Every week, the editors at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps, accessories, gadgets, and websites. This week's selections include a zombie game, some awesome music, a simple, distraction free writing app, and an app for creating graphs and charts.
Zombie Toss - Simon Sage
I guess I just didn't get enough undead from The Walking Dead. Zombie Toss is a Fruit Ninja-style slicing game with a perverse twist. A demented chef is collecting zombie meat for his own culinary experimentations, and you're the one harvesting. Throughout gameplay, you earn keys to unlock new levels, cash to upgrade your butchering implements, and gold teeth to purchase premium new items. You have to be careful to not let too many airborne zombies hit the ground, or they'll gnaw through your armor and infect you.
While the gameplay itself lacks some of the smoothness of Fruit Ninja, the art style and premise are both enough to keep me interested, especially with Hallowe'en right around the corner.
- $0.99 - Download now
Epilogue - Rene Ritchie
Man goes to conference halfway across the world. Man meets girl. Man falls in love. Man has to leave. Man has a very bad day. It's the kind of story and the kind of pain only music can truly express, and it's exactly what's expressed in Epilogue, the debut single/demo from Airplane Mode. Full disclosure, Airplane Mode is Dave Wiskus. I know Dave Wiskus. He's been on Iterate a few times and I've been on Unprofessional. Dave's a crackerjack -- now freelance -- designer. I like Dave.
I had no idea he could flipping perform, much less like this. I hope he won't mind me saying I'm proud of him, and more than a little inspired by his putting his music out there. And I hope he keeps doing it. We could all stand to put ourselves out there a little more, and risk doing things just a little farther beyond ourselves.
Epilogue is free. Read the story first.
- Free - Download now
Byword - Joseph Keller
Byword provides a simple, clean interface in which to write, and is my go-to writing app. Both the Mac and iOS versions of the app support syncing through both iCloud and Dropbox, and take advantage of iCloud folders. Both versions of Byword include support for both plain text and rich text, as well as fantastic Markdown support, including intelligent syntax highlighting and a Markdown preview. The iOS version keeps a toolbar above the keyboard that can display the word count of the current document, various punctuation shortcuts, or navigation and Markdown tools, such as inserting a link or image. There are limited options in Byword, with support for four fonts on the iOS version, but these limitations allow for distraction-free writing environment and get rid of anything that does not aid in just committing ideas to a document. The iOS version of the app is universal, has been updated for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5, and is currently on sale.
- $2.99 - Download Now
OmniGraphSketcher - Leanna Lofte
One of my duties as a math instructor is to write exams. For many classes, that involves charts and graphs that I insist must look great. The best solution I've found for non-equation graphs is OmniGraphSketcher by The Omni Group. OmniGraphSketcher makes creating graphs and charts super easy to create whether you have specific data or just trying to explain a concept. You can create lines and data points, draw curves, and shade in important areas as easily as though you were using a basic drawing program. When you're done, you can share it as a PDF or PNG to then use as you please.
I have found use for OmniGraphSketcher as a math instructor, but other people will also find it useful, particularly business people who need to present information in a graphical, easy to interpret way.
- $14.99 - Download Now
Guest pick: True Patriot - Guy English
Many years ago I used to work at Infinity Comics and Second Edition with a guy called J Torres. Awesome guy. Got me into all sorts of good comic stuff. I recently found him again on Twitter and he's gotten together a bunch of comic book writers and artists and an Indiegogo project called True Patriots. It's a comic purely about Canadian superheroes because, of course, patriotism is about being Canadian. He's an awesome guy. It's going to be an awesome book. If you like what I have to say, you're going to love this. It's the trifecta.
- Varies - Support now
Your choice?
Now that we've chosen our favorites for the week, we want to hear yours! Did you pick up a killer app, accessory, or game this week? Let us know in the comments below!
