Its a new year, and that means new apps!
The holidays certainly didn’t slow down our community. I came back from Christmas with an inbox full of apps, so I downloaded them all and picked a few I’d like to highlight this month.
Did you know that I receive on average an app a day from raywenderlich.com readers? Unfortunately, I don’t have time to write about every app that comes my way, but hopefully this will be a small showcase of what the community has been working on.
This month we have:
- A supercharged browser history
- A camera app to protect your memories
- Games to ring in the new year
- And of course, much more!
Keep reading to see the first apps released by raywenderlich.com readers this year!
Fetching
Fetching supercharges your browser history by not only storing the addresses you’ve visited but also the content.
Fetching saves a cached copy of each webpage you visit to ensure a full history remains. It features powerful search of not just the title but the entire content of the webpage.
You’ll never need to retrace your steps again when looking for a website from last week. Just type a few words you remember and it will pop up instantly.
And best of all, if the public website changes between the first and second time you view it, your cache will show exactly what you saw. Very useful for constantly changing websites. Catch the black Friday deal changes in the act! ;]
Fetching also offers blacklists to prevent certain sites like your banks or other sensitive information from being cached. They also offer both Mac and Cloud versions of the service. The Mac version of course can be backed up and encrypted like any other Mac files. While the Cloud version offers the benefit of working cross platform.
- Author: Peter Brown @flippyhead
- Most useful tutorial: iOS 8 by Tutorials
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Chain Quest
Combine the addictive nature of match three games with leveling up and battle. Thats right, you get an extremely addicting game called Chain Quest.
Chain Quest plays like a match 3 game or more specifically a chain matching game. But you’re not just clearing game tokens. You’re battling an enemy! You and your enemy take turns clearing the board. Each type of game token you clear does something unique. Some boost your magic levels. Some attack your enemy. Others build up your shield.
You can also unlock monsters and potions to help you win. As you clear game tokens your potions will brew and monsters will come alive. Your monster has a power it can use on your turn. It could be an attack against your enemy or a constant boost to your shield. Your potions and monster combinations are all part of the strategy. Build your own combo for ultimate power.
- Author: Max Opitz @ChainQuestGame
- Most useful tutorial: iOS Games by Tutorials
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Reporter Camera
Reporter Camera is a powerful camera app that has all the bells and whistles plus one: encryption. Reported Camera can encrypt photos from your gallery or right as you take them within the app to protect your photos from prying eyes. All it takes is a simple PIN to start encrypting sensitive photos.
Reporter Camera also has the standards like exposure control, temperature balance settings, framing guides, and of course filters.
You can also sign your work with an automatic signature. Just sign your name once and it can be attached to all your photos automatically giving your photography a little extra professionalism.
- Author: Artem Handzioshyn @l0nkly
- Most useful tutorial: Beginning OpenGL ES and GLKit video tutorial series
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Archer’s Revenge
A rampant army of orcs is descending upon your village and you’re their only hope!
Archer’s Revenge is a game perfect for iOS. Great physics work exactly as you expect. Just drag the bowstring and release! You can volley your enemy or go for the straight shot. Go toe to toe with enemy archers or shoot down advancing orcs.
There are more than 30 unique levels protecting your village. You can choose between three characters each with advantages on power, recovery time, or health. Save up your gold and there are new bows available offering better distance or faster rate of fire.
- Author: Leonid Peancovschi @lpeancovschi
- Most useful tutorial: How to Make a Game Like Jetpack Joyride in Unity 2D – Part 3
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Gallus Gallus
Mutated chicken eggs are in Earth’s lower atmosphere and could plummet down at any moment! Elon Musk can’t save us this time; its up to you!
Gallus Gallus is a unique puzzle and physics game thats one part skill and one part logic. There are over 120 hand crafted levels packed with debris, patterns, and challenges. Your mission is to steer the last escape pod, using your limited remaining Newtonian Pulses, to capture the mutated eggs of the Space Station’s test chicken Clux.
Tapping behind the escape pod will trigger a Newtonian Pulse sending the pod flying. Avoid rocks, satellites, and other obstacles as you collect the eggs. You’ve got limited propulsion so you’ll need to find the most efficient route to capture all the eggs in each level. It will take some reflexes to ensure your pod doesn’t jettison into deep space!
- Author: James Masters @GallusGallusMSD
- Most useful tutorial: How to Make a Game Like Candy Crush with Swift Tutorial: Part 1
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Home Workout – 7 Minute Workout
That New Year’s resolution not going quite as you hoped? Maybe Home Workout can help.
Home Workout takes the now ubiquitous 7 minute workout and wraps it in an easy to use iOS app. Home Workout packs nice illustrations and instructions to help you learn the exercises before you start. None of the exercises in the workout require equipment so all you need is the app!
Home Workout also uses Voice Over to make your workout app hands free. It will countdown for you and read out the next exercise so you can focus on working out while it focuses on keeping track. It has some achievements to help you set goals. And if you’re too busy for a 7 minute workout you can just get your heart beating with a 3 or 5 minute workout.
- Author: Przemyslaw Baraniak @thalion_pb
- Most useful tutorial: Dynamic Table View Cell Height in iOS 8 and Swift
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Remed – Remember Taking Your Medicine
Do you take daily or weekly medication or vitamins? Do you even forget to take your pills for short term stints to clear up a cold? Remed can help.
Remed will help you remember to take your medicine on the proper schedule and with the proper doses. Just enter each of your medications and their dosage into Remed. Then use the scheduler to set your schedule be it twice daily or once weekly. Remed will take care of the rest.
You’ll get a push notification when its time to medicate. Best of all using iOS’s activity notifications Remed allows you to mark your meds as taken right from the notification. No need to unlock your device and find the app.
As you use Remed, the app will keep track of how you’ve been doing staying on schedule. You’ll be able to get a list of medicine you’ve taken or missed.
- Author: Tom Golbach @remed_app
- Most useful tutorial: iSO App Extension video tutorial series
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Mobs & Potions
Mobs & Potions is a simple yet addicting game.
You are presented with cards one at a time. The controls are simple swipe right to attack, swipe left to use it. You might swipe right on a rat, or ice goblin, or giant with a club. You’ll swipe left on health potions and coin bonuses. Your health is constantly dropping. Health potions buy you some time while failures to attack lose you some time.
Use your coins between battles to buy equipment. There are health rings to boost your health or slow down the rate it drains. There are multiplier rings to give you bonus points when you swipe correctly for a stretch. And of course much much more.
- Author: Quentin Ivanhoe @quentinivanhoe
- Most useful tutorial: Unity 4.3 2D Tutorial: Scrolling, Scenes and Sounds
- App Store Link: Check it out!
plusclock Calc
There are two mode of input on the Apple Watch: touch and the digital crown. The digital crown is extremely easy to spin precisely. Touch is useful but only as long as the targets are large enough.
Most calculator apps are plagued by having too much input to fit comfortably on the Apple Watch. Enter plusclock Calc.
This app uses the digital crown to slide between buttons. Then you can simply tap the screen to select the highlighted button. Its also easy to backspace, just tap the right side of the input box. And you can clear the entire display by tapping the left of the input box.
Its certainly a unique design taking advantage of both Apple Watch input methods!
- Author: Glyn Thomas @plusclock
- Most useful tutorial: WatchKit by Tutorials
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Golden House
You sister is lost in a haunted house and needs your help!
Gold House is a retro platformer made for your iPhone. Its exactly what you’d expect with the classic left/right and jump button layout. You can double jump as well as wall jump which makes for some pretty cool interactions.
There are of course tons of enemies and obstacles between you and your sister. Everything from classic spikes to spinning blades to zombies.
There are 6 worlds and 48 levels with more to come. And of course it wouldn’t be complete without a retro chiptune soundtrack. What are you waiting for? Your sister needs help getting out of this haunted house!
- Author: Amadeusz Polak @enanogames
- Most useful tutorial: iOS Games by Tutorials
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Honorable Mentions
Every month I get way more submissions than I have time to write about. I download every app to try them out, but only have time to review a select few. I love seeing our readers through the apps submitted to me every month.
It’s not a popularity contest or even a favorite picking contest — I just try to share a snapshot of the community through your submissions. Please take a moment and try these other fantastic apps from readers like you.
Slow Maddie
Pyramid Stack
Grabble Words!
ProtoZoah!
Life – Moments for every mood
Slime Sports
The Shopping List App
Spiral Painter
Parcheesi FullHD
Busy Suby
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 – January 2016 appeared first on Ray Wenderlich.