New and updated iOS apps from some of our favorite places like public radio and Kickstarter just keep coming down the pipeline. This week, three of the four apps we decided to highlight are brand new to the App Store, while the fourth app has just released its third major version. These aren't full reviews, but we've dabbled around a bit and like what we see. So without further ado, here are the four apps that struck our fancy this week on the iOS App Store:
Public Radio Player 3.0 (free)
If you're a public radio nerd like some of us are here at Ars, the third major release of the Public Radio Player (developed by the Public Radio Exchange, or PRX) might get you excited. The app allows you to listen to some 500 public radio stations from across the US and 1,000+ programs and podcasts from those stations. You can use it to see upcoming airing schedules as well—so you never miss another episode of This American Life—and donate directly to the stations you like through the app.
Version 3.0 also makes the app even more usable from a listener standpoint. It sports a new visual redesign and PRX claims it has been rewritten to improve the app's performance. What gets me excited, though, is the fact that you can now download episodes of shows so you can listen to them offline instead of being stuck streaming all the time. This alone is a feature worth downloading the update for—the app (like the others in this writeup) is free, so if you love public radio, go get it.
Basecamp (free)
Basecamp is a must-have tool for many businesses and organizations, but until now, a native mobile app for iOS has been but a dream. 37signals has finally announced a Basecamp iPhone app that allows you to check on your projects, converse in discussions, view team member to-dos and uploads, and "look up anything in a project." You can also "refer to a document or make a decision no matter where you are," according to the 37signals posting.
This is the 1.0 launch of the Basecamp app, and the team says the goal was to make the app addictive when it comes to checking up on project news while also offering the "full depth" of Basecamp. So far, the reviews on iTunes seem to be good; if your organization uses Basecamp, it's certainly worth a download.
Tempo Smart Calendar (free)
If you like Siri on your iOS device—and it turns out that many of you do—a new virtual assistant app from Siri's creators may also strike your fancy. SRI International has spun off a new company called Tempo AI that makes use of SRI's technology in a new app called Tempo Smart Calendar.
As you can guess, the app mostly has to do with calendaring, but does so in a richer way than most calendaring applications. For example, when you tell it to make an appointment with "Clint," it will dig through your contacts to see if it can find the right Clint (perhaps the one who lives near you?) as well as a location that is closest to you. As noted in this writeup by GigaOm, CEO Raj Singh claims "the cloud-based intelligence in the app would apply heuristic methods to determine the best possible candidate for 'John,' analyzing past meeting history, frequency of contact, and numerous other factors."
That's not all Tempo can do—it can send pre-populated texts to people in your meetings, open documents, connect to Foursquare and Yelp, check your flight statuses, give you an estimated driving time to a meeting, and more. It sounds interesting enough to give it a try, although apparently the launch traffic was so heavy that Tempo's servers were having a hard time keeping up. If you can't get past the registration screen, the Tempo team says to relaunch the app a little later to see if it will rectify itself.
Kickstarter (free)
Some people are just plain addicted to Kickstarter, the site that allows you to donate money to cool-sounding potential companies and projects. You may do it for the goodies awarded to early donors, or you may simply do so out of a feeling of civic responsibility—either way, Kickstarter can be a fun way to fantasize about products and services of the future, so why wouldn't you want to use it via native app on your iPhone?
The 1.0 version of the Kickstarter app was released this week on the App Store, allowing you to browse projects, watch videos posted by project creators, and see updates from the projects you've donated to. Project creators can use the app, too—they can keep in touch with backers and post updates to the project directly from the Kickstarter app.
Although the app's description (insanely) doesn't specifically list this as a feature, one of the things that attracted me was the fact that you can make donations/pledges to projects directly from within the app as well. So, if you're the type who likes to spread your money around to cool people doing cool things, this app will be sure to bankrupt you within minutes. Just kidding—well, hopefully—but it's still worth a download for iPhone-using Kickstarter addicts.
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