Andrew Kaz & Phill Ryu

By Bonnie Eisenman on September 24th, 2010 Ruler 2 makes its App Store debut with flair, bringing a contest in its wake. Ruler 2 is a new app from the same folks who brought us the popular book app, Classics. Like Classics, Ruler 2 pays equal attention to form and function; beneath the glossy interface is an easy-to-use ruler, complete with a slider for measurement instead of forcing you to guestimate. The app supports both inches and centimeters, includes a trick for measuring longer objects, and allows you to copy and paste your measurements into apps like Calculator or Mail. It’s a big step up from the original Ruler: just ask the developers. “Ruler 1.0 was, to put it bluntly, awful, so we burned it to a fine ash and began again,” said co-creator Andrew Kaz. Their hard work seems to have paid off. Ruler 2 is clearly well-thought out, proving that traditional mediums aren’t necessarily the best implementations. In some ways, the iPhone/iPad app is more useful—and certainly more convenient—than a wooden ruler. (I really like that automatic slider. No more guestimation!) To celebrate Ruler 2′s launch, developers Andrew and Alexa are hosting a contest. Happily, you don’t even have to buy the app, and entering is easy. Prizes include fresh new Apple swag—a 64GB iPod Touch, a 16GB iPod Nano, the new iPod Shuffle, and the new Apple TV. By spreading the word about Ruler 2 via Facebook or Twitter, or by signing up for the email list, you get one entry in the drawing. (For more information, or to enter, go to http://rulerapp.com/.) Ruler 2 is a great new implementation of a ruler app for both iPhone and iPad, and the contest is just an added bonus – you don’t have to buy Ruler 2 to enter! Check Ruler 2 out on the App Store; the universal version is a mere $0.99. $0.99 + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad Released: 2010-06-03 :: Category: Utilities Read More

By Ben Harvell on June 15th, 2010 Simple measuring app from the co-creator of Classics for iPhone Did you know there was an app that looked and acted just like iBooks when Apple’s reader was still a twinkle in Steve Jobs’ spectacled eye? If not, you should definitely check out Classics by Andrew Kaz and Phill Ryu and also see our review. Once you’re done you’ll be interested to know that one of the app’s developers, Mr Kaz, has launched a new app for iPad… but don’t get too excited just yet. Ruler is, by the developer’s own admission, not to be considered a follow-up to Classics but merely an app that fills a gap on the iPad – quite literally. Offering the same dedication to presentation as Classics, Ruler is said to offer the highest quality “digital wood” and allows users to measure in inches or centimeters with their iPad screen. Measurements larger than the iPad screen are still possible with a scrolling display and marker combination and you can even copy the current measurement so it can be pasted into an email or note. For $0.99 it looks like it could be a useful tool if you’re short of measuring equipment but have your iPad with you. Ruler isn’t going to change the world but it could well come in handy. $0.99 + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad Released: 2010-06-03 :: Category: Utilities Read More

Browsing the App Store this weekend?  Here are thirteen new or updated apps for the iPhone and iPad worth taking a closer look at if you are: If you’re even the slightest bit interested in science and space, then this app is well worth investigating.  Buzz has gathered many experts in various fields including space tourism, deep space and the exploration of Mars and the Moon to provide informative content, plus extras including live streaming NASA TV  $1.99/£1.19. Designed for both the iPhone and the iPad, this beautifully realised wooden ruler app has a marker for keeping your spot as you measure.  $0.99/£0.59. Best used with an iPhone 3GS, this text capture app will recognize and convert anything from business cards to entire magazine pages.  With captured numbers, URLs or email addresses, a simple tap will call or open an email or Safari page.  $1.99/£1.19. Help little Polly escape from her dream world, where there are all sorts of scary things waiting to frighten her, and get back to her bedroom.  A platform game with puzzles, Polly Bad Dream looks pretty surreal and as her abilities are limited, we expect it to be quite a challenge too.  $0.99/£0.59. The iPhone version has been around for a while, but now we have an iPad-specific version of the bread-based shooter.  There is a Time Trial and a Long Run version of the game, with the first being limited to 2 minutes play and the second based around your ‘Jelly Power’ energy levels.  $0.99/£0.59. A game based on the song of the same name, by Katrina and the Waves.  The gameplay looks simple enough as you flick clouds away and collected energy from the sun to help the Earth grow stronger.  It also has the world premiere of the song sung by the Soweto Gospel Choir.  $0.99/£0.59. Another iPhone app conversion, this time one which will really make use of the larger screen!  Make really striking images by changing them to black and white, but then keeping certain sections in color.  A video tutorial will get you started and there is also an undo and a save feature.  $1.99/£1.19. Kill all the horrible germs that have escaped from a laboratory!  There are 30 levels to this puzzle game, whose simple control system involves dragging germs until the collide with others or fall from the screen.  $1.99/£1.19. Updated to fix some crash issues, this iPad Read More

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Feb 3, 2010 | Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch, and soon… iPad!) related, they’re fair game. Confession: in all the iPad hubbub last week, Rene didn’t get around to posting everyone’s pick. Bright side, you get almost twice as many this week! So who’s on deck this double-dose and what are our picks? Find out after the break! Apple’s new MobileMe Gallery app is awesome. I really like the way it previews photos at the top (just like Apple TV) and you can easily share photos, albums or movies. Adding friend’s galleries are bonus too! I just wish you could comment on photos… Just like with the MobileMe iDisk app, once you view an image, it saves it to your iPhone for easy access later. You can also tap and hold to save your images to the iPhone’s camera roll. [Free - iTunes link] This week I decided to look at some news apps, specifically Engadgets new app. What is nice is that they have all three of their sites available to view: Engadget, Engadget Mobile and Engadget HD. The app remembers the last news source and looks beautiful doing so. The standard fanfare is there too such as posting to Facebook and Twitter any articles that you find interesting. One nice bonus is streaming video, including the Engadet Show. Give Engadget a try for all of your gadget news from TVs to robots! [Free - iTunes link] With tax season upon us, Turbo Tax has given iPhone user an easy tool for a quick tax estimate. With basic deductions and incomes, you can get a rough idea if you will owe money or (hopefully) get a nice hefty refund. You can enter exact amount or just estimates to see what your fate will be this year with the IRS. You cant export data for your return, but for a free app, this is a useful tool to have. [Free - iTunes link] Homerun Battle 3D is hours of fun, mainly because it has online play. I’d suggest to try out the LITE version of this game and I’m sure you Read More

I generally do not mind paying for an iPhone app, but at the same time I like free apps. And I like free apps even more when they are not normally free. It makes me feel like I am getting a real deal. That said, the iPhone app Classics has (for an unspecified amount of time) been lowered from its regular price of $2.99 to free. Yup, you can head on over to the App Store and download it right now — and pay nothing. We have mentioned Classics here on iPhoneFreak before, but just to offer a recap for those that may have missed it. Classics is an ebook reader, and one that has an super nice interface. It also comes with a selection of, you guessed it, classic book titles. As of now Classics has titles such as Through The Looking Glass, The Art of War, Frankenstein, Dracula, Treasure Island, Gulliver’s Travels, Robinson Crusoe and more. The developers also, from time to time release an app update that includes more titles. Read More

If you are an iPhone or iPod touch user and you want to make your iDevice look like an iPad, you can easily do that now thanks to RoryPiper. You must first jailbreak your iPhone or iPod touch, and to do that see our Jailbreak iPhone 3.1.2 or Jailbreak iPod touch 3.1.2 post. If you don’t have WinterBoard, see our download and install WinterBoard post for instructions. Open Cydia and search for Simple iPad theme, and install it. Open WinterBoard and tap on the Simple iPad theme to activate it, and then exit WinterBoard. The iPad has a new App Store for just eBooks called iBooks, but there is a similar app in the App Store called Classics which is very similar. Click here to download the currently free Classics app for your iPhone or iPod touch. Read More

In this week's pixel-doubled app roundup: AT&T's entire business model, potentially vaporized! Gears and pipes, diligently organized! Google Voice, web-ized! Restaurant menus, analyzed! Ski slopes, virtualized! "Ist" sites, app(et)ized! Ebook apps, plagiarized! And more... If you'd like to view this gallery as a single page, click here. Read More

I don’t read the printed word any more because I just don’t trust objects that can’t be charged with electricity. However, there is a little something to be said about the feeling of turning a page instead of just scrolling down a stream of uninterrupted text, and so this limited time offer to download the Classics ebook app for free is interesting. Classics features over a dozen literary classics (the devs sometimes add a few more via an app update), and every title features chapters and cover art. I personally still prefer Stanza because of the built-in bookstore and the ability to add most any other book you own, but Classics’ main strength right now is the great page-turning animations.  It’s silly, but I sometimes think I’ll get a paper cut from the bloody thing. The iTunes Store doesn’t say how long the sale will be around, but I know it’s been on for a couple of days (just took me a little while to get to this news item ). So download quickly if you intend on trying Classics out! Read More

When Apple unveiled their new iBooks application during the launch of the much-anticipated and unfortunately named iPad tablet computer, many people noticed its similarity to the well-known Classics iPhone app. Classics [iTunes link], if you're not familiar with it, is an iPhone app that gives you access to read over a dozen public-domain books. There are lots of ebook readers available for the iPhone, but where Classics sets itself apart is with an exquisite user interface that mimics the feeling of going to a bookshelf, getting a hardcover book, and paging through it. It's likely that the bookshelf metaphor in Classics was inspired by Delicious Library, a Mac app for cataloging books, media, and anything else you want to catalog. But aside from the bookshelf, Classics presents the books on a slightly yellowed, paper-like background, and animates page turns with a satisfying swipe of the finger, and an audible riffling of paper. Sounds pretty great, right? Well, it appears Apple thought so too, since the description I just gave also perfectly describes Apple's new iBooks app for the iPad. The fact that Apple did not -- at the very least -- acknowledge Classics in some small way is unfortunate. The message they are sending independent developers is "Please write software for the App Store, but if we like what you do we're going to take it." This is yet another reason for developers to be wary of Apple's overly locked-down App Store. Classics' developers Andrew Kaz and Phill Ryu have reduced the app's price to free in response to iBooks, reasoning that they would like as many people to see it as possible so they are aware that iBooks copied Classics, not the other way around. Read More

Update: So there is a bit more to this story than once thought.  Apparently Delicious Library, a media manager for Mac OS X created by Delicious Monster, was the first known piece of software to use a virtual bookshelf to display content.  According to TechCrunch, Wil Shipley, the founder of Delicious Monster, believes Apple borrowed the idea for iBooks without licensing it.  This is fairly believable considering some of Delicious Monster’s original employees actually work for Apple. As one of our readers, izdale, has highlighted in the comments section below, the Classics developers have stated their design was inspired by Delicious Library, and they apparently asked for approval before releasing the app. It’s possible that Apple took the design from Delicious Monster, but in the end it’s a difficult argument to make.  I mean, where would you put your virtual books?  On a virtual bookshelf, right? – During yesterday’s iPad presentation, it became apparent that Apple’s iBooks UI designers were at least somewhat influenced by iPhone developers Andrew Kaz and Phill Ryu’s Classics eBook reader design.  But honestly, how couldn’t they be?  Classics has a simple and elegant UI that makes it a joy to use.  Instead of getting upset over the similarities, Andrew Kaz and Phill Ryu are actually proud to have influenced Apple’s iBooks design, and have decided to thank all of their supporters by allowing everyone to download their app for free for a limited time. Classics‘ bookshelf design looks a lot like Apple’s iBooks‘ and it acts pretty much the same as well.  You can view all of the books on your virtual bookshelf with a simple flick up or down, tap on a book to open it, and tap and hold to drag and sort your books. Classics also features an intuitive  interface that allows you to flip virtual 3D pages by dragging your finger across the screen.  The pages track your finger’s movements, so you are able to peek at the next page while finishing a sentence if you wish.  You can also view how far along you are in a book via a progress bar at the top of the page, and the app is able to remember your place in a book when you close out of it and marks it with a satin bookmark. The app contains a wide variety of classic books, such as The Time Machine, Gulliver’s Travels, Dracula, Pride and Read More