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Daily App: Weather Line shows you the weather trends for the day, week or month
Weather Line is a weather app from Off Coast that takes a different approach to displaying the weather. Rather than images, Weather Line uses a line graph to display the upcoming forecast. Weather Line takes your most important weather data points and presents them clearly to the user. With just a glance at the hourly view, I can tell whether the temperature is going to climb or fall precipitously in the next six to eight hours. This same ease-of-use is applied in the weekly and monthly views, where you can see the trends on a larger scale. Besides temperature, the graph also shows precipitation and cloud cover, letting you know whether it will be rainy, cloudy, snowy or sunny. Other parameters at the bottom include a Sunrise/Sunset chart, wind speed, precipitation and humidity. In the footer is the weather prediction for the upcoming hour. Weather Line is missing a few important features like push notification support that sends you NWS alerts and other niceties like radar or weather cams, but those hopefully will be added in future revisions. For iPhone owners who like to look at weather trends and don't mind the missing alerts, then Weather Line is a winner. Weather Line is available in the iOS App Store for US$2.99.
Dumb Ways to Die is a great way to live
Dumb Ways to Die is a microgame collection that follows in the footsteps of games like those in the WarioWare franchise. The idea is that by throwing extremely simple, short games at your in quick succession, your reaction skills and patience are put to the test. I've always been surprised by how enjoyable this format is, and despite trading a controller for a touchscreen, Dumb Ways to Die is certainly a worthy addition to the genre. The game is based on a popular web video featuring cute characters meeting their makers in extremely stupid manners. The short objectives are based on the various "dumb ways to die" from the video itself, including setting your setting your hair on fire, eating superglue, and poking a bear with a stick. But instead of simply watching each adorable little creature die before your eyes, your job is to keep them alive. For example, the character with his head on fire can run to put it out, requiring you to tap on the touchscreen as fast as you can, and the bear-poking moron can duck when the woodland creature goes in for a bite, but you have to time the duck perfectly. Each minigame takes just seconds to complete, and in the early going it's a fairly simple challenge, but the longer you last, the faster the games come at you. Eventually you're tasked with completing the objectives in a second or less, and the games themselves become more complicated as well; Instead of plugging two wounds with your finger to stop bleeding, suddenly you have to plug five or six. The game is free but features in-game advertising to pay the bills. Thankfully, the ads are non-intrusive and only pop up when you return to the main menu. This keeps the fast-paced action moving, and limits any frustration you might have from the money-making pop-ups. As a free title, Dumb Ways to Die is ridiculously fun and a great time waster. You'll want to play it over and over again once you start, and it's also the kind of game you can hand off between friends when you're bored. Give it a go, and try not to die.
Daily App: Stackables allows you to enhance a photo in layers
Stackables is a new image editing tool from Samer Azzam, the developer behind ProCam, that allows you to apply filters and other effects in layers. It's the layering and high quality filters that set Stackables apart from its competition. When you open Stackables, you are greeted with a launch screen that allows you to open an existing photo or take a new one for your canvas. Once you import a photo, you are brought to the editor, where you can add filters, shapes, blends, effects as well as adjust common settings like hue, contrast and more. The app ships with 23 presets for quick editing and you can create your own as well. The filters and effects are high-quality and enhance your photos with making them tawdry. It is the layering feature that makes all the difference in Stackables. You can add one effect or filter per layer, and there are settings that allow to change the intensity or size of the effect. The layers allow you to add effects incrementally in a way that is easy to modify. The layers can be easily turned off and moved to change the look of your photo. When you are done editing, you can export your creation to the camera roll or for further editing in antother app. You also can share the image on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or via email. Stackables is available for the iPhone and costs 99-cents. It requires iOS 7.
Feel like a real social engineer in Hack RUN
RUN is a big, evil corporation, and they're up to no good -- or at least that's what your new "employer" has told you -- and it's up to you to dig into its digital backyard for information. And with that very basic plot, the text puzzler Hack RUN sends you into command-prompt hell in search of some answers. It's a bit hard to explain exactly how you play Hack RUN; you quite literally fiddle around with a command-prompt interface and a few other digital tools in an attempt to find the truth behind a company's shady business practices. Clues are everywhere, and you'll use social engineering and outright snooping to find your way into various virtual realms where you should not be. Things start slowly, with access to a single employee's email account being your first test. After trying a few commonly used passwords, you'll crack the simple code and begin your journey. Soon you'll be browsing various "websites" for password clues, picking up info on a whole slew of RUN's workers, and piecing together a picture of what the company is really up to. All along the way, your employer updates you on your progress, offers vague clues as to his true motives and ramps up the mystery. If you ever get stuck, you can always ask for a hint, and depending on how good you are at trial and error, you may find yourself begging for help before too long. The game is remarkably well done and the fake world that you're poking around in really does begin to feel real. This makes every successful password guess and subroutine achievement all the more gratifying. Hack RUN is available on both iOS and OS X, and at the moment it's free. I'd honestly recommend the desktop version available through the Mac App Store as the best version, simply because tapping away at your keyboard while performing fake hacks seems much more appropriate than doing it on the iPhone or iPad screen. If you're looking for a unique puzzle game, it's an easy recommendation.
Dungeon Highway is a brilliant, bloody mix of new and old
Dungeon Highway is a ridiculous mashup of old school and new, pitting a single noble hero against a literally endless stream of enemies and environmental hazards. It also happens to be one of the few truly free high-quality games to be released for iOS so far this year. You play as a mage and start out with a very modest flame-slinging ability. Your character is always walking forward and can't be stopped, and tilting your device lets you move him back and forth on the pathway. As you proceed down the randomly generated highway, you'll see three things: static structures that jut out of the ground, enemies that block your path and items that can be picked up to change your attacks or appearance. Typically, touching an enemy or structure means instant death, but there are items that can allow you to take a hit and keep on walking. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Dungeon Highway is how brutal the game can be, mixing pixelated blood and gore with the otherwise charming and retro aesthetic. Dispatching an enemy results in a massive shower of blood and body bits, and the screen can quickly become inundated with red bits and blobs. It's nothing that will faze your average gamer, but probably isn't a good fit for the younger crowd. The game runs fantastically, and it's actually quite surprising to see so many moving parts smoothly cruising around the screen without a hiccup -- especially when the showers of blood begin. It's definitely a lesson in how retro sprites can be used in a modern game and still be visually stunning. As I mentioned above, the game is totally free, and there are no in-game purchases or any other nonsense to worry about. If you're down with some bloody, old-school endless questing, it's a fantastic fit.
Daily App: PicCard helps you send a quick greeting to your loved one
Forget about Valentine's Day and want to send a last-minute greeting to a loved one? Then you should check out PicCard from SoftEase. The iPhone card-making software recently debuted in the App Store and is a quick and easy way to create a delightful greeting card. To get started with your card, you must first chose a template, which are organized by theme like birthday, Valentine's Day and more. The app includes two or three free templates per theme. You can buy additional templates for US$1.99 via in-app purchase. Each template includes a placeholder for your photos, some text and stickers. PicCard allows you to take photos from your camera or your camera roll and import them into the frame of the card. The app automatically aligns your photo, but you can adjust it by double-tapping on your photo. Each element in the card -- text, stickers, background image-- can be changed as needed in the card editor. When you are done with the photo, you can share the card via Facebook, Twitter or email. You can save it to the iOS photo roll or send it to another app for further editing. PicCard is quick and easy, allowing you to create a stylish card in just a few minutes. My only critique of the app is the template library, which is small. Even after paying $1.99 for the template pack, you only have five or six choices of template per theme. If you are not particular about your theme and want a rapid way to create a cute card, then PicCard is worth the download. PicCard is available for free from the iOS App Store.
Slayin' is a hack-and-slash trip down memory lane
Do you remember the old 8-bit hack-and-slash games? You know, the ones where your little knight or wizard was composed of a total of about a dozen pixels, and they walked in one direction and essentially demolished everything in sight? Slayin' is all of those games, condensed and crammed into a single, frantic all-out brawl. You never actually go anywhere, but rather navigate a screen-sized chunk of land while enemies pour in from all angles. They crawl up from below, drop in from above and pop up in every corner of the screen. Your job is to dispatch them -- surprise! -- and thanks to several content-filled updates, there are now a total of six playable character classes, each with their own specialty and weakness. The knight attacks with his sword, but is vulnerable from behind; the wizard can become temporarily invincible, but lacks a jump; and so on. The enemies start out mild, but ramp up to be quite formidable. There are also some seriously epic boss fights tossed in to punctuate the action. These battles are nothing to sneeze at, and you might even be reminded of the mind-numbingly difficult battles from the 8-bit generation. As you progress through the waves of bad guys, your character will gain experience, levels and coins. Your cash can be used at merchants to purchase newer, more powerful weapons and to replenish your health. There's also a type of in-game currency called Fame Points, which are used to unlock things like interface tweaks and additional characters. Slayin' oozes nostalgic charm and it's a bargain at US$0.99. You simply won't find a better way to relive the joys -- and frustrations -- from the yesteryear of gaming than this.
Firearms, futuristic spaceships and lots of explosions in Naughty Kitties
Naughty Kitties is an action-strategy game that combines two of everyone's favorite things: kittens and high-powered weapons. As the player, you and your cats must keep your spaceship -- yes, spaceship -- alive as it cruises along the skies and takes down alien enemies. Your ship can be defended both by its built-in weapons and your kitties, which can be perched on specials areas of the vessel. Each cat performs a different task -- from firing on enemy ships with rifles or guided missiles, to repairing your own vessel after it's been hit -- and each can only perform their duties for a short period of time before needing a break. The game quickly becomes a focus on resource management as you replace offensive and defensive assets on your ship and activate your large main weapon at certain intervals. It's a mix of tower defense and real-time strategy, and manages to feel fresh and different despite familiar themes. There are a few different game scenarios to tackle and a host of offensive and defensive cats to unlock, along with upgrades for each. It's a very deep game, which you might not assume given its extremely cute animation and overall aesthetic. The game does fall victim to a bit of the "pay to win" mentality with various in-game currency and items available for purchase with real-world cash. I found it quite enjoyable to play without spending a dime, but it's clear that dropping a few bucks will make you more powerful instantly. Naughty Kitties is free, and even if you only play it a few times, it's worth a download. If you're willing to toss a few bucks in, you'll find the game to be a wee bit easier, but it's definitely not required.
Daily App: Unfolder makes you think about unfolding paper
Unfolder is a unique puzzle game that tests your ability to judge angles while you unfold a piece of virtual paper. It's challenging and well-suited for people who think spatially. The game starts with a triangle of paper on the screen and a target triangle that you must meet. You tap on the screen to unfold the paper in different directions. Each unfolding must be chosen carefully so you move closer to your target at the correct angle. The first few levels are easy and allow you to learn the mechanics of the game. Unfolder can be played in three different modes. The default mode is time-based and challenges you to solve as many puzzles as you can before the timer runs out. There's also a classic mode that provides you with progressively more difficult puzzles to solve and a generator mode that randomly produces new puzzles at the difficulty level you select. Unfolder is a unique puzzler that challenges you to think ahead two or three moves as you unfold your paper. The graphics are basic, but the gameplay is engaging for short periods. It's a thinking man's game and not a fast-paced puzzler, so don't expect any nail-biting experiences. Gamers looking for something exciting should move along as they may find Unfolder to be boring. Unfolder is available for free in the iOS App Store. It's a universal app that I found was best suited for the iPhone because of it minimalist graphics. It includes ads that can be removed via a US$0.99 in-app purchase. There are also hints that you can buy in packs of 25 for a buck.
Daily App: Rookie is a camera app and photo editor rolled into one
Rookie is a new photo app from JellyBus, the makers of PicsPlay and Moldiv. The developers have experience with creating photography apps and it shows in Rookie. Rookie launches as a camera app, allowing you to capture photos using the iPhone camera. Unlike the stock camera app, which is barebones, Rookie has a few handy settings that'll improve the overall quality of your photo. First and foremost is the ability to easily toggle on/off settings such as a grid, a level and a timer. You can also turn on an anti-shake feature that'll minimize blur when your subject or your hand is not so steady. Rookie also supports live filters, allowing you to apply a filter as you take a shot. The app ships with a handful of filters and you can use an in-app purchase to upgrade to a premium pack for US$1.99. Though you can't manually change the values, Rookie does show you the ISO and shutter speed of your shot. You can use these values as a guide to adjust your environment by adding or removing light to get the shot you want. Two other useful features in Rookie are the ability to set the flash and to lock the white balance. When you are done shooting, Rookie moves you automatically from the camera app to the photo editor, allowing you to prettify your picture in just a few simple steps. Though its controls are different from sister app PicsPlay Pro, the developers obviously know how to build a photo editor. Rookie is very easy to use with both editing and design tools available at your fingertips. Rookie has all the standard editing tools, like Contrast, Hue & Saturation, Vibrance, Color Temperature and Tint that you need to correct flaws in photos. You can also crop and rotate as needed. On the design side, Rookie allows you to overlay text and tweak the look of your letters with a variety of fonts, outline options and color choices. There's also a handful of stickers and shapes that you can add to a photo. If you want additional choices for decorating your photo, you can purchase a sticker pack ($2.99) or a shape pack ($0.99). Rookie is a wonderful photo editor that turns into a photographer's must-have utility with the addition of a capable camera app. It doesn't seem important on paper, but I really appreciated the combination of camera app and photo editor. I was able to go from capturing a photo to photo editing without fussing with opening multiple apps and importing photos. Rookie definitely improved my productivity as I could take a photo and immediately start editing it, instead of my usual workflow of taking a photo and then saying I will edit it when I get a chance to open Photogene. Of course, I never get around to opening Photogene and my photos sit in my camera roll untouched. If you enjoy taking photos with your iPhone, then you should check out Rookie. It's available for free in the iOS App Store, so you can give it a spin and see if you like it. Even though it is free, all the basic functionality you need to capture and edit a photo is included in the app. In-app purchases are included if you want to add to the number of filters, sticks and shapes at your disposal
Daily App: LuckyPennie lets you discover and chat about your favorite music
LuckyPennie is a social music app where you can share your favorite music and discover new songs, artists and even concert events in your area. It's all about connecting with others who share your passion for music. LuckyPennie is social like Facebook and visual like Pinterest, but it has a distinct music flavor. Users can share the music they are enjoying at the moment and others can comment back. The main screen of the app, "The Wall," is a running feed filled with album covers and user's concert photos. Each status update can include text allowing you to share your thoughts about a song or explain the concert photo you just uploaded. If you find someone who has a musical taste you find intriguing, you can add them to your crew and follow their song shares. You can give or get cred by clicking on the lightning bolt in a post. The more cred you have, the more influence you will have in the network. You can also favorite a post and view it later. The app ties into your Spotify or Rdio account, allowing you to listen to full tracks through those third-party services. LuckyPennie has a local flair ("the scene") that isolates content from people who are nearby. Not only can you find friends who enjoy the same music as you, but you can also discover information about local bands and nearby concerts before they happen. If you need more friends to populate "the scene", then you can use the "Add Friends" button that lets you invite friends & connect with your Facebook friends already on the app. LuckyPennie is available for free from the iOS App Store. It's compatible with the iPhone and requires iOS 7.0 or later. You need a LuckyPennie account to use the app, but it is easy to create one when the app first launches.
Daily App: digiDoc Pulse Oximeter tries to measure your heart rate and oxygen levels
digiDoc Pulse Oximeter is an iPhone app that uses your camera to measure your heart rate and your oxygen level. Apps that measure your heart rate are a dime a dozen, but this is one that combines heart rate with blood oxygen saturation. Like most heart rate apps, digiDoc Pulse Oximeter requires you to place your finger over your camera and lens and wait a few seconds while the app takes its measurements. With the digiDoc Pulse Oximeter, there is an extra calibration step in the beginning that turns on the LED flash and adjusts the app before you place your finger on your phone. The app walks you through the calibration and measurement using on-screen prompts, making it easy to use. In a minute or so, the app will report that it is finished and will show your heart rate and SpO2 measurement. A useful running log keeps track of all your measurements in the app. digiDoc Pulse Oximeter has a beautiful, easy-to-use design that fits in well with iOS 7, but its reliability in measuring SpO2 is questionable. I compared digiDoc Pulse Oximeter against a portable pulse oximeter, and the results varied widely. For evaluation purposes, I used the app on myself while sitting and while exercising at near maximum. I also tested a family member who was being treated for pneumonia. In my testing, I found the app to be accurate when SpO2 levels were high, but variable when SpO2 levels started to drop. The app never accurately measured my family member, whose SpO2 levels were in the low 90s. The app showed a decrease in his SpO2 levels by measuring it at 96 percent, but it never registered as low as 92 percent, which is what the hospital and home pulse oximeter were registering. When you're talking about pulse oximetry, there is a big difference between those two or three percentage points. I also noticed variability in readings when exercising, but for a different reason. The digiDoc Pulse Oximeter was widely inaccurate while exercising because it is hard to keep moving vigorously and keep your hand on the camera of your iPhone. It's difficult, if not impossible, to keep your finger and the phone steady while you run or bike. You can take measurements when you stop, but that defeats the purpose of using oxygen levels to measure your exercise intensity. Overall, digiDoc Pulse Oximeter is a useful app for measuring heart rate. Heart rate measurements were spot on with the portable pulse oximeter, even when exercising. The SpO2 measurements, however, were variable and not reliable enough for me to recommend using it for other than novelty. If you have a medical condition that requires SpO2 measurements, you are better off buying a $50 portable unit from a drug store or medical supply company. digiDoc Pulse Oximeter is available from the iOS App Store for US$3.99. It requires iOS 7.
Five apps to help you follow the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi
The Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games start later this week with the opening ceremony slated for Friday, February 7. To keep track of the epic wins and the disappointing losses, you should check out one or all of these five apps below. NBC Sports Live Extra [iOS Universal; Free] The NBC Sports Live Extra app will provide a live stream of the games that covers all 15 sports and all 98 medal events. Some live streaming content on NBC Sports Live Extra will only be available to authenticated cable, satellite and telco customers via TV Everywhere. NBC also has a dedicated Olympics highlights and results app if you don't have time for the full stream and only want a brief synopsis of the results. Sochi 2014 Guide [iOS Universal; Free] The Official Sochi 2014 Guide may not have a live video stream, but it has everything else you need to follow the Olympic games, especially if you are there in Sochi. The app includes coverage of the Olympic Torch relay, venue information and breaking news. The app also has an event scheduler that you can customize with the competitions that you want to watch. The Games 2014 [iOS Universal; $2.99] The Games 2014 will help you follow the Olympic events and plan your viewing schedule. The app has information on the stadiums, events, sports, dates and medal winners. Each sport is easy to find and follow. There's also a handy feature that allows you to send your favorite events to your calendar. Sochi 2014 Results [iPhone; Free] This is the official Sochi 2014 Results application and, as such, it provides full details of the events of the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games. Follow the medal races in real time and get quick access to the competition schedule and results. 2014 Team USA Road to Sochi [iOS Universal; Free] Read about the contingency of athletes the US is sending to Sochi to compete in the Winter Olympics. The app features biographies, results and performances for each athlete and a customizable feed that can be filtered to show only news from your favorite athletes.
Daily App: Friend Check lets you monitor your followers as they come and go
Let's face it, your social media presence is important for extending your network of friends and colleagues and in developing your online persona. If you care about such things, then you should download Friend Check from MobileLife Studio. The app helps you track your followers as you build your presence on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Friend Check supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. The app captures a snapshot of your profile -- tracking how many followers you have, how many new ones added you and how many unfollowed you. The app saves each overview so you can see how your profile has changed over time. A handy reporting feature presents this data and provides other interesting stats like the percentage of people who follow you back. Friend Check also has limited conversation support that allows you to reach out to someone who unfollowed you with a quick @ mention or a DM. You can also follow or unfollow from within the app. Friend Check links to native apps allowing you to view a user's full profile instead of the brief overview provided by Friend Check. Friend Check is very easy to set up and configure. It uses OAuth to connect your accounts to the app, so there are no privacy concerns about handing over your Twitter username and password to an unknown developer. My only gripe is the number of in-app purchases required to unlock additional features and remove the app links that are appended to posts and tweets. It'll cost you US$0.99 if you want to set up more than one social network, another $1.99 if you want more than one account on a social network and so on. I wish there was a pro version that I could buy outright and not have to deal with these little charges. Despite the in-app purchases, Friend Check is an excellent app for monitoring your followers on the major social networks. It's earned a spot on my phone. You can download Friend Check for free from the iOS App Store. It's compatible with the iPhone and requires iOS 7 or later. There are in-app purchases, but no ads.
Daily App: Yearly ensures you won't be in the dog house on your anniversary
Yearly from NoIndentity apps is an aggregator that pulls in birthday, anniversary and other date information from your iOS address book. The app is basic in its function, but beautiful in its looks. Yearly relies on your contact information to populate a list of upcoming personal dates that you don't want to forget. The list shows the person's name, picture, the date and details about the notable event (i.e., 25 years on Thursday for a birthday). The app also lists how many days until the event, which is handy for folks who need time to prepare a gift or a card. You can tap on a contact to view additional information like an email address or phone book. If a contact originated in your iOS address book, you can view existing notes or add a new note to the contact. Though you can try to add a note to a Facebook contact, it will not be saved. You can also swipe left or right to expose controls that allow you to call, message or email a contact. This allows you to make that birthday call right from within the Yearly app. Some folks may point out that Yearly is not needed as Facebook already imports a contact's birthday information into your calendar. Yes, that is true, but not everyone enables the birthday calendar in iOS. Personally, I turn off the birthday calendar and prefer to use Yearly as my repository for birthday and anniversary information because of its focus on significant dates. Sometimes my calendar is so cluttered, it would be very easy to miss an upcoming birthday or anniversary. That's not going to happen with Yearly. The biggest drawback to Yearly is that it does not support manual entries. The app pulls its date information from the contacts and only from the contacts. For example, I wanted to manually add the birthdays for my friend's children, but Yearly doesn't allow that. Instead, I had to create contacts for all of them, which was less than ideal. Yearly is available from the iOS App Store for US$1.99.
Daily App: Tastemade will turn you into a professional food critic
Tastemade is a clever app that allows you to capture your meal as you dine out and create a food show from the experience in a matter of minutes. By emphasizing the meal and the dining experience, Tastemade allows you to celebrate what you love most about food. Tastemade includes a variety of storyboards that make it easy for you to create a Food TV-style show. Just pick your template and follow the prompts to record each section of your video review. The app will then splice the raw footage together and automatically add filters and a soundtrack to your clip. The production quality in the app is very good -- you will end up with a 60-second montage that you can be proud of. Tastemade is as much about creating as it is about sharing. Each clip you create is one minute long, which makes it easy for you to record and share a show before your potatoes get cold. You can share your episode with the Tastemade community and with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Embedding and private link options are also available. You can also use Tastemade to watch episodes from fellow food lovers. Not only will you be inspired by the videos other people create, but you'll also get a glimpse into some of the fine dining available in your local area. Tastemade is available for free from the iOS App Store. There are no ads and no in-app purchases. The app requires you to sign up for an account if you want to create a video. You can watch other videos within the app without registering for an account.
Daily App: Gross motivates you to move by breaking down your motion data
Gross from Forest Giant is one of a growing number of apps that take advantage of the M7 motion co-processor in the iPhone 5s. The app sets itself apart by breaking down your movement into categories and displaying it in a simple and clear way that is easy to understand. Gross uses a text-based interface to present your motion data to you. The main screen of the app is a list of the days of the week. Under each day is blue line that represents your overall motion. At the bottom is your gross movement that summarizes your movement for the past seven days. The app focuses on the here and now, so there is no fitness history, just your performance over the past week. Tapping on a day of the week brings up the motion data recorded for that day and breaks it down into degree of activity. In a quick glance, you can see how much time you have spent walking, running or cruising. You can also see your gross stats for the day. On the right side of the detailed view, there is a column that shows your activity throughout the course of a day and allows you to quickly determine the hours of the day that you are most active. Gross' strength is its simplicity -- you don't have to wade through charts and analysis to get to your core motion data. It's a basic tracker that displays your movement in an easy-to-access and straightforward way. It's perfect for those who don' t need the extra fluff and just want to see how much they move during any given day of the week. Gross is available for free from the iOS App Store.
Daily App: Sooshi is a visual guide to preparing and eating sushi
Whether you are sushi connoisseur or new to the world of eating raw fish, you should check out this new app, Sooshi. A collaborative effort by three German students (Konstantin Datz, Moritz Von Volkmann and Leonard Hecker), Sooshi contains a wealth of information on the ingredients, utensils and fish used to prepare the highly desirable dishes. First and foremost, Sooshi is a guide to all things sushi. The app is broken down into five sections -- sushi, utensils, fish, ingredients and restaurants. Each section includes gorgeous photos of the different materials you need to prepare sushi. Accompanying each photo is a short, but informative description of the item and the role it plays in sushi. There also are detailed instructions that walk you through the preparation of the dish. Each step in the recipe features a photo, a description and a timer when there is a step that requires cooking. Last, but not least is a restaurant finder that lists local restaurants that serve this delicacy. You can search in your local area or enter in an address. The restaurant listings provide the address, phone, website, photos and a navigation link to the address in Google Maps. Sooshi is visually driven with a gesture-based UI that is easy to navigate. The app has a nice balance of informative text and graphics, so you never feel overwhelmed by the content within the app. To say it is well-designed is an understatement -- it's one of those apps that leaves you impressed and makes you appreciate the iOS platform. Sooshi is available for US$1.99 from the iOS App Store. It is compatible with the iPhone running iOS 6.1 or later.
Daily App: Obaby is a photo-illustration tool for busy parents
Taking a photo of your newborn and dressing it up so it is pretty can be a daunting challenge for busy parents, who barely have time to think, never mind find the right tools to edit their images. This is where Obaby from Potluck steps in to make your life easier. Obaby is an image editor designed with handcrafted artwork for those milestone moments in your baby's life. Obaby is filled with more than 600 wonderful illustrations that you can overlay on your images. There are 300 free and more than 350 paid overlays (via in-app purchase), which are broken down into categories like doodles, borders, dates, announcements and more. If there is an occasion or a milestone in your baby's life, there are likely a handful of overlays that you can use to accent that moment. The UI is intuitive and the overlays are very easy to add to photos. You can easily craft a wonderful image with annotations in just a few minutes. Unfortunately for me, the app is efficient, but I am not. There are so many excellent illustrations that I often can't decide which one to use! Obaby is targeted toward parents of babies and toddlers, so you will find that a lot of illustrations are geared toward milestones in infancy and young childhood. You can use it with older kids, but it is not as fun. The Obaby app is available for US$0.99 and includes 300 free illustrations. More than 350 additional illustrations are available as in-app purchases. You can unlock all this extra content via an in-app purchase of US$9.99. You also can buy the $9.99 version, Obaby +, directly if you know from the beginning you want all the available illustrations.
Daily App: Heyday is a journaling app that writes your daily entries for you
Heyday is a journaling app for people who are too busy to pen daily entries into their journal. The app creates entries on your behalf based upon the places you go and the photos you take. Heyday works surprisingly well at creating a timeline of your daily comings and goings. Heyday's strong point is its photo collages. The app grabs the photos from your photo roll and organizes them into groups based on time and location. It creates collages using these groups and adds them to your timeline as journal entries. The app does a wonderful job capturing each moment as it was recorded in photos. These collages can be shared via Facebook, Twitter, Mail or Messages. You can also save them to your photo roll. Heyday is more than just a photo journal, though. The app also uses your location information and will create journal entries when you stop at a point of interest. Take a lunch break at your local coffee shop, and Heyday will add that event to your timeline. The app has some basic editing tools that allow you to change the layout and add context to your photos and check-ins. Tapping the pencil icon next to each journal entry opens the editing screen where you can type in a quick note like "Met John for lunch," or "Great day skiing." You can also manually add photos or tag the location if the app only pulled up the address and not the exact point of interest. If you used your Facebook login with the app, you can add in a list of people who joined you at that event. Photo collages in each entry can also be changed. You can swap out the pictures, add filters and change the layout to suit your needs. The automatic journaling aspect of Heyday makes all the difference. Just install the app and let your journal write itself. Check back after seven days, and you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much you managed to cram into a week's worth of activities. If you want to look back and find a specific moment, Heyday even has a handy search tool that allows you to search by time, place and people. Heyday stores journal entries only in the app and merely links to your photos, which is perfect for privacy, but not so good for long-term storage. The journal exists only on your phone, and there is no easy way to export your entries to a blog or other online medium. It's even worse when you back up your photos and remove them from your iPhone. Removing photos will destroy your photo journal entries -- all that is left are entries with blank placeholders where the images used to be. It can be heartbreaking to lose all those entries, especially if you spent time typing in notes and tagging locations. Though I appreciate the automatic journal entries, I likely won't continue to use the app because of the image issue. My photos are important to me, and I regularly remove them from my phone to back them up. (Update: the developer is working on a secure method to per store photos within the app and will roll out this feature in a future update.) Heyday is available for free from the iOS App Store. There are no in-app purchases and no ads, but Heyday does require you to create a login using your email or Facebook account.
