The top new apps of the week include games, social networking, productivity, and goat-simulating offerings. You read that right.
This $2 iPhone app has long been one of the most popular photo offerings in iOS. Version 6.0 arrives with a new wrinkle: The ability to manually control exposure and focus to get the precise shot you’re aiming for. Also new: White balance presets, a new macro shooting mode, and the ability to use the app’s editing features on photos in your iPhone library without first importing those pics to the app.
Version 3.0 of this free newsreading app for iPhone includes a number of new features, including a “Dynamic Daily Brief” overview of the news, curated to your interests. Other new items include search (finally), the ability to customize topics and filter breaking news alerts, as well as the ability to share articles to services such as Instapaper, Tumblr, and Flipboard.
You should try this game for iPhone and iPad. It’s not baaaaaaa-d. At $5, it’s fairly sheep—so it would behoove you to purchase and play.
MailTime is a free iPhone app that presents your email threads as “minimal” text-message style conversations—letting you manage your email like a group chat, and allowing you to track tasks in a to-do list the app compiles from your messages. You can attach photos and Dropbox cloud files within messages; and you can get real-time notifications when new messages arrive.
Path Talk’s new feature offers the promise of being able to “send messages to and get answers from any business, in your neighborhood or across town,” but it’s possible there’s less here than meets the eye. Macworld’s Caitlin McGarry explains: “You don’t message a place, you actually message a Path agent who then calls the business to ask your question. Once the agent has an answer for you, you’ll get a Talk message.” Instead of texting somebody to make a call on your behalf, you might consider cutting out the middleman and making the call yourself.
If you want your virtual office to feel a little more like your real office, this iPad video-chatting app might help. Developers explain: “Sqwiggle keeps you passively connected to your team by updating a still image of each team member so you can see their face and know they’re available.” Need to talk to a co-worker? You can see they’re available, tap on their picture, and immediately shift into a live chat with them.
With all the talk of Apple’s health apps lately, here’s something a little more old-fashioned. Have a skin problem? Take a picture of the affected area, upload it to Spruce, and within 24 hours you’ll have a treatment plan (and even a prescription) from a board-certified dermatologist. “Visits” cost about $40 apiece.
Hyperlapse now lets you shoot high-speed selfies … CNN added CNNGo … Tweetbot 3 is optimized for iOS 8.
Author: Joel Mathis
Joel Mathis is a regular contributor to Macworld and TechHive. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and young son.