The Best New And Updated iPhone Apps Of The Week, November 27-December 3, 2011

The AppAdvice iPhone App Of The Week: Infinity Blade II, Updated December 3, $6.99 & Universal Continue The Endless Cycle Of Sword Fighting In Infinity Blade II Infinity Blade II by Chair Entertainment Group, LLC is the sequel to last year’s award-winning game of epic sword fighting. The story picks up where we left off in the first game – the God King has been defeated, and now it’s your objective to find out the secrets behind the legendary Infinity Blade. You will play as Siris, who must venture into the world of the Deathless tyrants and battle your way through their Titans, in order to find out about the Worker of Secrets. From the moment you launch the game, prepare to be floored by the visuals. The opening scene will start out with what looks like a Japanese garden, and the pink cherry blossoms will be so realistic that you’d think they were real. When compared to last year’s game, Infinity Blade II has even more impressive visuals in its various environments. Textures, shadows, highlights – all of these elements look even better, and prove that this is what iOS gaming is all about. New Releases Elmer and Rose, Released November 30, $1.99 & Universal Elmer And Wilbur Learn What May Be Strange To One May Not Be Strange To Another In The Story Of Elmer And Rose Oceanhouse Media is proud to have joined up with so many different publishers in order to offer top selling children's books in a great interactive eBook format, what they dub an "omBook." Through the partnership with Andersen Press, Oceanhouse is happy to announce their third Elmer the Patchwork Elephant series omBook, Elmer and Rose. Written by British author David McKee, the Elmer the Patchwork Elephant series deals with the general misunderstandings and misjudgments surrounding diversity, helping children feel comfortable about themselves and those around them whether different or not. In the story of Elmer and Rose, Elmer and Wilbur are tasked with safely guiding Rose, a pink elephant, back to her own herd. Despite the different appearances and behaviors of the three elephants, they all have a completely enjoyable time together on their journey. Insyde Story, Released November 30, Free Follow Your Friends And Family With Insyde Story Insyde Story by Insyde Story Inc. is a brand new social networking app that combines elements from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Spotify, and many more. The main function behind the entire app is to share pictures, audio, and stories with other people. Users can also search for all of those, as well as by location. The app prompts you with a login screen where users can sign in with a previously created account, create an account from scratch, or sign in with Facebook. Signing in with Facebook seems to be the conventional way of identifying users these days. Letris 2: Word puzzle game, Released December 2, Free & Universal Letris 2: An Addictive New Word Puzzle Game Ivanovich Games has released Letris 2, a word puzzle game, which claims to be the offspring of Tetris and Scrabble. The game is simple to play; letter blocks fall onto the screen, and you make words to eliminate them. You need to eliminate all the letters before they pile up and reach the top of the screen, a la Tetris. The game is a universal app, but the iPad version also features two exclusive split screen multiplayer modes entitled Duel and Endurance. In the Duel mode, letters you eliminate are added to your opponent's screen, while in the Endurance mode, each player works on his or her own pile without fear of having the opponent's letters piled on top. There are also three single player modes entitled Letris, Acronymus, and WordMatrix. Each offers a different spin on the same general process. As described on its App Store page, Letris 2 also offers iCloud support "to seamlessly switch between the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch without ever having to restart your game." Updated Halftone, Updated November 30, $.99 & Universal Halftone Offers Another Fantastic Update Halftone, the comic-inspired photography app for the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad was recently updated. Version 1.7.1 includes a number of great features that makes photo-editing with the $.99 app much easier. According to a posting on the Juicy Bits blog, the latest update includes a new tool that allows users to edit an image before applying captions and stamps. To do so, the company has partnered with Aviary, a company that offers a web and mobile photo API to developers. Now editing through includes “cropping, rotation, special effect filters, brightness, contrast, saturation, individual RGB color levels, and sharpness.” In other words, those must-have tools required in any photo app. Path, Updated December 3, Free Path Gets A Major Update: Adds New Design, Music, Check-Ins And More Back when we first started talking about Path, the free application wanted to be a more "personal social network," providing family members and close friends with a non-public means of sharing personal and social information. Now, in its second major version, the app also wants to be your "Smart Journal," and has received a number of new features that make this possible. Fortunately, one thing has remained the same: like before, Path is available to download in the App Store for free, which we're glad to see. Perhaps the most radical (and most appreciated) change Path has undergone regards its user interface. Though the application certainly wasn't ugly before, Path's developer have made the app into something of a masterpiece: the application now looks and feels really good - graphically, it's beautiful, but in addition small, precise animations which appear whenever you interact with any aspect of Path make this application a pleasure to use. The hard part, it seems, is getting others to use it with you. ------ 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 let me know by sending a tweet @bryanmwolfe. Note: Your app must have been new or updated in the last week to make the current list. Editor's Note: Our last "Best Of" articles for 2011 will be published December 17 and December 18. On December 31, we'll profile the Top 10 iPhone/iPod touch and iPad apps for the entire year. Do you have a favorite? Let me know by sending me a tweet @bryanmwolfe.