The app presents four of Deutsche Grammophon’s recording of the symphony, with users able to switch between them at will, watch a synchronised musical score, follow Beethoven’s original manuscript from 1825, and view a “BeatMap” of the orchestra, showing who’s playing what.

Video interviews with musicians, conductors and writers are also included for extra detail. The app follows on from Touch Press’ similar The Orchestra app, which came out in December 2012, showing how its format can be adapted for specific recordings and labels.

The app is also freemium: free to download with two minutes from the second movement of the symphony, with an in-app purchase unlocking the full content.

The post Touch Press goes freemium for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony iOS app appeared first on The Appside.

It’s the CBeebies star’s first app, produced and released independently, combining animation, educational mini-games and video of Fletcher telling the story himself, as well as getting into character as Goldilocks and the bears.

Fletcher co-created the app with Allan Johnston, following their collaboration on long-running (and award-winning) TV show Something Special. “A few years ago, we wouldn’t even be talking about doing an app. We’d probably be collaborating on a DVD or another TV format,” Fletcher tells The Guardian.

“I’m a bit antiquated when it comes to technology, but I’m astounded at the way children are now using apps from a very young age as a learning tool. It seems like a natural progression to explore that format.”

The post Justin Fletcher’s Goldilocks book-app includes live-action video appeared first on The Appside.

Thirst Droplet joins the New York Times’ Glass app in offering news updates for the wearable Google device, which is currently in the hands a limited number of “Explorers” in the US. However, Droplet goes beyond the Times’ app in several ways: Droplet users can tailor news feeds to their interests; they can set a time for push notifications to Glass and they can listen to entire news stories. Droplet users can also like or dislike stories and save them for future reading.

“As a company that embodies the Generation C mentality, we view Google Glass as an absolute game-changer and wholeheartedly embrace this technology,” explains Thirst Labs CEO Anuj Verma. “Thirst Droplet for Glass adds a new dimension to the social news landscape by combining personalised news and push technology to meet the needs of a new breed of technology user.”

Thirst Labs apparently built the app in less than 72 hours, with the goal of being the first Google Glass app in the social news market.

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This feature allows readers to automatically focus in on individual panels in graphic novels and comics, to better appreciate the artwork and storytelling. To mark the launch, Nook is offering a free DC Comics 2013 Superman Sampler to customers who download the updated iOS apps and set up a new Nook account. Other features on the updated apps include animated page turns for Nook Books, the ability to enlarge book illustrations, improved organisation for Nook Newsstand and improvements to PagePerfect/PDF titles.

Earlier this month, Microsoft reportedly offered Barnes & Noble $1bn to buy Nook, with a leaked document also apparently revealing that Nook Media plans to discontinue its tablet business by the end of its 2014 fiscal year, moving to a model where Nook content is distributed through apps on third-party partner devices.

The post Nook iOS apps get enhanced with Zoom View appeared first on The Appside.

The app, which comes from the magazine’s US publisher Rodale, is free to download and includes one free 30-minute workout video, as well as the Speed Shred Diet plan and the 82-Day Speed Shred Training Journal.  Users can then pay $5.99 for additional workouts, which are intended to “Carve Your Abs! Chisel Your Chest! Blast Your Arms! Etc etc”.

In 2011 Rodale produced a Men’s Health Trainer Lite app for Android. Men’s Health UK publisher Dennis, meanwhile, launched the magazine on iPad in January.

The post Shred your abs and chisel your chest with new Men’s Health app appeared first on The Appside.

The Next Web reports that Zed bought the stake for €2m, valuing 24symbols at €6.25m. The two companies have also agreed a distribution deal that will see 24symbols benefit from the agreements that Zed has with almost 200 carriers worldwide, to the tune of 414m consumers.

24symbols co-founder Justo Hidalgo explains Zed brings his company “a better service and a better community, a pathway to an area that we longed from the start, but had not enough strength to make it happen”.

“We believe that an important part of the future of reading and e-books implies the use of tablets and smartphones, so it is also true for us that mobile operators were an important part of that future as they provide the distribution strength to take the service to the many people who only access premium content through their smartphones and, more specifically, their carriers,” he adds.

“With this in mind, having the most important content distributor in the world as an investor provides us with strategy, tactics, know-how, contacts and a sales force that we could only have imagined just a few months ago.”

The post Zed buys stake in 24symbols, agrees distribution deal appeared first on The Appside.

The app, which is available for 69p on the App Store and is aimed at children of four and above, uses the metaphor of a town afflicted by a builder named Kanser, who “gets to work building in Mr. Nice’s house and is basically impossible to stop” according to the App Store listing. Rather than going in too directly, though, the story doesn’t actually mention the disease: instead, it is up to parents to explain to their children what the story represents.

“This isn’t a perfect allegory for the nature of cancer, and the goal is that the child won’t even realize that the story is about the illness,” the listing explains.

Author Joel Grøndrup wrote the story after his own daughter was diagnosed with cancer at the age of one.

The post Terrifying Building in Eyeville storybook app aims to teach children about cancer appeared first on The Appside.

The arrival of 2.0 on Android has been eagerly awaited since its launch on iOS in March, allowing users to curate their own magazines. It has proved a hit on iOS, with users creating half a million personalised magazines in just two weeks. That curation is now set to get even easier with the launch of Editor: it allows users to change the order of stories, photos and videos in their magazines, delete content, re-order the magazines themselves and also access additional insight into how often items in their magazines have been shared.

Finally, Flipboard has agreed a deal with the Financial Times, allowing FT subscribers to access the newspaper’s latest content on Flipboard, while all Flipboard users will be able to view the FT’s blogs and videos.

The post Flipboard 2.0 arrives for Android, with new editing tool in tow appeared first on The Appside.

The plan will see Microsoft redeem preferred units in Nook Media, in which it invested $300m last year, leaving it with the digital book and device business. The documents also apparently reveal that Nook Media plans to discontinue its tablet business by the end of its 2014 fiscal year, moving to a model where Nook content is distributed through apps on third-party partner devices.

The obvious candidate, in this circumstance, would be Microsoft’s own Surface tablet, although the documents don’t make this clear.

Neither Barnes & Noble nor Microsoft commented on the TechCrunch story.

The post Microsoft to buy Nook? appeared first on The Appside.

“I think there will always be a place for magazines,” she said (via The Guardian) in what was a staunch defence of the printed magazine. “You can’t take the iPad into the bath. You can’t get that tactile feel and pictures are still not the same on the screen.” Bruton explained that magazines are still “streets ahead” of the internet in terms of “crafting stories and adding tone and opinion” to target specific markets, adding “spirit, tone and personality to reflect who our reader is and what she wants”.

Bruton is no stranger to digital publishing, of course – Grazia launched on the iPad last November – but she believes digital should complement print, rather than replace it.

“The magazine sets the tone across all our platforms,” she said. “I personally would want the app and magazine, people switch depending on where they are. Mobile is really important and that is our next focus.”

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