of the week.

"We’ve received more than a hundred feature requests from our users," Igor Zhadanov, Readdle CEO. "We are pleased to offer a new version of Calendars 1.2 that implements most important requests and adds highly anticipated iPad compatibility, making it possible to manage Google Calendar on iPhone and iPad with a single application."

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
* Universal Application
* Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later
* 3.8 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Calendars 1.2 is $6.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Productivity category.

Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/calendars-google-calendar/id371434886?mt=8

Chicago, Illinois – Intersog, a leading developer of mobile learning applications, today is pleased to announced the release of Pocket MBA – Ecommerce for the iPad. This professional-level business course, provides anyone with a non-technical background a thorough overview of this rapidly evolving area of business. Pocket MBA – Ecommerce is currently available on the iTunes App Store.

Pocket MBA – Ecommerce is a full-featured business course logically divided into 3 distinct sections: course texts, flashcards and tests. The full-text course book contains 10 chapters that provide a thorough, non-technical overview of ecommerce trends and best practices. A handy bookmarking feature allows users to save their place anywhere in the course and to resume from that point upon restart. And to help users with terms they may not understand, a course glossary is provided for easy access to definitions from within the app.

Pocket MBA – Ecommerce features new enhancements including in-app search and multiple social networking options. The search feature allows users to locate information in any part of the course, whether in the course text, interactive flashcards or chapter tests. Users can also enhance their app experience by selecting and emailing course text to friends or associates as well as posting messages on Facebook and Twitter from directly within the application.

After the course text is completed, users have access to a set of interactive flashcards designed to prepare them for the in-course tests. Comprehensive tests follow each chapter, designed to reinforce the learning process. Detailed explanations are provided for each right or wrong answer and tests can be saved and retaken, so users can track their learning progress.

Device Requirements:
* iPad Compatible
* Requires iOS 3.2 or later
* 2.4 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Pocket MBA – E-Commerce: Applications for Cyberspace Technology course 1.0 is $39.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Reference category.

Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-mba-e-commerce-applications/id386140566?mt=8

Dublin, Ohio – FourthFrame Technologies has announced a new iPad app for managing project risk: SG Risk Log. SG Risk Log expands the Simple Genius Apps suite to the critical domain of risk management. With a design based on the popular app SG Project (formerly Project Pad), SG Risk Log is likely to be met with a warm welcome from savvy business managers who understand risk management as a tool for success.

Risk Management has come to iPad. "Risk Management is a critical function for the success of projects, and we’ve introduced the first and only risk management app available for the iPad today," said Ty Jacobs of FourthFrame Technologies, designer of SG Risk Log. "For those project managers who have learned the value of disciplined risk management through hard knocks and also take advantage of the mobility offered by the iPad, this app is the answer."

SG Risk Log helps project managers maintain a list of project risks with due dates, specific owners, a mitigation strategy, and a history of notes. The manager can set the Likelihood that each risk will occur and the Severity to the project, should it occur. SG Risk Log then calculates a Rating score for each risk and highlights medium and severe risks. A table view allows sorting by Rating, Owner, or Due Date. A PDF file of risks can be created and emailed directly from within the app – a simple way to remind the risk owners of their responsibilities.

SG Risk Log has a look-and-feel similar to FourthFrame’s popular apps SG Project (for project scheduling) and SG Action Log (for action item management), lessening the learning curve for users of the suite. The Simple Genius Apps suite has over 3500 customers worldwide, and FourthFrame is committed to continue growing and improving the suite, with an emphasis on listening to customer feedback. And that’s great news for project managers on the move.

Device Requirements
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later
* 1.9 MB

Pricing and Availability:
SG Risk Log 1.0 is initially $5.99 (USD) and available now worldwide exclusively on the App Store in the Business category.

Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sg-risk-log/id381601310?mt=8

Colorado Springs, Colorado – Pi’ikea St. LLC today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Interactive Alphabet 1.0, their new children’s learning game specifically for Apple’s revolutionary iPad device. Interactive Alphabet takes alphabet learning for babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers to the next level by offering a high level of interactivity with the letters of the alphabet.

Interactive Alphabet for iPad makes learning the alphabet a hand-on experience. The original artwork and characters draw them in, fun animation and sound effects peak their interest, and memorable unique interactions, such as eating the Apple, playing with the Squid, zipping the Zipper, and making music on the Xylophone keep them coming back for more. Each letter is softly spoken and the upbeat music and sound effects will have kids dancing, mimicking, and asking Mom or Dad if they can have their own iPad. Babies, toddlers, pre-schoolers, and even parents will have tons of fun with this great new app!

"We realized early on that kids were drawn to the iPad because of the ease of interaction (direct touch screen) and familiarity with their parents’ iPods and iPhones", says co-founder Matt Smith. One of the surprises was that even younger children could interact with the iPad, as opposed to the iPod/iPhone. "The larger screen makes it easier for them", says co-founder Ben Lew. "It doesn’t take as much dexterity if the app is designed with a focus to reach those younger kids".

Matt and Ben were inspired to collaborate across the country to build an iPad app that would be fun and playful and take advantage of the iPad’s larger screen. After working on the app and creating a simple virtual version of ABC flash cards, Matt and Ben turned to their key user demographic (kids), to get some feedback. The feedback was good, and they could have submitted to the App Store, but they chose not to.

"We were happy that it was good, but we wanted to make something great", says co-founder Ben Lew. Matt and Ben went back to the drawing board to figure out a way to take the app from good to great. "Once we got out of the mindset of mimicking physical abc flash cards and opened our minds to the possibilities of what we could do different with an iPad app, we knew what we had to do. Thus was born the version of Interactive Alphabet we are releasing on the iTunes App Store."

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later
* 60.1 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Interactive Alphabet 1.0 is $2.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Education category.

Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/remote/id383967580?mt=8

Sophia Antipolis, France – L’Escapadou has released one of the first educational iPad apps based on the proven Montessori learning method. Beginning or fluent readers will use the multi-level, auto-corrective crosswords to develop their writing/reading skills by building more or less phonetically complex words from a set of pictures shown. Packed with fun animations and sounds, Montessori Crosswords also features an animated Movable Alphabet to entertain younger kids and help them learn letters.

Montessori Crosswords provides an amusing way to learn letters for children as young as 3, and can be used by children up to 10 or more to improve and reinforce their word-spelling and literacy skills. The game is auto-corrective, and the 3 increasingly difficult levels are based on the word series defined in the Montessori teaching according to the phonetic difficulty of each word.

Also featured is a standalone animated movable alphabet providing open-ended activities with letters for young children who don’t know letters and their phonetic sounds yet. An article including a quick introduction to the Montessori approach to reading and writing, and how to use the game as an educational tool, is also provided.

Montessori Crosswords was created after we observed our homeschooled daughter having fun with a Montessori picture-spelling activity. We wanted to recreate this experience in a lighweight format, adding all the fun that the iPad technology can bring, such as direct interactions, animations and sounds, as well as automatic crosswords construction.

Features:
* 282 different words, and associated pictures – more to come
* Three word series of increasing difficulty, as defined in the Montessori method
* Crosswords are created randomly to offer thousands of different combinations
* Letter case choice
* Movable Alphabet Layout choice – alphabetical order or vowels/consonants as in Montessori
* 21 Fun and colorful animations displayed upon completion of a crossword
* Different colors for vowels and consonants – Montessori standard colors
* Total number of completed words displayed

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later
* 9.5 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Montessori Crosswords 1.0 is priced $4.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Education category.
Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/montessori-crosswords-learn/id384334005?mt=8

Poker Tourney Timer is the perfect tool for managing home poker tournaments. Set up custom rounds, breaks, blinds, and antes, or use a template based on common well known tournaments. Select a stock background image or use one from your photo library, define chip colors and values, and customize sound effects to completely personalize your home game. And Poker Tourney Timer is the only poker timer for the iPad that includes built in iPod integration to select and control the soundtrack for your game from your musical library.

Feature List:
* Built in tournament templates including H.O.R.S.E., WSOP, and Online
* Customize small blind, big blind, antes and bring-ins for all poker variations
* Choose sound effects for round change and alerts
* Set time lengths for rounds, breaks, alerts before round change
* Create and store your own poker tournament templates
* Customize backgrounds from your photo library
* Play music from your iPod through the timer, create custom music playlists for your game
* Customize and display chip values and colors for your players to view during the game

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later
* 8.9 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Poker Tourney Timer 1.0 joins the popular apps Hold ’em Helper and Chinese 13 Card Poker as the latest entry in Smappsoft’s line of iOS apps for the poker enthusiast. It is $1.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category. For more information, visit Smappsoft online.
Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/poker-tourney-timer/id384778468?mt=8

Los Angeles, California – App Apps today is pleased to announce version 1.6 of Audiotorium Notes for iPad with Dropbox support. With integrated Dropbox support, notes will be automatically backed up to the cloud and available instantly, anywhere, to any device with internet access. Users can now review or edit notes on their desktop and the changes will automatically sync back to the app.

Founder Michael Emmons had this to say about the latest release, "This is a huge milestone for us and our users. Our vision for Audiotorium Notes has always been to make syncing notes to the cloud for viewing, editing and sharing from anywhere as seamless as possible. Integrating with Dropbox has made this vision a reality."

When asked about their choice of service providers, Michael Emmons responded, "We’re really excited to choose Dropbox as our premier service provider – it was really a no-brainer for us. They have a clean user interface and getting set up as a new user is a matter of less than a minute. The user doesn’t even have to exit the app to set up a new account. We looked hard at a lot of service providers for syncing to the cloud and Dropbox was consistently at the top of our list."

Audiotorium Notes is great way record, organize, review and share your audio and text notes from your meetings, classes, and conferences. With its beautiful interface and unique approach to organizing notes by Category and Subject, you’ll always be able to find the notes you want, fast.

We now have integrated Dropbox support, so your notes will be backed up to the cloud and available instantly, anywhere, to any device with internet access. You can review or edit your notes on your desktop and the changes will automatically sync back to the app. For more information on Dropbox, visit them online.

Coming in version 1.7 is TextExpander integration! Instantly insert the date, time, your signature, or any other text with just a few keystrokes. Define your own abbreviations for often used text that is specific to your business or note taking subject. Once you have TextExpander snippets set up, the best note taking app on the iPad will also be the fastest! For more information on TextExpander, visit them inline.

* Record hours of audio in each note
* Use audio bookmarks to mark and find important sections of audio later
* Share your notes with friends and colleagues via WiFi, email or Dropbox sharing
* All your text notes are backed up to the cloud instantly and available from anywhere
* Stunning user interface. Customize your notes with a choice of different paper textures and fonts.
* Customize your Subjects with a choice of over 40 icons

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iOS 3.2 or later
* 6.6 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Audiotorium Notes 1.6 is $7.99 USD and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Productivity category.
Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/audiotorium-notes/id362787978?mt=8

Pune, India – Rolocule Games has released Super Badminton 2010 HD for the iPad. After the success of iPhone/iPod touch edition of the game, the HD version makes a huge leap by achieving a more sophisticated and higher level of realism in badminton simulation on iPad.

Redesigned for the iPad, the game has been fine tuned to take full advantage of the processing power of iPad. New animations have been added in the HD version, enhancing the behavioral responses of the badminton characters in the game. With shuttlecock physics simulation optimized to run 10x faster, the iPad edition also has visually improved badminton players, courts and controls.

"The HD version redefines almost everything. It is not only about enhanced graphics," said Rohit Gupta, CEO of Rolocule Games. "The game brings an entire new dimension of badminton experience in the gameplay. It feels real, works great and looks stunning."

Super Badminton 2010 HD features 8 badminton players, each with unique characteristics, and 5 different badminton courts. The game uses both touch and tilt controls to hit various badminton shots, and can be played in any of the three modes – Quick Play, Exhibition and Tournaments. The Tournament mode features three tournaments with balanced difficulty similar to real badminton tournaments. The Exhibition mode offers customization of a badminton match with selection of player, court type and five difficulty levels among other choices available. The player aims to become the ultimate badminton professional by winning as many trophies and displaying them in the trophy cabinet.

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later
* 54.8 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Super Badminton 2010 HD 1.0 is $4.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category.

Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/super-badminton-2010-hd/id384157979?mt=8

Hong Kong – CDE Humble Gaming Limited has released Arena 9-HD, the iPad version of their popular iPhone game. The user begins as an Apprentice with 5 free cards. The object is to have multiple duels with other users through which Experience and Arena Points are accumulated. Accumulation of Experience Points allows the user to upgrade from Apprentice to Journeyman then Adept and finally Expert.

Each upgrade allows the user access to new card packs. The quality of the cards in these packs strengthens as the users rank increases. Arena 9 is simple to learn but hard to master. The battle is between the user and the opponent, each trying to use their cards to place on a 9 square grid alternatively. Each card battles the one adjacent to it. The stronger card forces the weaker one to TURNOVER. The winner of the duel will be the one with the most cards in their color.

"Both Arena 9 & Arena 9 HD are a response to demand from gamers for trading card games on the Apps Store which creates a balance between skill and game play. HG has adopted a Pay or Play model which allows users to either PAY for their rank ups and their cards or PLAY for them by earning points which can be redeemed. The key point is that even if you pay for the rank upgrades, you will see yourself moving up the ranks faster but that does not assure you will be successful, this game is all about patience, and combines skill with a fantastic user experience. It’s addictive" said Prakash Bharwani, Communications Director of CDE Humble Gaming Limited.

Arena 9 and Arena 9-HD is now available on the iPhone/iPad Store as a free Download. They share one leaderboard, through Open Feint. Users who have been playing it on the iPhone can now just login on their iPads, through their Open Feint ID and continue where they left off. iPad users can challenge iPhone users as well.

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later
* 41.8 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Arena 9-HD 1.0 is free and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category.

Download from iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/arena-9-hd/id384884459?mt=8

Montreal, Canada – SPMobile.net has released iDleFrame 1.4, a new update to its bestselling picture frame with clock and calendar for iPad. iDleFrame continues to expand its functionality with more features requested by users. Now includes a scheduled "black screen" to simulate sleep mode and the option to turn On/Off the zooming animation on picture transitions.

iDleFrame is being used in offices, clinics and dentist waiting rooms, to welcome clients with business related information in the most elegant and configurable slideshow with clock & calendar. Some of those offices require the application to go off/sleep on scheduled hours to keep the place dark at night. Since iPad applications cannot auto-wakeup from sleep mode, iDleFrame simulates it going to a "black screen" on scheduled hours, so offices, clinics and even bedrooms will remain dark. It automatically manages the hours depending on "start/end" time. If "start" time is later than "end" time, iDleFrame assumes the schedule goes overnight to stop the next day.

People looking for a replacement of iPad’s built-in slideshow, found the answer on iDleFrame and SPMobile.net continues to give its customers the features they request. The application got in the last update what users were looking for. Performance and unique features where the key objective on the latest release.

With the new update, iDleFrame continues to improve the most elegant and customizable picture frame on App Store. No other application offer a hight impact visibility to user’s photos. Currently used on living room at homes, on desktops at work and waiting rooms at dentists or clinics, iDleFrame is taking place everywhere due to its easy to customize and configure.

Supported Languages:
* US English, French and Spanish

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iOS 3.2 or later
* 14.3 MB

Pricing and Availability:
iDleFrame 1.4 is $2.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Lifestyle category.

Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idleframe/id363135967?mt=8

Chicago, Illinois – Intersog, a leading developer of mobile learning applications, has released Financial Concepts and Tools for Managers for the iPad. The app provides managers in any industry with the resources and information they need to run their business or department more profitably in a specially designed format that captures the power of mobile learning. Financial Concepts and Tools for Managers is available on the iTunes App Store.

Part of the Pocket Manager series, Financial Concepts and Tools for Managers includes a range of new features designed specifically for the iPad, including in-app search and multiple social networking options. The search feature allows users to locate information in any part of the course, whether in the course text, interactive flashcards or chapter tests. Users can also enhance their app experience by selecting and emailing course text to friends or associates as well as posting messages on Facebook and Twitter from directly within the application.

Financial Concepts and Tools for Managers is a full-featured business course logically divided into 3 distinct sections: course texts, flashcards and tests. The full-text course book contains 14 in-depth chapters that will help managers learn to run their business more profitably. A handy bookmarking feature allows users to save their place anywhere in the course and to resume from that point upon restart. And to help users with terms they may not understand, a course glossary is provided for easy access to definitions from within the app.

After the course text is completed, users have access to a set of interactive flashcards designed to prepare them for the in-course tests. Comprehensive tests follow each chapter, designed to reinforce the learning process. Detailed explanations are provided for each right or wrong answer and tests can be saved and retaken, so users can track their learning progress.

Device Requirements:
* iPad Compatible
* Requires iOS 3.2 or later
* 3.0 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Pocket Manager – Financial Concepts and Tools for Managers 1.0 is $39.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Education category.

Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-manager-financial-concepts/id382064051?mt=8