Daily App Digest – February 21, 2012

Prestige Entertainment Group LLC today is pleased to announce the release and worldwide availability of Name That Movie, their new comprehensive movie trivia game. In this quiz-based title, movie lovers will go through 5 different rounds, testing their knowledge of movies in all genres, master 7 ‘mini-games’ to make their way to the top of the Leaderboards, and achieve the ultimate Rank of "Hollywood Legend".

Developers and movie-lovers Redwind Software have tailored Name That Movie to provide movie buffs with all kinds of movie trivia questions at just the right level of obscurity. In addition to the challenging mix of questions, there are a wide variety of other puzzle types, presented in several interesting ways. Created with love, skill and attention to detail, Name That Movie features an enormous amount of content including thousands of clips, stills, posters, hangman, clues and trivia questions.

"Working on Name That Movie with Redwind Software has been a blast. As the owners of Name That Tune, we wanted to bring something to consumers that they would enjoy playing with a bit a familiarity of the iconic brand. With the proliferation of movies nowadays, I think users will appreciate the exciting gameplay and features that only we are able to provide them." – Noah Rubenstein, COO, Prestige Entertainment Group LLC.

Among the unique characteristics of the game is its Anti-Repetition system. It means that players will never run into any overlap in the questions and will never feel bored when playing through this movie-based quiz game. There are also leaderboards to keep track of the scores and compete with friends. To boast of their achievements, users can share their high scores via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail or SMS.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Van Dyk Entertainment would like to announce the release of their premiere iOS application, Slice ‘n Dice Ninja 1.0, now available in the App Store. Slice ‘n Dice ninja is a physics-based castle-defense game, employing superb artwork, anatomically-correct ragdoll-physics and skeletal animation.

Set in a beautiful historic Japanese environment, Slice ‘n Dice Ninja allows the player to choose from a multitude of weapons, including a katana, ninja stars, grapple hook, spring-board traps and more!  The game is OpenFeint and Game Center-enabled, with more challenges being added in every update.

Premise: "The year is 1550 AD, Sengoku-period. It is a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict. Japan is dominated by local lords, known as "Daimyo". One particular Daimyo, Nagiichi KAMIYA, has become the subject of numerous social uprisings and assassination attempts, due to imposing high taxes on the lower class farmers and craftsmen."

"Neighboring Daimyo uses this as a means to extend their dominance by means of assassination. You’ve been hired as a mercenary for the personal protection of KAMIYA. You are a lone ninja, whose name is revered throughout Central Japan for your skill and abilities in the ancient martial arts known as "Ninjitsu", gained from years of dedicated training. Should you successfully complete your mission, you will be greatly compensated for your time and skill."

$0.99/£0.69/download

The California makers of TheLandlordApp announced this week that version 1.5 of their Smartphone App is now available through the Android Market and iTunes. Version 1.5 builds upon the success of The Landlord App by providing an update containing various improvements, including fixes that:

* Address the ability to add / edit past collected rent
* View payment status at a glance on property summary screen
* Improve the handling of a properties water bill
* Added time stamp to tax and insurance payments
* Allow users to store App data on both phone memory and the SD card

Landlords across the country will no longer have to dig through endless piles of paperwork or struggle with dead beet management companies to control every aspect of their rental properties.

Created by two engineers who have a combined 9 years of property management experience, TheLandlordApp is a complete solution for any landlord who manages his or her own properties. The App will maintain flawless records for IRS, which are exportable to excel, store all relevant tenant information, calculate cash flow for all properties, and even advertise on Craigslist. This truly will be the only tool you will ever need. The innovative design and intuitive feel are easy enough for a novice but powerful enough for advanced users. To learn more about TheLandlordApp, and how it can simplify your life, visit The Landlord App website.

$9.99/£5.99/download

Game developers, The Steampunk Studio have released their new multi-platform game, Happy Chicken Co, along with a competition. Can you be the first player in the world to Conquer The Maze? Happy Chicken Co raises the bar in respect of challenging puzzle games and is totally unique in its concept and originality and players will become quickly addicted in their quest to rescue the chickens and prevent them from becoming tonight’s Chow Mein!

The chickens who live under the Happy Chicken Co have discovered their fate and realised their only hope lies in the wings of Hilda, ‘The Bravest Chicken’. There is only one way out. Freedom lies on the other side of the giant mind-boggling underground maze that stands in their way.

Steve Parkes from The Steampunk Studio said "Happy Chicken Co is such a unique, challenging game that we are very excited to hear from the first person to conquer it and we will award them with a special prize to commemorate their achievement."  Details of the competition can be found on The Steampunk Studio website.

Players must navigate Hilda around the enormous maze avoiding the dangerous obstacles to find the 10 keys which are scattered throughout it then make their way to the exit. Sounds simple, but beware, not all is as it seems. There are some nasty twists and turns along the way and not all the keys are in plain view.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Designed for anyone visiting Paris, Mallow Technologies today is thrilled to announce the newly updated version of its popular Paris By Metro app, bringing easy-to-use maps of the city’s subway, trains, and trams to both the iPhone and iPad. Paris By Metro can help users save time and money with detailed transit maps, route planners, currency conversion, and travel tips.

"You can leave your heavy guidebook and hard-to-read maps at home. The Paris By Metro app will help you see more of the city and suburbs without getting lost," said Kamalavel Rajendran, Executive Director of Mallow Technologies. "It’s the easy to use app that no traveler should be without."

Useful for both vacationers and business travelers, Paris By Metro features detailed maps for the Metro (subway), RER (train), and tram. Users can see the whole Metro or any one line and view transfers to the train, tram, or other lines. The app even works without a data connection, such as underground or with roaming turned off.

Paris By Metro shows the best ways to get around the city. Need the fastest route? Want to minimize walking? Users can simply tell Paris By Metro where they are and where they want to go, and the app shows the best travel plan. This feature is especially helpful for getting to Paris’ most famous sights and the airport quickly.

Paris By Metro also lists the city’s top attractions such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum in one place, along with the best Metro stops to get there and the official websites to click for more information.

$0.99/£0.69/download

TimeTours today is pleased to introduce TimeTours: Uxmal for iOS, a new entry in their series of revolutionary multimedia apps, that takes the viewer on a guided tour of the ancient Mayan city of Uxmal. Featured are meticulously rendered 3D stills, animations and spherical panoramas that allow instant comparison of the city as it appears today, versus how it looked over 1000 years ago. At once a practical guide for actual tourists visiting the archaeological site in Mexico, and a doorway for virtual travelers and students exploring the past, the fact-filled multimedia production continues the successfull series of app-based time traveler/tourist guides.

Uxmal is even more focussed on the comparison of three ‘time zones’. The high time of the ancient Maya culture, the time of the rediscovery and what we can see today. The new interactive ‘Now & Then & …’ screens show a direct comparision between the architecture at these 3 times and the app is filled with photographs and drawings from the time of the first Uxmal explorers.

The pre-Hispanic city of Uxmal has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Founded in approximately 700 AD it became a major center of Mayan arts, religion, politics, and commerce. It was the center of an area now known as Puuc-region. By 1100 AD the city was already abandonded leaving us with the  mystery what caused the decline of the Maya civilization.

TimeTours: Uxmal launches with a feature film quality 3D animation taking the user back in time to the a world of human sacrifice and the ballgame that represented the circle of life. The opening screen introduces one of the tour guides  who speaks directly to the user via a dialogue text balloon. He tells us he is responsable for technical questions and acknowledges that he has automatically adjusted the app, based on the screen size and other abilities of the device used, may it be from the iPhone/iPod or the iPad series.

$1.99/£1.49/download

Nose Invaders 1.0, a new puzzle adventure game for iPhone has just been released on iTunes App Store by Dear Future Astronaut, Swedish creative mobile development company. Gamers will be able to explore the unseen worlds inside the noses of different creatures and fight against ever changing air currents.

What makes Nose Invaders special is that it is a mix of  a physics-based game and a puzzle, so a combination of aiming, perfect timing and smart strategy is the only way to stop the invaders. Since air currents change direction each time the creature inhales and exhales the player needs to find the perfect moment to push the brave hero towards viruses, collect them and land on platforms, teleport holes or other game objects before air changes direction again.

$0.99/£0.69/download

TappyTaps today is pleased to announce their new application, Baby Monitor 3G. This application is a tool for helping parents with babysitting. It uses two iOS devices – one stays in the baby’s room, and the other goes with the parents. Any noise from the baby’s room is recorded on the device, and is automatically sent to the parent’s station. "There are many Wi-Fi-based Baby Monitors in the AppStore, but none of them works particularly well. In addition, being limited to Wi-Fi only is a big weakness of these applications, and as parents ourselves we know this only too well", said Jindrich Sarson, father of three and CEO of TappyTaps. Therefore, the TappyTaps team decided to revisit all the ideal features of the Baby Monitor and implement them into the Baby Monitor 3G.

The features that are important for parents:
* You can hear your baby – thanks to our state-of-the-art algorithm for voice and microphone volume adjustment you can hear your baby even when it is not close to the device or when it is crying softly
* 2-way communication to your baby – it is possible to talk with your baby from the parent’s station
can display exactly what is happening in your baby’s room – using the built-in iPhone/iPad camera
* It is reliable – it constantly monitors the connection between the parent’s station and the baby station, and notifies the parents immediately when something goes wrong. It will even reconnect to another network should the first network drop
* It works with any network. You are no longer limited to just one Wi-Fi network, as with all the other Wi-Fi-based Baby Monitors available in the AppStore. Each device can connect to another network with no limitations on distance
* It is network-efficient – we are well aware of the tight restrictions of some network operators, so one hour of typical use of this device requires only 1 MB of data, which is less than is needed to send one high quality photograph by e-mail
* It is easy to use – easy to configure and even easier to use

$3.99/£2.49/download

Independent developer Rob Rightmyer today is pleased to introduce Bad Monkey and Bad Friends 1.0 for iOS, his new casual Game where Bad Monkey and Friends drop items from overhead, and players are challenged to catch every one in a bowl filled with water. Played in landscape orientation, players can move the bowl left and right using a finger or tilt control. The game becomes challenging very quickly, as acorns, bananas, and eggs are dropped in rapid succession, requiring fast, accurate reflexes. The game includes many variations and surprises, making gameplay always entertaining.

Feature Highlights:
* Monkeys, squirrels, and parrots drop bananas, acorns, and eggs from a jungle bridge
* Players can use touch or tilt control to move their bowl left and right to catch every item
* Players must catch every item dropped or the round is over
* Catch a falling basket to enlarge the catching basket and score more points
* Catch a falling clock to slow the falling objects
* Casual game with three levels of difficulty, including a very easy level for young children and Game Center integration

$0.99/£0.69/download

As high inflation continues to tighten its grip on personal finances, Corbenic Consulting has come to the rescue by adding a new iPhone App to their personal finance range. ‘My Budgets – Expense Tracker’ follows previous Corbenic Consulting finance apps such as the ‘Spending Log’ App, which was recently featured in the Sunday Times App list for a second year.

Create Budgets and Track Progress:
Unlike ‘Spending Log’ however the new ‘My Budgets – Expense Tracker’ App is all about setting budgets and keeping to them rather than analysing your spending habits. A user just needs to create as many budgets as they need for things like ‘Eating Out’ and ‘Clothes’ and then log their purchases against each budget as they are made. The Budgets can operate over a week, a month or any other time period the user decides. Progress can be tracked using the Apps graphical ‘Filled Tubes Display’ which shows how much of each budget has been used up so far.

Filled Tubes Display:
The Filled Tubes Display shows the user how much of each individual budget they have spent so far. There is also a Total Tube showing how the expenditure is split amongst the individual budgets. So that progress can be tracked over the budgets time period the App also features a time indicator against which the tubes can be compared ; This shows whether it is time to reign in that spending  in order to keep within Budget.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Dapper Gentlemen today released Ugly Meter 3.1 for iPhone users. The application, which has been featured on the Howard Stern Show, Jay Leno, Today Show, MSNBC, Fox News, and The New York Post, brings to the market a fun way to determine who is the ugliest of them all. Using the device camera, pictures are analyzed for ugliness. All your friends will want to try and prove that they are not as ugly as you say they are. Results include a number rating and advice on how to cope with the results.

The Dapper Gentlemen developers have created an entertaining app that will make the user the center of attention. The app is Ugly Meter. It uses an on screen guide to line up the picture perfectly for best results. Based on the camera feed, it automatically scans the facial features in the picture to determine the ugly rating after you snap the picture. The app will offer final conclusions of who is the ugliest that nobody can argue with.

These are some of the Ugly Meter features:
* Interactive interface tracks faces in real-time
* Scanning function operates as you watch
* Scores by the numbers so you can compare scores
* Hundreds of lines to give advice based on your ugly score

Free/download

Techselect Consulting, Inc., a mobile web developer of business and productivity apps for the iPhone, today is proud to announce the release of Business Idea Manager, an iPhone app to help current and future entrepreneurs to record, track and qualify new business ideas. Business Idea Manager is an excellent tool for entrepreneurs that generate many ideas.

At a minimum, you can just enter the name and description of your new business idea as you think of it. Later you can enter other details to further explain and qualify your idea. Business Idea Manager helps you think through your business idea. You can record details about:

* Idea Profile – including business need, vision, products & services, and other information
* Market – including target market customer profiles, revenue sources, sales channels, marketing ideas, and pricing considerations
* Competition – including competitive assessment, barriers to competition, and differentiators
* Finance – including startup capital requirements, primary sources and uses of funds, and projections
* Operations – including management, staffing, facilities, and equipment requirements

You can easily sort your ideas by name, number, status, or industry. You can email your entire list of ideas or the details of a single idea for sharing your ideas. Business Idea Manager can also be used by existing entrepreneurs to track new product or service ideas. Quit writing down business ideas on napkins and scratch paper – keep them organized on Business Idea Manager!

$0.99/£0.69/download

Chunky Apps today is proud to announce the mobile solution to all of your problems with the opposite sex: "Meathead Luv Tips – Stupid Funny Dating Advice from the Jersey Shore." Let’s face it, with the advent of smutty yet fantastically entertaining South Jersey style unscripted TV, it is always relevant to ask: "What would a Meathead do?" Finally, an App has surfaced that answers all of your love (and life) questions on the go.

Meathead Luv Tips is simple to use and is perhaps the most comprehensive resource for Meatheads, Meatheads-In-Training, and those that love them. Once the App is opened..you simply select "Advice for Girls" or "Advice for Guys". Press the red "listening" button and rattle off whatever is on your mind. Whether it be an over-juiced disrespectin’ boyfriend, or crazy hair-pulling guidette, our Meathead will give you some sound GTL- influenced advice. Each quip is followed by some fist-pumping beats that will make any unpleasant moment with an overtanned douchbag seam happier.

According to Comedian and App Co-Creater/Voice Artist Tim Krompier: "This App is the best thing since Dr. Phil, except this resident advice-giver has better hair and only 8% body fat"

$1.99/£1.49/download

The Gamma Project has announced that they are dropping iSyslog’s price for a limited time, effectively immediately which will reduce the app’s price from $1.99 to $0.99. iSyslog is a tool for users and professionals interested in the overall health of the apps and processes running on their iPhones, iPod touches and iPads. Polished and easy-to-use, the app helps both end users and experts to check out what’s going on under the hood on their device; one can easily detect bugs, analyze apps’ sanity and report issues – without having to be an iOS expert.

iSyslog retrieves and visualizes all messages generated by apps and processes, which otherwise would remain hidden. The information is presented on a polished, intuitive interface, which requires no instructions for use. After starting the application we get a comprehensible overview of all apps and processes which have generated log messages. Pie-charts and graphics provide an intuitive way to quickly check the sanity of your system.

By pulling down the main view an analytical view is shown, which presents a graphical overview of all the messages being generated grouped by severity.

Back to the main UI, we can unfold each and every process or app section, and take a closer look at the messages belonging to them. You don’t have to be an iOS developer to quickly spot errors: intuitive graphics and dedicated colors help finding the relevant entries.

Whenever an app is crashing, we usually can’t do much – except maybe contacting the developer, and trying to describe the problem. However, this information is usually not enough to find the root cause and solve the issue. iSyslog can be of great help in this case: you can easily spot the relevant log entries, and allows copying their content to the pasteboard, or sending the logs via e-mail to the support staff.

$0.99/£0.69/download