Tag: Favorite 4 »

So, there’s a bit of a brouhaha over iOS 6 switching its maps provider from Google Maps to TomTom and other Apple sources. Yes, the 3D flybys in the maps are pretty, but the lack of details once had in Google Maps and loss of transit directions is a backbreaker for some. Sure, Google Maps has a mobile website that can be added as a web app, but maybe it’s time for something all new. Unless or until a separate Google Maps application is released, here’s four fine alternatives for mapping and directions.

HopStop

Transit directions are notably missing from iOS 6 maps. However, for those needing to get around, HopStop provides valuable directions. Supporting many major North American cities, just choose the starting address, destination, departure/arrival time, and preferred method of transit, and the app provides helpful directions, including alternate arrival/departure times for buses and trains. It even includes some transit options that Google Maps doesn’t, such as suburban Pace buses in the Chicago area.

Waze

This app uses OpenStreetMap data to power its maps, relying on the free user-supported data supplied to provide reliable up-to-date information, similar to Wikipedia. It uses this data to provide a free turn-by-turn navigation solution. The hook is that data on traffic, accidents, speed traps, and more, is all provided by people also using the app. Simply driving around with the app open can help intelligently detect where rough traffic is based on slower speeds. Waze can even find cheap gas along routes based on user-submitted reports.

MapsWithMe

This app offers over 7800 maps of cities and places all over the world, which are all downloaded direct to one’s device. So, where data service is spotty or nonexistent, this app still provides valuable street data along with various locations and landmarks available offline. It’s perfect for the iPod touch and wifi-only iPad. The maps are curated by the development team, including their CEO who wears a sweet hat.

MapQuest

Long before there were Google Maps, there was MapQuest. While The Lonely Island declared Google Maps “The best”, who’s got an app on the App Store now? MapQuest does! Find important places and get turn-by-turn directions using their main app, or use their “Local” app to find the best restaurants and bars based on crowdsourced information. MapQuest is a survivor, and will be around to give us directions when all that's left is Twinkies and cockroaches!

Appropriately enough, there's a practically endless supply of Endless Runners to choose from across the App Store. Which ones are the best and most worthy of your attention, though? We took a look at our favorite 4 in recent times and explain just why they're worth diving into.

Solipskier
Solipskier has been quite a hit both commercially and amongst the developer crowd. It's not strictly an Endless 'Runner', instead focusing on skiing but it is fantastic fun. Players must draw the ski slopes while picking up speed and completing some impressive jumps and tricks. It also offers some innovative and memorable music thanks to a feature that means music 'pops out' when skiing fast, adding to the sense of speed as you solely hear the sound effects rather than soundtrack for a time.

Tiny Wings
Yes, it's nearly as huge as Angry Birds (and continues the bird theme well) but it'd be impossible to not mention Tiny Wings when rounding up the best Endless Runners. All about flying endlessly, players control a cute bird as they bounce across many hills. One tap is all that's needed to control momentum with numerous challenges encouraging players to improve for next time. The latest update included an extra mode for even more fun. It's a wonderfully calming yet gripping experience.

One Epic Knight
One of the more recent entries to the genre, One Epic Knight combines dungeon crawling with endless running, pitting a knight against a never ending dungeon as he attempts to collect up all the loot, clear the evil creatures and dodge some fearsome traps. Swipe controls ensure none of this feels too complicated and it's a great change of pace for a normally predictable genre.

Ski Safari
Many games have included avalanche chases, Ski Safari focuses solely on this big problem with Sven the skier desperately trying to escape the cavalcade of snow while using animals to help his escape. Each animal offers a different ability to speed Sven up plus a selection of objectives add extra purpose to the game. It's adorable and addictive in equal measures.

Are you ready for some football, in particular the 2012–2013 season of the premier American football league, the National Football League? Well, with the season kicking off tonight with the Super Bowl champion New York Giants playing the Dallas Cowboys, I’ve collected four apps to help make the game-watching and fantasy-football-playing experience better. No matter what, they’re better than the replacement refs are going to be!

NFL ’12: The NFL’s official app offers video, including a single screen scoreboard of all the week’s games on the iPad. Get score alerts for individual games. See highlights and analysis videos from NFL.com, along with news stories. Is that significant other clueless about sportball, and expects you to leave the house on Sunday afternoons? Or do you live outside your favorite team’s market, and don’t want to pay for Sunday Ticket, which costs about as much as operating J.P. Morgan’s yacht? Then for $29.99, you can listen to every game from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.

NFL Game Rewind: Every fan of their team has plenty of things to say about what they think they saw while watching. However, there’s a reason why NFL coaches don’t eat buffalo wings and drink beer while coaching, because it doesn’t provide them cogent analysis. So sober up, and subscribe to NFL Game Rewind, a service that provides the ability to rewatch past games on a play-by-play basis. The $69.99 subscription offers even coaches’ film, which will provide more in-depth looks at games, with deeper archives available. The $49.99 subscription offers this year’s games, available commercial-free and in condensed forms, to relive games in short time frames.

Thumb: Fantasy football is an integral part of the football fandom experience. After all, nothing makes a meaningless blowout more exciting than when your wide receiver scores a touchdown in garbage time to win your matchup that week. But deciding who to start is a pain. Why not rely on the wisdom of random internet strangers? Use Thumb’s fantasy football section to post simple thumbs-up-or-down questions on whether someone should be started on your team, and watch as the guy you benched scores 3 touchdowns in one game and the guy you started sets the NFL fumbles record your fantasy team is led to victory by listening to the opinions of others!

Fantasy Football ’12: You’re the Ludacris of fantasy football, in that you have fantasy football teams in different area codes, or at least on ESPN, Yahoo, and NFL.com. If only there was one app that could manage teams on all those different sites! There is! Based off of Fantasy Monster, this is designed solely for managing fantasy teams from all across different leagues. Remember, the more fantasy leagues you’re in, the more likely you’ll be able to call yourself a fantasy football champion.

Casual gamers need never look far to find a Hidden Object based treat on the App Store. It's one of the most plentiful of genres with each title involving a series of puzzles and a variety of different scenes to explore. Because there's so much choice, this seemed like the perfect time for us to round up our four favorite titles and explain just why they're so great.

Time Trap HdO
Time Trap is a particularly distinctive title thanks to its beautiful if surreal landscapes. Deviating away from more conventional Hidden Object settings, the game sticks with a Sci-Fi post apocalyptic style theme for its suitably long story. Its moodiness juxtaposes with its hidden object ways but that makes it stand out all the more. It gains extra value through its spooky soundtrack.

Little Things Forever
Little Things Forever is the antithesis of Time Trap. It's immensely colorful and cheery. There's no storyline to follow with the focus entirely on solving Hidden Object based puzzles, but there's plenty of fun within. Players find objects within intricate pieces of artwork, simply for the joy of doing so. The game's lists are randomly generated, also, so there's limitless fun to be had.

Midnight Mysteries: Devil On The Mississippi
The Midnight Mysteries series is great for combining Hidden Object elements with adventure gaming tropes. Devil On The Mississippi offers precisely that. There's a spooky story to be told but alongside that are plenty of puzzles to be solved and objects to be found. In each case, such interactive elements are some of the finest you can discover within the genre.

Strange Cases: The Lighthouse Mystery
What stands out most about this title is the variety of types of objects to be found. It's a fairly typical but enjoyable title from Hidden Object experts, Big Fish Games, but it keeps things interesting. Some scenes offer a standard list of objects to find while some offer merely the silhouette or clues to what needs finding. It'll keep players on their toes but happy.

Arguably the biggest and most famous of soccer leagues, the English Premier League begins once more tomorrow with fans eagerly awaiting a season of soccer that will last them until May 2013. Will Manchester City retain the title once more or will Manchester United manage to snatch it from their grasp? Either way, I'll be keen to see if Swansea City can stay up for another season. We're celebrating the start of the season by taking a look at the four best apps to use alongside your soccer watching experience.

Caught Offside
Caught Offside has been an immensely popular independent soccer website for a while now and its app supplements matters all the more. It offers a wide variety of content from up to the minute news, video highlights, rumors to in-depth features and analysis. As expected, there are also the all important live scores and stats to keep fans up to date.

Live Score Addicts
The ideal way to check the latest scores at speed, Live Score Addicts is guaranteed to keep fans up to date on scores for 420 different leagues and cups around the world, as well as the crucial English Premier League. Push Notifications means you'll never miss a change of score or the presence of an ominous red card. Other information such as substitutions, attendance and even Head2Head comparisons are available.

Premier League 20 Seasons
Premier League 20 Seasons won't keep you informed on the latest developments this season but it will give you fantastic insight on the past 20 seasons of the Premier League. The app offers more than 100 classic moments from that time, along with interactive quizzes to test your knowledge of the Premier League. It's not always perfect at streaming the content but there's no denying it's exciting stuff checking back on the iconic moments that have been and gone.

FourFourTwo Soccer Stats Zone
Predominantly UK based soccer magazine FourFourTwo has released an app that stat fans will absolutely adore. Soccer Stats Zone doesn't stop where other apps do, it provides every stat imaginable from passes and tackles completed to a broken down analysis of every single manoeuvre performed during a match. Analysis on how a match has changed after a key incident such as a goal or red card is included as well as player versus player and team versus team comparisons. Your head will explode with facts in no time.

Many of us don't solely game on our iPhones or iPads, we game on consoles and PCs, too. Coinciding with that is one of the most exciting developments when it comes to iOS: apps that tie into other games. Whether it be through providing the latest match statistics while on the move, or through providing a new and cool way of controlling a console, there are some great crossovers going on. We take a look at the four best out there at the moment.

My Xbox Live
My Xbox Live ably demonstrates just how an official app for a console should deal with things. It leaves the currently EU only Official Playstation app behind in terms of functionality. Users can easily track and compare their achievements, change their Xbox Live avatar and check in with friends, all via the app. Most excitingly, iPad users can control their Xbox 360 with the app with media controls as well as access to a quick list of recent console activity.

World of Warcraft Mobile Armory
Despite a lull in subscriber numbers, World of Warcraft has continued to dominate the hearts and free time of many MMO gamers. The Mobile Armory means that even away from your PC, you can't escape the allure of the game. The app provides a way to view all your characters, along with stats, equipment and achievements. Guild stats and the in-game calendar are also viewable, so there's no excuse to miss that all-important raid. For the aspiring auctioneer, it's also possible to view how the latest auctions are progressing.

Call of Duty Elite
The biggest multiplayer FPS of them all? Maybe. Call of Duty Elite requires an Elite subscription but the app provides a plethora of statistics to make it worthwhile. Users can review recent matches, check how they're improving over time and what areas of the game they need to work on, such as if they excel at a particular weapon or not. It's also possible to view and edit custom classes, ready to implement when you're back in front of a console or PC.

Halo Waypoint
Another hugely popular multiplayer FPS is Halo. Unlike Call of Duty, there's no need for a separate subscription, users can dive right into Halo Waypoint. The app provides similar stats, offering game history breakdowns, campaign progress, weapon stats, as well as overhead views of all the maps. Challenges can also be created and tracked from the app, making it an ideal tool to dabble in during a lunch break.

In the world of couture it's already Fall/Winter 2012-13, but here in reality, summer is hot - literally. With the season came Time Warner to Newsstand, which got us poking through their offerings and finding ourselves drawn to lighter beach fare like fashion magazines. This week we look at our favorite four fashionista periodicals for those planning what to wear now and to see what's on the catwalk for Autumn.

ELLE

ELLE US has couture, trends, and very readable articles. On top of the high-end glossy magazine, there are some really cool features. Enjoy an ELLE "Personal Stylist" - just upload your image and try on looks directly from the app. There is also a great Inspiration Board where you can put your favorite pieces to create a digital, sharable collage - perfect for Pinterest. The July issue just came out and features a look at Selena Gomez in a TDF top, a huge spread on instant outfits for any occasion, and a guide to vacation dressing and packing.

Vogue

This venerable Conde Nast publication, Vogue, made its iPad debut in May and each issue is packed with all the great fashion and articles you've come to expect on top of some cool interactive features including videos. The July issue has a fantastic one of Emma Stone doing a special photo shoot where she reveals her "vampy" side and talks about her role in the latest Spiderman summer blockbuster. This issue also looks at what every girl needs on her summer fashion checklist and peeks down the runway at the haute-couture for fall.

InStyle

We were happy to see Time Warner bring InStyle to Newsstand. The magazine is a fresh lighter look at fashion. The monthly has lots of tips on how to get the hottest styles for less, and how to put them together to make eyes pop and jaws drop when you make your entrance. The new July issue downloads really quickly, has stories on Salma Hayek and Justin Bieber, great hot weather makeup looks and tips, and over 150 "chic steals" to love for under $50. Oh, there's also some frozen treats that would make any "it" girl want to risk the calories.

NET-A-PORTER

NET-A-PORTER, from the website of the same name is a weekly that's part magazine, part shopping portal and part fashionista web haven. The app is simple to use, and full of great looks. This week, the editors have an article on the hottest one-piece swimwear. Check out Issa London by Daniella Helayel (of Kate Middleton now Duchess of Cambridge's engagement dress fame), who reinvents mod on the runway. Then, after drooling and possibly buying, go discover the secrets of the summer sundress. The best part of the app is that you can touch on an item to get more details, the price, and purchase your must-haves right from your lap.

In a matter of weeks, one of the biggest soccer tournaments out there begins: Euro 2012. Qualification is over and 16 European teams are all lined up to prove which one is the best of the bunch. As a Brit, I'm ever hopeful that England will achieve glory but regardless of what happens, I'll be enjoying seeing some high quality action. In honor of such good times ahead, we thought we'd take a look at the four best apps out there to use alongside the tournament.

Total Euro 2012
We might have covered Total Euro 2012 previously but it's unparalleled in what it offers and deserves mention again. The app offers pretty much everything any soccer fan could want during the tournament. Detailed statistics on every player are offered, along with past performance analysis. This will all tie in perfectly with the app's future live updates, formations and live commentary that will be offered with every match during Euro 2012. Arguably, fans won't need another app when they have this.

Football Attack Euro 2012
Soccer fans love to discuss with friends just what they think the score will be in each match. Heck, we've all been there. I always have a competition with a friend every tournament where we predict each match and whoever gets the most right, wins a prize. Football Attack Euro 2012 is the internet based equivalent using Facebook accounts to collate everything. It's simple yet immediately appealing to groups of fans.

Official UEFA EURO 2012 app
For obvious reasons, UEFA is guaranteed to have the most reliable information on all things Euro 2012. Official UEFA EURO 2012 app keeps all that knowledge on an iOS device with the latest articles and news, as well as a calendar, group standings and lineups. Personalized alerts can be set up so users can see all the news about their favorite team quickly. Highlight clips and video interviews are set to be included during the tournament.

Euro 2012 Football Quiz

Think you know everything about football and the Euros? Euro 2012 Football Quiz tests this knowledge with 500 questions on the tournament. Everything from fixture dates to memorablia questions are asked here and it's a fun way of learning some new facts.

This week at 148Apps.com, writer Lisa Caplan helped all of us out by providing her Favorite Four apps for Mother's Day. Caplan says, "Mother’s Day means so many different things to so many different people that it’s hard to create a list of just four apps for the occasion. There are great gifts to purchase right from iTunes and the App Store, and tons of apps to help you find the right present. But we decided to keep the focus on free or inexpensive apps that will make moms feel special this Sunday and leave them with more than a memory to treasure all year long."

See the full list of suggestions at 148Apps.

And what's Mother's Day without children? GiggleApps appeals to the younger crowd with a review of Color Dots. Reviewer Amy Solomon writes, "Color Dots is a bright and fun universal application that the youngest of app users will enjoy. Color Dots is very simple and is geared towards babies and toddlers as colored dots are popped with a tap of a finger as they move around the screen."

Read Amy's full review on GiggleApps.com.

148Apps.biz reporter Kevin Stout writes about the latest research into American app spending habits: "International market research firm Newzoo has just released a report concerning mobile gaming in the U.S. The report claims that the amount of American mobile gamers has risen by over 25 million gamers in the last year and the number of paying players has gone up to 36% of all mobile gamers."

Read more about this research on 148Apps.biz.

And that's the week that was! Join us here next week for another quick recap, but until then make sure you check out our Twitter and Facebook feeds for the latest news, reviews and contests. Now go see Dark Shadows and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Cinco de Mayo, the celebration of the Mexican victory over the French in the 1860s, has increasingly become a celebration in America as well as Mexico. Check out our favorite four for celebrating Cinco de Mayo including apps on food, dancing, and history.

Rick Bayless: Mexican Essentials
Good Mexican food is the first thing that comes to mind for Cinco de Mayo. I remember sneaking into Spanish class one year in high school on May 5th to steal some food (I was in French). Rick Bayless: Mexican Essentials is a cookbook app that also contains instructional videos by award-winning chef and Mexican cuisine master, Rick Bayless. The app not only contains Rick’s 35 essential Mexican recipes, but also 40 videos on his tricks and techniques, 32 key ingredients with advice on how to buy and use them, a shopping list aggregator, and social media sharing. I think I’m going to give the Tortilla Soup a try this year.

Salsa Fresca HD
Keeping up with the food theme, what’s Cinco de Mayo without some good salsa? Salsa Fresca HD is an iPad cookbook with various recipes for salsa. There are all kinds of salsa types included in the app like tomato, corn, bean, and more. Each salsa recipe is accompanied by a picture and suggested “good with” ideas. It even contains tips and tricks on how to perform various salsa-related tasks like roasting tomatoes and rehydrating chiles.

Pocket Salsa
Another salsa app? Not quite. We’re still on salsa, but this time we’re talking about dancing. There are Cinco de Mayo celebrations all over the world and most consist of dancing as well as food. Pocket Salsa is a portable salsa instructor. For partiers looking to learn to salsa dance before their favorite Cinco de Mayo celebration, this app includes 150 video salsa lessons, salsa rhythms, a salsa podcast, and even more videos through in-app purchases. The app even has AirPlay support to watch the lessons right on a TV.

Cinco de Mayo: The Battle of Puebla
It can’t hurt to brush up on the history of Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo: The Battle of Puebla provides users with a detailed video on both the Battle of Puebla, the military victory that led to the traditional celebration on May 5th, and the history of the celebration of Cinco de Mayo. The videos include accompanying text for users impatient users that want to read ahead. The app also includes two games, a quiz and a paint game, that can be unlocked for an in-app purchase of $0.99. But the app is free and so are both videos.

For those in the Northern hemisphere, Spring is here which means sun, less rain and snow and more plant growth out in the garden. This makes it an ideal time to round up our favorite four gardening apps. Each is an app that will help keen gardeners keep their land in check, whether it be by providing guides to fruit and vegetables or by helping users plot out their garden.

iVeggieGarden
Aiming to be an all round solution for gardeners, iVeggieGarden offers reference and planning tools as well as a means of tracking things. There's even a means in which users can enter their own notes and photos of how things are progressing. Over 50 different vegetables and over 500 different varieties are catered for with a plethora of information from appropriate temperatures and planting depths to harvesting tips. The app should cover all the key questions that both novice and experienced gardeners may have and it's all done in a very attractive format.

Vegetable Garden
Similar to iVeggieGarden but for those on a budget, Vegetable Garden offers growing tips, soil preparation advice and a schedule chart for vegetables. It's geared towards the UK market in terms of growing times but everything else is universal. A plot planner helps users plan out their garden, no matter how big or small.

Gardening Toolkit HD
An iPad exclusive, Gardening Toolkit HD uses the extra screen space to create an appealing way of tracking everything to do within the garden. A notes section helps users keep track of what they need to do and when. There's a colorful and photo-packed encyclopaedia of more than 1000 plants. For the US users, they can enter their zip-code and be informed of how hard their soil is, plus there's information on suggested plants for the area. It's an all round attractive reference tool.

Harvest - Select the Best Produce
Harvest provides a guide to how to pick the best produce by offering tips and techniques of exactly how to look for the ripest and healthiest fruit or veg. It'll be ideal once keen gardeners have already grown their crop. A large variety of different produce is catered for, each with their own bunch of tips and tricks that are impressively educational. The app follows such tips up with information on pesticide residue levels which can help those who still buy from stores, but why would you want to do that once you've finished growing your own, anyhow?

February is Black History Month in the US. It's a time to reflect on the past of a people who have journeyed from slavery to the Oval Office and look at the heroes, sung and unsung, who made the transformative journey possible. It is also a time to look forward, for people of all races and ideologies, and to continue the quest for true racial equality in America. Apps are great educational tools so we've collected our favorite four that look backwards and forwards at this epic struggle to show by word and deed that all men - and women - are indeed created equal. If we missed an essential please let us know in the comments.

Then and Now Series: Black History

A look at the lives of 100 historically important Black people in a simple easy-to-use app, Then and Now Series: Black History focuses on the people behind the struggles and successes. Seek out more information on the names you'd expect to find or browse to discover lesser known, but equally important, figures from Black History. The app also allows users to print or share their discoveries with anyone who also wants to learn more.

Black History In An Hour

While Black History In An Hour is long overdue for an update it still allows those who want to learn more without investing too much time to get the most important facts on the most salient topics. This app goes beyond the US to the rest of the West and into Africa, but it focuses mostly on key events in the history of African Americans particularly during slavery. It's not meant to be a comprehensive eBook, just a starting point for discussion or further study.

Black History Facts

Another basic guide, Black History Facts does not focus on the struggle for racial equality in the US alone, but rather explores Black History from around the world. The app offers over 530 snippets of information including 15 that were added as recently as january of this year. The app's stated purpose is to foster deeper inquiry and provoke discussion.

The Root for iPad

Brought to iPad by The Washington Post and The Root, The Root for iPad looks not at black history as recorded in the annals, but black history in the making. This app aggregates relevant web news as well as curated commentary from highly respected African American writers. The app tackles the current implications of race in American society and myriad related issues. It even has podcasts on hot topics. The newest of the apps on this list, it's optimized for iOS 5 and incorporates a host of sharing features to spread the best stories around the web via social media to open debate... and minds.

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Families gather, feast, celebrate and then get ready for a Black Friday shopping bonanza. The hottest deals mean the biggest crowds will be mobbing stores. With this celebration of conspicuous consumption putting huge pressure on holiday shoppers in a tough economy, how does one find the very best deals? Well, an iPhone loaded with the right apps can make things a lot easier. This week we look at our four favorites for saving time and money.

TGI Black Friday

Powered by two major shopping resources, TGIblackfriday.com and DealCatcher.com, TGI Black Friday is the go-to app for finding the best bargains from the biggest chains like Walmart, Kohls, Best Buy, Target, Old Navy and far too many more to list. The updates come fast and furious and users can see all the Black Friday deals well before they bulk up the morning paper. Push notifications alert shoppers to new deals, users can compare prices and share finds on Facebook and Twitter.

Red Laser

Finding good deals is awesome. Finding great ones is even better. One thing brick and mortar retailers are worried most about this year is what impact mobile devices will have, even in the check out line. Price-matching offers used to be taken up by only a few, but now with bar code scanners, shoppers can quickly scan the items unique product number and Red Laser will find them all the competing offers, many of which are online. That means while standing in a three-hour check-out queue one can just pop out an iPhone, find a better deal online and have it paid for and on its way before they move forward a single inch.

Black Friday App

Black Friday App provides the same basic features as TGI Black Friday, and many of the stores and deals are the same, but there are retailers one app carries that the other doesn't. This app doesn't just look for deals in physical stores, but online-only bargains, too, so consider it another tool in the arsenal.

TGI Cyber Monday

Just as in-store bargains are selling out, online retailers pick up the slack. The new mega-shopping day has become known as Cyber Monday. TGI Cyber Monday, from the same folks as TGI Black Friday, again helps consumers sort through the best deals - this time from all the major online retailers.

Last week we looked at the best camera replacement apps for the iPhone native app. So, this week we wanted to continue the theme, this time looking at apps that focus on adding those ever-popular effects and filters. Many of the choices feature a camera replacement component, but all do unique things to produce end results that are anything but the average cell camera shot, no matter how high the resolution. All of these apps will make even casual photographers look like virtual experts.

Instagram

Instagram is all about effects and sharing and it’s completely free. This long-time user favorite allows shutter bugs to shoot right from the app or use existing images in the photo album and easily add custom filters. Most photo apps have social media integration but Instgram can actually be classified as a social networking app. Users can share on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, but also less common options ike Posterous and Foursquare and even has a huge community that interacts with likes and comments.

360 Panorama

For panoramic images 360 Panorama is our choice. This universal app allows users to take ad then patch together photos seamlessly to create breath-taking immersive images. The app uses the gyroscope to give users a full 360 view and stitches the images with amazing speed.

Pro HDR

For truly detailed images, high dynamic range photography (HDR) is the way to go. Pro HDR takes a lot of the hassle out of getting the images to look sharp and brilliant in all conditions. This app takes multiple pictures of the same thing with different settings to highlight or fix specific areas and them merges them together. The results are near 8 mega-pixel image quality. This is the only HDR camera app that automates the process, but for those with advanced photography skills there is also a manual option for setting exposure of the images that will make up the final composition.

Hipstmatic

For vintage effects like we got in the 1970's with plastic encased toy-like cameras which gave very analog results, Hipstamatic is the go-to app for iPhone photographers. It uses what were once considered flaws - like overexposure, odd colour balance and blurring - to create photos with an authentic feel. The app comes with 10 effects for the initial price and five additional effects packs can be purchased in-app. Hipstamtic features a lot of social network integration as well.

Sudoku has become as popular as crossword puzzles and iOS devices of all sizes make ideal companions for this particular brand of endless (and paperless) number puzzle solving. With so many Sudoku games on the App Store, finding the one that fits best can be as big a puzzle as the game itself. So we've collected our four favorites for you here. Did we miss yours? Please let us know.

Sudoku 2 Pro

Classic Sudoku has a great uncluttered look and comes with a special scoring system that lends itself well to Openfeint leaderboards. In this version of the game a win counts only if the puzzle was solved with less than three mistakes and easy levels must be solved before unlocking harder ones.

: ) Sudoku +

This Sudoku game has a full 16 levels of difficulty all of which are unlocked from the start. This version has a “multi-stage hint system” where first the game just reminds a puzzler to double check a square followed by more clues up to a complete illustration of how the puzzle should be solved. The standout feature for us is that : ) Sudoku + allows users to enter puzzles from any print source for endless portable solving.

Big Bad Sudoku Book

Apple’s choice for their Game Starter Kit, Big Bad Sudoku Book has an intuitive interface, allows background apps to run, and like >Sudoku there is a scoring system, but here the leaderboards are on Game Center. Its key feature is “highlights” which allows players to highlight rows, a specific number on the grid, or whatever helps focus attention on problem areas. Challenge mode is particularly fun with 50 increasingly difficult puzzles that must be unlocked sequentially.

Social Sudoku

The classic with a great twist, Social Sudoku, as the name implies allows solvers to compete against one another via Game Center. There is even a cooperative mode for solving together. In both cases both players see the same puzzle and solve in sync. This game contains six different versions of Sudoku from Classic to Killer to Kakuro.