Get Me Outta Here, Sky Guide, and other awesome apps of the week

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Awesome Apps
'Appy weekend everyone!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Awesome Apps

Want to find out which apps were gracing our Apple devices this week? Check our list below.

From a great piratical RPG to an… erm, naked selfie sharing app, here are the apps that occupied our time over the past seven days. There’s simply no better way to spend the remainder of your weekend.

Tempest: Pirate Action RPG

Like pirates? Of course you do. In which case, chances are that you’ll dig Tempest: Pirate Action RPG, a multiplayer (with a couple of friends) adventure role-playing game which lets you assemble a vicious crew of salty sea dogs, arm yourself to the gunwales, and go out in search of buried treasure on the high seas.

Previously available on Steam, this week it arrived on iOS, thereby opening it up to a whole new audience. The adventure starts with you in control of a small vessel, which is subsequently sunk by a Kraken. You then travel around the globe, upgrading to bigger and better ships, unlocking an expansive map, and — naturally — engaging in plenty of skullduggery.

Fortunately, that skullduggery doesn’t extend to endless requests for in-app purchases, so once you’ve shelled out the price of the game itself, you won’t have to suffer through ads or micropayments. Good stuff!

Available for: iPhone, iPad
Cost: $7.99
Get it from: App Store

Pornhub Presents TrickPics

Whoever you are, chances are that you’ve heard about the phenomenon of folks sending saucy pics to their significant other over the internet.

A new app called TrickPics, from some website I’ve never heard of called PornHub, offers a new way to deal with the trend by using image recognition tech to cover up your private parts. Picture Snapchat lenses, only instead of turning your face into a cute puppy, it turns your junk into a Christmas gift box.

There are different options for male and female users, and the photos themselves are stored on your handset, so you don’t need to be concerned about someone hacking the cloud and distributing the unfiltered images. PornHub promises that video options and more 3D stickers are coming soon. I may have chosen those words poorly.

Available for: iPhone, iPad
Cost: Free
Get it from: App Store

Get Me Outta Here

Fancy using your Sunday afternoon to fight your way through an hilarious, action-packed alien abduction nightmare? Of course you do, which is exactly where this retro arena shooter comes into play.

You play as a middle-aged farmer who gets abducted by aliens (picture Randy Quaid’s character from Independence Day and you won’t be far off), but manages to escape and grab one of his captor’s weapons. After that it’s a matter of blasting through levels, capturing power-ups and more — all with gorgeous pixel art graphics.

Available for: iPhone, iPad
Cost: Free (with one in-app purchase to remove ads)
Get it from: App Store

Sky Guide: View Stars Night or Day

Stargazing
One of the best stargazing apps just got better.
Photo: Fifth Star Labs LLC.

Sky guide has long been one of the best stargazing apps on iOS, but this week it received a so-called “Supermassive” update — adding tons of new images and information.

The update, which costs an annual $9.99 premium on top of the app’s $2.99 price tag, adds a new high definition zoom feature that lets you close in on thousands of galaxies, nebulae, clusters and planets to explore in previously-impossible detail.

The catalog of stars is also 50 percent larger, giving you a total of 114 million to explore. In addition are cinematic tours, added info about the Chinese space laboratory Tiangong-2, and far, far more.

“In short, it’s for people who love astronomy,” the app developers say about the new update. “If you like exploring the beauty and vastness of the universe, this is your ticket. We’re offering a free two-week trial period followed by an annual subscription so try it and see if you like it. If you wish to cancel at any time during the trial period, you can find a Manage Your Subscriptions link both in the confirmation email or on the page where you download Supermassive.”

If this app sounds like your thing, I really can’t recommend it highly enough!

Available for: iPhone, iPad
Cost: $2.99 (plus $9.99 annual subscription for Supermassive update)
Get it from: App Store

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