Animation Desk has completely re-invented the way you can create cool animations on your iPad, it takes the classic principles of stop motion animation and mixes it with treasure chest of tools, animated backgrounds and effects.

Fire up the app and you’re taken to main page, click file and you’ll be shown all your previous animations that you’ve saved. You can open them up, delete them or play them, those are the bog standard and expected features.

But you can also duplicate animations, this means you can make adjustments without losing the original, anyone who has had to re-do an animation or sketch in the past due to careless hands will know how much stress this feature will prevent.

You can also combine sketches, so if you’ve been building a series of animations, instead of playing them individually, you can compile them into one continuous animation. You can also export and share your creations via Facebook, YouTube and Photo Library. You can also send your animations via email, perfect if you want to create animated e-cards for friends and family.

From the file screen, you also have the backgrounds tab, which is a collection of backgrounds you can use as backdrops for your animations. There are plain one colour backgrounds and there are more scenic backgrounds, but as well as static backgrounds, there are also dynamic, animated backgrounds too, which adds to the overall effect.

Once you have your background set , you’re ready to start drawing. The drawing tools are all one click away, there are four different drawing thicknesses and you can adjust the opacity too. In terms of drawing implements, there is an eraser, a pencil, a crayon, two different pens and also a brush to choose from.

You also have a colour swatch, which when clicked on brings up a complete palette of colours and from that array of colours, you can select six colours you want on your colour swatch. This is great if you’re only using a few colours, as you don’t have to constantly waste time finding the same colours over and over again.

Another drawing tool, and personally my favourite, is the stamp tool which allows you to do a myriad of interesting actions. It allows you to select elements of your drawings, copy and paste them so you don’t have to re-draw them. Using the stamp tool, you can also insert images, both your own and images from the Animation Desk in-app library of pictures.

The actual animation is very easy to do, it’s all frame-by-frame so you start with your first frame and once you are happy with it, you duplicate it and edit it slightly and so on. You can go back and pick out a frame to re-draw so it’s easy to make edits even after you’ve moved onto your next frame.

The onion skinning option allows you to see a faint outline of your previous and next few frames, this prevents you from drawing something that looks terribly out of sequence, it’s a neat feature and ultimately a time saver too.

In terms of learning curve and ease in which you can get into the swing of things, Animation Desk is fantastic. The design and layout is extremely intuitive so you’ll be animating straight away, plus the app makes the most basic drawer look like an accomplished animator, it’s this creative alchemy that makes Animation Desk so charming and fun to use.

Animation Desk for iPad is available for download at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/animation-desk-for-ipad/id409124087?mt=8

Reminder and Countdown is a free app that does just that. All you have to do, is tell it the information about the occasion you want to be reminded of and it does the rest.

Simply input the name, date and time of your event and you’re set, you can also adjust the notifications so you can decide how many times you are notified, it could be 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, or 1 week before the event itself.

Another cool feature is that you can set individual icons for each occasion, so can visually tell events apart and instantly find the one you’re after. For instance, a wedding would have a ring icon, Christmas would have a Santa icon and Valentines day would have a heart icon.

One of the smartest aspects of this app is the sort feature, which allows you to view all your notifications and sort them by soonest, so you’ll never be surprised by an event that’s coming up soon, as you’ll be able to see it well in advance.

You can easily share events on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr too, this is great for quickly sharing events with friends and family, especially for people you know who might have forgotten about the event otherwise.

For more private events, there are also options for just texting and emailing people so if you’re planning a surprise birthday party or a quiet occasion then there are options available for that too. Whilst it won’t be for everyone, you can also set sound alerts for events too.

Reminder and Countdown is a great app, even more so when you consider it’s free and has completely unrestricted functionality so you get the full app for free. It’s a real no-brainer for people with organisation problems, just don’t forget to download it!

Get the Reminder & Countdown App for free at: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id471570365

The app begins when your grandfather invites you around to his house but when you arrive, he is nowhere to be seen. Instead he has left a note asking you to take his music box and solve the melodies, finding clues along the way as you venture through the various rooms of his home.

There is a total of twenty-seven levels, with each level having a unique melody to solve. Within each level you have a blank music box, blocks of music and a music player so you can hear the complete tune you are trying to re-create.

You must drag the music blocks into the music box so they all fit together, both physically and melodically. Some music blocks are just one square, whilst others compromise of numerous squares making the challenge even harder.

Within each musical block, you have different colour squares and each coloured square represents a different instrument. You can use the same instrument more than once in the same row but you cannot use the same instrument more than once in the same column, this is where the sodoku element comes in.

This is what makes the game so much fun and such a great challenge, even after you’ve listened to the melody twenty times and you’ve established the rough overral design of the blocks, you still have to put them all together without the instruments clashing.

What is so unique about Musaic Box HD is that it appeals to both lovers of music and people who love playing puzzle games. On the one hand you feel like a master composer and on the other you feel like you’re cracking a rubicks cube, it satisfies the creatives and the academics.

With 27 levels to navigate through, with each melody and puzzle harder than the last, Musaic Box HD is an ear tickler and brain teaser all rolled into one. You’ll be whistling the tunes and humming the melodies for days to come when playing this fantastically unique app.

Musaic Box was awarded “Excellence in Design” at IGF 2009.  Mosaic Box HD is available for download at: https://itunes.apple.com/app/musaic-box-hd/id569496265

There are several different game modes but the challenge in each one is to connect the Flux with the Processor of the same colour. The blue Flux goes with the blue Processor, the yellow Flux goes with the yellow Processor and so on.

Whilst the basic concept is simple to grasp, don’t be fooled into thinking that MegaFlux is a walk in the park. There are huge amounts of different tiles you get to use, this is not a straight-forward turn-pipe style plumber game.

You can choose from two different game modes, the main Challenge Mode that has 50 levels of increasing difficulty or the Relax Mode which is an infinite amount of random levels, where you get to choose the size and difficulty.

This variety means you can either get stuck into a real challenge or if you just want to kill some time then you can try playing a randomly generated level of your own specified difficulty and size.

On top of all of that, you also have an Editor Mode so you can create your very own levels, however you have to play the Challenge Mode to unlock tiles, there are over 80 tiles to unlock so there is no shortage of ideas when it comes to creating your own levels.

For those with a real competitive side, there are a total of 66 badges to collect through-out the game and if that’s not enough, there are even the high score tables which you can use to compete with friends or even the rest of the world.

All in all, MegaFlux does well to balance the charm of a classic plumber game with the look and design of a modern game and even if you complete the main Challenge Mode, you still have the Relax Mode which guarantees hours of unlimited, unique levels.

Market link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sofresh.games.megaflux

Since all users have the ability to select their favourite topics of interest, not only will you find surveys that spark your curiosity, but when you create and share questionnaires your target market is also more likely to complete them as well.

The questionnaires are very simple, they are all set out in an A/B format, something like “Justin Bieber or Kanye West; Who Is Better?” would be an example of the sort of questions you can do. This allows for very clear and conclusive data, plus it’s much more fun to do lots of these, instead of a 20 page mega-questionnaire that people will most likely start but not complete.

Whilst Direct Opinion is not a survey app that allows users to make money by filling out surveys, it instead allows the survey creators to make money, as others users can buy the results data from your questionnaires.

The great thing about the duality of this app, is that caters for people who just want to kill some time filling out surveys but it also caters for people looking to potentially make money too.

The layout is very clean, it manages to maintain a minimalist design without any loss of functionality, which makes understanding the app an absolute breeze. For 99% of people, creating or answering a survey will be as easy the first time, as it is the hundredth time.

The app is completely free, signing up is made easier by being able to use Facebook to instantly register, unfortunately you don’t get the option to instantly register through Twitter or Google.

Market link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.paradisehaven.directopinion

The Engine Tester attempts to bridge the gap between people who want to make good, informed decisions about cars but don’t want to invest lots of time into learning about cars.

The main feature of the app is the engine test function. You simply fill in details about the car you are testing, such as make, model, year, number of cylinders, litre capacity and fuel. Then with the engine running, you record a 10 second sound clip from the exhaust.

This fairly simple process will then work out if the engine you are testing is either healthy or faulty. Whilst this is not a complete indicator of whether a car is healthy or not, it is a great way to find out very quickly if there is an engine problem with a car you are looking to buy or if a mechanic is being honest when they say your car has an engine fault.

The Engine Tester is not a one trick pony though, it has another great feature, which caters perfectly to people with limited car knowledge. The Checklist feature is a series of suggested areas of the car you should check, by clicking on each one it prompts you on what to do with clear and concise instructions.

The Check Tyres reminder prompts you to check the tread of all the tyres, plus the tread of the spare tyre if there is one. There is a function like this for every important part of the car, this is a fantastic feature because it so easy to forget something when your technical knowledge isn’t great.

Each option on the Checklist can be ticked off too, so once you’ve checked something and it passes, you can tick it off, so at the end you have a complete list of parts that are fine and possibly even parts that need repairing.

In all, the Engine Tester is an app perfectly designed to help non-car savvy people avoid costly mistakes when checking their own car. The app focuses on high value parts of the car, with main attention paid to the engine so you can avoid being taken for a ride when buying a used car or dealing with mechanics.

The Engine Tester App is available for download at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-engine-tester/id590628533?ls=1&mt=8

The main screen shows your contacts in the usual card form; image, name, number and email address of each person. It also includes a location of each person too, based on real GPS technology (where available) so you can even see if someone is nearby.

Being able to see the main contact info of a person instantly is fantastic, the images are great too as it breaks up each contact card. Scrolling through your list is made easier by having a vertical alphabet on the right, so you can easily skip to the letter of the person you want.

Each contact card is controllable by swiping and tapping. Swipe to the left and you reveal the full contact details, plus the ability to edit as well. Swipe to the right and you get a larger image, a large call button plus two smaller buttons for email and SMS.

You’re literally only two fluid movements away from going from looking at a contact card to contacting them, whether that’s through a phonecall, a text or an email. Something that shouldn’t be underestimated when you’re in a rush.

Tapping on a contact card reveals even more cool options, the contact card expands to cover the entire screen, you get some obsure details such as work email, other contact numbers and even web presence. You can also add also add that person to your favourites, a feature that is available from the overview on the frontpage of the app.

However possibly the best feature of the entire app, is the ability to add a contact to the homepage of your actual iPhone, so you can call any contact with one touch from your hompage, without having to directly access Contaqs.

Whilst you might think that only a personal assistant would need something like this, it is perfect for the people who are most important in your life, whether that is your significant other or work colleagues that constantly you need to stay in touch with.

As well as the favourites option, you can also create groups for putting contacts into, for things as simple as segmenting family members or even for putting all your poker buddies together, literally for anything.

Part of groups feature is the “Smart Lists”, which automatically creates groups based on ‘shared attributes’. It can be quite hit and miss, but it’s perfect for things like grouping all your work colleagues together.

The various groups and your favourites can be access via the overview tab, this also features the option to add contacts. Adding contacts can be done manually and you can import contacts from your current iPhone contact list and even from Facebook too.

The overview also features access to a great keypad. When you start typing in numbers, it will suggest existing numbers from your contact list. You can also access Birthdays which is a run-down of your friends birthdays, sorted by whose is soonest and also a Birthday Calendar which is a normal calendar but it also shows you who has a birthday in any given month.

We mentioned the nearby contacts feature before and in the overview you can access a feature that allows you to sort contacts by who is closest, which is great if you’re at a loose end and want to meet up with someone nearby.

All in all, Contaqs is a truly impressive app, that has really thought long and hard about including as many helpful features as possibe, and arranging them in the most user friendly way too.

At only $1.99, it is a snip for anyone who is at war with their contact list and wants an easy, intuitive way to manage their address book.

The Contaqs App is available for download at: https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/id584703364?mt=8

If you’re bored of using the same handful of emoticons, then with MoodCraft you can create your very own masterpieces. It’s a simple-to-use app, with more different combinations of smiley design than you could possibly dream of.

You can customise everything from the colour of the face, the shape of the face, the eyes, the eyebrows, the actual smile plus other things like facial hair and accessories. Pretty much everything you would imagine that a smiley face would need, plus a few cool unexpected extras too.

MoodCraft also allows you to re-size any element of your emoticon, so you could have a smiley with big eyes or small eyes, anything you want, the only limit is how weird and fantastic your imagination is.

Once you’ve finished your creation, you can share with friends easily, you can even tag specific people. The app allows you to sync up with your Twitter and Facebook accounts, so you can easily share your creations with everyone once you’ve finished.

A really simple but great feature, is that you can add messages to your emoticons when you share them on Facebook or Twitter, so you have another cool way to update your status and let people know what you’re up to.

MoodCraft also has a community of it’s own, you can follow other users and like other people’s creations too. It’s just another great way to stay in touch with people, and see what they’re getting up to.

MoodCraft is free however there are lots of in-app purchases available, so if you feel like splashing the cash to create the ultimate smiley then you can, but we found the free-to-use part of the app really fun to use as well.

The free app is available for download at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cognifit-moodcraft/id571018132?mt=8&ls=1

That’s where Manilla comes into play. Manilla is a fantastic new app that, once set up, will allow you to sync up all your bills into one easy to manage place. Personally, the best thing about Manilla isn’t the fact that it saves time and stress, but the fact that it makes it impossible to pay a bill late or forget about it altogether.

Normally I find myself scrabbling through tonnes of letters, trying to sort everything out, what needs paying, what has already been paid and so on, but Manilla allows you to set up reminders via text and email so you always know what needs to be paid and also the amount of time you have before you need to pay.

This allows you to prioritise bill payments based on what is most urgent, and since all bills are displayed in a thumbnail format all on the same page, all you need to do, is a quick scroll to see what needs paying and when.

In terms of layout, it is smartly set up. You have three main pages; Reminders, Documents and Accounts, which are all one click away in the menu bar. The Reminders tab utilises a Facebook-style notifications system, so you can clearly see from the front page if you have any reminders and how many, without having to enter the actual Reminders page.

The Documents page allows you to read bills and reminders, and the layout is very similar to an email inbox with items organised by date, with each item having a clear subject title. Finally the Accounts page, is simply where you can add, monitor and delete companies or services that you pay bills for.

Since the app is only split into three sections, it keeps things simple and easy to use. Whilst an all-in-one system for paying bills might seem complicated in theory, Manilla has done a great job of simplifying it and taking the hard work out of paying the bills.

Manilla is also completely free, I had to check that twice because it is such an ingenious application. Add that to the fact that it’s quick to set up too and you have a complete no-brainer of an app.

Whilst Manilla does have support for over 3,500 companies, there are some blind spots and there are some services that it doesn’t support, however that is to be expected, especially when it’s such a relatively new app but with new services being added constantly, it should be adequate for 99% of people.

The 4+ star user rated Android and iOS apps are available at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manilla&hl=en and https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bills-accounts-manager-documents/id439937940?mt=8