@app-review Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Daily iPad App: Mini Motor Racing HD

by Mike Schramm (Dec 21st, 2011)

Developer The Binary Mill has been trying a number of different approaches on iOS (including the Penny Arcade-approved Decide-o-Tron game recommendation app), but Mini Motor Racing HD is the company's most solid release yet, in my estimation. It's a top-down mini car-racing game with a pretty ...

Got a question? Try the Onion Magic Answer Ball

by Mel Martin (Dec 21st, 2011)

Are you the kind of person who is constantly asking for advice? Do you need a little reinforcement before that big decision? The wonderful satirists at The Onion have just the app for you. It's called the Magic Answer Ball. I'd call it a parody of the old round balls you'd find at the gag store ...

Daily iPad App: Grand Theft Auto 3

by Mike Schramm (Dec 20th, 2011)

I'm not quite willing to call Grand Theft Auto 3 old school -- I spent so much time on the original top-down versions of the series that those are still more retro to me than the fully 3D graphics and living, open-world city that GTA3 made famous on the consoles (a tradition that continues ...

Covert Chirp offers camouflaged Twitter for the workplace

by Erica Sadun (Dec 20th, 2011)

You're in an important meeting. The voices are droning on about procedural nonsense and forward looking outlooks. No one is paying attention. You're dying for any kind of mental stimulation. You reach for your iPhone. You launch Twitter. Then, Dwight the worker bee sitting next to you decides ...

Daily iPhone App: Brawl

by Mike Schramm (Dec 20th, 2011)

Ben Brode is a game designer at Blizzard Entertainment who has created an iOS card game called Brawl (we're still waiting for iOS games from Blizzard, by the way). Brawl is actually based on a real card game, and unlike most turn-based card games, this one's played in real time (similar to ...

Daily Mac App: Magic Window

by Mel Martin (Dec 19th, 2011)

If you're tired of looking at that stale Mac OS desktop, think about adding Magic Window to your visual bag of tricks. Magic Window, available through the Mac App Store for US$2.99 (on sale) comes with 14 striking landscapes that change over time, so you see the skies change and the sun might ...

Quickpick and Launch Center: A first look at two similar iOS launcher apps (Updated)

by Steven Sande (Dec 19th, 2011)

Over the past few days, I've been testing a new app from App Cubby. The app, called Launch Center, uses the iOS 5 Notification Center as a launch tool for a limited number of actions. In other words, you bring up Notification Center and tap an item to go to a website, launch an app, or perform ...

Daily iPhone App: Breakout Boost

by Mike Schramm (Dec 16th, 2011)

Atari's been on a remixing jag lately, and I was really impressed by the recent iOS take on Asteroids. Now with Breakout Boost, Atari aims to update another old gem. Unfortunately, this one isn't quite as successful. It certainly is Breakout, as you control a little paddle across the screen, ...

Visit the famed San Diego Zoo with your iPhone

by Mel Martin (Dec 15th, 2011)

The San Diego Zoo is arguably among the very best zoos in the world. With more than 4,000 animals and 800-plus species, it's a national treasure. My visits are fondly remembered, and starting today you can visit some of the best of the zoo from the comfort of your iPhone. The free SanDiegoZoo ...

Agile Partners rock GuitarToolkit 2.0

by Brett Terpstra (Dec 15th, 2011)

Agile Partners (who've come up at TUAW a few times) have released GuitarToolkit 2.0, a major upgrade to the original app which adds extensive features and an iPad version. GuitarToolkit boasts a range of tools geared at guitar and bass players, but now includes enough flexibility to work with any ...

Daily iPhone App: Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies

by Mike Schramm (Dec 15th, 2011)

EA has been on the App Store for a long time. Say what you want about subscription minigames and in-app purchases, but recent release of Tetris and Bejeweled demonstrate that EA has a good play. Activision, on the other hand, still doesn't quite get the App Store, and the result is games like ...

Daily iPad App: Defenders of Ardania

by Mike Schramm (Dec 14th, 2011)

Tower defense is a genre that's almost run its course, if you ask me. But Defenders of Ardania is still a really solid tower defense title for the iPad that does find some innovation left in the process of setting up towers and letting them take out the incoming bad guys. The twist here is that ...

Daily iPhone App: Nixie Clock

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Dec 14th, 2011)

I'm probably a little weird, but sometimes I love listening to police scanners and various chit chat as I'm going to bed. I also like analog devices, so a Nixie Clock Radio seemed like a neat idea: the look of the classic Nixie clock merged with streaming radio and an alarm/sleep timer. It works ...

Daily iPad App: Boinx iStopMotion brings stop motion animation to iOS

by Steven Sande (Dec 13th, 2011)

Boinx Software is one of my favorite Apple development companies. I use their Boinx TV app to produce TUAW TV Live every week, and all of our onsite video from Macworld Expo 2011 went through Boinx TV. Their Fotomagico software has been a slideshow favorite for years, and their You Gotta See ...

Daily iPad App: Michael Jackson The Experience HD

by Mike Schramm (Dec 12th, 2011)

Ubisoft released a version of its Michael Jackson Experience game for iOS recently, and it's actually a pretty good time. The game was originally created for motion controls with the Xbox Kinect, the Wii, and the PlayStation Move, but here on the iPad, you "dance" by swiping across the screen ...