iPad By Davis: “Apps of the Week: NASA, KitCam, Star Command, and more” plus 5 more

Apps of the Week: NASA, KitCam, Star Command, and more
Notable New iPad Apps – Dino Walk: Continental Drift
Best Free iPad App of the Week: GoComics
Mobile Cloth – Keeping the iPad Screen Clean
Repix for iPad Updated: New Grunge Brushes, New Filters & More
Debug 14: Ben Lachman and Robert Cantoni have a Nice Mohawk

Apps of the Week: NASA, KitCam, Star Command, and more

Posted: 04 May 2013 04:24 PM PDT

Apps of the Week: NASA, KitCam, Star Command, and more

Every week, the editors and writers at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps, accessories, gadgets, and websites. This week's selections include an app for Londoners, a couple games, a wiki, a great photography app, and app for those who wish they were astronauts.

London: Coffee Guide - Richard Devine

Two things in particular came together in finding this application. Firstly, I spend a reasonable amount of time in London throughout the year. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I drink too much coffee. And now, with this app, the two can go together hand-in-hand.

There's nothing complicated about it, as it's basically a directory of non-chain coffee shops throughout London. The app ties into Apple Maps, and wherever you see a dot near you, you can tap on it and get all the details of that particular coffee shop and a quick review. Opening times, the closest tube station, walking distance from your location, even whether or not it has WiFi. Best of all, it's been really nicely designed, and is an app that you will actually want to put to use. So, if you're headed to London anytime soon, give it a try.

Free - Download Now

Star Command - Joseph Keller

Star Command is a great new game for the iPhone and iPad that sees you take command of a customizable starship as you fly across the galaxy doing battle with all manner of hostile alien races. You start with the ability to pick one ship hull, with other being unlocked as you play the game. Your ship has a number of configurable rooms that allow you to build different stations. After selecting and naming your ship and creating your captain, you can hire crew members to occupy rooms, which is required for the rooms to function. Red crew members operate weapons, blue manage scientific and medical equipment, and yellow engineers repair damage to your ship. You can also reassign your crew, so someone in a tactical room can be moved to an engineering room, for example. This way, crew can fill rolls as needed.

Combat is a big part of the game as well, and with a variety of weapons and defensive abilities at your disposal, which charge after each use. Selecting a weapon to fire brings up a mini game in order to determine the number of hits you score against the enemy ship. Since each weapon on your ship takes up a room, you must have at least one crew member staffing it in order for the weapon to charge. This can be difficult when enemy troops start boarding your ship, as only tactical and bridge crew can repel them, possibly leaving weapons unmanned. A fun game that challenges the player to manage their ship well, Star Command is a worth a look, and is available as a universal app for $2.99.

$2.99 - Download Now

Trauma - Simon Sage

Trauma's what you might call experimental. The game takes a similar format as Myst in that you're navigating a collection of overlapping images in order to solve puzzles, in this case using a smattering of gestures at your disposal. The real kicker here is the premise. Players explore the dreamscape of a woman that's survived a car crash, and her narrative throughout your journey puts together pieces of her story. Though initially it seems like the images assembled are extremely simple, it doesn't take long for things to get a little on the weird side. Trauma is a surreal, ponderous game, and an altogether new kind of experience. If you've got an open mind, give it a shot.

$2.99 - Download Now

My Wikia - Chris Parsons

There is a ton of Wiki's out there. If you're interested in something, chances are there is a Wiki for it. Video games, TV shows, movies, food, fashion and more. When you start looking for that much information, it can become a bit daunting. Having all that content in one spot and categorized would be awesome. Wikia Inc., which currently runs over 200,000 wikis, thought so as well and as such, they've created a great app called My Wikia and it offers up the best Wiki browsing experience I've used. Offering such features as the ability to search for and browse all your favorites right from within the app, drill down on only the content you want to see and filter out the rest, keep track of the most recent updates, follow trends and see what others think is popular. Did I mention it's free and beautifully designed? If you spend your time reading through Wiki's, then I suggest giving My Wikia a try.

Free - Download Now

KitCam - Rene Ritchie

If you've seen those awesome Instagrams by Safe Solvent then you've seen KitCam in action. It's a fantastic iOS app that not only gives you more advanced control over the camera than the built-in app, but also lets you add lens and film effects, and adjust things like contrast, brightness, color balance, and levels.

There are some spectacular camera apps on iOS, and some equally spectacular photo editing apps, but KitCam includes enough of just exactly the right stuff to make it an excellent, one-stop shop for photographers of all skill levels. And that's true whether you're running and gunning or taking your time and trying to maximize your artistic vision.

The base price includes a good collection of tools, and additional bundles are available via in-app purchase. There's a lot more to say, but I lack Leanna's camera savvy, so I'll save the rest for her inevitable review.

If you like it, grab it now while it's 50% off.

$0.99 on sale - Download now

NASA App - Leanna Lofte

I love science. And space. A childhood dream of mine was to be an astronaut, and I still kick myself in the butt sometimes for not pursuing that dream. Alas, I must live vicariously through apps like NASA, instead. The NASA app for iPhone and iPad lets you explore photos, videos, missions, and more. If you like space, science, and NASA, definitely check it out.

Free - Download now

Your choice?

Now that we've chosen our favorites for the week, we want to hear yours! Did you pick up a killer app, accessory, or game this week? Let us know in the comments below!

Notable New iPad Apps – Dino Walk: Continental Drift

Posted: 04 May 2013 01:50 PM PDT

Dino Walk: Continental Drift is the latest educational iPad app from Vito Technology – makers of the popular and award-winning Star Walk and Solar Walk iOS apps.

Instead of offering a look at our solar system, Dino Walk: Continental Drift offers an interactive globe to explore a billion years worth of changes to the earth – and focuses on the dinosaur and animal species that have inhabited our planet.

Time periods covered by the app include the Proterozoic, Jurassic, Triassic, and modern day, and features over 500 prehistoric species.

I've only taken a quick look at the app so far, but it looks like another solid family / educational app from Vito Technology.

Here's an App Store link for Dino Walk: Continental Drift; it's priced at $0.99, which is listed as a special introductory price.

Read the whole entry... »

Repix, the superb photo effects app for iPad and iPhone, has been updated this week and has added new grunge brushes and a new pack of 'jazzy' filters.

The new version is 1.2, here's the full change list for it:

- New grunge brushes let you make awesome gritty photos
- New pack of super-cool jazzy filters
- Improved + mode brings two styles into one brush.
- Usability improvements and bug fixes

The new grunge brushes and jazzy filters are great to use – as you can see above, with their use on an impossibly handsome Labrador.

Repix was one of our recent picks for Best Free iPad App of the Week, and it's great to see the range of brushes and filters expanding.

Here's an App Store link for Repix; it's still a free app with In –App purchase options for packs of brushes and filters.

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