Eliminate the irritating vertical orientation of your iPhone videos using today’s first fresh app, Horizon. It automatically shoots videos on your iOS devices with a horizontal orientation, and includes automatic stabilization so you don’t end up with a wobbly, awkward video. We’ve also got If I Ran the Rainforest, an interactive Dr. Seuss book that features the Cat in the Hat and helps teach kids both about the rainforest and about reading. Finally, Rhythm Thief and the Paris Caper puts players through a number of rhythm-based heist missions.
Horizon ($0.99)
What’s it about? Video app Horizon automatically adjusts videos you shoot with your iOS devices to make them horizontal, eliminating annoying, vertically oriented videos that don’t fit most screens.
What’s cool? Shooting videos with an iOS device (particularly an iPhone) can leave you with videos with the vertical portrait orientation, instead of the standard landscape, unless you have the presence of mind to flip your phone sideways while shooting – which is a bit awkward. Horizon is an app that does the flipping for you by automatically cropping down the screen to a horizontal image and recording only that. The result is a video that fits things like standard screens or YouTube’s player sizes. Horizon also includes a stabilizer that uses your iPhone’s internal gyroscope to keep the image from bouncing around as you shoot it, and you can easily apply filters and share your videos across social networks from within the app.
Who’s it for? If shooting vertical videos is something that annoys you, grab Horizon and let the app fix it for you.
What’s it like? Get more video editing and shooting capabilities out of iMovie and Vizzywig.
If I Ran the Rainforest ($3.99)
What’s it about? Join the Cat in the Hat as he helps kids explore and learn about the rainforest in interactive book app If I Ran the Rainforest.
What’s cool? If I Ran the Rainforest is an interactive book with a heavy helping of rainforest information and science. The app takes kids on a journey through the rainforest with the Cat in the Hat, and like other interactive Dr. Seuss books, it’s designed to help kids learn to read by reading the text on the page to them and highlighting it so they can follow along. The app also includes interactive elements that are meant to teach kids the vocabulary associated with the rainforest, and kids can practice reading by recording their own narration to go with the words and pictures within the app.
Who’s it for? If I Ran the Rainforest is geared at kids, and is perfect for young readers and their parents.
What’s it like? You might also want to grab The Cat in the Hat and Oh, The Thinks You Can Think! for more essential Dr. Seuss app reading.
Rhythm Thief and the Paris Caper ($9.99)
What’s it about? Bringing the 3DS title to your iPhone or iPad, Rhythm Thief and the Paris Caper has players challenges players to a number of rhythm-based missions and mini-games.
What’s cool? Players of Rhythm Thief and the Paris Caper are going to want to bring a strong ability to follow the beat with them. The game tasks players with using swipe controls to execute certain moves in time with music across a number of levels and mini-games, as main character Phantom R works through a story and performs a number of heists. The input is simple, but Rhythm Thief is pretty involved, with lots of other, smaller scenarios that will have you quickly solving puzzles in order to progress. The game features more than 50 missions and a soundtrack of more than 20 original songs, and you’ll be able to unlock harder missions and customize your thief as you play through the game.
Who’s it for? Fans of rhythm games that are a little deeper and move involved than your standard dance-like title should try Rhythm Thief and the Paris Caper.
What’s it like? Other great rhythm games include Beat Sneak Bandit and Rhythm Control 2.
