Our Daily App Digest – December 1, 2011

Remoter Labs today is pleased to announce the release of Remoter VNC 3.2.1 for iPhone and iPad, an update to their productivity app that enables users to remotely control Macs via Screen Sharing, and Windows or Linux computers using the VNC or RDP standards right from their iOS devices. The app uses Bonjour and NetBIOS to make setup a cinch, and it features a novel and highly praised "virtual trackpad" that allows to control the mouse cursor intuitively. RemoterFusion, which provides sound redirection and easy setup, RDP, Telnet and SSH support are available as in-app purchases.

The app offers one of the fastest implementations of the VNC and RDP protocols on the iOS platform. Operation is intuitive, with a well thought out interface that allows users to either tap on the screen and have taps converted into clicks on the remote system, or use a unique "virtual trackpad" that gives users precise control, and ease of use. A drag or stylus mode on the iPad version is also provided, which gives users the ability of easily dragging items, or drawing on their computers directly from their iPad just by using their fingers or a stylus.

On Macs, setup is now ultra-simple with the RemoterFusion add-on. Port-forwarding and/or dynamic DNS is no longer needed in order to establish connections from outside the computer’s network. This add-on also provides sound redirection, which allows listening to music tracks, or any sound playing remotely on the computer from the iOS device. RemoterFusion can be tested for free for 24 hours.

Otherwise, local session set-up is still simple, all the computers from the WiFi network are found using both the Bonjour and NetBIOS standards. The user then taps on the desired connection, and all queried information such as computer name, IP address, service port, and more auto-populates the set-up screen. The user then only needs to enter the VNC password to complete setup. A button labeled "Advanced" reveals many useful advanced options, like color depth, server scaling setting, compression level and more.

$0.99/£0.69/Download

For iPhone owners who live in New York City area, or just travel there, HINY is a welcome tool that will help them navigate the mass transit options. NoTie.NET created HINY in response to the MTA’s AppQuest Challenge and is making it completely free to download and use.

If you like Siri, and live in or travel to New York City, you will love HINY. HINY literally tells you the MTA Service Status for Subways, Busses, Rail and Bridges. HINY goes a step further than Siri, as users can select a Male, Female or Robot voice. Dozens of service lines are selectable and the status for each is displayed and spoken out loud.

HINY is voiceover friendly, making it great for the visually impaired. HINY is also great for commuters with their eyes on the road or more important things.

The timing is perfect, as Apple is preparing to unveil their flagship Grand Central Terminal retail store. Now users can walk out with their iPhone, download HINY for free, and know what the status is of all MTA services instantly!

Voting is open now through December 21st and users are asked to vote early and often (yes, the MTA allows and even encourages one vote per day.)

Free/Download

"Fantasy Vixens" voted Best Holiday Gag Gift For Men. Welcome to Candi’s Wacky World of Fantasy Vixen Fun. Share some laughs with friends as you put your face into 15+ Funny iCards and send them to your friends.

15+ Funny Vixen-O-Grams (i-Cards) include:
* Wrestling Vixens (hair colors: fuschia, fire red, midnite black & summer blonde)
* Sporty Vixens (Weightlifter, Baseball, Boxing, Motocross & more)
* Outlaw Vixens (Beer Smuggling, Wanted Dead or Alive, Too Good Lookin’ & more!)
* Special Occasions (Happy Birthday, Congrats, Cheer up, Happy Anniversary)
* Doggie Greetings

9 New Unlocked Mini-Games include:
* Rocket Vixen – try to land a flying Vixen into a speeding sports car
* Vixen Darts – aim for the bulls eye while the Vixen moves around the screen
* Vixen Machine Gunner – have a Vixen blast an enemy photo to pieces
* Super Vixen – guide your Vixen across the sky to avoid flying saucers and building tops
* Fortune Teller – what’s your destiny -ask our Vixen
* Vixen Morph your Face – take a photo and completely morph your face

One of the favorite mini-games is the Vixen Machine Gunner where you add the face of your choice to the background, then use the Hot Vixen’s Machine Gun to blast the photo to pieces. Ahhh don’t we feel good without going to jail! Other fun mini-Vixen games include: Super Vixen, Fortune Teller, Vixen Morph Your Face, Vixen & Rocket Vixen.

Special Occasion iCards are also quite popular featuring hot vixens in a variety of messages including: Happy Birthday, Congratulations, Get Well and Cheer Up. Fantasy Vixens allow you take a photo directly from your iphone,  add your to the iCard and send to your friends for a personal greeting that you can send to the boys!

$0.99/£.069/download

Sailors can now use their iPhones as a multi-functional bearing compass that replaces the need for compass binoculars and professional bearing compasses for explorations and excursions. Electric Pocket Ltd announces the launch of Compass Eye, an exciting new nautical Augmented Reality app for iPhone and iPad from the company known for such popular apps as BugMe! and Ringo.

Compass Eye delivers on the promise of a compass that doesn’t change its reading when the boat rocks and enables sailors to take compass bearings with their iPhone or iPad. Compass Eye replaces the need of Compass Binoculars and Professional Bearing Compasses for explorations and excursions on land, sea and even in the air (it’s fully gimballed)!

Compass Eye was designed by a skipper for use by sailors. Inspiration struck Steve Bennett, CEO of Electric Pocket, during a particularly treacherous sea crossing with a RYA Yacht Master Instructor when keeping a fixed bearing on a distant vessel proved invaluable. He realized that the iPhone could serve as a simple multi-functional bearing compass that could provide several essential functions, such as collision avoidance and safe passage limits.

"The tide was ebbing across our path at 4-5 Kts and a very large Dredger, the City of Cardiff, lay at anchor approximately six miles from our destination, Penarth. With a maximum boat speed of only 4 Kts in the rough wind over tide conditions, it was vital that we passed as close downstream of the dredger as possible so that we could still make our destination without being swept out to sea and having to wait for the next flood. Keeping a constant bearing with the dredger and then the back of the dredger as we got closer was a simple but extremely effective and safe way of navigating."

Compass Eye uses the iPhone or iPad camera to let sailors view their course and overlays a compass display on it. This clever implementation of Augmented Reality, including up-to 8x zoom, lets sailors set a variety of bearings for avoiding collisions with other boats or for keeping a safe passage into harbor with one easy tap.

$4.99/£2.99/download

So Ouat!, an independent developer of educational apps for children, is announcing the release of The Adventures of Peter Pan, a magical new learning experience for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Designed for ages 3 to 10, this captivating app introduces a new generation to the adventures of Wendy, Peter Pan, and Tinkerbell in an interactive story that will enchant young readers of all skill levels. Two versions of The Adventures of Peter Pan are available: an enhanced HD version for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch (USD $3.99), available now, and a streamlined, non-interactive version for iPhone and iPod touch only (USD $0.99), available later this week.

The latest and most robust installment in an award-winning line of interactive storybooks, The Adventures of Peter Pan features delightful artwork and engaging "pop-up" animations that bring the wonder of Neverland to life. Both on-screen text and audio narration are included, so children can have the story read to them or read it on their own.

In addition, the enhanced HD version of The Adventures of Peter Pan includes interactive learning features such as touch pronunciation (touch a word to hear it spoken), "explain to me" (a word’s definition and its opposite are given, to provide context for unfamiliar words), "show me" (an illustration displays to represent a word), and "Karaoke reading" (a fun tool that helps children learn to read the story themselves). All of these features are accessed with an intuitive, easy-to-use touch interface optimized for small fingers.

"Our collection of ebooks are loved not only by kids and parents, but also by educators who find the apps very helpful in getting children to read independently while having fun," says So Ouat’s founder Michael Guez. "Our goal now to is put kids everywhere ‘in touch’ with reading – from France to North America and beyond! Starting with The Adventures of Peter Pan we have completely rethought our user experience, from the interface to the functionality to the art style, so we can continue to improve while also appealing to a broader audience."

$3.99/£1.99/download

We are happy to report that the release of interactive Book for iPad and iPhone – "SO! The Tale of Tom Kitten by Beatrix Potter". It is the second book of the series Immersive Book. It is more colorful, much more interesting, and has greater interactivity.

Bring the adventures of Tom Kitten to life with this fun immersive interactive storybook that features Potter’s original tales and illustrations in New Immersive Format. Children will enjoy becoming a part of this classic tale by touch, tap, and pull all the characters to come alive the story. It’s a fun new way to rediscover the beloved tales of Peter Rabbit and his friends.

This is a British children’s classic that should make it on every cat lover’s shelf with its charming artwork and delightful story about three naughty kittens. Tom is the worst of the kittens. He cannot behave properly when company is expected. Along with his siblings, he wrecks his nice clothes so his mother banishes them upstairs where they continue to make a ruckus.

The tale is about manners and how children react to them.

$4.99/£2.99/download

Now complementing The Beatles’ music library in iTunes is a new tablet-friendly guide to the Fab Four’s music catalog. The app was created by Rolling Stone, thanks in part to Managing Editor Inc. MEI, an Adobe(R) premier development partner and a leading provider of software solutions for publishers, announced that the iPad app version of "The Beatles Ultimate Album-by-Album Guide" special-interest publication is now available for download.

Wenner Media, the publisher of Rolling Stone and other popular magazines, looked to MEI’s team of digital-publishing specialists to help build the app using a combination of custom development and the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite(TM). MEI guided the production process, including training on the Adobe DPS software, editorial workflow development, template creation, app construction and final submission to Apple.

Wenner is also using the vjoon K4(TM) Cross-Media Publishing Platform, integrated with Adobe InCopy(R) and InDesign(R), to manage the project from soup to nuts. MEI designed an iPad publishing workflow that operates alongside Wenner’s print process – Rolling Stone has been managed with the K4 publishing system since 2008 – tapping into an all-new medium using existing content and familiar tools. MEI is the exclusive distributor of vjoon K4 in the Americas.

"MEI worked closely with us to make sure the app captured all the great information from our print product and expanded it with immersive and visually appealing tablet features," said Paul Leung, system administrator for Wenner Media. "Their expertise and custom development were integral to the success of this project."

"The Beatles Ultimate Album-by-Album Guide" is a comprehensive companion to the 13 albums released by the legendary rock group. For each recording, the app provides a main article, a playlist with audio samples and a link to purchase the tracks, an extra "Testimonial" story, pictures and more. It takes the wealth of Beatles history showcased in Rolling Stone’s original print album guide and transforms it into a full-featured iPad experience, enhanced with interactivity and engaging content only available in the tablet version.

MEI engineered the specialized audio playlist, which streams song samples directly from iTunes. Not only does this make for a convenient user experience, allowing readers to instantly hear and purchase the music they’re learning about, it also provides a new revenue stream for Wenner – as part of Apple’s Affiliate Program, the publisher gets a percentage of iTunes sales made through the app.

$9.99/£5.99/download

Saffron Byte announced today the release of their latest app: Sparky, The Christmas Elf for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Sparky, The Christmas Elf is a simple, yet addictive game suitable for players of all ages. The player’s goal is to catch as many presents as possible while avoiding harmful objects. The player can also collect coins, which he or she can use to upgrade power-ups.

The player controls the title character, Sparky, by tilting the iOS device left and right. Controls are fluid and intuitive. In addition, Sparky, The Christmas Elf is compatible with Apple’s Game Center. It provides 2 Game Center leader-boards and 28 Game Center achievements. Visually, Sparky, The Christmas Elf sets itself apart because every object, button, character, and piece of scenery is handmade with modeling clay and photographed using an iPhone 4.

Features include:
* Addictive game play with intuitive controls
* Collect presents and coins to increase score
* Upgradable power-ups
* 28 Game Center achievements and 2 Game Center leader boards
* Score multiplier increases every time a Game Center achievement is unlocked
* Plays Christmas carols in the background
* Option to buy more coins through the in-app purchase feature in order to upgrade power-ups at a faster rate
* Every object, button, character, and piece of scenery in the game is handmade with modeling clay and photographed using an iPhone 4
* There will be more content added in the near future

$0.99/£0.69/download

The multi award-winning miQube Boardgame and Puzzle was launched worldwide by IQideas in 2005. Since then it has sold thousands of copies and won a number of prestigious international awards, including the acclaimed Parents Choice Foundation and Major Fun Thinking Awards.

IQideas have now launched an iPad version of their highly successful product. The goal of the game is to place colored pieces on a grid to make shapes of varying degrees of complexity. There are 13 pieces that can be flipped and rotated in 3 dimensions, and then combined to form an endless array of shapes. The easier challenges can be made using only 1 or 2 pieces but the level of complexity increases dramatically in the later challenges which require 3, 4 or more different pieces to be combined in just the right way to solve them.

The final challenge involves using all 13 pieces to form a 4 x 4 x 4 cube on the grid, reminiscent of the Rubiks(C) Cube. The developer is offering an undisclosed prize to the first person who can screen capture this almost impossible achievement. There are three different levels of difficulty in the app; Easy, Medium and Hard. The Easy level is un-timed while the other 2 levels have timers which countdown at different rates, closing down a challenge if it hasn’t been completed within a given time frame. miQube 3D has been described in reviews as "fun and challenging".

$0.99/£0.69/download

Independent iPhone app developer, emirBytes, announced today that Label Dispenser 1.2 is available to download in the Apple’s App Store. The app is created specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch platform, utilizing the touch interface. The app is also compatible with iPad.

According to the developer, the latest update improves on many areas of the user interface, based on the user feedback. The developer said, "More label designs in each category were added and a new "Flag" category is added as well. We are confident in the app’s user interface design since our statistics show that 90% of our total customers continue to use the app in a weekly basis. We believe it is due to our extremely intuitively designed controls. It’s just so easy to use the app."

The latest update sees the app being packed with a total of 109 label designs with multiple categories. And each label can be customized with different types of font faces and colors.

$1.99/£1.49/download

TAS Games today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Flight Unlimited 1.0, their flight simulator game for Apple’s latest iOS. Experience the ultimate Flight Simulator. Flight Unlimited is a graphically intensive flight simulator that offers some of the best visuals in the app store. Critics argue that Flight Unlimited has some of the most impressive graphics ever seen on the iPhone/iPod/Ipad. It’s the only flight simulator (on any platform) to offer a fully rendered, detailed city to explore.

Fly throughout the city and explore over 100 buildings and streets. Can you land on a one way road? Never before has a flight simulator offered this level of environmental detail. Flight Unlimited pushes the device to its max to offer the ultimate in performance and visual effects.

Features:
* Pilot the beautiful Cesna 172 aircraft, complete with spectacular glass and metallic reflections
* Discover an expansive city with detail never before seen in a Flight Simulator on any platform
* Explore an expansive lake and buzz the various boats in the water
* Fly from any camera angle you desire

$2.99/£1.99/download

Playbean brings Fantasy Defense, an addictive fusion of castle defense, RPG, and action genres, to iOS. Fantasy Defense presents gamers with a finely crafted tower defense game further enhanced by elements more commonly found in role playing games, along with a surprising amount of player control over combat scenarios.

In the world of Fantasy Defense, the player must protect the gateway of his own fortress – that of the human army – against onrushing waves of monstrous creatures. These creatures, which cover a broad spectrum of mythological monsters, are harbingers of the Wraith King. This previously imprisoned arch-enemy of the human race has broken free, and it is up to the player’s heroes and their fighting force to take a stand.

Fantasy Defense will appeal immediately to fans of tower defense games, providing the traditional and seemingly simple task of warding off foes. But unlike many of its iOS counterparts, Fantasy Defense provides players with a greater tactical challenge than matching muscle for muscle. Instead, players must calculate the most effective placement for their own impressive variety of heroes, warriors, mages, and archers, as well as manage resources and upgrades. Players will use touch controls to direct the attention of individual fighters to areas of vulnerability, giving the game a face-paced action genre appeal.

$2.99/£1.99/download

GlasseyStrategy announced today that their StratPad for iPad app is now available on the App Store. With StratPad, owners and managers of small- and medium-sized companies create and execute their complete business strategy in a step-by-step fashion.

"Business strategy is the most powerful management tool available to company owners and managers. Despite this, only 1% of companies use strategy effectively because it’s complicated, time-consuming and expensive," said Alex Glassey, managing partner of GlasseyStrategy. "StratPad uses the iPad’s user-friendly design to simplify strategy and make it effective and affordable for all businesses."

StratPad is divided into three sections, Learn, Create and Share. Each section is broken into chapters like a book. Section One’s four chapters teach users about strategy and encourage them to think strategically about their own company.

In Section Two, StratPad provides templates, instructions and examples to help users develop and record their own strategy. All strategy information entered into StratPad is saved instantly on the iPad.

In the third section, StratPad automatically creates nine reports tailored to the user’s strategy. Users can view reports on their iPad, print them wirelessly or email them as high-resolution PDFs. The nine reports include:

* A Strategy Map which graphically illustrates the overall strategy;

* A Summary Business Plan that is designed to be shared with investors and bankers; and

* A Project Plan and a Gantt Chart that help management execute their strategy.

$4.99/££2.99/download

from the new high definition backgrounds and graphics, Mathris HD has more numbered balls to solve than the previous versions.

Mathris is a tetris-style math game where numbered balls constantly drop into the screen and the player’s aim is to prevent the screen from filling up by eliminating the balls. Balls can be eliminated by touching those that add up to the target value; so, for example, if the target value is 10, you can get rid of balls numbered 2, 2, and 6 (2 2 6=10) or 3 and 7 (3 7=10). The more balls you touch to reach the target number, the higher your score, and the target value changes as the game progresses to keep you on your toes! Mathris combines addictive gaming with fun mental gymnastics to provide a great game for all the family.

Early versions of Mathris was featured by Apple as "New and Noteworthy" in the arcade and educational games categories. It was also featured as "New and Noteworthy" by Ansca Mobile on their Showcase section. AppShrink commented that once you start playing Mathris, the game is quite addicting.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Shacked Software has released Flickpad 2.8 with Facebook and Twitter photo sharing. Quickly keep up on all the photos your friends and family are posting to Facebook and Flickr. Browse the photos that your friends and family are sharing by date, daily, weekly, and never miss another photo moment again. Flickpad makes viewing and exploring photos an entirely new, fun, and addictive experience.

Flickpad uses the unique multi-touch capabilities of the iPad to make interacting with your photos almost lifelike. Don’t like a photo?  Flick it off the screen and a new one appears. Want to make the photo larger?  Just pinch to zoom. Like to check out the entire album?  Just double tap a photo. Find an awesome photo to save and look at for later?  Just touch the photo with two fingers.

Feature Highlights:
* Integration with Flickr and Facebook, the top two photo platforms on the planet
* Facebook and Twitter photo sharing
* Supports Flickr photo sets, favorites, comments, views, Interestingness, and more
* Supports Facebook albums, album comments, album likes (read-only), photo comments, photo likes (read-only), and more
* Fast user switching. Share an iPad with someone? No problem, quickly and easily switch between user accounts

$1.99/£1.49/download

ditter.projektagentur is pleased to announce the release of The Photo Cookbook 6.0 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Winter is the time for cozy evenings at home. Why not take the opportunity to prepare something special for the family? „The Photo Cookbook ˆ Quick & Easy‰ 6.0 version is coming out just in time. You can mark particularly tasty selections as your favorites and add your own notes to the recipes. In addition the separate app „The Photo Cookbook ˆ Baking‰ has also been updated. This primer for aspiring cookie bakers is now available in version 2.0.

Features at a Glance:
* „The Photo Cookbook ˆ Quick & Easy‰ 6.0 is now available
* For iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
* 84 recipes with more than 700 photos for step-by-step instructions
* Search function for ingredients and recipes
* Send ingredient lists via e-mail
* Background information on the ingredients
* Database can be expanded to 240 recipes with 2,000 illustrations
* New! Mark recipes as favorites
* New! Add your own notes to the recipes
* New! Spanish and Italian versions available

$4.99/£2.99/download

Neoappz, a mobile application development company, today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Places Around 1.0 for iPhone and iPod touch. Places Around is a user-friendly application which allows anyone to easily find places in their surroundings. It works world wide and provides accurate and concise information. It is ideal for travel.

Places Around features a Category Search which provides one tap access to over 35 common categories such as Restaurants, ATMs, Gas Stations, Parking, Shopping Malls etc. The Search area can be changed to a location of choice to search for places in a distant location without being there (ex. Search for Restaurants in London from Boston in USA). The following are some more of the many features of Places Around:

* Custom search which allows users to find places by the name of the place
* Place results are displayed in user friendly map views and list views
* Current location is detected  and the distance to places are displayed
* Contact details of places are displayed and calls can be made directly from the app
* Directions to places are displayed using the iPhone Maps App
* Place details can be shared using SMS and/or Email
* Places can be saved as favorites for easy access

$1.99/£1.49/download

SensiLogic, LLC, a mobile solutions company, today announced version 1.1 of My Iceland Travel Guide for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. My Iceland Travel Guide is the premier travel guide for Iceland, designed to meet the needs of tourists traveling in Iceland as well as local residents wanting a simple, intuitive, and powerful travel guide. With over one thousand categorized listings, and continuously growing, My Iceland offers a comprehensive and easy-to-use travel guide. "We designed My Iceland to help tourists make the most of their stay in Iceland so we have been very pleased to find that Icelanders like it as well", said Thor Einarsson, Director of Product Management at SensiLogic.

My Iceland is organized around the primary interests of tourists: accommodations, activities, arts and culture, events, food, and transportation. These categories then contain over 70 subcategories of information, making it quick and easy to find information of interest. It even includes information on most of the Icelandic volcanoes that have erupted in recent times.

My Iceland Travel Guide is an offline guide since visitors in Iceland often do not have an international calling plan. Users can therefore browse the information in the guide regardless of connectivity and get a list of nearby items of interest at any time. Additional features are available if a network connection is present. "We have taken special care to make the offline experience as smooth as possible", said Haukur Palmason, Director of Software Development at SensiLogic.

My Iceland includes all relevant contact information for every item in the guide and detailed information on many of the items, including beautiful photographs by more than a dozen photographers. Users can plan their trip to Iceland by adding items of interest to their favorites list, organized by city or town. And My Iceland isn’t just a travel guide. It also works as a travel log. "Tourists have told us that they are so touched by their visit to Iceland that they want to share it with everyone. That’s why we have made it easy for them to record where they go and what they see", said Mr. Einarsson. According to research by the Icelandic Tourist Board, 97% of visitors to Iceland feel that their trip met their expectations completely or mostly. "The feedback from tourists is phenomenal and they can now use My Iceland Travel Guide to share their experience with their friends and family", continued Mr. Einarsson.

$3.99/£1.99/download

SyGem Software today is pleased to introduce Chain Word+ 1.0 for iOS, their new word Game where players start with a three or four-letter word and then make new words from it, one letter at a time. The player can Add, Remove, Change, or Swap any letter in the original word, repeating the process to continue making new words from three to seven letters long. Uncommon letters have higher values, and score multipliers increase with each word made. Competition play enforces a ten-second limit per word, but the limit is adjustable up to two minutes (or no limit) for more casual play. The one-person game challenges the player to change and re-arrange letters quickly to create new words.

Like all well conceived games, Chain Word+ is easy to learn, but difficult to master. Gameplay is simple. The player begins with a three or four letter word (three words are chosen by the game at the start, and the player selects one of them). The goal is to modify the word to create a new word.

Players can Add letters (e.g., change "tin" by inserting an "h" to create "thin"); Remove letters (e.g., change "then" by removing the "h" to create "ten"); Change a letter to a new letter (e.g., alter "thin" by changing the "n" to an "s" to make "this"); or Swap two letters around (e.g., alter "not" by swapping the "n" and "t" to make "ton"). The game continues until the player cannot make any more words, or runs out of lives. One life is lost each time the timer runs out.

Free/download

Rainbow Stories today introduces Christmas Puzzle for Kids 1.0 for iOS, their new animated jigsaw puzzle app for young kids. Each of the 13 different Christmas scenes can be set to one of three levels of difficulty: Easy, Medium, or Hard. Featuring puzzle pieces that double in size when touched, kids can create a large picture from small pieces that are presented just two at a time. The expansion of pieces, dragging them on to the picture, and placing them correctly or incorrectly are all animated actions with accompanying sound effects. The app also includes original, festive, holiday music that makes solving these puzzles an activity filled with the joy of Christmas.

At launch in landscape mode, Christmas Puzzle for Kids displays all 13 illustrations in Apple’s eye-catching, Cover Flow View. Kids can scroll horizontally to pick the puzzle they would like to do. Once selected, the illustration fills the leftmost two-thirds of the screen. Pieces to the puzzle slide on to the screen from the right, and only two pieces are displayed at a time. Compared to the illustration, the colors of the puzzle pieces are deep and realistic, so when they are correctly placed over the illustration it remains clear which pieces are still missing.

When the child touches one of the two pieces, it grows immediately to twice its former size, and is exactly the correct size to fit in the puzzle. This innovation encourages children to recognize puzzle pieces by their shape and graphical content, independent of size. Pieces lock into place perfectly, and if placed incorrectly return to the pieces area on the far right. The app features a special snap-in algorithm, so that pieces automatically snap in to place when moved in to proximity of their destination. On completion of the puzzle, a fanfare is heard and all the pieces dissolve into a single, brightly colored image.

$0.99/£0.69/download

MarsApp today is proud to announce the release and immediate availability of Christmas Face 1.0, their new holiday themed camera app for iPhone. Christmas Face let you become Santa Claus and impress your friends with your costume photo.

Simple and easy-to-use, open Christmas Face on iPhone and select a themed picture. It allows you to select an existing photo from your album or tak a realtime themed picture on camera. It is very easy to share the xmas themed photo with your friends. The app features multiple sharing options, including sharing by email, Facebook, Twitter or simply saving to your photo album. The developers made this an easy to use and extremely useful camera app on this holiday so that you can dress up yourself with Santa Claus costume, a hot xmas girl or look like a christmas baby.

Christmas Face is an extremely funny photo App that is available during the Christmas holidays. It come with other essential features such as preview function, move around, zoom-in/out, rotation in editing mode.

$1.99/£1.49/download

Today, Sprightly Software announced a discount of 33% off Trip Journal for Business on iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch for users who purchase it before the end of the year. Regularly priced at $14.99 (USD), Trip Journal for Business will be discounted to $9.99 for the month of December to encourage new users seeking to start recording their business vehicle mileage in 2012.

Perfect for both small and medium sized businesses, Trip Journal for Business makes it easy to record vital business information. Never again will business professionals have to fumble with a paper journal, or miss an entry because it wasn’t convenient. Users can fill in most of the information before leaving on their trip, then fill in the final odometer reading at their destination.

Version 1.2 features:
* A new GPS button below the starting point and destination addresses that can automatically determine the user’s location from their device’s built-in GPS
* A new default vehicle in Preferences that selects the user’s vehicle automatically when adding log entries
* Existing logs are now editable. To make them read-only, a new option has been added in Preferences
* User interface enhancements

Trip Journal for Business includes support for multiple vehicles, adjustable reimbursement tracking, customizable defaults to auto-fill commonly inputed data, built-in address book and GPS integration, easy data exportation using email, support for AirPrint-enabled printing, and it works in both miles and kilometres.

$9.99/£5.99/download