Best Apps for iOS, August 2011

Seline HD

A whole new instrument for the iPhone.

There are a lot of music creation apps for iOS. Most of them try to emulate an old, familiar instrument or interface, and improve it for the touchscreen. Seline HD, however, is an instrument designed from the ground up for the iPhone and iPad.

The keys in Seline HD are laid out similar to an ergonomic keyboard, placing each note in reach of your three most dexterous fingers. The first thing you do is select a scale from the 25 included, or just create your own. The most used notes for that scale appear in the centre columns, and any notes not in the scale are removed completely, so your melody should always sound decent.


Controls for pitch bend, vibrato, attack, and tone down or up are located so that you never have to reach far to add those extra touches to your mad organ solo.

To accompany your melodies, there are nine different ‘drones’ that play appropriate chords on-the-fly to suit your melody.

The app supports overdubbing and recording, great when you want to utilise the 23 in-built instruments (‘voices’ in synth speak) in a composition. When done, you can export your final piece to .wav.

There is an iPad version also for $12.99.

$7.99 > Amidio > Link

Helsing’s Fire

Helsing’s Fire is a quirky, addictive puzzle game with a dry sense of humour and a unique puzzle concept.


Using your torch, you spread light onto all the vampiric beasties of a certain colour, then, when you’ve placed your torch in such a place that lights up only the targeted evil-doers, you must drop a potion of a matching colour to destroy them. Using a potion on a creature of a different colour makes them stronger, so try and avoid it.

$1.19 (iPhone), $3.99 (iPad), free trial available > Ratloop > Link

PhotoForge2

Completely rewritten from the original PhotoForge, this powerful photo editor for your iPhone includes layers, adjustments – including curves, levels, white balance, channel mixing, and lots more – 25 different filters and FX, and the ability to edit your metadata – including adding or removing GPS locations.


The best part is that the app supports full-resolution editing, so you know that output will be top quality.

There is an In-App purchase of $2.49 that adds a ‘Pop! Cam’ – one of those ubiquitous camera filter apps so popular with the kids these days.

$3.99 > GhostBird Software > Link

Seamless

Sometimes you’re sittin’ at home, listening to your favourite tracks on your Mac when all of a sudden you have to leave the house. Whether it’s because of a bus arriving sooner than expected, or a house fire, sometimes you just can’t leave that crazy awesome accordion solo.


No problem!

Using Seamless, you can have the song seamlessly transition from your Mac to your iPhone or iPod touch without skipping a beat.

Here’s hoping for a Windows debut soon.

$2.49 > Five Details > Link