Geek Syndicate August 2012 | Page 57

Geek Syndicate tage of the Kindle app, is that because the books are purchased against your Amazon account, buying them on your iPad means you can also have them on a computer or Kindle device. Additionally, Project Gutenberg on the World Wide Web offers a vast range ofcopyright free material in Kindle’s .epub format. DC and Marvel – These are great proprietary apps offering a great selection of modern titles. And to whet your appetite, there are plenty of free titles to download. DC in particular, have scored points by offering a full range of free “Origins” titles for pretty much their entire character catalogue. Reading comics on the iPad is a joy, offering full page viewing with pinch/expand zoom, or the app also offers a tap-screen ‘cell-by-cell’ reading facility. Dark Horse and Doctor Who - Offer similar functionality to the DC and Marvel apps, though naturally, the range of comics available is different. Comics & Comic+ - More comic readers, but these offer access to more independent titles. IMDB – For the movie fan, this app is the iPad version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica of the screen world. They also offer an IMDB Daily Trivia App as well. Marvel Games – A great little character based shoot-‘emup game Geek Syndicate – Our very own app, which offers access to the Geek Syndicate Network of podcasts, this very magazine and other extended features. Trailers Apps - there are various new trailer logging apps; I recommend: Movie Trailers and Movies by Flixster, but there are many others available. Cinema Apps – Vue, Odeon and CineWorld all have apps that track your local cinema and give you the listings. This is one of the real pluses for the iPad – it’s better than waiting for your PC to boot up or even come out of standby, just to find out what’s on at the pictures! SFX, Sci-Fi, Doodle Movie and Scene It Movies – Test your knowledge with all these quiz games. Video Apps – Those familiar with iPad will know that iOS 5 native video player only plays .mp4 files; AcePlayer and Movie Player both play .avi as well, means you don’t have to go through the lengthy conversion process. Oh, and there’s always the YouTube app! Zinio Magazine Reader – Possibly my favourite app, Zinio is a multi-title magazine reader. I get my SFX magazine subscription from here for £23.33, but there are some real bargains to be had from time to time. I got a two-year subscription to NewsWeek for £26.36 (the equivalent of 25p per issue) and a Maxim subscription for a year for £6.59. You usually get a £5 voucher towards every next purchase. Check out the available titles at http://gb.zinio.com/. Educational Apps – Whatever 57 your interests, there is a wealth of apps out there; for example astronomy, I recommend SkyWalk, which plots your actual location and tells you what is in the sky above: stars, planets, satellites – it’s all there. TV – There are video-on-demand apps for all the terrestrial channels (ITV, C4, C5) as well as BBC iPlayer, and a SkyTV app – and plenty of intelligent TV Listing apps as well. SilverFox Rating: GGGGG