Exploding Kittens, Music Memos and other awesome apps of the week

Somehow the weekend’s already halfway over, but to help you make the most of what’s left, we’ve combed through the week’s best apps to help you sort the wheat from the chaff.

Whether it’s a card game built around detonating felines (seriously, it’s better than it sounds!) or an amazing live podcasting app, we’re confident we’ve got what you’re looking for.

Check out our list below.

Exploding Kittens

Created by gaming veterans Elan Lee and Shane Small, and illustrated by internet cartoonist The Oatmeal (Matthew Inman), Exploding Kittens is basically Russian roulette with detonating felines.

The game itself is simple as can be, with players drawing cards until someone pulls the Exploding Kitten from the deck. It’s zany, addictive fun, and definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for a laugh this weekend.

Available for: iPhone, iPad
Cost: $1.99
Get it from: App Store

Music Memos

Music Memos, Apple’s new music-creation app, makes it simple for songwriters and musicians to turn stray ideas into finished pieces. Just record something basic, like a vocal melody or a bare-bones tune strummed on an acoustic guitar, and Music Memos will add drums and bass so you can see what your latest melodious brainstorm might sound like with a full band.

The app includes plenty of other features to help you transform your raw materials into polished pieces, too. Cult of Mac’s Rob LeFebvre called it “hands-down the best free music-creation app I’ve ever used on my iPhone” in his hands-on review of Music Memos. It’s free, so what are you waiting for?

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

ZCast

ZCast is basically Periscope for podcasters, giving users the ability to produce an audio podcast with just an iPhone. The app asks you for a topic and then lets you promote it through Twitter.

“The end game for ZCast is to enable anyone to easily share an opinion in a group format,” is how ZCast CMO Hillel Fuld describes it. “The ability to create a podcast from the comfort of your own home without any add-ons or complications is a technological achievement we pride ourselves on, but even more exciting is the new levels of interaction that are being facilitated here.”

Whether live streaming podcasts can replicate the success of Tumblr-style blogging or Periscoping remains to be seen, but ZCast is definitely one of the week’s most exciting apps.

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

Abantus Saga 2

A fun puzzler pitched somewhere between Tetris and a Rubik’s Cube, Abantus Saga 2 asks gamers to slide around colored and patterned cubes to complete full rows and columns. Each stage has a different objective, which adds reployability, and means that you’ll constantly have to pay attention in order to progress.

If you’re a fan of iOS puzzle games, Abantus Saga 2 is absolutely worth a download.

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

WATCHe

We haven’t featured too many watch apps in our “Awesome Apps of the Week” feature, but WATCHe absolutely deserves a place. Simulating the gears, cogs, springs and movements of an analog timepiece, it allows you to turn off and on 26 different components showing you how everything fits together.

The only disappointing thing is that you’ll have to switch back and forth with other apps, since it doesn’t allow you to get your regular notifications. Still, until Apple lets third-party developers make custom Apple Watch faces, this is the best you can hope for!

Available for: Apple Watch
Cost: Free
Get it from: App Store

Road Watcher

With Storm Jonas currently wreaking havoc, it’s probably not the worst time to download a handy dash camera for your vehicle — providing instant evidence in the (hopefully unlikely) event that you’re caught in a motor vehicle accident or similar dilemma.

The simply-named Road Watcher lets you record in color or black and white, variable image quality, and single snaps or full video. Unfortunately there’s no image stabilization feature, which can be particularly noticeable on bumpy roads, but otherwise this is a handy tool to make use of.

Available for: iPhone, iPad
Cost: 99 cents
Get it from: App Store