Readers’ App Reviews – February 2015

Lightning Fingers

Lightning Fingers puts the power of lightning in your hands! It is a game about coordination and finesse.

The game starts when you place two fingers on the screen. Lightning shoots out of your fingers and holds them connected. The longer you can hold out the more points you’ll earn. The farther apart your fingers and the larger the lightning, creating a multiplier effect.

As shapes begin to fall you must dodge them. But don’t think you can simply lift your fingers from the screen. If you lift a finger the lightning dissipates and the games over!

• Author: Thomas Kieffer @crstratus
• Most useful tutorial: Sprite Kit Tutorial: Animations and Texture Atlases
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Hues Rush

Hope you have a keen eye for colors, because Hues Rush is gonna test it.

Hues Rush is a game about a simple grid of colors. There will be one main color. And one color thats a bit off. Tap the one thats off to advance levels. As you advance the grid becomes larger and the number of shades between colors becomes less and less perceptible.

A few boost powerups will help you reach higher scores with longer bonus rounds or higher contrast. And of course GameCenter makes sure you can brag to your friends.

• Author: Darren Branford
• Most useful tutorial: Sprite Kit Tutorial for Beginners
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Envelope

Envelope is a curating email app that helps you organize and sort your email automatically. And its packed with features.

Envelope features clusters that are like extra powerful threads to combine emails that go together so you can take action on them all at once. It also helps your filter your inbox by specific senders or important topics, or simple emails you haven’t seen yet today.

Envelope can even keep track of responses. When you reply to an important email you can mark it as expecting a response, and Envelope will alert you after a couple days if you haven’t heard back from your reply.

Envelope also offers handwritten signatures, a Notification Center Widget, organized attachments, saving attachments to dropbox, sending voice memos, and more!

Envelope supports Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo, iCloud, Outlook, AOL, and any server that operates using IMAP.

• Author: Aashish Patil @aashishpatil
• Most useful tutorial: Grand Central Dispatch In-Depth: Part 1/2
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Honorable Mentions

Every month I get more submissions than I can handle. I give every app a shot, but I can’t write about them all. These are still great apps made by readers like you. Its no a popularity contest or even a favorite picking contest. I just try to get a glimpse of what the community is working on through your submissions. Take a moment and checkout these other great apps I didn’t have time to showcase properly.

QQISSO?
Speedy Mouse
Greenchick 2
Green Cage Ball
TheFlapAttack
Cool HDWallpaper
Tap4
Loopy Lava
SuperGocha
Dodgers in Space
Fast Lane Racer
Raus!
JJ Says: Retro Classic Memory Game HD
A Parcel of Courage
Tappy Bird – No Gravity
YAE Runner
Brown Bear Bounce
Flat Jewels Match 3
StopTap
Colorized – A Puzzle Adventure

Where To Go From Here?

Each month, I really enjoy seeing what our community of readers comes up with. The apps you build are the reason we keep writing tutorials. Make sure you tell me about your next one, submit here!

If you saw an app your liked, hop to the App Store and leave a review! A good review always makes a dev’s day. And make sure you tell them you’re from Ray Wenderlich, this is a community of makers!

If you’ve never made an app, this is the month! Check out our free tutorials to become an iOS star. What are you waiting for – I want to see your app next month!