Here are three great iPhone apps to end the week. Hoppit Mobile is a clever app that uses your mood and tastes to find you a nearby restaurant instead of just your location of favorite cuisine. Bubbly lets you ‘voice blog’ and keep your friends updated on what you’re up to, and now it’s got some cool effects to make it more fun. Finally, we’ve got Infinite Warrior, an endless runner with fighting game elements featuring some excellent animation and plenty of slaughter.
Hoppit Mobile (Free)
What’s it about? Sometimes, deciding what to eat can depend a lot on your mood, rather than what’s nearby. Hoppit Mobile can help.
What’s cool? Hoppit is an “ambience search engine for restaurants.” It not only takes into consideration your dining tastes, it also considers your mood and who you’re with. So if you’re looking for somewhere hip and funky or moody and romantic, Hoppit can find it for you. The listings feature interior pictures to truly whet your (aesthetic) appetite.
Who is it for? Right now, Hoppit is a little limited because it only covers a certain number of U.S. cities including New York, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Austin. Still, it’s definitely a unique way to find a place to eat for food lovers.
What’s it like? An app like Yelp can help you find something to eat too, but it depends solely on your location, whereas Hoppit Mobile uses your mood and tastes instead. Other ‘mood oriented’ apps exist though, like Songza for music playlists.
Bubbly update (Free)
What’s it about? Bubbly is like Instagram for you voice – you can apply filters to the things you say and make them sound funny.
What’s cool? Bubbly has been around for a while, but this version 2.0 update really changes things up. In its previous incarnation, Bubbly was just about vocalizing your Facebook and Twitter updates (which it still does). The company hopes the ability to transform your voice on the fly will make Bubbly more fun.
Who is it for? You can create your own ‘voice blog’ using Bubbly. The service is already popular with several Bollywood celebrities in India as well as people in Japan and Indonesia, so it’ll be interesting to see if it catches on in North America and Europe.
What’s it like? Voice-changing apps aren’t unique, Voices 2 has been around for quite a while after all, and voicemod has garnered over 1 million downloads. Still, the social element of Bubbly does make it a little different.
Infinite Warrior ($2.99)
What’s it about? Infinite Warrior takes the side-scrolling endless runner notion and turns it up a notch, adding plenty of combat and power-ups.
What’s cool? You play as a muscular warrior battling bad guys against four medieval-themed backdrops. The bad guys have shields which give you some idea of where to swipe to stab them but if you miss, you die, just like you would by falling in an endless runner or hitting a wall. Picking up gold means you can buy power-ups and new weapons or initiate a ‘fury mode’ for extra slaughter.
Who is it for? Infinite Warrior merges the endless runner genre with swipe-based fighting games quite nicely. The 3-D rendered backgrounds are impressive, as are the gritty and over-the-top animations.
What’s it like? While it resembles old-school simple fighting games like SEGA’s Altered Beast, it also has some hack-and-slash elements to it like you’d find in Infinity Blade.
