JOIN USUnless you live on Mars, you will have noticed that Apple has introduced new iPhones. And what do these new phones need? Apps, of course.
Here is my eclectic mix of recommendations for the owners of shiny new iDevices.
One of the first things you will probably want to do with your new phone is show it off. To demonstrate the graphics power of Apple’s new iOS 8, download Epic Zen Garden, free.This app is a showy demo that places you in an astonishingly beautiful, Japanese-themed garden on the grounds of a modern-looking home. You tap on the screen to move around and interact with items.
Everything in Zen Garden is rendered inside the phone, rather than being downloaded. The graphics are eye-poppingly gorgeous, from thousands of butterflies that flutter around in reaction to your touch, to koi darting in a pond. Though the number of special effects and interactive locations is limited, this app’s beautiful imagery should be more than enough to wow you and your friends.
One of the first iPhone games that caught my imagination years ago was Tower Madness, a crazy alien-and-sheep game in which powerful guns are placed on complex terrain to protect sheep from endless swarms of ravenous aliens. Now there is Tower Madness 2: 3D Alien TD Defense for just $2 (Rs 122).
It’s the same idea, but with more zany effects and slicker graphics. Though it is not the highest of high tech, the game is hilarious. Be warned: It’s addictive.
Camera
Another way to explore your new iPhone is to play with its camera. ProCam2, which costs $2 (Rs 122), is one of the best apps for doing this. This app provides more control over the settings of the iPhone’s built-in camera than your old compact camera probably ever did.
With just a few taps you can control the camera exposure, aperture, ISO speed and many other effects. You can even automatically add a time, date and copyright notice onto each frame. These controls mean you can shape images more creatively than with Apple’s own built-in camera app, and you may find yourself taking more interesting photos as a result.The touch-screen settings are easy to understand, but there are so many that it will take you a while to learn to use this app for the best effects.
You don’t want to take boring snaps to share on Instagram (another must-have for iPhone users, free). The image-manipulating app Fragment, $2 (Rs 122), can help here.Fragment transforms pictures to make them look as if they are being viewed through a set of distorting prisms, adding an unusual visual twist. The app’s simple interface makes it easy to control the distortion effects.
For news on your new iPhone, it’s hard to beat Twitter for breaking news shared by users locally and around the world. It’s free, and I find Twitter a much more rewarding social network to interact with than Facebook’s friend-based system.
Flipboard is another great news source that collates news articles from across the web into one very graphical magazine-style interface. This makes it easy to flip from one news category to the next, or one news item to the next. Flipboard is great for scanning the headlines and maybe browsing an article while commuting. It is free.
Health apps are another big feature on the iPhone, and Run With Map My Run is a good one to try at first. It is meant to be a one-stop shop for measuring all your fitness activity in one place, everything from walking through cycling. It collects data either from the sensors in your iPhone or from connected health devices.
Though its interface can be a little confusing, it may help motivate you to exercise. Also, it’s free.
A quick mention goes to Sleep Cycle, an app that uses your phone’s sensors to map sleep patterns. The results are often a fascinating insight into your night’s sleep. It’s $1 (Rs 61).
Keyboard
Apple improved its touch-screen keyboard a lot for 2014, but you can also use different ones bought from the App Store. My favorite is Swype, $1 (Rs 61), which allows you to slip your finger from one letter key to the next to sort of draw-to-type the text desired. It’s surprisingly powerful.
Minuum, $2 (Rs 122), shrinks the keyboard so you can see more of the rest of the screen while typing. Minuum is weird, and you will rely on autocorrect a lot to fix mistyping, but it’s fun to use.
Finally, try Leaf on the Wind, which serves as an introduction to the kind of touch-screen games you can play on the iPhone; your touch acts to blow leaves and other items around the landscape to hit a target. It’s beautiful to look at, and both satisfying to play and difficult to master. It’s $3 (Rs 183).