Planet of the Apps: 14th June 2011

Following a week's absence, Stuart Dredge returns from his trip into the blogosphere to bring us the latest news and reviews from the strange and wonderful world of apps.

NEWS



Apple unveils iOS5 and iCloud

ast Tuesday - Apple showed off the next software update for the iPhone/iPad with whizzy features, and also its iCloud music service, which lets you store and re-download your music from 'the cloud'.



Waze

Waze touts itself as a 'community based' navigation app - so it guides you from A to B in your car, but pulls in data from other people using it to let you know about accidents, hazards, roadworks etc. And it also has game aspects - if you explore new places (which helps Waze improve its maps) you get points etc. So it's turning driving into a social game of sorts.



Angry Birds cookbook

The company that makes the Angry Birds mobile game has announced plans to launch a cookbook. It'll be based on 'egg recipes', and is the latest example of Angry Birds going beyond games. (They have a dedicated merchandise store on the website). 

REVIEWS



Songkick Concerts

Awesome, awesome app, and very simple. It looks at what bands are on your iPhone, and then tells you which ones are playing near you in the months ahead, while letting you buy tickets.



The Waste Land

iPad app based around the T.S. Eliot poem, and published by Faber. You can read the poem itself, but also draw in notes, audio performances by TS Eliot, Ted Hughes, Alec Guinness and Viggo Mortensen, and watch videos of Fiona Shaw, Seamus Heaney, Jeanette Winterson etc performing or discussing it.



David Bowie Golden Years App

The latest music remix app - this one of Bowie's classic Golden Years song, letting you monkey about with eight 'stems' of the original master recording. 

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