Hot and Sunny Apps!
It’s been a great July, filled with warm summer air and great apps made by fellow readers!
As always, my mission is to try em out and showcase a few to give a snapshot of the community each month.
July is no different. We’ve got some fantastic apps to show off this month:
- A messaging app for those who can’t wait
- Apps for taking notes
- A game testing your emoji prowess
- And of course, much more!
Keep reading to see a snapshot of what the fantastic RW community built this month.
Super Twenty – impossible puzzle game
Super Twenty is a super addicting tile addition game.
Super Twenty doesn’t have any special numbers to multiply; it merely increments tiles when matching numbers are combined. Combine 1’s to get a 2, combine 2’s to get a 3, and so forth.
Its extremely simple, but extremely fun. It doesn’t even lock you down to sliding the tiles in particular directions like similar games.
Being so simple is what makes Super Twenty so much more addictive that similar games. There is always another move you can make, you’re not left hunting. I could barely stop playing long enough to write this. ;]
- Author: Leonid Peancovschi @lpeancovschi
- Most useful tutorial: Top 5 iOS 7 Animations
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Mean Calculator
Mean Calculator is a fun new math game great for a little fun on the go.
Mean Calculator gives you a number and your goal is to tap out an equation to match. Each level will lock some of the calculator keys to make things a little extra challenging but most levels have multiple possible solutions. It might give you a 4 so you could do 1 + 3, 2 + 2, 2 * 2, etc. But maybe it blocks the multiplication button this level, leaving you to lowly addition.
Mean Calculator also gives great feedback remanent of your mean 1st grade teacher giving a loss enough extra sting you want to keep going to prove the calculator wrong.
- Author: Philip Covington @shedbraingames
- Most useful tutorial: Intro to Swift video tutorial series
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Quick Emoji
Quick Emoji is a unique game build entirely around our uncanny ability to memorize sequences.
Quick Emoji shows an emoji on the screen and gives you seconds or less to find it on the regular emoji keyboard. Its surprisingly easy for ones you use often yet surprisingly hard for ones you’ve never sent. You’ll remember where emoji are you didn’t know you had remembered.
Its quite fun to hunt down emoji at breakneck speed.
- Author: Hugo Ibanez @hugoib
- Most useful tutorial: Adaptive Layout video tutorial series
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Don’t Crack
Don’t Crack is a unique, fun game centered around not breaking vases as they come off the assembly line.
As the vases roll off the assembly line one at a time, you control the packing peanut release. Vases are in a crate and you must fill it with enough packing peanuts to make sure it won’t break during shipping. But you’ll have to be sparing, there are a limited amount of packing peanuts and you only get filled up every so often.
Timing is everything as each crate is slightly different sized with different shape vases. The physics make sure you’ll need to leave enough time for the light peanuts to fall.
GameCenter integration will ensure you can verify your bragging rights for your master packer status.
- Author: Geoff Gruetzmacher @gruetz
- Most useful tutorial: How to Create a Game Like Cut the Rope Using Sprite Kit
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Shuff
Shuff is a fun and powerful realtime messenger for your iPhone.
Shuff lets you see realtime messages from your friends, letter by letter. It has has a digital whiteboard where you can draw in realtime with your friends as well.
Shuff doesn’t save your messages as a history. They’re only available until you read them making it easier to keep them private.
Shuff also allows anonymous communication for even more privacy. You can even choose to shuffle the letters of messages making it harder for prying eyes to read.
- Author: Cyril Trosset @cyriltrosset
- Most useful tutorial: Swift by Tutorials
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Contacts Pad
We all have a favorites list for contacts on our phones, but what about connecting to them in other ways?
Contacts Pad will let you select your favorite contacts for quick access to a bunch of them from a single screen. But Contacts Pad is not just for calling. Contacts Pad lets you quickly connect over iMessage, SMS, Whats App, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and more.
Contacts Pad also has a Notification Center widget that makes starting a chat, call, or Facetime session even faster.
- Author: Bohdan Hernandez @thicodrel
- Most useful tutorial: iOS 8 by Tutorials
- App Store Link: Check it out!
ScratchTones
ScratchTones is a full featured, multitrack recording studio on the go!
ScratchTones supports up to four individual tracks with independent playback, volume, balance, and more. The mixer board will allow you to mix tracks, control effects like reverb, equalizers, and a master volume.
You can keep all your ScratchTones to review, trim, edit, playback, or even remix into new tones. You can also download professionally recorded clips, both free and paid, to augment your mixes.
ScratchTones even allows recordings to be uploaded to SoundCloud in addition to sharing on Twitter, Facebook, and more.
- Author: Charlie Cocchiaro @ccocco_gw
- Most useful tutorial: iOS 5 by Tutorials
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Alara
We all enjoy beautiful sunny days, but did you know too much exposure can be dangerous? UV overexposure can cause sunburns, blisters and even longer term problems like skin cancer and cataracts. Variables in weather and season can mean UV radiation changes constantly, even hourly.
Alara provides hourly forecast information for UV radiation for your current location and gives simple recommendations to protect yourself if you must be outside.
With Alara’s help and some thoughtful planning, you can enjoy your sun during the safe periods and relax inside when its a bit too much UV for comfort.
- Author: Lee Morgan @leemorgan
- Most useful tutorial: Swift Language Highlights: An Objective-C Developer’s Perspective
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Ovrlay
Ovrlay is a very cool app that will allow you to overlay anything you’d like such as a floor plan for your offices on top of Apple’s native maps.
Adding an Ovrlay as easy as it should be. Simple find the location and add your image. Then you can pinch, zoom, and rotate your image until it lines up just right with the map. You can even highlight places within the overlay just as bathrooms, stairs, main rooms, etc. There is even the ability to add routing information to the overlay to enable navigation through the overlay.
You can share your overlays with the world and other users can find overlays of their favorite buildings throughout the world.
- Author: Sarat Chandran @ovrlayapp
- Most useful tutorial: iOS 7 by Tutorials
- App Store Link: Check it out!
PayBacks
PayBacks is a very good looking small loan journal to help keep track of money between friends.
PayBacks lets you track small loans easily so you remember who owes how much for what and when. You can track money you’re owed or that you owe. You can set reminders to make sure you remember to pay or collect. And you can remind your friends if they’re forgetful.
PayBacks is a simple app that looks great. Perfect for remembering the small change.
- Author: Alex Buga @alexbuga
- Most useful tutorial: Dynamic Table View Cell Height and Auto Layout
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Geeksbox
Geeksbox is a social network for geeks!
Geeksbox is a basic social network built for geeks. Post your latest cosplay costume, homemade arcade machine, urban garden, whatever! Other geeks can rate, review, and comment on your latest posts.
What makes Geeksbox special is the community of geeks its built around. Its not for anyone, its a network focused entirely on those who like what you like. You can even filter it down more to just the things you really like.
Geeksbox is a free app, so download it and start geeking out!
- Author: Germán Sánchez @geeksbox
- Most useful tutorial: iOS 8 by Tutorials
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Index Card 4 – Corkboard Writing App
Index Card is a simple app that helps you capture, organize, and compile your ideas. Authors of all kinds can benefit from organizing their thoughts, and Index Card is a great way to start on the iPad.
Index Cards are fully formatted supporting rich text and images. You can search titles, bodies, notes, etc. Using the built in Storyboard feature, you can organize notes into a linear story.
Its easy to share your work with exports to RTF, PDF, 3-Card Layouts and more. Share native files with other Index Card users as well. Index Cards even has a presentation mode for when you AirPlay to a TV.
Index Cards is packed with features and more to come. Definitely worth a look if you need someone to collect your thoughts.
- Author: Dennis Vogel @DenVog
- Most useful tutorial: Custom Collection View Layout video tutorial series
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Intellie Notes
Intellie Notes is a clean note taking app for your Mac that focuses on keeping things simple.
In Intellie Notes you don’t clutter up notes with tags and folders, instead you assign colors to notes. You decide what you’d like colors to mean for your own organization. This makes it very easy to scan for the note you’re looking for without reading. And you can easily filter by a particular color if you know what you’re looking for.
Intellie Notes uses iCloud for its syncing to make sure your notes are tracked across multiple devices automatically.
- Author: Chandan Kumar @intellielabs
- Most useful tutorial: MVVM Tutorial with ReactiveCocoa
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Honorable Mentions
Each and every month I get more submissions than I have time to review. I download every app and see what its about, but I can’t write about them all. I love seeing all the apps submitted by readers like you. Its no a popularity contest or even a favorite picking contest. I just try to get a glimpse of what the community is working on through your submissions. Take a moment and checkout these other great apps I didn’t have time to showcase properly.
Oquonie
Escape Games 274
Boss Money
Luke Carelsen
Tiny Hugs – Endless Adventure
Medieval Monsters
Shy Selfie
MathsMatch
Tumble! – Experiments
Postys – Video digest.
Woodventure – mahjong connect
Lumps of Clay
BugRunner
Yet Another (Watch) Puzzle Game
Loops – A Game About Reflexes
Math Brain for Your Apple Watch
Who Likes the Rain?
By Marco mignano View More by This Developer
Delta: It’s All About Four
Slide – A Game About Timing
Viable
Escape Games 302
Escape Games 303
Where To Go From Here?
Each month, I really enjoy seeing what our community of readers comes up with. The apps you build are the reason we keep writing tutorials. Make sure you tell me about your next one, submit here!
If you saw an app your liked, hop to the App Store and leave a review! A good review always makes a dev’s day. And make sure you tell them you’re from raywenderlich.com; this is a community of makers!
If you’ve never made an app, this is the month! Check out our free tutorials to become an iOS star. What are you waiting for – I want to see your app next month!
The post Readers’ App Reviews – July 2015 appeared first on Ray Wenderlich.