Five For Friday: Week Of July 6

Posted by Jennifer Allen on July 6th, 2012

It's been a relatively quiet time on the App Store this week, mostly due to many people being rather busy enjoying July 4th. That doesn't mean we haven't got a fun selection of apps and games to take a look at for this week's Five for Friday, however! Each app is worth checking out and all are $0.99 or less. Bonus!

PlayART
PlayART is an ideal app for the family to participate in together. It's an art app that encourages kids to interact with some of the greatest paintings by playing with them. Art by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Rousseau and Klee are included here with kids able to create artwork with elements, taken from the original paintings. It's all fun yet educational in a way that they'll never notice.

Curly's Pocket Guide to Sports
There's a summer of sports ahead, courtesy of the Summer Olympics in London, but how many do you know all the rules for? Curly's Pocket Guide to Sports guides readers through the rules behind 74 different sports as well as offering illustrations, tips and tactics. Fun facts and a simple yet friendly interface ensures it won't intimidate even the biggest newbie.

Quick Fictions
Life is busy and sometimes it's preferable to read a story quickly rather than spend days or weeks on end poring over huge swathes of literature. Enter Quick Fictions, an app that provides plenty of stories, each under 300 words in length. It's the kind of bite sized literature that suits the daily commute perfectly, plus it's surprisingly interesting reading such minimal storytelling.

Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition
Reimagining the classic arcade game of Frogger comes Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition, just in time for its 30th anniversary. The same principle is there - dodge cars while leaping across the road - but new game modes have been added, along with better graphics and stages inspired by other Konami titles such as Contra and Castlevania. It should be ideal for new and old fans of the game.

Journalized
Journal apps are common on the App Store but Journalized is still worth a look. It's particularly attractive to look at and interact with, with a full screen media browser making it easy to look at text, photos and videos all at once. For those who want to quickly keep track of their private thoughts, it's a great way of checking in.