The long weekend is over, but while returning to work after three days off can be a bit depressing, we have a few cool apps to kick off the week. Starting out is AOL TV, which integrates services like Hulu, Netflix and local TV stations to let users keep track of everything they can see on just about every service. After that is Parkbud, an app for finding your parking spaces and keeping track of parking meters to cut the stress of receiving tickets. We’ve also got a couple of quality games on tap – To-Fu: The Trials of Chi, a puzzle-platformer, and Tower Defense: Lost Earth, a robust and challenging TD strategy game.
AOL TV (iPhone, iPad) Free
Your conduit to everything TV is on your iPhone in AOL TV. The app keys you in to whatever’s on and allows you to check out schedules of all sorts, helping to stay up on what’s playing on your local stations, or even what’s available on Netflix and Hulu. All those services are funneled into one place in AOL TV, and the app allows you to bookmark shows, check out when they’ll be on, or track down missed episodes on Hulu, iTunes or Netflix.
AOL TV also has extra functionality for TiVo users. You can actually schedule your TiVo recordings from the app, or push DVDs and Instant videos to your Netflix queues. You can also check out information about various TV shows and actors on IMDb.
Parkbud (iPhone, iPad) $1.99
Don’t waste time and cause yourself frustration trying to remember where you left your car. Parkbud takes care of that information for you, keeping track of where you parked and giving you directions using Google Maps back to that location.
Parkbud also includes a lot of other handy features for your parking situation. It includes a meter alarm so you can get back and avoid a ticket, and a camera and photo-editing feature so you can keep track of rates and other information. Parkbud will show you where parking garages are near you, and lets you take notes about restrictions in an area to help you avoid any citations.
To-Fu: The Trials of Chi (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Puzzle-platformer To-Fu puts you in control of a sling-shot-capable block of tofu wearing a headband. In each of the game’s 100 side-scrolling levels, your job is to fling To-Fu from one patch of wall or floor to another. Using the game’s touch controls, you’ll stretch To-Fu in the direction you want to send him and then release, flinging him in a straight line until he hits a wall or platform to stick to.
Your primary goal in To-Fu is to reach a glowing pink fortune cookie at the end of each level, but each level includes a bunch of floating orbs called Chi that you can collect. Snagging all of them earns you a badge, as does making it to the end of the level using only a certain number of flings, and getting all the badges on each level will take some skill and probably multiple attempts. It’s a challenging game, but To-Fu is simple to learn and includes a lot of content for just a buck.
Tower Defense: Lost Earth (iPhone, iPad) $2.99
There are a whole lot of tower defense games in the iTunes App Store – but how many of them are actually called Tower Defense? The game follows the story of people fleeing a destroyed and polluted Earth for a new planet, where hostile aliens need to be shut down by powerful defenses. In Tower Defense’s campaign mode, players will work through 40 different levels on varying terrain, each with variable difficulty settings to give you exactly the challenge you’re looking for.
Tower Defense packs four different gameplay modes, each with different types of objectives. Developer Com2uS plans more downloadable content for the future, expanding on the nine available towers and number of maps available. The game also packs Game Center support for leaderboards and achievements.
