Lots of people like to tell us that objectivity is dead: college professors trying to warn us about trusting the media too much, partisan commentators attacking the agendas of their opponents while defending their own, and even entertainment writers begging readers not to take their review scores as gospel. We live in a post-objective world, where bias is unavoidable and the only defence is to read as many news sources as possible and come to your own conclusions. Even as local and regional newspapers fold all over the continent, technology is making it easier to read more of the newspapers that are still around.
News aggregator ($3.99) by Broadersheet for iPhone/iPod Touch
The makers of Broadersheet say they're trying to make a better newspaper by building one tailored to your interests, publishing stories culled from the sources you trust. Upon first launch, Broadersheet presents you with a list of topics and a list of news outlets; you mark the ones you like or dislike, and from there the app builds a list of stories for you. You refine Broadersheet's behaviour by marking stories as interesting or boring in the same way, subtly influencing how future stories are filtered.
If there's a problem with the application, it's that it's too subtle. For example, it's not obvious that you can add your own custom topics in addition to the presets Broadersheet provides. Nor is it obvious why the sources list, where you favourite or block certain news outlets, only contains a fraction of the sources Broadersheet draws from. But there are also a lot of little things, like the seamless offline reading feature or the additional sources lists for an article, that Broadersheet gets right.
Photoshop version control plugin by PixelNovel for Windows/Mac ($69 (U.S.) for standalone version, various subscription options from free to $25/month)
Working designers know too well how finicky clients can be. You put together a mockup of a logo or a website for someone only to be greeted with a litany of fixes - this element is in the wrong place, that one's the wrong colour and oh by the way can we make everything bigger? Keeping track of all the changes your brutal taskmasters have asked of you can take its toll, especially when your boss or client utters those magic words: "Actually, can we just go back to the way it was three days ago?"
Version control is a practice that allows you to keep snapshots of a document as you make edits to it. Adobe has had its own version control system for some time in the form of Version Cue, but its complexity and overhead may not be the best choice for small design teams or individuals. Timeline is a Photoshop plugin that's aimed at these smaller-scale design environments, offering the benefits of version control without all the features or bulk of Adobe's solution.
Timeline integrates with the Photoshop interface, offering a simple way to save versions of your files and go back to earlier versions at any time. The plugin utilizes the popular version control system Subversion for its backend, but it's really designed to integrate with PixelNovel's own hosted service, which offers various amounts of storage and bandwidth for a monthly subscription cost. Timeline's support for outside Subversion repositories sometimes feels like an afterthought, especially during the initial setup. But for designers who are new to the concept of version control, Timeline may be just the ticket for staying on top of your projects, no matter how blatantly your clients may violate your delicate creative vision.
Sun tracking utility by ozPDA for iPhone 3GS ($2.99)
At first, the concept of an application that tells you where the sun is might seem slightly redundant. After all, it's hard to miss the bright, fiery ball hovering in the sky. If you don't want or need to know how high above the horizon the sun is, or what the shadow ratio is at the moment, you probably won't get much out of Sun Seeker. Employ a little imagination, however, and you'll find plenty of neat uses.
The most obvious application for Sun Seeker is educational. The flat compass view that loads at startup is a gold mine of solar statistics - you can see how far off sunset is, the distance sunlight has to travel through the atmosphere, and just how much of the day you'll spend under the warming rays of the sun (try not to dwell on this figure during the winter).
If stats aren't your thing, the augmented reality viewer should prove a sexier attraction. Using the iPhone's camera and compass, Sun Seeker can superimpose the sun's current path through the sky. It'll also show you the sun's paths during the solstices, giving you an idea of where you can expect the sun to be throughout the year. This simple view opens up some interesting - and less obvious - uses.
New home seekers can point the iPhone at the windows to see how sunny a prospective home will be. It's also handy for photographers or filmmakers who want to set up a shoot. But perhaps the most obvious audience is the science nerd: someone who just likes knowing where the sun is at all times, and who already knows what a shadow ratio is. If that sounds like you, Sun Seeker is a no-brainer purchase.