[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET] [ 035 ]
DISCOVERBESTNEW APPSFranklin, the winner of Miss Universe
Australia 2010 and a model and TV
presenter, has apparently poured everything
into this app. Hopefully it works out for her,
but to get the most out of this lifestyle app
- which compiles recipes, workout routines,
beauty tips and little bits of prose – you’ll
need to be a big fan of her. There’s an
assumed fandom in some of these items,
like her posts of behind-the-scenes photos
from a fashion shoots and her blog entries,
so don’t expect a be-all-end-all lifestyle app
that’s agnostic to who created it. Content
quality varies; there’s a daily ‘thought of the
day’, which is generally a simple quote,
sometimes with some context about the
person who said it. The workouts and
recipes are often extremely simple (although
the pre-recipe paragraphs are, mercifully,
shorter than they are on a lot of cooking
sites), but her makeup and skincare advice
is a bit more detailed and come complete
with videos. If you’re a huge fan it’s worth
checking out the 14-day trial, but otherwise
$7 a month feels very steep.
IndigiTUBE, the app for the website of the
same name, is something special. It’s an
incredible resource of indigenous podcasts,
radio stations, music and videos, all easily
accessible and all completely free. This app has
clearly been designed with both education and
access in mind, with a huge number of stations
and videos on there. There are musical
performances, complete with video,
interviews, and a lot of videos on indigenous
languages, if you’re inclined to learn important
terms in our native languages. There are radio
stations from all over the country, which can
be accessed immediately and easily. There’s
even a claymation based on Bush Mechanics
(but not the original series, unfortunately).
There’s a huge amount of content on there – as
I write this I’m listening to a recording of the
Indij Hip Hop Show from April. With an
excellent UI and informative pages attached to
each video and audio program, IndigiTUBE is
a fantastic, important app – the sort of app that
will, we suspect, work its way into some school
curriculums in the future, if it hasn’t already.Jesinta Franklin
Official App
MS UNIVERSAL APP.
$6.99 a month/ N/AIndigiTUBE
ALWAYS HAS BEEN, ALWAYS WILL BE...
Free / http://www.indigitube.com.au/Luminary
ANOTHER PODCAST PAY WALL.
Free ($7.99 a month for premium)
https://luminarypodcasts.comThe podcast market continues to further
fracture with Luminary, a new podcast app
that continues a lot of exclusives – possibly
including some of your old favourites. The
second season of The Onion’s A Very Fatal
Murder, Hannibal Burress’ Handsome
Rambler, and Love & Radio are all here. But
it’s also missing a bunch of shows, including
Comedy Bang Bang and WTF With Marc
Maron (two shows that both have extensive
back catalogs only available on Stitcher
Premium). Reply All and other shows on
Gimlet, now owned by Spotify, aren’t on there
either. Taken on its own merits, it’s actually a
very good podcast player. It has a powerful
search engine, a strong UI, and lots of
playback customisation options, plus it shows
the episode-specific cover art for shows, which
most players don’t. But it’s hard to look past
the fact that its catalogue is far from
comprehensive. If all of these disputes
between podcast companies get resolved,
perhaps it’ll be in stronger shape in the future- for now it’s only worth grabbing if you
specifically want the Luminary exclusive
shows and don’t mind paying.
2 5 3WINNERED’sCHOICE
AWA RD