Our Daily App Digest – November 30, 2011

Digital cameras do not have the dynamic range capturing capabilities that the human eye does, for this reason it is often difficult to faithfully capture colour and light depth as we see it in reality.
Big Lens now solves this challenge by including the High Dynamic Range (HDR) button for retaining graphic details that would otherwise be lost. The HDR function automatically adjusts light, contrast, tones, colours and more to bring original details back into your photos.  They’ve also updated the blur adjust tool too, and users can now adjust their blur edges by simply moving the blur edge slider. Beautify images and create a more natural feel by sharpening and smoothing your focus edge with one easy slider. 
 
This is a free update but if you haven’t already downloaded the app you can do so here, $0.99/£0.69/download

Rapid Turtle Games is pleased to announce the release of Zombie Area! an adrenaline-pumping survival game for iOS and Mac. Welcome to a world where zombies overrun the streets! Where your zombie killing skills will be put to the test. Loaded with a shotgun, alone, and against the raving hordes of zombies. How long can you survive?

The player controls a furious survivor, who stood up to stop the zombies. The advancing zombies must be shoot down before they reach the survivor, and make a meal out of him. Also, high attention must be paid to the throwing zombies too! They can take down the survivor very quickly if the player isn’t concentrated enough. To replenish lives one needs to shoot the flying hearts, and the flying bullets to increase the maximum shots before reloading is needed.

The controls are very easy to learn. In the iOS version, the player needs to tap anywhere on screen to aim and shoot, and tap the survivor to reload. In the Mac version the whole gameplay can be controlled with the mouse.

In the iOS version players can compete against other Zombie Area! players around the world thanks to Game Center and Open Feint online leaderboards. Additionally there are dozens of achievements to unlock.

This game is great for survival shooter fans. The addicting game play is easy to pick up and play but challenging to survive the countless zombie waves. You will find yourself immersed in the simple yet addicting game play. Compete with all of your friends, or casually compete against yourself.

$1.99/£1.49/download

Fling a Thing HD allows the player to stretch and fling cute little ‘Things’ into the air trying to collect bubbles and clear the screen. The player progresses through levels, climbs higher, and interacts with a lot of bizarre objects. But beware, there’s a limited amount of shots the player can take so the more accurate they are the higher a score they will achieve.

The ‘Things’ are incredibly adorable little creatures with suction cups for mouths that cling on to platforms and suck in bubbles as they go. With 7 different characters and 3 different worlds, the player can unlock upgrades to help them achieve a higher score.

Just like the iPhone version, Fling a Thing HD is appropriate for any age, the controls are so simple even a three year old can play, yet it’s still challenging for any age.

Now on are larger screen Fling a Thing HD is something you just have to try out for yourself!

$2.99/£1.99/download

XperimentalZ Games has announced today the release of its third and biggest title. After over a year in the making, Don’t Run With a Plasma Sword is now available on the App Store as an universal app, allowing the player to run with a plasma sword and slice up invading aliens.

Don’t Run With a Plasma Sword, set in a humoristic and retro-futuristic universe, pushes back the boundaries on the endless runner genre with several key features.

* First of all, it includes a story mode with checkpoints, comics and a boss battle at the end of every of the 4 levels.

* Secondly, its control buttons are contextual. The jump, slide and slash actions become double jump, dive attack, slide attack and dash attack under proper conditions. Those expanded actions allow the player to navigate through a rich and breathtaking gameplay environment, providing an impression of platformer.

* Finally, the player can accumulate XP from killing aliens, completing story mode sections or endless mode objectives. Those XP can later be used to unlock new skills or customize their character appearance.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Rubion Software is pleased to announce the release of Pocket Bombs Version 1.2. Pocket Bombs is a turn-based multiplayer strategy game featuring same-system competitive play for one to four players. The premise is simple to learn yet difficult to master: gain territory through careful bomb placement, expand your control of the board through targeted chain reactions, and convert enemy bombs to your color as you match wits with up to three human or AI opponents. Conquer the entire board to win, though watch out as unforeseen chain reactions can destroy even your best-laid plans. The dynamic gameplay is fast-paced and exciting.

Pocket Bombs Version 1.2 features three new visual themes: Winter, Map and Pipe, bringing the total to seven including the default layout. Download the Lite version to get a feel for the mechanics, then try out the full version for all seven themes (Bomb/Default, Dark, Smilie, Invade, Map, Pipe, Winter), custom board sizes and local human multiplayer. An AI Opponent is available in 3 difficulty modes (Easy/Beginner, Normal/Average, Hard/Takes-every-advantage) for single player enjoyment.

Pocket Bombs is available for iOS devices (iPhone), Mac and Windows 7 phones. Additional features are planned for future releases, so stay tuned.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Boca Raton, Florida-Sports Data Systems, an established sports software solutions developer, has announced the recent update of myGolfstats for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch. A fixture at the top of iTunes’ Sports Apps section, this unique mobile golfing resource has been newly updated to keep it at the cutting edge of the game. myGolfstats version 3.0’s new features include direct score posting, improved stats, faster social networking, and optional membership in the Virtual Golf Tour, a sponsor of charity golf events.The perfect holiday app for avid golfers, myGolfstats 3.0 is currently available for download on the Apple App Store for $2.99 in the Sports category.

With all the benefits of professional quality golf pro lessons and access to secure an official USGA handicap, myGolfstats is the ideal mobile golfing accessory for any golfer. Newly updated, myGolfstats 3.0 is now more flexible and practical than ever. Golfers now have the ability to post stats directly to the web from anywhere with a single click, track their progress via multiple statistical dimensions, and even compare their stats with other golfers. The app nowoffers more streamlined integration with Facebook and Twitter as well, allowing users to simultaneously post and tweet about everything from scorecards, good shots, and everything in between more quickly and with more ease than ever before.

$2.99/£1.99/download

iStoryTime, the largest library of mobile children’s book apps, today is thrilled to announce that the Arthur Christmas Movie Storybook is now available for iPhone and iPad. The storybook app features several in-story activities that allow the reader to be immersed in the magic of the Arthur Christmas story as well as to discover exclusive content from the feature film. The app is based on the new 3D, CG-animated movie Arthur Christmas from Aardman for Sony Pictures Animation, which premiered in theaters November 23.

Arthur Christmas is an interactive storybook app that at last reveals the incredible, never-before-seen answer to every child’s question: "So how does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?" The answer: Santa’s exhilarating, ultra-high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. But at the heart of the film is a story with the ingredients of a Christmas classic – a family in a state of comic dysfunction and an unlikely hero: Santa’s youngest son, Arthur.

When this amazing operation misses one child out of hundreds of millions, Arthur, the least capable Claus, embarks on a hilarious, exciting rogue mission against the clock with his politically incorrect grandfather Grandsanta and a giftwrapping-obsessed elf named Bryony, to deliver the last present before Christmas morning dawns.

Available in the Apple App Store for $3.99, the storybook features original content from the feature film, including images and character voices and parents and their children can experience the adventure before or after seeing the movie in the box office. In-story activities include:

$3.99/£2.99/download

Ibexis Studios, an established mobile application developer, has today announced its excitement over the recent release of Snakes and Ladder World Edition for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This dynamic mobile app represents a digital update of the classic board game of the same name. Snakes and Ladder allows players to roll the dice, navigating a game board from start to finish as quickly as possible by taking advantage of short cuts – ladders – and avoiding pitfalls in the form of snakes that could send them going backwards. Offering vibrant graphics and engaging fast paced gameplay, this game can be enjoyed alone versus virtual opponents or by two live players at once. Snakes and Ladder World Edition is currently available for download on the Apple App Store for $0.99 in the Games category.

This innovative mobile gaming experience stays true to the spirit of the timeless board game it’s based on, while taking full advantage of the powerful iOS platform. Once downloaded, gamers just choose an avatar and get into the action. Snakes and Ladder World Edition is a dice based board game where users roll a set of dice and move their game piece forward a certain number of spaces depending on what number they roll. Each board is comprised of one hundred spaces, with a wide array of snakes and ladders connecting different portions of the board. Landing on a ladder will jump players closer to the end, while landing on a snake will send them flying backwards. Since it’s all based on the luck of the draw anyone can win, even if it’s their first time playing.

$1.99/£1.49/download

Neon Five Studio and Backpack Undertainment proudly announce the release of "A Christmas Calendar" exclusively for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It is playable, exciting, funny and offers a fun-to-play game for kids and adults. "A Christmas Calendar" is a brand-new style of Christmas calendar.

Help Santa to prepare for Christmas and meet all of your friends, such as Rudolph, the Gingerbread Man and the Wichtel. Day by day you get a new Christmas task from Santa. Can you help Santa to turn this Christmas into a perfect celebration? Get the list of wishes out of the mailbox and wrap up the Christmas presents. Take care of Rudolph and meet the penguin at the igloo. You should build him a snowman. Build a house made of gingerbread and prepare the Christmas dinner. Every day there are exciting tasks and new things to explore.

iPhone – $0.99/£0.69/download

Juicy Bits today is pleased to announce the release of Halftone 1.7, an update to their popular vintage photo and comic effects app that now has over 1 million users. The update adds new cropping and rotation features along with image adjustments like brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpening, all powered by Aviary.

In addition, title captions now have multiple color choices, and Halftone can extract the "date taken" from photos. Both of these, along with a new "Santa hat" stamp, make it easy to create images for the upcoming holiday season.

Halftone uses iOS 5 face detection features to automatically position speech and thought balloons, and it can share images with Instagram, Camera , FX Photo Studio, Color Splash, and other PhotoAppLink-compatible apps. This makes it possible to use multiple tools and effects to produce a final image.

Halftone has been selected by Apple as its App of the Week in both Canada and the United Kingdom, has over 1 million users, and has a 4 1/2  star rating in the App Store. It is consistently among the top 100 photography apps worldwide.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Check the Record, developers of medical smartphone applications, today is proud the announce the release of ACS Trials for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. ACS Trials provides thorough, focused, MD-written summaries of seminal and recent trials in acute coronary syndromes – over 60 in all. It allows medical students, residents, fellows, attendings, and other medical providers in all specialties to make sense of the alphabet-soup of cardiology trials, with quickly accessible one-liner ‘soundbites’ as well as deeper analysis and historical context of landmark trials in cardiology.

Each trial summary contains the "take-home message" of the trial, along with a brief summary of the salient points, an outline of the trial design, more detailed results of the trial. Each concludes with the pertinent ACC/AHA guidelines. Trials can be sorted by name, subject, or year and filtered by type of acute coronary syndrome. The trials are also searchable by keyword.

ACS Trials also includes an extensive cardiology medical calculator, with instant access to 30 of the most commonly used formulas and risk stratification models in acute coronary syndromes, including the CRUSADE, TIMI, GRACE, and Framingham scores.

$2.99/£1.99/download

SSA Mobile today is pleased to announce the release of My Folder Pro – My Secret Folder 1.0 for iPhone and iPod touch. My Folder Pro is an app that allows you to easily create an unlimited number of folders and subfolders to store your private photos & videos. The app’s key feature is that it allows you to organize your folders and files by a simple tap & hold and also keep records of any unauthorized access attempt, with the intruder’s photo, date, time and location displayed on Google maps.

"We all have some photos and videos that we want to keep private. That’s why we created My Folder Pro – My Secret Folder", says Sergey Sokolov, Product  Manager of Apps2Be. "Organize and protect your private photos and videos with the help of this stylish and very user-friendly app!"  

Application Key Features:
* Any unauthorized access attempt is secretly captured by your front camera
* Badge alerts will show break-in attempts
* Access log shows the origin of break-in attempts and the code used by the intruder   
* Normal and decoy password modes
* Backup password via email
* Create an unlimited number of folders and sub-folders
* Tap and hold folder or file to organize   
* Customize your folders and album colors    
* Import and export photos and videos from/to Photoroll
* Take private photos and videos from within the app
* Fully customizable slideshows
* Full-featured in-app video player
* Share photos & videos via email
* Full retina display support

$0.99/£0.69/download

The "Board Solver for Words With Friends" app, released by SKH apps last week has a very unique ability. It can read a game board, quickly create very large words out of any combination of letters and then show the user where to place them on the board. It took a small team of computer scientist to combine optical character recognition, word generation technology and a puzzle solving algorithm to create this word game solving app.

This app opens to a simple interface with a blank board and a few buttons. The user presses import and chooses a screenshot of their word game. Within seconds the word game is redrawn on the screen and a word is shown in bright yellow. The word shown is the best possible word, placed in the best position to get the highest points in that turn. At this point the user can press the next arrow to cycle through more words, define the current word, or go back to their word game and play the word shown.

One of the scientist on the team must have had a good sense of humor, because the app also contains a comical twist. Each time a word is shown, a funny phrase is posted along with it. Users will see phrases like: "You will be remembered as a genius.", "They are probably cheating too!" and "We understand. You needed a little help." while searching for the best words.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Shacked Software, developers of the award-winning Flickpad iPad app, is pleased to announce today the update of Gube: Kid-safe YouTube for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Designed and developed by parents of toddlers for parents with young children, Gube is a fun and educational app for your youngster.

Gube provides parents with a catalog of pre-screened, moderated, and safe, yet fun, educational YouTube videos. Thousands of videos are categorized by age group, and are completely searchable. You can safely allow your child to easily browse on their own through age-appropriate videos, and you’ll have the peace of mind knowing that they are protected from unsuitable content. Gube videos are chosen by parents, by hand. Gube includes videos for the following age ranges:

* Infants
* Toddlers
* Preschool
* Grade School

As parents, we all know how much our children enjoy watching videos, and how a quick diversion can help turn a meltdown into a moment of quiet. When used appropriately and sparingly, Gube offers you a chance at avoiding a toddler’s scene. In just a few discrete taps, you can turn what would have been a rushed, stressful dinner into an enjoyable and fun outing. In addition to providing your precious ones with prescreened, age-appropriate videos, Gube also offers the ability to save a list of your child’s favorite videos, which they can quickly find and easily replay again and again. Put Gube to the test, you – and your children – won’t be disappointed.

$3.99/£2.99/download