Readers’ App Reviews – January 2015

2015: Year of Apps!

2015: Year of Apps!

2015 has arrived and you are all off to a great start. It looks like its gonna be another great year of apps from readers like you!

I’ve got the first month of fantastic apps and games to share with you.

This month we’ve got:

• A symmetric drawing app
• Realtime photo sharing for events
• An alarm that makes you work to turn it off
• And of course, much more!

Keep reading to see what your fellow readers have come up with!

Temperature Alarms

Temperature Alarms is a unique app that lets you set alarms not based on time, but on temperature.

You can set an alarm to be triggered when the temperature is above or below a certain preset in a location. Great for if you want to know when it goes below freezing so you can drip water to save your pipes. Or in the summer if you want to know when it goes above 100 degrees so you can bring in your pets.

The app is dead simple to use. Simply add a new alarm, name it, give it a location to check the temperature for, then set up your temperature limit. The app supports both Fahrenheit and Celsius so its perfect for both sides of the pond.

• Author: Haresh Vachhani @linksture
• Most useful tutorial: Top 10 Core Data Tools and Libraries
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Ripple – spread your thoughts

Ripple is a new social app designed to help you interact with people around you.

Each post is only visible by people around you. But when they see it they can expand the ripple or shut it down. If they expand it, anyone around them will see it as well. Its like a Twitter with a Pinterest feel. Your stream is filled with neat stuff or interesting facts.

Its great for posting about local events, life hacks, or just something cool. Its a new way to share that takes multiple people to make an impact. One good ripple is all it takes for something to spread across the world.

The app has metrics on how many and where the ripples came from. Its very cool to look at a popular ripple and see where it start and where its been shared from along the way.

• Author: Paul Stavropoulos @RippleMeThis
• Most useful tutorial: Making a Gesture-Driven To-Do List App Like Clear in Swift
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Afterparty – Realtime Photo Sharing

Afterparty is a photo sharing app different from the others. Its goal is a help you collect pictures from tons of people at a single event, in real time.

Open the app, find an event or start one then start taking pictures. They’ll appear on the event wall for anyone at the event to see. Every member of the event can contribute their own photos as well.

Afterparty is a great way to experience an event the day after. You can remember the fun you had. See pictures of parts you missed out on. And best of all, after 24 hours they all just fade away. Don’t worry you can save your favorites.

Afterparty makes it easy to start an event or find one nearby by name. You can even password protect events to make sure only those invited can take part.

• Author: David Okun @dokun24
• Most useful tutorial: Integrating Facebook and Parse Tutorial: Part 1
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Dash Man

Dash Man is the latest from ATP Creative, the makers of Dash-Up. Its just as challenging but a whole new kind of fun.

Dash Man is a cute little guy you help on a never ending journey. He’s running as fast as he can, but he needs you to help him jump over obstacles. Luckily he’s wearing rocket boots!

As Dash Man runs he paints the ground beneath him to earth distance. So you’ll have to stay on the ground as much as possible if you want to win, so use your jumps sparingly.

How far can you run?

• Author: Johan K @dashmangame
• Most useful tutorial: Sprite Kit Tutorial: Space Shooter
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Nodality

Nodality is a new way to edit your photos unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Nodality lets you build complex networks on nodes to manipulate your images. And the coolest part is getting to see the effects at each step of the way for each node.

You can create blur nodes, filter nodes, pattern generators, and more. Simply long press and a new node is born. You can use number and color nodes to adjust inputs on all the effect nodes.

Its a whole new way to explore you photos. You’ve never done anything like this on your iPad.

• Author: Simon Gladman @FlexMonkey
• Most useful tutorial: Beginning Core Image in Swift
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Smile Alarm

Smile Alarm is a game based alarm to make sure you’re awake!

Smile Alarm doesn’t just ring in the morning, it keeps ringing until you complete a series of simple, but challenging games. You’ll have to earn your right to snooze with this alarm.

It packs math questions, puzzles, matching, memory challenges, Tic-Tac-Toe, sequencing, pattern recognition, and more! You can set it to your favorite or get a random one each morning.

Smile Alarm also packs customizations. You can change colors, sounds, designs, and more. Its got a sleep timer for your music to put you to sleep.

The app handles multiple alarms, so you can set a different time for everyday if you need to.

• Author: Antoan Tateosian
• Most useful tutorial: Intro to Object-Oriented Design: Part 1/2
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Prototype Snow

Prototype Snow is a challenging 3D game.

The perspective is the challenging part. Its got simple controls to move left and right. And your objective is equally simple, make it through the gaps in the walls.

But there is nothing simple about winning. Its very challenging with the perspective to time your slides just right. You’ve definitely got to be on your A game.

Luckily it has GameCenter, Twitter, and Facebook integrations, so when you hit that magic number, you can brag to all your friends. >:]

• Author: Luke Carelsen @9tofridaygames
• Most useful tutorial: How to Make a Game Like Jetpack Joyride in Unity 2D – Part 2
• App Store Link: Check it out!