The Apple App Store currently holds hundreds of thousands of different apps for every category you can think of. With so many apps available it can be pretty hard to decide which ones are worth downloading and often apps can be somewhat disappointing- so without further ado, Cogapp have given a roundup of some of our favourite apps of the moment:

Guardian Eyewitness

Our Designers Eleanor Rudge and Ollie Aplin recommended the Guardian Eyewitness iPad app, and you can easily see how it appeals to a Designer with its brilliant display resolution and vibrant imagery. The free app has been developed by the Guardian and provides access to the Eyewitness photography series that is featured in the Guardian each day. The app looks great because it has a custom designed interface that really takes advantage of the iPad’s screen and the photos look beautiful- it’s definitely the app to use if you’re showing off your new iPad to friends! My favourite feature is when you view an image and hit ‘View Pro Tip’ the app gives advice on how to get a take a similar photograph with tips on focus, distance and aperture.

2Across

 

Tiltshift Generator

 

The free StreetMuseum app was created for the Museum of London by agency Brother and Sisters, and is probably one of the most exciting and innovative apps out there. The app features over 200 sites in London that link to a set of historical photos, allowing a glimpse into London’s past. The really fascinating thing about this app is the augmented reality feature. The app has built in Google Maps and uses geo-tagging to highlight particular locations. Using GPS you can find a spot that’s near you and use the 3D view to overlay the historical image over the current view - creating a really intriguing and ever so slightly spooky glimpse into the past. It merges digital with reality at the same time as showing the difference between new and old in a really innovative way. I can imagine it being a fantastic little app for anyone visiting London for the first time.

 

 

Net-a-porter

 

Recommended by Rachel Adler, our Senior Producer, the Net a Porter app seamlessly combines both interactive magazine content with e-commerce. Being a bit of a clothes fiend myself, I liked this app and the way it combines both a catalog and a website and uses videos as well as images to view the clothes from all angles. It’s a beautifully designed app that definitely sets the benchmark for what we can expect in the future from retail on the iPad - I think it’s probably only a good thing that I can’t afford anything on there just yet! I’d love to see something similar developed for high street shops.

 

 

You Gotta See This

 

Another photography app as recommended by Joe Baskerville our Head of New Technology. You Gotta See This lets you create a collage of photos, much like David Hockney’s amazing ‘Joiners.’ By swiping the scene you want to photograph with your phone, the iPhone gyroscope determines the camera’s orientation and then positions the images accordingly to create the collages. We liked this app because it makes innovative use of gyro technology and it’s a great way to share images of an experience that a single image cannot capture, and they look really awesome too.

 

Here is a photo of Joe's living room taken with this app:

 

 

Nigella Lawson Quick Collection

Kate Moerel, our Business Development Manager, recommended this app. The Nigella app allows access to a collection of her best recipes combined with the beautiful photography her recipe books are renowned for. If you’ve read this blog before you probably have noticed by now that Cogapp are big fans of baking and this app is a brilliant accompanist to this obsession. The app includes a voice control feature which means you can skip to the next stage of the recipe by saying ‘next,’ which is perfect for someone like me who always ends with the entire kitchen in a mess when I’m cooking. This feature lets you keep your messy hands and surfaces well away from your phone! 

 

Shazam Encore

This clever app allows you to easily identify any song that is playing. If you simply point your phone towards the music source, Shazam will identify the song and provide a link to purchase it. It’s brilliant for when you hear those of obscure pieces of music that you just can't get out of your head, and I’ve found it particularly useful when I hear pieces of music I like in films that I want to identify. Shazam has other useful features, which allow you to share your findings on Twitter or Facebook, and it provides music recommendations based on your tags, which is great, as I always love finding new music.

 

Starwalk

Star walk is an interactive astronomy guide for the iPad and iPhone, which is like having your own personal planetarium- providing you with information about stars, planets and constellations. The Starwalk app features a Digital Compass, so when you tilt the device a live representation of the sky appears on the display and starts following your movements. The zoom ability is amazing on this app and it looks much like you would expect from looking through a pair of binoculars. The iPad screen almost looks like it was made for images of the night sky- and the images really do look incredible. The interface makes it really easy to navigate around the app and there are lots of other great features to explore. I personally like the way you can search for different stars and planets in the night sky and the app will tell you where to look for them and when they will be visible.

 

Well, there you have it. A comprehensive list of Cogapp's favourite apps that just goes show there is almost no limit to what the iPhone/iPad can do. We would love to hear if you have any other suggestions for apps we should check out - just leave us a comment in the box below!