Today’s fresh iPhone apps include an old-school arcade game, an iPad-specific Amazon.com revamp, and a couple of intriguing apps which use augmented reality for two very different purposes.
Sprite Runner (iPhone) $0.99
A lot like those old games that use the track ball at the arcade, Sprite Runner brings old-school gaming sensibilities to the iPhone.
With old-school graphics comes an old-school game style. The speed of your runner in this racing game is determined by how fast you swipe your fingers over the screen, and how many fingers you swipe at a time. And the game supports two players on a single screen, so you can go head-to-head with anybody who’s nearby.
Windowshop (iPad) Free
Put simply, it’s Amazon.com, if Amazon.com was made specifically for an iPad. Amazon describes it as “a top-to-bottom rewrite” of the site’s layout designed uniquely for display on the iPad, and the app contains a lot of shopping information such as various recommendation lists and product categories.
From the app description, it sounds like Windowshop on iPad might be better than Amazon.com in a browser.
Sex Offender Tracker (iPhone) $1.99
There are a lot of websites that use public offender information from law enforcement agencies to generate maps that show the registered residences of sex offenders. Sex Offender Tracker takes that technology and combines it with the iPhone 4 and 3GS camera.
The app uses augmented reality and GPS data to match up those offender maps with your location. Turn on the app and aim the phone’s camera at a residence, and Sex Offender Tracker highlights it if it’s the residence of an offender.
I don’t know if a lot of people are clamoring for this kind of technology, but this video makes the app worth a mention.
The US AR Guide (iPhone) $0.99
Since we’re potentially identifying bad things with augmented reality, let’s balance things out with something that uses augmented reality for something a little less weighty.
This app takes another cool thing about GPS trackers – showing points of interest, ranging from ATMs to museums – and plugs those same highlights into augmented reality. The app allows you to scan the camera over various nearby buildings, say from the car or when you’re in an unfamiliar area, to find out quickly what’s offered where.
