If there was one thing I always wished I knew how to do, but could never quite master, it was writing songs and lyrics.  It is a strange mental block for me.  I can write some fine prose and poetry, but set the whole thing to music and I start shooting blanks.  What I need is something that takes the stressful part out and just leaves me with the words themselves.  That part I can handle.  Which was what drew me to Songwriter’s Pad in the first place.

The beauty of this app is that it does not require you to write a song.  The problem with most writing is that once you sit down, you start thinking about the finished product and staring at the blank screen.  Novel, blank screen.  Book of poetry, blank screen.  Oh sure, maybe you write a title and byline, and then imagine how the whole thing will look in the store window, but in the end, the task of that finished product ultimately becomes too daunting to overcome the blank screen.

One of the best tools for overcoming this immediate hurdle is breaking the finished product into its constituent parts.  It is not a novel, it is a chapter.  It is not a book of poetry, it is a single rhymed couplet.  It is not a song, but a verse, an intro, a chorus, or a bridge.  That is exactly what Songwriter’s Pad offers. 

Of course, just breaking the task into its constituent parts is not always going to be enough to overcome any of the writing problems you might have along the way.  Sometimes, when you are writing a song, you know exactly the emotion you are trying to convey, but you just can’t wrap your tongue around the right words.  For this, the app offers the word and phrase finders.  Just find the emotion you wish to convey, and a list of lyrical options will appear.  Scroll through the list until you find the one that fits your song, and hit the plus button.  This will add the word (or phrase) to the appropriate sidebar list for your immediate or future use.  The only problem I had with this was that the list of emotions was pretty limited.  It would have been nice if a full Thesaurus had been included here, just as a complete dictionary was included as a tool.

The final component of the app is the recorder.  You can see the controls running along the bottom of the screen.  Let’s face it, songs are designed to be heard, not seen (or something like that).  So, if you want to know whether your song is really Top 40 material, reading and writing just will not be enough.  The record feature allows you to sing your song out loud and then play it back to your heart’s content.  This is really the only way to refine and edit your latest hit before selling it to American Idol…or something like that.

The only problem I had with the whole app was that there is no option to record music along with your lyrics.  Song lyrics are rarely written without musical accompaniment.   By only offering the tools to write the words, the app really seemed like it missed a large portion of the song writing process. 

Notwithstanding the lack of music to assist with the writing, I thought this was a fantastic app for what it offered.  The two pronged approach to writer’s block (breaking the process into bite sized segments and offering writing prompts when needed) should offer even the most seasoned writer the push they need to finish their next project. 

Songwriter’s Pad is available from the iTunes App Store for $9.99 from Dante Varnado Moore.

I have to admit, when the HP-Palm merger was announced earlier this year, I was not optimistic.  Frankly, I have long thought that the card metaphor developed by Palm and used by the WebOS interface is pretty much the best thing to happen to mobile devices.  It just makes sense.  It may not be the best supported platform, but it was the most well designed and most user accessible mobile platform.  So, I was quite dismayed when HP and Palm merged, as I saw the end of the line for WebOS approaching like a speeding train.  I was, therefore, stunned yesterday, to learn that not only will HP continue to support WebOS devices, but that they have even been developing a major upgrade for all WebOS devices, the WebOS 2.0 firmware, which is expected to be available for over the air download by the end of this year.

Not a lot of consumer-level details are available right now, but there is quite a bit of developer information, which gives you a glimpse into what you might expect from the new WebOS.  Here is what we know:

• Stacks: Not only will you be able to create cards in the new interface, but you will also be able to stack or group related cards together, making it easier and more convenient to scroll through your open cards.
• Synergey: Palm’s Synergy Sync is one of my favorite features of WebOS.  It takes contacts from numerous accounts and merges them into a single list.  Now, developers will be able to access this Synergy information as well, allowing far more powerful synergy apps to be made available.
• Exhibition: This will allow information, including streaming stock tips, weather, or even RSS feeds to be displayed on the screen while the device is docked with the Touchstone charger.
• HTML 5 tools
• Node.js support, allowing enhanced Java-based apps
• and plenty more developer tools.

Frankly, I am really looking forward to this update, especially the stacked cards and integrated Synergy Sync.  If you are excited about this as I appear to be, head on over to Palm’s website for all the latest information. 

When my boys were younger, they used to play a game with their toy cars, which involved lining them all up in a single file line and parking them there.  I never really knew what the point of the game was, though my sister-in-law dubbed it traffic, which seemed appropriate.  It was an odd reflection on their world that traffic was the game they chose to play with their cars.  Now, several years later, we found a stunningly similar game for the iPad.  as it turns out, the boys still love playing traffic, even in its digital form.  Yield has now become a family favorite, so let’s go ahead and take a closer look.

The basic premise of this one is really pretty simple, and yet very original.  Each level consists of a crossing between a road and a highway.  Traffic courses up and down (down and up) the highway while the cars travelling on the country road must sit and bide their time to cross.  You control the cars on the country road, telling them when it is safe to cross, or when they must stop and wait their turn.

A counter on top tracks how many cars have safely crossed the street, and how many are left to complete the level.  don’t take too long though, because each level also comes complete with a timer.  Run out of time and your game comes to a sudden close.  Once you have completed a level, though, it will be unlocked in the level selector, allowing you to restart from the beginning of each completed level.  You can also choose to pay an extra $0.99 in order to unlock all of the levels at once. 

As you proceed through the game, the levels get progressively more difficult, adding such challenges as divided highways, train crossings, and cars travelling at variable speeds.  In other words, the higher you go, the more critical role timing will play in the game. 

When you do crash, hit the uh-oh button to continue watching the scene through the safety of a traffic camera above the intersection.  This was a fun feature, though I wish there had been a way to rewind the tape and watch the accident, especially if various angles could be built into the replay.

The graphics and gameplay were simple, but effective.  It felt like a distant cousin to the line drawing games which I have always enjoyed, adopting a similar bird’s eye view and control system..but without the actual lines.  I did think the intersection control, which simply displayed the word stop when the cars were to stop could have been better.  Something as simple as a stop sign or policeman directing the traffic would have worked well here.  Still, I really enjoy these games which are simple in design, but feature a progressively challenging gameplay.  and my kids still enjoy the game of traffic.

Yield is available from the iTunes App Store for $0.99.  Upgrading to unlock all maps will cost an additional $0.99.  There is also a free version available for iPhone and iPod Touch.