Daily App Digest – January 20, 2012

Artgig Apps today is pleased to announce the addition of a brand new Puzzle game to the highly rated Alien Buddies early learning app. A featured iTunes Education app, Alien Buddies has been recognized by parents, teachers and app reviewers as a top educational game suite for Preschool and Kindergarten aged kids, as well as children with special needs.

The new Puzzle game is a fun addition to the existing Matching, Dot-to-Dot and Stickers activities, and can be played at different levels with 4, 6, or 8 pieces, developing reasoning and problem solving skills for younger and older kids alike.

Hilary Brumer of Apptudes has this to say, "I had a chance to test the new update of Alien Buddies and I LOVE the addition of the puzzles! I like the ability to change the number of available pieces, and the smooth, fluid game play. I also like the errorless learning and positive reinforcement with stickers and graphics."

$1.99/£1.49/download

Apperitif is pleased to introduce Favomatic, its latest app for iPad. What‚s your daily web routine? We all have one. A daily routine of websites we check on a regular basis. It may be so natural and embedded that you may not notice it, but we do! Check email, Facebook, feeds, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, news, etc. over and over again.

Favomatic provides you with an easy to use interface to create and manage launch-buttons for your favorites. Think of it as a to-do list that helps you in that daily routine. It not only reminds you to check out something you were about to forget but it also makes sure not to check it too often.

Why not use RSS readers instead? Feeds are great to get notified of updates but you may miss a lot if you only see the stripped-down copy of your favorite websites. No visuals, no interaction, limited experience. Moreover, for many websites RSS is simply not a suitable option: social sites like Facebook, news sites, forums, online stores are all best served in their original form.

Free/download

Cat Nigiri today is proud to announce the launch of Dino Palooza LITE – a free, content-limited version of the innovative dinosaur-themed tower defense game for the iPhone. Now users can take a sneak peek at Dino Palooza’s gameplay before acquiring the full version app – featuring twenty four levels and tens of enemies and weapons.

Dino Palooza puts another spin in the popular tower defense genre. Set in the late Cretaceous Period, the game tells the story of a small team of scientists (from the future), imprisoned in a prehistoric jungle, struggling to both fix the timeline they broke and surviving the wrath of Professor Nigel Racik, to whom dinosaurs should have ruled the earth forever.

In Dino Palooza, the player does more than watch the guns take care of the bad guys. Players actively fire the cannons, place the barricades, and slow the enemies down. Dinosaur types differ from each other in many ways beyond the regular speed and strength progression normally seen in Tower Defense games. Also, players are able to interact with the enemies’ path by placing towers and traps.

Free/download

Diamond Time Productions has released Q*Cardz, a Free app for the iPhone that offers a simple way to bring what you want into your life. Do you want a good grade? A good job? A new language – or just a new way to express yourself? Simply invite it in, one Q* at a time, on your iPhone or browser. Q*z play in a variety of modes including Present*it (story/slideshow), Hear*iT (standard flashcard) and Quiz*iT (multiple choice).

The Q*Cardz app delivers content to the iPhone and tracks individual practice and proficiency, customizing content delivery to ensure a balance of novelty, challenge and reward. Current deck topics include Spanish Language, Natural Science, Geography, U.S. Citizen’s Test, Peace & Poetry.

Don’t see a topic you’re interested in? Create your own Q*z. Q*create Tools offer a Free mobile publishing platform for content producers. Students, teachers, publishers and poets can produce their own Q*z, as a mobile slideshow or adaptive flashcards and publish them publicly or privately. Project Q*Cardz will offer pricing options later this year, enabling third party content publishers to earn revenue from their works, without taking on the cost of iOS development.

Free/download

Today Simple Tree is pleased to announce the release of Presidential Election 2012, a convenient app that delivers continuous coverage of the presidential candidates and election updates directly to your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. With a user-friendly interface, Presidential Election 2012 keeps users informed with the latest articles, candidate bios, a primary calendar and candidate Twitter feeds.

This app allows users to stay updated on campaign events, debates and primaries. It is a comprehensive resource of information on each presidential candidate, and an easy way to access all significant political news in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Users can share important events from the primary calendar with their friends and can access Twitter feeds to follow candidate’s tweets. Presidential Election 2012 can be used as a source of information for political science students, and by anyone looking to prepare themselves for the upcoming election.
Free/Download

Power App today is pleased to introduce Orbalus 1.0 for iOS, their new Game where players control magic orbs that each generate different shock waves and reactions when touched. The game is set in an ancient temple and gameplay is quite unlike other orb games, since players cannot move orbs directly. Players must coordinate touch activating the properties of different orbs to send one of them rolling into the goal. Requiring both strategy and coordination, orbs interact differently, and players must collect particular orbs to win. Dynamically lit graphics and animation leverage the extra power of the A5 processor in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2, providing ultra-realistic objects and energy effects.

Featuring more than 50 levels of play, with additional levels to be added as a free update, Orbalus requires patience and strategy for success. Players must pay attention to subtle details of the makeup of each orb, and observe carefully the global effects when each orb is touched and re-touched. Visible, circular shock waves can be seen interacting with other objects, waves, and fields. Orbalus stretches the capabilities of iOS compatible Newtonian physics engines to new levels of subtlety and complexity.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Juicy Development partners with Emergency Service Community to provide 500 additional streams for users of the popular smartphone app, Police Scanner 2. All audio feeds currently supported by emergencyservicescommunity.com will now be available for both Android and iPhone users.

Police Scanner 2 is an application that lets users listen to police, fire, and EMS activities around the world. "We are thrilled to add these new feeds and provide additional services in a new area. Since many of our users are police and firefighters, we understand just how crucial the connection is to the audio streams can be." said Tod Hadley, CEO of Juicy Development.

With thousands of national and international EMS streams, Police Scanner offers the largest selection of police, fire, and emergency services streams available for the iPhone or Android platform in one application.

"It’s crucial that we provide as much coverage as we possibly can," said Hadley, "because our customers depend upon our application for up-to-date emergency information. With over 25,000 daily users and streams in eleven countries, Police Scanner streams more emergency broadcasts than any other application in the iTunes store.

As additional stations, counties, and cities are added, the database is automatically updated and the stream instantly becomes available to all Police Scanner users. Police Scanner uses the location-aware technology built into the phones to help users locate streams near them, or allows them to search through a list of all available streams from around the world.

$4.99/£2.99/download

In the recently released mobile application, aVirtualInterview, Appsonite takes video tutorial to the job search arena by using the iPad and iPhone. aVirtualInterview is a job interview video tutorial app for people that wants to train in a virtual interview setting before going to a job interview. The app includes an astonishing 147 video bits showing the most common interview questions, answers and how to prepare for them.

This is a completely new way of job interview training. The app also includes videos of a mentor or counselor explaining how one should approach the different questions. All of this presented through a mobile application that the job seeker can take anywhere.

Free/download

GLASSES, a feature-rich photo editing application with a unique sense of humor, has made its debut in the iTunes App Store. The application comes from developer Green Cloud, and offers users the chance to jazz up personal photos in a uniquely fun manner.

iGLASSES gives users the opportunity to turn ho-hum photos into hilarious keepsakes, preserving memories and creating new ones. The application’s premise is simple: funny glasses are a joke that never grows old. Upping the giggle factor of a photo couldn’t be easier when iGLASSES is in one’s library of apps.

iGLASSES presents fans with a selection of 100 pairs of cartoon "glasses" (the term is used loosely in the case of super-silly selections like a pair of fried eggs!) which can be applied to photos saved on the iOS device, or taken within the application. It’s this brilliantly simple, fun feature that will capture imaginations, but iGLASSES will build its lasting success on the finesse with which the application was designed.

The virtual glasses can be repositioned horizontally and vertically, angled, and resized in order to achieve a perfect "fit" on the photo’s subject. And iGLASSES makes sharing the results simple, with built in email, Facebook, and Twitter sharing options. Photos in the iGLASSES app album can also be saved to the user’s gallery, allowing limitless possibilities!
Free/download

Emobi Games JSC, an innovative new mobile game development studio, was excited today to announce the recent launch of The MarbleZ for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The MarbleZ offers gamers a mobile update of the arcade classic of the same name. The game challenges players to keep their play space from filling up with marbles by moving them around, lining them up into rows of three or more, and eliminating them! An exhilerating mobile gaming romp, this app boasts vibrant colorful graphics, two play modes, and a high score leader board to boot! The MarbleZ is currently available for download on the Apple App Store for $0.99 in the Games category.

Say goodbye to old fashioned analog controls. All you need to get into to some timeless MARBLE themed action now is your fingers and The MarbleZ for iOS! This game is as energizing and addicting as it is straightforward. To play gamers choose their mode – Classic or Action – and start playing. Their goal is to line up rows of same colored marbles, eliminating them from play, clearing up space on the board, and racking up points all at once! The longer the row the more points players stand to make, it’s as simple as that!

With supremely responsive touch controls, a user friendly interface, and smooth operation, The MarbleZ is sheer joy to play. Furthermore with two unique play modes players will never find themselves short on action. Classic mode is an endless struggle where players move from one level to the next without letting their game grid fill up with marbles – the further they get the better they’ll do.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Kdan Mobile has just released a major update for its top-rated iPad note-taking app with a goal to further enrich its users’ note-taking experience. With the newly provided features, users can now use the patented Navigator gadget to magnify the selected area up to 5x for detailed, closed-up editing. Moreover, this update allows users to crop the desired contents in any shape with the newly-introduced freeform selection feature within the Navigator.

Kdan Mobile has demonstrated commitment to user satisfaction by responding to their feedback. This is evident from the latest update of NoteLedge that gives its users the ability to change the fonts, colors, and sizes used in the typing mode according to their liking. NoteLedge has taken its cue from Kdan’s family member, Animation Desk, by incorporating its stroke technology to offer users four additional brushes to make the note-taking experience more interesting and realistic.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Announcing that Adva-Soft, the developers of AntiCrop, has released an excitingly unique product for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users. AntiCrop is a new launch and the first application of its kind, offering users the ability to uncrop their photos on the go. The app is enough for anyone to use, requiring users to simply drag photo borders in any direction they want to expand the picture. AntiCrop also allows photo cropping and can be used to create unique pictures.

AntiCrop is a new title in the App Store, one that has the distinction of being a leader in its field. The application is the first of its kind, offering highly intellectual content filling algorithms never before possible.

Users are able to edit photographs from their handheld devices in a unique way with AntiCrop. They can take a snapshot with their device camera, or select a photo from their library then uncrop it with a simple drag of the finger to expand the borders in any direction.

Any cropped image can be easily uncropped but Adva-Soft offers some advice for using the application. "We highly recommend the app for all kinds of backgrounds and homogeneous textures, it works great for those. People will also be really happy with the results when they are working with nature landscapes, backgrounds, portrait photos and so on, too. AntiCrop really is something that people haven’t seen before," said Maksym Davydov, Adva-Soft President.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Spiderweb Software announces that this weekend (January 20th-22nd) their hit game, Avadon: The Black Fortress HD, is now available for half its regular price. Avadon held the #1 RPG spot on iPad for over a week at launch and is now available at its lowest price ever. See what all the fuss is about on one of the only full-length RPGs available for iOS.

Five great nations have banded together to form The Pact. The Pact is defended by Avadon, a secretive sect of spies and assassins. Its agents are everywhere and its word is law. You have been recruited as a Hand of Avadon, charged with missions that require swift action and a heavy fist. However, the enemies of the Pact have plans of their own, and Hands of Avadon are being picked off one by one. It will fall to you to struggle to survive and to reveal that plot that could shatter the safety of The Pact and plunge your homeland into chaos.

Embark on a whole new adventure full of danger, mystery, and intrigue. Visit the lands of the Pact and the wild, hostile lands beyond. Select one of four playable classes, each with dozens of unique skills and abilities. Meet many fascinating characters, explore massive dungeons, and hunt for hundreds of powerful magical artifacts. With over 30 hours of play, Avadon will keep you glued to your seat as its epic story unravels. Avadon is available for Windows PC, Mac, and the iPad.
$4.99/£2.99/download

Francisco Padilla, indie game developer, is proud to announce today the official release of Beat Enigma, a casual puzzle game for iOS platform. Available on the Apple Store, this new game offers a twist to the classic match-3 style over an endless moving board.

Beat Enigma portraits a typical situation, machines took over the world. The plot thickens with an archrival, Enigma, the central computer, source for encryption of communication. The player is part of the resistance, in the role of a hacker with the mission to crack the enigma code and dismantle the machine.

Enigma’s screen is a matrix of colorful symbols, grouped by streams in continuous vertical movement, each one with different directions and speeds. The hacker cracks codes by swiping its finger over three or more symbols of the same type, or over four or more different symbols, when these share the same row. With a clock running out at each level, the player’s precision is tested. The speed of streams and complexity of game change after each part is destroyed. By identifying special codes, the players boost their hacking abilities to reach the ultimate goal of Enigma destruction.
$0.99/£0.69/download

Geemzo today is thrilled to announce the release and immediate availability of Space Panic 1.0.1, their new gaming title for iOS and Android. Space Panic is a combination of Space Invaders and physics engine. Planet Xano is being attacked by an alien civilization. You are the only hope to stop them and save the day.

In Space Panic you take control of super advance Military Satellite equipped with powerful weapons which will help you defeat the evil civilisation. Your goal is to cause as much damage as possible and score maximum amount of points. Innovative element start when you shot an enemy and he falls down, while falling he can hit other enemies which will get destroy and fall with him.

Destruction cascade system makes the core of the strategy in the game, player can just shoot each ship separately or destroy them all with one accurate shot. Core game idea come from classic Space Invaders. Adding physics to this challenge makes the game much more appealing and entertaining what cause player to come back and try to beat the highscore.

Online highscore implementation (OpenFeint and Game Center) allows player to compare scores on global leader-board and between friends. The game is divided into two main game modes: Arcade which is endless battle and One shot which gives you limited amount of shots to cause maximum damage (one shot has 3 difficult levels.)
$0.99/£0.69/download

1 Last Try Games today is pleased to introduce Evil Square 1.0 for iOS, their new geometry based puzzle Game, where players must arrange a collection of regular and irregular cubes and pyramids so that all the pieces fit perfectly within a black square grid. Shapes are of various sizes, colors, and 3D deformations, but each has a flat base with either three or four sides. When correctly completed, the flat bases of the assembled shapes form a perfect square, with no gaps or overlaps. Featuring two modes of play, automatic positioning, tap to rotate a quarter turn, and drag to position, Evil Square is for players of all ages. The game challenges the puzzle solver to visualize and experiment with the way irregular shapes, having few 90-degree angles, fit together.

Evil Square includes four puzzle packs with 20 puzzles each. Players can choose either Classic Mode or Evil Mode. In Classic Mode, players are scored by the amount of time they take to complete each puzzle. They can ask for up to three hints per puzzle, with a 30-second penalty for each hint. In Evil Mode, the puzzles are completely different, and players have a maximum of two minutes to complete each puzzle. There are no hints available in Evil Mode. In addition, players progress from puzzle to puzzle, but if they fail at any time, they are required to start over from the beginning.

The colors and shading of each 3D shape are realistic and add visual flair to gameplay. The puzzles quickly become quite challenging, requiring fitting together 5 – 12 differently shaped and sized pieces. As players reach higher levels, the playing grid increases in size, allowing for more puzzles of greater complexity. Fortunately, only the bases of each shape must fit together; the third dimension, height, does not affect gameplay.

$0.99/£0.69/download

US based Avas Flowers, a leading national florist, is excited to announce the launch of Avas Flowers for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Avas Flowers is currently available for download on the Apple App Store in the Lifestyle category. The floral app offers a wide range of products ranging from flower bouquets, to plants, floral baskets, and sympathy arrangements. Avas Flowers also offers codified products from FTD’s Better Homes and Gardens Line, Teleflora’s Faith Hill Collection, and 1800 Flowers. One can utilize the floral app to order flowers for any occasion including birthdays, anniversaries, sympathy and funerals, and special holidays such as Valentine’s Day.

Built to be a fully functional flower shop right on your iPhone, Avas Flowers goes above and beyond the normal floral shopping experience. Users can research the meaning behind specific flowers, browse through special categories to choose floral arrangements by occasion, and even learn about proper flower care as well. Furthermore, security conscious shoppers can buy with confidence through the app’s simple and secure checkout system. The app also allows shoppers to utilize Google Checkout or Paypal in addition to all major credit cards.

Free/Download

House of File, a mobile developer focused on a wide variety of applications, has today announced the recent update of iSafe N Secure for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. iSafe N Secure is a unique iCloud enabled mobile information security solution. The app gives users the power to safely store everything from various account login names and passwords, to sensitive personal records, and more all under virtual lock and key without worry. Newly updated to optimize users’ access to stored documents via iCloud syncing from any iOS device they own, iSafe N Secure is currently available for download on the Apple App Store for $1.99 in the Finance category.

Going above and beyond the functionalities most secure information storage solutions floating around iTunes provide, this app provides users with a perfect balance of practicality and flexibility. iSafe N Secure provides users with a simple yet powerful password protected digital vault to store their many diverse records, but where the app really shines for its full iCloud integration. This feature means that once users add documents into the app, they are automatically synced with their iTunes account and made accessible to them through all of their iOS devices – just as long as those devices are equipped with iSafe N Secure to open them.

$1.99/£1.49/download

Freelance developer Eduardas Klenauskis today is proud to announce the release and immediate availability of Wordo 1.0, his brand new word puzzle game for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. The main aim of the game is to score as many points as possible by guessing and forming words from shuffled letters. To make things harder – there is a time limit.

Different categories help to improve your word vocabulary and learn new words. It also helps to improve reaction skills as you must hurry up before the time limit goes off. Also there is a 2 player mode, where you can compete with your opponent, test your reaction skills and prove that you are real word guru. What makes the game more attractive – interactive gameplay. Just simply drag and drop letters with your finger and get involved into words world.

$0.99/£0.69/download

Turnsy Games today is pleased to introduce Worm Town 1.03 free for iOS, their new side-scroller Game where players control a friendly slippery worm as he worms his way through one of two endless courses, snow or fire. Featuring simple, one-touch control, the game is far more challenging than it appears. Touching the screen causes the worm to wriggle forward and upwards, and releasing it, he moves forward and downwards. Players must be careful not to let any trailing part of the worm touch a wall or barrier, or the worm comes apart, breaking up into six disconnected parts, ending the round.

Similar in some ways to side-scrollers where players use a single control to continuously alter the buoyancy of fish swimming from left to right, Worm Town is a bit more difficult. Starting from its head, each body part is slightly smaller, and as the worm moves upward, his body follows in a serpentine motion. So rather than a solid body fish that ascends or descends, the worm is a constantly rippling, dynamic creature being pulled forward from his head.

Players are controlling the upward and downward movement of an animal that behaves like a string of beads, and breaking one bead off by touching a top wall, bottom wall, or barrier, ends the round. While the worm moves forward somewhat slowly, he ascends and descends more quickly, which makes navigating extremely challenging. Comparing distances achieved via Game Center may initially reveal many low scores, though the endless courses with barriers and enemy worms can be played indefinitely.

Free/download

Tharle Games, a new and promising iOS game development company, is happy to announce the release of Jelly Links for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. This puzzle game is uniquely developed and is available for Free on iTunes.

Jelly Links is a brainteaser that is now available for both iPhone and iPad. This game promises to keep you engaged for a long time. Jelly Links is all about matching the similar blocks and make them disappear. You have to match 3 or more similar blocks by linking them together.

There are 4 games modes namely: Rush, Kids, Extreme and Crazy and each mode comes with its own increased challenges. You can move jellies by swiping on any 4 directions (top, down, left and right). You need to keep in mind how to move jellies so you can take bigger advantage of eliminating more and more jellies and plan for next moves.  

So be fast enough to think and move as fast as possible. Earn as many points as you can by matching maximum blocks. Jelly Links with unlimited gameplay won’t let you down. This matching skill game is a lot of fun.

Free/download

Independent developer Michael Buchanan today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Music Swipe version 1.2.0, hoping to change the way people listen to music with their iOS devices. Music Swipe is an iOS app that allows users to control their music with simple gestures. It is aimed to help people control their music when they don’t have the time or ability to look at the screen.

Music Swipe enhances the typical Music app on the iPhone. It allows a user to select objects from their own music library, which will then be played through the iPhone’s headphones. Music Swipe’s main appeal comes in the form of control. The app lets the user perform typical functions such as pausing music and changing song by using gestures. For example, the user can swipe to the left to change to the next song. This intuitive method of control aims to help people who are on the move and can’t take time to look at the screen, such as people who are biking or running. It can also help to make driving safer, as a driver would not have to look at the screen and can pay attention to the road.
$0.99/£0.69/download