PLANET OF THE APPS: 17th May 2011

NEWS

The same day last week, apps came out for Thomas the Tank Engine and Ivor the Engine - the two British train TV shows for kids doing battle on the App Store. But it's part of a bigger trend for every children's brand to launch apps - in the last couple of months there's also been Barbie, Sesame Street, Beatrix Potter, In The Night Garden... All because parents like to give their iPhones or iPads to their children to play with.

The Chancellor's Gold

A location-based treasure hunt set in London, with seven photo clues a month to solve, which lead you to tourist landmarks (both famous and obscure). The game runs from May to August, with monthly prizes of £1,000 and a grand prize of £5,000 at the end.

REVIEWS

Hype Machine Radio

This iPhone app lets you play the tunes that music blogs have been getting excited about as a sort-of radio station, while reading the blog posts themselves.

SuperSonic

Another iPhone app, this lets you tap on any artist in your music collection, and get a bunch of recommended other artists that you might like. You can listen to samples of their songs, and then buy the music.

Hitlantis

An iPad and iPhone app to find new music, representing bands as coloured bubbles that you tap on, and then find out about the bands, play their song, sign up as a fan etc. Really nice, and would sit alongside Hype Machine and SuperSonic nicely in reviews.

https://musically.com/blog/2011/05/17/hitlantis-music-discovery-app-for-iphone-and-ipad-goes-live/