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Able to remember names in a personal or professional setting? Yeah, neither can I. I've said it time and time again that I'm horrible at remembering names. There is nothing more awkward than trying to introduce someone I just met and then drawing a blank when trying to say their name. Apparently, I'm not alone. Namerick, ideated by Jeremy Van Fleet, just launched in the App Store and it's free for three days.

Jeremy, who was part of the three-day app building contest hosted by BeMyApp, was first inspired to create the app because he needed to remember his girlfriend's overwhelmingly large extended family. After completing the app over the weekend with a group of colleagues, the app is expected to do more than just remember family names. It might be one of the most powerful networking tools professionals can bring to a mixer.

As Dale Carnegie pointed out in his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People," remembering a person's name is the most important thing one could do to win them over. Namerick is an iPhone app that improves memory of people's names using repetition and mnemonics modeled from memory professionals and studies of the human memory.

Basically, it helps with the "three R's of memory" including recording notes, dates and categories, retaining new names and reminders and lastly, retrieving names, keywords and notes. The app will even send you notifications on a specific schedule to help you remember the names of people you just met. The name memory app is available now for free during its initial three days, then moves to $.99 thereafter.

Lola’s Fruit Shop Sudoku is a very nice application simplifying the classic game Sudoku and adding a nice fruit theme which creates a version that kids and adults will enjoy. Both iPhone and iPad versions of this application are available, and there is an impressive choice of languages to choose from, specially English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Finnish, Japanese, Korean and simplified Chinese.

I really enjoy this app and the changes made from the traditional game of Sudoku to make it easier and more enjoyable for kids as early as four years, as well as beyond in the more difficult sections. This application is part of the “Lola” series of apps starring lovable panda Lola, who keeps a watchful eye on the users, adding bits of narration about her love of fruit as well as encouraging the players throughout these games.

Read the full review at GiggleApps.

Toca Boca Robot Lab is the new and original universal app and “digital toy” that kids of all ages as well as parents will enjoy.

This new Toca Boca app allows players to create their own robot from a series of creative and interesting scrap pieces or metal and other industrial materials. Although many pieces are ultimately available to choose from, kids will have a choice of three head, body, and leg selections each session, as well as left and right arms, mixing or matching, or however the player chooses.

I really enjoy that the robot lab building area takes place in a corrugated box, and that the robot pieces to choose from are recycled bits from other machines that adults will be familiar with, such as old radios, coffee machines, sinks, the electronic eye from a surveillance camera or incandescent bulb, giving the players a way of viewing these bits of scrap in a new way, transforming them into pieces of a new robot.

Read the full review at GiggleApps.

Army of Frogs began life as a board less board game for 2-4 players by designer John Yanni. It uses molded hex tiles and consists of a battle over limited territories. In the iOS game, 2-4 human or AI players take turns jumping and connecting their frogs together into one large group to win the game. The game features:

• local Pass&Play multiplayer for 2-4 players


• 6 different AI opponents


• asynchronous online multiplayer


• 15 Game Center achievements


• Facebook integration

Check out a video to get a better sense of how this game, developed by the studio behind Neuroshima Hex, Big Daddy's Creations, plays out:

The game, due out July 22, will come in two versions, $1.99 for the iPhone and iPod Touch version, and $4.99 for a universal version to play on all iOS devices, including the iPad.

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