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The iPad Air is really nice. I picked up one in November. Mom tried mine and went out right away to buy one to replace hers - all because of how much easier it was to hold due to the weight reduction. She'd inherited dad's iPad 2 when he replaced his with the first retina model with cellular support (he found WiFi to be too limiting with all is work travel).

 

I do wish they'd have put the Touch ID on it.

 

You might like to check out the iHome iDL100, being able to dock the iPad and iPhone for charging is quite convenient (plus there's a USB port on the back that can charge a 3rd device). I picked up one over the holidays from Bed Bath and Beyond for under $100 and liked it so much I picked up 2 more, one for my guest room and one for mom's birthday present.

Touch ID would be nice. About the time it came out I started locking my iDevices with a passcode. Annoying, yes, but I don't worry about someone getting into my stuff as much now. The trick is setting auto-lock to a reasonable amount of time, so you don't need to enter it every time you pick the thing up. But I'm envious of Touch ID - a co-worker has it on his 5s. I'm sure now that I've plunked down money on a new iPad, Apple will add Touch ID to it any day.

More apps.

 

Picked up Bamboo Paper - Notebook to use with the stylus I have. It's a pretty low-end app as far as it goes, and you have to buy brushes with in-app purchases. If you've already bought their stylus, the brushes should be free.

 

Domino's Pizza - because I like to know exactly what's happening to my pizza at all times. I've come to a conclusion: as far as chain pizzas go, Round Table is way better fresh, but Domino's microwaves better for leftovers. I can't get the pizza I want down here, so I have to settle. And to be fair to Domino's, they have improved.

 

Hulu Plus - compared to Netflix their video quality is terrible, and they have ads (which is ridiculous when you have to pay for it anyway). So why did I get it? Way more episodes of classic Doctor Who. I'm starting at the beginning and working my way up.

 

Top Gear: Race the Stig - not nearly as cool as it sounds. No - you don't get to drive a bunch of hypercars around the Top Gear test track, to see if you can beat the Stig's times. It's an endless runner, with cartoony cart-type vehicles, and vaguely Top Gear-themed graphics. But it was free.

 

Threes! - the biggest gaming sensation since Flappy Bird! I guess. Anyway, it's an interesting puzzle game. Good for a few minutes' worth of diversion at a time, which is about all I look for in an iOS game.

 

Oh, and I finally got around to using Scanner Pro. Works pretty well. Good lighting helps a lot.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed - I played this once or twice. Must have been cheap or free. It's a cart game, like every other cart game in the entire universe.

 

Vevo - You can watch music videos on this. At least, that's the theory. The problem is, today's music is all crap. Was hoping for something I could watch old music videos on. I guess that's what YouTube is for.

 

As an aside, I've found myself playing Top Gear: Race The Stig quite a lot. Yes, it's basically just another endless runner, but after spending some time with it, I've found (to my surprise) it's an enjoyable endless runner, with non-intrusive IAP. The only thing I've spent money on was 99¢ to remove the ads. Needs more Top Gear-isms though, and the option to change your environment would be nice (the environment has changed twice so far, but I don't know if my game progress or an update triggered it, and I can't revisit the earlier ones).

Just bought an Otterbox Armor case for my iPhone (for going to the beach). Much cheaper than most other waterproof alternatives. Tested it (without the phone) underwater for a half-hour. It held up just fine. I could only hold my breath for a couple of minutes though… I must be doing it wrong.

Some more stuff, recently picked up:

 

Star Wars Scene Maker allows you to position characters, objects and cameras in a 3D environment, then record a movie of it. Way too much work to set things up for the results you get (and of course, you can't do much without IAPs). Deleted it shortly after installing it.

 

Top Gear: Stunt School Revolution - Sort of like a Top Gear themed Jet Car Stunts. Jump your car, crash into stuff. It's okay - nothing spectacular.

 

Tides Near Me - Free - Went on vacation recently, and wanted to know the local tides. Doesn't seem to have very complete lists, although that depends on whatever source it's pulling its data from. Interface is a bit clunky and dated, but it works.

 

My Tide Times - Seems to use Maps (or Google?) to locate the tide times you want to look at. Nicer interface that Tides Near Me. But again, you can't always find the tide table you want.

 

Monument Valley - A very cool isometric puzzle game. Great graphics and sounds, cool concept. The sort of videogame M.C. Escher would have made.

 

Easy Writer Lite - Needed a text editor so I could do some writing on my iPad. This was free, and worked very well.

 

Also, while on vacation I played Tiny Death Star. Quite a bit, actually. While cute for its take on Star Wars, it's nowhere near as good a game as Mega Mall Story. Tiny Death Star doesn't have nearly the depth of MMS. You can only build vertically, with one elevator, so it becomes very tedious scrolling up and down all the time, and there's not as much variety in what you build and how you manipulate your resources. After awhile all you end up doing is just restocking items once or twice a day, as the times (and costs) to build new levels skyrocket in an attempt to get you to buy more IAP "bux" to hurry the game along (I did once - buying a bundle that included an elevator upgrade). So adding new levels to the game (arguably the best part) becomes less frequent, more expensive, and because of all of the scrolling, more annoying. MMS is a lot more involving and fun to play. Too bad Disney didn't choose MMS to be the basis of their Star Wars game instead. Mega Death Star Story would have been awesome. Meanwhile, the novelty of TDS has largely worn off. Maybe I'll go back and start up a new game of MMS instead. It's been awhile.

Not a whole lot going on in the app world. At least, not much I've been paying attention to.

 

Picked up Saturday Morning RPG after a price drop for the Deluxe version. It's an RPG which thrusts you into the world of Saturday Morning TV from the 80's (using non-copyright-infriging parodies). It's kind of a cute idea, but I watched Saturday Morning TV in the 70's, so it doesn't quite resonate with me. I like the concept though.

 

Also downloaded Epic Zen Garden, which was one of the iOS 8 demos they showed at WWDC. And that's all it is - a demo. It's a nice demo, with interactive trees, gravel, fish and water. But there's no game here, and after a minute or two, I was done with it.

 

I just haven't had a lot of time to play games in the last couple of months. Usually during commercial breaks I'll play a game or two of Top Gear: Race The Stig (since it requires almost no effort), or Tiny Death Star (again - minimal effort required). I'm at the point in TDS where you just tap a bunch of times once or twice a day to restock, and add levels when you sock away enough money. This is where modern "gameplay" has gone? At this point, I'm more curious if the game eventually ends than in actually playing it. So I'll eventually plod away at building all of the Imperial levels, and hopefully some Rebels will come along and blow the whole thing up after I'm done.