The Best iPhone Apps Of The Week

Some (unangry) birds, Pac-Man, and THE wedding highlighted the week that was in the world of iPhone apps. AppAdvice iPhone App Of The Week: Photosynth by Microsoft Microsoft has released its new Photosynth app for the iPhone/iPod touch. The free app allows users to take different photos and then ‘stitch’ them together to form a panoramic photo. Surprisingly, the app is not yet available on Microsoft’s own Windows Phone 7 OS. The app, like photo-taking services such as Camera+ and Instagram, lets users take photos and then share them with others. However, in this case, the photos are panoramic views. Photosynth - Released: April 18 (free); original article New Apps - April 17 - 23, 2011 Crackle Crackle is an entertainment app that allows you to stream HD full-length movies, TV shows, trailers and minisodes on your iPhone or iPad. There are many genres to choose from such as: comedy, action, drama, horror and some old classics. There is a fairly large collection, so you are almost guaranteed to find something you will enjoy. Crackle - Released: April 18 (free, universal); original article Slewpi Slewpi by Rumi Humphrey is a unique art and music app that allows everyone, whether they have musical abilities or not, to create interesting tunes. It is entertaining for kids and adults alike. When you first open the app you get comprehensible instructions. Simply choose a color and a brush and start finger painting on the screen. As you paint, you will heard corresponding digitized notes. A few seconds later, what you just created will begin to loop. Add onto the loop and watch the strokes disappear, then replay. Slewpi - Released: April 20 ($.99, universal); original article Stereogram - photos with depth With the recent successful launch of the much-anticipated Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo being Apple's sworn enemy), the impending future of portable LCD technology is one of selectable autostereoscopy. Naturally, there's a lot of refinement before such screens can handle their viewing angle, ghosting, and battery issues; but in the next few years it is more than feasible to imagine our iPhones, iPads, and iPods with this young and promising tech built in. That said, stereoscopic (read "3D") imaging is no new feat. In fact, it's been around for over 150 years! Some of the most fascinating American photographs ever captured were made during the Civil War using dual-lens methods, and viewing them in the present age is, emotionally, as striking as it is humbling. It is with this age-old approach that Steven Romej's free app Stereogram - photos with depth hit the App Store; and, though it is neither the first nor the most robust solution for achieving 3D photographs on the iPhone, it is by far the fastest to manipulate, the simplest to learn, and the easiest to use. Stereogram - photos with depth - Released: April 20 (free); original article PAC-CHOMP! PAC-CHOMP! is a match 3 puzzle game that requires users to match sets of ghosts in multiple rows or columns, then have Pac-Man eat them. There is also a screen-rotation button of sorts that mixes up the gameplay. PAC-CHOMP! - Released: April 21 ($.99, universal); original article Abbey 3D Westminster Abbey, site of next week’s royal wedding in London, has released a new app, Abbey 3D, just in time for the worldwide media event. It gives users a virtual tour of where the April 29 ceremony uniting Prince William and Catherine Middleton will be held, including an internal scaled replica of Westminster Abbey that uses the “latest laser scanning technology.” Abbey 3D - Released: April 22 ($4.99); original article Burning Birds Burning Birds by Kamaji Multimedia is the latest in a line of bird-themes iOS games that is likely to take up permanent residence on your iDevice. This one’s a keeper. The game is part match-three puzzler, part strategy challenge, part fast-paced action game, and all entirely too much frantic fun. Burning Birds - Released: April 22 ($.99); original article Updated Death Rally A notably impressive run so far, Remedy Entertainment has released the second major update to their explosive arcade racing game Death Rally. The newest update adds a requested control scheme, some additional car customization, four new challenges, plus plenty of overall improvements and bug fixes. Death Rally – Updated : April 20 ($2.99, universal); original article Pupil Want to know more about something, but haven’t figured out where to look? Now, finding the answer is as easy as taking a photo with your iPhone/iPod touch. Yet, does it serve its purpose well? Created by Doozy, Inc., Pupil’s moniker is “take a picture, get an answer.” Yet, this isn’t done through some fancy algorithm. Rather, other Pupil community members answer each question. Pupil - Updated: April 21 (free); original article Twitterrific One of the better universal Twitter apps, Twitterrific, has received an impressive update. The new version, 4.1, includes much of the functionality that users have been asking for and it is nice to see them now included. Created by The Iconfactory, Twitterrific is a free app that supported by apps. An in-app $4.99 purchase eliminates the ads, while also allowing users to manage multiple Twitter accounts. Twitterrific - Updated: April 22 (free, universal); original article