This week’s top iOS apps are a real treasure trove of fun, helpful apps. Our lead-off app helps you book hotels at the last second at tremendous discounts, but there are other great apps even if you’re not planning a vacation any time soon. We’ve got apps for keeping up with your friends’ social lives, apps for being crafty at home, apps for turning your bookmarks into virtual image boards and even a virtual drum machine.
lastminute.com Hotel Deals
There is panic, and there is “oh god I forgot to book a hotel room!” panic. Before the latter sets in, check out Hotel Deals by lastminute.com. The app helps you book a last minute hotel room for tonight, tomorrow or the night day at savings from 10 percent to 55 percent off the normal price of the room. You can filter selection by price, distance and various ratings. Hotel Deals even lets you scan your credit card if you don’t feel like typing in all the numbers on your card.
UpTo (update)
Social networks are great for keeping up with the latest news, sure, but they do a great job of alerting you to what your friends are doing, too. UpTo combines social planning and social networking into an app that lets you see what your friends are up to while scheduling social events of your own. The app’s recent update has made it even easier to follow along with your friends as they check out social streams of the NFL, NBA, NHL, Nascar and NCAA. The search functionality for event streams has also been improved.
Download the Appolicious Android app
Brit + Co.
Being creative and crafty isn’t just for the artistically inclined anymore. With the right app, anyone can look like they got an A in art class. Brit + Co. spills the beans on how to do things like create cupcakes styled to look like sushi rolls, create hombre necklaces and even make strawberry cheesecake Jello shots.
Clipboard for clipboard.com
Looking to turn your bookmarks into visual treasure? Clipboard for Clipboard.com lets you do just that. Just grab the text, image or link that you want to display and run it through Clipboard and you have yourself a visual representation of your favorite new thing. From there, you can organize your clipboard, share it with your friends, or publish it.
Impaktor – The drum synthesizer
How does that song go? “I don’t want to work, I just want to bang on the drum all day.” With Impaktor, you can live that classic tune. The drum synthesizer promises to turn any surface into a drum pad. The app picks up the acoustic impulses from the iPhone microphone and translates the sound into drum hits. There are over 90 presets available to play with in Impaktor, and various styles of modulation as well. The app’s recorder function offers six tracks along with reverb and delay effects in addition to a host of other features.
