Sunday, July 7, 2013

Apps of the week: Fightback, Articles, Twitterific 5 and more!

Apps of the week: Fightback, Articles, Twitterific 5 and more!

It's that time of the week again, when the iMore team gives you our picks of some of the apps we've been using the most in the past seven days. We've got a good selection once again, with some of games, a Mac YouTube client, a Twitter client, and more. Let's jump in and take a look!

Fightback - Simon Sage

One game that I checked out at E3 was Fightback, a fast and furious beat 'em up with a retro 80s style. Players have to tap and swipe their way through waves of goons within a limited timeframe. If things get tight, you can always bust out the guns to clear the room, but depending on your weapon and upgrades, you'll have to wait on your reload time to use them again. The game is high on style, and though there are plenty of unlockables to kit out your badass hero, the vast majority of those unlocks have real game benefits; even the tattoos you get will provide cash bonuses for each level. The controls are very simple, but enemies with varying attack patterns, melee weapons, and the race against the clock keeps things interesting and fast-paced.

Elements of Photography - Ally Kazmucha

If you own a DSLR and your'e just starting to learn your way around it, Elements of Photography can help. Downloading the app is free and you can unlock all chapters for a mere $1.99. After that you'll be able to learn about all kinds of different topics including depth of focus, aperture, different modes, and more.

Even if you've been shooting for a while and are past the basics, tools Elements of Photography includes such as a depth of focus calculator can be dead useful at times.

Articles - Joseph Keller

Whatever you're looking for, Wikipedia is one of the go-to spots on the web for finding information, and if you're going to spend any time looking things up on Wikipedia on your iPad, you're going to want to check out Articles. Articles lays out all of the information that Wikipedia has to offer in a beautiful way, while also giving you different ways to find new things to read. On the iPad, items are displayed on a mock-canvas background, without any extraneous clutter. Even important objects like tables and charts are contained in their own sections. You can have multiple pages open at once, navigating between them like you navigate between pages in Safari on the iPhone, swiping between cards until you find the one you're looking for.

Articles also gives you different ways to find things to read, and organize them. Tap "Nearby" and allow Articles to use your location in order to find items of interest near you. There's also the "Suprise Me!" button that will take you to a random article. Save articles to read later, or organize articles by topic and put them in folders for quick access to those that your read often. Articles is the best way that I've found to find and organize items from Wikipedia on my iPad. It's easy to use, it's clutter-free, and it's only $0.99, so go check it out.

Colin McRae Rally- Peter Cohen

After reading Richard Devine's recent roundup of the best racing games for iOS I downloaded Colin McRae Rally, and couldn't believe what I got for a few bucks. After a decade and a half, Codemasters has brought the hugely popular rally racing game to iOS, and it's a lot of tire-spinning, fishtailing fun. You race real-world rally cars like the Ford Focus, Lancia Stratos and Subaru Impreza in real-world locations like Australia and Greece. The game even features the voice of legendary rally racer Nicky Grist as your co-driver, calling out pace notes to let you know of upcoming turns and hazards so you can more effectively navigate the course. Graphics aren't the most stunning of any iOS game I've played, but Colin McRae Rally makes up for it with varied gameplay (quick races, fully rallies and championships), realistic physics, damage modeling, Game Center support and more. Bonus: It hasn't been mucked up with In-App Purchases, so what you see is what you get.

Twitterrific 5 - Rene Ritchie

Twitterrific 5

I keep a folder filled with Twitter apps because, historically, they've been a playground for innovative, engaging user interface and experience work on iOS. Yes, before everyone made a weather app, everyone made a Twitter app. Now, however, the user interface and experience on iOS is about to undergo a radical chance. iOS 7 is going to turn everything upside down and shake it really, really hard. Come the fall, what looked great before might look out of place, or completely out of date. It'll be turbulence for a while.

Except for the Iconfactory and Twitterrific 5, which got a large part of their next design language done already. They bet big on clarity and deference. Add in a little depth, and they'll once again look born for the platform they've been on since birth.

If you haven't tried Twitterrific 5 yet, with its elegant, uncluttered look, gorgeous typography, and convenient gestures, give it a try today. There'll be a lot more apps trying to be like it come this fall.

Jane Wilde - Chris Parsons

If you're looking for quickie side scrolling shooter, Jane Wilde is pretty fun. it's available as a free download and offers over 30 different levels to play through with plenty of unlockable and upgradeable weapons. Shoot some zombie cowboys, kick some monsters walking around in caskets and make it to the end of the level. The graphics are a little on the shall we say, mature side? Just watch out for some of those ads that pop-up, they can take out of the game and can be slightly annoying.

Perfect Cut - Ally Kazmucha

Perfect Cut is a simple timed game that requires you to cut a fish in half by slicing through it with your finger using the percentage that you're given. The closer you get to that percentage, the more points you'll get. Get it perfect and you'll see an octopus jump out of the water. Tap him before he disappears to add two seconds to your timer.

You'll get to keep cutting for a complete minute. Perfect Cut ties in with Game Center so you can compete against your friends on leader boards as well.

Tuba - Richard Devine

I have so much happening inside a web browser in my day-to-day working life, that wherever possible I like to separate things out into native apps that can live on my dock inside OS X. I go to YouTube a lot, and I've come across Tuba available in the Mac App Store. It's currently on sale for free to celebrate 4th July, so it won't be for long, but it's a fantastic native Mac client for viewing your YouTube videos. It offers pretty much the same experience as the YouTube website, all wrapped up inside a neat and well designed wrapper. Categories off the left in the sidebar, videos in the main pane on the right. It allows you to sign into your Google account to, so as to import all of your YouTube subscriptions. Definitely worth a look, but grab it quickly to get it for free.

And, that's not all. As you can imagine, we get notified about an awful lot of apps on a daily basis, but there's just not enough time in the week to feature them all. So, as a special weekend treat, here's a few we've picked out that we think are worth taking a look at. Enjoy!

So, those are our picks for the week, but what about yours? Found a great app you think others would love? Drop it into the comments below!

    


It's that time of the week again, when the iMore team gives you our picks of some of the apps we've been using the most in the past seven days. We've got a good selection once again, with some of games, a Mac YouTube client, a Twitter client, and more. Let's jump in and take a look!

Fightback - Simon Sage

One game that I checked out at E3 was Fightback, a fast and furious beat 'em up with a retro 80s style. Players have to tap and swipe their way through waves of goons within a limited timeframe. If things get tight, you can always bust out the guns to clear the room, but depending on your weapon and upgrades, you'll have to wait on your reload time to use them again. The game is high on style, and though there are plenty of unlockables to kit out your badass hero, the vast majority of those unlocks have real game benefits; even the tattoos you get will provide cash bonuses for each level. The controls are very simple, but enemies with varying attack patterns, melee weapons, and the race against the clock keeps things interesting and fast-paced.

Elements of Photography - Ally Kazmucha

If you own a DSLR and your'e just starting to learn your way around it, Elements of Photography can help. Downloading the app is free and you can unlock all chapters for a mere $1.99. After that you'll be able to learn about all kinds of different topics including depth of focus, aperture, different modes, and more.

Even if you've been shooting for a while and are past the basics, tools Elements of Photography includes such as a depth of focus calculator can be dead useful at times.

Articles - Joseph Keller

Whatever you're looking for, Wikipedia is one of the go-to spots on the web for finding information, and if you're going to spend any time looking things up on Wikipedia on your iPad, you're going to want to check out Articles. Articles lays out all of the information that Wikipedia has to offer in a beautiful way, while also giving you different ways to find new things to read. On the iPad, items are displayed on a mock-canvas background, without any extraneous clutter. Even important objects like tables and charts are contained in their own sections. You can have multiple pages open at once, navigating between them like you navigate between pages in Safari on the iPhone, swiping between cards until you find the one you're looking for.

Articles also gives you different ways to find things to read, and organize them. Tap "Nearby" and allow Articles to use your location in order to find items of interest near you. There's also the "Suprise Me!" button that will take you to a random article. Save articles to read later, or organize articles by topic and put them in folders for quick access to those that your read often. Articles is the best way that I've found to find and organize items from Wikipedia on my iPad. It's easy to use, it's clutter-free, and it's only $0.99, so go check it out.

Colin McRae Rally- Peter Cohen

After reading Richard Devine's recent roundup of the best racing games for iOS I downloaded Colin McRae Rally, and couldn't believe what I got for a few bucks. After a decade and a half, Codemasters has brought the hugely popular rally racing game to iOS, and it's a lot of tire-spinning, fishtailing fun. You race real-world rally cars like the Ford Focus, Lancia Stratos and Subaru Impreza in real-world locations like Australia and Greece. The game even features the voice of legendary rally racer Nicky Grist as your co-driver, calling out pace notes to let you know of upcoming turns and hazards so you can more effectively navigate the course. Graphics aren't the most stunning of any iOS game I've played, but Colin McRae Rally makes up for it with varied gameplay (quick races, fully rallies and championships), realistic physics, damage modeling, Game Center support and more. Bonus: It hasn't been mucked up with In-App Purchases, so what you see is what you get.

Twitterrific 5 - Rene Ritchie

Twitterrific 5

I keep a folder filled with Twitter apps because, historically, they've been a playground for innovative, engaging user interface and experience work on iOS. Yes, before everyone made a weather app, everyone made a Twitter app. Now, however, the user interface and experience on iOS is about to undergo a radical chance. iOS 7 is going to turn everything upside down and shake it really, really hard. Come the fall, what looked great before might look out of place, or completely out of date. It'll be turbulence for a while.

Except for the Iconfactory and Twitterrific 5, which got a large part of their next design language done already. They bet big on clarity and deference. Add in a little depth, and they'll once again look born for the platform they've been on since birth.

If you haven't tried Twitterrific 5 yet, with its elegant, uncluttered look, gorgeous typography, and convenient gestures, give it a try today. There'll be a lot more apps trying to be like it come this fall.

Jane Wilde - Chris Parsons

If you're looking for quickie side scrolling shooter, Jane Wilde is pretty fun. it's available as a free download and offers over 30 different levels to play through with plenty of unlockable and upgradeable weapons. Shoot some zombie cowboys, kick some monsters walking around in caskets and make it to the end of the level. The graphics are a little on the shall we say, mature side? Just watch out for some of those ads that pop-up, they can take out of the game and can be slightly annoying.

Perfect Cut - Ally Kazmucha

Perfect Cut is a simple timed game that requires you to cut a fish in half by slicing through it with your finger using the percentage that you're given. The closer you get to that percentage, the more points you'll get. Get it perfect and you'll see an octopus jump out of the water. Tap him before he disappears to add two seconds to your timer.

You'll get to keep cutting for a complete minute. Perfect Cut ties in with Game Center so you can compete against your friends on leader boards as well.

Tuba - Richard Devine

I have so much happening inside a web browser in my day-to-day working life, that wherever possible I like to separate things out into native apps that can live on my dock inside OS X. I go to YouTube a lot, and I've come across Tuba available in the Mac App Store. It's currently on sale for free to celebrate 4th July, so it won't be for long, but it's a fantastic native Mac client for viewing your YouTube videos. It offers pretty much the same experience as the YouTube website, all wrapped up inside a neat and well designed wrapper. Categories off the left in the sidebar, videos in the main pane on the right. It allows you to sign into your Google account to, so as to import all of your YouTube subscriptions. Definitely worth a look, but grab it quickly to get it for free.

And, that's not all. As you can imagine, we get notified about an awful lot of apps on a daily basis, but there's just not enough time in the week to feature them all. So, as a special weekend treat, here's a few we've picked out that we think are worth taking a look at. Enjoy!

So, those are our picks for the week, but what about yours? Found a great app you think others would love? Drop it into the comments below!

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