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Start your own mosh pit with the Metalcore Breakdown Composer
Out in the sea of odd samplers and drum machines on the iOS platform there's one understandable blind spot for music apps; metalcore. Birthed out the hardcore punk and death metal scenes the sub-genre started promisingly before becoming incredibly repetitive. Depending on your tastes Metalcore Breakdown Composer is either a obnoxious parody of modern extreme music or a fun toy to pass time on your iOS device. Utilizing a soundboard of various drums, guitar tones, and vocals players can tap together breakdowns -- essentially the bridge of a metalcore song -- for your listening pleasure. Whether you're making fun of a friend whose a fan or you just want to create your own simple breakdowns this app is for you. Currently MBC lacks the ability to record or export the sounds you make which is the kind of oversight that keeps it from being easily recommended as a keeper. Still it's a funny idea that could provide the right open minded parent an afternoon full of bonding time with their metalhead child. You can watch Metalcore Breakdown Composer's delightfully surreal video below to get a taste of just how tongue in cheek the product in question actually is. You can pick up the Metalcore Breakdown Composer for free right now in the app store. Perhaps you can bring the whole family together by starting mosh pits of love in the living room.
Daily App: Dance Machine turns your videos into funky dance moves
Dance Machine-The Fun Editor is a new app that lets you take a video clip and turn it into a dance video in just a few minutes. The app falls into photo & video category, but when you pair the right video with some upbeat music, there is a healthy dose of entertainment built right into the app. When it launches, Dance Machine prompts you to import a video from your Camera Roll. Once you select a video to import, you can select a section of it for your dance clip. The app applies a reverse filter, allowing you to pick a motion that will be repeated in time with the music. You can add multiple video clips if you wish to create a longer compilation. Once you haven chosen your slice of video, you then can add music from the apps built-in library or from your own music library. Using your own music is a paid option that requires an in-app purchase of US$1.99. The app ships with six music tracks that span a variety of music categories. You also can change the speed of the video and the number of repetitions you wish to include. You can preview the video and either go back into the editor to make tweaks or save the clip for sharing. The dance video is automatically saved to your Camera Roll and you also can share it via Message, email, Facebook or Vimeo. Dance Machine is free and watermarks each video you compile, but you can remove the watermark via a $1.99 in-app purchase. This purchase also unlocks your iTunes music library and allows you to import your own music for your dance video clips. Dance Machine is a quick and easy way to add music to your video, and you can produce some fun results. The over experience is positive, but there are a few features that could use some polishing. Selecting the correct start and end points of a video is a challenge as the controls don't zoom into the clip like they do when you trim video in iOS. You'd be better off editing the clip in iOS and then importing into the Dance Machine app. Also, I could not trim the audio to select my favorite section and was forced to use the song from its opening notes. Dance Machine-The Fun Editor is available for free from the iOS App Store.
Daily App: Tipcognito is a tip calculator masquerading as an email client
Let's face it, many people are horrible at calculating a tip. Not only is the math sometimes challenging, there also is the added pressure of trying to quickly calculate 18 percent of $17.23 while your dinner party stare you down because everyone but you is ready to pay the check. Don't sweat it the next time you go out to dinner, come prepared with Tipcognito, a handy tip calculator that is disguised as an email app. Tipcognito has the visual appearance of an iPhone app but cleverly uses the search field, navigation buttons and fake email entries to display the tip and the total amount you should pay. To use Tipcognito, just enter in the bill amount in the search field and use the "+" and "-" buttons to adjust the tip percentage. The tip amount and your total payment (bill + tip) will replace the date and time stamp in a normal email. Tipcognito is a wonderful app for those times when you want to calculate a tip quickly and discretely. It is available in the iOS App Store as a free app with advertisements or a paid app without ads (US$0.99). It is compatible with the iPhone and requires iOS 6 or later.
Blue Sky for iOS lets you visualize clearer air
Blue Sky is a free iOS app coming out of China, where skies are often gray and air pollution is often out of control. Of course, China isn't alone with that problem. Blue Sky is sponsored by the World Wildlife Federation and an advertising agency, Ogilvy and Mather, based in New York and Shanghai. Since it's Earth Day, I thought it might be appropriate to point out this little app. It's simple in concept and execution -- you take a photo or select one from your camera roll. With your finger, paint in a bluer sky on the photo you've loaded. It's easier if you have a pretty flat horizon. The app doesn't let you magnify your photo to work in tight places, and there is one and only one brush size. The app simply serves as an environmental reminder to let you visualize cleaner and clearer skies. The app also lets you add your signature to a petition to state your preference about 'bringing back the blue'. Although the app was designed for a Chinese audience, it works just fine everywhere else. Doug Schiff, Executive Creative Director of OgilvyOne China, said, "Many in China feel only the government can improve the worsening air conditions, but WWF wanted to encourage individuals to think up and support individual initiatives, and this app is a step in that direction." Blue Sky isn't a sophisticated photo editor by any means. But it packs a little message, and you can certainly do some simple editing to improve your images of cloudy or polluted skies. The app is not universal, and requires iOS 6.1 or later. It is optimized for the iPhone 5.
Hitman GO is really killing it
If you've ever played a Hitman game, your eyebrow probably immediately raised at the prospect of a new Hitman game for iOS. The stealth action titles for PC and consoles focus on picking off guards and taking out assassination targets, and in that way Hitman GO stays true to the franchise. Everything else about the game, however, is completely different. Hitman GO is a board game of sorts, with turn-based puzzles taking the place of actual sneaking and hiding. You control your character piece, the titular assassin Agent 47, on a board where your movements are restricted to pre-determined grids. Each level has its own layout, with guards who either stand still or patrol, and either an assassination target or an exit slot you must travel to in order to proceed to the next level. You can trick guards with noise generating items like cans and rocks, and either make your way around them or take them out in order to clear your path. The puzzles range from very simply early on to mind-bendingly challenging, forcing you to memorize guard patterns and use the rare pieces of cover to your advantage. Besting a level is very satisfying, especially when you take out your primary assassination target -- who are always dressed in red -- with Ave Maria playing in the background, and GO manages to feel like a real Hitman title despite a complete change in format. The most striking thing about the presentation of GO is how gorgeous the faux board game looks on a Retina display. You feel like you're actually moving pieces around the board, and the ability to tweak your viewing angle adds to this greatly. Hitman GO is available for US$4.99, and the only in-app purchases on offer are in the form of hint packs, walkthroughs, and early level unlocks, but each board is so much fun to play and beat that you'll have little reason to consider it.
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition reigns supreme on Mac
The SimCity reboot on OS X came with a whole host of launch day problems, and longtime fans of the series cried foul at the streamlined nature and much more modest city sizes. If you happened to be in that camp, SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition is exactly what you've been dreaming of, and now it's finally available on the Mac App Store. If you've somehow managed to avoid the addictive pull of the SimCity franchise, I'll lay it out for you: You play as the all-seeing mayor of your own metropolis, and must build it up from a barren piece of land. It's the ultimate micromanagement experience, and you'll zone pieces of land for residential buildings, commercial properties, as well industrial purposes. As the mayor, the life of every citizen is in your hands, and you must provide for their basic needs such as utilities, education, emergency management, mass transit, and a host of services. Your city never sleeps, and you're never truly done doing your job. New problems will pop up constantly and your team of advisors will always have a suggestion for how you could better your burg. The sense of accomplishment that comes with seeing your city thrive is countered by the inevitable failure of many of your plans. A freak fire or riot can quickly change your approach, and no two play sessions are ever the same. You might be short on cash and need to tweak the city's taxes, but even the slightest nudge can topple the local economy and send residents fleeing from your town -- the balances are that fragile. As you expand, your once quiet town will burst into a bustling city, and before you know it you'll be scrolling over dozens of city blocks to spot unrest, add a hospital, or investigate a traffic issue. If for some reason you manage to craft a utopia -- and that isn't likely to happen until you've spent dozens or even hundreds of hours learning the game's nuances -- you can increase the difficulty by prompting a natural disaster like a tornado, volcano, or meteor. Handled by seasoned Mac publisher Aspyr Games, there was little doubt that the game would enjoy a seamless transition, and the company has once again delivered on that promise. Technically speaking, the game is the true SimCity experience with zero compromises, and the game runs well on even modest systems thanks to plenty of graphics options. The Deluxe Edition includes both the base game and the Rush Hour expansion pack, which adds a whole list of new mass transit options for your citizens. It's the ultimate SimCity experience, and anyone put off by the recent series reboot will almost certainly find this version to be far superior in terms of options, size, and scope. At US$19.99, it's the cost of a couple of movie tickets, but will give you hundreds of hours of enjoyment with little issue.
Daily App: GoodGuide helps you find green, healthy and socially responsible products
GoodGuide is your guide to all things that are good for you and good for the environment. The guide is available on the web and in a pocketable version that you can carry on your iPhone. The GoodGuide app for iOS contains ratings for over 210,000 products in a variety of categories, including food, health and beauty aids, pet food, baby care and more. Each item is rated on a scale of 1 to 10 based on its social, health and environmental impact. You can quickly view an item's overall rating as well as detailed ratings for health, safety and environment. One of the most useful features of GoodGuide is its scanner tool that allows you to scan product barcodes to find out more about the items that you are about to purchase. The app lists information about the brand that makes the product, its ingredients and alternative products that you may be interested in buying. GoodGuide's biggest drawback is that its product catalog includes only those items that are commercially available in the US. You can use the app outside the US, but the product information will be limited to those items that are available in the US. GoodGuide is available for free and is compatible with the iPhone. It requires iOS 7.
Find Tinder too ambiguous? Heavenly Sinful is here to help.
People use apps like Tinder presumably to find love, whether just for one night or forever. The problem is, you never know a user's motives until you've met up. Your date goes wonderfully, laughs are had, hands are held, smooches are exchanged, and (redacted: this is a family website). A lovely time is had, but when you go to call for a rematch there's no response on the other line. What if there was a way to know if someone is just online for a hookup and not a lifelong love connection? Thanks to Heavenly Sinful, there is. Much like its rival Tinder, Heavenly Sinful allows you to search for singles in your area with one major difference. When you activate the app if asks you to either swipe up for Heavenly or down for Sinful. Heavenly users are looking for a more serious relationship, perhaps the kind of person who wants breakfast in the morning. Sinful swipers are folks who have less emotionally-invested interests in mind. Once you've made up your mind, the app will match you with nearby singles who you can chat and presumably hookup with. In-app purchases have now even made their way into your dating apps -- Heavenly Sinful allows you to send video messages to other users in exchange for credits, priced 100 for $0.99 or 1000 for $4.99. Sure, you could always exchange Skype information, but that's private information. Here's one situation where I understand the benefit of in-app purchases. Modern dating is already a difficult minefield of ambiguous motives. At bare minimum, this app may help some users get the difficult "are you looking for more than a night of fun" conversation out of the way without every having to actually have it. The only drawback we can see is that by creating a status quo for "Sinful" folks who just want to hook up. the "Heavenly" side of the dating sphere might be underserved. Still, if the subtle complexities of navigating Tinder's emotional landscape are too difficult for you, Heavenly Sinful may just help you cut out the hard part and get to the point.
You can't play Goat Simulator on Mac (yet), but you can play Goat Rampage on iOS
Goat Simulator is an amazing game. In Goat Simulator, you control a goat and destroy a small town by running into everything in sight. The game is indeed headed for OS X, but it's not there yet, which is a total bummer. However, a new iOS game has snuck in to capitalize on the goat hype, and while it's not quite as fantastic as the original, it's still a lot of fun. It's called Goat Rampage. To call Goat Rampage a "game" might be a bit of an overstatement. It's more of a physics sandbox where you control the movement of a goat. You can run and jump, but that's about it. There's no real objective, aside from wrecking everything in sight, and the game only really ends when you decide to stop playing. But while things like plot are ignored, guiding your awkward little farm animal around the large stages is somehow hypnotic and satisfying. You'll topple stacks of boxes, knock barrels flying, and even take out massive objects and animals like military tanks and elephants. Each time you hit an object you get a specific number of points, and those points are tallied towards your high score. Getting zero points offers the same reward as getting 5,000, so don't feel too bad if your point total is modest. The point here is to make your own fun. The game is US$0.99, and it's hard to deny how strangely enjoyable it is. It's not Goat Simulator, but at the moment, it's the next best thing on an Apple device.
Daily App: Union is a powerful image blending tool for iOS
Union (U.S. $1.99) is a very well thought out tool that brings Photoshop-type power to your iPad or iPhone. It's the most impressive image blending app I've used, and it works wonders to help you create unique and compelling images. When using the app, you first load in a background image, for example a landscape photo. Then, you add a foreground image that you want to transplant on top of the background. In the next step, you enter the mask layer by choosing the Magic Wand tool, which allows you to easily remove everything but the person. The tool removes parts of the image based on similarity in backgrounds and luminance, so it is a lot easier if the background behind the person is more solid in color rather than patterned. If the Magic Wand tool doesn't do the trick, you can manually draw out the parts that don't automatically go away. Union allows you to let your imagination run wild as you are not limited to only superimposing images. You can make the layers transparent, create double exposures, and more. The app also has extensive undo-redo commands, so you can just step backwards if you don't like what you've created. The app contains tutorial videos, which are much nicer than static help pages. Photos can be exported to your camera roll, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or via email. While excellent, the app suffers from a problem that is common among this type of app -- when removing the background, your finger covers the drawing tool, making it tricky to accurately remove an element. Some apps offset the tool from where your finger meets the screen, making the job a lot easier. Despite this limitation, I was able to manage with the removal tool and created some great shots with little effort. Union is a universal app. It requires iOS 7 or later, and it is optimized for the iPhone 5. Give it a try if you want to create some unique and eye-catching compositions.
Apps We Actually Use: NotesTab Pro lets me sync notes from Mac to iPad
I often find that I need to record snippets of information -- the link to this new app, the name of that updated app and so on. These are small items that I need for a specific purpose and usually only for a short amount of time. I often try to remember these notes, but that fails as I forget them as soon as something else grabs my attention. To store these snippets, I have been using NotesTab Pro from FipLab. The app sits in your OS X menu bar and allows you add, delete and edit notes quickly and easily. It lacks the advanced organizational features of an app like Evernote, but I don't need something that complex just to store these transient pieces of information that I come across each day. It's the menu bar integration that sets NotesTab Pro apart from OS X's default Notes. I already have too many apps in my dock and I find it easier to access apps I use a lot when they are located in the menu bar. NotesTab Pro allows me to create notes for the major tasks I do each day -- my Daily Deals post, my Today in the App Store post and my Daily App post. I can drop links, app names, developer names and more into these notes so I can review them later in the day. The app has a handful of useful features such as an option to "star" a note and highlight it as being important, a search box to help you find notes and support for text formatting like bold and italics. The best part about NotesTab Pro is that it stores your data in its own realtime cloud sync service, creating a backup copy in the cloud. This has saved me numerous times when I restored OS X on my Mac and forgot to back up my notes. The cloud option also supports syncing, allowing you to share this information to the companion iPhone and iPad apps. This syncing is extremely helpful as I can browse the App Store or web on my iPad and add important information to my notes without having to open my Mac. When I finally switch over to my MacBook Air to start writing, all the new information is available to me with a quick click on my menu bar. NotesTab Pro is available from the Mac App Store for $4.99, while the universal iOS version is available for 99-cents.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft arrives on iPad with zero compromises
When new games make the trip from PC to mobile it's usually a dumbed-down affair, but Blizzard's fantastic Warcraft-inspired collectable card game is anything but dumb in its iPad debut. In short, it's just as addictive, gorgeous, and slick as the version we played many months ago on Mac. You begin a game of Hearthstone by choosing a hero. This choice will dictate your overall strategy, letting you rely on your character's magic, weapons, or loyal minions to take out your adversary. Early on, your matches are chosen for you, sending you through a lengthy tutorial and story mode that pits you against many different styles of opponent. Matches play out on a single screen where your cards go up against those of your foe. Your hero has a set amount of life, and the cards your opponents play against you can harm either your hero or the minion cards you have previously played, depending on their strategy and any "Taunt" cards you have on the board (which must be attacked first). You'll grasp the rules and play style after just a game or two, but your long-term strategy will be ever evolving. At the heart of the strategy is your deck of cards, which can be customized to suit your battle plan. You can unlock card packs either by purchasing them or by earning gold through battle victories. A good strategy matched with a solid deck is crucial to besting the real-world opponents you will be matched with in the Arena mode, and you'll see an endless number of play styles as you gain experience. Hearthstone on iPad is just as good, if not better than its PC counterpart, and if you're an iPad owner who is already in love with the desktop version, you're going to adore it on a touchscreen. Dragging and dropping your cards onto the play field feels even better with your finger than it does with a mouse, and even novice players will have a blast. Hearthstone is free on the App Store and even if you don't want to toss in a few bucks for additional card packs, there's still dozens of hours of good fun to be had. Give it a shot, and you won't be disappointed.
Daily App: Xtrapop adds pop culture to your photos as long as you pay up
Xtrapop is a whimsical app that allows you to add some flair to your photos in just a few minutes. It's not a serious image editor like VSCO Cam or Aviary, but a light-hearted app to make someone ROFL when you send them an image. Xtrapop focuses on stickers, filters and frames, which you add to the photo in steps. The app is easy to use -- just select a sticker, drag it into place, and then use gestures to resize and rotate it to fit the scene. Stickers are selectable, allowing you to delete and readjust them. The app also supports layers so you can move stickers to the front and background to get your desired effect. Frames and filters can be added next, and they, too, can be removed and changed as needed. When you are done, you can export the final image to social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You also can save it to your camera roll or send it via messages or email. Xtrapop ships with a small amount of stock content that you can add for free. It's enough to get you started with the app, but you will quickly want more if you end up using Xtrapop on a regular basis. Extra stickers, frames and filters are available in 99-cent packs that can purchased within the app. Free and paid content are labeled appropriately, which eliminates the frustration of picking just the right sticker for your photo and then finding out it is not free. Xtrapop works well for adding some fun to your photos, but some may be turned off by the amount of paid content within the app. Xtrapop is free from the iOS App Store. It is available for the iPhone and requires iOS 7.
Daily App: Help Me Fly challenges you to solve snap circuit-like puzzles
With its cartoonish graphics, Help Me Fly looks like a children's game, but the title bridges across generations with its challenging circuit based puzzles that even the most dedicated puzzle fan will enjoy. The premise of Help Me Fly is simple. You are the pilot of a plane that has run of out of power. You must build circuits to connect batteries to your plane in order for it to take off. The circuits start off easy with straight blocks that connect to your plane in a line. As with any good puzzles, the solutions get progressively harder when the game introduces circuit pieces that rotate, switches, and electrical fields that block your connections. Each circuit-driven puzzle includes stars that you can collect by including them in your circuit, but it often is not easy to build a successful connection and clear each star from the board. That's part of the challenge -- deciding how to best build your circuit so your plane can fly. Though you can leave out a few stars here and there, you can't completely ignore them as they are needed in later levels to unlock content. With its abundant puzzles and cool scientific theme, Help Me Fly will provide hours of entertainment. The challenge level is perfect -- the game's early levels are enjoyably easy, while the upper levels have obscure solutions that force you to think about your circuit design. Normally US$1.99, Help Me Fly is available now for free in the iOS App Store for a limited time. There are no ads, but the app does include in-app purchases to purchase hints and unlock new worlds with even more puzzles to solve.
Power Grounds is punishing and playful
I love mobile games that present a streamlined way to play while not sacrificing the difficulty or nature of the experience. Power Grounds is a role-playing game that you can control with a single finger, with a roguelike one-death difficulty curve that makes it both punishing and charming at the same time. The story behind Power Grounds -- which you'll only know if you read the app description, as there is no backstory offered in the game itself -- is that you are trapped in a temple. Monsters lurk around every corner and in order to defeat them you need to activate powered tiles on the floor. The game screen ends up looking a bit like a chess board, but you'll catch on to the game's nuances within minutes of trying it out. You start each level on one side of the screen and need to navigate to the exit without dying in between. Each time you move from one square to the next on the game's grid-like playfield, the enemies take their turn as well. If you end up right next to an enemy, chances are you're going to take damage from an attack, unless you manage to activate a magical tile first. Power-ups range from offensive weapons like electricity blasts and sword swings to freeze traps that keep the enemies from moving for a specific number of turns. It's a deceptively simple system that makes you feel totally in control, until you're surrounded by enemies and die in a matter of seconds. Each grid is randomly generated, which helps to ramp up the replayability, and you can play it as slow or as fast as you desire. Once you best the ramped-up difficulty of the later levels you can try your luck in the Arena mode where you're tasked with surviving as long as possible. Power Grounds is priced at US$0.99, and there are no in-app purchases or pay-to-win bonuses to be found. It's one of those iOS games that is both accessible and demonically difficult at the same time, which makes it an easy recommendation for anyone who wants a challenge.
Daily App: Cinefy brings Hollywood-style FX to your iPhone or iPad at a cost
Cinefy - Special FX Studio promises to deliver over 100 Hollywood caliber special effects and animations to your iPhone. The app is easy to use, but it is crippled by in-app purchases that take the fun out of movie-making. Cinefy is very easy use, allowing you to pull a video from your camera roll, add an audio track from your iTunes library to the project and then select an overlay effect to add some action to your clip. Once these elements are combined, you can export the clip to your camera roll and share it with others via the standard social networking tools. Editing the clips within the app is minimal. You can set start and end points in a video and move the overly effect so it appears at the right point in the clip. You cannot change the details of the effect, for example a helicopter missile will land in the middle of the screen and you can change its landing point to hit an object on the side of the screen. Adding audio was hit or miss with app crashing on a few occasions when I selected an audio clip to import. Other times, the app would no import the track, which may be related to the track being stored in iCloud and not locally on my phone. Cinefy is free and works for creating quick videos with Hollywood-style effects, but there are limitations which sour the experience. Though the app promises over a hundred effects, most of them are available as an in-app purchase. Of the hundred, only 17 are free. The rest will cost you 99-cents per pack, and there are over 20 packs in the app.
The best Nintendo DS emulator on iOS doesn't require a jailbreak
Apple has a pretty strict stance on emulators in regards to the App Store, so unless you're willing to jailbreak your iPhone or iPad, the options for retro gaming are usually pretty slim. That is, unless the developers of said apps decide to ignore the App Store entirely -- that is the case with NDS4iOS, a Nintendo DS emulator from the same team that launched the jailbreak-free GBA emulator, GBA4iOS, to much acclaim. Much like its predecessor, NDS4iOS can be downloaded straight from the official website. After some finagling with the date, which is required since Apple predictably revoked the dev certificate, the app will load up and present an empty list for game ROMs. You can tweak settings like the opacity of the controller overlay as well as frame skips and other performance enhancements. When you're ready to play, you can seek out game ROMs (to games you already own, of course) via the built-in site links, which then download directly to the app or to a synced Dropbox account. Loading a game is instantaneous and the game provides save state functionality to resume previous play sessions automatically. Perhaps the best part about the app is that it features full touchscreen support for the "bottom screen" of DS games, offering a true DS experience without the system itself. I found that some games seem to suffer a bit in the transition, however, such as the unexpectedly laggy Mario Kart DS. Other games work splendidly, so it's really a bit of a crapshoot. If you're thirsty to relive your DS glory days, this is as good as it gets without dragging out your dusty Nintendo handheld and trying to remember where you left the charging cord.
Weekend App: Follow the final rounds of The Masters Golf Tournament using these iOS apps
Instead of sitting in front of the TV to watch The Masters, bring it along with you on your iPad or iPhone while you hit the links this weekend. The tournament closes on Sunday, so don't miss those critical last holes just because you are out and about. If you want 24/7 golf-only coverage, then you should check out the official Masters Golf Tournament apps from Augusta National itself. There is both an iPhone and an iPad version, with the iPhone app providing live radio and select live video coverage and the iPad app offering a live simulcast from CBS. There's also a live leaderboard with up-to-the-minute scores and video highlights of the greatest golf moments in the tourney. Sports fans who want to fill the void left by March Madness with coverage from the Masters should turn to the CBS Sports app. CBS is providing weekend coverage of the tournament with the latest update to the CBS Sports app adding support for a Masters leaderboard and notifications that'll keep you apprised of the action as it happens this weekend.
Daily App: Skylit shows sunset and sunrise times so you are never left in the dark
Skylit is a new app from Stay Kids that falls into the weather category, even though it doesn't deliver forecast information. Instead of detailed weather statistics, the app focuses on sunrise and sunset times, which are important pieces of information for folks who like to be outdoors. There is nothing worse than being on a lake in a canoe with daylight fading too fast because you didn't pay attention to the sunset time. Skylit is definitely a minimal app, with color and plain text to convey its weather details. The app uses background color to display the time of day, changing from a blue to an orange and back again as the day progresses. Skylit shows you the amount of time until sunset by default, but a simple tap will display the actual sunset time. If it is night and the sun set earlier in the day, then the app will let you know when the last sunset occurred. Skylit shows similar information for the sunrise and you can easily switch between the two times. The app only shows one day at a time, which is a drawback in my opinion. It would be nice to have a gesture to allow you to see multiple days so you can plan your fishing trip next weekend or next month's vacation accordingly. Besides sunrise and sunset information, the app also shows your location , your time and the current outside temperature. You can change the units that are displayed, but you cannot expand upon this information. There is no forecast information or additional weather details. Skylit is easy on the eyes and helpful for keeping track of sunrise of sunset times, which are important to those who fish, hunt or just enjoy spending time outdoors. That being said, I do have the nagging feeling that I am missing out on other weather data when using the app. I appreciate the focus on sunrise/sunset times, but I can find that information in competing apps like Weatherbug, which also provide forecast information, radar and more. I wouldn't want Skylit to turn into a Weatherbug clone, but it would be nice to see a popover with a daily weather forecast that matches the daily focus of the app. Skylit is available in the iOS App Store for 99-cents. Though I feel it could do more, Skylit does well with what it offers, and I would not hesitate to buy it if you need sunrise/sunset information right at your fingertips.
Daily App: WeathrClip brings the current weather conditions to your Mac's Menu Bar
What better place for a weather app than your menu bar, allowing you to see the current outside temperature with additional details available at a click. One simple, but effective weather app for your menu bar is WeathrClip by Gavin Wiggins. WeathrClip sits in your Mac's menu bar, displaying the current temperature along with a weather icon that reflects the conditions outside. Tapping on the icon displays a popover that contains the current weather conditions, a four-day weather forecast, and an animated radar with details from your current location or a specified location. Weather data is pulled from Weather Underground and arranged so you can digest all the important weather details in under a minute. WeathrClip's layout may not be stunning, but it is functional and to me, that is more important overall. Personally, I prefer WeathrClip to the web version of Weather Underground as I find it easier to just click on my menu bar instead of opening a web browser and navigating the Weather Underground site. WeathrClip has a handful of options that allow you to add multiple locations, change the weather refresh time and the units for your temperature. There also is the ability to store favorite locations, manually refresh the data as needed and change the Wunderground maps information. WeathrClip is US$1.99 from the Mac App Store.
