Fresh iPhone Apps of the Week brings you the best of the newly released apps. In this installment, popular music app developer Smule’s Magic Fiddle is for those of you looking to practice the violin on the iPad. Also, Twezr helps all you social networking fanatics organize your contacts. Plus, three more apps that you’ll find extremely entertaining and useful.
Magic Fiddle (iPad) $2.99
App developer Smule won quite a bit of acclaim for Ocarina, an app that used the iPhone’s touch screen and microphone to basically turn it into a kind of flute. Magic Fiddle works on the same principle for the iPad: the device’s touch screen and size makes it a great emulator for help teach you to play violin.
Magic Fiddle is part musical instrument, part competitive game. It might not teach you to play the real stringed instrument (see also: the massive disparity between Guitar Heroskill and the actual ability to play guitar), but it’s easy enough and smart enough to impart some dexterity and understanding of how to play the fiddle. The app also ranks your ability to play its 20 different songs and even has leaderboards to compare your skills to those of other iPad virtuosos.
Twezr (iPhone) Free
Twezr syncs contacts from lots of different sources into one place and allows you to search through them. That might not sound especially new or different, until you consider the inclusion of Facebook and Twitter contacts as well as people from your cell phone contact list and email contacts.
Once you sign up with your various accounts in Twezr, you can use it to check all your emails, Facebook and Twitter updates from a single person. It’s a great way to keep your contacts and communications well-organized.
Radio Disney update (iPhone) Free
Fans of Radio Disney online probably already know about this iPhone app, which allows users to stream free music from the Radio Disney website straight to their iPhone or iPod Touch. Users who like apps such as Pandora or AIM Radio will have an idea of how Radio Disney works.
A new update to the app adds a few cool new features for iOS 4. Specifically, you can now stream music on Radio Disney in the background on your iPhone, which allows you to use other apps without interrupting the music. You can also use the app to request songs and get information about local Radio Disney events, as well.
The Washington Post (iPad) Free
It’s striking how great The Washington Post’s iPad app looks on-screen. The newspaper has found a pretty great way to bridge the traditional design and feel of a broadsheet page with the capabilities and options of the iPad screen. And newspaper readers can snag all of the Washington Post’s content for free through the app until February 15, 2011.
The app also allows includes some cool features, chief among them the ability to save articles to read offline.
ForVeterans (iPhone) Free
This looks to be the app all vets should download right now. It’s free and includes a wealth of information from ForVeterans.net, including news for veterans, discounts and lists of veteran-owned businesses. You can also find out about vets’ benefits and services from the app.
ForVeterans has some added cool features that go beyond just giving out information for consumers, however. Another section of the app allows vets to sign up for a blogging space and join the ForVeterans community, where they can share their stories with others.
