Category: Reviews

Apps, games, accessories, and other iPad-centric reviews.

GoodLinks – a review

By Thord Hedengren ReviewsMarch 8, 2022

Let me start by saying this: I’m pretty sure I’m not using GoodLinks to its fullest potential. I bet there are some crazy shortcuts out there, that solves some incredibly complicated problems by integrating GoodLinks with, well, everything or something. I don’t know, I just get that feeling.

Me, I just want to save links sometimes, and I want to avoid filling up my Pocket reading list with references, documentation, and code snippets for future projects. This, together with someplace to store research links for newsletters, felt like something GoodLinks could do well.

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Puzzle Quest 3 – a review

By Thord Hedengren ReviewsFebruary 21, 2022

I’m angry with myself because I almost believed that Puzzle Quest 3 would be worth the effort. I mean, it’s a really polished game, easy to get into, and fun too, if you like match-3 puzzle games. There are some interesting mechanics too, like the timer after your first match that lets you build chains and whatnot. Even the simplistic story, where characters in the vanilla fantasy world of Puzzle Quest talk to each other, is somewhat enjoyable.

And yet, for all those good things, Puzzle Quest 3 fails. You must’ve guessed why already, right?

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TaskFox – a review

By Thord Hedengren ReviewsFebruary 7, 2022

I’m always interested in trying new productivity systems, to-do list apps, and the like. Last week, I used an app called TaskFox, which is free to try, but you’ll probably want to unlock the pro features for €5.

TaskFox is a to-do list app that puts all your tasks in its calendar. That means that even if it’s just a five-minute task, it goes in the TaskFox calendar. This is taking time blocking to a different level, something I’ve dabbled with before.

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Miyamoto – a review

By Thord Hedengren ReviewsFebruary 3, 2022

I’ve been spending the better part of the week recuperating in bed, and what better companion than an iPad mini with some games on it? One of the games I’ve been playing is Miyamoto, a digital strategic board game meets roguelikes, something I think work pretty well on tablets overall.

Miyamoto is easy to get into, if you give it a chance because it sure won’t help you. There are no tutorials or any on-boarding at all, it’s just a title screen with a couple of game modes. Granted, the game asks you to swipe up – open the box, as it were – which throws you into its ladder-style view.

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Go Rally – a review

By Thord Hedengren ReviewsJanuary 23, 2022

Racing games on touch screen devices work pretty well, as long as they aren’t proper simulators. Go Rally is a good example of this. This is racing in stages, without any other competitors in your way, so it’s all time trials. The controls are simple enough, with everything from auto-throttle and motion controls, to traditional buttons on the screen. I prefer the latter, and it works really well. Granted, the game plays even better with a compatible controller (I like the Xbox One controller), but it’s not one of those situations where you won’t play it with touchscreen controls just because the physical variant is better.

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Yoink – a review

By Thord Hedengren ReviewsDecember 7, 2021

There was a time when iOS and iPadOS was less evolved, and you needed something commonly called file drawer apps to bounce files around. If you wanted to upload an edited image to a web interface, but you had your edited photo in Pixelmator, you were kind of stuck. It was a mess, filled with workarounds and the like, before the Files app we have today, but honestly, afterwards too because even though it’s getting better, Files isn’t what it should or could be.

So, you installed a file drawer app, and shared (using the share sheet) your files to said app, and hoped that whatever app you wanted to move the file to would support importing it. I’ve written about that in the past, in one of the earliest issues of the Switch to iPad newsletter (please subscribe).

Fast-forward to today, and the Files app will actually do for most people. You can easily get to the most recent files added, which means that downloading and/or saving a file of any kind to Files will make it easy to find. And the Files app has the benefit of being tightly integrated into iPadOS, meaning that it’s easy to, say, upload a file in a web interface from the Downloads folder.

Does that mean that there’s no room for file drawer apps anymore?

Oh, no, there definitely is.

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Bypass Google Maps with Mapper — A review

By Thord Hedengren ReviewsNovember 9, 2021

I prefer default solutions, and love single-purpose tools and apps, so there should be no surprise that I keep Mapper, a Safari extension by Alex Kitcoff, installed on my iPad. Mapper does one thing (well, two, sort of) and it does it well: Redirecting Google Maps links to its Apple Maps equivalent. If you’re a Google Maps users, that’s obviously pretty worthless, but for me, as an Apple Maps user, it’s great.

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iPad, 9th generation — a review

By Thord Hedengren ReviewsOctober 17, 2021

The 9th generation iPad is the latest entry-level iPad, and it’s not such a bad pick if you have limited needs. The size is decent, with its 10.2” screen, and thanks to the bump to the A13, it feels snappy enough for most things. It’s a great tablet, especially if you compare it to non-Apple alternatives out there.

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