Daily App Digest – January 5, 2012

Limited Securities today is proud to announce the release of iCurrency Plus for iPad 1.2.7, an update to their Finance app that allows users to easily track currency values from more than 150 different currencies listed. The update leverages the new technology introduced in iOS 5, Notification Center. Now, users can see currency rates in the Lock Screen or compiled for viewing in the Notification Center. Even with the app closed, or the iPad locked, users can see the latest rates of their selected currency pairs. The app provides real-time updates for both traders and individuals.

Because there are many good reasons to track currency rates besides investing, iCurrency Plus has been designed to provide real-time information for both individuals and investors. Whether users are following a particular currency pair in anticipation of an upcoming trip, getting the best rate possible for this month shipment abroad, or tracking long-term trends as part of portfolio management, the app supplies immediate, authoritative numbers that are easy to access anytime, anywhere.

With the latest update of iCurrency Plus for iPad, users can set up two different types of notifications. Selecting "Show Price in Notification Area" allows users to get up to date information on the currency rate changes in the Notification Center, no matter what the currency rate is. Alternatively, selecting "Performance Notifications" sends recipients notifications about a change of a rate when its performance has decreased or increased more than a pre-defined percentage over a period of time.

$1.99/£1.49/download

Sound Matching is an ideal app for preschoolers. The goal of the app is to correctly drag matching pictures into the three empty squares beside each letter. There are three Levels of play: 1 Letter (3 matching objects from 6 pictures), 2 Letters (3+3=6 matching objects from 10 pictures), and 3 Letters (3+3+3=9 matching objects from 12 pictures). It provides entertaining practice in matching the first letter of a spoken word with the correct written letter. The result of such practice is that children come to realize, intuitively, that the spoken word "Dog" is a "D" word, "Ball" is a "B" word, etc. In playing with the app, kids are unaware that they are traversing several cognitive steps, as they match spoken or illustrated words with written letters.

Of several cognitive steps, the first may be touching each letter, e.g., "B"-"C"-"D," to hear its sound. This reinforces the idea that each of the alphabet’s 26 letters has a name, and each has a sound or phoneme it produces. Second, may be touching each of the 12 pictures and hearing aloud the sound or signifier of each photographed object. This reinforces the idea of equivalency between the picture, its signifier as spoken, and its signifier as written. The child develops a firm understanding of language as a tool to represent things that are concrete or abstract, a tool that works the same way whether it is spoken/heard or written/read. The third cognitive step may be dragging a picture to an empty square. In the process of dragging it must be touched, and so the child hears the object’s sound again as it is moved. Placed correctly, it stays in the square, and placed incorrectly, it returns to the collection of pictures. There are no points, timers, or rewards upon completion.

Free/Download

2WayResume, an iPhone and iPad app by award winning career site, AdvancingWomen, leverages the contacts you already have and provides a dual format that puts a job seeker immediately into the employer’s data base, ahead of the crowd. Now, the only resume app to offer all these crucial features:  

* Social Share – one click let’s your friends on Facebook and Twitter know you’re looking for an opportunity or a specific job
* Expert guidance – Proven strategies from career experts to shape your winning resume  
* "Copy & paste" short cuts to make resume creation simple and effective
* Automatically calculated time zone
* Cover letter distilled into a pithy sentence, embedded in your email subject line, removing the final barrier to getting into the system immediately  
* Stores up to 8 different targeted resumes

Job seekers recommend 2WayResume App short cuts to make resume creation simple, attractive and effective. Not only does 2WayResume App enable you to empower your network in your job search, it delivers your resume two ways, each with its own distinctive benefits, in a single email to employers and job boards.

$1.99/£1.49/download

Beth Shergalis has announced a new fitness iPhone app, Health Time LT. If you spend most of your day sitting, then this app is a must. Health Time LT includes a three and a half minute workout. All of the included exercises can be done at your desk. Studies show that people who sit more have less desirable levels of cholesterol, blood sugar, triglycerides and even waist size, which increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and a number of health problems.

App Designer, Ms. Shergalis stated, "Using this app is an absolute necessity for anyone concerned about the health effects of being sedentary".

Employers who care about their employee’s well being and rising health costs should recommend that workers get up and move at least once an hour. The benefits of using the Health Time LT app is that it incorporates a balanced workout for the whole body in three and a half minutes at ones desk. The cost of this app is free!

Features:
* Photo/illustration of poses
* Info on how to properly do exercise
* 30 second timer with sound alarm to notify user when to change to next pose
* Easy to use interface

Free/download

Giving children an entertaining and educational new creative tool, UmaChaka Media, Inc. today announces the launch of its latest iPad app, TJ’s Art Studio, letting young artists draw, paint, and share their creations. Created specially for the iPad, the app features original animated characters from TJ & Pals that interact with the child and provide an engaging way to explore art and creativity. This allows the app to offer a safe and exciting digital playground for learning how to draw and create using pencils, paintbrushes, markers, stickers, pictures, and more.

"TJ’s Art Studio sparks children’s imaginations because it is loaded with creative features," said Jennifer Zelcer, CFO of UmaChaka Media, Inc. "We created this kid-friendly app to invite children into a fun and educational world of creativity."

In the app, children can choose from a range of colorful and easy-to-use design tools. TJ’s Art Studio encourages children to tap a paintbrush, choose a size and color, and paint all over the canvas. They can also choose from colorful stickers, a variety of drawing tools, numbers and letters, and their own photos.

Five kid-friendly videos in the app help children start creating quickly by showing them the basics. They feature the friendly characters from TJ & Pals: a pencil named TJ, a paintbrush named Dabney, a color marker from the Koki Markers, and an eraser named Butch.

TJ’s Art Studio was designed to function as more than a drawing tool, giving children many options to express their creativity. Using the iPad’s interface, the app allows for mess-free practice for budding artists. Parents can save their child’s finished designs and email them to friends and family from within the app.

TJ’s Art Studio was designed by a team of children’s educators, advisory pediatricians, writers, composers, illustrators, graphic designers and animators whose goal was to create an interactive, safe, and creative oasis with new and original content. The app itself was created by Ashley Lazarus, an award winning film maker, who for many years directed films for Mattel’s toys, games and learning products including their Disney and Sesame Street brands such as "Winnie the Pooh" and "Dr. Seuss".

$1.99/£1.49/download

ThemePark Guides, Inc is pleased to announce the first-ever, voice guided, turn-by-turn navigation iPhone App for the Magic Kingdom, Orlando. With ThemeParkGPS, users can now get precise directions from their current location, within the Park, to any of the other points of interest also within the Park. Users can easily toggle between a detailed turn-by-turn list and walking along a preferred "route."  This route is plotted on a graphic display map of that Park.

In addition to navigational assistance, this App provides the useful information needed to locate and enjoy all of the attractions, restaurants, shops and other points of interest throughout each Park. By downloading ThemeParkGPS prior to their actual visit, users can familiarize themselves with that Park and plan their itinerary well in advance. This will enable them to ‘hit the ground running’ once they arrive.

ThemeParkGPS has other unique features that guests will use throughout their visit. One such feature is an interactive GPS map that displays the users’ current location and follows them in ‘real time’ as they move throughout the Park.

The Parking feature remembers the guests’ exact parking spot and quickly directs them to their vehicle at the end of the day. Multiple users will find the App’s Family & Friend Tracker especially helpful. It enables them to view where others in their party are located. They also can send ‘in-App’ messages to any of these individuals.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Light Sleepers, an imaginative new mobile application developer, has announced the recent release of Ann Can’t Sleep for the iPhone and iPad.

With vividly colorful animation and automatic narration options in hand, this children’s eBook engages young users with a simple-to-follow story that is at once engrossing and relatable. This leisurely app was developed for kids to be able to use whenever they find some free time, whether it’s at bedtime or during lunch.

The app stars Ann – a cutely designed girl, as she tries to pick a toy to help her fall asleep. Recognizing its young audience, Ann Can’t Sleep utilizes basic easily comprehendible words and audio narration that kids can use if they have trouble reading through certain sections, or if they simply want to sit back and enjoy the app’s story more passively.

$2.99/£1.99/download

Remove the evil curse in this captivating adventure by finding hidden objects in the dark and mysterious Cursed Valley! The fabled "Magician’s Handbook" has fallen into your hands. You are beckoned to a dark and desolate place whose true name has long been forgotten. Search beautiful, hand-painted backgrounds for cleverly- hidden enchanted objects. Use special incantations to slowly reveal the pages of the sacred book.Lift the curse from the haunted valley to discover its true name in this brain-bending, hidden object adventure with unlimited replay ability.

$4.99/£2.99/download

In the middle on the year 1940, german forces were occupying a big part of europe. It’s only a matter of time that US army will get engaged in this conflict and send their troops to the old continent. You are a member of the Us special forces and have been commanded to go to Egipt. Our sources say that the pyramid of Hatshepsut may hide a powerful artifact that is vital to our army’s success. Your mission is to explore the tomb, and retrieve it. I think you should know that our sources detected some paranormal readings. It looks like the dead came back to life to defent the precious treasure.

$2.99/£1.99/download

In 2020 in the desert of Hoggar, a young Egyptologist is looking for a building that the Ancient Egyptians built. There, she meets a Touareg who apparently wants to help her and discovers fantastical machines that seem to come from another world. She decides to activate them to help her move forward in her search. But she doesn’t yet realize that she’ll have to go back through several periods and civilizations in history for the most mysterious and dangerous of adventures: The quest for Atlantis.

$3.99/£2.99/download

Strap on your moon boots and fire up your nitro boosters because the real space race is about to begin… Welcome to the world of high-speed low-grav moon buggy racing! Tilt, shoot, blast, and nitro boost your way through the solar circuit. Achieve the ultimate prize and conquer the solar system by beating and blasting away any competitor in your way.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Handpick players, train, and battle your way to the top of every league in this sensational soccer team simulation!

Sell merch, erect a gym–even a stadium! Your fanbase will grow as you conquer your rivals and snag the hottest sponsors. The sky’s the limit in your quest for ultimate soccer stardom!

As the crowd erupts in jubilation and the screams of "Goal!" echo throughout the stadium, will your team stand victorious? Try your hand at being a soccer team manager and find out.

$2.99/£1.99/download

Vlambeer’s smash hit SUPER CRATE BOX brings back the glory of the golden arcade age when all that really mattered was getting on that high score list! Grab your baseball cap and loosen your pants, it’s time to fight endless hordes of enemies and collect every weapon crate you can. Prepare for an arcade delight with tight controls, refreshing game mechanics, cracking retro art and a terribly hip chiptune soundtrack.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Voice Synth is much more than your average voice changer app. Create and design your own incredible voices that live, breathe and evolve in real-time as you play. Sound like famous pop artists, "deep" movie voices ("Soon… in this theatre"), a close harmony choir, a robot, a church organ, a baby, lion, guitar, old telephone or anything else you can create. Sing in the mic and become a true artist by tweaking the controls of the vocoder, sampler, pitch and formant shifter, automatic tuning and harmony arranger, distortion, delay, stereo chorus and reverb. 


$4.99/£2.99/download