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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.
Daily App: Ready to Go misses the mark as a manager for those last minute tasks
Ready to Go from AppBit has an interesting premise -- rather than a to-do list for everything you need to do in a day, the app focuses on those routine household tasks you must do every time you are "ready to go" somewhere. It's perfect for folks like me who rush out the door and forget something every time. The app launches to the "ready to go" screen, which allows you to mark off tasks that you need to complete before you leave the house. It is blank when you begin as you need to add tasks from the default checklist. Tasks include turn off the faucet, lock the door, check the iron and so on. When you've selected your tasks, you return to the "ready to go" screen and swipe your tasks as you complete them. You also can set time-based alerts to remind you to complete your tasks. As much as I like the idea behind Ready to Go, I'm not going to keep it on my phone as it lacks one major feature -- customization. There is one checklist provided with the app, and you can't add to it or change the existing list items. This is a missed opportunity as not everyone has an iron or a teapot that needs attention before they leave. Along with a single customizable list, I would love to see support for multiple lists and maybe even a location option that alerts you when walk out the door. This might be a jump ahead, but this is a perfect application for a household iBeacon. Install it at the door and get alerts as you walk through the threshold. Ready to Go is pretty with its minimalist UI, but it is not very practical without the ability to create your own list. The task manager is available for 99-cents from the iOS App Store. It is compatible with the iPhone and requires iOS 7.0 .
Daily App: Miximal teaches children basic sounds by letting them dial in animals
Miximal is a clever learning app from Yatatoy that teaches young children about sounds and syllables. The app uses simple, but adorable animated animal graphics to represent sounds in a flip book-style approach to learning. The app includes a spinner wheel that allows kids to dial in three images as they assemble an animal and its associated word. Each graphic represents a syllable in the word that is repeated audibly when a child presses the "play" button. The app is free-form allowing kids to create wacky animals like a "Pen-No-Saur," a penguin head on a dinosaur body and legs. When kids create the real animal, a Di-No-Saur in this case, they are rewarded with a silly animation. Miximal is designed for the kindergarten-aged children and has catchy graphics that'll appeal to that age group. Graphics are simple to select and the buttons are over-sized, which makes them easy to tap. The app does a nice job of balancing interactivity with ease of use. The animations made my 4-year-old giggle, and the app had just enough easy interaction to keep him engaged for short periods of time. There are no in-app purchases, but there is one ad for Yatatoy's other app, Drawnimal. The ad is viewable only on the launch screen and is tappable, but it is locked down with a gesture that requires the user to swipe with one finger to view the content. The "About" section with social links is locked down in a similar manner. Miximal is available in the iOS App Store for $1.99. It is compatible with the iPhone and iPad and requires iOS 6.1 or later.
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.
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.
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.
Daily App: Jump and Chump your way to leaderboard stardom in Jump! Chump!
Jump! Chump! is a simple game with challenging yet addictive mechanics a la Flappy Bird. As listed in its app description, the game has three features which are Jumping, Chumping and online leaderboards. You play the game with two block characters with one seated at the top half of the screen and the other placed on the bottom half. The characters remains stationary while enemies come at them from both directions. You must jump the character on top by tapping on the top of the screen to avoid the enemies above the line, and tap the bottom of the screen to make your character chump to avoid the enemies below the line. Sometimes enemies come at the same time in both directions forcing you to jump and chump at the same time. Once you get hit by an enemy, the game is over and the time you stayed alive is recorded as your score. An online leaderboard through GameCenter keeps track of your achievements. Jump! Chump! is easy enough that you can learn how to play in 30 seconds, but challenging enough that you will keep coming back for more Jump! Chump! is available for free in the iOS App Store. The game is compatible with the iPad and iPad and requires iOS 7.0 or later. There are small ads at the top that don't interfere with game play and there are no in-app purchases.
Daily App: Word Forward mixes Scrabble-like gameplay with brain-busting strategy
Word Forward is a clever word puzzle game developed by Shane McCafferty and published by AppyNation. The app has a hint of Scrabble, but adds new twist to the word spelling game. Word Forward challenges you to clear a 5 x 5 board of letter tiles by spelling words. Each letter is worth a specific value and these amounts are combined when you spell a word. Depending on the level, you start with a specific number of points, say 500. As you spell words, their value is subtracted from these points. In this example, the game is done when you reduce the points to 200. You get extra bonus points if you clear the entire board and reach zero points. The game is more than a simple speller. There are modifiers that allow you to change your tiles on the gameboard. Modifiers include the following: SWAP any two letters on the grid by using a SWAP TOKEN, earned during gameplay. REPLACE a letter on the grid with a SPARE from your inventory to make longer words. JUMBLE the tiles on the grid to replace all the letters with new ones when all else fails. CHANGE the letter on a tile to any other letter you choose using the SWAP MODIFIER. ELIMINATE stubborn tiles with BOMBS when you can't make any more words and need to nudge your score over the line. You have a limited number of modifiers per round and can buy additional ones using the coin rewards system in the game. You earn coins for playing and can purchase more via an in-app purchase. The challenge comes in removing the letters in a way that you are not left with standalone titles that are orphaned and no longer usable. Modifiers cane be used sparingly in your strategy and may be enough to push your score below the winning mark. WordForward is a thinking man's game that is challenging, but not difficult. You can play individual rounds or play online against other GameCenter members. The app is available for free with ads that appear after each round. There are in-app purchases for coins, but you don't need to buy any coins to win the game.
Daily App: RepeaterBook is a repeater guide for amateur radio enthusiasts
Little known fact about me -- I am an amateur radio operator and have been dabbling in radio technology for about a decade now. I picked up the hobby when I lived in a rural part of Vermont with no cellular service. The only way to communicate over any distance was via ham radio using the local repeater network. Repeaters are the lifeline of the ham radio operator. They are the towers that relay messages between ham radios, accepting the weak incoming signal and then transmitting it at a higher power, so it can cover a greater distance with minimal loss in quality. Depending on the location and power of the repeater transmitter, you can talk to someone a hundred miles away. And if that repeater is connected to a network, you can extend that distance even further. One handy tool for the ham radio operator is an iPhone app, RepeaterBook from ZBM2 Software. The basic app takes the community repeater database of RepeaterBook.com and packages it into an iPhone-friendly format. You can either browse through all the repeater entries for the US and Canada or enable location services and let RepeaterBook display a list of nearby repeaters. Each entry contains detailed information on the repeater so you can key in those details into your ham radio. The app stores its data on your phone, so you don't need an active Internet connection to browse through the repeater entries. A handy filter allows you to show only those repeaters that meet your license class, radio type or preferred connections. For example, I have a basic handheld radio and set my filters to show only repeaters in the 2M and 70cm band. When you find a mistake with the repeater information, you can edit an entry and submit those details to the database administration. The database is thorough for the area in which I live, but not perfect. It lists almost all the repeaters in my vicinity, missing only one less known repeater a few miles away. The best part about RepeaterBook is not what it does, but what I don't have to do now that I have it installed on my iPhone. Thanks to the RepeaterBook app, I no longer have to carry around my paperback repeater resource, which is bulky and comparatively inconvenient to thumb through. RepeaterBook is available for free from the iOS App Store. It's compatible with the iPhone and requires iOS 5.1.
Daily App: Image Resize easily scales down your iPhone photos
Image Resize from Jason Pan is a useful iOS utility that allows you to quickly and easily resize an image captured with your iPhone's camera. I use the app to prepare images for blog posts on my family blog. Instead of relying on Wordpress to resize the images to correct dimensions, I prefer to do it myself using this tool. Resize Image has all the major features required in an image resizing tool. You can import an image from your photo library or capture one directly using the camera interface within the app. The camera is barebones with options limited to flash on/off/auto and front/rear camera. Once you have an image, you can resize it down to standard sizes measured in megapixels or percentages. You can choose which standard you want to use by default and change the default sizes to suit your needs. You also can adjust the width and the height of a photo manually with the option to maintain the aspect ratio if you want to scale the image down. There is an undo button if you need to roll back your changes. When you are done resizing, you can export the image to your camera roll, share the image on a social network, send it via email or messaging or pass it on to another app. Resize Image is available in the iOS App Store for free. It is compatible with the iPhone and requires iOS 6. The app includes ads, but they are subtle and do not interfere with the usage of the app. The ads can be removed via in-app purchase of US$1.99.
Daily App: Dudeski is an arcade skiing adventure that you can't put down
Dudeski from Static Oceans is an 8-bit, arcade-style skiing game that captures the essence of other skiing games, but offers its own unique visual style and engaging gameplay. Dudeski is a barrel of fun that'll keep you pounding the slopes well into the summer months. In the game, you play as a skier who is hurtling down Shred Lord Mountain as an avalanche follows him. Your goal is make it to the bottom before the pile of snow overtakes you. As you fly down the slope, you must ski through gates and avoid any obstacles in your path. It's critical that you hit each gate and avoid each obstacle because if you miss, you will slow down and the avalanche will threaten to overtake you. The app measures the distance you travel down the slope on each run. When you hit the end of the slope, you've completed that region and can move onto the next. The game includes four mountain regions, and each run is different. You never ski the exact same slope twice, which makes the game challenging, since you can't memorize the track you need to ski. There are no in-app purchases, but there is an in-game currency of pinecones that you collect as you ski. These pinecones then can be used to unlock shortcuts and purchase gear to make your mountain runs easier. The terrain also is dotted with some friendly penguins, secret trails and trophies. Unlike most games in this genre, Dudeski uses one-finger tap controls to point your skier left or right and two-finger taps to jump obstacles. This makes it easy to control your skier regardless of your position or movement. The app has plenty of content to keep you coming back and has a nice balance of difficulty. The gameplay is easy to understand, which means there is no learning curve to playing. The skiing, though, progressively gets harder, so you really have to work at mastering the game. Dudeski is available for US$1.99 from the iOS App Store. It's a universal app and requires iOS 7.
Daily App: Cook with Grazia helps you prepare Italian meals with ease
As an Irish gal who grew up in a small Italian neighborhood in Westerly, Rhode Island, I'll never forget the sights and smells of the wonderful Italian food being cooked in my friend's houses. To help recapture some of that authentic Italian cooking, I've been exploring the Cook With Grazia app from food journalist and home cook Grazia Solazzi. Cook with Grazia focuses on recipes that are quick and easy to prepare with common household ingredients. All the Italian ingredients are found in the US, making the recipes accessible to almost everyone. Most of the recipes take 20 minutes or less to prepare and include step-by-step picture instructions. The app ships with 80 total recipes that span dish types such as desserts, sides, salads and more. You also can browse by category such as vegetarian, gluten-free, kids and others. If you want to customize your recipes search, you can use the handy finder wheel to dial in different categories and ingredients to find recipes that meet specific criteria, like a kid's dinner with chicken. Besides recipes, Cook with Grazia also includes how-to guides that helps you pick the freshest ingredients, improve your cooking technique and pair the proper wine with your meal. The ability to add notes to a recipe, save favorite recipes and create a shopping list from recipe ingredients rounds out the app. Overall, Cook with Grazia is an excellent cookbook utility for the busy person who enjoys Italian-American cuisine. Cook with Grazia is available in the iOS App Store for $0.99. It's compatible with the iPhone and requires iOS 6 or greater.
Daily App: Crossfader lets you try your hand at being a DJ
Crossfader is a fun tool for music lovers who want an easy way to mix tracks. The app uses the gyroscope in your iPhone as your mixing tool, allowing you to get creative as you move. The main screen of the app provides access to your DJ profile, your activity history, a stream of the top crosses and access to the mixing tool. The mixing tool loads up two song that you can play together as a cross or mashup. You then can tilt your phone to mix them by using the tilt to bring one track to the forefront and the other to the back. The app comes stocked with a variety of tracks from different music genres that lend themselves to mixing. You can easily select two tracks by swiping and then mix them by tilting your phone. If you don't like the music in the app, you can buy additional music tracks or use the Crossfader website to import in your own songs. Crossfader has an optional social component that allows you to create a DJ profile, share your crosses with other users and follow other users. You can browse through a stream of new crosses and both like and share those you enjoy. The stream, though, only shares the cross (the two songs you select to play together) and not the mix portion that uses the tilting motion to switch between the two songs. If you use Crossfader for long-from mashups or mixes, be warned that the app has a tendency to crash after a longer period (more than 10 mins) of usage. It also heats up your phone even after just a few minutes of usage. Crossfader is available for free from the iOS App Store. It's compatible with the iPhone and requires iOS 7.
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Surgeon Simulator retains its grotesque hilarity in iPad debut
Surgeon Simulator was one of my favorite PC games of 2013 thanks in large part to its ridiculous premise and intentionally horrible control scheme. The game just debuted on iPad, throwing out the overly complex keyboard commands for overly complex touch controls, and amazingly the formula still works. Surgeon Simulator is a bit of a parody of the hundreds of "simulator" games that flood the PC, and it's anything but realistic. You're given the freedom to perform complicated medical procedures with little in the way of hand-holding or direction. The patient's body is presented before you with organs exposed, and it's up to you to use the tools on your table to complete the operation. On PC, the game assigned a key to each finger on your hand, which resulted in hilarious fumbling of surgical instruments, random objects, and even human organs. On the iPad, things are somewhat streamlined, and grabbing items -- which was a challenge on its own in the original iteration -- is much easier this time around. That being said, actually using medical tools is just as difficult as it's ever been. You can tap on an area you want to direct your instrument, but angling your hammer, saw, or scalpel is still a crapshoot. The patient's death results in a "game over," but just about everything else is totally fine -- including yanking and discarding entire organs. If you find your patient losing blood you can calm the flow by administering a syringe of mysterious green fluid, but as with all the tools, using it isn't as easy as it sounds. There are a few definite drawbacks to the iPad version, including a tendency for your equipment to get stuck inside the patient's body or on your tablet or other equipment. This wasn't as big of a problem in the PC version, but it's extremely common on the tablet. It doesn't ruin the experience, and it's oftentimes hilarious when you see your hammer somehow stuck behind a patient's ribcage, but it's occasionally frustrating as well. Despite that minor complaint, the game is still a fantastic, one-of-a-kind experience. I'm really glad the developer, Bossa Studios, decided to bring the game to iOS, and at US$5.99 it's still a bargain. Pick it up and saw some bones.
Daily App: Jenga brings a piece of the puzzle game to your iOS device
If you don't have time at home for a quick game of Jenga, don't worry -- you can bring the game along with you and play against others on your iPhone. Natural Motion, the team behind the Apple-showcased Clumsy Ninja, created a version of the Jenga game along with the help of game inventor Leslie Scott. The iOS version of Jenga keeps the same gameplay as the original puzzle block game. You have a traditional tower of blocks that you must carefully disassemble and rebuild without causing the structure to collapse. The controls make it easy to remove and replace blocks and the physics that control the collapse of the structure are realistic. The game features several modes of play including a single person challenge and multiplayer mode where you play against another person online. There's also an pass and play mode for playing in a group and an arcade mode that challenges you to move fast and match colors as your earn coins. The biggest issue with Jenga is the game itself -- it's a virtual game and cannot capture the tactile cues that are critical to the gameplay. When you pull out a block on the iPhone, the experience is fluid and smooth, which is much different from the real-life game. What is missing are the subtle tactile cues like the the resistance when you remove a block and the wobbling of the structure that tell you whether you've made the right choice or a costly mistake. Also, the app is not updated for the iPhone 5/5s, which is a mixed blessing. Those with a newer iPhone might be annoyed by the borders around the game, while those with an iPhone 4/4s may appreciate an older game that runs well on their device. Diehard fans of the Jenga game will enjoy the casual gameplay and the multi-player modes. Jenga is available for free from the iOS App Store so you don't have to pay anything to play it.
Daily App: Astro Golf is a game of miniature golf disguised as a sci-fi adventure
Astro Golf from Bolder Games takes a challenging miniature golf game and adds in a sci-fi storyline to create a delightfully challenging puzzle-style game. In the game, you are tasked with the job of helping your robot "Orbit" and his robot friends escape from an abandoned cargo ship. The game has a sci-fi look and feel with 3D art that is impressive for a casual golf game. Astro Golf is a miniature golf game first and foremost. Each level kicks off with a virtual tour of the hole and the path you must follow in order to sink your ball. Instead of a traditional golf ball, the ball in Astro Golf is a robot. You must tap, hold and pull back on the robot to aim him and adjust the speed of your shot. A red arrow and dots along the side of the round robot help you gauge the direction and speed of each shot. The dots are convenient, but they sometimes are obscured by your finger. You start off with a basic robot, but can purchase "power ups" that add abilities like a hole magnet and a door opener. You earn in-game currency by completing levels quickly and keeping your strokes under par. There also are "coins" in your path to the hole that you can hit. The more you hit, the more points you earn, which are converted into money that is added to your in-game treasure chest. The app starts out with the basic bank shots and quickly progresses to ramps and other obstacles like black holes and flames. Replay-ability is very high as the game has 50 levels. Each level has a recommended path to the hole, but you can deviate from the recommended path and make up your own. The more creative you are, the more points you will earn. You also can obtain three different robots with support for plugins that provide extra abilities like the ability to move through walls and to move at warp speed. Astro Golf provides an almost unlimited amount of gameplay with challenging mini-golf puzzles that'll keep you on your toes. Astro Golf is available for US$1.99 from the iOS App Store and is compatible with the iPad and iPhone. There are no ads, but there are in-app purchases that you can use to supplement the money you earn within the game. You earn plenty of money from playing and only need to purchase extra if you want to move faster through the game.
Daily App: Shady allows you to dim your Mac's overly bright display
Shady is a handy OS X utility that sits in your menu bar and allows you to dim your Mac's screen beyond what is available is OS X. It's useful for Mac owners whose eyes are sensitive to light or for nighttime use when you don't want to light up the entire room with your Mac's overly bright screen. Shady doesn't modify the dim settings in OS X, it works by overlaying a virtual shade over your entire screen. This overlay can be darkened to the point where the entire screen is almost black (90% opacity) or lightened so it has no effect (0% opacity). The default setting is 40% opacity and you can adjust the darkening in 5 percent increments. You can change the darkness level of Shady by clicking on the menu bar icon and adjusting the slider. You also can drop the application icon into the Dock and then click on Shady to bring it to the forefront. When it is the frontmost application, you can use the Up/Down keys to adjust the shade or click "Q" to quit. Shady is available for free from Instinctive Code. It is compatible with Mac OS X Leopard (10.5), and Snow Leopard (10.6) or later.
Daily App: Disco Zoo lets you rescue animals and throw them a 70s party
Disco Zoo from NimbleBit is a casual puzzle game that challenges you to rescue 8-bit animals while you build out your virtual zoo. It's an interesting puzzler as it has several different objectives that keep you busy and engaged in the game. The first objective is to collect animals that you add to you zoo. To collect animals, you must find their unique pattern in a 5 by 5 grid. Each animal has a three or four-square pattern and you have eight tries to draw the correct pattern. Once you collect an animal, it is placed in a pen with other animals of the same type. In the zoo part of the game, you are challenged to earn money by keeping your animals awake. When animals are awake, they earn you coins with the more common animals earning you less and the rare animals earning your more. As the animals fall asleep, you are alerted to wake them up in order to keep the money flowing. Coins and DiscoBuxs are the currency within the app and are used to pay for animal rescues, unlock new areas for rescue trips and throw disco parties for your animals. The disco parties require DiscoBuxs and are a lot of fun with cheesy disco music, a disco ball and lots of dancing animals that earn you double the amount of coins during the dance. Disco Zoo is a unique casual game that is part puzzle game and part zoo simulation. The music is fun, and the 8-bit animals are adorable. The game is easy enough that it takes little effort to start playing and is engaging enough that you keep playing when you have a few spare minutes. Disco Zoo is available from the iOS App Store for free. There are in-app purchases for DiscoBuxs and coins, but you can earn all the currency that you need to play the game as long as you are patient. You really only need to buy the in-app currency if you want to advance faster.
Daily App: MyScript Calculator solves your hand-written math equations
Typing math problems in calculator can be tedious, especially when you have complex equations to solve. If you want to write out your problems instead, then you need to check out MyScript Calculator from Vision Objects. MyScript Calculator provides a large canvas on which you can write out your equation. When you are done writing, the app automatically will convert your writing into type-written numbers and calculate the answer for you. If you don't like the automatic answer, a new feature recently added to the app allows you to turn off auto-answer and use a "Calculate" button instead. The app supports the standard operations such as multiplication and division as well as a wide array of complex functions used in trigonometry and calculus. One of the useful features of MyScript Calculator is its ability to solve for unknowns. Just insert an "?" into an equation with its answer and the app will fill in the correct value for the unknown. It also supports gestures which allow you to strike-through or scratch out numbers you want to remove from your calculation. MyScript Calculator was recently updated for iOS 7 and includes a new new operators (n-root, hyperbolic functions) and new rounding options that let you choose between rounded and truncated results. It is available for free from the iOS App Store and works on both the iPad and iPhone.
Demolition Crush gives you bombs and plenty of buildings to explode
Building on their earlier demolition games, AppMania is back with its newest title, Demolition Crush. This latest offering has you playing the role of a demolition man who is living out his childhood dream. Each level brings new explosives and new challenges as you help blow up buildings and reduce them to rubble. Demolition Crush has the look and feel of Angry Birds, with complex, cartoon structures made of a variety of materials that are piled on top of each other. As the demolition man, your job is to place explosives to blow up the structure to below the required level. Be careful in your placement as you don't want the debris to fall onto innocent bystanders. You will crush them and lose points in the process. Demolition Crush requires more than just brute force, you have to study each structure and try to find its weak spots before you start slapping on bombs. It's an arcade-y game so expect to be entertained more than mentally challenged. Than being said, the app has a nice balance between logic and explosive fun, allowing you to think just a little bit before you blow things up. At launch, the game ships with 180 levels that cover three locations (US, England, China) and includes five different explosives which are given to you as you unlock levels. Each level is increasingly more complex and challenging to solve. The app has a rewards system, rubies, that you can use to buy premium items within the game. You earn rubies by destroying a structure, not injuring a bystander and collecting coins by hitting them with your debris. If you need more rubies than you've earned, you also can buy them via an in-app purchase. The game also has an energy level that decreases with every level you complete and forces you to take a break when you've expended all your energy while building. Demolition Crush is enjoyable game for those spare moments when you are looking for something quick to play. The levels are quick to play, allowing you to try several different explosive strategies in just a few minutes. The graphics are good and the animation is smooth, which makes for a pleasing experience. There are plenty of sound effects, but no background music. The only critique of the game is that one of the animated characters in the in-apps purchase section may not be suitable for younger kids. She is appropriately dressed but, like a Betty Boop, she may be a bit "buxom" for the younger set. That's only an issue if you plan on handing over the game to your nine-year-old son, who, of course, would love blowing up buildings. Demolition Crush is available for free from the iOS App Store. It includes the occasional advertisement and has in-app purchases. You also can tie it into Facebook and share your scores on the social network.
