Daily App Digest – 04/08/11

Mediakitchen has made an impressive entrance to the mobile gaming arena with the release of the extremely addictive Ball Frenzy game for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. The soccer themed skill game is an action packed game combining elements of popular ball games such as marbles, pool and bowling. The concept is simple – knock all of your opponents balls off the pitch before they knock off all of your balls. Perfect your ball skills and progress through the rounds of the Ball Frenzy championship and strive towards earning the coveted title of Ball Frenzy Champion.

Ball Frenzy is easy to play but difficult to complete. With a simple one finger control and no complex rules, this game is easy to pick up and start playing immediately. The game provides the opportunity to play against a computer controlled opponent or to pitch your skills against those of a friend. The combination of strategy and skill keeps things interesting and this game is guaranteed to offer many hours of fun. In addition to addicting gameplay, Ball Frenzy also features OpenFeint integration featuring a global high score leader board and 27 challenging achievements.

$0.99/Download

WEBST Consulting S.A., an emerging mobile application developer currently focused on creating word based games, today announced its excitement over the successful recent release of Word Search Plus for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This enhanced word search application builds on the word search genre to offer players an effectively infinite playing experience, access to definitions, and the ability to look up the origins and historical contexts of words they find as well. In a clear testament to its instantaneous popularity with mobile word gamers, the app has already been featured in Apple’s esteemed New and Noteworthy Word & Educational Games category after less then two weeks of release! Word Search Plus is currently available for download on the Apple App Store for $0.99.

This app set out with one simple goal in mind, to bring word search enthusiasts everywhere a mobile update of their much loved game that stayed as faithful as possible to its roots while implementing every improvement its new mobile medium afforded it. The result is Word Search Plus. The game itself is simple; players are presented with a grid of letters and charged with finding words hidden within that grid. Backwards, forwards, diagonally, words are hidden amongst the game’s letter filled grid in every which way possible. The app includes an immense word bank, and because new games are created at random players are certain that they’ll never play the same exact puzzle more than once.

$0.99/Download

Frontier Design Group, creators of popular music apps GuitarStudio and iShred, today is pleased to announce the immediate availability of BeatStudio, the fast, easy, and fun way to create drum and percussion tracks on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

BeatStudio is designed to let anyone build percussion tracks, with an intuitive interface that’s easy and natural for beginners, yet flexible and powerful enough to accommodate experienced players. Unlike other apps that merely provide emulations of limited drum machines, BeatStudio frees the player from the constraints of fixed-length patterns, promoting experimentation and improvisation.

$2.99/Download

Touch Apps today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Monster Blaster 1.0, their new monster packed match’em-up game for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. Take a timeless classic, add a truckload of angry monsters and some highly flammable power-ups and what do you get? Welcome to Monster Blaster!

Monster Blaster features tons of explosions with hours of challenging, strategic and zany gameplay, offering stunning visuals, and a soundtrack to blow you away. Monsternate, Freezenate, and even Drill your way to success to create massive explosive combos. All that’s needed now is you. So ask yourself. Are you monster enough?

Feature Highlights:
* Classic Gameplay with stunning visuals and soundtrack
* Retina Display support
* Game Center fully integrated
* Global leaderboards and challenging achievements

$0.99/Download

Paper Glider Bomber is the latest iPhone game launched by Neon Play, the UK based mobile games studio. This game follows on from the original Paper Glider which topped the free charts worldwide when it was announced by Apple to be the App Store’s 10 billionth download.

The idea is simple. Players glide over a city full of skyscrapers in a paper plane bomber. As the plane flies back and forth across the screen, getting lower each time, the objective is to drop bombs to destroy the buildings before you crash into them. Players tap the screen to drop a bomb. The easy controls allow the player to focus on experience of the game. Paper Glider Bomber uses the same clean cartoon style of the original Paper Glider that fans have grown to love. Players need to be accurate and efficient to make the most out of their limited 10 per crossing bomb supply. The game grows challenging in later levels with taller skyscrapers and the inclusion of hospitals. Dropping a bomb on a hospital loses players 1000 points.

Extra bombs can be obtained from the in-game Bomb Shop by earning or buying coins (IAP), the in-game currency. The Bomb Shop sells Missiles, Cluster Bombs, Building Buster and A-Bombs. Coins can also unlock custom glider themes in the Glider Shop, such as a pink, camouflage and flame glider, or planes that are decorated with the flags of eight major countries. Players can also earn free coins by downloading apps via TapJoy’s Offer Wall.

Free/Download

GlitchSoft has announced that their highly anticipated second title, Destructopus, is set for a release in the short term. The company is providing an opportunity for the press to check out the game and try their hand at some heavy destruction!

Destructopus has been dubbed a side-scrolling Destruct-Em-Up game that packs a wallop. In arcade style, players play as a gigantic octopus-like sea monster as they work their way from coast to coast wreaking absolute havoc! The reason for the rampage? Well, GlitchSoft isn’t revealing any secrets just yet and the development team encourages interested parties to check the game out first hand to see what all the destruction is about.

Pixite LLC has improved their Web Albums for iPad (version 2.1.2), a constant top 10 app in the Photography category since it was released a year ago, by adding full front and back-facing camera support for the new Apple iPad. Using the new camera capabilities, users can take photos and videos from their iPad 2 and immediately upload them to their online Picasa albums in full resolution while browsing their photos. Picasa is a widely used free online photo sharing service by Google, which lets users share their photos and videos with their friends and family.

Lars Perkins, Picasa Co-Founder says, "As a power user of Picasa, I wanted a way to enjoy my pictures on my iPhone and iPad. Web Albums App fits the bill perfectly. Now I can enjoy and share my albums whether I’m online or offline! It’s a no-brainer for anyone who loves Picasa."

$2.99/Download

WickeyWare, a new mobile game developer specializing in all things off-the-wall, has announced it’s excitement with the successful recent release of Zombie Archer for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch devices running on iOS 4.0 or later. This whimsical sharp shooting adventure was embraced by Apple’s App Store Almost immediately after its release, where it found a place on the mobile marketplace’s lauded New & Noteworthy Games category.

This said, simply calling Zombie Archer a shooting game doesn’t really do it justice. The game’s main hero is a cartoonishly stylized Robin Hood of the dead type, and players are free to use everything from arrows to bombs to dispatch their undead foes and venture ever closer to saving their beloved princess.

$1.99/Download

A porch of a beautiful house is the starting point of a journey full of obstacles and new discoveries. Users can enjoy the scenery and watch beautiful landscapes while flying. The objects located on the ground can give some extra boosts, such as steam coming out of a drain grill resulting in a longer flight.

The game also features the ability to share high scores on Facebook. With Game Center built in, it’s easy for every iPhone or iPod touch user to check leader boards and get various achievements for the epic flight they make. An addicting gameplay will surely keep everyone entertained for hours.

"We’re really excited to give our users the chance to relive the joy of throwing a paper plane this time on iPhone or iPod touch. Aeroflick is a challenging game that won’t leave users indifferent and will create new forms of competition on their iOS devices. I’m sure it will take its place in their collection of games. " said Peter Melnikov, VP of Apalon.

$0.99/Download

cRc Kosher 1.1 provides a wealth of product information about Kosher-for-Passover food items, medicines, and health and beauty items. The app also supplies in-depth explanations regarding the process known as ‘kashering’, whereby kitchen utensils are specially cleaned and prepared for Passover use, as well as additional information regarding Passover kitchen preparation. Passover, which commemorates the story of the Exodus, is observed this year from April 19 through April 26.

cRc Kosher includes kosher product lists, a guide to kosher fruits and vegetables, and a listing of over 80 Kosher agencies worldwide recommended by the cRc, the Chicago Rabbinical Council.

Free/Download

BSoft has announced the release of MoneyMeter 1.0 for iPhone and iPod touch. How much does a million dollars in $100 bills weigh? How many trucks are necessary to take away 100 billion in 500 euro papers? MoneyMeter is a unique iOS program for the definition of dimensions and weight of cash in bills. The program defines the sizes for various bills: dollars, Euro, Roubles.

Featuring a simple interface, just select the desired amount of money and type id bill. Size, weight and type of containers are determined automatically. Calculation is made for new papers. For real papers it is necessary to do the amendment towards increase.

Features:
* Type of bills – Dollars, Euro, Roubles
* Scales – thousand, millions, billions, trillions
* Types of containers – 7

$0.99/Download

15 Puzzle Challenge is the chance to refresh your skills in the world famous puzzle game. The game offers you a flashback to the times when there were no PCs, game consoles or even smartphones and people spent their free time by placing 15 wooden square tiles in the right order. All of us used to play it once … but everything changed since then. 15 Puzzle Challenge is the unique artificial intelligence that will stress your brain by providing the most complicated and barely solved combinations. Do you think you are smart enough??? Then try and win!

With 15 Puzzle Challenge you can play against anyone around the globe. Use Game Center to "fight" your friends or random players. The competition is really tough and without the practice you won’t be #1 in the Global Leaderboards. Play more games, open all achievements and become the 15 puzzle guru! And don’t forget to tell your friends how good you are – share your personal results on Facebook, Twitter or via email.

Free/Download

App artist deeje has announced the 3rd major release of tappr.tv for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, which now offers users the ability to record and replay multitrack visuals to their favorite songs from their iPod library.

What is tappr.tv? While DJs scratch audio records, and VJs make visuals to music, tappr.tv is a new kind of "visual scratching" entertainment app for iOS that gives users over 100 particle-based "instruments" and the ability to record their taps, swipes, and tilts. Each instrument uniquely responds to the user’s input with bursts of colorful particles and light. It’s relaxing all on its own, but really shines when users record along with their favorite music.

"With version 3, tappr.tv creates something truly unique, something never seen before," said deeje. "Pick a song from your iPod library, scratch your own visuals, then play them back to show your friends how you see the music."

Free/Download

Super Boise Studios has announced the upcoming release of their new game Pirate Subs!!! on April 12th, 2011. In the game players tap pirate submarines to blast them out of the water and then have to swipe across the screen while the subs are in the air to launch missiles at them. Pirate Subs!!! is redefining the casual gaming experience with the new tap n’ swipe mechanic. The tap n’ swipe mechanic allows for a much more stimulating game than your basic swipe or tap games while still being easy enough to pick up and play whenever you want.

Pirate Subs!!! will be available worldwide exclusively through the App Store for $0.99 (USD) on April 12th 2011

Even with all the innovative features of the iPad and iPhone, many students and teachers have expressed reluctance to fully trust their work on the devices because of the fear of losing information. In addition, the lack of educational apps with instructional content fully-integrated with usable workspaces limits students’ productivity. Essay Writing Workstation, by Niles Technology Group, takes the best of its popular Essay Czar app and raises the bar by directly addressing these issues.

Productivity-enhancing features, such as automatic text save, web-searching, dedicated outline workspaces, and quick-access writing guidelines are built into the app. These features are accessible when writing, so no closing or leaving of the app is required. Students develop and write essays, while seamlessly moving from one workspace to another or from one functionality to another – all with the main, active workspace still open, just like a desktop or laptop.

$24.99/Download

With Art Bomb! you can easily come up with great new artistic ideas. When you press the bomb icon your drawing will be altered by a variety of algorithms, with the result serving as inspiration to create something new. Art Bomb! will even keep your previous drawings in memory, and combine them with your new ones. This produces fantastic and unexpected results, sure to spark your imagination.

The user interface for Art Bomb! is designed to be extremely simple to allow for quick sketching. Everything you need to draw is on the screen, so there is no digging around through menus to slow you down. There are Horizontal and Vertical mirroring modes that allow for easy symmetrical designs, making it great for creating fast character studies. The drawing engine is also simple, allowing only one color to be drawn. This is to create an emphasis on shape and silhouette, as well as to speed up the creation process. The colors are either randomly generated to spark the imagination, or black and white for consistent study of shape.

$1.99/Download

WarPath is the tactical, simultaneous turn-based tank fighting game for the iPad, where players attempt to outwit their friends in top-down shooting battles. Plan moves, position turrets and plant mines to stop enemy tanks in their tracks. For 1-4 players. Players can share one iPad in pass-and-play mode, bringing them all together like a board game, or play alone to test their wits against the AI.

Can you create a battle-plan capable of destroying all of your enemies with just four tanks? Unleash the firepower and watch the mayhem unfold!

WarPath is fun for all the family – particularly if your family likes tanks. It has been specifically designed for iPad in top-down 2D as an easy to pick up but un-put-downable explosion-fest and features an innovative way-point control system for planning moves. Each player takes it in turns to plan their moves, then all gather around the iPad screen to watch the action play out. Lonesome players can fight against the cunning AI tanks, programmed with ruthless efficiency to scamper about firing shells at anything enemy-shaped. Or up to four players can battle together in pass-and-play mode. With four tanks in each team, players can drop mines and co-ordinate attacks with deadly accuracy.

$2.99/Download

The hero of this iOS epic is LastStandStan is a "STatic Alien Neutraliser," the last of his kind. Stan’s last stand is defending the final world of the peace loving Po’Trubians against the predictably unpleasant Sleevils. The "static" designation describes Stan’s inability to travel – campaigns come to the player in this game. Stan functions as sort of rotating space turret, mowing down Sleevils with a variety of weaponry.

The game sounds simplistic and it is, but GreenBeanGames has incorporated challenging subtleties by linking Stan’s success to the player’s ability to manage resources wisely. Ten different weapons, each with different attributes with various attributes each affect the nine different Sleevil enemy types in varying ways. This lends a strategic element to an otherwise simple concept.

In addition to excellent functional design, LastStandStan developers present players with graphics and audio designed to delight and engage. While LastStandStan pays homage to older style arcade games this attention to aesthetics and detail leave no doubt in players minds that the game is cutting edge.

$0.99/Download

Romantic Photo creates a romantic mood or setting automatically from any picture. Using exquisite lighting and design, your photos will look like they were taken using the highest professional techniques and filters. Romantic Photo gives you 30+ combinations of award-winning photography effect filters. With just one click this time saving app gives the look and feel of a romantic picture, at the same time allowing user’s creative freedom to produce pictures that are truly unique.

Built with power to produce high-resolution images this app applies only the most sophisticated photo filters to your images. Romantic Photo quickly and easily creates compelling photos for graphic artists, photographers, and hobbyist who rely on a high quality end-result.

* Supports full-size images. Up to 5MP on iPad/4G, 3MP on 3GS/Touch
* Preview mode for quick workflow with large image rendered at save/email
* Visual presets with the ability to create custom presets using the "Save" menu

The new "Randomize" button will quickly show you the power of the app. It truly randomizes all of the effect controls and will show you combinations you never dreamed of. All aspect of the process can be adjusted on-the-fly without needing to enter into a dialog or modal state. Quick, efficient, and very user friendly.

$0.99/Download

"The Deep Blue Kingdom" is an app for the iPad that is highly interactive. This app was featured on the iTunes "New and Noteworthy" list. Children explore the ocean and learn about the diverse life within it. Parents can use this as a great way to introduce kids to science. The company designed the app to focus specifically on children under ten who need exposure to diverse topics to develop a passion for learning. These topics also increase the intellectual curiosity in children as they are given a "virtual tour" of the ocean and the life it contains.

Marcus Cherian, President of the company, said "We are very excited about continuing to execute our content strategy in the early learning iPad apps market. We have an exciting array of new products in the pipeline. We are very pleased with the feedback we have received and will continue to add features to our exciting products for young children."

$4.99/Download

Great Composers features 62 composers, interesting details about their lives and masterworks, rich graphics optimized for retina display and powerful stats. The games included stimulate memory and empower concentration, while learning interesting and exciting subjects.

Great Composers features:
* 62 composers from all around the world
* rich graphics and portraits of the composers
* details about each composer and links to learn more
* 3 games to improve memory and concentration
* powerful stats tracked locally
* control panel to fine tune all the aspects of the games
* HD retina display optimized

$0.99/Download

Cypress Point Technologies has released the 1.3 version of Trin. This app boasts a unique platform, the first of its kind, bringing users real-time trading index updates for major American stock exchanges.

The Trin index, also called the Arms Index, is used by short-term traders for the major U.S. stock exchanges. Until now, it only existed on ticker displays and expensive proprietary terminals. Trin for iPhone 4, iPad 1 and 2 now gives users this same information to take with them wherever they go.

Some of Trin’s powerful features include:
* Automatic updates every 5 seconds
* Real time tracking of NYSE, NASADQ, S&P and Russell 2000 TRIN Index
* Real time updates of Dow Jones, NASDAQ Composite, S&P, and Russell Indices
* Four easy-to-read meters

With the Trin app, users are able to literally watch index changes as they occur throughout the day, with updates being automatically refreshed every five seconds. There are four meters, which clearly show the user how volume is moving the market and in what direction. This is critical information for short-term traders keeping an eye on NASDAQ, NYSE, S&P, Dow Jones and the Russell 2000 stocks, as well as indices.

$19.99/Download

Justyourtrip London is a revolutionary app that has absolutely nothing in common with traditional city tours where tourists are forced to go where the guide says with a crowd of other tourists and missing the real beauty of the city. Walking audio tours of Justyourtrip London provide users with an amazing opportunity to discover the best that London has to offer in an enjoyable and different way. The only one of its kind on the market Events Adviser will help to keep track of city events.

The application offers 10 walking tours (Jack the Ripper, The Beatles, Haunted London, Celebrities, Shopping in London, Following Sherlock Holmes, Royalty, Cinema in London in two parts, and London in a day) with more than 200 audio-points, and voice over by top Spanish and English voice talents. Users just have to connect their headphones and start their exciting trip. With Justyourtrip London it’s easy to find the way from one place to another as it features offline maps and built-in compass using Augmented Reality.

"When we first started Justyourtrip, our first concern was to give the users a unique and different way to travel, using all the capacities of an iPhone and clearly set the difference with a paper guide. We are really proud of our small although devoted team and our Walking Audio Tours will delight everybody, they clearly mark the difference!" – said Antonio Rodriguez, co-founder of Justyourtrip S.L. – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

$5.99/Download

ZOOLA is an application that appeals to the young and young at heart. It has been developed primarily as a tool for teaching tiny children about the wonderful world of animals but it’s so darn cute, that adults love it, too.

The app contains more than two hundred heart-melting, HD photographs of various animal types. There are currently four categories to choose from: farm animals, safari animals, forest animals, water animals. For each animal, there is a picture of a daddy, a mommy and a baby, along with their associated sounds.

Every animal also displays a fourth snapshot that may show a child and the animal, or two or more of the animals in a heartwarming shot, thus promoting the feeling of togetherness. While the fourth photo is being displayed, classical music melodies play in the background. Using the app is really simple, kids merely have to tap an icon or screen to perform an action, making it a program that they can enjoy on their own.

These are some of the features offered in ZOOLA:
* Kid friendly, just touch the colorful icons to open the pictures
* 200+ absolutely adorable HD photos and high-quality sounds
* Photos for each animal: male, female, baby and togetherness
* Includes farm animals, safari animals, forest animals, water animals
* Click on the speaker to learn how to say the animal’s name
* Togetherness photos accompanied by classical music melodies
* Developed by parents for parents and other early childhood educators
* The next version update will offer German, Spanish, French, Russian, Korean and Japanese language support
* ZOOLA Lite available as a free download

$1.99/Download

Most charades games come with a fixed set of suggestions, and "Ultimate Charades" has over 2000 of them waiting for you. But it can also be customized to add your own favourite people, movies or things and remove any that aren’t familiar to you. No longer do you have to play a game filled with TV Shows or celebrities that aren’t relevant to you and your friends.

You could even change the game to one with suggestions themed entirely around your favourite artist, or linked to certain Teen Wizard or Vampire Love series, or whatever else you are passionate about.

Peter Johnson, the developer, says: "Ultimate Charades puts you in control of the one of the all time classic party games in a way you really haven’t been able to before on iPhone. Now you can make it your own"

$3.99/Download

Independent developer Bassem Youssef highlights The Flu And Fury 1.0, his new game for iPhone and iPod touch. The world is afraid of the swine and avian flu but no one knows where it came from. The free iOS game The Flu And Fury presents its own fictional theory, which describes the reasons and the resulting war raging between the pigs and the birds.

A little misunderstanding caused the birds to accuse the pigs to be the ones responsible, so to protect themselves they decided to finish all the pigs and so the flu started the war between them. Play with the pigs and try to protect them from the birds unending waves of attack evolving in numbers and speed, requiring a combination of focus and strategy skills.

Features:
* Two different single game modes
* Multiplayer
* Many challenging enemies
* Play the game with different pigs
* Retina display support for 4th generation devices
* Cool graphics and awesome animations
* Game Center with 25 achievements and 2 leaderboards
* Share and tweet your progress with Facebook and Twitter

Free/Download

Have you ever wished your hair was Great? I mean really great, like people you see in the movies or on TV, or that guy walking down the street that you recognized from his hair. Introducing Great Hair 1.0 for the iOS family of devices. Loaded with over 20 of the most iconic hairstyles of our time, Great Hair lets you see what you and your friends would look like with hairstylings of a Pop Star, Talk Show Host, Actress, and many more!

Simple to use:
Choose or take a photo > Choose a hairstyle > Scale and rotate to position hairstyle > Save, Email, or Post to Facebook.

Features:
* Over 20 Great Hairstyles (Both Men & Women)
* Choose from existing photos or take your own with the camera
* Touch zoom and rotate to perfectly position each hairstyle
* Save photos to library, email to friends, or post directly to Facebook
* Quickly cycle through variety of hairstyles with a single touch
* Supports both Portrait and Landscape photos
* Retina display graphics for iPhone 4 display

$1.99/Download

DemonStudios has just released a much anticipated update to its Universal iOS turn-based skill/strategy war game, Lead Wars. The update adds a single-player vs-CPU mode, a Map Creator and new fully configurable rules of battle. Online head-to-head games over Game Center can also now be searched for in the background while playing local games to vastly increase players’ chances of finding an online opponent.

Lead Wars simulates a pencil and paper war game that can actually be played on a real piece of paper, the kind of which were popular in the days before portable gaming devices. The player controls a fleet of planes, tanks and artillery units around a hand-drawn battlefield on a piece of paper, making long curve shots and strategic moves to try and outwit and out-skill their opponent.

The game features online head-to-head multiplayer over Game Center, local pass-n-play / tabletop multiplayer, and single player vs-CPU. With six standard maps, a Map Creator giving the ability to create, play and share maps online, together with a highly customisable ruleset gives the game infinite re-play value.

$2.99/Download

Mailshot creates special contacts in the address book that enable its users to email groups of family or friends, or their work or sports teams from within any mail-compatible app by selecting a single contact. This unique approach integrates seamlessly with the iPhone mail system, retaining any attachments added by the app. You can even use Mail to forward an email to a group of people with all its attachments intact.

MailShot is the first app to integrate this "distribution list" capability right into every mail-capable app. This latest update brings enhancements to the contacts handling in MailShot, and provides a number of additional features requested by users.

"We pride ourselves on the quality of our support." said Peter Johnson, the developer of the app. "Its great to see so many people out there enjoying your work, and the numbers are growing faster every week as word spreads. The speed of change on the App Store is exhilarating, its fantastic to be able to deliver these extra features to people within just a few weeks of user requests."

Free/Download