Whether you like great time-wasting games, want to experience the beautiful photography that was once popular on Instagram, or want to preserve your favorite memories in video, this week we have some awesome apps to check out.
My Wow Memories
Sponsored: I’m a huge fan of Apple’s “memories” feature in the Photos app. It’s a great way to rediscover past vacations or experiences. But sometimes, I want to curate a memory on my own terms, without waiting for iOS to take the lead. That’s exactly what My Wow Memories does — and more!
With My Wow Memories, simply set a date range and location, and the app will automatically pull photos from your camera roll and arrange them into a beautiful video montage. Using the “Wow Me” feature, you can quickly create great highlight reels of your own photos to share on social media or with friends. What’s more, the “Wow Us” feature allows you to invite friends or family members to collaborate on the video, offering up their photos and making those memories come to life from multiple perspectives.
Much like the Photos app, you can manually add, remove or replace images in your montage, as well as swap in different music or select a different segment of the score. Unlike Photos, though, the process is dead simple. Check a box to add a photo or video, uncheck it to remove it. No setting durations or dealing with cropping or timing. Just create your memories and share away.
Price: Free
Download from: App Store
Blockudoku
Image: Blockudoku
It happened again. I was scrolling through Instagram when an ad for a game popped up. Now I’m hooked on Blockudoku, so I’m passing my latest obsession on to you.
Blockudoku is an all-new kind of game that blends sudoku and a block-based puzzle game (think Tetris). Each “round” of the game offers up three pieces of different sizes and shapes. Your goal is to fill in rows or squares (a la sudoku) by filling in all the gaps with various block pieces. As you move through each round, new sets of blocks appear, offering different sizes and shapes to fill in. And if you prefer to play two-player, battle mode allows you to race against another person to the highest score.
Blockudoku is the perfect kind of puzzle game that allows you to think creatively, plan ahead and hope for the best. Whether you’re looking for an alternative to wasting time on Instagram, or need something to do to wake up your brain, Blockudoku is an excellent choice.
Price: Free (remove ads for $4.99)
Download from: App Store
Glass
Image: Glass.photo
If games aren’t your cup of tea, but you’re still looking to replace Instagram with something less owned by Facebook, up-and-coming social photo-sharing platform Glass might be just what you need.
Glass takes you back to the glory days of photo sharing online, offering up a gorgeous timeline of images. Forget likes, influencers or ads — just a stream of beautiful photographs from amateur and professional photographers alike. Best of all, Glass displays photos chronologically, so you’re always seeing the newest things and not what the algorithm thinks is best for engagement. Glass also exclusively uses Sign in with Apple, ensuring that your account and activity on the app stay private.
Glass does require a monthly subscription (which keep it ad-free and focused on the content), but that is an entirely justified trade-off for the freedom from Facebook’s extraordinarily creepy data-harvesting practices.
Price: $4.99/month or $29.99/year (after 14-day free trial)
Download from: App Store
Are you a developer (or anyone, really) with a new app or new update you want considered for a future Awesome Apps of the Week post? Send them to @IanFuchs* on Twitter or email* ian@cultofmac.com.
