This week’s top iOS apps range from the mathematical to the honey-drenched. Our top app of the week is helps you calculate practical items like tipping on a bill or how much time exists between two dates. Our other top apps include an alternative to the standard iPhone calendar app, an app to listen to the news, another to turn your iPhone camera into a kaleidoscope and a Winnie The Pooh app for the kids.
Calcul8 ($0.99)
Calcul8 isn’t a calculator in the traditional sense. It calculates, but it’s not trying to help you find the square root of 45 as much as it is offering real world number crunching solutions to questions like “What the actual price of an $12.00 item when the sale price is 35 percent?” The app offers calculations for percent of a number, percent changed, percent different, percent increase or decrease, sale price calculations, date calculations like how much time remains between two dates or what day a particular date falls on, a tip and bill splitting calculator, and even a loan calculator. If you’re not great with numbers but find yourself using them an awful lot, Calcul8 can assist you in a big way.
Fantastical ($1.99)
If you’re looking for an alternative to the iPhone’s standard calendar app, Fantastical might be the app you’ve been waiting for. The colorful calendar app has a soft, welcoming visual style that offers a slightly more welcoming vibe than the standard calendar app. It also supports voice dictation so you can add events to the calendar without lifting a finger. Best of all, there’s a search feature within the app so you can find an event that you scheduled without having to go to the exact date that it’s taking place. Fantastical also supports iCloud, Google Calendar and Exchange just like the default calendar app.
Umano (Free)
Umano offers a unique way to get the news on your iPhone – listening to someone read it. The app takes the news and distills it into mini podcasts. Users can then create playlists filled with the stories they’re most interested in and have themselves a custom news broadcast. In addition to creating their own playlists, users can see what stories their friends are listening to and keep a list of all the articles they’ve enjoyed. News in the app can be found via category listing or simply by browsing the top stories of the day.
KaleidaCam ($0.99)
KaleidaCam, the app that turns your iPhone’s camera into a kaleidoscope of wacky colors and mirrored patterns, has just been updated with a bevy of new features. For starters, KaleidaCam now promises much faster image processing and photo capture speed so you’ll get exactly the image you’re looking for when you’re kaleidoscoping. KaleidaCam also comes with new visual options like photos taken in a hexagonal mosaic, square mosaic, and more. Additional in-app purchases for circle and spiral kaleidoscopes are also available. KaleidaCam can also now be used on images already in your iPhone photo library.
Winnie the Pooh Wonder and Wander (Free)
The latest in the series of Winnie the Pooh apps, “Wonder and Wander,” offers a mix of that classic Pooh bear charm and unique illustrative style with some fun activities to get wrapped up with. Kids can try their hand at interactive puzzles, musical games and memory games. For something a little less competitive, they can simply color in some of the Winnie the Pooh universe characters.
