Daily iOS App Digest – May 20, 2011

NYCsmokeOUT provides visual feedback and friendly notifications for both smoking and non-smoking New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs. Smokers will now know where they can and cannot smoke outdoors. Non-smokers can help the City achieve its’ goal of citizen-enforcement by alerting violators of the presence of No-Smoking Zones. Included are thousands of outdoor, public spaces where smoking will now carry a fifty-dollar fine.

According to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, smoking will be prohibited in the following areas:
* All New York City parks except median strips
* Beaches and boardwalks
* Public golf courses
* Sports stadia grounds
* Pedestrian plazas such as those at Times Square and Herald Square
* Smoking continues to be prohibited in playgrounds, pools, and inside stadia

$0.99/Download here

The Alphabet Train takes kids on a joyful ride in the world of letters and words. The app works on iPhone, iPad and the iPod touch. Kids in pre-school, 1st or 2nd grade or in age group 2-6 would enjoy playing with this app and learn alphabets ABC in no time. The app is full of attractive graphics, sounds and funny animations to keep a little child hooked.

The cute Teddy Bear Train Driver gets the steam engine chugging in with puffs of smoke coming out of the chimney. The sounds of the train hooting and running on the railway track appeals to little children. Two railroad cars are attached to the engine for every alphabet. The letter dances on the first railroad car and an object whose name starts with that letter dances on the second railroad car. Example: for M, the letter M dances on the first railroad car and a Monkey jumps on the second railroad car. Parents can sit with their little child and play the app together and increase parent-child bonding along with teaching.

Free/Download here

Shake-a-Phrase, declared a "must have" app by Fun Educational Apps, combines physical device shaking with hilarious randomly generated sentences in a game for kids ages eight and up. But fun is only part of the appeal. The app actively engages kids in reading and building vocabulary during the course of play, while Quiz Me mode strengthens their understanding of parts of speech.

The vocabulary list of more than 1,700 words was compiled by teachers and parents, and includes a broad range of age-appropriate, interesting and entertaining words. In addition to the "Starter" content, Shake-a-Phrase offers three distinct content themes to customize learning: Animals, Monster and Fairytale.

Artgig President, Matthew Kicinski, says, "If you have kids and you have an iPhone or iPad, chances are they’re reaching for it. Why not give them an app that reinforces classroom learning with a unique twist of unexpected fun. With Shake-a-Phrase, you’ll get something new every time you shake."

$0.99/Downlod here

CallSaver 2.0 has been redesigned and rebuilt, and, with a loyal user base, their feedback and submissions has contributed to a massive update to the CallSaver Number Database. Many user’s feature requests have been implemented and the User Interface redesigned to ensure CallSaver remains the most sophisticated money saving App in the App Store. Now CallSaver 2.0 has more Categories, more Numbers and more features.

The User Interface has been totally redesigned from the ground up to enable the user to locate a geographical number as quickly as possible. This is facilitated through the new Search View which, using the iPhone’s familiar Search Bar, can quickly filter results so the user can quickly locate the company’s geographical number.

$2.99/Download here

In Stamp Art Fever you are an art-stamp collector continuously searching for new pieces to add to your collection. Download it immediately, begin to categorize your artistic stamps and compete with other collectors of over the world for the most valuable collection. Stamp Art Fever revolutionize your virtual world, great graphics and a perfect game of chances allow this application to become a must have.

Main game elements:
* Visit the Philately and make your purchases
* Sell to shop your duplicates and create a portfolio with which buy the missing
* Search your missing copy in the Black Market
* Increase your credit "dirty" on the Black Market by selling your duplicates
* Protect your collection from Fire and Theft
* Connect with your friends and propose exchanges (multiplayer)
* Compete with other collectors of over the world

Free/Download here

Tiger Club LLC has announced the release and immediate availability of TigerMe Club for iPhone, the ultimate social and dating advisor for single men who are looking for a girlfriend or just want to date around first. TigerMe Club gives an answer on the eternal question "What do women really want?"

For most men trying to figure out women is nearly impossible. Tiger Club LLC offers iPhone users unique and the most comprehensive iPhone dating guide that makes dealing with women a whole lot easier. This elite club is designed to teach its members how to successfully communicate with the opposite sex and offers them practical advices on how to handle common communication issues. TigerMe Club app helps them to significantly improve their inter-personal skills by giving missions and even testing with a quiz after each chapter.

The app interface is divided into five key areas. Know-how area contains all the information about how to behave oneself with the opposite sex and how to build the desired lifestyle. It’s not only about meeting new people but about taking the relationship to the next level. The summary chapter and quizzes are available at the end of each chapter to test the knowledge of the user. Meeting area represents a quick dating guide that can be used right in the middle of the situation. It offers the variety of meeting situations from a coffee shop to a club dance floor to choose from. Advisor area summarizes key communication problems and gives real life solutions and tips on how to prevent such situations from occurring. Coach area is a simple step-by-step training program that is intended to improve members’ dating and social skills by giving them tasks for three months. Users get points for completed missions that can be used to unlock the exclusive content in Club area that is available for VIP members only.

$49.99/Download here

Synaptic Wave has announced that an updated version of Tesla Wars becomes free for a limited time. Tesla Wars – is an awesome action game (for iPhone and iPad) which requires lightning-fast reactions and well-planned tactics of warfare. A myriad of enemies trying to destroy a very important military post – the last Tesla Tower. The player’s main aim is to defend it as long as possible using powerful Specials.

Easily defeated primitive vandals at the beginning of the game, later the player faces more serious enemies. They will use chainsaws, barrels of fuel, tanks, missiles and other weapons, attacking not only from the land but also from the air and even from underground.

Of course, player isn’t left alone with the enemy. He will have powerful Specials at his disposal. To withstand the onslaught of hundreds and thousands dangerous opponents, player will have to learn how to use mines, conventional and toxic bombs, freeze, electromagnetic storms and even earthquakes. Player gets rewarded with a certain amount of points and teslars for every enemy killed. Points indicate the level of playing skill while teslars can be spent on improving Specials, recovering energy of Tesla transformer, repairing of the perimeter, etc.

$4.99/Download here

The latest release of popular iOS application WebDAV Nav+ allows users to share, manage and access documents and files online via their iPhone or iPad devices effectively turning a mobile device into a personal hard disk. The application is ideal for people on the go, it allows users to access files stored on their PCs, network attached storage devices, online cloud storage services or even other WebDAV Nav+ users.

WebDAV Nav+ includes the ability to connect securely using industry-trusted secure certificates to ensure documents and authentication details are protected as they travel between the user’s mobile device and the server. Once connected to the user’s storage the application will allow them to download documents, open them in other installed applications, email them, rename or copy as well as upload the changes back to the server.

Recent updates have added the ability to manage all e-mail attachments locally on the phone and users can now extract ZIP files, select multiple files as attachments or even ZIP files before sending them via e-mail.

$2.99/Download here

Cyberon Corporation, a leader in developing voice solutions for mobile devices, has announced the launch of My Secret 1.0, its latest application for the iPhone and iPad designed to keep valuable memories safe as password-protected voice recordings.

The app allows users to express themselves, recording audio of their important thoughts, feelings, and memories. By choosing a personal password, users of the app can "hide a secret", safeguarding it so others cannot hear.

"We wanted to give people a safe place to keep their most treasured secrets," said Cindy Chen, Marketing Planner for Cyberon Corporation. "It is somewhere to hold all of their most important thoughts and feelings, their private hopes and dreams."

With My Secret, users can record what they are thinking and feeling right now in their own voice. The app takes the idea of a private diary or journal one step further by empowering users to capture their secret thoughts and emotions in their own voice and safely protecting them for later.

$0.99/Download here

Nagaraja Rivers has announced the release of Buddha Wisdom 1.0 for iOS. Buddha Wisdom lets you read inspiring quotes of the Buddha and share them on Facebook or Twitter.

Buddha Wisdom gives you randomly chosen sayings of the Buddha whenever you need some inspiration or motivation in your day. Simply touch the screen to reveal a new quote from the Dhammapada. This is the most famous collection of short saying of the Buddha from the Pali canon. You can post inspiring quotes to your Facebook wall with the touch of a button. You can also choose to share the wise words of the Buddha through Twitter and email. There are hundreds of quotes included, each one is an authentic saying of the Enlightened One according to the Buddhist tradition. The quotes are tastefully displayed over a spiritually motivating background image of a stone Buddha from the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, India.

$0.99/Download here

Dreamix Studios has announced the release of Album App Mini 1.0 for iOS. Album App Mini makes it easy to create digital photo albums on your iPhone and iPod touch! After finishing them you can present your family and friends your photo albums in view mode. Edit, scroll and view your albums with only a few touches.

Album App Mini is easy to use and comes with several options:

Edit mode
When creating your album you have several options at your fingertips. Choose a background (or full photo), add photos, text and objects, or use one of the pre-designed layouts.

Facebook and Flickr
Do you have all your photos on Flickr or Facebook? Album App mini makes it easy to directly import photos from your account to your iPad photo library.

Easy templates
Album App mini has 30 layout options. Choose a template, tap to add a photo and you are done, or take a live picture in the App.

$0.99/Download here

A Tasty Pixel has announced The Cartographer 1.4, the latest version of the customizable Google Maps iPhone app. Featured in The Cartographer 1.4 is the ability to sync your routes and area outlines from Google Maps into The Cartographer, a feature that hikers, cyclists and road trippers will love.

"Lonely Planet has predicted that 2011 is going to be the year where travel technology goes mainstream. Of course, an iDevice is only as useful as the apps with which you equip it," said Michael Tyson, A Tasty Pixel’s founder. "The Cartographer was voted third best iPhone travel app in the 2010 Best App Ever Awards, hosted by 148 Apps, and has been extensively featured by Apple on the App Store."

The mobile tourism experience gets even better with The Cartographer 1.4. The app has already gone well beyond just providing beautified Google Maps. Now, you can also plot a cycle route, hiking trail or a road trip on your desktop with Google Maps then use your customized map to navigate in the field.

$3.99/Download here

Space Falcon Reloaded is a vertical scrolling shoot ’em up game featuring HD graphics made specially for the high resolution iPhone 4’s Retina display and iPad, wide range of explosions and visual effects, high quality music and sound effects, lots of bonuses and power-ups.

The player is in the role of an elite commander controlling an advanced space fighter: the Space Falcon. They must stand as one-against-many strange aliens, mini-bosses and big bosses invading the universe in more than 45 levels. There’s lots of arcade fun and adrenalin pumping action. Players can compete against other Space Falcon Reloaded players around the world thanks to Game Center and Open Feint online leaderboards.

Tech features:
* Full HD / RETINA support
* Universal App (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch support)
* Game Center and OpenFeint support

$1.99/Download here

Panorama Concepts has announced the global release of iMax Battery Pro your ultimate iPod/iPhone/iPad companion. iMax Battery Pro is the premier 100% automated professional battery management app that supports complete full cycle charge. It is also one of the most accurate battery apps (1% increments) and is compatible with high resolution retina display. In addition, you will find the most simple to use and practical battery tips information to extend your battery life.

Monitor Battery Status with accuracy:
* Standby Time
* Audio Playback
* Bluetooth Audio
* YouTube Playback
* Video Playback
* Wi-Fi Activated
* 3G/2G Talk Time
* Internet Use
* Gaming
* Recharge Time
* Video Recording
* Photo Capturing

$0.99/Download here

As faxes are increasingly emailed to save on paper costs, Fax Reader works by supplementing the existing document display logic found in iOS, which will only display the first page of a fax but not allow access to subsequent pages. The app includes Dropbox connectivity, and functions as a document handler by providing "Open in…" and clipboard support functionality.

Fax Reader enables viewing of multi-page faxes by first importing the entire file into its storage area. Once imported, the file undergoes one-time pre-rendering that ensures the fax is re-scaled to be optically correct and to provide the fastest possible rendering when viewing a multi-page document. The user can copy documents into Fax Reader by using iTunes to copy files into, delete, or copy them out of the app. Users can also ask Fax Reader to open documents from other apps, like Mail, or import documents on the clipboard.

$5.99/Download here

Camera Plus Pro, featured as one of the top paid photography apps by iTunes Rewind 2010 and hailed as ‘best of the bunch’ by The New York Times, has invited you to participate in the greatest iPhone photography contest this season – Metamorphosis – to celebrate its latest and biggest upgrade.

The current upgrade for Camera Plus Pro includes a complete new set of beautiful photo filters such as Coffee, Pop, Retro Green, Washed, Scarlet, Rust and 15 more which transform the ordinary-looking photos into extraordinary, with full of life. Share a lighter moment with your family and friends with the amusing distortion effects for your photos such as Bulge, Swirl, Fish Eye, Pixilate and 5 more. When adding a filter, you can preview the before and after states of the image with just a tap without leaving the current screen, a huge advantage when you want to do a quick comparison.

Flick through all the available photo effects using swipe gestures on your screen to instantly find the one that suits best and be done with it in a matter of seconds – applying effects to an image can’t get simpler than this. The independent control for white balance and touch exposure settings allow you to add creative effects to the image. Double-tap and swipe gestures make post processing a breeze, resulting in you creating a work of art in just a few seconds. The new photo filters are available for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and the new iPod touch. There are also some nifty enhancements within the app which will amplify your photography experience.

$1.99/Download here

Independent developer Jiayi Chong has announced the release of Math Pets! 1.0 for the Apple iPad. Math Pets! is an educational game environment designed to make learning essential math skills a fun, social, and immersive experience. Helping to exercise mental math fundamentals, the games are built to hone skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Each game takes place in beautifully drawn and animated 2D environments and involves hands-on mechanics to engage the user.

Math Pets! offers customization features to personalize games by allowing the user to pick a pet of his/her liking to star as the protagonist of each game. All of the game results are tracked on a progress board that displays scores per game on a measurable graph.

$3.99/Download here

The inaugural game of Ananse Productions, Stem Stumper is built from the ground up to be enjoyed by both the iPhone’s burgeoning blind community and fully sighted players around the world. Stem Stumper is fully integrated with VoiceOver, Apple’s builtin screen reader for iOS devices. And if you think you can solve our puzzles with a blindfold on, we’ve included a sound only "sonar" mode.

While this is Ananse Productions first project, members of Ananse’s team have already worked on several successful projects. Kwasi Mensah, lead developer and programmer has worked on games as varied as Green Day: Rock Band, Borderlands and Mass Effect: Pinnacle Station. Jennifer Kanis, our lead artist, has worked on the iPhone games in the Curious George franchise for FableVision. Dawn-Marie Dunn, our Audio guru, has been involved in gaming for more than ten years and music for more than twenty composing original audio for Flash projects and sound effects for websites. Eric Sutman, lead Level Desginer has worked with several Boston independent developers include Demiurge Studios and Dejobaan Games.

$0.99/Download here

LargeViewer is designed specifically to overcome the two most common problems when using a general purpose PDF document viewer to display very large documents on an iOS device: crashes and slow-downs. Due to its limited processing power, graphics hardware, and internal memory, viewing a ISO AO, USA Arch E, Large E or the standard D1 format document using an iPad can be a frustrating experience. Scrolling slows to a crawl, zooming takes 15 seconds or longer. LargeViewer is written to avoid all these issues, and handles the common PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and PDF file formats natively.

LargeViewer reads all the following file formats: AVS, BMP, CUR, DIB, FITS, GIF, ICON, JNG, JP2, JPEC, JPEG, JPG, MAT, MIFF, MTV, MVG, PBM, PCX, PDF, PGM, PICT, PIX, PNG, PNG8, PNG24, PNG32, PNM, PPM, RLE, SGI, TGA, TIFF, TIF, TIM, VIFF, WBMP, WPG, SBM, and XPM.

$9.99/Download here

Owie got your toddler down? Perhaps he fell down and got a boo boo, Never fear: Toca Doctor, the latest in interactive app toys from Toca Boca is here to ease your child’s pains. The world of medicine and the figure of the doctor both fascinate, and causes some distress to little children – with that in mind, the team at Toca Boca has released its third children’s app Toca Doctor, an app that is more than just a game , but an interactive digital toy that allows children to explore bumps, bruises and broken bones in a fun and creative environment.

Toca Doctor consists of 18 puzzles and mini-games themed around a visit to the doctor’s office. Your child can match shapes to apply a bandage, or solve a maze to get a sneeze out. Each puzzle stimulates the child’s creative reasoning and problem solving skills in a way that is straightforward and non-frustrating to smaller children.

$1.99/Download here

Vegas Mate, an award-winning application for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, today announced that it has added Vegas Video Network programming to the recently released 3.1 version of the application, available now in the Apple iTunes App Store. Users are able to watch Vegas Video Network content easily on their devices, wherever they may be.

"In talking with many of our customers, it’s clear that they’re voracious consumers of Las Vegas related content. With Vegas Video Network’s content in Vegas Mate, our users now can get access to all of their professionally produced videos with just several easy taps. It’s really great", said Hunter Hillegas, creator of Vegas Mate. "In addition, since we support Apple’s AirPlay technology, all of the network’s videos can be streamed to an AppleTV, from right inside the app."

"I’ve been impressed with Vegas Mate from the start," said Scott Whitney, founder of the Vegas Video Network. "Besides being a user myself, we’ve recommended Vegas Mate to our viewers and are excited about becoming an integral part of the content provided by Hunter and his company."

$1.99/Download here

This quirky iOS game introduces children to baby animals through humorous animations. Goo Goo Zoo features baby animals that react to touches. Each baby animal has an action that it performs when touched. Parents who bought Goo Goo Zoo have applauded the application for teaching their children about animals and keeping them entertained.

Version 1.2 brings a baby owl to the zoo. The request to add an owl came from loyal users. Previous versions of Goo Goo Zoo would automatically move to the next animal after an action was performed. Version 1.2 features an enhanced play mode that allow children to interact with the same animal over and over before choosing to move to the next animal. Animal names are now optionally displayed based on a setting in the iPhone settings menu.

$1.99/Download here

Textastic 2.2 has its own editor control to enable syntax highlighting, which is not supported by iOS out-of-the-box. "For this version, the drawing code of the custom editor control has been rewritten and selecting and typing text is now very fast and happens with no delay," Blach explained.

The latest version of the text editor app also connects to FTP, SFTP, and WebDAV servers or to Dropbox and MobileMe iDisk accounts. It features a built-in WebDAV server that allows users to easily transfer files from a Mac or PC over Wi-Fi. It also has a new cursor navigation wheel, which gives users an innovative way to select text on the iPad’s touch screen.

Textastic 2.2 represents a major upgrade to the previous text editor app. Now users of the innovative software can:
* preview image, PDF and office files right from within the app
* use the new configurable password lock feature to protect files and server connections they have created in Textastic
* save several remote locations per file, making it easy to upload or download new revisions
* take advantage of a soft tabs feature that inserts a configurable amount of spaces when the tab key is pressed. (This is especially useful when editing Python source code.)
* use a convenient shortcut to jump to the beginning or end of a file. (They can tap once on the status bar to go to the top of the file and tap a second time to go to the bottom.)

$0.99/Download here

MindColors test is a projective personality test based on purely chromatic stimuli. It has been developed in constant cooperation with psychologists and psychiatrist of proven experience and it has been largely tested.

Each colour identifies a basic psychological dimension. Picking it implies that the subject is currently identifying with those features; ignoring it, on the other hand shows fear and denial of those traits. The results the subject obtains by undergoing the MindColors test describe behaviours and ways of reacting in specific occasions: colours have fixed, unchanging meanings, while the tendency of the individual to accept or refuse a certain colour may change depending on the situations he/she is experiencing; the answers, therefore, may be different depending on the states of mind.

MindColors test can provide a useful indication about strategies and attitudes to encourage or to modify in order to solve a problem or improve social interchanges: as a matter of fact, the test highlights the strong points as well as the areas to improve in the personality of the subject. Eight colours have been chosen (red, yellow, blue, green, brown, purple, grey, black) and particular attention has been paid to their chromatic composition.

$0.99/Download here

Novosibirsk, Russian Federation – The small independent team lead by Victor Kotov have announced the release of Space Cleaner 0.9.1, their new game for iPhone and iPod touch. Should you happen to scrupulously inspect the night sky above your head, you will discover not only amazing stars, but satellites, space stations and other arguably useful things. Tons of various abandoned objects (and possibly subjects) hang right above us. Some are hi-tech trash, and some are valuable artifacts of our era.

While the best of scientific minds are trying to find a permanent solution for the issue, one little robot cleaner is trying to do all he personally can. The thing is, he can definitely use your help. Combine his unique and fantastic abilities with your sharp wit and finesse to give humanity another chance. Dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space.

Features:
* Original gameplay
* Five game levels in near*Earth space
* 29 unique items (full descriptions are available on the website)
* Risky forays to the upper orbits rewarded with extra bonus points
* OpenFeint integration: 5 unique achievement trophies associated with the history of Soviet space

$0.99/Download here

Raging Birds 1.0 is the first iPhone and iPad game made by Vancouver based development company Jireh Studio. "Oh no! My eggs!" The happy little red bird was living in peace and was waiting excitedly for its baby birds to be born. Until one day, a rambunctious boy came along with some rocks and his slingshot attacked the bird’s precious white eggs. Raging Birds need your help in protecting their love ones from the nasty boy by pooping on his head to chase him away. Combat with the boy’s flying rocks and collect the falling leaves to unlock different helping birds to defeat him.

Discover a special way to stop him from his unruly act by tapping on the "Grandma" icon for her to appear; however, 10 leaf points would be taken away each time Grandma shows up. As you complete each level, the background turns into a different season and from day to night modes. By the way, be careful when you advance to the Autumn level, the little boy’s "special"dog will come to help him. Do you think you have the guts to defeat them both? A surprise ending awaits you at the end of the game.

$0.99/Download here

Secure Photo Storage offers users the freedom of keeping all their important photos at their fingertips safe and secure. Furthermore, this application gives users the power to save & share their personal photos without ever worrying about intrusive hands getting to them ever again. Secure Photo Storage is currently available for download on the Apple App Store for free.

This application provides users with a mobile security measure that protects the images stored on their mobile device, a tool that’s extremely useful for anyone who’s in need of taking quick snapshots of documents and other sensitive materials from their mobile device. Secure Photo Storage is a no-frills security tool that is both practical as well as flexible. Once inside, users simply create and set a password, and begin importing photos. The app allows users to import any image stored on their mobile device from normal pictures to scans of important documents, and formal snapshots.

Free/Download here