The App that made me love the iPad: AVPlayer HD
For years I’ve been in two minds about the iPad. Yes, it’s beautiful to look at, fun to browse on, and the swish, flicking sensation is akin to that of my iPhone- which is very beloved. The main problem I have had with the iPad though is the size and the daily usability factor from a journalist perspective. I know people who are happy typing up full articles on it, but I like the tactile feel of a real keyboard, and adding an accessory to the iPad just feels like cheating. I love the apps, but they don’t really offer me that much more than my iPhone (excepting Flipboard) so I’ve wondered why on earth people don’t just go and get a Galaxy Tab. Withe the recent news about Microsoft’s new offering- a tablet with keyboard BUILT INTO the cover, the iPad seems more and more superfluous and restrictive.. and then I discovered this app.
One of the things I like to do on tablets is watch video, and as I object to paying for TWO data plans (my phone is all I need thank you) my iPad is WiFi only, so I can’t stream videos out and about. I could BUY all my movies from the App store, but I like being able to pay my rent (seriously, those prices) so up till recently I’ve had to put videos and TV shows on the iPad by the arduous process of converting them into iPad readable files.
I was previously using the Aleesoft Free iPad Video converter, and though I don’t like to speak badly of something that’s free, it’s not exactly an ideal situation. Rendering a movie iPad readable can take hours – and add a few more if your movie is HD. It does get the job done, but it’s so slow and painstaking that you wonder why you even bothered to begin with (oh yeah, the money factor).
Last weekend I discovered the AVPlayerHD App app by EPlayWorks and it has completely transformed my iPad experience. For the small cost of £1.99 I can now drag and drop ANY movie or show into the related folder on the iPad and it will play them straightaway. No converting, no rendering, just happily playing AVI, MPEG files and more. You can transfer them manually over USB or WiFi (a little slow this way) and it’s amazing. If playing the files wasn’t enough, it also lets you do things like picture in picture (pointless but some people like it) and it can even handle subtitled files such as SMI and SRT. Read more…
