Developer:

Directr, Inc.

Compatible with:
iPhone 3GS and up (optimized for iPhone 5)

iPod Touch 3rd Gen and up

iPad

Requires:
iOS 5.0 or later

Price:

Free

Available here

I always wanted to be a movie director, but a lack of ambition, and talent, sadly kept me from that particular goal. That still never stopped me from having a fascination with the filmmaking process, even if the particulars of the art have eluded me.

The new app Directr was seemingly made for people like me. It’s a video recording app that allows you to produce semi-professional looking works out of video recorded on your Apple device. The difference between Directr and other film creation apps is the more relaxed approach it takes to the idea. The highlight of the app is that there is no editing required, and it’s pretty much all point and shoot. That’s not to say it’s a bare bones program as you are allowed to insert text, music, graphics, and, in a particularly inspired bit of design, use storyboards to help you plan the layout of certain types of videos (which is a major contributor to the simplicity of the app).

What is the practical use of Directr? Well, based off of examples provided on the apps site, it can be used to stylishly record your baby’s actions, make a modern day slideshow of your vacation (only interesting), or to provide a video capture to spice up your apartment listing just to name a few. Thanks to the deeply integrated social features, sharing your videos is exceptionally easy, and even already there is a growing community for doing just that, as people aspire to create viral video sensations, or even just sell a car.

If you had to assign a greater purpose to Directr though, it would be giving users the ability to enhance their everyday videos, without beating them over the head with the prospect of having to sort through and splice together mounds of footage. While it doesn’t have the creative depth of a full fledged video editor, it does allow you to come up with a similar final product, and always maintains the fun of creating something that is closer to a film than a simple video, without forcing you through the elongated, tedious process usually required to do so.

For a free app, there is lot of life in Directr, and once you download it, it becomes hard to shoot any video, without suddenly framing it within the abilities of the app. Nothing you can create with Directr will be winning any Oscars, but the program itself does goes home with my award as app of the week.

Developer:

Semi Secret Software LLC.

Compatible with:
iPhone (optimized for iPhone 5)

iPod Touch

iPad

Requires:
iOS 5.0 or later

Price:

$2.99 (on sale)

Available here

In what has been a surprisingly deep week of quality apps, hopefully signaling a new year of the same, it was a tough task picking one to spotlight. There is one, however, making some serious noise and gaining quite a following from sites like Kotaku who already name it their, admittedly pre-mature, game of the year.

It’s called “Hundreds”, and if you give it a minute it would like to take over your life. How? Well, like so many other great puzzle apps, it starts with a simple idea. In this case, it is taking a grey circle (or circles) with the number zero in the center, and pressing down on it while the number grows until it reaches a hundred (in the case of multiple circles, the numbers must collectively add to be a hundred). With me so far? Good, because this is where it gets fun. You see, while holding down on a circle it turns from grey, to red. Should that red circle touch pretty much anything, you lose. At all times you must be aware of the location, numbers within, and size of your circles to try to find the right balance of when to manipulate what circles where. It’s an idea very easy to grasp from just a quick video demonstration.

Humorously the first level is a lone circle you must do nothing more to than press down upon until it grows to a hundred. It’s the game’s tutorial level as from there, it spends the rest of its 100+ levels exploring every possible way to throw the concept in your face, and torture you with the relentless difficulty it is capable of. As a fan of level design, I was blown away with the sheer, there’s no other word for it, audacity of the puzzles in this game. It’s clear the developers are overachievers, and they will leave you in stunned silence at the outset of most every level while you appreciate how difficult of a challenge you are facing.

By using random movements, dynamic obstacles, and good old constraints, “Hundreds” forces you not into a zen like state to best it, but rather an actively contemplative one. It gives you plenty of time to consider your next action, and its consequences, and then in the heat of making your move forces you to dynamically adjust the expectations of those actions. It’s like a pitcher giving the batter all the time in the world before politely asking if he’s ready to swing. Even then, he would have no idea what’s coming, and little time to adjust.

The word you’ll hear about “Hundreds” is addictive, and rightly so. It is addictive. Buy what impresses me most is the effortlessness of the entire experience. It’s a puzzle prodigy of sorts, in that it so easily does everything well that you forget the real effort being put into every aspect. Yet even down to the cryptic messages in between stages, there isn’t an idea here that wasn’t carefully considered and implemented.

In the end “Hundreds” may just be another addictive, clever mobile puzzle game in a, thankfully, long line of them. But that it never makes you feel like you’re playing something that has come before is the real joy of the game. “Hundreds” may not be one in a million, but it is equal or greater to all of those titles that paved the way, and is a constant joy, not to mention my app of the week.

Developer:
Metropolitan Transit Authority

Compatible with:
iPhone 3GS and up

iPod Touch 3rd Gen and up

iPad

Requires:
iOS 5.0 or later

Price:

Free

Available here

My app this week is really only for residents of NYC. Everyone else, please feel free to proceed to the nearest sexy lady picture you find on this site.

Are they all gone?

Good.

So you know how annoying it is trying to catch your subway train on time right? Even though they stick to a supposed schedule (unless it’s the C train, the slacker of the transit system) sometimes your morning bagel takes a little longer to toast, or you have an unexpected stop and chat, or it’s raining and you debated for too long to call in or not, or maybe (as you told your boss) the train truly was running late, and your morning is now officially in peril.

It happens far too often, and even though the MTA has updated platforms with arrival estimates, and support a host of apps to help, it wasn’t until the recently released MTA Subway Time app, that straphangers now have the ability to get real time train schedules.

The app currently supports 7 lines (1-6 and the 43nd S), and provides updated arrival times of the major lines as they occur. The arrival times include trains running in both all directions, and has data for both arriving and upcoming trains. Along with that, you also get the usual train routes, work updates, and all other information you would need in actually organizing your commute.

It’s not the world’s prettiest app, and is very basic in its current stage, but should still be immediately downloaded by any commuters of those lines, and really by all straphangers in anticipation of additional lines being added. Never before have commuters had this kind of accurate information available to them at any time, and the only reason it doesn’t feel more impressive is because it seems like something that should have been done long ago.

You can’t overstate how welcome this app is, and as the MTA chairman Joseph Lhota described it, represents a “day that generations of dreamers and futurists have waited for”. While I wish the app could give false updates to my boss that are more in line with my current, personal schedule, this miracle program arrives right in time to be named by app of the week.

Developer:
David Galindo

Compatible with:
iPad 2 and up (including iPad Mini)

Requires:
iOS 3.2 and up

Price:

$2.99

Available here

While some will disagree, cooking is often a rewarding, useful, and relaxing endeavor that all should have some measure of skill in. Not only is it a great creative outlet, but the end result of a well done meal is rewarding in several ways. The same, however, can not always be said of cooking in a high profile, high volume, high pressure kitchen where the work is grueling, thankless, and sometimes cruel. Yet many in the business will tell you the challenge of it is strangely addictive, and that there is no greater satisfaction than a well done shift, and consistently making the perfect meal.

Now there is an app called “Cook, Serve, Delicious!” that perfectly captures that mix of emotions. The iPad version of the PC title of the same name, “Cook, Serve, Delicious!” is a restaurant management game that separates itself from the sizeable number of similar titles out there by being insanely detailed, and ridiculously tough.  The very basics of the game see you taking incoming orders and building them via the simple recipe prompt. As the orders pile up, you’ll find yourself having to manage several meals at once (done through a upper corner quene), prepping some while others finish,and always being careful to get to everyone in time without ruining a meal.

It would be an intense enough experience, but where the game separates itself is in the almost anal nature it takes towards its subject matter. You don’t just cook and serve meals, but you also must handle back of the house work like setting rat traps, washing dishes, and taking out the trash. It’s not all grunt work though, as since this is also your restaurant, that means you are the chef, owner, and manager. This is where things get really exciting, since you are tasked with buying food for the day and building a menu that must be familiar, yet fresh, and always evolving. You must deal with food costs, menu changes, special requests, challenges (including “Iron Chef” like competition invites), and even the occasional robbery all while running the day to day activities of your restaurant (a day in the game takes 6 minutes in real time). Ultimately your efforts are in the pursuit of increasing your restaurant’s star rating and public buzz level (and of course purchasing restaurant upgrades) in order to move on to bigger, better, and more challenging venues.

Nothing comes easy in “Cook, Serve, Delicious!”, and during the game’s rush hour moments, things can seem downright impossible. While the actual cooking mechanics aren’t as detailed and interactive as games like “Cooking Mama”, it’s the fact that you are tasked with managing everything, and that everything is so richly detailed, that makes the game so very worthwhile. Building a popular, yet inventive, menu in your own style, and being able to eventually serve it almost instinctively is one of those gaming nirvana feelings that never grows old, because it is always difficult to achieve. Thankfully the challenge doesn’t derive from the touch controls (which are well implemented), and the game’s appetizing graphic style and catchy soundtrack are a constant and welcome presence.

In many ways “Cook, Serve, Delicious!” reminds me of the recently released starship simulator “FTL” where your dream of running a starship (or restaurant in this case) is quickly burdened with the reality of doing so. Yet thanks to some ingenious design, and a well implemented balance of challenge and reward, “Cook, Serve, Delicious!” provides a long journey that proves the thrill that comes from overcoming true adversity is often greater than that of any pre-conceived fantasy notions you may have had on the subject. It goes beyond your ideas of the genre, and serves up a tasty app of the week.

Developer:
DualBoot Games

Compatible with:
Android Systems

Requires:
Android 2.2 and up

Price:

$1.99

Available here

I have a confession for this entrant of app of the week. My choice isn’t really an app at all.

No, friends wait! Put down your torches and pitchforks and hear me out. While not strictly an app, and more of a wallpaper, this entrant is related to Christmas, which I think we call all agree is pretty bad ass.

And you know what? So is this wallpaper. It’s a live wallpaper that comes from the good people at DualBoot Games and is called Christmas HD. As you may have guessed, it’s in celebration of Christmas, and over the course of five screens depicts a home that is decked out with all of the classic decorations. Besides being extremely bright and colorful and active, the wallpaper is also filled with many, many details. You’ve got a calendar that serves as a Christmas countdown that updates every day, a steaming mug of hot chocolate with rising steam, a copy of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” resting on a comfortable lounge chair, snow gently falling outside the window, stockings hanging by the roaring fireplace, and a plate of cookies laid out by a note for Santa just to name a few. No classic sign of the holidays was left by the wayside, and that warm feeling that can only be described as “Christmasy” is impossible to avoid as you scroll through the wallpaper with a childish smile.

What really sells the wallpaper are the customization and interactive options available. Everything from the name on the stockings, to the photo on the mantle, to the message on the note, to the decorations on the trees and more can be customized via the surprisingly deep wallpaper menu which simply lays out a very welcome variety of options for the user. Even better, you can interact with a variety of the items on display in unique and unexpected ways, that will have you touching and swiping all over the layout just to see what may happen.

There’s an almost infinite amount of wallpapers available, and around this time of year, many of them are Christmas related. None of them, however, compare to Christmas HD. It’s vibrant, it’s clever, and it’s absolutely loaded with customizable details, the discovery of which are pleasantly comparable to the experience of opening a Christmas present. It’s constant presence on your phone is a cheerful reminder of the best time of the year, and the amount of fun clearly had making it is instantly recognizable in the amount of fun you will have using it.

For most of the year, this wallpaper may come off as confusing, unnecessary, and somewhat of a bad investment at $1.99. However, it’s hard to think like that when you’re in the heart of “Christmas-mania”, and for this brief time period it’s the best wallpaper money can buy, and makes for a very merry app of the week.