Readers’ App Reviews – January 2016

Its a new year, and that means new apps!

The holidays certainly didn’t slow down our community. I came back from Christmas with an inbox full of apps, so I downloaded them all and picked a few I’d like to highlight this month.

Did you know that I receive on average an app a day from raywenderlich.com readers? Unfortunately, I don’t have time to write about every app that comes my way, but hopefully this will be a small showcase of what the community has been working on.

This month we have:

• A supercharged browser history
• A camera app to protect your memories
• Games to ring in the new year
• And of course, much more!

Keep reading to see the first apps released by raywenderlich.com readers this year!

Fetching

Fetching supercharges your browser history by not only storing the addresses you’ve visited but also the content.

Fetching saves a cached copy of each webpage you visit to ensure a full history remains. It features powerful search of not just the title but the entire content of the webpage.

You’ll never need to retrace your steps again when looking for a website from last week. Just type a few words you remember and it will pop up instantly.

And best of all, if the public website changes between the first and second time you view it, your cache will show exactly what you saw. Very useful for constantly changing websites. Catch the black Friday deal changes in the act! ;]

Fetching also offers blacklists to prevent certain sites like your banks or other sensitive information from being cached. They also offer both Mac and Cloud versions of the service. The Mac version of course can be backed up and encrypted like any other Mac files. While the Cloud version offers the benefit of working cross platform.

Peter has been kind enough to offer a discount to our readers! Enter raywenderlich-390xdO for 35% off.

• Author: Peter Brown @flippyhead
• Most useful tutorial: iOS 8 by Tutorials
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Chain Quest

Combine the addictive nature of match three games with leveling up and battle. Thats right, you get an extremely addicting game called Chain Quest.

Chain Quest plays like a match 3 game or more specifically a chain matching game. But you’re not just clearing game tokens. You’re battling an enemy! You and your enemy take turns clearing the board. Each type of game token you clear does something unique. Some boost your magic levels. Some attack your enemy. Others build up your shield.

You can also unlock monsters and potions to help you win. As you clear game tokens your potions will brew and monsters will come alive. Your monster has a power it can use on your turn. It could be an attack against your enemy or a constant boost to your shield. Your potions and monster combinations are all part of the strategy. Build your own combo for ultimate power.

• Author: Max Opitz @ChainQuestGame
• Most useful tutorial: iOS Games by Tutorials
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Reporter Camera

Reporter Camera is a powerful camera app that has all the bells and whistles plus one: encryption. Reported Camera can encrypt photos from your gallery or right as you take them within the app to protect your photos from prying eyes. All it takes is a simple PIN to start encrypting sensitive photos.

Reporter Camera also has the standards like exposure control, temperature balance settings, framing guides, and of course filters.

You can also sign your work with an automatic signature. Just sign your name once and it can be attached to all your photos automatically giving your photography a little extra professionalism.

• Author: Artem Handzioshyn @l0nkly
• Most useful tutorial: Beginning OpenGL ES and GLKit video tutorial series
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Archer’s Revenge

A rampant army of orcs is descending upon your village and you’re their only hope!

Archer’s Revenge is a game perfect for iOS. Great physics work exactly as you expect. Just drag the bowstring and release! You can volley your enemy or go for the straight shot. Go toe to toe with enemy archers or shoot down advancing orcs.

There are more than 30 unique levels protecting your village. You can choose between three characters each with advantages on power, recovery time, or health. Save up your gold and there are new bows available offering better distance or faster rate of fire.

• Author: Leonid Peancovschi @lpeancovschi
• Most useful tutorial: How to Make a Game Like Jetpack Joyride in Unity 2D – Part 3
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Gallus Gallus

Mutated chicken eggs are in Earth’s lower atmosphere and could plummet down at any moment! Elon Musk can’t save us this time; its up to you!

Gallus Gallus is a unique puzzle and physics game thats one part skill and one part logic. There are over 120 hand crafted levels packed with debris, patterns, and challenges. Your mission is to steer the last escape pod, using your limited remaining Newtonian Pulses, to capture the mutated eggs of the Space Station’s test chicken Clux.

Tapping behind the escape pod will trigger a Newtonian Pulse sending the pod flying. Avoid rocks, satellites, and other obstacles as you collect the eggs. You’ve got limited propulsion so you’ll need to find the most efficient route to capture all the eggs in each level. It will take some reflexes to ensure your pod doesn’t jettison into deep space!

• Author: James Masters @GallusGallusMSD
• Most useful tutorial: How to Make a Game Like Candy Crush with Swift Tutorial: Part 1
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Home Workout – 7 Minute Workout

That New Year’s resolution not going quite as you hoped? Maybe Home Workout can help.

Home Workout takes the now ubiquitous 7 minute workout and wraps it in an easy to use iOS app. Home Workout packs nice illustrations and instructions to help you learn the exercises before you start. None of the exercises in the workout require equipment so all you need is the app!

Home Workout also uses Voice Over to make your workout app hands free. It will countdown for you and read out the next exercise so you can focus on working out while it focuses on keeping track. It has some achievements to help you set goals. And if you’re too busy for a 7 minute workout you can just get your heart beating with a 3 or 5 minute workout.

• Author: Przemyslaw Baraniak @thalion_pb
• Most useful tutorial: Dynamic Table View Cell Height in iOS 8 and Swift
• App Store Link: Check it out!