Daily App Digest – May 22, 2012

Binary Noise Ltd today is pleased to announce Kaleidoscope Camera 1.5 for iOS, their advanced, interactive, live-view Kaleidoscope Camera application. Both a camera and an exploratory visual toy, Kaleidoscope Camera features a digital kaleidoscope with six different symmetry configurations, including an infinite spiral and a mesmerizing mandala, turning an iPhone or iPad into an artistic camera that can create complex kaleidoscopic photographs. The current update adds support for the Retina display on the New iPad.

With Kaleidoscope Camera, kaleidoscopes are no longer limited to old school toys with hexagonal mirror configurations. Kaleidoscope Camera transforms images via a user’s mobile device camera, creating an opportunity for visual play and artistic photography. This unique app takes a live camera view and multiplies it using advanced symmetries to produce artistic views and photographs, even from everyday objects.

Creating kaleidoscopic art with Kaleidoscope Camera is effortless. Users simply aim the camera at an object or scene, choose from one of six symmetry configurations, and press the camera button to take the photo. Complex, ever-changing patterns give users the opportunity to choose the resulting image. Users may influence the pattern of the kaleidoscope by manipulating the image on the screen through finger swipes. Users may change the direction or speed of the spin, as well as zoom in on the image. Using the photographer-facing camera, the app can also be used to create kaleidoscopic portraits. The photographs made by Kaleidoscope Camera can be saved onto the user’s device or shared instantly via email, Facebook, or Twitter.

$0.99/£0.69/download

techBASIC, from the ByteWorks, Inc., is a comprehensive software development environment for programming, data collection, displaying sophisticated interactive graphics, and analyzing data. The new capabilities added in techBASIC 2.2 give professionals and students access to powerful technical computing software that until now cost thousands of dollars, and was only available on desktop platforms. techBASIC 2.2 adds new features for solving complex mathematical functions with ease and accuracy, including:

* Numeric integration for calculus
* Fit curves to data with polynomial and linear regression
* Special functions for statistics
* Solve simultaneous equations with LU decomposition
* Numerically solve functions using zeros of functions
* Professional-grade random number generation for world-class simulations

Three new tutorial blogs on the Byte Works website let students and professionals concentrate on the problem at hand, not learning a new development environment:

* Using techBASIC as the ultimate power-user’s graphing calculator
* Fit lines and curves to data with linear regression
* Solve difficult integrals or check calculus homework with numeric integration

$14.99/£10.99/download

VarioWay is an analytical company that deals with gathering, selecting, and classifying data, as well as deriving and evaluating the validity and reliability of conclusions based on data. Its mission is to find out people’s tastes and opinions on most interesting topics. Right now they are working on a very interesting research. Surely as everybody already understood it’s about Eurovision 2012 in Baku.

CrazyTeaBag announces the release of Eurovision 2012, a unique application for iPhone and iPad users. The mission of the app is to invite everybody to take part in an iPad3 Giveaway organized by VarioWay! Today you can take part in one of the biggest research ever made. In gratitude for your participation you can get one of five New iPads, 4g, 32gb. All you have to do is download the free app Eurovision 2012 and Vote. That’s it!

If you will be the lucky one to guess the winners of World’s favorite TV show, you will take part in VarioWay’s lottery. Don’t hesitate to get the New iPad for free. Here are some of the contest’s term and conditions:

* Entrants must download the free app "Eurovision 2012" and vote for first, second and third place
* Entrants must be old enough to receive shipments of the herein listed giveaway items
* The winners will be selected randomly
* The prices are – 5 New iPad, 4G, 32GB – Cash equivalent is not permitted
* The winner will be notified via email letter within 24 hours after the drawing date

Free/download

ditter.projektagentur Releases the Latest in the Best-Selling Photo Cookbook Series: Even the most skilled home cooks can be intimidated by the art of the cocktail, but becoming an expert mixologist has never been easier than with The Photo Cookbook – Cocktails! Make classic vodka, gin, whiskey, rum, champagne, and non-alcoholic drinks with this innovative and inspiring app. There’s never been a better excuse to fix a martini! Cocktails is the third installment in the Photo Cookbook series: a sleek, visual cooking tool designed to make kitchen life beautifully simple. Features include:

* Step-by-step instructions with a beautiful full-color image for each step, taking all of the guesswork out of the process
* Scrolling recipe lists by key category
* Full search functionality to easily find recipes by name or by ingredient
* Notes enabled for each recipe – keep track of your own variations
* Ability to "favorite" the recipes you like the best for easy reference
* Easy email button sends ingredients lists to yourself or someone else – don’t forget to pick up the bourbon
* Utilizes the stunning new retina display available with the latest iPad

The release of The Photo Cookbook: Cocktails follows the international success of the ditter.projektagentur / Parragon collaborations The Photo Cookbook – Quick & Easy, The Photo Cookbook – Baking, and History of Rock. The Photo Cookbook series has been featured in several Apple commercials for the iPad 2. Cocktails continues ditter.projektagentur’s success in transforming Parragon’s vibrant print book content into a beautiful multimedia app, making home cooking an easy and delicious experience for all.

$4.99/£2.99/download

How was the Internet really invented? And what is the link to schoolyard bullying? Cool to be Clever, an iPad app for youngsters that combines biography with video interviews, anti-bullying resources and pre-Internet documents, has been downloaded by thousands of families and schools from 50 countries. Awareness is quickly spreading, fanned by enthusiastic reviews from "mommy-bloggers" and children’s app review sites.

This breakthrough app – the first extensively enhanced ebook app of its genre – is based on the true story of Edson C. Hendricks, the genius who invented the design for the Internet. The story was written by Leanne Jones, a former primary school teacher who is now a private detective. The app was developed by Agio Studios of Victoria, BC, Canada. Hendricks himself was recruited to narrate the story and appears in 12 video interviews on topics such as "People who are different," "Predicting the future at IBM," "Being bullied" and "Advice to today’s programmers." Jones composed and performed the musical score.

Free/download

demografix pty ltd, creators of School Fonts for the iPhone, have created an app that certainly sets a new benchmark for an educational app. Suitable for children to adults, School Fonts allows the teacher or parent to prepare lessons using written instructions, unique images and audio instructions, to which the student can respond using written and audio recordings. Students learn shapes, letters, numbers, words and more limited only on what a teacher or parent can create as lessons. This ‘open scaffold’ extends the use of School Fonts far beyond early education and is suitable through to adult education.

"One of the most powerful tools a teacher or parent will find in any iPhone app, utilizing the technologies effectively and certainly a must have educational app for schools and home education" stated Mt Paul Collins of demografix pty ltd.

The app presents the approved fonts for your school, including individual Cursive letters. School Fonts contains the education-approved handwriting fonts used in the United States of America schools – Zaner-Bloser and D’Nealian, UK and Australia.

A really cool feature of the app is that it will automatically email to the teacher or parent the student’s tracings and audio recordings as a webpage at the end of a completed lesson.

Clearly designed with education in mind, School Fonts relies on the ability of the teacher or parent to review the student’s work and provide external recognition and reward for good work or effort, so the ‘bells and whistles’ are kept to a minimum. This evaluation is assisted with unique features such as the tracing ‘Reset’ button having a counter and traces that can be ‘replayed’ and are not automatically erased after the app is closed.

School Fonts maximizes the flexibility for a teacher or parent who wants to customize the content. Teacher or parents can create for example, words with missing letters with unique images and unique audio recordings, that will provide a rich learning environment that can be adapted to the student’s progress. It seems unlimited activities can be created such as spelling lists where the student can write the word and record the spelling, circle the vowels, write the opposite, to name only a few. The possibilities are endless and seem only limited only by the teacher’s imagination.

Teacher tracing allows teachers to record their own example tracings for each letter and number, which replay when the student taps the ‘Learn’ button. Teacher tracing offers the ability to record audio behind the tracing to replay for letter sounds or phonetics or as simple tracing instructions. This allows for regional variations of the letter sounds.
$3.99/£2.99/download

After the enormous success of Haypi Kingdom, Haypi has made a new iOS hit: Haypi Dragon. This MMORPG takes you to an exciting world with dragons and magic. Haypi Dragon is a fascinating combination of strategy and combat. It certainly entertains both life-long players and first-time iOS apps users. This title has more than a million fans to date, and most probably will surpass the popularity of Haypi Kingdom. The latest 1.4 version of the app will be released within a few days. Haypi Dragon actually offers a magical reality, which at the same time looks real with its physics-based firing and battles. Every design element in the game has been made well-balanced and logical.

This action game also has beautifully designed characters, intriguing storyline, many different scenes with numerous levels, challenging PVP, alluring lost island Laputa, and many more. The player‚s aim is to defeat enemy dragons and, eventually, to tame them to fight on the player‚s side. There are several different dragons with their own skills and abilities. Players start with only one dragon ˆ Roco ˆ who helps them save Haypi Town from the brutal attackers. Players have to train the dragon to improve their abilities. There are tasks and magical items that help the players level up.

The developer Haypi constantly adds new features to the game, such as new levels, new dragons, new tasks, new items, and activities. The latest 1.4 version of the app includes two new dragons: the Devil dragon Satan and the Naughty dragon Shell. Same as all the characters in Haypi Dragon, the newly added Satan and Shell also look simple but vivid and original. In the newest version, the developer has added two more scenes: the Scenic Gulf and the Active Volcano. There is also an expression system added to the graphics. It makes the characters that fight in otherwise brutal and fierce battles, to become emotional creatures in the players‚ eyes.

Haypi Dragon is not only extremely original in design, but the battles are also very diverse. The PVP mode is a challenge and it makes the game different every time, constantly taking the players to newer magical scenes. Players can go to battles with other real players from all over the world. They can choose them to be either teammates or enemies. In the newest version, 20 more PVP scenes have been added, so players may be in a different spot each time they enter.
Free/download

Music is an important part of education and brain development in a child. As Musicians and Teachers, Laura Watkins and David Whiteside, the founders of Sunshine Musicals know the benefits of adding music to media and have developed a new kind of Children’s book app using their skills musicians and teachers.

The Snow Queen Musical Children’s Interactive Storybook Adventure takes the classic fairytale "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen and turns it into a Musical Interactive Storybook App!  

In addition to beautiful illustrations, a compelling story, and fun interactive characters The Snow Queen Musical App features 5 original songs scored for full orchestra and performed by professional singers and actors. Each song flows seamlessly with the story and comes with sing along lyrics creating a fun and unique musical experience.

"We came up with the idea for "The Snow Queen Interactive Musical" because our daughter, who was 3 at the time, was very much in love with both music and fairytales," said founder Laura Watkins. "We wanted to nuture this love without allowing here to watch too many hours of musicals on television. We saw the potential for using the iPad as a way to provide all children with a fun engaging interactive musical experience."

The Snow Queen contains all of the wonderful features parents love in children’s interactive storybook apps including: fun colorful illustrations, interactive characters that move and speak when they are touched, funny surprises hidden among the pages, coloring pages and more!

The children can choose "Read to me" and enjoy a captivating narration by actress Celina Dean, accompanied by highlighted text to help young readers read along with. The "Read to me" feature also includes dialogue performed by the full theatrical cast, as well as the 5 original songs! Families can also choose the "Read it myself" option turning the Snow Queen app into a traditional bedtime story.

$2.99/£1.99/download

Nsurfin, Inc., the mobile game publishing company, today is pleased to announce that its first RPG game, Legend of Master 2 Plus, is now available in the iTunes store. Developed by KnetP, a leading mobile game developer in Korea, the game was a huge success with 1 million monthly active users solely in Korea, and Nsurfin is offering the game in English.

"This game will bring users to 1990s – 2000s when they enjoyed arcade-style action RPG games. It has everything what they are looking for," said Scott Choi, VP of Products of Nsurfin, Inc. "There are four different characters and each character has its own unique story ending. In addition, there are 16 advance classes, custom crafting skills, and optional quests to challenge users. The best part of the game begins after they finish its story mode. There’s a "Legend Dungeon" mode where all strongest monsters appear and the users are awarded rare items that can be customized for their character. This was one factor that made the game successful in Korea."

"We also focus on the quality of customer service," said KH Ryu, VP of Publishing of Nsurfin, Inc. "Our mission is to make our users happy in using our products. As an example, we are using  behappy at nsurfin dot com as our customer service email. In this competitive mobile gaming industry, retaining customers is all that matter for the long-term business success."

$1.99/£1.49/download

From Eggroll Games, maker of Whose Toes Are Those and Jungle Jam comes Touch To Color Farm, a revolutionary new coloring experience for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad designed specifically for toddlers. With Touch To Color Farm, children discover hidden items and complete fun farm activities in a barnyard full of cute characters and silly scenery! A new story unfolds on each page as simple interactions fill the screen with color.

Features:
Keeping it simple and frustration free, toddlers simply touch characters and scenery to fill them with color. Children never get overwhelmed by choices or stuck in a hard-to-navigate color selection menu. An adorable bouncing pig guides even the youngest players from one touch to the next ensuring the fun never ends. Lots of interactions like collecting carrots, stacking sheep, exploring the barn and finding ducklings!

How To Play:
Simply touch to color page after page of cute cows, duck, pigs and more. New items appear in a sequence that tells a story. Color the tree and apples grow, touch each apple to put it in the basket! Now touch the barn door… What’s that inside? A new friend to color!

Free/download

Ditty Labs, LLC released version 2.0 of its popular ball and paddle brick bashing game ‘MacBrickout’ on the Apple App Store. MacBrickout offers game play and music not found in other games of its genre. MacBrickout 2.0 features over 80 minutes of music composed by 16-year old Danny Burns.

"Each song was tailored to a specific level and really immerses the user in the game. Danny did a phenomenal job and we’re honored to debut his musical talents in our game," said Carson Whitsett, President and Co-Founder of Ditty Labs, LLC.

Several features set MacBrickout apart from similar games of this genre:  
* Teleporters instantly transport items to other teleporters
* Hidden fruits and vegetables can be acquired during game play and kept for the life the app
* A little creature called the "Umphee" interacts with the balls in the sand and sometimes sends them back into play
* Trigger switches open gates and expose more bricks
* Musical bricks release special bonuses when hit in the correct order
* Bonus levels give players the chance to win free balls and special gems
* Variety of ball types including bubble gum, bomb and radioactive balls

Free/download

Razmobi, an established mobile application developer, has announced the release of an improved and enhanced version of Formula Micro GP 1 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. An innovative new racing  experience Formula Micro GP 1 is a past paced racing game that challenges players to win a Formula Micro Grand Prix and  score enough points in career mode to become the Formula Micro GP Champion. Formula Micro GP 1 features 3 exciting modes to play:Practice, Single Race & Career Mode. Formula Micro GP 1 is currently available for download on the Apple App Store for $0.99 in the Games category.

Formula Micro GP 1 is an addicting racing experience that turns the genre on its end. Developed to provide users with action driven entertainment that combines elements from classic Formula 1 games with the fast paced gameplay of traditional racing titles. Users must race extremely well and play career mode to get offered contracts by different F1 teams. The better players perform the more likely they get a contract from the top faster teams.Users are offered 8 different Grand Prix to win: Australia Grand Prix, Spain Grand Prix, Great Britain Grand Prix, Germany Grand Prix,  Italy Grand Prix, Singapore (Night Race) Grand Prix, Japan Grand Prix & Brazil one. Each car has a specific set of attributes which may suit the player and track accordingly. Straightforward gameplay and responsive controls ensure that anyone can pick up and enjoy Formula Micro GP 1 in seconds, while strategic, mentally engaging gameplay guarantees they’ll be glued to their iPhone’s and iPad’s for hours.

Sleek graphics, tricky Grand Prix and great presentation make Formula Micro GP 1 a real winner when it comes to simple game play.This game also features a well thought online leader board system which encourages users to compete with other players within the  Formula Micro GP 1 community rather than only against themselves. Suitable for everyone ages 10 or older, Formula Micro GP 1 is a well polished mobile gaming experience which incorporates a powerful Physics engine, smooth colorful graphics, and a lightning quick reflexive gameplay style to provide a totally new spin on mobile gaming for iOS app shoppers

$0.99/£0.69/download

Extrafeet, Inc., announced today that some exciting new features have been added to their location aware game, "Plan X: Global Domination". Plan X now has a complete messaging system, providing users with two-way threaded chats, the ability to "blast" notes to multiple players at once (in your league), and many more tools that make the game more social, like strengthening the communication process between friends and enemies. Other new features also include a new "Landmarks" section where players can battle for famous landmarks no matter how far away the player happens to be from the landmark location and improvements to the discovery system to better connect active players to one another. The carnage is expected to be monumental!

About Plan X: Plan X is a free-to-play mobile game that combines virtual collectable cards with location-aware gaming. Plan X uses the world around you as the virtual game board where you are an Evil Genius battling friends and rivals for control of an alternate reality. Users can check in to nearby locations via popular services such as Twitter or Facebook to broadcast their evil dominance!

Free/download

Quill Games today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of TimberSlide, a unique and artistic puzzle game for the iPhone and iPod touch. Targeting all age groups, gamers around the world will be put to the challenge as they use their wittiness to build water slides and collect timber logs.

Tap your way around the maze of slides and combine them to build a perfect one, in order to collect the timber logs. The multiple shapes of the slides add an element of depth which forces you to use a different strategy in each of the 100 levels in order to collect the logs by moving them downstream to the house.

As you build your slides and watch the timber logs float on water and flow gently downstream, you’ll be treated to some pleasant eye candy. Each of the 4 offered chapters-seasons has its own theme and all the levels have been beautifully hand drawn, really showing the game’s artistic style. Whether you are in the spring or winter seasons, TimberSlide will keep you coming back to marvel at the graphics alone!

TimberSlide’s easy controls allow persons of any age to just dive into the puzzle flowing action. With a simple tap on the screen, you can watch your actions change the direction of the water flow. The path that the timber logs follow can be changed in stride allowing you to make quick and timely decisions in order to collect them all. Unlike most puzzle games, you will spend more time playing and enjoying the game instead of fiddling with bad controls.
$1.99/£1.49/download

TheDataManager today is pleased to announce TheManagedInventory 1.2.1 for iPad, an update to their sleek Productivity app that enables users to create and maintain a full inventory of the contents of homes, properties, and businesses. The app’s modern templates hold photos and descriptions of all contents, plus financial info about each item. In addition, the app manages insurance policies, creates reports, and maintains property information, offering complete protection in case of fire or catastrophe. The current update brings Retina display support for the New iPad.

Keeping a complete inventory of furniture, personal belongings, art, electronics and other items of value is, as any property insurance representative will confirm, absolutely necessary. But while most households have some form of insurance, few have sufficient documentation to qualify for full reimbursement in case of loss. TheManagedInventory provides the kind of record that attorneys and accountants recommend to their clients.

Feature Highlights:
* Create an attractive, legally admissible inventory for insurance purposes
* Inventory multiple properties, homes, businesses, etc.
* Once set up, users can view the total items in all properties, items in individual properties, or just the items in one room
* Keep track of everything during a move
* Photograph interiors and exteriors of all properties and businesses
* Enhanced for use with Retina display – supports high resolution pictures
* Address format, state names, and size units for USA, Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Australia, and Denmark
* Currently on sale at 50% off

$9.99/£5.99/download

From the game design genius behind multi-million selling gaming classic Chip’s Challenge, CHUCK’S CHALLENGE is a fiendishly addictive puzzler that’s packed with features to tease the brain and challenge the fingers. In a major update of the app, the developer Niffler have added over 75 new changes and features to add even more endless playability. These changes include new graphics, improved controls, and free access to over 1,000 user-generated levels – a feature which previously required an in-app purchase. CHUCK’S CHALLENGE is available NOW on the App Store – http://bit.ly/chucks_ios

In Chuck’s Challenge you meet Woop, a puzzle loving purple alien. Woop has summoned all-round puzzle game legend Chuck Sommerville for one purpose – to create a universe of puzzles for him to work his way out of. In the game you take control of Woop navigating his way through level after level of tricks and traps that stand between him and reaching the exit portal. Shift blocks, find keys, flip switches, wade through water, hot-foot it through lava and do everything it takes to make it out in one piece and evade an army of hungry creatures who want nothing more than to turn our purple hero into a tasty Woop sandwich!

Free/download

Lex Friedman and Marco Tabini have launched Let’s Sing, their new music game for iPhone that combines the fun of karaoke or singing in the shower with Name That Tune. It’s available now on Apple’s App Store.

Players sing a song for their friends and family – only they can’t use the words! Instead they whistle, hum, or la-la-la their way through the tune they choose for up to 30 seconds, and then send their recording on to their friends. If the latter can guess the song, both players earn coins, and they keep their mutual streak alive.

What if a player doesn’t like their song choices? No problem! A convenient Shuffle feature offers three more selections. (Players start with 1,000 coins and five Shuffles just for downloading the game; coins can be exchanged for further Shuffle packs, and additional coins can be earned or purchased in-app.)

On the guessing side, if a user can’t figure out whether their friend is singing Michael Jackson or Michael Bolton, they can use in-game Hints: One reveals all the vowels in the song title, and the other tells them the artist famous for a given song.

Additional features include:
* Push notifications tell you when it’s your turn
* In-game chat lets users congratulate each other on their rock-star-quality performances
* Users earn coins when they guess correctly, and when the friends they sing for do, too
* Find friends via e-mail or on Facebook, or play a game with a randomly-chosen user
* Automatically find songs on iTunes and listen to excerpts to help users improve their singing

$4.99/£2.99/download

Umbrella Corporation, a renowned software developer specializing in mobile productivity applications, is pleased to announce that the latest version of its popular car maintenance app, Car Xpenses – Manage Vehicle Maintenance, has been improved by a round of significant upgrades inspired, in part, by critical user feedback. Car Xpenses for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, changed the way car owners care for their vehicles – allowing users to manage vehicle expenses, servicing, and maintenance with little more than the tap of a fingertip. Version 1.4, released on April 28 and available now at iTunes, is even more dynamic, with several added features and improvements.

Version 1.4 of Car Xpenses – Manage Vehicle Maintenance gives users the option of personalizing their vehicles in the Car Service Events calendar, making it even easier for users to customize their own effective, and unique, method of maintaining the condition and servicing of their vehicles. Several bug fixes have been completed, and a new Notes feature within the calendar makes it easy for users to keep abreast of all the information they need, when they need it. The recent upgrades have driven even more positive conversation toward Car Xpenses, which – even in its early iterations – was considered a game-changing application in offering car owners a better way to efficiently track and manage vehicle servicing, maintenance, and repair costs.

"The responses have been so overwhelming from the start – we certainly believe that we have created a disruptive product in the sense that Car Xpenses is, literally, changing the way people go about caring for, and maintaining, their vehicles," said Amr El Rafie, the founder of Umbrella Corporation. "In this latest round of enhancements, we paid special attention to make sure that we responded directly to the substantial user feedback Car Xpenses has garnered. That said, version 1.4 has been customized to better meet user expectations and offer more dynamic, comprehensive, and efficient modes of vehicle care, servicing, and maintenance."

$2.99/£1.99/download