ABTs’ Top Apps of the Week-iOS 5/20/12
iOS has so many apps and games that its hard to pick which ones to pay for, which ones to skip, and it can be daunting to search for a decent app or game. We are here to help with a short list of good apps/games and they are easily downloaded through iTunes by clicking the app links. Enjoy!
Turntable.fm (Free)
When we work with music on, we usually sit at our computers with music playing and one thing that we are always looking for is new music. Whatever your genre(s) of choice is, Turntable.fm is a fantastic social music discovery app. The service is free and works with Android devices and every iOS device.
When you launch the app, you create an account by logging into twitter or Facebook. When creating the account you choose an avatar and with these you can join “rooms” of music. Some room names include: 90’s rock, Hip Hop only, Indie rock and many many more. The fun part of this app is that you can make your own room with friends, or join in and DJ other rooms. You pre-select music to add to a Queue, and there are 4 DJ stations where users can play music to a room of avatars. Like or dislike the song and it will keep playing or stop respectively. The music rooms also have their own chats.
Instacast($0.99)
Getting podcast on iTunes is horrible. Apple for some reason has forgot to update this portion of iTunes for some time. The caching of episodes requires them to do it manually but other apps like Instacast notify you immediately and show a new episode as soon as its available.
Instacast is my podcasting app of choice on any platform. Android devices have some good offerings, but Instacast just works beautifly. The UI is nice and finding your favorite shows is simple. They are organized well and new episodes can be streamed or automatically downloaded once they become available. The one problem we have is backgrounding in iOS stops downloads from occuring sometimes on slower connection. This is something that happens rarely and a download is just stopped; opening the app occasionally to check on downloads solves it. Give it a try for just $0.99.
JetPack Joyride (Free)
Jetpack Joyride is an older game, but for those of you who may not be familiar with it, we suggest that you give it a try! It is a “run as far as you can without dying” type of game. The difference between other games of this type is Jetpack Joyride’s style and fun. The character you play can run on the ground or use his jetpack to fly off the ground when the screen is pressed. T
he game runs on a freemium model where the game can be enhanced either astheticlly or gameply wise when upgrading your character. You can transform into characters like a mech or a airplane by picking up bonuses when running. There are objectives to complete such as collecting 200 coins, or high-fiving ten scientist while on the run. You collect special tokens for a slot machine when the game ends for special chances to get things like an extra life, or 500 ft boost.
Robbery Bob ($0.99)
Chillingo, the company that made Cut The Rope, has released Robbery Rob. The thing about Chillingo is that they are well known for crafting great user experiences and releasing fantastic games. This is another must have title from them, and as usual its only $0.99.
Robbery Rob at its core is a stealth game. The game begins with a cheesy story with the character being in jail and broken out by a person that you now owe a debt too. You are to go house to house and steal as much as you can to pay off your debt. The music and art style of this game is fun and keeps you coming back for more. Your character can run or walk really slow, once inside a house Grandma will have a line of vision for you to avoid. Once she catches you she beats you to a pulp, its overall a funny and casual game worth having in your collection.
Shape Shift (Free)
Quick, painless, and relaxing games are games people tend to love. These are games that we can sit at a doctors office with and just enjoy to pass the time. Think of Shape Shift as a Bejewled-style game where there are many different factors that come into play.
You must match three different tiles in order to clear them – the different part? Shape shift uses colors of tiles and shapes within the tiles to dicatate which different ones you can use. You can only switch one tile for one of the same shape such as two triangles in order to get 3 red colored tiles of any shape cleared. The ambient music is relaxing, and bombs that will explode if not cleared in time, keep the game fun without being too demanding.
Wunderlist (Free)
Things to do, things to remember, and many platforms to help you remember them. With iOS 5, Apple released a long asked for “reminders” application, in the vein of applications like Wunderlist which syncs your reminders to cloud and includes notifications, and an easy to master UI.
Why use Wunderlist over the native offering? Cross-platform syncing, the in-app organization of tasks is great, its free and is constantly being updated. You can setup lists, organzie your entire calender in an app that syncs to Android devices, the PC, or iOS dvices. The app allows you to share your lists with anyone you want, and using the website is just as easy as the app. Using a unified reminders app is very convienent.
Boost 2 (1.99)
Another game, but for $1.99 the choice is yours to fork the cash over or not. This is a tilt control game with great visuals, you are in a tunnel and must avoid obstacles while trying to maintain speed by passing over “boost” tiles. Three of them will give you max speed and you go along this sort of journey outside the tunnel and back in. The game has Gamecenter support for multiplayer game modes, time trials, and classic modes. There is also an unlockable survival mode that unlocks once you score over 2,000 in time trail mode. The multiplayer is the best part of this game and keeps it exciting. At the price of $1.99 it is up to you to give it a try.
Spell Sword($0.99)
This is a game I highly recommend buying and why mobile games are so great for these experiences. Spell sword has a retro 16-bit style to it, even down to the great music, that just looks great. If you have ever played Muffin Knight then think of Spell Sword as almost the same game but better.
The game centers around on screen controls of left, right, jump, or sword slash. There are arenas you can move around with waves of enemies coming in. The game has acutal progession and more items to use to help defeat the enemies. Spell cards, different enemies, and so on, keep the game fun and interesting. This game is well worth the $0.99.
8 bit Ninja(Free)
8-bit Ninja is an 8-bit game that centers around a ninja character and falling fruit. This is a very casual game that focuses on you avoiding the falling fruit as long as possible. The music is great, and the game keeps it interesting with things like throwing knives to destroy the fruit.
Your character levels up with more playing time, and the game feautres a shop to upgrade your character’s abilities such as your blades or shuriken. There are fruits with letters that fall that you must smash in order to spell a random on-screen word. It is fun and a good free game.
Air Wings (Free)
Air Wings uses GameCenter to its fullest potential. You are a paper airplane and you get to play with others playing around the world or with your friends. The planes have to pick up different types of weapons such as spit wads,rubber bands, heat seeking pencils, firecracker bombs, and suction cups to kill each other. The game also features in-game voice chat. There are 5 different planes to choose from and 6 different multiplayer maps and one single player training level. The game requires an Internet connection to play with others. Overall it’s a fun game, and free!
—If you have any comments visit our forum or Email me directly at ABTmobile.zero@gmail.com
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