Read on to find out what is so special about Super Mega Worm and why I love it so much.

What is Super Mega Worm?

The plot of Super Mega Worm is *very* nerdy to say the least. It is your job as Wojira the Death Worm to save Mother Nature from destruction. Ironically, you do this by ridding the Earth of its human “parasites.”

Wreak havoc to humans in order to save the world

As if this wasn’t enough to win you over, the gameplay is absolutely insane. Throughout the 24-level campaign (plus the extra 15-level Christmas themed campaign) you will pummel through not only humans but horses, buffalo, pickup trucks, tanks, and much more. The farther you move along, the bigger and more menacing you will get.

The Blood & Guts

Now is the time that we are going to flesh out the game itself: what about it just makes it so darn fun? I have found that one of the core things that makes this game so freaking awesome is that it doesn’t have a real “point” while still maintaining a storyline. This allows the player to deviate from their games without having to worry about losing lots of hard-earned progress.

Super Mega Worm features many objects and enemies that you need to destroy

This game is a retro arcade game more than anything else. The idea is simple enough that anyone can understand how to play just by picking up the game: eat everything in your path to stay fueled and try to avoid being hit by guns, tanks, bombs, or whatever else that may possibly hurt you. The worst that can happen is you die, in which case you can pick up right from the level you leave off.

Super Mega Worm features two different game modes: Adventure and Time Attack. Time Attack is the classic example of a free for all as the goal is to amass as many points as possible within a constrained timeframe. The levels are loaded with things to destroy and insane combos are achievable through this level.

Super Mega Worm includes the Super Mega Worm vs. Santa pack for some snowy fun

Adventure is the 24-level — or 15-level if you are playing the North Pole pack — campaign mode. In this game mode, you will progress by killing the target amount of humans displayed on the top right of the screen. The further you get in the game, the more humans you will have to kill to move on. Wojira the Worm will also grow and earn power-ups like “spit” or “emp” as you go on, making the challenge not so hard

Ultimately, the campaign mode is super short and relatively easy — nothing that can’t be beat in a span of 20 minutes or so. While this is disappointing, it isn’t too bad because the nature of the game is more of a quick-fix and offers loads of replay value. Plus, each level is randomly spawned and you will never have the exact same experience twice.

Keeping Control

Deceased Pixel has really went out of their way to accommodate everyone when it comes down to controls. Super Mega Worm doesn’t have one, not two, but three different control configurations to choose from — D-pad, Slider, or Tilt.

Three different control configurations are available to use (From top to bottom: D-pad, Tilt, and Slider)

Personally, I find playing with the D-pad, the default controller, is the easiest as it allows you to control all directions of the worm’s movement. The tilt and slider options really only allow you to control two directions of the worm’s movements at once and are quite hard to get used to. Nevertheless, each option can be quite finicky at times, and the controllers can be kind of sticky.

16-Bit Epicness

If you have read any of my past reviews, you would already know that I love the retro 16-bit style in iOS apps. Super Mega Worm boasts this really classic arcade-style look. The fact that it looks like it came right out of an arcade helps soften the immense amount of blood and gore in the game.

What can be better than a gory 16-bit game with a comedic edge?

Which brings us to our next point: this game is extremely gory. As you ravage the earth, you will see limbs and heads flying, blood squirting everywhere, and, of course, explosions. The fun graphics give a much needed “this-isn’t-real” nuance to what could be an extremely disgusting game. Plus, some of the things that the terrified humans say as their running away add an extra comical edge which the game definitely benefitted from.

The Verdict

Super Mega Worm is by far one of the best games I have ever played on the iPhone. Fast-paced and addicting gameplay make it a go-to application for any time you need a gaming fix. Additionally, the awesome retro graphics make this game seem as if it had came straight out of an ’80s arcade.

Despite how amazing the game is, it does have its flaws. The campaign is too short and very easy; if levels weren’t randomly spawned it would not have any replay value whatsoever. Controls also seem to be quite finicky, and I have only found one of the three different configurations to be truly usable. Because of these flaws, I am unable to rate Super Mega Worm higher than a 9/10. Still, Super Mega Worm is perhaps the best $1.99 I have ever spent on an iOS app.

By this point I know some of you may be asking, “who cares?” I know time tracking isn’t a hobby or activity that is particularly exciting or useful to everyone, but if it is, BeginIt may become your new favorite app.

Getting Started

After you get past BeginIt’s gorgeous splash screen, you’ll be shown a few examples of logged ctivities. To add a new Activity (or as the app says, “to BeginIt”), swipe down on your screen. A new overlapping page will appear on screen with a list of time tracking activities, which Xynyn uses for a brief tutorial if read from top to bottom. Unfortunately, you’ll need to delete each activity, which is done by swiping the color block to the right and then swiping it back to the left.

Your introduction to BeginIt.

Tracking Time

When you’re ready to begin timing, tap on the text box at the top of the screen (to the left of the Cancel button) and type your Activity description; when you’re finished, tap Done. From here you’ll be driven back to the main page and your timing will begin.

Enter your Activity description in the text box, hit Done and it will appear on the main page.

One annoyance that’s rather irksome about BeginIt is that there’s no method of stopping your timing. It’s clear that Xynyn created BeginIt with the notion that users would always want to track their timing, but that certainly won’t always be the case (perhaps you need to track time for business purposes or just want to track certain events). A work around that Xynyn proposes in the App Store description is to create a “not logged” Activity, which works, but I’m hoping the ability to stop timing will be added in a future update.

Create a "Not Logged" Activity (or simply kill the app) if you don't want to track a specific activity.

Editing Activities

BeginIt offers a few minor editing capabilities for activities, as well as the ability to set goals (discussed further in the next section); to do either, tap on an Activity from the main page. The first area of the Edit page is the Event, which includes the same time information displayed on the main page. If you need to edit the time you logged, tap the Edit Event button and change the time using the scroll wheel (you can also change the Activity using the text box provided).

The Edit and Edit Event pages.

The second area of the Edit page displays a line graph the shows all the time you’ve tracked under that Activity. BeginIt keeps tabs of all the time you’ve tracked so you can swipe the graph to the right to view previous entries. If you tap on the graph, you’ll be transitioned to a full page graph that allows you to view your progress a bit easier.

The line graph shows your progress for an individual Activity over time.

Setting Goals

The last area of the Edit page displays Goals (referred to as a Constant Goal in BeginIt), which must be set up for each new Activity (if desired). To set up a goal, tap the Edit Activity button above the graph (you can also change the Activity color from the Edit Activity page). Start by selecting how much time you want to spend doing said Activity (you can change the default one hour by tapping on it and then using the scroll wheel to change the time), then select how often the goal should be accomplished (e.g. daily, weekly or monthly). Tap the Add A Goal button when you’re finished.

Setting up a goal.

You’ll notice that your goal has been entered and that it’s tracking your goal for only a week. This is a rather curious standard set by Xynyn, but it can be changed with some ease by tapping on the goal, tapping the Due Date, and then changing the date on the scroll wheel (at the moment you can’t go further than a year).

Changing a goal's due date.

When an Activity doesn’t have a set goal the text located next to the Activity on the main page will read “No Set Goal.” However, when an activity is set BeginIt will show the date the activity was logged, how much time was logged and remains to meet the goal, and the percentage the goal was achieved.

BeginIt makes it easy to determine if you're hitting your goals.

Creating Graphs

One of the reasons to bother with time tracking is to study your activities, and as a visual person I really enjoy BeginIt’s ability to create graphs from my logged time. To create a graph, swipe down on screen from the main page and tap the graph button in the top right corner. Next, choose the type of graph you’d like to make (pie, line or bar), then tap on the activities you’d like to include in the graph.

Graphing options.

Next, choose the time range and tap the Create Graph button. BeginIt allows you to save an image of the graph to your Camera Roll, or share it via Twitter, Facebook or Email.

Examples of completed graphs.

Final Thoughts

BeginIt is the type of app that won’t appeal or be useful to everyone, which is a real shame. Xynyn has done an amazing job with creating an incredibly stunning app that is just a joy to use. The overall simplicity of BeginIt makes it easy for anyone to pick up and use right away, though I’m still holding out for the ability to stop a timing manually.

If time tracking plays a part of your life, or you’re just interesting in tracking your daily habits, I really cannot recommend BeginIt enough.

Developer Hexage has been blasting out shiny, addicting games for iOS and other platforms for a few years now, and the release of Radiant Defense shows they haven’t been slacking. But in a genre flooded with apps, what makes this tower defense game the one to download?

Tower Defense Basics

The story of Radiant Defense begins when the Commander of an Earth defense force arrives on the scene. He and scientist “Doc” are charged with protecting the vortex between the aliens’ world and Earth. If too many aliens flood the vortex and the defenses are overrun, Earth’s coil that closes the vortex will be destroyed and Earth is destined for certain destruction. Heavy stuff.

The Commander reports in.

If you’re familiar with tower defense mechanics, then you’re well-prepared for Radiant Defense. With the money you’re given at the beginning of a turn, or “wave,” you purchase turrets with different abilities, upgrading your turrets and adding to them as you progress. Occasionally the Commander or Doc will give you a hint between waves so you can prep for enemies with specialized defense systems. And they’re giving hints to those who’ve never played a tower defense before, too, advising on turret placement and when to upgrade weapons.

DIY Space Maze

Where Radiant Defense differs from many tower defense games is that it lets you plot the map. Using construction modules, the player designs the path the enemies take to the end point. The base map in a Radiant Defense level will usually offer the aliens a beeline to Earth’s coil. By strategically placing construction modules, you can force the aliens to take the longest route possible while setting up some great choke points when you start placing turrets.

A little nook has been built around the coil goal. Meanwhile, blue jelly aliens attack.

The tutorial level takes you through all of these nuts and bolts, and you can return to the tutorial at any time if you didn’t quite get it or you just want to brush up on your skills. You’re also introduced to the three turrets that make up the core of your fighting force, at least for the first several levels. Clicking on the laser, the cannon, and the gun (or any weapon, for that matter) will give you more info on each turret’s strengths and weaknesses and a clue as to when to use each.

Pros and Cons of Freemium

Radiant Defense is a freemium game, so Hexage is making their money off of in-app turret upgrade purchases. Some of the most useful turrets are only available as packs that run $0.99. While Radiant Defense is 100-percent playable out of the box, some of the most entertaining armaments and absurd explosions are only available with upgraded weapons packs.

I found that as the enemies got increasingly harder and would flood my little outpost in greater numbers, my base weapons just weren’t as effective anymore. While I could have ground through those onslaughts of fluorescent jelly without upgrading, I found the game much more enjoyable with my $0.99 purchases.

A mission boss, surrounded by fluorescent weaponry.

The only flaw with Radiant Defense is the in-app purchasing system, though. The Commander and Doc will hint that a particular turret would be a great idea on the next wave, but they don’t let you know it’s a purchasable upgrade. I got slaughtered through several waves of enemies, thinking I just didn’t have enough game currency for the special weapon, when the reason it wasn’t appearing was because I hadn’t spent any real currency. Once I figured out what was missing, I had to pause in the middle of getting slammed by day-glo, cupcake-shaped aliens, choose the upgrade I wanted, and make the purchase. Usually by the time I’d figured out what I needed and how to get it, I was so far gone, I had to restart the entire mission.

Conclusion

While losing progress seems like a huge annoyance when it happens and may cause the occasional rage quit, when I finally came back to my iPhone after my little tantrum, the game was just as good, if not better for my upgrade purchases, and it took almost no time at all for me to get back to where I had been.

Radiant Defense’s technicolor graphics and pulsating enemies create a tiny, caricatured alien apocalypse future. The design of this game is integral to the enjoyment of the play, and it’s obvious the developers understood that and took it into account. Down to the slurping way the aliens move around the player-created maze, this is a well-executed app with all attention paid to making it fun to play and fun to look at.

This is a solid tower defense, with inventive game play, smashing graphics, and a terrific soundtrack. With the recent addition of Radiant Defense to their catalog of beautiful games, Hexage is looking to remain an indie developer at the forefront of iOS playables.

News.me is an iPhone app that filters and processes your Twitter and/or Facebook streams to pick out the links your friends and followees have posted that will interest you. While not being recommended as a replacement Twitter app (simply because it uses Twitter as a source, but doesn’t let you actually interact with it), it does offer you a quick way to access crowdsourced news without all the commentary and more social-oriented posts. Let’s take a look at it after the jump. 

Getting Started

Being completely driven by the world’s two major social networks, Twitter and Facebook, News.me has an incredibly simple setup. You simply tap the social network you want to login to in order to get setup (and, if it’s Twitter you’re logging in to, News.me will tap into iOS 5′s integration so you don’t even have to type in any credentials). Fortunately, unlike many similar types of app, News.me doesn’t require you to hold an account with them in order to use the app; that’s one less thing to manage.

The main views you'll be using News.me in: the timeline-based feed and the individual article view.

Once you’ve signed up, you’re pretty much ready to go and News.me will use your social connection to start pulling in, sorting and presenting news stories to you. It’s literally that simple, and its integration into a service you likely already use is highly appreciated, especially convenient as you probably don’t have to enter credentials anyway.

The central feed in News.me pulls in stories from your connected social networks.

You can go further by heading to the app’s settings, where you can add the other social network you didn’t before (ie Facebook or Twitter). You can also follow (and, in return, be followed) by people on News.me itself, by using the Find Friends feature within your profile. This doesn’t seem to be necessary, nor offer much benefit if you already follow the people on Twitter, so it’s nothing to worry about if you don’t want to use it.

Your Daily Digest

News.me is ultimately a pretty minimalist app where you’ll primarily reside in a single column view of all the posts in your stream. Posts are pulled in from your social networks, and the list can be easily refreshed by the now famous swipe-down-to-refresh gesture.

When you come to actually read a post, you’re presented with it’s title and an image from the post if applicable. Underneath it, you’ll also be shown the reason that it’s in your stream since it lists the Twitter, Facebook or News.me user that the link originated from. If they added commentary to the link, that will be shown too so you’re not completely independent from the social network itself.

News.me activity is shown in a feed (left) while you're able to find fellow users through social networks (right).

When you click through onto an article, it’s presented in a Readability-style view that takes away the clutter of the regular web to give you an enhanced reading experience that i’m a big fan of, here and elsewhere. You’ll also be able add a reaction from a list of presets (such as “Ha!”, “Awesome” and “Really?”) for your fellow News.me users to view, as well as being able to view links from the same website (but not necessarily the same user).

Naturally, you can also share articles through the action button to your social network of choice or via email.

Social options within News.me.

If you do invest in the social aspect of News.me, you can use the top-left button to view the reactions your friends have made to content. That way, you can further reduce the clutter of your Twitter feed to just the content that is actually interested, based on your friends. Additionally, through that same button, you can access your “Reading List”, a list of articles you’ve saved from your primary feed.

A Breath of Fresh Air

I’ve used apps like this before, such as Flipboard. That app got a lot of hype but I hated it; it always seemed pretty haphazard and random. News.me is the complete opposite, and actually presents socially generated links in an organised, chronological stream. Like Readability does for the web, News.me clears off all the clutter of a social network to just get the juicy stories to you.

News.me’s execution of the concept is top notch, and definitely works. It has a strong user interface and is a stable app that you won’t find issue with. It’s minimalist, so you’re not likely to get confused with layers of navigation either. The settings panel is slightly hidden, but that’s hardly a major criticism considering you probably won’t frequently use it.

If you’ve got an iPad, check out the separate [non-universal] iPad version of News.me, also available for free in the App Store.

I was bouncing between options on my Apple TV the other day, and I stopped for a moment on iTunes Match. I remember when I first heard about the concept how I thought it had its ups and its downs, but it could still be pretty neat. I never bought a subscription because right now I don’t really see the need — but what about you? Do you have an iTunes Match subscription? Let us know in the poll to the right.

In it you take on the role of a settler of Catan, a newly discovered island rich with natural resources. You compete with the other settlers by building settlements, roads and cities in order to cover enough of the island with your influence to proclaim yourself the Lord of Catan. Stake your claim after the break.

The Basics

The game board is made of numbered, hexagonal tiles that each represent a different kind of resource, lumber, ore, grain, wool and brick, and are laid out randomly at the start to form the island. Each turn, two die are rolled and the number represents the tile, or tiles, that produce their goods that turn. If you have a settlement or city next to such a tile, you collect that resource.

The main interface of a game well underway.

Each player starts with two settlements and two roads, which are placed by each player before the first dice are rolled. Your initial settlement placements determine a lot about how well you will do in the game, including your initial resources, so you have to scrutinize the possible placements based on the types of resources they will get and the odds of their numbers being rolled more often.

Gameplay

The final goal of the game is to be the first to reach the number of agreed upon victory points, usually earned by building settlements and cities. But watch out, for when a seven is rolled the Robber takes action and will steal from the richest players. The player who rolled the seven then moves the Robber to a new tile, a tile which will not produce resources until the Robber moves on.

The trade interface is set up for quick-swipe deal making.

Resource trading is my favorite part of playing Catan with live people. During your turn you can offer up resources you possess to trade for those you want. In person, this creates a fun atmosphere of wheeling and dealing, but against the AI it is nowhere near as engaging. I give them credit though, because the AI seems to adjust well to their needs and can drive a hard bargain.

Strategy

Each thing you can build will take a different combination of resources: a lumber and a brick for a road; one of each resource for a settlement; three ore and two grain for a city; plus a city can only be built on top of a settlement. As you start to try and expand from your initial placements you will often find your development blocked by the moves of the other players, and you will want to look to doing the same to them.

Purchasing development cards offer another route for opportunity.

In addition to the building, you can also spend resources (one ore, one grain and one wool) to purchase development cards. These are drawn randomly from a limited central deck and will each grant you special options for how to proceed. For instance, knights let you move the Robber, and build the largest army (extra points). Other cards let you build additional roads, collect extra resources and so on.

Implementation

Overall, I am impressed with the implementation of Catan for the iPhone. The screen automatically zooms and pans about as the AI players take their turns, helping you to see quickly what they are doing and where. This, combined with the well built pop-out menu system, make for a flowing feel to things as they play out.

The pop-out menu is slick, zooming in and out easy.

One area of the interface that I think needs some help is in the text messages that appear at the top to describe what is happening. Often they do not update quickly enough, which can leave you wondering exactly what is happening. In particular, during trades I often see the message window vanish completely instead of telling me if my trade was accepted or not. Once you have played a few times this glitch will not trip you up, but when I was just learning the game I was totally confused by this.

Game Options

You can play with up to four players, each being either an AI or a real person (for pass and play), and set some minor alterations like adjusting the victory point total needed to win. In addition, there are a few different rule variations you can play with that restrict certain resources or grant extra points for building harbors.

The Seafarers Lite map that comes with the basic game shows you what you can expect in the full expansion.

The board game version of Catan has released numerous expansions that take the game to new levels of complexity and fun. The iPhone version is following suit with the first in-app purchase being the Seafarers expansion, which brings in pirates, ship building and playing on maps with multiple islands. The basic game gives you a teaser for this, called Seafarers Lite, that allows you to get a taste of what the game is like with the expansion added in.

Limitations

As much as I like the game of Catan, I think this version has a number of striking limitations that hold it back from truly shining. First and foremost is the price. $4.99 for the basic game is on the high side of fair for the quality and fun the app has, but the Seafarers expansion will run you another $4.99 on top of that. Plus, this is not an iOS universal app, so if you like to play on your iPad too you are looking at buying everything twice.

The other major problem with this game is the lack of online multiplayer. They make it clear that this feature is on its way, but without it this does feel like an overpriced app, offering more a sort of pre-release experience. So unless one has others around for pass and play, for the time we are stuck with playing against the AI — which is decent enough, but do not provide the level of fun that is had by playing real opponents.

Conclusions

If you really enjoy a good strategy game then Catan will definitely satisfy in that way. It has just the right amount of subtle complexity that makes it both easy to learn and interesting to play again and again. But without multiplayer you may not get the kind of replay-ability that playing with friends will definitely bring. Even the Seafarers expansion “campaign” mode felt like more of the same, though the new island maps definitely bring in a fun variation on things.

Once the multiplayer arrives I would probably bring my rating up to a seven. But honestly the price of the game and the in app expansion (which I presume is reflective of what future expansions will cost too) bring the value of the game down some for me, compared with all the amazing cheap and free games that are available these days. If you happen to grab this game when it is on sale, and it has multiplayer by then, I would say it is a strong eight.

Let’s say that you’ve got a report due for your history class about Charlemagne, and you need to figure out how to organize the article so it not only makes sense but also flows really well. One easy way to do that is to use a mind map, which is a way of plotting out your ideas and keeping them organized around a central subject. This is not only simple for pretty much anyone to pick up, but also can help you really determine out how to work out your problem.

But what makes MindNode better than the competition? It features a minimal and yet easy-to-use interface that allows you to expand your ideas infinitely or start a new one quickly. Then, once you’re done with planning everything out, you can also export your design in multiple formats including PNG, Text, PDF and more.

Buy a Copy Today!

If you’re ready to take your brainstorming sessions to the next level, buy a copy of MindNode today for just $9.99 in the App Store. Then take your thoughts above and beyond and start creating your own node maps.

Don’t think you’re being left out in the cold if you’re an iPad user, either. That’s because MindNode is a universal app, so you can use it on both your iPhone and iPad with no worries. And if you find that the touchscreen interface isn’t your style, check out the Mac version of the app, MindNode Pro. It’s just $19.99, and has all the same features as MindNode for the iPhone and iPad and then some.

Andrew Johnson is a relaxation coach, hypnotherapist, EFT therapist and reiki teacher. His wide range of recordings (including Beat Procrastination, Quit Smoking and Deep Sleep) are available on CD or as MP3s and due to a partnership with Michael Schneider of HiveBrain Software, many are also available as iPhone apps. I chatted with Michael to find out how he embarked on the journey of creating relaxation apps, what is on his iPhone now and how he sees things developing in the future.

The Interview

Tell me a little about yourself.

I live in Seattle with my wife and son. I have always been passionate about technology and computers, but my professional background is in law. Before starting my publishing company, I worked at a big technology law firm working with tech companies on business issues, basically helping tech companies monetize their technology or content. I went to college at UC Berkeley in California and practiced law for around seven years before transitioning to entrepreneurship. The transition has been fantastic; I spend my time building things now. I enjoy the process of conceiving an app and taking it through the process of it becoming something real that people benefit from.

What does a typical day look like for you?

In contrast to my old routine working at a big law firm, my days are much less stressful, although I still spend most of the day in front of a computer. I spend a lot of time working on new apps or adding features to old ones. Depending on where I am in a particular development project, I spend other time trying to prototype and brainstorm additional apps and features. We also get a fair amount of customer email, so I spend a bit of time everyday responding to those messages.

What is on your iPhone right now?

My favorite apps lately are the ones that let you send a postcard to someone using a picture from your library. For between a dollar and two dollars, depending on which app you use, you can send a physical card to anyone. One of those apps is called Postagram and the other is called Postcard on the Run. I have also been learning guitar, so I have a number of guitar related apps, like a guitar tuner from Gibson, and a really cool iPad app called Wild Chords that is a learning game for guitar.

Do you have an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S and why?

I use testing my apps as an excuse to upgrade my phone every chance I get. I have the iPhone 4S right now. Aside from testing on the latest hardware, I like the phone better than the iPhone 4 because of the quality of the camera. It takes much better photos and videos.

Why did you decide to create the apps?

While I was at the law firm, I created a few fairly successful productivity apps on the iPhone. When the app store first launched it was a wide open playing field and there was a tendency to see the world through an app-colored lens. I had one of Andrew Johnson’s relaxation CDs that I had listened to on and off for years to help me sleep. I loved the content, and reached out to Andrew to see if he would be interested in making some apps. We started with Deep Relaxation with Andrew Johnson and have been expanding ever since.  We now have around 20 apps covering different topics.

The current selection of Andrew Johnson relaxation apps

How are the apps different to other similar apps? What makes them special?

Andrew’s skill as a therapist and his unique voice and intonation make the apps stand out. There have been lots of copycat type apps over the last few years. They can copy the concept, but they can’t copy Andrew. The Andrew Johnson Infinity app is unique in that it is highly customizable by the user. The user can select how long they want the app to play and which background they would like and the application then generates a unique audio program for them. A user could listen to the app millions of times and never hear the same exact combination of suggestions. This is powerful because it keeps your mind from anticipating the exact words that are coming next, but keeps consistency in the program so that the overall program follows a familiar pattern. Most similar apps play static recordings. That is an effective approach as well, but the Infinity App is a bit more sophisticated.

What challenges did you face in developing the apps?

We didn’t face many challenges in getting the apps completed. They started out fairly simple, and we have added functionality over the years. The biggest challenge that I find is trying to add new features that will make the apps better, but not undermining the simplicity of the apps. The Andrew Johnson apps are primarily designed to help people relax and focus on self improvement. I want the user to be able to open the app and start their meditation without any unnecessary stress. Buttons and options cause stress. We handle this challenge by being selective about what we add to the app, and if something isn’t resonating with users, we will actually pull it out. If 95 percent of the users never access a particular feature, we think it is better to take it out or at least move it out of the way.

Easy to use and simple to navigate

What were the main goals for creating the apps since the content was already available elsewhere?

Before we started making apps, Andrew sold CDs with meditation sessions on them. The goal with the apps was to make that type of content available to users in a way that was (1) with them all the time, and (2) more interactive and customizable than would be possible with a CD. From there, we just wanted to make them as widely available to users as possible.

What’s next?

In terms of Andrew Johnson apps, we have more topics that we would like to cover. Users sent us emails all the time asking us to create apps addressing particular issues. I think nail biting and fear of flying are coming up in the development pipeline. We are also working on some relaxation sessions that are specifically for kids. We hear from lots of users that put the apps on to help get their kids to sleep and relax. We think we could make that experience better with an app more tailored to that purpose. We are also working with other content providers to expand the types of apps that we offer. We have a video magazine featuring a self help guru and coach that should launch later this year.

So for all its basic feature list, Drafts occupies a space that is very useful to have occupied, even though it may not seem that way at first. The whole idea behind the app is that when you need to jot something down quickly, there really is “an app for that.” Drafts certainly isn’t the only app that allows you to do that of course, but it is one of the only ones that goes out its way to make that capture process as simple as possible. There are also some other surprising useful features lurking just below the surface.

Getting Started

So you need to jot down a small piece of information. As soon as you open Drafts you are provided with a screen to do just that.

Drafts start screen

Type what you need to store, and it will be saved automatically in a draft.

a draft ready for saving

That’s it for the most basic functionality. Type your draft, it gets saved, job done.

So you like Markdown?

Ideas can be slippery. They have the habit of cropping up when you least expect them. Being able to quickly capture the idea is one of the key benefits of Drafts. But what about if you have a couple of minutes spare to do something even more productive? Well, Drafts has support for Markdown so that you can actually begin to write your next web article or blog post using the app:

Markdown support

You can also preview the Markdown, which is a very useful feature. The only problem is, Drafts doesn’t support horizontal mode, so typing can get a bit tiring after a while. But there is no escaping the fact that having full Markdown support and previewing capability in an app like Drafts makes it hard to ignore as a choice for your iPhone text editor.

Storing Drafts

There are several things you can do after you have created a draft. One of them is the ability to store the draft in your DropBox folder.

DropBox integration

You will notice that there is an option there is link your Twitter account(s) too, which I’ll get to in a minute. Being able to connect to DropBox is a really useful feature because it means you can access your files everywhere that you have access to an Internet connection. The files are stored in the Apps folder of your DropBox account, in a sub folder called Drafts.

Another nice feature is the ability to send the content of a draft to another app. For example, you could begin writing a blog post in Drafts and then sent it to iA Writer.

App sharing

Which continues the idea that the Drafts app is exactly that — an app for creating draft documents.

Hello Twitter

In the Action Settings option you have the ability to link your Twitter account(s). That means you can create several draft tweets, and when you are ready, send them to your favourite app for tweeting.

Twitter integration

You will see that there are two options if like me, you use another app for tweeting. The first option will submit the tweet directly to Twitter without any other intervention required, and the second option will copy the contents of the draft to, in my case, Tweetbot, ready for posting.

Removing a Draft

Your drafts will stay with the app for as long as you leave them there. When you are sure that you are done with them, a tap on the document button, and a swipe across the draft you want to remove will provide you with a delete button. Tap that button and the draft will be deleted.

Other export options

So far we have seen that Drafts lets you export files to other apps, DropBox, and Twitter. It doesn’t stop there though. You can also create drafts for text messages and emails.

sending a text message

Integration with the Terminology App

One of the main benefits of this app is how it provides options to work with other apps and features of your iPhone. One more integration feature that is definitely worthy of mention is the integration provided with the Terminology Ph, also from Agile Tortoise.

Terminology lets you look up a word to find a precise meaning and usage examples. It’s available on the App Store for $2.99. You can set it up to work with Drafts by going into settings/App Links and switching on the option for Drafts integration.

Terminology integration

Once you have done that, back in Drafts, highlight a word and use the Te:Lookup option to find out more about the chosen word.

Looking up a word

Conclusion

Drafts is one of those apps that appears to be deceptively simple. In essence it is simple; start the app, type some text, close the app again. But actually, Agile Tortoise has gone quite a bit further than that. As such, it makes it quite a difficult app to compare with others.

There are hundreds of text editors in the App Store, and many of them offer DropBox integration. Many also allow for the transfer of content between apps, and into email messages. Yet, Drafts still stands out on its own somehow. Maybe it’s the integration with Twitter, maybe it’s the integration with Terminology, or maybe it’s a combination of all those things. The bottom line is, there is a lot to like with the Drafts app.

Volt — 3D Lightning Unleashed From Your Fingertips! — Volt creates vibrant and customizable lightning bolts to play practical jokes, create awesome wallpapers and duel with Jedi Force Lightning! Ranked #1 Entertainment App in 12 countries with over half a million downloads!

Slide Soccer — Have a ball playing soccer on your mobile device with Slide Soccer. You can play the game online with your friends, or with anyone in the world with the multiplayer option! Available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Ideas to Apps — If you want to design your own iPhone app, this is a great place to start. It’s a step-by-step guide to designing your own app, then finding someone to develop it for you.

GreenPleco — GreenPleco contains one full game and a series of three mini-games, each of which features a lovable animal helping to rehabilitate the environment. By combining fast-paced action with memorable characters such as The Sucker Fish, Mr. PigBounce, Claudia the Crab, and Gemma the Turtle, the game appeals to both adults and children alike.

Frustr8tor – Amazing Brain Game — The game Frustr8tor (pronounced as frustrator) is based on a seemingly simple puzzle: place the counters on the board so that none of them form a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line. More than 200,000 copies of the physical board version of the game, based on the 8-queens chess puzzle, have been sold. As an app, the game has a whole new dimension!

Nanbazu — Nanbazu is a puzzle solving & memory game having unique game play, which allows you to use your device as an air pen. It is a new kind of game play. Writing numbers in the air by moving your iPhone/ iPad is the main concept of Nanbazu. This game includes 25 levels with different retina display environments having powerful combination with chill-out musics. Nanbazu is the best way to engage you to train your visual memory and basic math while increasing motor skills.

Clear Tones — You don’t want to look like everybody else, why would your iPhone/Android phone sound like everybody else’s? Cleartones offers a set of 50 quality “hand made” minimalist ringtones for the serious user. Like yourself.

iGearUSA — iGearUSA.com is a leading online retailer and manufacturer of iPhone accessories that offers a large selection of products ranging from iPhone Car Kits, Cases, Chargers & Cables, Cradles & Docks, Headphones, Headsets, Screen Protectors, Touch Pen and more. We’re based in City of Industry in beautiful southern California. We offer the latest Apple iPhone accessories with rapid fulfillment, expert support and excellent customer service.

igobubble — Take a message, photo, video, or song and put it in a virtual bubble. Drop it anywhere for your friends or other people to find it. Leave private or public bubbles. See who touches them. Track where they go. See how far they travel and how quickly they spread.

Burst! — Not long ago in a far distant land, young Chester awakens from his slumber to find the morning skies filled with balloons. Gasp! Alarmed at the possibility of treachery in the sky, Chester embarks on the balloon popping journey of his life in pursuit of the mysterious villain, Lyndon. But Lyndon won’t be caught without a fight. Chester must complete each of Lyndon’s balloon puzzles while avoiding the toxic black balloons filled with deadly moon fumes.

CreTouch — Looking for a new case for your iPhone? CreTouch has a wide variety of cases for the iPhone 4, 3GS and 4S, including perimeter cases as well as fronts and backs. These cases not only look fantastic, but also give a luxurious look to your iPhone.

AppFusion — 6 in 1! — New from the creator of Volt: AppFusion gives you 6 super-fun, classic, entertainment apps in one must have application! Screen Crack, Lightning Bolts, Tazer, Bubble Popping, Steamy Screen and Fire Drawing!

Cutlass Cove — The Spanish Main is full of merchant ships carrying the spoils of the New World but, beware, other pirates are also on the prowl and the Spanish navy won’t tolerate their vessels falling prey to the rogues of the sea. Captain your ship, fire its cannons, unleash powerful voodoo spells, deploy strategic munitions and make rival pirates walk the plank as you seek to plunder a bustling Spanish trade route. Combining action-packed nautical combat with completely original ideas and concepts, Cutlass Cove is an addictive pirate game that is perfectly suited to touch-screen gameplay.

iShutdown HD — We have developed iShutdown with one goal – to give you functional and stylish tool. To give you an ability to shutdown, Wake On LAN, sleep, restart or hibernate your PC or MAC without leaving your couch or armchair. You will be surprised with the convenience and simplicity of this application.

Franklin’s Bubble Blaster — Have a blast with Franklin’s Bubble Blaster! Aunt T’s bubble machine is out of control and now it’s up to you and Franklin to pop all of the bubbles before they fill up the Messy Make-it Shop. With each bubble you pop, the more points you’ll earn. Pop enough bubbles and Aunt T might get so excited she’ll reward you with some Franklin and Friends™ downloadable prizes!

Keep in Touch-Lite — Have you ever missed sending congratulations on a relative birthday? Have you ever forgotten an important business phone call? Do you send repeated grouped messages or make grouped phone calls on weekend for outing details, or call someone on a daily basis, or want an auto-scheduler for annual social events, and want some automatic help? Won’t it be nice if your iPhone automates your (SMS, email and phone calls) interactions with all your events, meetings, communications and any social todo that all what you need to perform is ONLY one touch? That’s Keep in Touch!

Check them out after the jump…

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7

Out on the iPhone at last, Harry Potter’s final years in Lego form have gone mobile. If you’ve played the previous title, then you’ll feel pretty comfortable with the later years on display here, though there are some important new things to take note of.

First of all, the controls have been overhauled, which has been almost universally criticized for being a step backward. Though they’re certainly not as comfortable as years 1-4, they’re not unusable and it’s to be expected that an alternate control scheme will make its way to the game in an update. Beyond that, the visuals and gameplay are terrific and the famous sense of charming humour that the Lego series brings to franchises is happily intact.

Fans of the series and of Harry Potter in general will find lots to love here, so long as they can have a bit of patience with the on-screen controls.

Price: $4.99
Developer: Warner Bros.
Download: App Store

Reiner Knizia’s City of Secrets Pipes

While we wait for the sequel to the critically acclaimed City of Secrets, the folks at Aidem Media have prepared a stopgap solution for us in the form of a re-imagined board game known as City of Secrets Pipes.

Pipes is a challenging puzzler about repairing a steam ship’s broken piping system. It plays a lot like Aqueduct (remember that classic, from the “old days” of the App Store?) but offers extra complexity in the form of graduated scoring based on the size of pipe you use to connect the source pipes to the exit ones. There are thin and thick pipes, and each source and exit pipe has an assigned point value that doubles when you connect to it via a thicker pipe. Even with the extra layer of complexity, the game is accessible and rewards patient play without being too hard on casual folks.

Very much in the spirit of City of Secrets in tone and presentation, Pipes is a welcome extension to the franchise that reminds us of why we love developers who care about their products and customers, trying to achieve the best possible result for both. Keep an eye out for City of Secrets 2, and fix some pipes while you wait!

Price: $2.99
Developer: Aidem Media
Download: App Store

Dark Legends (3D MMO)

With the MMO genre gaining some traction on the App Store, one of its most successful pioneers, Spacetime Studios, has brought a third game out in their fantastic Legends series. Following in the footsteps of Pocket Legends and Star Legends (the largest mobile MMOs), Dark Legends offers a new story of a vampire nation.

After hiding in the shadows for generations, the vampires of the world are uniting and rising and you get to participate. Like previous Legends games, Dark Legends is free to play, and while there are in-app purchases present to help you along the way, your experience of the game won’t be too severely hampered if you choose to earn things the old fashioned way instead of paying to fast-track.

Despite being fully 3D, the game’s online nature is robust and allows access from WiFi as well as all manner of mobile speeds, including lowly Edge connections, surprisingly enough. We didn’t encounter problems with server stability or gameplay, and can easily recommend Dark Legends as the culmination of what a good mobile MMO should strive to be like.

Price: Free
Developer: Spacetime Studios, LLC
Download: App Store

Robbery Bob

As noble as it is to recover lost items, rescue kidnapped princesses, and retrieve stolen artifacts, there’s something about theft that makes for fun games. Robbery Bob reminds us why Grand Theft Auto was so fun by putting us back in the shoes of a thief, though the circumstances are different.

Bob is not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, and while he’s eager to put his life of crime behind him, there are a few last jobs he needs to do to earn his way out. If you imagine the sneaking minigames from other titles and polish them into a complete puzzle game driven by a humorous story, then you’ll understand what Robbery Bob is all about.

The game isn’t overly long, but there are a number of different environments to steal things from, and you’ll find that missions send you after an amusing variety of items, both valuable and mundane. If you’re in the mood for a light-hearted stealth game, then Robbery Bob will delight.

Price: $0.99
Developer: Level Eight
Download: App Store

DreamWorks Dragons: TapDragonDrop

Even though it’s been some time since the film came out, this game tie-in to the popular DreamWorks animated film, How to Train Your Dragon, was worth waiting for.

DreamWorks Dragons: TapDragonDrop, despite its incredibly clunky name, is a joyously fun game that combines beautiful presentation with a core gameplay mechanic that will appeal to fans of iOS puzzlers in general thanks to its variety. Like arranging objects to solve puzzles? It’s got that. Like flinging things at other things? It’s got that too. Like smashing things with a dragon tail? Right this way. Your mission to save the scattered sheep is a dynamic one, set across more than 40 levels, and the game’s intelligently designed controls will help you make use of all the various skills at your disposal without getting lost.

An uncommon thing, TapDragonDrop is an independently compelling film tie-in game that offers its own rewards and merits attention without falling back on the strength of its franchise roots. Both for its strong presentation and extremely varied gameplay, this earns an easy recommendation.

Price: $1.99
Developer: PikPok
Download: App Store

What Have You Been Playing?

Go forth and game, friends! And when you’re done, come back and let us know how you liked our picks and what’s been keeping you busy in the App Store this week. See you next time!

With all of the social media sites that are out there that we can use to share our precious moments, we would have a handful of pictures on Instagram, some videos and more pictures on Facebook and Twitter, and others in albums in Picasa, etc. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could somehow combine all of these social media sites into one place so we could view ALL of our pics in one place? This is where an app like Jolicloud can really come in handy on your iPhone. Let me show you more about what I am talking about after the jump.

Setting Up Jolicloud

The beauty of Jolicloud is that it is able to pull your media and links from a variety of social media sites and browse through them all in one nice looking app. Setting it up is very easy to do and can be done in minutes.

Setting up your services with Jolicloud Me

There are six different social media sources that the app is currently connected with: Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Picasa, Tumblr, and Twitter. The only step you need to take in order to set it all up is to connect to your personal media sources. Each one will differ slightly as to what can be pulled from them into Jolicloud.

Browsing Your Feed

Once all the media is pulled from the different sources that you connected with, you can now do a few different things within the app. First, you can scroll through and see all the different things that got pulled in from your social media sources and you can also do a search for specific items.

Your Jolicloud Me feed and search function

As you are looking through your feed, both pictures and videos can be tapped on and then seen by itself as if the picture was taken on the iPhone. With links, you can click on them and you will be taken to that link, where you can then share it on Facebook, Twitter, or by email. It can also be opened in Safari or Readability if you want that option.

Looking at a picture (left) and link (right)

Collections

This is where the true power of Jolicloud comes into play. I have pictures from our trip to Hawaii just recently, but they are spread out through Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and I want to put them all in one place so people can look at them. In this case, I can just create a collection and put all of the pics in there.

Adding to a collection (left) and browsing a collection (right)

All I have to do is click on the Add to Collection button and then my list of collections will show up and I just select the one I want it to go into. When you are done selecting all the media and links that you want to go into that collection you can now just open it up and see everything you put in there from all the different services.They can be set to both private and public so that you have the option to decide if you want to share it out with the world or only to a select few.

The only problem with this is that you cannot share out a link to others if you want them to see it. I am not sure if this is because they are still in beta or what, but right now the only way for people to see your collections is that they have to join Jolicloud. Hopefully, this changes in the future as this would really cripple the Collections feature.

Browsing a public collection

Speaking of others on Jolicloud, you can also follow other people who are using the service as well as Facebook friends that are on it. You also have the option of following a specific collection of someone as well. This feature is somewhat similar to Pinterest where you can see other people’s public boards. I don’t know if Jolicloud Me will head in this direction, but it would also be nice to see some interactive features where I can leave a comment or like someone’s stuff that I am following.

Final Thoughts

Personally, I think this app fills a need for those that use multiple social networks to share their media and links. It is a great way to have all of them come together in one nice and easy app to use. Jolicloud is currently in beta and when I checked out the website, you can see other icons for other services that were not on the iPhone app. It would be really cool to see it implement more services like Dropbox and Google Docs.

Possible services for Jolicloud Me

Overall, the app was well done and set up was a breeze. Even though Jolicloud is in beta, the iPhone app is available to everyone on the App Store for free. You first have to request an invite to use the service and you can do this at beta.jolicloud.com. If you use multiple social services and want to have them all conected into one nice app, then go and check out Jolicloud.

A good example of this occurrence would be Evernote, which goes far and beyond Notes’ capabilities. Additionally, Reminders, Calendar, Voice Memos, Stocks and Weather have third-party competitors that some users find better to use. But one app that I’ve never been able to find a possible replacement for is Clock — that is, until I discovered Timegg.

Features & Functionality

In order to be a true competitor of Clock, an app needs to sport a host of useful time features. First and foremost, an alarm clock function, as well as a stopwatch and timer. Timegg includes two of those features (Alarm and Timer) as well two more useful features (Reminder and D-Day).

The Timegg interface.

When switching between these different features, the overall user experience of Timegg remains consistent, which is a big plus for users. You may not use all four features, but I really enjoy knowing that once I learn how to use one feature I can use them all.

Alarms

The feature that initially drew to Timegg was Alarm, as I use the Clock app for my morning alarm clock. To create a new alarm, simply tap one of the plus icons on the screen (Timegg limits all features to a total of eight entries) and begin the five-step process. First, decide whether you want a snooze functionality available. Second, choose your alarm sound (Timegg’s built-in sound effects are limited, but you can use music from your music library).

Steps one and two of setting an alarm.

Third, select the days in which you would like the alarm to sound (if you don’t choose a day, the alarm will sound every day). Finally, choose the alarm time. When you’re finished, tap the checkmark button in the top right corner.

Steps three and four of setting an alarm.

Once your alarm is set you’ll be transitioned back to the main page and the big gray Off button in the center is now a big green On button (you can turn the alarm off or on by tapping the button). To edit or delete an alarm (or any other feature) you need to make sure the alarm is off, then longpress the circle icon associated with the alarm. This is one of the few annoyances of Timegg, but I can see Figtree Studio’s logic of making sure you don’t accidentally delete an alarm that’s in use.

If you want to edit or delete an alarm make sure it's turned off.

Timer

To transition between functions, you can swipe the top part of the screen or tap on one of the four quadrants located outside the circle, such as tapping the bottom right corner to use the Timer functionality. Setting up a timer is nearly identical to an alarm (i.e. choosing a notification sound and the time you’d like the timer to sound), but a nice addition that’s lacking in the Alarm feature is the ability to add a label.

Setting a timer.

Once you’ve set up the alarm, tap the checkmark button in the top right corner. You’ll notice that unlike the Alarm feature the timer hasn’t started automatically, this is because you need to tap the Off button to start (a function I find useful, but may be annoying to others). Another feature that seems out of place is the ability of adding an interval time (done by tapping the small Interval button above the time). I say “out of place” not because it’s not a useful function, but because it’s an option that should be included when initially setting the timer.

You can set timer intervals, but you'll have to do so after first creating an alarm.

Reminders

In some ways, Timegg can be a viable replacement for two first-party apps (Clock and Reminders) with the inclusions of a Reminders feature. Setting a reminder is done by choosing the day and time, whether you’d like to repeat the reminder (a simple but very useful feature), selecting your notification sound and adding a label.

Setting a reminder.

D-Day

Timegg’s inclusion of a D-Day function is rather unique for this type of app and is sure to be useful for those who enjoy counting down to events. To create a countdown, select a label, alert time (day before, 7 days before or 14 days before) and the date (oddly enough, you can’t choose a notification sound).

Setting a d-day countdown.

Time’s Up

Overall, I find Timegg to be an incredible useful app. Since I began using my iPhone for alarm clock duties I’ve tried at least a half dozen alarm clock apps (e.g. Alarm Clock Pro, Alarm Clock HD, iHome + Sleep) as a substitute to Clock. The problem I had with most of those apps is that you need to leave your phone on all night to take advantage of their features, and I simply don’t like having that light on in my room while I’m trying to sleep (even if you dim the screen it’s still too bright).

Timegg is different it that in nearly mirrors the functionality of Clock in the Alarm Off/Snooze popup that displays on screen when the alarm sounds; however, it doesn’t display in the lock screen (like Clock). Additionally, when I use the Clock app I can snooze my alarm by hitting the Wake/Sleep button, which is an invaluable feature when you’re half awake when the alarm goes off.

While Timegg is definitely worthy of being a true competitor to Clocks, it just falls a tad short in functionality (Timegg certainly is easier on the eyes than Clock). This is not way due to Figtree Studio’s fault, as they’ve really done as great as can do with the rules put in place by Apple. So, until Apple lets app developers use mirroring functionality (i.e allowing apps to use physical buttons or display other things besides notifications in the lock screen), I don’t think any third-party app can best Clock.

Logos Quiz puts your brain to the test. AticoD’s flagship game will put your logo knowledge to the test in ways that you would never have imagined. Can you stand up to the challenge?

What is Logos Quiz?

The idea behind Logos Quiz is simple: to recognize logos. No, it’s not that simple — each logo has something missing from it, usually being the bulk of the text that normally accompanies the logo. Of course, the distinguishing feature of each logo is kept in place, making your job to figure it out just a bit easier.

Logos Quiz features hundreds of logos — some better known than others

Packed with hundreds of logos, Logos Quiz has eight different levels that seemingly grow harder as you move on. Levels need to be unlocked by identifying a certain amount of logos (i.e. you can’t unlock level 2 until you have identified 30 logos on level 1). This gives the game a little bit of extra challenge.

Logos Quiz features the widest variety of logos I have ever seen. Of course, they have the big ones that everyone recognizes such as Atari, McDonalds, or Nike, but it also has its fair share of very obscure logos (cue the hipster jokes). The app also has logos impartial to Americans and Europeans alike, making the game equally hard no matter where you are in the globe.

What Makes it Fun?

Logos Quiz didn’t soar to the top of the App Store charts for no reason. Being a huge fan of trivia, I find that Logos Quiz offers a fun, pop culture twist to the standard trivia games. That being said, it is an extremely addictive and captivating game to people of all ages.

Once you identify a logo, a green check will appear next to it, and the logo will be grayed out upon reentering the menu. If your guess is completely incorrect, a red “x” will appear next to the icon. A yellow equal sign badge will appear next to the logo; this means that you are very close to the actual answer, but not close enough. A yellow badge is usually the result of a spelling error or missing one part of the company name. The more incorrect guesses you have on a logo, the less points you will be awarded once you do identify it.

The game lets you know if you are missing something (left); nicknames don't play well with Logos Quiz (right)

To put it simply, this game is frustrating. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have found myself staring at a logo thinking to myself: “I know what this is!” The satisfaction that you get from finally identifying a logo that has had you stumped makes the game something that you will want to return to. You will also find yourself examining the world around you a lot closer trying to find that one logo you need in order to unlock the next level.

Since the logos in each level don’t change, this game does not offer much replay value. It does, however, provide an awesome game to play with friends and family. More often than not, I have found myself contributing to friend’s games and having friends contribute to mine. Plus, we can expect numerous updates in the future since there will never be an outage of logos.

Something to keep in mind is that this app is prone to crashing, especially on older devices. The app did not even work on my iPod Touch 3rd generation when it had about 10 apps running in the background. Even on my iPad 2 it crashed every now and then. Luckily, game progress is saved.

The Design

At first glance, the design of Logos Quiz is not all that great. Between Century Gothic as the game’s font and simple, colorful shapes that plaster the user interface, it definitely isn’t the prettiest application we have ever reviewed here on AppStorm.

Design is a bit elementary, but it is functional

While it is not the prettiest game, it definitely is functional. When playing the game itself, the simple design keeps the focus on the logos themselves while keeping a nice splash of color. Of course, it does have its flaws. For example, the keyboard used for entering the logo-bearer’s name is quite compact and I have often found myself fat-fingering the keyboard — and I don’t even have fat fingers. At the end of the road, functionality is what matters, and together with the fact that this is the developer’s first iPhone application, the design is pretty solid.

Helpful Hints

Unless you have a supernatural photographic memory or you cheat, you will need some help on the way to beating this game. For every three logos you identify, you will be awarded one hint. Hints build up rather quickly and can be used to help you solve any logo in the game usually by providing information about the company or organization or giving the length of the company’s name. You are only allowed to use three hints on a given logo; each hint detracts from the amount of points you receive from solving each item.

Reach out to your friends for help or use the app as your resource

If you run out of hints, you are able to purchase 120 for $0.99 or 300 hints for $1.99 via in-app purchases. You are also able to redeem 15 hints by using 10 stars, which are awarded periodically as you play the game. If neither of those options suit you fancy, you are able to reach out to your Facebook friends and Twitter followers for help.

The Verdict

Overall, Logos Quiz is one of the best games I have played in quite a while. Gameplay is challenging but still gives you enough help to make the game manageable. Better yet, it’s extremely addicting and makes the user want to come back to the application itself. It also forces the user to pay close attention to detail, which is a great skill to have.

Logos Quiz is extremely impressive especially because it is the developer’s first iOS app. Besides for not-so-great design and how crash-prone the app is, there is nothing bad to say about it. The best part? Logos Quiz can be had for free from the App Store.

YouTube and other video sharing sites grabbed the audience early on and audio publishing never really had a chance. Today, audio publishing is targeted mostly at geeks, influentials and power users, but that doesn’t stop entrepreneurs from launching cool stuff involving audio every now and then. Snackr dishes out news in tiny, bite-sized audio clips. Sounds interesting, right?

User Interface

Snackr has a well defined user interface divided into three sections. At the top, we have the news categories and a horizontal swipe is used to switch between them.

An energetic graphic equalizer occupies the middle section of the app. It’s mostly for eye candy and tapping on it plays or pauses a news clip. It took me a few minutes to figure out the play/pause functionality, and it would be great if it was labeled properly.

Graphic Equalizer and The News Source

To see the source of the news currently playing, swipe horizontally and the logo of the outlet from where the news is sourced along with a brief description are shown. Finally, at the far end of the screen sits the clip selector. You can select and play individual news items from here.

The News

The voice that reads out the news has a British accent, but isn’t very hard to follow. Clearly, an algorithm is hard at work in the background to make the app work and in most cases, Snackr does a fabulous job of maintaining a professional news-reader-like experience. However, at times some words skip ahead a bit too fast and aren’t very clear. The diction goes for a toss every now and then, making your head spin and it isn’t obvious what exactly is the subject under discussion.

Snackr narrates stories that aren’t written without any emotion flawlessly. But, it gets weird when the app tries to read blog posts that are meant to be sarcastic in the same flat tone. Every news clip begins with the name of the original source and it takes less than half a minute to sum up. There is no rambling or fluff and the news is always to the point.

Fans of longform might not like how short the news clip are and they might be better off with NPR or podcasts. In any case, it might take some time to actually get used to this ultra short news format. Still cannot find enough time to spare to listen to those 30 seconds of clips one after another? Then try the 5-Min Snack feature instead. In this section, you can listen to the top new items that matter condensed into a 5 minute nugget. Its like the digital version of spoon feeding!

Creating an Account

Signing Up with Facebook Account

You don’t have to create an account to enjoy Snackr, but creating one does offer a lot of goodies and it all happens really quick if you link your Facebook account.

Channel Settings and Sources

The Facebook account integration isn’t just to add a social layer. Snackr reads out a daily greeting which is derived from the activities in your Facebook account. Upcoming birthdays and daily weather reports are announced too. Good thinking!

Categories and News Sources

With an account, it’s also possible for you to create custom news channels. There is a comprehensive listing of categories and under each category, few of the top news outlets can be found. Unfortunately, the developers seem to have dropped the ball when it came to designing the Settings screen as it is annoying to scroll up and down a tiny box.

History and Favorites

We are inundated with new items every passing hour and it often gets difficult to keep track of items we really enjoyed or of importance to us. Tag the news clips you like by tapping on the Star button and you can find all the clips you have bookmarked under Favorites.

Favorites and History

Another perk of the favorites option is that you can read the original article in its entirety from the app or open it up in Safari. Why this useful option isn’t available elsewhere in the app is a mystery. You can email the link from the sharing options if you like, however. While at the favorites screen, you can also check out the entire log of all the clips you have listened so far in chronological order.

Final Thoughts

Snackr is fun and awesome. A major chunk of the present generation has the attention span of a three year old and the bite sized nuggets offered by the app is just about the right size. Anything more and people will get bored and move on.

Snackr is a bit over enthusiastic and starts playing as soon as the app is launched. In most scenarios, that’s annoying and the user should be given control when to begin playback. Snackr is a perfect companion for those of us who don’t like to read or want to listen to news for a change.

Since Foursquare, we’ve seen many attempts to gamify your everyday life. Today, Fitocracy aims to motivate you to get fit by turning your visits to the gym into a game. The web app and it’s companion iPhone app let you discuss with your friends, compare point totals, complete challenges and quests, and more. Let’s dig in and see how it works.

Log Workouts and Level Up

Once you create your account (or sign in with Twitter or Facebook) you can begin your journey by logging workouts. I found the database of workouts to be quite extensive, including everything from basic gym exercises like running and lifting to lesser-practiced disciplines like yoga, archery, or various styles of dance.

Select an exercise and enter the details.

After choosing a workout from the list, you’ll be asked to enter the details for it. Fitocracy makes inputting your information easy, as it can be done either during your workout or after the fact. In the screenshot above, I’ve logged my 15-mile bike ride. When you’re finished, you simply tap End Workout.

Fitocracy is loaded with positive reinforcement like "I'm Awesome!"

When you submit your workout, the Fitocracy server will process the information you report and determine a point value to award you. Much like in an RPG, your accumulated points push you toward the next level, and the prospect of leveling up is intended to motivate you to keep working out.

Quests and Achievements

Games aren’t just killing monsters and leveling up. There are other goals to work toward, and that’s where Quests and Achievements come in.

Quests are typically single-workout or short term goals that you can work up to being able to achieve. They usually demand that you perform a certain activity under certain conditions — for example, the “Finally 5k” quest asks you to complete a 5 km run in one work out session. Quests will help you keep your motivation from workout to workout.

Complete Quests and earn Achievements.

Achievements, as opposed to Quests, are longer-term milestones to which each of your Quests and daily workouts will contribute. For example, the Achievements I’ll be working toward are for logging 100, 1000, and even 5000 km on my bike.

There are both Quests and Achievements for whatever sport/workout discipline you’re into. Which is good, because I strongly dislike running for running’s sake, but I can still use Fitocracy with my bike routes.

Social Motivation

Many gamers will tell you that part of the fun of working harder to achieve more within a game is so that you have bragging rights amongst your friends (making gaming more social than members of older generations might care to admit, but that’s a discussion for another post). Fitocracy isn’t without that same social aspect.

Fitocracy is social.

Fitocracy has social features that mimic services like Facebook, in a way. You can post messages to other users profiles with words of encouragement. You can join various groups surrounding your areas of interest and participate in discussions for motivation and new ideas. Fitocracy even has it’s own version of the Like button, called Props. When someone’s workout or achievement shows up in your feed, you can give them a little nudge of encouragement with Props (screenshot on the right).

Of course, how social would an application be if you couldn’t broadcast your accomplishments to your friends? Rub your victories in their faces by tweeting/Facebooking each win.

Final Thoughts

I personally am not someone who works out very much. I ride my bike a few times a week, and if I can find the time I go climbing, but by no means do I stick to a scheduled exercise routine. However, when I logged my first workout (for the purposes of this review), I began receiving “props” from the people in the groups I’d joined. Admittedly, I was surprised at how motivating that was for me, and it made me want to go work out more. Obviously, the motivational aspect of Fitocracy works.

In an age where everything is becoming social and the more mundane parts of our lives are being spiced up via gamificiation, Fitocracy is one of the most well designed attempts at alleviating the tedium that can come with working out. Of course, not everyone finds working out tedious. But the rest of us, well, we need a motivator.

Thanks for reading AppStorm, and I hope you enjoy looking over some of our favourite posts from last month!

Best of Web.AppStorm

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Share Your Ideas

Is there something in particular you’d like to see on the site next month? We’d absolutely love to hear your suggestions for articles, topics and giveaways. Just let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading AppStorm!

Ever gotten a bill from iTunes that scared the crap out of you? It happened to me just the other day, because I went on a bender on the Marvel Comics app, bought a movie for the family, and a few more for review. The bill was a bit higher than I expected, that’s for sure.

What about you? Ever received a bill that was higher than you thought? If so, how much was it for? Answer in the poll to the right!

Yet, up until recently there haven’t been many iOS titles related to Forrst in the App Store. One of the newest launches, Leef for iPhone, allows you to browse all of the latest posts from the Forrst API. Their search results are very snappy and you have the ability to customize which media you’re looking for. Let’s get into the other cool stuff after the jump.

Getting Started

When you first launch the app it’s fairly straightforward to sign in and access your own personal settings. Unfortunately, to request an invite key you’ll need to visit this registration page and signup. But either way it’s possible to look through all of the recent and popular posts.

Leef login and recent posts

You should notice right away how intuitive the timeline behaves. It’s not a struggle to flick through the entries and check specific posts for more information. Additionally, you can check on the left column of each post for the author’s avatar image. Tapping will bring up their custom Forrst profile with information about their posts, comments, likes, and followers.

Profile views and Forrst user links

I should mention that Forrst will also let developers & designers include links to their online profiles. If you have a Facebook, Twitter, or portfolio website these will be displayed within Leef’s profiles view. It can be great publicity for working your name out into the freelance world.

Sorting Through Posts

By default you should have all post media sorted by most recently submitted. If you tap on this center area in the top toolbar a new menu will appear. From here you can choose to limit results by any of the major post types which include:

• Snaps(design/photos)
• Questions
• Links
• Code
• All(everything combined)

I really love the crisp animations as you move between the different options. Selecting any other choice besides “All” will cause a second menu to appear in the same list. You can choose to sort any of the specific post types by Recent, Popular and Best.

Search media for snaps, code, questions, links

Recent will pull from the latest posts based on submission time. Popular posts are the ones with the most likes from members, while Best posts are hand-picked by the site staff.

Pulling More Info & Comments

After you go through some of these views you’ll want to check things a bit deeper. Tap anywhere in the post area to open more details. This new screen looks similar to a tweet view which shows the author’s name & avatar, post content, and total number of comment replies.

If you are logged into an account you may tap the heart icon button to “Like” any posts. Over time these accumulate and the most popular of each category will rise to the top in search results. Similarly, if you tap on the bottom row it will open up the comments area. The display includes nested replies for comment threads which you can open and close at will.

Post comments and threaded replies

Unfortunately, the comments view does not load everything inline. Threaded replies will open in a new page view, and even going to add a reply will bring up a new input window. This can be somewhat of a hassle when you’re trying to remember the comment and respond to their point. But at the same time the interface just works, and at least it’s some way to interact with Forrst on a mobile screen.

Replying to a comment form

Quick Scrolling

I should also mention a neat feature in this app which I’ve actually never seen before. When you are viewing post comments there is a small reply button in the top right corner, but when you are on the post details page this turns into two small up/down arrows.

You can tap these buttons to quickly scroll through your search results list. It’s much nicer than picking up a quick glance as you flick through the table list of thumbnails and code previews. You also have the opportunity to grab the author’s full name and even check out the discussion comments if you’re interested.

Custom App Settings

From the main lists view you’ll notice a gear icon in the top right corner. You can tap this to access some other account settings and customize your viewing preferences.

For starters, you have access to log into an account if you haven’t done so already. Alternatively, you can logout from here and leave the app disconnected from your account, or log into a different one. The General settings allow you to customize some of the display options. These include font sizes and display names listed as the user’s Full Name or Forrst Username.

Leef app settings and startup feeds

The Startup Feed menu can be edited and saved for your own personal favor. I leave mine to All since it’s the quickest way to checkout what’s happening on Forrst at-a-glance. But notice this is limited to only recent posts through the Forrst API. Any of the other post types may be setup with a different search method and saved as the default feed.

Conclusion

Having been a user on Forrst for about two years, I really enjoy using Leef. It works perfectly and offers so much capability even for non-members. Not to mention the beautiful interface design and app icon which fit so nicely into the natural theme of the website. For web designers and especially developers I have to recommend trying it out. Forrst is such an articulate community and Leef is the perfect companion for your iPhone.

For your next big roadtrip to America’s great parks and preserves, National Parks by National Geographic has you covered. Those piles of guides that were outdated in only a couple of years are now on your phone with updates from National Geographic in their National Parks app. Filled with colorful shots of the parks and packed with things to do once you get there, National Parks is a go-to for tourists to America’s national parks and preserves.

Parks at a Glance

Opening the National Parks app brings up the twenty parks included, which can be viewed on a map or sorted by region, climate, or activity. There’s a terrific filter function to help narrow down your choices; you don’t want to end up wandering around looking for snow in Death Valley. Tapping on a park brings up its page, with quick snapshot of the park’s info. You get a beautiful picture of the park and some quick stats, including current time and weather — both incredibly useful if you’ve downloaded the app to help plan a roadtrip.

You can choose a park from the main screen or use one of the filters.

After you’ve chosen the park you’re going to visit, National Parks gives you one free guide download. (All park guides run $0.99-1.99 after that.) Without the guide download, you’re limited to just a handful of park pictures and the same park information you could get from the National Park Service websites or brochures at the park entrance. That is to say, you get the hours, accessibility, lodging, etc. All useful and great to have on your phone when you visit, but nothing beyond what you could get from an Internet search.

What You Get for the Money

With a paid guide, you get bonus pictures and tips, trivia, and suggestions on what to do and see in the park. The suggested activities are the real resource. Never having been to the Grand Canyon for instance, it wouldn’t even occur to me that there’s anything to do besides hiking and donkey rides. This app lets you know all the great fun things you wouldn’t think about.

The paid guide gives you bonus features, like suggested park activities and photo tips.

National Parks also points you to all the beautiful sights you wouldn’t find on your own. The paid guides come with about a dozen extra photos, all absolutely beautiful. The paid guides also include photo tips, listing some of the best spots to capture similar photos, down to the GPS coordinates and how long before the full moon or after sunrise you can expect to get the shot. (No surprise the app leans a bit photo heavy, as it’s sponsored by digital camera manufacturer Canon.)

Rounding out the App

Some of the fun extras available to everyone, free and paid, include in the ability to “check in” at each park (or at various activities if you’ve upgraded the guide) or the option to “heart” the park, adding it to your favorites, and you can see how many other people have been to or favorited the parks. If you’re going to be hitting a few of the different parks on a road trip, you can add them to an in-app itinerary, though if the National Parks app allowed you to add areas of interest or things to do within the park to an itinerary, this feature would be a lot more useful.

In addition to the guide, you can check in or create a park itinerary.

There’s a bit of a social aspect to National Parks, but it feels tacked on. The Twitter account for each park is included on its information page, along with its most recent tweet. Clicking the Twitter link takes you to an in-app browser where you can view the park’s timeline. Some of them are actually useful, but most are only updated every month or so and really have no purpose in the app.

What’s Missing?

Unfortunately, there are only twenty national parks included with this app and no way to download additional ones. With well over 300 parks, preserves, monuments, and memorials in the National Park Service, that’s a lot left out. There’s no getting around that fact, and if you need a guide for a park that isn’t in the National Parks app, you have to look elsewhere. Luckily, there are plenty of other parks apps out there, but most of them just aren’t as good to look at, as thorough, or as interactive.

Conclusion

National Parks by National Geographic is still a great app, even if it doesn’t cover every park in the United States. If you’re going to the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, or the Great Smoky Mountains, it has you covered, and well covered at that. For just the time it takes to download, you’ll have a good-looking guide with lots of info for the casual or serious park tourist. For a buck or two more, you can have any of the other nineteen additional guides available at your fingertips. Not bad.