Daily App Digest – February 10, 2012

Zen Labs LLC are pleased to announce the release of the latest version of Kid-Capsule, their family journaling, milestone, and memory app. The new version centers mainly on the addition of 3 new scrapbook style layouts to their popular event and milestone photo sharing feature. The 3 additional layouts complete the "seasons" set introduced in version 1.2 with their "Winter Wonderland" background. The complete set of backgrounds include the classic green starburst – available since version 1.0, winter, spring summer and fall.

In addition to the new backgrounds, there is an improved selection screen where parents can pick their photo layout background in a visual and friendly manner. It’s as simple as scrolling through the gallery and selecting the best background for the event or milestone they are sharing.

"As a proud parent you always want people to notice your child’s accomplishments. What better way than to display them on beautiful layouts for all to see." says Anahelena Natera, president of Zen Labs. "With the 3 new additions, parents will have more options when sharing those special moments with family and friends".

$2.99/£1.99/download

Ever wished you had an animated avatar/profile picture on Twitter?  You can now create your own with ease, with it being set as your profile picture in a matter of seconds!

Twitch for iOS allows you to create a looped animated GIF image directly on your device (using the back and/or front cameras on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad) and instantly set it as your Twitter profile picture with one click.

As well as the primary purpose of creating and setting an animated profile picture, you can also:

* send a ‘regular’ tweet of the image
* post the image to Facebook
* email the image directly from the app to your friends

Free/download

Just in time for the annual pageantry and fanfare of the Academy Awards, New York-based developer Movie Trivia Apps has announced a limited time price drop for its popular line of Movie Awards Trivia apps. Movie Awards Trivia HD for iPad, and Movie Awards Trivia Pro for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch – both inspired by the Academy Awards – are available at the App Store, through Feb. 26, for the special price of just $0.99 USD. As the stars get set to shine on their brightest stage, fans can get closer to the hoopla, and brush up on their movie awards trivia aptitude at any time of the day or night (and without having to try and storm the red carpet).

Packed with thousands of vintage images of past and present nominees, celebrities, and memorable screen shots – and delivering an in-depth multiple choice movie trivia experience like no other – Movie Awards Trivia is a must-have for film industry professionals, film history experts, or cinema fans who just can’t wait until the Academy Awards presentations to see, and learn more about, their favorite film stars and starlets. Both versions of Movie Awards Trivia are packed with an astounding collection of movie awards trivia questions and games – enough to put Movie Trivia Awards in a category of its own! The upshot is a movie trivia app that is not only entertaining, fun and informative, but challenging, to boot.

"Our Movie Awards Trivia apps are so great for novice and expert movie fans – for whom this is, with the Oscars(TM) approaching, the most exciting time of year – because these apps are just so chock-full of features, trivia questions, games and challenges," said Christopher Black, the V.P. of New Media for Movie Trivia Apps. "The nostalgia factor is very powerful for movie buffs, and that’s what we want to put at user’s fingertips; the chance to reminisce and re-live those moments. The other thing that makes our apps stand out, and that adds a whole new element to the experience, is the fact that users can interact with other users, and pose trivia challenges to their friends via Facebook or email. This is a new twist, and it makes the trivia experience even more comprehensive."

$0.99/£0.69/download

California based Swiit Apps, LLC today announces Locally 1.6, an update to their popular iOS app. Locally is a social network for neighbors and locals to instantaneously buy, sell, communicate, share & organize with anyone around them using a neighborhood bulletin wall. Included in this release is a major update to their patent-pending feature ‘Fizz’ to pop open the local fizz in your neighborhood.

Included in this release:
1. A major update to our patent-pending feature ‘Fizz’ to pop open the local fizz in your neighborhood. Now with five additional Fizz categories,  refined Fizz criteria and a new Fizz user interface (UI) to select your Fizz category that is appropriate at that moment. Find local hangouts, deals, coupons, jobs and much more around your location.
2. Neighborhood private replies to a post (i.e., opinions or questions) can now be anonymous by using a user defined username.
3. Swiit Notes tutorial added to ‘?’ on the Swiit Notes carousel.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Free Life Apps Ltd, one of the fast growing companies in app development and marketing proudly announces success of its new iPad/iPhone app – Aah! Romantic. During its first week in the App Store, the app got featured by Apple in iTunes in the What’s Hot section in 60+ countries. It has also reached Top 50 Highest Grossing Apps for iPad in China, India, Portugal and United Arab Emirates in the Lifestyle category. For a few days in a row Aah! Romantic was even featured in the Top 5 Lifestyle apps What’s New section in the US store! App market analysts explain this success by unique content – all ideas have been written by the team of creative romantics.

The app is targeting men who would like to get advice on surprising their partner and as a result enjoy better quality of relationship. Romantic ideas are always welcome by ladies of all ages, so having an app like that says a lot about its owner – he cares about his loved one.

Great daily surprise ideas and pleasant graphics keep users attracted to the app. Every day they get one random tip that’s very effective yet so easy to do. This simple, but useful app comes in English, and Russian version is due to be released in the next couple of days. Versions for Android smartphones and tablets will be released later this month as well.

$2.99/£1.99/download

Orjen Solutions today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Emoji Card: Share Emoticons Anywhere 1.0, its new social networking app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The Emoji Card app allows millions of iDevices’ users who love to brighten up their messages with Emoji icons share them with their friends on any smartphone or computer in addition to Apple devices.

This unique app provides readability of so popular Emoji icons not only on Apple gadgets and computers, but on any platform. Straightforward interface of the app allows user to type messages mixed up with smileys using the Emoji keyboard and send them as e-cards via e-mail and MMS or post on Facebook and Twitter. Also user can save them as photos in the device’s camera roll or open with an app supporting image file processing.

"While tons of apps at the Apple AppStore offer ‘to enable Emoji keyboard’, – that in fact freely available to everyone in iOS 5.0 – only our app delivers Emoji icons from iOS to Android, Blackberry or Windows devices." says Vasily Gennadich, founder and CEO of the Orjen Solutions.
$0.99/£0.69/download

InnoLab today is excited to release its latest 3D game "Bowling Paradise" for iOS devices. The bowling game is packed with many great features that players are looking for. It is a paradise for bowling. Bowling Paradise provides several unique, beautiful locations to play bowling (seven for iPad and six for iPhone/iPod) including:

* Beach (peaceful and relaxing)
* Garden (fresh and relaxing)
* Slope (exciting – ball rolling down a special wavy path)
* Camping (quiet camping night)
* Dome (classic, luxury)
* Space (high impact – ball can fly in the air to hit pins)
* Mushroom (imaginary land)

Bowling Paradise is an interesting, addictive game. Each location has its own atmosphere, gameplay. These exciting locations will keep you playing for hours.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Mobile smart phones are changing the way we live, socialize and do our businesses. Our phones have replaced many other once-common tools, from GPS devices to handheld gaming consoles, notebooks, calendars, point-and-shoot cameras, newspapers and portable audio players.

At a local technology event in Santa Clara, Nexscience, a California based startup, announced the release of a new mobile application called ‘Document Manager’ for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. The app is the latest in a series of innovative ideas introduced to the Apple users by the developer community.

The new application allow the users to Download, View, Store and Share files on their iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. It supports Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, PDF, Text and wide variety of sound and image file formats. Users can download files from virtually anywhere : from the internet, from a computer in their wifi network, through a USB cable or from an external file management system like Dropbox or  Google Docs.

"Mobile Smart Phones are now capable of doing what we used to do with our desktop computers" said Faisal Faruqi, CTO for Nexscience and an Industry veteran. "With more and more computing power and rich hardware capability in smart phones, the innovation in applications is taking the benefits of mobile technology directly to common users"
$2.99/£1.99/download

Go Games today is proud to announce the release of Go Fishing! 1.0, the iPad version of a popular Facebook game. Go Fishing! lets you escape from work routine and city hassle into the peaceful wilderness of the best fishing spots around the world. You can choose your tackle among hundreds of available options, pick your bait and reel in hundreds of fish species, take part in online tournaments and complete various quests.

* Realistic locations, recreated from the best fishing spots around the world
* Multi-level quests for fishing legends and stories  
* Hundreds of realistic tackle and bait options
* Realistic graphics, animations, sounds, real fishing ambiance
* Real-time multi-player tournaments
* Extensive fishing experience
* Facebook integration
* Leaderboards
* Hundreds of fish

Free/download

Independent Developer Dejan Petrovski today is pleased to announce Pico Spend – Expense Tracker 1.10 for iOS, an update to his Finance app that offers a fast, calculator style input plus easy to use reports and analysis. Designed to provide the utmost in speed and convenience, the app features 29 expense presets accessible from a rapidly scrolling choice of buttons and completely customizable. With easy to understand screens for Entry, Editing, Reports, and Comparison Reports, Pico Spend blends high-speed operation with powerful functions that never require an Internet connection (except to export Reports by email).

The problem with expense trackers is that the good ones have a steep learning curve and require elaborate setup and entry procedures, and the bad ones are easier to learn, but do not offer comparative reports and other useful tools. With Pico Spend, even those who have difficulty balancing their checkbook can start tracking their expenses from the moment they first launch the app. Then, after they have been using the app to conveniently enter expenses, they can analyze their spending using a table view, bar graph, pie chart, and PDF reports.

Daily use is quick and easy, as the app defaults to the Entry screen at launch. The scrolling five-button display to the left of the large keypad contains 29 preset categories (Bills, Car, Coffee, Groceries, Rent, Restaurants, etc.) to choose from, and then the user enters the amount. Optionally, budgeters can tap a button to add a note to any expense item. The save button stores the entry and clears the input screen. Any entry can be edited or deleted from the Editing (Daily Bills) screen, which displays a scrolling list of all expenses from the past 10 days (configurable). To get a quick glimpse of the total amount spent in the past few days (a user selectable Green Period), the user simply does a tap and hold on the big green button on the Entry screen. Those who do not know the tap and hold will be unable to peek at the users spending.

$1.99/£1.49/download

Grat Crabtree today is pleased to introduce X-ray Effect 1.0 for camera-equipped iOS devices, his Entertainment app that produces the illusion of X-ray vision. A nostalgic artifact of the mid-1900’s, comic books have sold novelties claiming to be X-ray glasses for more than 50 years. Like those cardboard eyeglasses, X-ray Effect actually produces the illusion of X-ray vision in live video on the iDevice screen. X-ray Effect is a worthy addition to any iPhone owner’s collection of party Apps, and it is sure to "amaze your friends."

Feature Highlights:
* Hold your hand in front of you with strong backlighting and spread your
fingers
* Launch X-ray Effect and see the complete skeletal structure of your hand
* X-Ray effect is visible as live video on the iDevice screen
* Loads of laughs and a surefire icebreaker at any party!

There was always the subtle suggestion that the dollar X-ray glasses in comic books could not only provide the user with a miraculous view of the subject’s skeletal structure, but also allow the user to see through the clothing of attractive women. The app’s Start screen is a near exact copy of those old ads, "Amazing, Illusory ‘X-ray’ Vision instantly! A hilarious, laughingly funny illusion," accompanied by a cartoon drawing of the famous prankster wearing his X-ray glasses, complete with decorative lightning bolts and an X-ray view of his hand before him.

According to the App Store description, X-Ray Effect allows the user to, "Amaze your friends! Live video! This App is the only App that reproduces the effect of the X-Ray Specs that have been sold in comic books for over 50 years! Imagine ˆ you hold your hand in front of you, fingers spread, towards a strong light source. You seem to be able to look right through the flesh and see the bones underneath. You won’t believe your eyes! A fantastic illusion! Loads of laughs and a surefire icebreaker at any party!"
$0.99/£0.69/download

Announcing that ARTEHISTORIA, the developer of the ArtGenius series of apps, has just released the latest update for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users. ArtGenius Italian Renaissance 1.0 brings a comprehensive history of the Italian Renaissance masters, along with their most celebrated works, to the App Store. The app contains more than 130 of the greatest works of art in history. Unlike other apps that offer Wikipedia links to learn about their subjects, ArtGenius Italian Renaissance 1.0 presents users with professionally written commentary from art experts, artist biographies, helpful links and more.

ArtGenius Italian Renaissance 1.0 Features Include:
* High resolution images of the works of masters
* No internet connection required to view art and commentary
* Includes information on all museums where the works are housed
* Map museum locations for trip planning
* Links to museum hours and ticket information
* English and Spanish versions in one app

From the home screen, users can choose to view high resolution images of the paintings, read the artists’ biographies, or get more information about the museums in which the art is displayed. The "Paintings" section contains high resolution images of each masterpiece, along with commentary and history given by experts within the art world.

ArtGenius Italian Renaissance 1.0 features standard, gesture based controls. Users can use a pinching gesture to zoom in on a painting, or swipe a finger to pan. The easy to use interface also allows for quick navigation from the painting, to the artist bio, to the museum where the art is displayed.
$1.99/£1.49/download

Breek today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of My First Spelling HD, their new educational app developed for Apple’s devices (iPad, iPhone, Mac OS X).

My First Spelling HD is an interactive game that helps your kids read and spell. It develops fluency and can introduce to a second / third language: English, Portuguese, French, German.

Main features:
* Drag & drop the letters to make a word
* 80 words (free update with 60 new words in development)
* 4 languages (English, French, German, Portuguese)
* 3 levels of difficulty 1 to 4 letters, 5 to 7 letters, 8 to 12 letters
* Lifelike pronunciation (mother or child voices)
* Animal and musical instrument sounds
* Choice of letter modes (block capitals, block capitals and lower case, handwriting)
* Original high-quality drawings
$1.99/£1.49/download

Tenacious Technology LLC, an emerging mobile software developer, has today announced the release of their special Valentine’s Day app Valentine Wishes, with uniquely different versions available for the iPhone and iPad. Valentine Wishes is an innovative gaming extravaganza that lets players compete in games to earn points which can be traded in for vibrant digital Valentine’s Day cards they can send to that special someone this February. To unlock e-cards players compete in any one of the app’s four mini-games, unlock every possible romantic card, and spread the love! To boot, the iPad and iPhone versions of this seasonal mobile treat each offer two mini-games unique to their platform, ensuring that getting the app on each device is well worth it. Valentine Wishes for iPhone and iPad is currently available for download on the Apple App Store for free in the Games category.

The games in this unique Valentine’s Day adventure are addicting enough to ensure that if players aren’t motivated to rack up points to unlock e-cards, they’ll play for the simple pleasure of enjoying engaging the sheer fun of it. Both version’s of the app offer two awesome games – Shoot It and Catch it – as well as two platform specific arcade adventures. Valentine Wishes for iPhone offers Tap It, a multi-player game where two players compete to see who taps away every colored block on screen first, and Stop It,  where players are challenged to tap hearts dropped on-screen by angels before they hit the ground. Meanwhile, the iPad version of the app gives love struck gamers access to Throw it, where they must shoot hearts and pin them to a sledge, and Drop It, a fast paced adventure where gamers must catch hearts thrown into the water by mischievous angels by releasing boats below them at just the right time.
Free/download

Finally Zarpar announce the release of new iOS game, ‘Balance : Addictive’! This game is balancing game with full of speed and thrill. You have to survive from falling blocks and stand as far as you can! Is the game boring like other similar games? No, we will show you powerful addictive with only tilt control.

Tilt to lean the bar to survive from the blocks falling. There are faster and faster & bigger and bigger BLOCKS! Also, There are many patterns and items that have their own effects and forms. So, You must be quick and have good senses to balance.

You would experience full of thrills.

Some of Details:
* Try to endure as long as you can on various situations till falling down
* Score depends on impulse of blocks and the number of blocks on the bars
* You can check your skill ratio in the end of the game

$0.99/£0.69/download

Lightwood Games today is delighted to announce the release of Sudoku Party, their latest iPhone and iPad app to put a new spin on a classic puzzle game. Featuring puzzles by Conceptis, Sudoku Party gives individual users a daily challenge at three different levels of difficulty, and also introduces a unique multi-player mode for online play.

In Party Play, two players must work together to solve the same puzzle, but at the same time compete to see who can control the largest number of squares. Once a player has placed a correct answer, their opponent has just a few seconds to respond or they lose claim to that square for ever. Players can challenge their friends or jump straight into an online game against the next available opponent.

The less-pressured solo mode features a range of beautiful, symmetrical, uniquely solvable sudoku puzzles designed by Conceptis Puzzles, the world’s leading supplier of logic puzzles.

"Working with Conceptis has allowed us to do much more with this game than we ever imagined", said Lightwood’s Chris Newman. "Using their puzzles not only means that we can provide high-quality content accessible to players at all levels, but also that we can ensure fresh puzzles are available every single day!"

Sudoku Party includes puzzles graded as easy, medium and hard to provide both a daily fix to casual players and a significant challenge to more accomplished puzzlers.

The competitive online mode uses puzzles classed as "ultra easy" to make sure players don’t get stumped and to keep the action moving quickly.

Free/download