The week is over and that means that a fresh app overview is waiting for you. As far as we are concerned, you should not miss these new apps, games and updates to existing apps. You can find the best iOS apps from week 10 here.
The best iOS apps of week 10 at a glance
The App Store works overtime every week to handle the never-ending stream of new apps and updates. You don’t notice that much, however, because only a fraction of it is worth installing. If your iPhone can use some new apps, you’ve come to the right place.
Minecraft, Ski Tracks and Baby Monitor 3G have to move up lonely at the top after weeks: The Escapist hits the number 1 spot in the App Store charts in a few days. The Escapists has been a much-played PC game for some time, but made the switch to the iPhone and iPad last week. The principle is very simple: you as a prisoner in an orange are placed everywhere in a prison and you have to find a way to escape on your own.
Everyone is an art connoisseur with Smartify: an impressive app that allows your iPhone to recognize artworks and provide background information. Thanks to apps like Shazam, you’ll never have to wonder what song you’re listening to again. With the push of a button, your iPhone listens along and then presents the song, the artist and all the info you need. Smartify is now doing something similar, but with pieces of art in museums. By using the camera in your iPhone, Smartify scans a painting.
The fine photo editing app Snapseed has received an update. It is now possible to edit photos faster by saving a series of settings as a Snapseed look. Snapseed is Google’s fine photo editing app that gives you a lot of options to adjust images. If you use the app you may notice that you constantly go for the same set of settings. For example, that one vintage filter, a little ‘drama’, crop to a square, increase the brightness a little and so on. Repeating this route with every photo is unnecessary work. That is why it is no longer necessary.
The new iPad app Skoove can teach you to play the piano through quite a few lessons. Some of these lessons are free to try. Do you have a piano or keyboard at home, but have you never taken the time to learn to play the instrument? Then this is your chance. The new Skoove app replaces expensive piano teachers with more than 250 lessons. In each category there are a few lessons to try for free, but to access the full range you will need to take out a monthly subscription.
What is a video service without videos that you can watch in 360 degrees? After YouTube and Facebook, Vimeo now follows with support for ‘immersive storytelling’. Vimeo announced 360-degree videos on its website. These videos, which users can watch all around them, will be available on the service’s web service and mobile apps. Videos can be uploaded in 8K, but can be viewed in 4K via the Vimeo player. In addition, the files can be downloaded, so that you can view them offline in HD quality.
Facebook rolled out a whole new feature in its Messenger app this week. Messenger Day lets you dress up and share photos and videos. They disappear after 24 hours. WhatsApp and Instagram already had their story function and now Facebook’s chat service Messenger also follows. The app update is rolling out among users today, although you may not see the feature yet. Then be patient. The service allows users to share photos and videos that you can share publicly or with friends, who have 24 hours to view them. After that, your creations will disappear by themselves.
Google Hangouts is now divided into two separate apps for business users. Hangouts Chat will compete with apps like Slack, while Hangouts Meet focuses on conferencing with a video chat. Google will split its Hangouts communications app into two separate apps to better meet the needs of business users. Hangouts Chat is becoming a competitor to Slack, where you can chat in different channels. On the iPhone editorial staff, Slack is one of our most used apps. In our Oogappels series we recently discussed Slack.
Pan-Pan is immediately appealing thanks to its visual style. It is reminiscent of Monument Valley thanks to the soft color tones, simple cartoon style and the isometric camera. While playing, it turns out that Pan-Pan does show its own face, thanks to the open world and puzzles that come into their own on the iPhone touchscreen. The game tells a story about a spaceship that crashes into a mysterious planet. The intention is that you repair the ship so that you can return to your home.