Five For Friday: Week Of July 22

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Star Wars Blu-ray: Early Access

This app is Star Wars fanware and shameless self-promotion from Fox, but if you’re waiting with baited breathe as many good geeks are, especially us, for a peek at all the special features and bonus goodies that will be packaged with the huge Blu-Ray release slated for release on September 16, here’s a chance for a free sneak peek. The app is iPad only and you won’t see anything they don’t want you too, but it really looks gorgeous – a geek’s GUI for sure – and any sneak peek while the event is still months off is very welcome.

Star Wars Blu-ray: Early Access

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2011-07-20 :: Category: Entertainment

Stickman BMX

There were not all that many new apps released this week, but it was a great week for gamers. Our favorite casual title is Stickman BMX and its HD counterpart. It’s a super simple game- a sequel to the hugely popular Stickman Skater, but in this side scroller players use intuitive and simple controls to take Stickman on on a BMX ride full of jumps and tricks and good old fashioned doodlesque styling mixed with a richer animated look. The graphics are super and fans of the original will be happy to know Stickman can ride a skateboard too with a one-time $.99 IAP.

Stickman BMX

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: $0.99
Released: 2011-07-18 :: Category: Games

Stickman BMX HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Buy Now: $1.99
Released: 2011-07-18 :: Category: Games

Dragon Go!

With Go! the award-winning speech recognition technology they has long made Dragon famous provides hands-free voice-commands for everyday use. Users just have to ask for what they want to find, i.e. “Harry Potter near here” and it will search Fandango and serve up local listing and trailers to the final chapter. It works with Pandora and Last FM too – ask for an artist or song and start listening. Wiki, Google, Amazon, YouTube, eBay, Twitter, its a’ll available not at a tap, but with a word. The app is only on the US App Store and some services like Fandango and Pandora are US only, but we tested the command ‘find chinese restaurants with takeout” in Canada along with “get directions to closest mall” and got instant accurate results. We’re amazed at how well the app understood every question and automatically searched in the right place to supply the most accurate and relevant results. Users can share Dragon Go! results by email, text messages, Facebook and Twitter. Perfect hands free information on the go.

Dragon Go!

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2011-07-01 :: Category: Lifestyle

Gif Shop

Ever wondered how people make GIFs – those little animated web graphics? Gif Shop unveils the wizard behind the gif-creating curtain and with a tap users can instantly capture sequential snaps with the device’s camera – up to a suggest maximum of 100 – and let the app take care of turning the pictures into an animated loop. Users need a free Gif Shop account to share their results on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, with shortlink included to paste and share with friends via email of MMS. It’s really cool and borderline idiot proof.

GIF SHOP

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: $1.99
Released: 2011-07-06 :: Category: Photography

Google+

Google+ is Google’s new foray into the social media world. The network which is free, but for now, by invite only, certainly has a lot of buzz and a lot of early sign-ups, but analysts and pundits are dubious as to whether the Big G can compete with- much less unseat – giants Facebook and Twitter and even Tumblr and Flickr all of whose services Google+ has integrated in one way or another, into their new venture. If you have a an account, and find the mobile web app lacking, there is now a free iPhone client on the App Store. Is it good? Well it’s hard to separate opinions about the service from the app itself, but we’ve heard it can handle most of the feature that are central to Google + like Circles and Huddles, and has it’s own notification system built-in, but it’s not as robust as many would like lacking central features like video chat and of course it’s not universal so iPad owners are feeling left out. It is free, and there’s nothing third-party to compete with it, so if the service appeals get the app.