The Best New iPhone Apps Of The Week, October 30-November 5, 2011

The AppAdvice iPhone App Of The Week: Zombie Swing, Free, Released November 4 Infect The Human Race With The Hunger For Brains In Zombie Swing Zombie Swing by althi Inc. is a fast-paced action game for the iPhone ... with zombies. This one is different, though. Instead of killing the zombies and saving the human race, you are a zombie and you're trying to infect everyone you can touch. What is a zombie swing, you ask? Well, you play a zombie whose body is able to detach in two parts, connected only by the intestines. Then you are able to swing his top half around while still running manically through the streets trying to infect the innocent people. The goal is to turn as many people into zombies as you can before you die … again. New Releases Yearly, $.99, Released November 1 Keep Track Of Annual Events With Yearly Yearly by noidentity gmbh is an app that will help you remember those yearly events, such as birthdays and anniversaries. The thing about Yearly that drew me in immediately was the interface. Noidentity is the developer behind other beautiful apps (MoneyBook, ListBook, and BudgetBook), so it’s no surprise that they created another stunningly gorgeous interface. The visuals in Yearly are just pixel perfect, and I’m not sure I’d want it any other way. Yearly serves to help you remember when those annual events are. You would think that this would require use of the default Calendar on your iPhone, but Yearly actually uses the data from your iPhone’s address book instead. That’s right – any date that is associated with a contact in your address book will be put in to Yearly. Oink, Free, Released November 3 Rate The World Around You With Oink Oink by Milk Inc. is the first app from the new startup founded by Kevin Rose. In short, Oink is an app that allows users to rate and rank things around them, rather than just an overall place. The biggest thing that drew me into this app (since I learned of its existence) was the interface. Put simply, it’s just beautiful. Everything about it is slick, and it’s also extremely fast. Whenever something is loading, you will be notified by the small bar at the top with a green orb that goes back and forth, and the entire thing just fades away when new data is loaded. I guess this replaces that spinner that we’ve all grown to love (or hate), which is a nice change and much appreciated. Clearly, the folks behind the development of this app didn’t skimp out on detail. XenoCube SD, $.99, Released November 3 XenoCube Is A Brand New Kind Of Match-Three Puzzle Game XenoCube SD by Digital Embryo Studios is an entirely new take on your typical match-three puzzle game. Let’s face it – the iPhone and iPad are great for those match-three puzzle games made popular by the likes of Bejeweled. But ever since, all the match-three games are essentially the same thing, just with different objects to match. That is, until now. It’s time to toss out those cookie cutter match-three games and meet the new kid on the block: XenoCube. In XenoCube, you have a cube with 9x9 grids on all the faces. You can spin the cube around to your will to match the squares. The objective is to match three or more squares of the same color to score points. When you match four squares, you will get a random power-up that will activate with your next match (they all look awesome too). To progress in levels (up to 32 levels for each mode), you’ll have to fill up the meter at the bottom left. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, you’ll be in for a surprise when you actually play. Updates Organizer +, $2.99, Updated October 31 Organizer+ Bundles Your Calendar And A GPS Task List Into One App Organizer + by MorrisCooke is a calendar and GPS task list bundle for your iPhone. Life is hectic, and we end up having tasks that need to be done in certain locations, among other events that we need to take care of. Wouldn’t it be nice to have all of this in one convenient app? Well, now you can, thanks to this nifty app. Meet Organizer+. When you launch Organizer+, you get a brief introduction screen. The app will fetch data straight from your default iOS calendar, so if you don’t have that set up already, you should do that first. Whenever the app is syncing data with the native calendar, the gear icon in the top left corner will be spinning, so you are aware. Organizer+ will display your calendar events in three different views: List, Day, and Month. Those that like Week views will have to wait for the next update, as the developers are already working on implementing a week view. You can quickly jump to the current day with the Today button as well. Shoebox by 1000memories, Free, Updated October 31 Archive Your Photos With ShoeBox By 1000memories Shoebox by 1000memories by 1000memories is a very cool app for bringing your old film photographs to the digital age. So dust off that old shoebox or that crumbling photo album, and find a forever home for the images within. Start by setting up an account with 1000memories. Once you have an account set up, you can start scanning those old photos. It really could not be easier to do with your iPhone, or any iDevice with a camera running iOS4.1 or later. Simply set your photo down where there is plenty of natural light. Be sure to get all four corners of the photo in the shot. Don’t worry about trying to take the picture straight on; you will fix the perspective in the next step. After taking the photo, you’ll see four dots, which you move to each corner with your finger. The app creates a perfectly cropped, aligned photo. News360, Free, Updated November 1 News360 App Gains Significant Update The News360 app for the iPhone/iPod touch has been completely redesigned. Version 3.0 of the free news app is available now in the App Store. It offers a number of new features that first arrived to the company's iPad app by the same name. First launched in October 2010, News360 offers world, national, and local news from a variety of different sources. The app’s latest release allows users for the first time to customize their news either manually or through the use of social networking feeds. These feeds include Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and/or Evernote. Square Card Case, Free, Updated November 2 Square Adds A Nifty iOS 5 Feature And Makes A Few Improvements To Their Card Case App Released to the App Store back in August, the Square Card Case app makes paying for some purchases much more convenient than before. Arriving in v1.1 is a new hands-free feature for those who've moved to iOS 5, some additional management options, a few previous feature improvements, and more. If you have an iPhone 4S or iPhone 4 upgraded to iOS 5, it's likely you're already enjoying the tons of new features. What you may not realize is many of the abilities Apple has integrated into their default apps and used to offer new apps can help enhance third-party software. The most relevant of these new core features in regard to the Card Case app is geofencing. Nosy Bee, $.99, Updated November 4 Don't Let Yourself Drop Down Too Far As You Buzz Around In Nosy Bee Nosy Bee by Shamukee is an arcade game with a little bee in a two-dimensional field with walls far away on each side. All the little bee wants to do is fly from one side to the other and collect all the flowers along the way. You start off sitting on a honey-filled jar, which is a good thing because any contact with the floor or walls will do you damage. More than one or two seconds of contact will see your little bee dead. There’s another jar on the other side for you to land on and end the level once you’ve collected all the available flowers. 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 tweet @bryanmwolfe. Note: Your app must have been new or updated in the last week to make the current list.