Check out the latest and greatest in apps for your iOS device with our monthly app roundup.
Foxtel Go
Mobile TV? Yes please.
Price: Free  | By: Foxtel Management Pty Ltd  | From: App Store [1]
If you’re a Foxtel or Austar subscriber and an iPad user, you probably already have the Foxtel Guide app for your iPad. Foxtel Go takes that a step further, allowing you to watch certain channels live from wherever you are over either Wi-Fi or 3G/4G. You can also watch certain programs iview-style using ‘Catch Up’.
Unlike the Foxtel Mobile app for iPhone, Foxtel Go doesn’t require a separate subscription. If a channel in your subscription package is available on Go, you can watch it wherever you are (great for people on the go). You can also use the app just like the Foxtel Guide app to search for programs and even set your Foxtel iQ unit to record things at home.
Right now the selection of channels is fairly limited, though not bad, and Foxtel promises more are coming online soon. Hopefully there will also be deals with Telstra (as there are with Foxtel Mobile) so that content is unmetred. Over 3G/4G Foxtel Go eats up 280MB per hour, so your 2GB data plan for the month is looking a little anaemic.
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Google Maps
Real maps for iOS 6.
Price: Free  | By: Google, Inc.  | From: App Store Â
There was probably no aspect of the iPhone 5 and its accompanying OS update, iOS 6, that got more attention in the media than the replacement of the old Maps app â€" which used Google’s maps â€" with a new one using Apple’s own map data. The new maps, which Apple had obtained from a variety of sources, had some... let’s call them ‘issues’. It left people clamouring for the return of the ‘old’ Maps.
Well, here it is. Google has built its own app based on its own maps, and it’s everything you might hope for. Google’s been in the mapping business a lot longer than Apple, so the maps are more mature and less error-prone, though far from error-free. As a bonus, the new Google Maps includes turn-by-turn navigation and voice-guided directions, which the older app didn’t.
Of course, Apple’s own app also includes turn-by-turn and voice instructions, plus it integrates Siri and the iOS ‘Contacts’ list. That means you can simply tell your phone “direct me to Joe Bloggs’s house†and presuming Mr Bloggs is among your contacts, it will do so. Google Maps can’t match that â€" not yet, at least.
The competition between Apple and Google’s free GPS apps is certainly hotting up â€" I wouldn’t want to be trying to sell anyone a $60+ GPS app for the iPhone right now.
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English Country Tune
Price: $2.99  | By: increpare  | From: App Store [2]
Why this game is called English Country Tune is anyone’s guess. My theory is that it’s so the icon can be labelled ECT and imply that this is going to have a similar effect on your mental state as electroconvulsive therapy might. It’s probably not a bad theory, because it will.
The premise is simple. In a three-dimensional space, you manipulate a square plane and push objects around, trying to achieve certain goals. Your goals differ depending on the ‘world’ you’re in. For instance, in the screenshot below, I’m trying to push the balls (‘larva’) into the transparent cubes (‘incubators’). What you’re pushing where changes in different levels, but the concept remains the same.
There’s no such thing as gravity â€" the concepts of ‘up’ and ‘down’ are arbitrary, and solely dependent on the plane you’re rolling around. Nonetheless, you have to be careful not to let things fall off the ‘world’ or get stuck in corners where you can’t reach them. It’s maddening, in a genius sort of way.
While it’s available on both Windows and Mac, English Country Tune is a game that was born for a touchscreen interface.
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