iPhone Apps Weekly Digest: Stitching Photos, Karate-Kicking Sharks In The Head, and Sedate Shape Games
Left: the sedate Polyhedra. Right: the utterly bonkers Run!
This time, we review Action Hero, AutoStitch Panorama, Battleship, BDD • Büro Destruct Designer, Blackjack 21, Dropbox, Moodagent, Polyhedra, Run!, and Type Drawing.
Create panoramas on your iPhone... for three bucks.
AutoStitch Panorama: Stunning automated panorama-creation tool. Fast, pretty accurate and easy to use. 5/5 $2.99 http://is.gd/bbktP
Action Hero: Simplified Run! crossed with Express Raider. Entertaining but fleeting. 3/5 Free http://is.gd/bbmFn
Battleship: Board-game conversion. A little buggy/battery-hungry, but entertaining & has several modes. 3/5 $1.99 http://is.gd/bjVvO
BDD • Büro Destruct Designer: Art toy. Creates artwork using circles, squares and simple rules. 3/5 $1.99 http://is.gd/bbkWK
Blackjack 21: Decent blackjack game using real-life gestures and nice, clear graphics. 3/5 $1.99 http://is.gd/bblRW
Dropbox: Well-judged client for popular sync service. Good preview capabilities & optional offline save per file 4/5 Free http://is.gd/bbm9K
Moodagent: Automatic playlists based on ‘mood’ sliders. Not always accurate, but frequently interesting. 3/5 Free http://is.gd/bbkMQ
Polyhedra: Best press-to-fill physics game for Apple handhelds. Nice visuals/audio. Sandbox is a nice touch. 3/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/bblke
Run!: Canabalt – style, but + fun, humour, variety, and the ability to karate-kick leaping sharks in the head! 4/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/bblNk
Type Drawing: Entertaining and intriguing but ultimately limited ‘drawing with words’ sketching app. 3/5 $1.99 http://is.gd/bbkn2
Some good games this week. Polyhedra is the best press-to-fill physics game I’ve found, offering sedate music, lovely graphics, and variety due to levels with different shapes and a built-in sandbox. Two games follow the Canabalt formula: Action Hero and Run! Both lack the style of Canabalt but end up being more fun, particularly Run!, which is especially bonkers throughout. There aren’t many other games where a guy happily pulls out his trusty bazooka to blow up meteors, punches zombies in the face, and karate-kicks sharks in the head! It’s not quite up there with the Flight Controls and Orbitals of the App Store, but it’s close—and at a buck it’s a steal.
The best app this week has to be AutoStitch, though. Erfon reviewed this back in March, but if anything I think he under-rated it. It only costs a few bucks but manages to outperform some pro-level software, and its ease of use makes the app near-magical. Just take some photos, select them, wait a bit, and you’ve got a panorama. Even if your photos are taken in a restricted space, the app fares well, producing a kind of fish-eye panorama. Apps like this show that while iPhones aren’t yet creative powerhouses to rival desktop Macs, they’re nonetheless perfect for quickfire single-task creative apps.
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Craig Grannell is Cult of Mac's designer and an occasional contributor. He also runs 
