iZen Garden for iPad

It pains us to say it, but iZen Garden for iPad ($6) feels like a big disappointment. We previously loved the original iPhone version, which enables users to select stones, plants, and other objects to arrange into a simple, rake-ready Japanese zen garden, but developer Random Ideas’“sequel” was a bit of a cash-in, and now there’s a less intuitive iPad version. Objects and fonts that worked pretty well on the iPhone and iPod touch now look fuzzy on the iPad’s higher-resolution display, and trying to do simple rescaling and moving gestures sometimes seemed to move things into places where we didn’t want them. Eventually, we got the hang of placing objects, rotating them, and scaling them, but not before going through a couple of frustrating, decidedly un-zen sessions of trial and error. The audio here is still fantastically relaxing, but this app really would benefit from a price cut, a rethinking of the user interface, and improved graphics.

Posted in: ipad