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Daily iPhone App: Snapguide helps you dye your hair, fix your car or chef up a great meal
The next time you need help to accomplish a specific task, it might be worth your while to check out Snapguide. Not only are there hundreds of different tutorials available for DIYers, Snapguide also allows you to easily create your own guide for someone else to follow. Snapguide is a companion app for the Snapguide.com website, which is home to thousands of guides on everything from cooking, fitness, tech and more. Though you can browse the site using mobile Safari, the iOS app provides a much better experience than the mobile website. You get niceties like search and categories, and you don't have to deal with the "Download the Snapguide app" nags in the mobile web version. The Snapguide app is an all-in-one solution that allows you to view full Snapguide tutorials without ever leaving the app. You can browse through the guides by category or search for a specific topic. Unlike most apps that require a login at launch, you can search or browse through guides without a Snapguide account. Each guide is broken down into steps that include text, photos or even video. At the beginning of the guide, there is a list of the items required (i.e., the ingredients) as well as a list of the number of steps in the guide. You can skip to any one of these steps via a convenient grid of numbered thumbnails representing each step. If you like a specific guide, you can flag it as a favorite (free account signup required) or choose from several options to share a link to the guide. There are also comments, allowing you to chime in with your own advice or read others' opinions. Besides reading guides, the Snapguide app also allows you to create your own guide using photos, videos and written instructions. Snapguide "guides" you through the creation process, allowing you to assemble and upload the final project up to its website using your iPhone. I found Snapguide to be one of those apps that I open up on a regular basis when I have some free time. I regularly scan the latest guides and mark those I want to check out later. It is convenient to have on the iPhone, especially when you are in a store searching for ingredients for a guide. Though not as portable as the iPhone version, Snapguide really comes into its own on the iPad. Instructions are easier to read on the large display and the images and videos really stand out. Snapguide is available for free from the iOS App Store.
Daily iPhone App: Radar Cast helps you stay on top of the weather
I live in Maine, which means I get the sun before everyone else, and the weather usually later. This past week is a great example. Winter storm Dion has allowed me to track the storm's progress as it made its way from the panhandle of Texas all the way to the easternmost part of my home state. My app of choice to follow this storm was Radar Cast Elite from WeatherSphere. The radar app is chock-full of features, but the most important one is its past and future radar images. The app shows a storm's movement by including both previous radar images and future ones to predict where a storm is headed. It plays these images back in a loop, allowing you to see the track of a storm. You can change the duration of time displayed in the radar loop as well as the loop speed to fine-tune what you see. These past and FutureCast radar images provide an excellent look at your weather conditions right now. They also show how conditions will change in the immediate future. Besides its convenient radar images, the app has a handful of other helpful features. There are weather forecasts, severe weather warnings, hurricane tracks, real-time lightning strikes and more. The app can even show storm start and stop times on the map, which, along with the weather-based driving directions, will help you plan your daily travels around hazardous conditions. RadarCast is great for weather aficionados looking for another radar app to add their collection. It's also perfect for folks who want to monitor the weather in real time so they can adjust their plans accordingly. Radar Cast Elite is available in the iOS App Store for US$2.99. Some features like pilot weather data and tide charts require an in-app purchase of $9.99 or less.
Daily iPad App: Deer Hunter 2014 allows you to hunt even when hunting season is over
Deer Hunting season may be drawing to a close, but Dear Hunter 2014 aims (pun intended) to keep you hunting game even in the off-season. You'll get a chance to own firearms you could only dream about and can travel to locations around the world. This hunting simulator has impressive graphics that look great on the iPad Air. The scenery and animals are very well rendered and their movement is fluid and fast, especially at the more difficult levels. I even played it on the iPad 2 and performance was still very good. You play the game as a stationary hunter who is aiming for animals as they run or fly by you. You can move left or right to get a better angle, but you can't track an animal like you can in some simulations. You have controls to zoom in on an animal, reload your weapon or swap between weapons. Deer Hunter 2014 not only has you hunting deer as its name implies, there are a wide assortment of animals from varying locales. Currently featuring six different locations, the game requires you to hunt trophy animals for each locale before moving on to the next one. There are about 10 trophy hunts per level. Each trophy hunt will earn you the most money in the form of hunter's bucks, which can be used to buy new firearms, energy drinks and other items. There are also regular hunts, contract hunts and club hunts that come with a smaller bounty. During the holidays, there are holiday hunt campaigns that bring new weapons and animals to the game. There are a wide variety of firearms from which to choose including rifles, assault rifles, shotguns, and pistols. As you progress through the game you will need to purchase various upgrades to your weapons including sights, barrels, stocks, and ammunition. The more you hunt, the more money you earn and the better weapons you can buy. Having the right weapon makes all the difference in some of the upper level hunts, so it behooves you to buy the best gun you can afford. Those interested in a quicker way to get through the game than "hunt all the time" can buy additional hunter bucks and gold via in-app purchases. Gold is a commodity in the app, used to purchase high-end weapons, add upgrades to your weapons and replenish your energy supply. You earn gold when you level up, or by watching promotional videos. There's also a promotional page that'll give you gold when you sign up for a new service. If you have some real-life cash, you can buy gold via an in-app purchase, but it is expensive. This brings me to one of the biggest detractors for the game. Playing time is limited. You cannot just hunt for as long as you want. Deer Hunter has an energy meter that decreases every time you begin a hunt. Once the meter is depleted you must wait a certain amount of time before your energy meter fills up again and you can continue playing. It takes about 15 minutes to drain your energy and an hour to fill it up. You can instantly replenish your energy meter with gold, but that gets expensive fast. Another aspect I did not like about Deer Hunter 2014 is that some weapons can only be purchased with gold forcing you to make an in-app purchase or spend a huge amount of time watching video ads or filling out online surveys. As much as I would like the Grantham Model 2200x, I'm not going to pay 350 gold via a US$19.99 in-app purchase to buy it. Also, there are ads for other games that pop up intermittently when you play. Even with the above complaints, Deer Hunter 2014 manages to draw me in for short periods of time each day. The stand-out graphics and sound are some of the app's best assets. I only wish the game was not so deeply integrated with the "pay to play" revenue model. I would have preferred to pay a reasonable price for the game and progress though it without the ads and the temptation to buy gold. Deer Hunter 2014 is available from the iOS App Store for free and is provided as a universal app for both the iPhone and iPad.
Daily iPhone App: FunderCloud brings the best of Indiegogo and Kickstarter to your iPhone
We have apps to browse news, music and videos, and now there is one to peruse crowdfunded projects. FunderCloud debuted in the App Store last month and allows you to thumb through projects from both Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The app has an iOS 7-inspired design that pulls in and displays listings from the two most popular crowdfunding websites. The app will list a firehouse of all the most popular projects, but you can filter this list by category, new projects and projects that are ending soon. There's also a search option to find projects by keyword and a favorites list that you can use to track projects you like. When viewing a listing, FunderCloud appears to pull the content from the source website and displays it in the app. On Kickstarter projects, you'll see the link to download the Kickstarter app. Because FunderCloud is only an aggregator, there are no persistent login options within the app. You can back a project from within the app, but it is handled by the KickStarter or Indiegogo website. As a result, FunderCloud doesn't serve as a management tool that tracks your funded projects. It's merely a browser. You can download FunderCloud from the iOS App Store for US$1.99. It's worth a download, especially if you enjoy thumbing through crowdfunding projects in your free time. And, it's a double shot allowing you access to both Kickstarter and Indiegogo at the same time, which is more convenient than browsing each site separately.
Daily iPhone app: Seedio lets you send live music to another iOS device
Ever wanted to send a song to your roommate and have them listen in real time along with you? AirPlay doesn't support iOS-to-iOS device streaming, so you will have to turn to a third-party app like Seedio to simultaneously play a song on multiple devices. It's a slick experience with one song, multiple devices and an exponentially loud beat. Most of the power of Seedio is hidden underneath a no-frills UI that's easy to use. When it launches for the first time, each button on the screen has a label that tells you its function. There are not that many on-screen elements -- one to add music to a playlist, one to set up a device as a broadcaster or receiver, one to share information about Seedio with friends, one to access a tutorial and one over-sized play button to get the music flowing. Using the app is exceptionally easy. Create a playlist from your iTunes library or add them from external sources like SoundCloud or a streaming URL. The option to pull music from an external source requires an in-app purchase. Once the music is selected, just set one device as a broadcaster and the other devices as receivers. The receiver devices will search for the broadcaster and connect to it with just a single tap. The person with the broadcasting device just has to hit play and the audio will be pumped to all connected devices as the same time. It literally takes just a few minutes to configure and connect all the devices. There is one caveat that could disrupt your mobile music party -- all the devices need to be on the same WiFi network. There is a workaround if you have a phone with a WiFi hotspot functionality, though. You can create your own WiFi network by turning on your iPhone's personal hotspot feature. You then can use that mobile WiFi network to connect all the devices together so they can share the beat. Seedio is perfect for people who want to fill a room with sound using only their iPhones. It's also useful for sharing some tunes with nearby people. I've used it to send songs to my husband when he's downstairs and I'm on the main floor of our house. Seedio is normally US$2.99, but the app is free for a short time. At that price, you can't go wrong.
Daily iPad App: Infuse brings your video library to your iPad and supercharges it
Infuse takes your iPad and turns it into the ultimate video player. It plays almost anything you throw at it and even streams the content to an Apple TV via AirPlay. After using it, you'll never want to go back to the old video app in iOS. The app has familiar roots, as it is developed by FireCore, the same group that makes the popular aTV Flash for the Apple TV. Infuse's strong point is its support of a wide variety of video file formats including MP4, M4V, MKV, AVI, WMV, FLV, OGM, OGV, ASF, 3GP, DVR-MS, WebM and WTV. This is huge as it means you can play back almost every file in your library without wasting time and processor power doing conversions. AirPlay is also supported, allowing you to stream these files to your Apple TV. Infuse was updated this week to version 2.0 and it's a major overhaul of the app. The UI has been refreshed for iOS 7 and now includes network streaming. The network-streaming option appears along with the other file-retrieval methods like browser transfer, iTunes Sync, FTP and more. These other methods are used to transfer media to your iPad for playback. Only the network-share option supports streaming. To access a network share, just select the drive or device in the app, add your username and password and hit save. The NAS will show up in Infuse's video library and will automatically connect when you tap on it again. I tested the network streaming with my ReadyNas, and it works wonderfully. It took just a few minutes to setup the app and stream over WiFi. I was able to access my entire video library and play any file without worrying about its format. I have a diverse library spanning almost 10 years with a lot of content from a SageTV-powered HomeTheatre PC. It was exciting to be able access this content with such ease. Infuse also has a handful of smaller features like support for subtitles, automatic import of video artwork and metadata from TMDb and TheTVDB and integration with Trakt.tv. There's also a handy Dropbox feature that'll allow you to access videos uploaded to your Dropbox account. As part of its 2.0 update, Infuse also changed its pricing structure. The basic app is now free and allows you to watch videos that are transferred to your device. Premium features like subtitles, AirPlay and network streaming cost US$4.99. As with most freemium apps like this, plan on paying the upgrade fee to get the most out of the app. You can download and check out Infuse for free from the iOS App Store.
Daily iPad App: The Elements in Action brings the periodic table to life
The Elements in Action takes a visual look at the periodic table, bringing the metals and gasses to life with engaging videos. It's an interesting look at the elements from BAFTA award winner Max Whitby and Theodore Gray, author of the popular book and app The Elements. The content is top-notch, taken from footage originally available only at museums. The first thing that strikes you when you open the Elements in Action app is its strong visual UI. Every element in the periodic table is literally bursting with activity, displaying a teaser video that illustrates each element's unique properties or uses. When you click on an element, you can watch a short video that showcases a unique property of the element. An accompanying description provides you with some interesting facts on that element and how it is used in the real world. Did you know that rhenium melts at 3,000°C and is used along with nickel to make turbine blades for jets? The array of information runs the gamut from details on passenger aircraft to the composition of body piercings. There are also a handful of not-so-everyday explosions. The only complaint I have about the app is its promotion of the developer's other app, The Elements for iPad. When you click on a 3D model in each element's description, you are not shown the 3D model; instead you are prompted to buy The Elements app for the iPad. The Elements in Action is available from the iOS App Store for US$3.99.
Daily iPhone App: Moves is the fitness app of the future
I've long said that the best feature of the iPhone 5s is the M7 motion coprocessor. It's this small processor that records and stores all your motion data -- and can even determine if you are walking, running or on moving transport (like in a car or on a train). However, by default, while the M7 is always recording and storing your motion data, iOS 7 actually has no way to show you this data. It's up to third-party app developers to write apps that can take advantage of the M7's data. And the best of these apps is Moves, which is our Daily iPhone App. I've put Moves through its paces for the last few weeks and it has quickly replaced my previous favorite fitness-tracking app on iOS (because that app hasn't offered support for the M7 yet). Moves has a simple enough UI: The home screen shows a dot that increasingly grows in size as you move throughout the day. Tapping this dot will cycle through the number of steps you've taken, the number of calories burned, the number of miles walked and the amount of time spent moving. Below the dot, you'll find the Storyline, which is a timeline of your day's activities. Locations are shown in a white pill-shaped icon that lengthens according to the amount of time you've spent there. Location names can be set, like "Home" or "Work," and you can also look up location names thanks to Move's Foursquare integration. When you leave a location, a colored line starts to grow. A pink line means you're running; a green line means you're walking; a blue line means you're cycling; and a gray line means you're on some form of motorized transport. Tapping any of these lines will take you to the map view where you can see the exact route you took plotted out. The best part of Moves is that you don't have to do a single thing to activate it. Since the M7 is tracking your movement all the time -- and Moves accesses that data -- there is no need to open the app to tell it you are about to begin a journey. This ensures that you'll get accurate movement data all day long. Moves is the fitness app of the future, thanks in large part to all the motion data collection being handled on Apple's M7 end. What Moves does is give that data a beautiful UI to turn it into readable information by the human eye. That's not to say Moves is perfect. One annoying thing with it is it can take several seconds to update the movement data each time you launch the app. Other M7-compatible apps I've used don't seem to suffer from this lag. Also, I frequently go on many late-night walks, often spanning the hour just before and just after midnight. Right now, Moves has no way to set when you want a day to end, so my movement stats during that midnight change are actually split across two different days. It would be nice if Moves could give me the option of setting a day to end at, for example, 1 AM, when I know my movement will be done for that day before I go to bed (I keep late hours). But besides the minor drawbacks, Moves is a great app and shows the power of Apple's new M7 chip. Moves is US$2.99 in the App Store.
Daily iPhone App: ShopChat
As a guy, shopping for clothes is about as exciting as deciding what to buy at the McDonald's drive-through. Actually, some of my female friends also feel this way. However, plenty of my female friends also view shopping as a sport and love nothing more than to search for and chat about the "perfect outfit." If you're one of those women, then you should check out today's Daily iPhone App: ShopChat. ShopChat is part Pinterest, part messaging app. With it, a user can search for the perfect item of clothing, be it a little black dress, the right jeans or that killer pair of shoes. Searching by keywords will return image results that the user can then save and organize into outfits. Users can also snap pictures of their existing clothes to add to their profile. In this way, the app works a lot like Pinterest. However, ShopChat allows shopaholics to do their second-most favorite thing after finding the right outfit: talking about the right outfit. Users can message other ShopChat friends within the app, sharing photos over IM, thus allowing friends to chat about and get suggestions on how one piece of clothing may fit with a certain look. If you hate shopping for clothes, ShopChat won't be for you. However, if you love it, then you've just found your new favorite app. ShopChat is a free download.
Daily iPhone App: Pick - The Purchase Tracker is a tool for calculating and tracking discounts
Pick is a shopping assistant that'll allow you to track your purchases and calculate your savings. It's a simple, yet effective app to help you make wise buying decisions this holiday shopping season. Pick allows you to do two primary things while shopping. First, it allows you to enter in the purchase price of an item, apply a percentage discount and then calculate the amount you would end up paying. You can quickly determine whether you should buy the $15 shirt at L.L. bean that is 20% off or the $20 Lands Ends shirt that's 16 % off. Secondly, the app will keep a running list of all the items you purchase so you can tally up your spending and your savings at the end of a shopping trip. If you are traveling, Pick has a built-in currency converter so you can track how much you spend in both your native and the foreign currency. Pick is a small app, but useful for discount shoppers. It's also a helpful tool for those who make purchases while they are traveling on business or vacation. Pick is available for US$0.99 from the iOS App Store.
Daily iPhone App: TimeShutter helps you capture the same image over time
I enjoy taking photos of things as they change over time -- the leaves on a small tree, a building as it's being built or my children's faces. The most challenging part of this process is making sure you get the same shot each time. Inevitably, I take multiple shots at different distances with different angles and lose the continuity of the shot. I recently stumbled upon TimeShutter, which helps you keep that consistency between each photo. TimeShutter is a simple app, but it is effective. The app has a basic camera UI with one important difference -- it has a guideline that is lifted from your last photo or a photo that you choose. It is this guide that is the key to the app's ability to reproduce the same photo over and over again. All you have to to do to take the next photo in your series is line up the guides from the previous photo and snap away. You can adjust the opacity of the guidelines, allowing you to be as precise as you need. There is also a reminder feature so you don't forget to take your photo on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Once you are finished taking photos, you can view the series as individual photos in your Camera Roll or compile them into a movie or an animated GIF. TimeShutter is definitely a unitasker, but it is worth having in your arsenal of photo apps, especially if you are like me and enjoy recording how things change over time. TimeShutter is available for free in the iOS App Store, but plan on paying US$1.99 via an in-app purchase to unlock all the features of the app. You check out the app in this promo video.
Mac App of the Week: DxO Perspective takes a crooked photo and makes it straight
We've all taken those regrettable photos -- you snap a quick shot of your friends of family in front of a wonderful scene and when you get home you realize you weren't holding your camera as straight as you thought. You can fire up your favorite photo editor and try to apply a fix, but it is often an exercise in frustration as you try to rotate and skew the photo to get the correct angle and perspective. If you are ready to leave these frustrating fixes behind, then you should check out DxO Perspective from DxO Labs. DxO Perspective does one thing and it does it well -- it allows you to easily and quickly fix perspective problems in photos. The two most common tools in the app allow you to fix a crooked horizon by using a horizontal level or a vertical level. It's as easy as selecting your tool (horizontal or vertical), affixing a line to your photo and hitting apply. The app rotates the photo to the correct amount and crops it to remove any uneven edges. There are also advanced tools that allow you to fix more complex perspective problems. You can bring an object forward or move it to the back using these perspective tools. These require a fine touch and some skill as you need to box in the area that you want to fix. The tools are very intuitive, but I found them difficult to use because I just don't have an eye for this type of artistic photography. DxO perspective won't appeal to everyone as it is a niche app, designed for folks who take a lot of landscape photos, interior photos or photos of buildings. It is perfect for the photographer looking for a quick and easy way to straighten photos and adjust their perspective without having to purchase expensive tools like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. Even if you have these Adobe apps, you may still want to take a look at DxO Perspective as it is lightweight and easy to use. DxO Perspective is available in the Mac App Store. It is on sale for $5.99 from now until December 2.
Daily iPhone App: TrintMe helps you meet your significant other without worrying about rejection
TrintMe from Social Innovations is one those social dating apps that takes a different spin on the meet-and-greet part of relationships. Rather than let your true romantic intentions be known to the world, TrintMe keeps them private and does the match-making in the background. It's a toned-down version of Bang with Friends (Down) that focuses more on friendship building and romance, less on casual hook-ups. Just like Down, TrintMe ties into your Facebook account and pulls down your list of friends. The app allows you to browse through your extended friends list to find potential romantic interests. Once you find someone you like, you can send out a trint request like "You're cool," "Let's talk" and so on. This is where the TrintMe match-making service steps in and takes over. All trints are processed and stored in the background by the TrintMe service. The recipient never sees your request unless they have sent a similar request to you. If there is no match, the request sits idle and is eventually deleted. You may be disappointed that your potential partner wasn't interested in you, but you can rest easy knowing that you didn't spoil a friendship just because you wanted to take the relationship to the next level. TrintMe is available from the iOS App Store for free. It requires a Facebook account.
Mac App of the Week: 2Do, a task manager with the right mix of power features, simplicity
I'm always on the lookout for new task managers that offer a different UI or a different approach to help me keep track of my seemingly endless to do list. The latest app to cross my path is 2Do for the Mac from Guided Ways technology. I was familiar with 2Do, having used their iOS app a few years ago when it launched. The tabbed interface of the iOS version never grabbed me, so I stopped using it after a few weeks. Late last year though, the company launched an OS X version, which was recently updated and overhauled. This latest Mac version (v.1.5.1) has brought me back into the 2Do fold. 2Do is a mid-tier task manager -- it's a step up from the Reminders app, but isn't as complex as Omnifocus. Very similar to Things, 2Do offers a nice balance between usefulness and simplicity. It's robust enough that you can use it to manage a large number of tasks and projects, but loose enough that you can adapt it to your own style of management. You're not pigeonholed into GTD or some other task management method. Rather than cover all the features of the app, which are too many to count, I wanted to point out a few features that'll keep me using 2Do for the foreseeable future. First and foremost is the app's smart list feature. This feature allows you create a custom list of tasks based upon search criteria such as tags. As the app review editor, I keep track of a lot of different apps for potential review. I tag every task and then use the smart list feature to group only iOS apps, only productivity apps or those apps assigned to my co-workers. It's a very flexible and powerful way of keeping track of a lot of tasks. Another aspect of 2Do I appreciate is how it approaches your tasks. Each individual task is more than just a simple note with a due date. You can add an image to your task, upload a file or attach an audio recording to help you remember unwritten details. 2Do supports status based on priority and tags, which are searchable within the app. You also can set a task to be recurring based on the days of the week, the days of the month or a set amount of time (every 4 days, for example). An alarm feature will remind you when your task is due, and you can choose when you want this gentle reminder to arrive. Last but not least is the Focus section in the app. This section sits in the left sidebar, which shows all your lists, smart lists, and a calendar. The Focus section is at the top, and it groups your upcoming and important tasks together. This is your central dashboard for the items that need your attention right away. It shows you all your tasks that are due today and highlights those that are overdue in red. This focus feature isn't unique to 2Do, other apps like Things have a similar focus section, but I am glad that Guided Ways decided to incorporate it into its app. It is extremely useful. Among the minor features, 2Do offers syncing across OS X and iOS devices so your task list will always be at your finger tips. It supports OS X Quick Look so you can highlight a task and tap your space bar to get an overview of your task. It also has a quick entry feature allowing you to add a task from any app. These are all small, but important items that increase your productivity. Note: If you use the default quick entry shortcut, you may lose the ability to access the new emoticons in OS X Mavericks as they both use the same Control-Command-Space shortcut. Just go into the preferences for 2Do and set your own custom keyboard shortcut. 2Do is as capable as any task manager I have used, with the exception of Omnifocus, which is in a league of its own. 2Do is a great choice for 99% of the Mac owners who are looking for a robust task manager to handle a variety of home and work tasks. It has a long list of features and is intuitive enough to use that you don't have to pull out a manual every time you want to add something to your to-do list. 2Do is available from the Mac App Store for $39.99.
Daily iPad App: Stretch your legs with The Hunger Games: Panem Run
First thing's first: Panem Run doesn't have a lot to do with The Hunger Games at all. As an "endless runner" game, it has about as little connection to the franchise as you could imagine. You play as a non-movie character and run through various environments modeled after the different districts in the Hunger Games movies and books. But while the game is thin on lore, it remains an enjoyable entry into an increasingly crowded genre. As in other similar titles (most notably Temple Run), your character sprints forward with reckless abandon, and it's up to you to provide timed input to bypass obstacles while collecting money and loot. Swiping upward prompts a jump, swiping downward leads to a slide, and swiping left or right controls your position on the track. The challenge comes with trying to combine these commands in close succession, and if you're tasked with jumping, moving sideways and sliding within a second or two, there's a good chance you're going to mess something up. When this inevitably happens, your run stops, and you are offered the option to pay a bit of your winnings for the ability to restart in the same area, or simply end the run and start fresh. The fee for getting back on your feet grows with each failure, so sooner or later you're going to need to throw in the towel and start a fresh run. There's a relatively deep skill system that lets you level up certain abilities by collecting various supplies found on the track, but this can also be bypassed by simply paying for the upgrades using the in-game currency. None of the upgrades provide a drastic change to the overall gameplay, so if you choose to ignore this part of the game menu entirely you'll likely not notice too much. It's a free-to-play game, which means there are also in-app purchases. Thankfully the store options at this point are simply coin packs, and since the game rewards you handsomely for even the most modest of runs, you probably won't find a huge need to crack open your real-world bank account. As I mentioned above, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Panem Run (yes, that's its actual full title) doesn't do a whole lot to provide an extra thread to the Hunger Games story, but the mechanics of the game itself are solid enough that you'll likely get a good bit of playtime out of it. It's a fine time-waster while you're waiting in line for tickets to the new Hunger Games flick, just don't expect it to catch fire.
Daily iPhone App: Tilt to Live 2: Redonkulous is redonkulously challenging
One Man Left Studios scored big with its popular Tilt to Live game. After spending some time working on its Outwitters game, the two-man team is back with a follow-up to its first big hit. Announced earlier this year, Tilt to Live 2: Redonkulous is now available in the iOS App Store. Similar to the first version of the game, Tilt to Live 2: Redonkulous requires you to move a triangular-shaped vessel around your screen. While gliding along, you must avoid other hazardous shapes. To help you in your journey, you can use power-ups that'll give you weapons to destroy these hazards. It's all about precise control as you steer your vessel perfectly and rack up points. Tilt to Live 2: Redonkulous sounds bland, but it is not. The gameplay is fast and furious as you activate weapons, wipe out shapes and play mini-games at the end of a round. Tilt to Live 2 is also harder than it sounds as controlling that vessel takes a subtle touch. It's easy to tilt hard and careen right by a weapon. It's a lot more difficult to glide smoothly and then stop on a dime to hit each item just right. The gameplay is great for a quick pickup while you have a few spare minutes. Each round can last for a a few minutes if you have the right touch, or it can be over in less than 30 seconds if your delicate control resembles a bull in a china shop. Tilt to Live 2: Redonkulous is available for US$2.99 in the iOS App Store. It is a universal app that works on both the iPad and iPhone.
Daily iPhone App: Survival GPS app is the Swiss Army knife of compass app
One of the great things about a Swiss Army knife is that it is packed full of helpful tools, yet it still remains easy to use. This combination of simplicity and utility is one of the reasons why I like the Survival GPS app. The Survival GPS app gives you a bunch of tidbits of data that'll help you get your bearing whether you are in the woods or on a city street. In its very functional layout, the app shows you your precise GPS coordinates, altitude, speed and course/bearing. There's also a compass with two buttons that allow you to switch between magnetic and true north. If you need a more concrete view of your surroundings, you can launch a map that shows your location using a road, satellite or hybrid view. Like any good survival tool kit, there is a button for a flashlight and a slider that allows you to set the light to strobe at different speeds. This strobe light is useful if you want to get someone's attention, especially in the dark. The app has an SMS feature that'll send your coordinates via text messaging. This could be a lifesaver if you find yourself lost in an unfamiliar area and need help from friends or family. Survival GPS packs a handful of useful location features into a lightweight, easy-to-use app. It is available in the iOS App Store for US$0.99.
Daily iPhone App: Pxture will put your photos inside text
Pxture is a very clever free app that does some complex Photoshop-style text effects right on your iPhone. Select a picture from your camera roll, or take a fresh one using the app. Type some text, and the image appears inside the text. All the masking and complex stuff is done for you, and it's a nice effect. The app lets you move the text over the photo, change colors of the text or flip the effect so the letters are solid and appear over your photo. Of course, the app developers will be glad to sell you some additional masks and fonts for US$0.99 each, but I got along fine with what was provided for free. If you wish to explore more effects, the extras may appeal to you. I found Pxture easy to use, although the adjustments for line and letter spacing didn't seem to do anything. The finished product looked great, though. You can save the final images to your camera roll and send them via email or the usual social networks. For the photographer who is looking for something different in terms of effects, this is a nicely done app. It requires iOS 6.1 or later. It's not universal, but is optimized for the iPhone 5.
Daily iPhone App: Voyzee lets you tell your story using photos, videos and personal narration (Updated)
Voyzee is one of many video apps that use the contents of your photo roll to create a photo and video montage. What sets Voyzee apart is the ability to add a personalized narration to your clip. Using the Voyzee app, you can tell a story using both pictures and spoken words. When you first launch Voyzee, you must create an account to save and store your videos. You can use your Twitter or Facebook login or create one using your email. Once you log in, you can start creating your Voyzee video. The app allows you to take new photos or videos or import media from your camera roll. If you want a soundtrack, you can grab music from your iTunes library. Once imported into Voyzee, you can edit the visual media (trim, rotate, add filters) as well as add a caption or a narration to each slide. You can also select a cover slide and rearrange the slides to put them in the order you desire. The killer feature is the ability to add a narration to each slide, which makes the movie you are creating much more personal as well as informative. When you are done, you can publish the clip, which will upload it to Voyzee's servers for processing. When it is done uploading, you can view the clip, and if you don't like your video, you can make changes to it at any time. You also can set the privacy of the clip, allowing you to control who can see it. Once the video is uploaded, you can share it on your social networks, share it via email/messaging or save it to your camera roll. The video is shared as link, which will open in any web browser. The final clip is well done with a few nice touches like automatic fade transitions and blurred background images that'll fill a slide that has a smaller photo. Voyzee does have its own video network so you should make sure you set the privacy accordingly, especially if you don't want the world seeing your videos. The default setting is to share with everyone, and the video will be searchable on the Voyzee website. Unfortunately, the privacy settings are not as flexible as I would like. You can share the video with everyone, select followers on Voyzee or just yourself. If you select the middle option, you can't share the video easily with other people as they have to follow you on Voyzee. If you set the video to private, the recipients won't be able to see the clip at all. It would be nice to have an option that would keep the video private from the Voyzee community, while still allowing you share it with people who have the direct link. if you want to use Voyzee, just be aware that the video network is more public than private. You can download Voyzee for free from the iOS App Store. Update: Voyzee updated its app in November 2013 and improved the privacy options in version 2.1.10. This version lets users keep a story private from the Voyzee community and still share it with people or other networks with a direct link that bypasses the Voyzee community privacy settings.
Daily iPad App: John Lewis' Bear & Hare is for the child in all of us
Today's Daily iPad App is Bear & Hare, an interactive children's book based on the Christmas advert of the same name, which is one of the UK's most celebrated holiday ads. The £1 million ad for UK retailer John Lewis is a two-minute short film that combines traditional hand-drawn animation (by Lion King alums, no less) with computer graphics and tells the story of a bear who usually hibernates through Christmas and his friend, a rabbit. I don't want to ruin the plot, but be prepared to shed a few tears when you see it. To go along with the Bear & Hare ad campaign, John Lewis has released the companion app, which explores the store in hand-illustrated book form and also allows children to interact with the forest animals in the story. It also offers interactive games such as The Woodland Orchestra and Decorate the Christmas tree. John Lewis will continue to update the app with new games in the weeks leading to Christmas. If your children have seen the Bear & Hare ad, download this app. Trust me; it will make their day. It also is a great story to read to children as you are tucking them into bed as the winter approaches. The Bear & Hare is a free download, but it is only available in the UK App Store. There is also a separate iPhone version of the app too.
