Hands on with the best new apps for smartphones and tablets
There are thousands of new apps being released every day at the moment, although when you filter them down to the ones that are genuinely interesting, it's more like dozens. Here is this week's crop of reviews.
Let's Golf 3
iPhone, iPad, free
Gameloft's two previous Let's Golf games have been playable and polished, albeit clearly inspired by Sony's Everybody's Golf PlayStation franchise. For the third in the series, the publisher has adopted a new pricing model: freemium. The game is free to download and play, but when you run out of energy points, you have to wait for them to recharge to play another hole, or buy some more using in-app payments. It has been used for other games, but it doesn't work well for golf – where you want to play a number of holes one after the other. It's a shame, because the game is very good. It would certainly be better suited as a one-price paid download, though.
Mobage
Android, free
Mobage is a hugely popular social mobile gaming community in Japan, but the company behind it – DeNA – is taking it worldwide this year. Android owners are first to try the global version of the service in beta. The nearest comparison are existing communities like Apple's Game Center and the independent OpenFeint: you create a profile, and then Mobage tracks your scores and friends across a range of other Android games including Pocket Frogs, We Rule and Paper Toss. If they sound familiar, it's because they've been ported from iPhone. Mobage is interesting, but it feels like a beta with the odd crash and slow loading times. It has potential though.
Bjork: Biophilia
iPhone / iPad, free
There has been a gallon of hype around Bjork's new album-app for iOS, but does it live up to the expectations? So far, yes. The app, which is best experienced on an iPad, will eventually offer 10 mini-apps, one for each song on Bjork's new album Biophilia. At the time of writing two are available: Crystalline and Virus, which both make interactivity with the music their selling point. And yes, both are sold: £1.49 each via in-app payment. Crystalline is a tunnel-racing game with a hint of Katamari Damacy in the way you pick up crystals from the walls, while Virus is more of a musical plaything, built around the life cycle of a virus. They're very different, which bodes well for the eight tracks yet to be launched. If Bjork isn't your thing musically, you're unlikely to be attracted, but for fans and casual observers, Biophilia is an innovative and important app. But crucially, also a fun one.
NASA App
Android, free
NASA's new Android app joins existing versions for iOS, and is a real treat for space buffs and novice stargazers alike. It draws on the space agency's comprehensive archives, including videos and images. It also pulls in various NASA Twitter feeds (while also letting you tweet from within the app), and offers information on current missions and launches, as well as live streaming of the NASA TV channel. It's an app you can genuinely lose yourself in, such is the depth of content.
Crayola ColorStudio HD
iPad, free
You may know Crayola for the crayons that your toddler uses for their artistic masterpieces (on paper or white walls, depending how well trained they are). Now the company is getting into apps with the release of this free iPad app and a companion stylus peripheral that costs £24.99 and is shaped like a large crayon. The idea: children use the stylus to draw on-screen in the ColorStudio HD app, although it can also be used in finger-swiping mode. The app has clearly been put together with plenty of thought, with animated pictures, a choice of virtual pens, crayons, pens and paintbrushes, and the ability to create your own pictures from a library of items, and then share or print the finished results. It's a shame that the app stops kids from going over the edges of lines – isn't that what they're supposed to learn themselves? I also wonder why Crayola felt it needed the peripheral, rather than going with the direct finger/screen interface that makes tablets such exciting devices for children. Even so, this app will bring a lot of pleasure to kids and their parents.
CFG: Cosmo for Guys
iPad, free
"Chances are you sometimes take a peek at Cosmo in an attempt to figure out what women really want," begins the App Store description for this new spin-off app from Cosmopolitan magazine. Which feels a bit like a view from another age, given that in 2011 there is no shortage of tips on "what a woman craves sexually and emotionally" across the range of magazines and websites for men. Against that backdrop, you might argue that there isn't a pressing demand for a man-focused Cosmo offshoot. Even so, the CFG app is slick and interesting, which makes good use of connectivity in the way it pulls in data and maps to illustrate its lifestyle features. There is lots of interactivity too – much of it coming in mini-surveys to answer. The promised "eye-popping 3-D sex positions" are a little limp, though: virtual crash test dummies that you can rotate, rather than Avatar-style out-of-the-screen raunch.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2011/aug/12/app-reviews-vevo-golf-crayola
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