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8 iPad Apps to Keep the Kids Busy on That Long Drive
Got a long drive ahead of you, and a backseat full of unruly kids? If you also have an iPad, you’re in luck. There are apps that can help you maintain your sanity. We’ve drilled down the wide selection available to eight key apps for different age demographics to make things easier for you.

Toddlers (Aged 2 to 6)

Fish School HD ($1.99)

This great-looking app teaches your kids their letters, numbers, shapes colors and provides a selection of games that will keep your inquisitive young child amused for hours. The developer behind Fish School HD, Duck Duck Moose, has a strong history of delivering quality kids’ content for the iPhone platform, so you can rest assured you’re in the hands of experts with this one. A free-form playtime mode provides an interactive environment for kids to just have fun with when the learning aspects get old.

Color & Draw ($1.99)

All the fun of finger painting, but without the mess. This versatile app features a library of 50 custom images to choose from, and has a drawing feature that allows them to sketch and complete partial images, guided by voice over instructions. Another great feature allows you to import your own images, so mom and dad can create their own images once the library gets boring.

Tweens (Aged 6 to 12)

Story Patch ($4.99)

I used to love writing stories and making picture books when I was a kid, and Story Patch brings that to the iPad with additional tools that should make story time enjoyable for all. The app includes more than 800 illustrations to choose from, and also features customizable characters, the ability to import from the iPad’s photo library, and PDF sharing. You can use Story Patch’s guided mode for younger children, just by answering questions and generating a story automatically, or kids can take full control themselves.

Strip Designer ($2.99)

In the same vein as Story Patch, Strip Designer lets you create your own tale, but this time you use your own photos and create comics. You can add text balloons and sound effects, choose from a number of layout templates, and even import your own fonts. It’s a great distraction for comics-crazy boys and girls, and very easy to use.

Teens (Aged 12 to 16)

Beejive IM or IM+ ($9.99 or Free)

Oh, the messaging. When will it end? At least if they’re chatting with friends, your teenage kids won’t be fighting amongst themselves or complaining of boredom. Both of these apps provide access to most major IM services, including AIM, MSN, and, most importantly, Facebook. This one requires data access to use.

VEVO HD (Free)

When I was young, we had MTV for music videos. Nowadays, MTV basically just shows reality programming and the occasional award show. VEVO HD is the dedicated iPad app for the YouTube/record label partnership that sees music videos available for online streaming on the web. I find the app to have a relatively limited library, but it does have a lot of today’s chart-toppers. This is another app that needs a data connection, but the app itself is at least free. Be warned that some of the content here may not be suitable for all audiences, so exercise your own discretion.

Apps for Everyone

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 ($4.99)

This game is great for all ages. Especially now that there’s a virtual D-pad, introduced in a recent update. It provides hours and hours of gameplay, and does so without managing to feel too repetitive or boring. Plus it makes unique use of the iPad’s touch interface, and it’s a universal app, so it works on both iPad and iPhone.

Fun Felt ($2.99)

Some teens might scoff at this one, but everyone else, from small kids to adults, will probably love it. Basically it lets you create your own virtual felt crafts, by combining different shapes and colors creatively. You can even add text and share your creations via email or save it to your device’s local library.

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Tips for Giving Apps and Games as Gifts
In a piece about thrifty Apple-related gifts, I mentioned giving iPhone and iPad apps as one option. It’s a good way to buy for someone who generally doesn’t wander far from the free sections of the App Store, but how do you actually present them? There’s nothing really to put in a box under the tree, after all. Not unless you get a little creative.

First things first: don’t buy your app gifts in advance if you want them to be a surprise, unless you opt not to send the gift as an email, and instead choose the “Print gift myself” option in the app gifting screen in iTunes. If you send the gifts via email, your recipient will receive them right away, unless you can somehow convince them to not open their email until Dec. 25.

If you do select the option to print the gift, it’ll give you the added benefit of having something to actually present the giftee. But while Apple’s presentation and formatting are nice enough (see below), they won’t win any design contests.

I suggest getting more creative. For instance, I’m giving the gift of Angry Birds to many friends and family members this year. I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by people who’ve somehow never experienced the joy of Rovio’s physics puzzler. Along with the app, I’m putting one of the Angry Birds plush toys in the box for one lucky recipient. In this case, the prop actually cost around 15 times the gift itself, but considering how cheap the game itself is, and how happy the stuffed bird will make the little guy getting it, it’s well worth it. It’s a little late to get this shipped in time, but you can grab an Angry Birds iPhone case from Best Buy or the Apple Store as a nice replacement. Works better for grown-up kids, too.

Of course, not every app has a companion stuffed toy to give away with it. I’d be hard pressed to find a plush animal that’s appropriate for Reeder, for instance (okay, maybe an owl with a mortar board and glasses). Instead, if I’m giving a selection of apps to one individual, I get a little crafty. Get ready to tap into your inner Martha Stewart.

First, grab screen captures of the icons for the apps you want to give, either from iTunes directly or from the iTunes preview page on the web for each app. In case you don’t know, on a Mac this means hitting Shift+Command+4 and then clicking and dragging to specify the area you want to grab. A .PNG named “Screenshot” followed by the date and time it was taken should appear on your desktop.

Once you’ve got all your apps taken care of, arrange them on a page using your photo editor of choice and print them out, at a fairly large size. Try to get six on a page, with plenty of white space between. I like to use a heavier stock paper, for better durability. When the pictures are printed, get out the scissors and cut out each app icon.

Now take a piece of cardboard (cut to whatever shape you desire) and wrap it in festive wrapping paper. You could use ribbon to mimic a tied package at this point, complete with bow. Use a glue stick to fix the app icons you cut out on your wrapped cardboard backing. I’m planning to cut my backing into stocking shapes, and maybe hanging them on the tree in advance of gift giving.

Another quick and easy idea is to print app icons, along with a brief description or personal message, and the code iTunes provides when you buy the gift on printable business cards. It’s easier for less crafty individuals, takes far less time, and makes your gift easy to slip into a card or stocking.

One more tip for those gifting apps this season: make sure the app is compatible with your giftee’s device in advance. If they have an iPhone 3G running iOS 3.1 and you give them an app that requires 4.2 or higher and is exclusively compatible with iPhone 4, their disappointment will be palpable.

So long as the app is compatible, and you give them a little more than just a stock email, though, giving apps as gifts should result in a lot of smiling faces come Christmas morning. Unless your loved ones are too busy flinging birds to smile.

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Portrait of an Indie iPhone Holiday Game Launch
The holidays are a volatile time for the App Store. Our app developer panel already confirmed this, and with EA and other major studios selling games at bargain basement prices, things got especially crazy this year. One indie developer provides an interesting snapshot of how launching a game amidst the madness works out.

Colin Walsh, founder and sole staff member of Celsius Games, reveals his experience in an insightful blog post. His game, Red Nova, came out Dec. 14, and has currently been in the App Store for one week. Red Nova is a space shooter that blends Asteroids-type gameplay with an inertial shooter control scheme. It received great reviews from both app review sites and users in the iTunes store. In fact, it’s exactly the type of title that might have taken the App Store by storm a year ago or less, especially at only $0.99.

This year, however, Red Nova had to face cutthroat App Store chart tactics by EA and others. EA’s sale saw a massive chunk of its library drop to $0.99, and Red Nova obviously isn’t going to have the brand power behind it to compete with something like that on its own. Reviews helped the game climb briefly to #156 out of 200 on the U.S. iPhone charts for gaming apps, and it even cracked the top 50 in the Arcade subsection, but its success was short-lived, and by last weekend, it had fallen out of the top 200 on all iPhone charts.

Walsh is the definition of a good sport in his blog post on the subject, noting major publisher sales may have affected his chances of catching consumer attention, but ultimately focusing on the positive aspects of Red Nova’s launch. When contacted for comment, he also noted that timing probably wasn’t optimal, but that he knew the risks:

As for the big studios flooding the charts, it is an unfortunate but almost inevitable outcome given the assumption that the ranking algorithm will be frozen during the App Store holiday. As I mentioned in my post, it was definitely a risky time to launch a new game, and I knew that, but even established indie developers on the App Store are sadly going to feel the effects of these sales. It’s definitely frustrating not being able to compete with the sort of clout that these larger studios have, but it’s something that we’ll have to deal with as the App Store matures. That being said, I still feel the App Store still has a lot of advantages for independent developers trying to establish themselves.

While Walsh isn’t quick to lay blame, I’m less inclined to be forgiving. The App Store was built on the backs of indie developers, who flocked to the platform in droves while big studios were still hanging back, testing the waters with lazy ports of existing titles and franchises. Apple, many might argue, doesn’t owe anybody anything, but is that really true? Aren’t the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad such runaway successes due at least in part to the massive software library it offers users? You know, the one Apple constantly crows about, which contains a significant percentage of independent apps and games.

After coming across Walsh’s post, I downloaded and played Red Nova. It’s genuinely an awesome game. Yet many iPhone gamers will probably never find that out. There’s room enough for both big and small game makers in the App Store, but you can bet EA and other major publishers will do everything they can to make sure they eclipse the smaller fish in the mind of the consumer. I’d like to see Apple at least try to make sure they don’t succeed.

Restricting major publisher access to the charts or limiting its promotional efforts isn’t an option, since that definitely wouldn’t go over well with EA and company. Since those companies provide Apple with a huge amount of revenue, Cupertino wouldn’t dare alienate them, especially not now that there are competing smartphone app platforms waiting in the wings.

Instead, Apple could offer a separate category and chart for indie games. It would give smaller studios some breathing room, and it wouldn’t involve artificially impeding the efforts of big name game-makers. An indie category and chart could simply reside alongside Apple’s existing game subsections and work the same way. Large studios might still complain that such a category constitutes preferential treatment, but it’d be hard to justify that position from atop mountains of App Store cash.

Independent games could still make it into the regular charts, just like titles can currently occupy multiple categories, but there’d be a permanent corner of the App Store where the playing field was level and marketing dollars and brand recognition couldn’t buy success. Sound fair to everyone?

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'Tis the Season for Great Mac Software Bundles
A few days ago, Charles pointed out the great FusionAds Holiday Bundle deal on software for your Mac. If web design isn’t your bag, there are still a few other software bundles available right now you may be interested in checking out.

The following four bundles expire between Dec. 23 and Dec. 31. As tends to be the case with these bundles, there’s usually a standout app or two which make the bundle worth the price tag, then you get a handful of other stuff. The rest can be pretty hit or miss, but if you can get one or two great programs at less than retail, then anything else is just gravy. The best part is, if you or someone you know is new to Mac and could use some great software, bundle deals like these are a terrific place to start!

Titles in bold italics highlight some of the apps that really make the bundles worth the cash.

MacPromo.com
10 OS X Apps for $49.99
Ends Dec. 31
- TypeIt4Me
- Personal Anstispam
- PathFinder
- MacFreelance
- Folx Pro
- DragThing
- Keyboard Maestro
- CuteClips
- Name Mangler
- Personal Backup
- First 5000 buyers also get Star Wars: Empire at War
Indie Mac Gift pack
6 OS X Apps for $60
Ends Dec. 31
- Delicious Library 2
- Acorn 2
- MarsEdit 3
- Radioshift
- SousChef
- Sound Studio 4
Humble Indie Bundle
5 OS X Games (playable on Steam) for… well, you actually get to set your price!
Ends Dec. 25
- Braid
- Cortex Command
- Machinarium
- Osmos
- Revenge of the Titans
MUPromo Bundle
11 Mac Apps for $49.99
Ends Dec. 23
- 1Password
- MacFamilyTree
- DEVONthink
- Flux
- Default Folder X
- Art Text + Fonts
- Swift Publisher
- Chronories
- Interarchy
- Typinator
- WhatSize
- Tweet the Bundle, and get Process free
- Sign up for the newsletter, and get Image Tricks Pro free
For this writer’s money, the MacPromo and the MUPromo bundles seem to have the best line-ups. They include what are widely known as some of the more popular programs for the OS X platform — with the likes of Pathfinder, DragThing, 1Password, and Default Folder X to name just a few. However you want to slice it, these bundles represent some good deals, but they’re as fleeting as the Christmas season, so act quick if you’re interested.

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9 Things on the iPad 2 Wish List
Let’s be clear; the iPad rocks. If it never changes, I’d still be happy with it. But since we’re at that point in the year when we’re offering offering predictions and hopes regarding what’s to come, here’s a list of must-have features in iPad 2.

Some things we can be fairly certain of. Storage capacities will increase while prices (particularly for the entry-level model) will decrease. Battery life will probably improve, and the iPad chassis may well get even thinner (more on that later). A new talking-heads video will also be streamed from Apple’s website, featuring an ever-increasingly-earnest Jonny Ive declaring the iPad 2 is even more elegant and magical than its elegant, magical predecessor.

Magic is nice, but all users really care about are the feature and usability upgrades, and these are the ones that would most benefit the iPad 2.

Improved Display

I don’t mean a retina display, either. The resolution on the current iPad is just fine, thank you. Brighter, higher contrast, more colors and a wider viewing angle would be just swell.

Integrated SD Card Reader

MacBooks now have them, and the iPad seems a natural next candidate for a built-in SD card reader. The SD card reader Apple sells as part of its camera connection kit always seemed like an inelegant solution. (Its boxy white plastic lines look cheap next to the iPad’s aluminum shell.) Personally, I’d prefer to be able to beam photos from my DSLR to the iPad wirelessly, but a feature like that is even less likely to appear than an integrated reader.

A USB Port

I’m putting this here not because I genuinely want it, you understand, but because, apparently, everyone else does. Seriously, I’ve never wanted to connect anything to the iPad via USB. Nothing. Ever. I can see maybe wanting to plug a camera in directly instead of using its SD card, since it saves steps, but that’s about it. Feel free to illuminate me further on why a USB port on the iPad is a good idea in the comments.

Cameras and FaceTime

I’m not a fan of shaky-cam video calling, but I am a fan of devices that offer a complete audio/visual experience. FaceTime on iPhone 4 is stunning but a little gimmicky – on iPad it would be usable enough to make me want every chat to be a Facetime chat. More importantly, it would be like living in Star Trek, which would be cool.

iLife for iOS

Making iWork touch-friendly was an incredible achievement, and the quality and functionality of Pages, Numbers and Keynote on iPad just gets better and better with each update. Imagine, then, how toe-curlingly-awesome iLife could be on the iPad! Editing and sharing photos with a few swipes and finger-taps would be child’s play, while iMovie and Garage Band feel like they’ve been designed for touch since day one.

Thinner, Lighter, Stronger

I did promise I’d get to this one, and, if I’m really honest, I think this one is the most crucial upgrade Apple can make to iPad. Don’t get me wrong; the iPad is gorgeous. The iPad is practical. But the iPad is also heavy. If you don’t have a stand or empty lap available, cradling the thing in one arm soon starts to feel like hard work. I don’t doubt that Apple explored plastic versions of iPad (and perhaps, in keeping with the evolution of the iPhone, a plastic-bodied iPad is on the way) and I don’t deny that the current aluminum chassis provides for exceptional strength and rigidity. But so, too, could carbon fibre composite, without the arm-strain.

Side-Mounted Dock Connector

Speaks for itself, this one. A side-mounted dock connector won’t just make it possible to dock, sync and charge iPad in landscape orientation, but will also increase the range of design possibilities for third-party products. The problem, of course, is that it would mean yet another cavity in the otherwise unbroken lines of the device. I’m not sure Mr Jobs would tolerate that.

3G Radio As Standard

Since the second-generation iPhone, every iPhone has featured a 3G radio. That makes sense for a phone, but it also makes sense for a portable computer that relies heavily on cloud-based data to get things done. We don’t live in a Wi-Fi everywhere world (yet), so including a 3G chip as a standard feature of every model of iPad seems perfectly reasonable. Oh, and, I’d very much like it to be free 3G, too. Surely AT&T won’t have a problem with that, will they?

User Profiles

This is something that would never make sense on a device as small and personal as a cell phone. But despite what some people might say, the iPad is far more than an overgrown cell phone. I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to buy an iPad for every member of my family. Until I can, password protected user profiles would make iPad sharing far less stressful; I wouldn’t have to worry about my five-year old godson accidentally mucking-up my calendar entries, or deleting emails… while my partner could play games without wiping out my top-scores. I’m sure Apple would prefer we all just buy an iPad each, but that’s not likely to happen any day soon, unless prices come way, way down.

So there you have a few humble suggestions for iPad 2. I honestly struggled to find areas needing improvement, and consider that an indicator of the attention to detail Apple paid the first time around. I’d love to know what you think needs to improve, but as you leave your suggestions in the comments, here’s a challenge to bear in mind; avoid suggesting changes to the iOS software unless they’re game-changers for the iPad alone.

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Why Was the WikiLeaks App Pulled From App Store? [Updated]
UPDATE: Apple’s official stance on the removal of the WikiLeaks app is that “it violated [their] developer guidelines,” according to the New York Times. Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller added that “[a]pps must comply with all local laws and may not put an individual or group in harm’s way,” which suggests that the guideline it violated wasn’t the one related to charitable donations.

Given enough time, it seems like everyone will eventually become entangled in the ever-sprawling WikiLeaks story, which began back in late November when the whistle-blowing site started publishing a trove of secret U.S. diplomatic cables. Today, it's Apple's turn, as overnight, an unofficial WikiLeaks iOS app was pulled from the App Store after being approved only last week. Before you run out and fire up your Low Orbit Ion Cannon to wreak DDOS justice on Cupertino servers, it's important to point out censorship isn’t the only suspect in this rejection case.

Like with most things Apple does, it's not immediately obvious what the reasoning is behind this latest action. Certainly Apple has been known to remove apps containing content the company doesn't approve of, and while that may be what happened here, as TechCrunch claims, it's not necessarily so. The app may simply have violated App Store guidelines around collecting donations.

According to its iTunes page, the app sold for $1.99, with one dollar of every purchase being donated to "organizations that work to promote the future of online democracy." This might be read as a violation of the App Store Review Guidelines, which state that "[a]pps that include the ability to make donations to recognized charitable organizations must be free" and "[t]he collection of donations must be done via a web site in Safari or an SMS." Of course, that guideline could also be read as only applying to apps that use in-app purchases to collect money, rather than a developer just donating part of his proceeds. The guideline is vague, perhaps by design.

We may never know why this particular app was pulled from the store. Resubmission as a free app, or removing mention of donations could remedy the problem, if indeed Apple isn’t just taking issue with the nature of the app’s content. If not though, you can always just open up mobile Safari and head over to http://wikileaks.ch or http://liebermanforpresident.org to view the cables there. The great thing about the Internet, as activist John Gilmore famously put it, is that "[t]he Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.” Apple devices aren’t immune to this rule. At least not yet.

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Apple TV to Break 1M Mark: It Should Thank Netflix
The new Apple TV should hit the the 1 million sold mark later this week Apple said today. The success of the device in its second iteration is likely a result of its lower price and the inclusion of streaming partners such as Netflix.

The new Apple TV’s price point at $99 definitely helped it gain traction with consumers. The version it replaced cost $229, though it did ship with a 160GB hard drive. And streaming iTunes rentals may be a draw for some, although reading between the lines of Apple’s press release, that isn’t the impression you get. Apple says that “iTunes users are now renting and purchasing over 400,000 TV episodes and over 150,000 movies per day,” but doesn’t make any specific mention of how much of that is happening directly on the Apple TV platform.

No, the real key to Apple’s success with this iteration of the Apple TV is the introduction of Netflix streaming. Some were skeptical the introduction of Netflix would have any effect on Apple TV’s sales, but those naysayers probably didn’t take into account the new, lower price point for the Apple TV. It’s true that Netflix is already available on every major console, but Apple’s price of entry is cheaper for those just looking for a way to cut the cord without the frills. The Roku XD may be cheaper, and also provides Netflix, but it doesn’t have the brand cache and market reach that Apple does.

Netflix now has presence in 23 percent of homes with broadband internet access according to Seeking Alpha, which is up 52 percent from last year, for a total of around 20 million subscribers. Goldman Sachs also predicts that its total subscriber base will continue to experience strong growth, reaching 50 million subscribers by 2015. Since it moved into the Canadian market this fall, Netflix has been able to reach a much broader audience. Apple may have a lot of things going for it in other areas, but Netflix is the beast that’s driving its living room success.

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