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IFTTT for iPad brings service/device mashups to your favorite tablet
I have an amazing amount of love and respect for IFTTT.com, an online service that provides an easy way to connect apps, devices, and services in ways that make them much more useful. Want to get a phone call from your house telling you that your basement is flooded? Use IFTTT, a moisture sensor connected to a SmartThings Hub, and the IFTTT phone call channel. Maybe you want to keep track of how much time you spend at a local bar... Pull up IFTTT and use the iOS Location and Dropbox channels to create a log file of every time you go to or leave that bar. Up until now, IFTTT fans either had to log into the desktop website or use the iPhone app to create new recipes or tweak old ones. Last week the free IFTTT for iPad app showed up, and it's a no-brainer download for anyone who uses IFTTT. The app is designed perfectly for the iPad and iPad mini screen, featuring a browser mode that reminds me of nothing less than the App Store. Curated collections, featured recipes, all-time favorites, recipes that are trending, and new recently added recipes all have their place on the Browse screen. If you'd rather manage your existing recipes and see a log of when they were triggered, just tap a good-sized toggle in the upper right corner of the app display and you are in "Manage" mode. The left side of the management screen provides a running timeline of when your recipes were triggered, while the right side has a list of your recipes. To turn one off or on, there's the familiar iOS 7 green switch on each recipe. With a tap of the recipe, you can turn notifications on or off, check the recipe, edit it, share it, or delete it. Large arrows on the personal recipe display let you scroll left or right through those recipes, making group edits (of a phone number change, for example) quite simple. For new IFTTT users, the iPad app provides a very simple five-screen introduction to the service the first time the app is launched. You can sign in if you're already an IFTTT user, or create a new account from the app. If you're not currently using IFTTT, it's time to give it a try -- especially if you're an iPad owner. The app is beautiful, sweet icing on the IFTTT cake and you're going to love it.
Daily App: PiggyBot is a colorful allowance tracker for both parents and kids
PiggyBot is a new allowance app from BancVue that landed in the iOS App Store earlier this month. Unlike other piggy banks that track real money in your child's physical piggy bank, PiggyBot is a ledger sheet that tracks virtual money. The virtual currency of PiggyBot is wonderful for busy parents who don't always have a five dollar bill in their pocket when it comes to paying out allowance or dispensing cash for an extra chore well done. Instead of handing over a paper bill, PiggyBot allows a parent to create an account on an iPhone and add money to that virtual account as needed. The account options in PiggyBot allow each child to have an allotment of money for savings, for sharing and for spending. When parents add money to a child's account they can determine where the money will go and then child can decide how to share or spend it. When a child is ready to make a purchase, the parent will know immediately how much the child has in their bank and can deduct that amount on the fly. The app is meant to be used by parents and children, with the parents controlling the accounts and dispensing the money, and the children adding in items they want to buy and people with which they want to share their money. Each account is locked by a pin, so children can't access the parent's account and each sibling is locked to their own account. PiggyBot has a colorful interface with enough customizations that the app can be personalized for each child, but the options are not overwhelming. Each child can change the color of their virtual bank account as well as add an image, for example. There are no syncing options, so the data resides only on a single device. PiggyBot is associated with Kasasa, a national brand of free checking and savings accounts that offers rewards. The app is meant to be a utility for parents and a learning too for children to help them manage their money wisely by allowing them to spend, share and save their cash. There are no logins and the app is not tied to any checking account services. Other than the "Powered by Kasasa" logo at the bottom, there are no ads in the app. PiggyBot is available for free. It is compatible with the iPhone and iPad and requires iOS 7.
Weekend App: Doughbot brings you to donuts when you need them most
Doughbot is a clever new app with a singular purpose in mind -- to get you donuts when you need them the most. The app uses your location and displays the nearest donut shops either in a list or on a map. The app pulls its donut shop listings using data from Yelp, Yahoo and Instagram, providing you with directions as well contact information and reviews. With just a few taps, you can read what others have to say about the donut shop and view an overview map with highlighted driving directions to the store. Doughbot is only as good as its donut shop listings, which, unfortunately, were variable for me. The app worked superbly in cities, but was spotty in the rural area in which I live. I tested the app in two nearby cities, Portland and Lewiston, Maine, and had an abundance of donut shops from which to choose. In my rural hometown, though, the app did not pick up the local Dunkin Donuts or Tim Hortons, directing me instead to a location that was a few towns over. Doughbot is useful for the city dweller or traveler who wants to find donuts at a moment's notice. The app is easy to use, provides all the contact information you need to use to hunt down donuts and throws in some reviews so you can avoid clunkers that are selling stale wares. You can download Doughbot from the iOS App Store for 99 cents.
Daily App: 2048 by ketchapp is a perfect port of the popular web-based numbers game
2048 took the web by storm when it debuted last month. Created by 19-year-old Italian web developer Gabriele Cirulli, the sliding numbers game challenges you to combine tiles and build a tile with the number 2048 before you run out of moves. It sounds easy in theory, but it is incredibly challenging. The popular web app was ported to iOS and a version of the game by ketchapp has become an instant hit, climbing to the top of iOS App Store. The 2048 app adopts the same appearance and challenging gameplay of the web version. 2048 gameplay is simple and reminiscent of Threes!, a similar sliding numbers game. You have a 4x4 grid of number tiles based on the number 2 that you combine. You can only combine tiles with the same number, a 2 tile with a 2 tile, a 4 tile with a 4 tile and so on. As you combine tiles, they are combined into one tile, their values are added together and another tile appears on the screen. You keep adding tiles until reach 2049 or your screen fills up and you can't move anymore. I've been playing 2048 and I've not been able to crack 128. I'm not the patient type with strategy games and end up randomly combining tiles until I can move anymore. There are online strategy guides for 2048 if you want to beat in style. The 2048 game by ketchapp is available for free from the iOS App Store. It is compatible with the iPhone or iPad. The app includes ads, but they do not interfere with the gameplay.
Zombie Launcher is a fun time burner once you get past the ads
When it comes to iOS games I've got a particular taste for oddball time burners. The Flappy Bird and Spellgrid's of the world are perfect for getting a quick game in when you don't have a lot of time. So when I was sent Zombie Launch, I felt the familiar pull. How much time could I burn with this game? Zombie Launch has a simple premise. Dirk is a ginger zombie in search of brains. Sadly, the world has fallen into a burning apocalypse with hot lava covering the ground. Your job is to hop Dirk across each level by stringing lines of intestines underneath him. This will send Dirk flying through the air, happily munching on the clusters of brains that hang from the sky. Of course it's not all happy chewing. Rotting brains are also hidden within the route, and eating one will immediately drop Dirk from the sky. Occasionally Dirk will be able to catch a ride on a random crow which will allow him to zoom across the level. For the first ten or twenty times you play, your average game will last about thirty seconds, quickly followed by the desire to play again. The game's charming art design is far more adorable than its gut-strewn premise suggests. For all the intestines strung across the screen, the level of violence never goes beyond anything you'd see in a edgy Cartoon Network show. There's no blood or visible brain chewing. In fact, it's all rather pleasant. Even the cost is attractive. Zombie Launch is free to play without any in-app purchases or timed content walls. Instead, ads launch when you first load the app. Sometimes multiple ads in a row, which is a first for a free game that I've played. You'll dismiss one full screen ad only to discover another full screen interruption immediately behind it. However, the ads never show up during game play so they're only an annoyance at the beginning of your session. If you feel like racing other players the game offers a multiplayer mode of sorts. While you won't get to see a herd of flying Dirks battling it out for brains, a small bubble appears at the top of the screen to tell you which player is in the lead. If you don't want to play with your Facebook friends it will even match you with other players. That being said the game suffers from the same issue as Flappy Bird. It's a solid and addictive idea that doesn't have a lot of variation. Once you tire of flinging poor Dirk there isn't a lot to do. There are no power-ups or obvious level changes beyond a few new background screens. Still, the game's simplicity is part of its charm, and if it was any more complicated it'd defeat the purpose of being a time burner. Zombie Launch isn't the first game to use the idea of bouncing a protagonist off drawn platforms, but its adorably macabre design couples perfectly with its quick play. The addition of multiplayer provides an extra layer of playability that expands the length of time you'll probably want to keep the game on your device. It's a charming title with a high difficultly level. If found yourself screaming your throat hoarse over Flappy Bird, Zombie Launch is a probably right up your alley. Just watch out for the rotten brains.
Monument Valley is proof that games can be art
If you have a dog in the never-ending "Are games art?" debate, you know that there are good arguments to be made on both sides. I firmly believe that games can be art, and to anyone who disagrees, I would eagerly point you in the direction of Monument Valley, a new puzzler from developer Ustwo. In Monument Valley you are tasked with guiding a faceless princess named Ida through various structures. But these buildings are not like anything you'd encounter in the real world; They're all impossible, relying on 2D visual trickery and MC Escher-like illusions to add a confusing but enjoyable layer of complexity to even the most trivial tasks. Finding your way to the end of each level often means manually spinning platforms to connect paths in a way that defies logic, but in the end makes perfect sense. This mechanic is made even more challenging once path-blocking "Crow People" are added a few levels into the adventure, adding an aspect of timing to each puzzle solution. There's no real timer to speak of, and the game actively encourages you to think out each move rather than rushing blindly along any paths that might be available. And while some levels might seem hideously daunting at first become manageable through a little bit of trial and error. Monument Valley is gorgeous in is design, with colorful shades and hard lines that emphasize the geometry while at the same time giving you the impression that you're interacting with a priceless painting. There's even a camera feature built-in so you can take snapshots of any level you choose, and every one of them would make for a gorgeous wallpaper on your iPad or iPhone. To top it all off, the relaxing music reacts to every move you make, and even the troublesome crows, that squawk in your face while blocking the way, come off as more charming than annoying. Monument Valley is a game that will suck you in with its gorgeous aesthetics, and then bend your brain while you search for each puzzle solution, but you'll have a smile on your face the entire time. If you're even remotely interested in puzzle games, this US$3.99 gem is money well spent.
Daily App: Faster Than Light brings real-time, rogue-like spaceship combat to your iPad
Released in 2012 for the desktop, Faster Than Light from Subset games is considered to be one of the top indie real-time strategy games. In the game, you control a spaceship from Galactic Federation that contains critical information. You must escape the pursuing rebel fleet and make it across sectors to the Federation HQ to deliver your vital data. This spaceship simulation game challenges you at every turn with rogue-like combat situations that sometimes require you to fire away with your weapons and other times practice diplomacy. Ship emergencies, often in the middle of combat, add a whole new level of complexity as you struggle to keep to vital systems like your weapons array on key sensors online. Though you start with a basic Kestrel-class cruiser, you can unlock upgrades, weapons and new ships. Gameplay can be hectic at times, but FTL does include a pause function, allowing you to stop the action so you can plan your strategy. The pause function gives you some breathing room, but it doesn't make the game any easier. Always on your mind is the game's permadeath feature that doesn't allow you to start in mid-game when you die. If you are destroyed, you must start over at the beginning. Of course, starting over means you get to try to new strategies, unlock different ships and discover new tricks the next time around. The iPad version of Faster Than Light ships with the new FTL:Advanced Edition expansion pack, which adds new ships, enemies, events, and weapons to the game. This pack can be disabled if you prefer to play the classic game. The touch interface translates nicely over to the game, making it easier and more intuitive to use than the mouse clicks of the desktop version. Faster Than Light is available for the iPad for US$9.99. If you have any interest at all in this genre of game, then you won't be disappointed in Faster Than Light. The depth of the game in incredible and the gameplay has just the right mix of slow-paced waypoint jumping and resupplying mixed with hectic combat situations that require fast thinking on your part.
Popular pin-toppler game Polar Bowler lands on iOS
Polar Bowler first debuted as a Windows PC game ten years ago and became a long-standing hit for WIldTangent and its casual game network. After bringing the popular Polar Bear and his new sidekick J to iOS last year in the 1st Frame game, the company is back with a new PB & J title that retains the pin-toppler's original name, Polar Bowler. For those who haven't played it, Polar Bowler is a bowling video game featuring a sunglasses-adorned Polar Bear and, on iOS, his valet penguin J. PB rides an inner tube as he travels down various mazes knocking over bowling pins. Your role as the player is to steer PB and knock over as many pins as you can. As you speed down the lane, you can steer using the onscreen controls. You aim for the pins, while you avoid obstacles and use other items like ramps to move your Polar Bear along its way. Occasionally, crates will appear with bonus content like specialized inner tubes to help you in your quest to topple pins. When PB finally comes to a rest, the game tallies up your "Polar Score," which is based on how many pins you knock over, the speed at which you travel, and how many bumpers you hit. To complete a level and move on, you must clear every pin the maze. The latest version of this pin-toppler game is chock full of options with souped-up tubes, custom outfits and more for your Polar Bear. Gameplay is fast and fun with plenty of mazes to keep you engaged. There also are free goodies that you earn every day, encouraging you regularly to open the app to play. Polar Bowler is available in the iOS App Store for 99-cents. It contains in-app purchases that allow you to buy crates or coins, which can be used to buy xtras like fancy, new tubes for PB.
I can't tell you why Sometimes You Die is so great
"Unique" is an overused word these days, and every game on the App Store wants you to believe it's like nothing you've ever played before, no matter how similar it is to every other app out there. Sometimes You Die doesn't really have to worry about that though, because its entire premise is based around the fact that it's less of a game and more of an exercise in thought. And yes, I promise you've never played something like this before. The mechanics of the game are familiar platformer fare: You control a small block that must navigate a bare-bones world consisting of either flat surfaces or spikes. Flat surfaces are safe, spikes and spinning blocks will kill you. That's it, for 9 chapters. Where Sometimes You Die changes things up is in how it interacts with you, the player. From the very start, the game actively engages you with text and voice, asking questions and at times mocking you. It challenges you to define what a "game" really is, and what it means to have fun. It reminds you how silly it is that you, as a player, form instant expectations of how a game will treat you. But the best part about the game, however, is that the real game only begins after you've beaten all 9 chapters. The levels fly by in quick succession and before you know it, you're at the end. Or at least what you think is the end. Saying anything more would both spoil the game's biggest trick and ruin its appeal right from the start. I promise you that you'll be glad I'm stopping right now. The game is US$1.99, which isn't the easiest sell alongside free-to-play behemoths, but for a gaming experience you've never had before it's more than worth it. Play it, and love it.
Daily App: PicFlow allows you to quickly combines photos and music into a stunning slideshow
Took a bunch of photos and want to make them into a slideshow instead of a static collage? Then you should check out PicFlow from Red Cactus. The slideshow maker is easy to use and doesn't require you to sign up for a service just to add some flair to your photos. PicFlow walks you through the slideshow creation process, prompting you first to add photos from your Camera Roll to the slideshow. Once the photos are imported, you can tap and drag them into their proper order. You also can pinch to crop the photos and adjust what section of the image is displayed in the resulting video. There are no other editing options, so you will need to use an image editor like Aviary to tweak the contrast and adjust the color before you import them into PicFlow. Once the photos are "just right," you can add music from your iTunes library to the slideshow. The song has to be stored on your device and not stored in iCloud for you to import it. The app then allows you to pick the part of the song you want, so you are not stuck with only the first 20-seconds of the clip. In the third and final step, you can adjust the length of the video, which is set to 15 seconds by default in order to meet the video upload requirements of Instagram. You also can record the photo transition timings by tapping, allowing you to sync your photos to the beat of the music. When you are done with the music part, you are ready to preview the clip and then share it. Tapping on the "Share" button allows you to export the clip to Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or your Camera Roll as a video. If you want to fix something before you compile the clip, you can easily jump back through the steps and make changes. PicFlow includes a watermark and ships with a default cross-fade transition. If you want to use other transitions or remove the watermark, you can unlock those features via an in-app purchase. In-app purchases are reasonably priced, ranging from 99-cents to remove watermarks and going up to US$2.99 to unlock the entire app. PicFlow is available for free from the iOS App Store. It is compatible with the iPhone and requires iOS 7.
Weekend App: Handy Photo Free is a capable iOS image editor with a couple of unique features
Ah, another iOS image editor review. There are so many available in the App Store, with lots of overlapping functions. Cropping, filters, frames ... one could get lost. Handy Photo Free has all these features, but it's the unique features that make it worthy of note. First and foremost, the Move Me technology designed into the app gives it an edge on competing photo editors. Take a person or an object and move it elsewhere in the photo frame, and the background fills itself in automatically. Filters can be applied to all or just parts of an image, and there is smart retouching. Like many image editors that use the freemium app pricing model, you can upgrade to a full version that adds smart 'uncropping', full-resolution saves, more filters and RAW support. The full version is available at the reasonable price of US$1.99. In terms of filtering and image manipulation, the free Snapseed app is still superior to anything I have used in iOS but Handy Photo Free adds that very powerful Move Me feature. There are little niceties in the app. For example, when you are drawing the mask on the object you want to move, Handy Photo offsets a magnified view of where you are painting. Most apps stupidly let your finger cover the area you are working in, making it difficult to create an accurate mask. The Move Me technology works well, and on the photos where I tried it, a new natural-looking background was rendered. Handy Photo, in both the free and paid incarnations, is a first-rate editing tool. Help is built in and each feature is described. The GUI is modern and accessible for a first time user. I'm very partial to Snapseed, which can turn an ordinary picture into something memorable, but the special features of Handy Photo are well implemented and worthwhile. Try the free version and see if the features are useful to you. Handy Photo Free requires iOS 4.2 or later, and it is optimized for the iPhone 5. The app is universal.
Daily App: Monocle offers menu bar search for Mac owners running almost any OS X version
Monocle is a handy menu bar search utility that allows you to search Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube and Wikipedia in just one click. Monocle is more web search focused then OS X's Spotlight search and much less complex than similar productivity tools like Alfred. Just click on Monocle's magnifying glass in your menu bar, select your default search engine and type in your search terms. Monocle will display a list of search results that you can select and open in your default web browser. The app has been around for a while, which makes it perfect for Apple owners who have older Macs kicking around that still run previous versions of OS X. It also works just fine in OS X Mavericks. Monocle is free and worth the small amount of space that is occupies if you find yourself always searching the web for a tidbit here and tidbit there.You can download it from Waffle Software's website.
Star Wars: Assault Team puts Star Wars: Force Collection to shame
I love Star Wars and I love collectable card games, so it should say quite a bit that I couldn't review Star Wars: Force Collection because the bare-bones production values turned me off that much. As a collectable card game, it's apparently not bad, but it's just so unacceptably ugly that it feels like more like a last-second cash-in than a marquee title, and I couldn't play it for more than a few minutes before it felt like a total waste of time. Today, Star Wars: Assault Team hits the App Store, and I booted it up with a serious knot in my stomach, anticipating the worst. That is, until I remembered that this new game comes from the still-fresh Disney-Lucasarts deal, while the previous title was a product of Konami. And wow, the difference is immediately noticeable. For starters, Assault Team isn't being marketed as a collectable card game, but it still functions as one. You collect "heroes" cards, build your team deck, and take on opponents in turn-based combat. You can unlock more characters by purchasing "Hero Crates" instead of card packs, but the end result of all this is the classic card game experience. Where Force Collection presented its story mode with cringe-worthy static images and text bubbles, Assault Team's campaign is a much more polished affair. A wide variety of objective await on various planets, and the battles are played out in fully rendered 3D environments with animated enemies and some pretty slick special effects. In short, it feels more like you're playing a movie-inspired RPG than an actual card game, and it's a lot more fun because of it. As your team auto-navigates each stage you encounter battles with iconic Star Wars enemies and creatures, all of which need to be dispatched before you continue. Depending on the makeup of your team, you'll launch all-out assaults or more strategic moves like having one of your characters taunt the opposition to provide cover for the rest of the team. Once you've gotten a respectable team deck you can challenge other real-world players for superiority. These battles don't affect the story missions but can provide bonus items and loot that will give you an edge across all the game's modes. If you were as turned off as I was by Force Collection, give Assault Team a chance, because it's likely the experience you wanted all along. The game is free on the App Store.
Daily App: PhotosPro will make you think Apple's iOS photo app is outdated
PhotosPro (US$1.99) is a very appealing app that could teach Apple a few lessons. Think of it as a replacement for Apple's Photos app. It will display your photos in a long list, or let you see what you took on a particular date or within a range of dates. It will show you a map of where your photos were taken, not with a little marker as Apple does, but with the pictures themselves superimposed over the map, which is much more useful. Even better, PhotosPro lets you create what it calls 'stories' so that you can group photos into a particular event and share them with friends via social networks or email. You can also upload to Flickr or Dropbox. When you highlight an image, you can see all the EXIF data as well as a representation of where it was shot on a map. The user interface is smooth and attractive. Using the app to explore my photos I completely fell out of love with Apple's Photos. PhotosPro is just simply so powerful it's hard to go back. A couple of observations. While the app is powerful, it isn't always obvious how to do things. To send a picture to someone, you hold your finger down to bring up the EXIF data and the sharing menu. To create a story, you hold your finger down on each photo you want to add. It's easy enough to do, but people shouldn't have to explore for the method. I think a quick help screen at startup will go a long way. Also, you can't delete photos. It's an Apple issue. Even with the little foibles, PhotosPro is one terrific app. It's a natural way to organize and find your photos. You sign up for an account if you want to upload your stories to the web to share. The account is free, and you can send up to 20 photos in a story. The web display is very nice looking, and you can add an attractive title. It's better than Apple's cloud sharing service. PhotosPro is the kind of app you will use every day. It's reasonably priced, and actually gives you a better way to manage and share your photos. It has my highest recommendation. PhotosPro is universal and requires iOS 6.1 or later.
Bandcamp is an invaluable music resource, but you wouldn't know it from their iOS app
Bandcamp is a revolutionary service that has helped break down the barriers for self-released music across every genre of music. If you like music, they have you covered. Utilizing deep fan integration and tags the site allows you to search by genres, country, your friends recommendations, record labels, and any other odd metadata you can imagine. Tagging goes beyond those basic identifiers. Search the tag "Slayer" and you will find hundreds of bands that aren't Slayer who may be in your wheelhouse. Then when you find what you're looking for you are provided the option to stream songs for free, or buy a download in a wide range of formats from lossless options to simple MP3s. Discovering music with Bandcamp is a joy. Unless you use their iOS app. For reasons I cannot understand the iOS app for Bandcamp's app only allows you to fully stream albums you've already purchased from the service. Which is a nice basic feature that should be included, but given that the company has built its reputation on discovery this is crushing oversight. The app does allow you to choose how much audio data you want to cache on your device for offline listening, but if you wanted to listen offline you'll already have the files on your computer. Beyond listening to the albums you already own you can use the app to stream Bandcamp's podcast orfind music by getting recommendations from other fans. Which should be amazing right? It's not the full searching options available on the site but at least it's something. You can see what people are listening to and then stream it. Except you can only stream one song from these recommendations. It's incredibly frustrating to see a service this great have such a weak, featureless iOS app. Especially because their mobile website is an absolute joy to use on your iOS device. Visiting Bandcamp in your mobile web browser allows you to utilize the full range of Bandcamp's services. Do you want to stream records? You got it. Do you want to download and discover new albums? You got it. Do you want to search artists or tags? Boy howdy does Bandcamp.com have you covered. Streams from the website keep playing even if you switch to another app and can even be paused using the control center when you're outside your browser. At the top of the page you can see a screen shot of what the app looks like. To your right is what the web interface looks like on iOS Safari. Notice the lack of search options? It's a massive oversight if your mobile website is more full featured than your app. The lack of options and features in Bandcamp's app is disappointing, but the service is still well worth checking out for iOS users hunting for new tunes. Sadly, at the moment at least, we recommend you just use the service's website on your phone. Bandcamp's app left us wanting to write our Moms asking if we could come home early. We hope its next update gives us something happy to write home about.
Device 6 is a fun, clever puzzler for iPhone
Device 6 for iPhone (US$3.99, universal) was recently featured in Apple's Indie Game Showcase, and for good reason. It feels like a contemporary take on Zork and other text-based games I loved years ago. It combines fun puzzles, clever design, great visuals and compelling story into an all-around enjoyable experience. But is it a game? It's hard to say. On one hand, Device 6 is something you play. You play as Anna, who awakes to find herself in an unfamiliar castle. She can see a lighthouse through a window and that's about it. There are no instructions or D-pad. To figure out what's going on, just start reading, get moving and begin the adventure. It's tempting to think of Device 6 as a novel, but that's inaccurate. For one thing, the story's text isn't displayed top-to-bottom. The orientation often changes and you've got to turn our iPhone left, right or even upside down to follow along. A bold soundtrack and other audio effects (footsteps, creaking doors and those darn, talkative bears) add to the atmosphere. The visuals are great, too. Often a primary source of clues, many photos seem to be "behind" the text, or peeking through a cutout. Other images require you to tap to reveal their function. As you read and explore you'll have to retrace your steps and solve the many puzzles. Some are easy while others aren't (again, those pesky bears). It's so much fun I got through three "chapters" before putting my phone down. Device 6 will appeal to those who like solving clever puzzles and especially a good story. I felt an underlying Cthulhu mythos vibe in Device 6, which was a lot of fun. It's obvious that Device 6 was created with a "story first" mindset. It's a real pleasure to read. Or play. Both? Yes.
Daily App: DragonVale lets you breed Dragons and build elaborate parks
DragonVale from BackFlip Studios debuted in 2011 and has continued to improve over time. The games lets you raise a farm of dragons, with Farmville-style rules. DragonVale is all about dragons letting you hatch new dragons, breed dragons to get different breeds and acquire seasonal dragons that only are available for a short period of time. You are given two dragons at the start and new dragons do cost in-game currency, which you can earn or purchase in-app. As you hatch you more dragons, you can buy new habitats for them, expanding beyond the one island that you are granted at the beginning. DragonVale is filled with a variety items for your dragon. You can buy breeding caves to make new dragons, decorations to makes your island unique, add new islands to expand your habitat into a full-fledged park and acquire other structures like a mini coliseum to race your dragons. Like Backflip's other titles, DragonVale is very well done. The pace is perfect -- fast enough to keep your interests, but not frantic and stress-inducing. The game builds up nicely, with colorful and fun art. There's a social aspect to the game that allows you to add friends via Facebook or GameCenter and send them in-game gifts. You can even share your Dragon parks and visit other random parks to see what other DragonVale players are building. DragonVale is free in the iOS App Store. It is compatible with the iPhone and iPad. There are no ads, but the app does include in-app purchases.
bloc'd is a highly addictive riff on Tetris that you should download right now
Tetris is the first game I remember someone being addicted to. After weeks of being made fun of by my father as a child for how much I was playing the game, I awoke one night to sounds coming from downstairs. The sound was my father at 2AM furiously trying to beat his high score. He'd already beaten ours. I was reminded of that story when I woke up my wife early one morning as I furiously tried to top my own high score in bloc'd. After all these years I'd finally become my dad, but it was worth it to experience bloc'd. The set up is simple: half of the player's screen is rows of colored blocks, shapes drop from the top of the screen towards a series of spikes, and players rush to draw that shape in the blocks directly below it. You have two options for creating shapes. First you can swipe on two or more of the same colored blocks causing them to disappear, providing new blocks to match up. Or you can double-tap an individual block that's in your way, causing it to disappear. Players are limited to five double-taps per game unless they'd like to purchase the game's $0.99 in-app unlimited taps option. It sounds complicated, but you'll be swiping and tracing in seconds. The only complicated part is stopping yourself from playing yet another game when the harsh hand of destruction comes down. The moment you think you've found your rhythm, the shapes start to get more complicated while dropping ever faster. Players who upgrade to the paid version of the app also get the ability to freeze or remove falling shapes in addition to unlimited taps. I appreciate that some players may enjoy these features, and developers have to eat and make their rent payments. As a fan of this game, I want the developers to eat rich bountiful feasts as a reward for what they've created. But personally unlimited double-taps, block vanishing, or block slowing powers get in the way of the insidious genius of bloc'd -- the bitter swearing under your breath when you waste your last double-tap or the cold knowledge that the block will never stop dropping even if you're nowhere near having the shape you need. If you enjoy puzzle games bloc'd will quickly make its way to the top of your playlist. Its shifting difficulty makes it suitable for a quick time-killer in line or taking over all your free time on a flight. You should play bloc'd. You should support the developer of bloc'd. But you should also try playing with just five double-taps just to see how far you can get. Then, utilize all the power-ups you want. You'll already be hooked, and once you're addicted it's just about getting that next fix, that next high score. Now pardon me, I have a high score to beat.
Daily App: Snippit mixes music with photos in a very social way
If you're the social type that loves mixing music with your photography, then you may want to take Snippit for a spin. The app allows you to take a photo, overlay 10 seconds of music and then share the result with the world. Snippit is first and foremost a social network for you to share your music-infused photography. You must sign up for an account in order to use the app and you quickly gain followers within the first few days of joining. There is a running posts feed of new snippits that you can view as well as a browse feature that allows you find new snippits based on music genres, hashtags and both popular and latests trends. When you find a snippit you enjoy, you can favorite it or comment on it. You also can tap on the user profile to dig deeper into who they are and what type of music and photography they enjoy. When you are viewing a user's profile, you can view all the posts this person has created. You also can filter the content and only browse the posts you have favorited from this user, their tagged posts and their posts with location information. If you like what you see, you can choose to follow the user, adding their posts to your feed. After you've gotten a feel for the app, you may be ready to create your first snippit. Just tap the big music icon in the center of the screen to start compiling the media. Pick your music track, using either your own iOS music library or the 30-second music preview available for all iTunes tracks. Each snippet can be 4 to 10 seconds long and you get to choose which section of the track you want to clip. Once you've selected the music, you are ready to add your photo by taking a new photo or importing an existing one from your camera roll. You also can write a caption for your photo, add location information, tag friends and share to social networks all with just a few taps. Once you hit publish, it takes less than a minute for your clip to show up in the stream. If you don't like what you just posted, you can easily delete it. Snippit is available from the iOS App Store for free.
ZapVM creates visual messages on your iOS device for story telling, giving instructions, whatever you can imagine
ZapVM is a free app (with some desirable in-app purchases) that lets you create and share messages with sound, still photos, captions, stickers and freehand sketching tools. I can see ZapVM being used by PowerPoint or Keynote fans, families sharing events, for consumer reviews of places or services, vacation photos, even simple hello messages. The app does all the editing and processing right on your device, so no data link is needed until it is time to share. I tried the app and had good success. The options can be a bit daunting, so take a couple of minutes to understand all the icons. In a nutshell, here is the process: Take a photo or get one from your camera roll. Record a narration. You can swipe through up to ten images. When you are done, use the drawing tools to annotate your presentation with things like arrows, captions, freehand drawings or text and other graphic elements. When you are done, your images and annotations get rendered into a video, which you can then share. You don't have to register to use it, you can just send your 'Zaps', as they are called, directly from the app. Here's where things get a bit complicated. The free version of ZapVM allows users to create and share an unlimited number of 30-second Zap Videos with ad-based Zap Links if published on ZapVM.com and up to 25 active Zap Projects on their device. Free users may also use Zap Credits to export enhanced quality Zap Videos that are up to 90 seconds long and that include an ad-free Zap Link, if published, for three months. All users receive five free credits upon downloading the app. Zap Credit Packs with 20 credits are available via in-app purchase for 99 cents. Users may also upgrade to Zap Plus for $4.99, allowing them to store an unrestricted number of active Zap Projects on their device(s) and to create, export and share an unlimited number of enhanced-quality, 90-second Zap Videos, each of which includes an ad-free Zap Link, if published, for three months. ZapVM works well, and is a pretty unique approach to content creation on iOS. I'd like to see the pricing simplified and the ability to import short videos instead of just photos. The whole notion of credits bogs down what is a very powerful app. My two cents worth? Give me a free 'lite' version to try out, and then sell a full-featured version. ZapVM is not a universal app, and it requires iOS 7. It is optimized for the iPhone 5.
