One of the things that I love about my iPad is the fact that it makes it much easier to play with virtual musical instruments. The larger screen certainly gives you more flexibility when playing a virtual piano or other instruments. One can’t complain about the instrument apps available for iPad either. There are plenty of fun ones around, so you’ll never be bored.

If you are into music or just want to play some on the go, these 12 iPad musical instrument applications are worth checking out:

Pianist Pro: one of the best iPad Piano apps, if not the best, around. It has superb graphics and has a ton of features for beginners and professionals. Alternative instruments are available through the app.

iBone – the Pocket Trombone: the name is pretty self-explanatory. I have to say this is much easier to play than the real thing. Use it to play music or impress your friends.

Guitarist for iPhone: the perfect app for guitar junkies. It’s a pretty realistic guitar simulator for iPhone and iPad that enables you to play and record your own music. Read the rest of this entry »

3D action and shooter games can be a lot of fun. While they can entertain and excite people, they do not necessarily make their brains sharper. That’s what puzzle games are for. What makes a great puzzle application? An app that is easy to pick up, hard to master, and does not bore you to death. Tangled 2 Doodle is one of those puzzle games that is easy to start and tough to finish. Untangling a bunch of dots may sound easy on paper but it can be pretty challenging if you have enough of those dots sitting on your screen.

The developers behind Tangled 2 Doodle have already developed a couple of other apps around the same concept. Unlike the movies, this sequel is as good as the original, if not better. The game is pretty simple to learn. You want to untangle the lines and make sure they do not overlap. It’s simple to do when you are dealing with a couple of dots. It does get very complicated as more dots are added to the game.

Tangled 2 Doodle has 3 modes. In Regular mode, you just follow the rules and untangle all the lines to clear each level. It has 30 levels in this mode, which will keep you entertained for a while. When you are done with these levels, the Random mode will provide you with even more challenges. The Action mode is pretty exciting. In that mode, you’ll have to untangle the dots one by one before there are too many of them on your screen. Waste time, and you’ll end up with an almost impossible puzzle. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems the talks between Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt have gone so well that Apple has decided to become even more serious about the challenge that Google poses to its products. Apple has allowed Google search engine to be its default engine on its devices. There is nothing wrong with that as Google arguably has the best search platform on the market. Google search may look harmless on the surface, but it does provide Google with a ton of data it can use to come after Apple. Google can easily see what iPhone owners are searching for and what are they needs and desires. That’s not something Apple is willing to give up to Google at this point.

So how’s an Apple search engine will work? After all, the search business is not exactly one of Apple’s core competencies. According to Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster Apple has enough data to work with:

We believe Apple could utilize data unavailable to Google, data generated by the company’s App Store, to create a mobile centric search engine, which would be a unique offering to Google’s search engine.

Apple may lack the experience to build a search engine as powerful as Google. But one does not have to look further than Facebook to figure out the importance of “data” in this digital world. Facebook has made a few mistakes along the way, but it has used its data to its fullest to become one of the most popular sites on the planet (challenging the top dogs in the process).

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My iPhone has been a life-saver for me on the road. Whether it’s managing my tasks or dealing with car trouble, iPhone always comes handy. iPhone is particularly useful on the road. Without it, you may have to carry extra toys with you to get things done. But iPhone saves you the trouble and can help you get a lot of things done (from managing your flights to waking you up for your meetings).

If you are a serial traveler and want to use your iPhone to get more things done on the go, here are 10 travel apps for iPhone that are worth a look:

1. TripDeck: a cool travel app that lets you manage all your itineraries on your iPhone. Helps you keep track of your flight schedules and deal with delays and cancellations.

2. Zagat to Go: the best guide to restaurants and local stores on iPhone. Has plenty of options and can find you what you need fast.

3. Kayak: Kayak is a cool service that lets you change your flight at the airport or find a hotel. Read the rest of this entry »

iPhone may be an impressive device all by itself, but it’s even more impressive to see all the companies that are jumping on board and offering their innovative app using the iPhone platform. Even news organizations are realizing the potential for this market, which is why they are jumping in one by one. CNN is the latest news organization that has jumped into the iPhone app business. It has just released CNN Mobile that is designed to keep iPhone holders informed with the latest CNN news on the go. CNN Mobile comes with videos, push notification, local news, and everything else you need to stay informed. The people at CNN seem to be optimistic about the fortunes of this app:

This is a major event for CNN…The impact that mobile can have is increasing. This app is really going to be an important indicator of where CNN is going moving forward.

CNN Mobile is very easy to use and provides with an easy way to skim through the news and even upload your own video to iReport. You can also customize what you want to see and filter out the junk.

The Video tab provides you access to the latest live streams from CNN. So whether you are in an airport or just waiting for a cab, you can listen to the latest CNN news on the go. You can also save stories and videos and view them at a later time. But perhaps the most powerful feature in this app is CNN iReport. If you happen to be close to where an important incident occurs, you can capture your video and upload it to CNN, hoping that they will actually show it during their daily programming. Read the rest of this entry »