We thought we’d give Canadian developers & app creators a shout-out so we’ve rounded up some iOS apps from various categories — all 100% Canadian made.
Hootsuite
iPhone & iPad – Twitter app: Free
Hootsuite is a full featured, sleek Twitter app that connects users to Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare. It’s integrated with the read-it-later service Instapaper and enables users to track link stats by using Hootsuites built-in url shortener ow.ly. Hootsuite has several hashtag and keyword searches along with a live stream of trending topics. This app is full of great features but one of my favourites, it’s ability to translate a tweet to over 50 languages. Just ensure you don’t hit “send” instead of “translate” as I’ve just done. To keep it short, this app is simply badass.
KiK
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iPhone & iPad – Messaging: Free
Kik is a messaging app that helps you avoid paying extra for a text messaging plan. Using Kik, messages can be sent for free to anyone in the world. The app is available on iOS devices and Android but your friends must also be using Kik to send and receive messages. This would have been less valuable to me last year but Android phones and the
iPhone are becoming rapidly more mainstream and it can’t be that hard to get your buddies to download a free app. It supports push messages, landscape typing and it’s super speedy.
CityTV Video
iPad – Media: Free
City TV’s iPad app gives Canadians access to shows like Modern Family, The Biggest Loser, Cougar Town, 30 Rock and Fringe. Aside from full episodes of TV shows, it has video clips of extras, interviews and webisodes. It also airs the Canadian morning show Breakfast Television live from 6am -9am EST. One of the best features keeps users up to date on their favourite TV shows by sending notifications. The user interface is rather attractive but best of all, it’s completely free.
The Globe & Mail
iPad – News app: Free
The Globe and Mail, a national news source in Canada has a beautiful digital version of their online edition on the iPad. It’s a great source for news if you’re Canadian. The user interface of the app is quite polished and offers a wealth of great articles on politics, travel, sports, technology etc. The articles are divided in both sections and by breaking news. Users can also favourite/bookmark stories for later. This app is also available for the iPhone as well.
On a side note, The Globe and Mail also offers an e-paper version of their newspaper however it does require a subscription to the printed publication.
Score Mobile
iPhone & iPad – Sports: Free
ScoreMobile offers up to the minute scores, player stats and post-game videos which makes it ideal for hardcore sports enthusiasts. The app covers NHL, MLS and NBA to name just a few of the leagues. After selecting a sport, the app will display the scores and status of the latest played games. When the user selects a specific game from the list they receive access to player stats, scoring summaries, and video replay. Want to know if your local bar is playing a game? The TV listings section allows you to find a local sports bar airing the game and gives you the option to share the info with friends on Twitter and Facebook.
Timmy Me
iPhone & iPad – Coffee Finder: Free
Canadians have a strange fascination with Tim Hortons coffee, the level of obsession varies across the country but overall, most Canucks I know are Timmy crazy. In saying that, when you travel, not just any coffee will do. When you’re jonzeing for Tim Horton’s coffee nothing else will cut it. The Timmy me app is meant to do one thing, find you the closest Tim Horton’s store near you. This is extremely helpful when you’re visiting larger cities like Toronto or Vancouver. They’ve additionally included a notepad to jot down a friend’s orders and each store provides details such as address, phone number and drive thru availability. Timmy Me works across North America.
NatDecants
iPhone – Wine Pairing: Free
NatDecants is chock-full of food and wine pairings and aims to find you the perfect matches through its detailed categories. Natalie Maclean, the sommelier behind the app has taken a great deal of time to carefully pair the perfect vino with a large list of various flavours and spices. Whether you’re building a meal around a bottle you’ve already grabbed, or the other way around, this app is very helpful in getting the most out of a bottle of wine. Natalie has also included a virtual wine cellar that records the info about the spirit you’ve enjoyed. It’s a major win for wine snobs.
Rubik’s Cube
iPhone – Games: $2.99
Rubik’s Cube is the official app approved by Erno Rubik the inventor. It’s a digital version of the retro toy but the app offers far more goodies and has included a teacher feature for those of us who never actually solved the frustrating thing. By taking a pic of a real physical Rubik’s Cube, the solver will instantly give you that solution you’ve been waiting years for. There are a 24 different game modes and it works with the gyroscope and retina display (both features are exclusive to the iPhone 4).
Kobo
iPhone & iPad – Books, Newspapers & Magazines: Free
Kobo’s free app provides a slick user interface coupled with 1.8 million free books and access to discounted offers for magazines, newly released books and newspapers. It’s recently also received some social based updates that allows users to now “like” books on Facebook and has added integration for the read-it-later service Instapaper. This Instapaper tool lets users clip articles on the web and save & sync them to the Kodo library. The app encourages you to use it by rewarding users with badges for book “check-ins” and now even allows for passage sharing. Kobo is available on the iPad and iPhone but if you have both devices grab the iPad version, it’s beautiful.
MoodFood
iPhone – Food Finder: Free
MoodFood isn’t your typical restaurant finder and isn’t the best choice if you’re only looking for nearby places to eat. However, it’s capable of giving you random restaurants in your city after you choose your mood. I realize that sounds really strange but I found it interesting because I was able to discover a few places I didn’t know existed. When you launch the app, MoodFood asks you to select a colour representation of your mood and will generate a list of results based on the selection. When a user picks a restaurant, MoodFood provides the address & phone number, distance from you on Google maps and the option to share on Facebook.
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