You know what time it is—it's time to reflect on some of the best apps to hit the App Store during the month of April. News, games, productivity apps—we always like to create a wide assortment of apps for all of you who are unique in your preferences because you all have different preferences so hopefully you like the selection you see here today.
Ink Hunter
The first app is pretty cool if you're an artist or tattoo junkie. It's called Ink Hunter and what it does is that it allows you to visualize what a tattoo will look like on a body part of yours without actually getting a tattoo. All you have to do is draw a square smiley face on your skin and a tattoo will then appear instead of a smiley in real time and it'll be displayed on your smartphone obviously, your iPhone. It's using the camera to overlay the tattoo on your arm or whatever body part you want. It's not 100% bug-free but it's pretty cool especially if you share your tats with other people; that is to say when you share this app with other people.
Word Flow Keyboard
Word Flow is hands down my new favorite third party keyboard for iOS. It's created by Microsoft. And while it has a bunch of custom themes to change the appearance, the main features center around its ability to allow for one-handed typing with your left or right thumb. If you happen to be using your iPhone with one hand, you just drag the keyboard to the left or right hand side and it morphs to fit the path of your thumb. It also features one of the least buggy implementations of swipe typing but for someone rocking the iPhone 6s Plus, I would say this is a must-have.
TheSkimm
TheSkimm is a unique news app but the biggest downside is the fact that it costs about $3/month; which is not cheap for an app. You do get a free trial to test it out, which is very nice. But what it does is that it tells you everything you need to know for the future by adding important news to your calendar. Whether it's for an event, such as the NFL Draft or for tickets to a show you're interested go live, they will post it to your calendar. So it's certainly interesting. I'll give it a couple of weeks to use it in order to determine if it's really worth the subscription. It's a little bit too early for me to say but I think it shows potential and a lot of you will like TheSkimm.
OUTDODGE
OUTDODGE is one of those games you play and you play some more to continue to beat your previous score. You play as a little smiley face trapped in a rectangular cube-- I honestly don't know what it is to be frank with you. But you dodge bouncing balls. There are two controls-- bounce and reflect. It's made for all ages but it's a lot tougher than it looks.
Jottit
Jottit is one of the better notetaking apps I've come across. There's a lot you can work on here. You have checklists, notes, shelves (to organize your notebooks), tasks tab (to complete upcoming tasks), reminders tab (to keep track of all upcoming reminders to your notes and tasks), notes tab (where you can add notes without using a notebook) as well as edit bookmarking notes; and that's the gist of it. It features 3D Touch as well, which is a neat perk. But it does have some potential, I would say. This app does have some Add-Ons, which is pretty lame. Keep that in mind. But the aesthetics, preference of the app, and function is certainly here.
The New Yorker Today
The New Yorker released an official iOS app this past month. I'm a news junkie, as you guys probably know; so I gravitate towards these sorts of apps. Some of you may like The New Yorker, others not so much. But I love the layout and top stories and the feed (most of them) and I especially love the cartoons section, which is here. You can bookmark and subscribe if you like. I'm looking forward to an update to support 3D Touch, that's really the only thing that is clearly missing from the app.
Steve The Jumping Dinosaur Widget Game
Steve The Jumping Dinosaur Widget Game. I think you'll all really love this widget game app. It's a game that lives in your widget section of your notification slide-down panel. After you set it up, you just swipe over to today and it'll appear here ready for you to tap play. Once you do, you can start jumping over obstacles. The game itself is nothing fancy but it's great to have to pass the time when you're out and about maybe waiting in line at the Post Office. This app is a lifesaver.
Orbit's Odyssey
This game is called Orbit and it features some pretty fresh graphics. It's based in space (kind of). You play as a little robot that collects coins and avoids monsters while traversing around planets of sorts. It's a strategy game and it gets tougher over time. But I like to show some love to the artistic developers out there. This game is pretty cool.
Zenge
Another one of those games that is wicked cool is Zenge (I'm not pretty sure I'm pronouncing that right). It's a puzzle game that tells a story. The story of Eon, a lonely journey man who's stuck between the worlds and time. It's intended to be relaxing so there's no points, stars, tutorials, move counters and in-game shops or any other distractions. Just pure immersive journey with Eon told through gorgeous art and music. This has got to be one of the most zen games in the App Store.
Dinosaurs: The American Museum of Natural History Collections
We're going to end this video with an app about dinosaurs. The app is from The American Museum of Natural History. It's been a long time since I just sat down and read up about dinosaurs. It really brings me back to when I was young. But this app allows you to learn about dinosaurs from photographs and illustrations. You can browse more about specific dinosaur species and scientific expeditions to find new fossils around the world. You can even get a behind-the-scenes at the museum. So if you love dinosaurs (you used to love dinosaurs but you got distracted with life), you should just download this app and sit down and learn.
With that last one, those are 10 of the best apps to hit the App Store in April 2016.