Readers’ App Reviews – September 2016

September has been a great month:

• We got iOS 10, with all its new goodies for us.
• We got the brand new iPhone 7, which is such a powerhouse.
• We got the iOS 10 Feast, with 10 books updated for Swift 3!

I can’t wait to see what you all do with that power. In the meantime, you guys have been busy, and have released tons of new apps this September.

I’ve tried out all the apps you sent to me and I’ve selected a few to share with you. As always, I don’t have time to write about them all, so make sure you check out the honorable mentions too.

This month we have:

• The first wave of iMessage apps
• An app for avid readers looking for more
• Apps to help you get things done
• And of course, much more!

Keep reading to see the the latest apps released by raywenderlich.com readers like you.

Short Stories

Short Stories is exactly what it sounds like: amazing short stories from tons of authors that you can read on the go.

Short Stories has an entire store of short stories ranging from free to a dollar, but most of them only cost a dime or less.

The store has summaries, biographies about the authors, average reading time, and a community rating. You can make your own profile to leave comments and ratings on stories in the store. And it will save your reading progress on individual stories.

All stories featured on the main page and saved in your library are available offline so you can easily read when you’re out and about.

Short Stories is a great addition for the readers out there. It’s nice to read some shorter stories without having to commit to a whole book.

• Author: Elena Da Re @ShortStoriesDot
• Most useful tutorial: Custom Collection View Layout video tutorial series
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Checkers for iMessage

Checkers for iMessage is a promise delivered.

For those that don’t know, iMessage has opened up as an app platform in iOS 10. But its not just for stickers. There are a few great games out there and Checkers is one of them.

It couldn’t be easier to play. Just open an iMessage conversation with a friend. Tap on the iMessage apps button and open Checkers. It will start a new game and let you make the first move.

Then you send the message to your friend and they can make their move as well. There is nothing to sign up for, no GameCenter login. Its all just right there in iMessage: it couldn’t be easier!

Checkers for iMessage supports both 8 by 8 and 10 by 10 boards. You’re also able to choose if your game supports backward jumps. Download Checkers for iMessage today and give it a try.

• Author: Bartłomiej Kozal @_bkzl
• Most useful tutorial: How to Make a Game Like Candy Crush with Swift Tutorial: Part 1
• App Store Link: Check it out!

1Wallet

The Wallet app on our iPhones has made tickets harder to lose, loyalty programs easier to participate in, and even paying for things easier and more secure than ever.

But what about all the businesses with loyalty programs behind the times still using their own loyalty cards you have to lug around or give up on? Thats where 1Wallet comes in.

1Wallet lets you convert your old physical loyalty cards into easy to use iOS Wallet cards. You simply snap a picture of the barcode, give it a name, and you’re ready to go.

You can even set a custom GPS location so the card appears automatically on your lockscreen when you’re in the store. And of course it works great with Apple Watch as well so you don’t even need to read in your pocket.

• Author: Marco Tardanico
• Most useful tutorial: iOS 6 by Tutorials
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Tooth Frenzy

Dirty Teeth, Pirates, an a Monkey. Three things you never expected together.

Tooth Frenzy is a unique, fun game all about cleaning up some dirty pirate teeth. When teeth are left alone on a treasure island, they decay into dirty pirates only interested in gold. Its up to a monkey with some magic tooth paste to clean em up and get them shining like new.

But don’t clean the few remaining clean teeth; if you scrub them too hard when they’re already clean, you’ll scrub em to the bone.

The magic paste is limited so use it sparingly. Oh, and make sure you collect your coins before the greedy crab does, you can use those for upgrades to help you clean more teeth!

• Author: Dejan Sušnik @ToothFrenzyGame
• Most useful tutorial: iOS Games by Tutorials
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Feed Hawk

Feed Hawk makes it super easy to subscribe to an RSS feed for any website you’re visiting.

While you are visiting a website you’d like to subscribe to, tap the share sheet, right within Safari. Feed Hawk will look through the page and find the feed urls available to subscribe to.

If there are multiple feeds for websites that split their content, Feed Hawk will show you a list of choices before it subscribes you. Feed Hawk makes it so quick and painless to subscribe to new blogs in your favorite RSS reeder.

Feed Hawk works with Feed Wrangler, Feedbin, The Old Reader, NewsBlur, and more. Just sign in to your favorite feed aggregator and Feed Hawk will handle your subscriptions from there.

• Author: John Brayton @goldenhillsw
• Most useful tutorial: NSRegularExpression in Swift Tutorial
• App Store Link: Check it out!

get-time

get-time is a powerful timer app that could change the way you manage timers on your phone.

get-time’s first big feature is supporting multiple timers. You can create multiple timers, save them for later use, and even have multiple timers running simultaneously. These timers work exactly like you expect counting down from your preset time.

But get-time doesn’t stop there. You can easily add time to a timer without stopping and restarting the timer. This is fantastic while you’re cooking and something needs to bake for just a couple more minutes.

get-time also supports Geolocation for starting and stoping timers. iCloud will sync your timers across devices. The app is universal for your iPad and iPhone. You can easily customize the theme and alarm sounds for your timers. get-time is a very powerful timer app, so if you’re tired of the basic timer on your phone, give it a try.

• Author: Marcello Catelli
• Most useful tutorial: Swift by Tutorials
• App Store Link: Check it out!