October Apps

I just read the news today the the NY Times Editor's Choice App has been replaced with a full NY Times app which will be free until early 2011 when the paywall goes up. Note that the app requires email registration (which then entails being spammed with NY Times "offers"). But I feel that's a small price to pay. There are ads at the bottom of the app and there is also the occasional video ad before the article appears (which can be skipped using the eponymous button on the bottom right).

I also installed What's on TV, a TV listings app, which is quite impressive for having TV listings of Canadian cable suppliers like Rogers and Bell. I had a bit of trouble getting the listings to show-up because I was indoors and location services was not able to get my co-ordinates. But once I entered by postal code, everything started working.

VLC Media Player is also out for the iPad meaning, I no longer have to transcode all my .avi files into .mp4. Update: It played the .avi files I copied over to the iPad with no problems; it did not, however, play a .flv video downloaded from YouTube. As expected, battery life suffers, as the decoding is done in software: 4 minutes of avi video playback caused the battery to drop 1%. To me, that is not worth it. I deleted the VLC app.

I should make a note of the Free App a Day website (they also have an app) which is  true to it's namesake with apps for both the iPad and the iPod Touch/iPhone.

I also installed the Stanza app which is great for reading comic books encoded in .cbr and .cbz. It also opens PDF files. File transfer is done via drag-and-drop from the Apps tab in iTunes (scroll all the way to the bottom).