Readers’ App Reviews – July 2016

I’m sure many of you are hard at work on your iOS 10 releases. Hopefully a couple of you are also working on MacOS Sierra and watchOS 3 releases as well. Remember, although iOS is king it’s not the only platform! ;]

Here at raywenderlich.com, we’re updating our books and tutorials as quickly as we can. And I’m sure all of you are rushing to update your apps as well!

Of course, some of you are are saying “Who has time to wait for iOS 10?!” and are releasing awesome apps today. My inbox has been full with new app submissions and I’ve picked just a few to share with you. Sadly, I never have time to write about them all so be sure to check out the honorable mentions at the end.

This month we have:

• An app says “keep running – or else!”
• An app to keep track of your children’s funny quotes
• An app to help you bask in Github vanity
• And of course, much more!

Keep reading to see the the latest apps released by raywenderlich.com readers like you.

Read

Read is an app for children aged 4-8 that is designed to making learning the alphabet and reading skills fun and progressive.

Read is packed with 20 lessons, 120 exercises, and more than 150 interactive stories. Read is aimed at children learning to read for the very first time and can take them all the way to a 2nd grade reading level.

The neat thing about Read is it focuses on teaching in practical ways. For example, letters are introduced in order of frequency in the English language instead of their order in the alphabet. Read also includes educational tips and detailed contextual help for parents and teachers for each lesson.

Activities include Letter Tracing, Spelling from sounds, Pick the word by listening, Listen and write, Interactive writing pad that reads words aloud, stories and questions, and many many more.

Read is great on the iPhone and even better on the iPad. If you have a young child, definitely download it and give it a try.

• Author: Olivier Romanetti @onetreehillstud
• Most useful tutorial: iOS 7 by Tutorials
• App Store Link: Check it out!

FinCalc

FinCalc is an easy to use financial calculator that will help calculate car loans, home loans, and retirement savings.

FinCalc is designed to be very easy to use. Rather than a blank form, each calculator is made up of sliders with relative ranges to what you’d expect. Adjusting any of the sliders results in a live update of the totals and graph.

On the home and auto loan calculators the graph shows both the principle and interest so you can see visually how much interest you’re paying as you adjust the parameters like the rate and repayment term. You can also see a schedule for individual payments with principle contribution amounts.

The retirement calculator makes it easy to adjust your starting and retirement age as well as expected raise and investment return rates. Watching what your retirement nest egg grow or shrink as you adjust the parameters can be very enlightening!

• Author: Joao Frasco @joaofrasco
• Most useful tutorial: The iOS Apprentice
• App Store Link: Check it out!

PowerRunner

Lots of apps help you listen to your music while you run, but only PowerRunner will keep you running.

After you select your preferred music from your iTunes library, you can set your targeted pace for each run. If your current pace drops under your goal, PowerRunner will pause the music. It won’t resume until you get your current pace back over your target. This is a great way to give you direct feedback on your running and help you maintain a solid pace while you run.

PowerRunner will also save each of your runs including a map of where you ran, your average pace, overall distance, and total time. It will even color code your path based on your pace to give you a really cool visualization of your entire run.

• Author: Adrian Lopez @adrlani
• Most useful tutorial: How To Make an App Like RunKeeper: Part 1
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Tower of Tasks

Tower of Tasks is a todo list with personality.

Tower of Tasks helps you get things done like any todo list. However Tower of Tasks includes various graphics and animations to give you a little extra motivation.

By limiting the total number of high priority tasks, Tower of Tasks will help you focus on whats important. And you can set timed reminders on a per task basis.

In addition, the app includes a today extension for high priority tasks, an Apple Watch app, and even iCloud support. Somebody’s been reading their tutorials! :]

• Author: Eric Hein @FabledRealm
• Most useful tutorial: Self Sizing TableView Cells
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Circlestouch

Circlestouch is an addictive reaction game that has a calming effect as you play.

In Circlestouch, various colored circles appear randomly placed on the screen. Some colors are safe to touch, others are not. You need to tap as many of the safe colors as you can while avoiding the dangerous colors.

In each level, those colors change. The colors are on a similar spectrum such as shades of green or red. It can take a little more time than you’d think to mentally process which are safe to touch. There are also various power-ups that will help change the game as they appear.

And of course, Circlestouch supports GameCenter so you can challenge your friends to make it further than you.

• Author: Albert Mata @almata
• Most useful tutorial: Custom View Controller Presentation Transitions with Swift
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Upside Offers

Upside Offers brings great coupons right to your phone.

Upside Offers is like your own personal coupon booklet based on your preferences and location. The app makes it easy to discover deals for your favorite brands, find the nearest place that accepts the coupon, and quickly redeem the deal with a barcode. No longer do you need to find, cut, and save coupons to save money. Upside Offers makes it quick and convenient.

Upside Offers is based on your Facebook likes. It uses likes on popular brands to only show you deals you care about. You can easily customize it right in the app by searching for your favorite brands and adding them to your list. Best of all, the manufacturer coupons are already accepted at places you shop like Walmart, Kroger, 7 Eleven, Publix, Fresh Market, and tons more.

• Author: Jacob Holman
• Most useful tutorial: Custom Collection View Layout video tutorial series
• App Store Link: Check it out!