Start your week with a little social networking care of Untappd, an app designed to allow beer aficionados to rate and share brews they try, and Bizzy, an app perfect for rating restaurants you visit that now integrates with Foursquare. Next time you’re waiting for a table or for your next microbrew, we’ve got some things to help pass the time, too: Big Pig, a physics puzzler in which you’ll stack a pig on top of boxes (and other stuff, too!), and Commander Pixman, a tough retro platformer.
Untappd (iPhone, iPad) Free
Fancy yourself a beer connoisseur? Then Untappd is the social network for you, and you’ll want to download its official app. Untappd is for people who like to drink and rate beers, and share those experiences with their friends. Drop by a restaurant and enjoy an interesting microbrew? Fire up Untappd and you can use the app to let your friends know what’s worth checking out, and what’s not.
You can track where you’ve tried beers and the ratings you’ve given them with Untappd, so you know what you’ve tried and what you haven’t, and the app will forward real-time notifications to you about friends’ comments and other actions. You can upload photos, “check-in” to locations using your device’s internal GPS, and use geolocation to find out what’s popular wherever you are. The app also enjoys integration with Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.
Bizzy update (iPhone, iPad) Free
Finding a great place to eat is a lot easier when you poll your friends. With Bizzy, you can do that without even making contact with them. The social networking app allows you and the people you hang out with to rate and make notes about the places you eat and share them, so you always have an instant opinion about an establishment.
A recent update to Bizzy allows users a new bit of functionality, too: integration with location-based check-in network Foursquare. With Foursquare functionality, you can now check-in to a location with the app using your device’s GPS capabilities, then rate it on Bizzy. Other users can see where you are and where you’ve been, and find out what you thought of all the places you’ve visited to boot.
Big Pig (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
In the market for a game that’s all about precariously balancing a block shaped like a pig on random items? Of course you are. Luckily, the App Store has just such a game: Big Pig, a physics puzzler in which you’re given objects that you have to arrange in hopes of creating a suitable pig pedestal. The higher up and more precarious the perch, the higher your score: but your pig has to stay planted for at least five seconds to count.
Big Pig includes 48 levels, each of which includes different materials from which to build your stack. Easy to learn but tough to master, the game features online leaderboards from support from OpenFeint and Game Center, both of which also provide achievements.
Commander Pixman (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
There seems to be a cottage industry developing in the App Store of super-hard retro side-scrolling platforming games. Commander Pixman easily joins their ranks: each of its levels will last less than 10 seconds, but it’ll keep you playing much longer than that because it’s often so darn hard. Your goal in each of those stages is just to get past all the deadly obstacles standing in your way and reach a goal. Each time you die, the counter restarts, but when you finally finish, you get to see all your failed attempts occur simultaneously with your victorious run.
There are 80 levels on offer in Commander Pixman (and the game’s developer promises more coming with an update), and many of the levels also include bonus objectives that can unlock a few more stages. There are more than 20 hazards you’ll have to learn to defeat, including enemies and even portals.
