Quite a few interesting apps made it to this roundup this week, including two new launches and one writing app that’s set out to draw it’s own path.  iA Writer is a steal for one buck: it doesn’t let you change the default font and  you can’t change any settings, but it does a pretty good job at balancing out the minimalistic design in other departments.

iA is purposely simplistic. It “makes sure that your thought goes into the text — and not into the program,” in the words of the developer, and it might be one of a very few writing apps that actually live up to that statement.

iPad

iA Writer

I went through what iA doesn’t feature, but not what it actually has to offer. The app automatically syncs what you write to your PC or Mac and makes full use of the iPad’s large monitor: ‘Focus Mode’ blots out anything but the last three lines, and there’s a custom typeface interface for the tablet. iA also displays a word count as well as the estimated time it would take to read selected tax, and it’s integrated with Dropbox.

Facebook

Facebook rolled out a new version of their iOS apps. These are not written in HTML5 and are not based on the Three20 framework has traditionally used for its apps – the latest versions, including the iPad one, are specifically optimized for Apple’s mobile OS. As a result Facebook now runs faster, the app is more responsive overall and it doesn’t require you to refresh stories.

Chimpadeedoo

This is an interesting utility app that can come in especially handy in meetings and other scenarios where a quick means of collecting e-mail addresses is needed. It has both an offline and online mode, and data is automatically synced with MailChimp once a connection is restored.

Android

Slices for Twitter

Slices is a tablet-optimized Twitter feed app that presents the site in an aesthetically appealing form with a lot of extra functionality. It’s touted as the only tool of its kind that lets users find messages and people by filters, and also comes with other unique features such as an event tracker and the ability to divide a timeline into mini feeds, or ‘Slices.’ You can also bookmark favorite accounts or lists, another exclusive.

Meshin Calendar: for Evernote

This new release is a smart calendar with business feature such as the ability to schedule prompts ahead of meetings, and a rating system that you can use to rate them once you’re out of the conference room. One of if not the biggest feature is contextual intelligence – the app auto tags notes based on user preferences and makes suggestions based on the same data.