The Best iPhone Apps Of The Week

The AppAdvice iPhone App Of The Week: 9mm, $6.99 & Universal, Released July 14 Street Action Game 9mm Now Available Gameloft has just released the GTA and Max Payne-inspired action game, 9mm. They also surprisingly released the title as a universal app so everyone can enjoy it fully, and they even added some iPad 2 optimizations. The game's storyline revolves around the leader of a police team named John "Loose" Kannon. A drug lord's brother ends up being killed by a group of cops who bend the law and steal millions in cash. Now the drug lord and his group of thugs are hell bent on revenge and it is your job, as Kannon, to prevent this from happening. The game takes a page from Max Payne in the sense that you can slow down time while engaging in gun fights. You will be able to jump, shoot and perform stunts while you do this. All kinds of weapons are available from shotguns to sniper rifles. The action will also take you to various settings and locations like the: Latino suburbs, night club, police department, rich suburbs, industrial area and Mexico. New Releases Above France, $2.99 & Universal, Released July 12 Universal App Above France Hits The App Store If you ever wanted to travel to France and see some of the country's most extraordinary locations, but never had a chance to go, check out Above France. The universal app will let you see some of the most famous, as well as some of the most hidden sites in France, many from a bird's eye point of view. It will feel as if you are looking at these sites from a helicopter. Above France comes from National Geographic Traveler and Fotonauts Inc. The app offers an insider's look at these locations from photographer Frank Mulliez. Some of the locations presented include: l'Aiguille du Midi and the Chateau d'Yquem. There are more than 2,000 photographs included in Above France. Other features include: interactive maps, social media sharing, beautiful slideshows, wallpapers, and a trip builder. Instaplus - A Better Camera for Instagram, $1.99, Released July 12 Instaplus Wants To Befriend Instagram And You Instaplus - A Better Camera for Instagram by Metal Red Inc. can be a companion app for Instagram or a completely standalone retro photography app for your iPhone. On launch, the app will go immediately to the camera view. The viewfinder is in a square format in the middle of the screen, and the rest of the interface has a complete retro feel. From the logo at the top (kind of like Polaroid) to the big red shutter button. Along the left side of the viewfinder is a slider for adjusting the zoom. If you're on an iPhone 4, there are buttons in the bottom right to switch between the two cameras and to toggle flash settings. PLAY by AOL Music, Free, Released July 12 AOL (Yes AOL) Just Released A Terrific Music App Listening to music just got better thanks to the new PLAY by AOL Music app arriving today in the App Store. The free app allows you to not only play your own music using a remarkably fresh interface, but also stream other songs and full albums as well. The end result is pretty amazing and even more so given it comes from AOL. Few would argue that when the web was young, AOL was the hip place to be. Unfortunately, as the years have gone by, the service began bleeding customers and along with it, respect. PLAY, however, might just make AOL cool again, at least for music fans. PopBooth Photo Booth, Free & Universal, Released July 12 PopBooth Turns Your iPhone Or iPad 2 Into A Photo Booth, Order Real Prints PopBooth Photo Booth by Sincerely Inc. will turn your iPhone or iPad into your own personal photo booth, capable of real prints from the mail. Everyone loves photo strips, right? Of course we do. It's those spontaneous moments with friends and family, significant others, and even just ourselves. Who can't resist making a silly face for a photo strip? Now you can take all that fun with you with PopBooth Photo Booth. Photovine, Free, Released July 13 What Is Google’s Photovine? Google looks like it will soon get into the photo-sharing business. Just days after the tech giant released its Google+ social networking service, they are poised to release another new product called Photovine, in news first reported by Gizmodo. From the looks of it, Photovine is a way to connect people by way of similar photos. However, the service is less about sharing photos with friends. Instead, it connects people with similar interests. Google does this by attaching photos via vines that include a caption or theme. Z The Game, $4.99 & Universal, Released July 13 Capture Enemy Flags In This 1996 Retro RTS A cult hit from 1996 has just hit the iDevices in the form of Z The Game. The game was created by development studio Bitmap Brothers and was originally released for Windows PCs. The new iOS port comes to us from Kavcom Limited. It has been released as a universal app so all iDevice gamers should find the RTS a nice fit for their retro collection. The game works surprisingly quite well with a touch interface despite coming from an archaic (by today's standards) PC era -- in terms or gaming. The game was designed for mouse movement and control, but iPad owners should find the screen real estate and gameplay quite a nice fit. We are not sure how well the game works on a small iDevice screen as RTS titles generally translate better to the iPad. CurveBot, $1.99 & Universal, Released July 15 CurveBot Available As A Universal App A 3D puzzle game that features colorful landscapes has hit the App Store. The game is called CurveBot and it has been released as a universal app. The gameplay consists of freeing friendly characters and avoiding enemy drones. There are a wide variety of these drones to overcome and various "clever coins" to utilize in the game. What makes the title stand out is how the levels are integrated with the gameplay. To free these friends, you will have to cut parts of the level out, hence the curve in the title. You use onscreen buttons to control the bot. Updated Grazing Web Browser, $.99 & Universal, Updated July 11 Grazing Web Browser Is A Browser That Makes Use Of Gestures Grazing Web Browser by Thinkbitz Software Studio is a simple little browser that makes use of the multitouch gestures on the iPhone and iPad. There are a lot of web browsers for your iDevice out there, but Grazing wants to be the one. So how does it do? You'll first be greeted with a very simple interface. It will look not much different than mobile Safari currently does. However, what sets Grazing apart from Safari and the others is the intuitive use of multitouch gestures to help you navigate. i.TV, Free & Universal, Updated July 11 i.TV v3.3 Adds New Ways To Find Something Fun To Watch, Plus The Return Of Sharing And More Fall TV show premieres are not too far off from now, and what better way to prepare than having a full-featured viewing guide, right? Today's update to i.TV adds sharing capabilities, reminders, and more to your TV show management pleasure. Since the huge i.TV 3.0 release a couple of months ago, the i.TV team has been working hard to fine tune and add little by little to the revamped experience. Some of these features were present before 3.0, but were removed and are now back in a new form. TiVo Free & Universal, Updated July 12 TiVo App Goes Universal, Finally Available For iPhones Everywhere We told you it was coming, and here it is: TiVo for iPhone has gone live in the App Store. While originally available for the iPad only, TiVo is now a free universal download. For Premiere DVR owners, the app is a fully-fledged show scheduler and system interface, allowing you to view channel guides, casts, and other information while your current TV program plays in uninterrupted full-screen. You can also browse third-party services (Netflix, Blockbuster, etc.), scroll through your recorded archives, post to Twitter and Facebook, and use your iDevice as a standard TiVo remote. Foreca.st, Free, Updated July 15 *still in closed beta Foreca.st Makes Checking-In With Friends A Lot Cooler Tired of checking-in via Foursquare only to find none of your friends are nearby? Now a new app called Forecast is set to arrive that helps you tell your real life friends where you expect to be sometime in the future. The end-result could be a game-changer in the world of social networking. Created by Hurricane Party, Inc., the app, which is in private beta, allows users to check out all the cool places your friends are going, or create your own “forecast” to share where you’ll be later in the day. To create a forecast just select the place you're going and the time you plan to get there. That's it. You're done. You can even add some information to your forecast. Scene It? Daily, Free, Updated July 15 Screenlife Launches Scene It? Daily, A Freemium Version Of Their Hit Trivia Game Series Thanks to Screenlife, you can now get your daily pop-culture trivia fix anytime, anywhere with their latest iOS release, Scene It? Daily. Scene It? Daily is actually a new cross-platform game service that's able to deliver movie, music, television and celebrity-themed trivia questions to fans all over the world. The service is currently available on iOS, Android, Facebook and the web, allowing you to start a game at work and finish it on the ride home. You only need to sign up for the free service once by creating a new account on their dedicated website or linking it to your Facebook account. The Best iPhone Apps Of The Week is published each weekend; a companion piece, The Best iPad Apps Of The Week, is published separately. Attention developers: If you would like your app to be considered for one of our "Best Of" lists, please me know by sending me a treat @bryanmwolfe. Note: Your app must have been new or updated in the last week to make the current list.