Don’t listen to the pasty dude with the Arsenal shirt who lives downstairs—FIFA 10 isn’t the only good thing to land in the App Store this week. Not even close.
AP Stylebook: Anyone who has to crank out copy on a regular basis is probably familiar with the AP’ stylebook, but an iPhone app seems like an odd incarnation. It’s more portable and convenient that the hard copy, sure, but there’s an online version too, which makes more sense for most folks, since you don’t do a whole lot of actual writing on an iPhone, and flicking an alt+tab to your browser is faster than thumbing through an iPhone search query. Still great for the occasional spot-check, though. $29, which you should probably try to expense.
Talk Assist: This super-simple, free text-to-speech app was designed to help people who have trouble talking. However, it will almost exclusively be used by people who can speak, for laffs.
Squareball: A minimalist, but amazingly polished game that’s sort of like if Pong had levels, or if Breakout was a side-scroller. It’s really, really hard—give the free version a try before taking the two dollar dive.
cAR Locator: One old gimmick—GPS as a way to find your car—combined with a new one—an augmented reality overlay, cAR Locator is more of a tech demo or party trick than anything else, but it’s a pretty cool one. 2bux, 3GS only.
Scarab: The first iPhone literary magazine, Scarab still has a few kinks to work out. Most of all, you’ve got to purchase each issue in-app, but due to a quirk in Store policy, the app itself isn’t free. If you feel like supporting an experiment like this, feel free; there’s some neat stuff here, like the ability to listen to poems read aloud by their writers. One dollar.
Buzzd: An old BlackBerry classic, buzzd meters the amount of activity at local establishments, according to other buzzd users, and tells you where the most people are, and what they have to say about it. Think real-time Yelp, roughly. The app used to depend on other buzzd users for content; now it taps into Twitter with natural language recognition, which gives it way, way more content, and enough users, or at least unwitting contributors, to make it worthwhile even in a midsized city. Free.
FIFA 10: The only licensed soccer game in the App Store, this one’s got actual teams, actual players, and at least a passing resemblance to the FIFA franchise console games everyone goes so apeshit over. Controls are predictably a bit awkward, but there’s a lot of game here, especially for diehard soccer fans. $10.
This Week’s App News on Giz:
• iPhone Gets Better Image Stabilization from Pro-Camera App
https://gizmodo.com/iphone-gets-better-image-stabilization-from-pro-camera-5373019
• Cyclopedia Augmented Reality iPhone App Drenches Your World In Wikipedia
https://gizmodo.com/cyclopedia-augmented-reality-iphone-app-drenches-your-w-5372243
• Apple Buys Their Very Own Maps Company (See Ya, Google Maps?)
https://gizmodo.com/apple-buys-their-very-own-maps-company-see-ya-google-5371694
• iFukkin iPhone App Maybe Is Not What It Seems
https://gizmodo.com/ifukkin-iphone-app-maybe-is-not-what-it-seems-5371529
• Why iPhone TV Apps Are Doomed to Mediocrity
https://gizmodo.com/why-iphone-tv-apps-are-doomed-to-mediocrity-5370446
• iPhone App Developer Jacks Your Phone Number to Pitch You More Apps
https://gizmodo.com/iphone-app-developer-jacks-your-phone-number-to-pitch-y-5370323
• ALK CoPilot GPS Navigation App Gets iPhone Keyboard, Text-To-Speech, Other Improvements
https://gizmodo.com/alk-copilot-gps-navigation-app-gets-iphone-keyboard-te-5370278
• CNN’s iPhone App Makes Other News Apps Look Lazy
https://gizmodo.com/cnns-iphone-app-makes-other-news-apps-look-lazy-5369713
• iPhone Accessories Can Now Trigger App Download Prompt
https://gizmodo.com/iphone-accessories-can-now-trigger-app-download-prompt-5369783
• Daniel Johnston’s iPhone Game Is Predictably Bizarre, Bizarrely Fun
https://gizmodo.com/daniel-johnstons-iphone-game-is-predictably-bizarre-bi-5369752
• Tweetie 2 for iPhone: Full Offline Powers, Filters and Push Notifications
https://gizmodo.com/tweetie-2-for-iphone-full-offline-powers-filters-and-5369715
• Ping is Like a Free SMS Client For iPhone and iPod Touch Users
https://gizmodo.com/ping-is-like-a-free-sms-client-for-iphone-and-ipod-touc-5369678
• Tweet Reel iPhone App Sends 640 x 480 Video to Twitter
https://gizmodo.com/tweet-reel-iphone-app-sends-640-x-480-video-to-twitter-5369522
• Ramp Champ Mixes Skeeball With Flicking
https://gizmodo.com/ramp-champ-mixes-skeeball-with-flicking-5368173
• Data Shows What Everyone Knows: Gimmicky Apps Aren’t Used Frequently
https://gizmodo.com/data-shows-what-everyone-knows-gimmicky-apps-arent-use-5368099
This list is in no way definitive. If you’ve spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory. Have a great weekend, everybody!
