Today's Best Apps: Spin My Planet And Sherlock: The Network
Spin My Planet by Spin My Planet AB (Free, 7.2 MB): This unique mini-scene-based micro-social network allows others to spin into your world and vice-versa. At first, the concept appears a lot like Vine or the new Instagram, showing off people and places through brief videos. However, these aren't videos in the traditional sense, rather fancy flip books consisting of 5-to-25 frames. Better yet, a viewer activates the animation using a simple swipe with realistic physics properties for epic slow motion, standard rate, or hilariously fast playback forward or backward in an enjoyable loop that progressively reduces speed. The result is a refreshing old-fashioned feel when compared to the now overly common vintage filters. The app itself features capture mode, including burst and flash options, a global feed, plus your own Spin bin to make finding and sharing your creations via Messages and Facebook easier. Access requires registration of a free username and email-based account.
Sherlock: The Network by The Project Factory ($4.99, 247.7 MB): Prove that you're an adept problem solver by successfully assisting legendary fictional detectives Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson in this point-and-tap-style adventure game based on the hit British crime series remake, Sherlock. As part of the team, you'll receive brief introductory details for each case and some assistance, i.e., group effort, along the way. Admirably, the setup offers quite a bit of situational realism, though in a strategy board game-type fashion. For starters, because a case typically involves many locations and people, the basis of play occurs on a map where it's required to select a mode of transportation, which offer different benefits. Additionally, those various elements require a wide range of analysis and processing. For example, you may need to hack a voicemail inbox by decoding the PIN using a brute force attack, look closely at documents to find or even unscramble key text, plus sift through the collected data and pick out the few key details that bring the pieces together. Of course, all as quickly as possible since it may be a matter of life or death. The game features a 2-D user interface, photos and videos, transcribed dialogs and recordings, discoverable facts about the show, virtual currency, custom profile, time-based leaderboard, several cases, and a variety of mini-puzzles: photo hunt, sliding tile, decoding, unscrambling, and more.
iPad:
Sherlock: The Network HD by The Project Factory ($4.99, 413.3 MB): Prove that you're an adept problem solver by successfully assisting legendary fictional detectives Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson in this point-and-tap-style adventure game based on the hit British crime series remake, Sherlock. As part of the team, you'll receive brief introductory details for each case and some assistance, i.e., group effort, along the way. Admirably, the setup offers quite a bit of situational realism, though in a strategy board game-type fashion. For starters, because a case typically involves many locations and people, the basis of play occurs on a map where it's required to select a mode of transportation, which offer different benefits. Additionally, those various elements require a wide range of analysis and processing. For example, you may need to hack a voicemail inbox by decoding the PIN using a brute force attack, look closely at documents to find or even unscramble key text, plus sift through the collected data and pick out the few key details that bring the pieces together. Of course, all as quickly as possible since it may be a matter of life or death. The game features a 2-D user interface, photos and videos, transcribed dialogs and recordings, discoverable facts about the show, virtual currency, custom profile, time-based leaderboard, several cases, and a variety of mini-puzzles: photo hunt, sliding tile, decoding, unscrambling, and more.
