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EACH WEEK, WE highlight five apps that are worth downloading for your smartphone and tablet. There are a lot of apps released on a daily basis, but not all of them are worth paying attention to.
This week includes a better way to organise your contacts and stay up to date, a brilliant NES-style shoot-em-up, and a AR translator app that everyone should own.
Table Tennis Touch
For: iOS
Cost: €3.59
- The premise mightn’t be the most amazing thing ever (especially if you avoid sports games like the plague), but you’ll be missing out on some serious fun.
- Table Tennis Touch allows you to play in tournaments, play career mode, and other mini-games, in what is a very well-crafted game.
- Serves, swings and smashes are all done by swiping your finger, making it easy to play but hard to master.
- The drawback is older iPhones or iPads (iPhone 4s or iPad 2 is required at least) will struggle to run it because of graphical demands so keep that in mind before you download.
- For everyone else, it’s a brilliantly designed game and well worth your money, even if you’re not interested in table tennis.
Yakuto / Vimeo
Black
For: Windows Phone
Cost: Free
- There is no shortage of photography apps out there, least of all for Windows Phone users who are spoilt for choice.
- Black puts a twist on the traditional photo taking by including numerous black and white filters for you to play around with.
- The developers have recreated seven different films such as Kodak 400TX and Ilford HP5. All you need to know is they’re all different enough to help improve specific photos.
- The app also includes editing tools like curves (which adjusts the tone of a specific part of the photo), vignette and fade. If you didn’t think you could do much with black and white photos before, think again.
- If you’re familiar with traditional B&W analogue film, this will let you capture similar photos without requiring a traditional camera. For everyone else, it’s another way to jazz up your photos.
Addappt
For: iOS, Android
Cost: Free
- It can be tough keeping contact details up to date. There’s always someone you know who’s changed their number or details without you realising it.
- Addappt aims to replace your traditional contacts list by updating whenever your friends change their contact details on their phone.
- It’s more flexible than the traditional contacts app, allowing you to group contacts by location, company, or title.
- Of course, there’s group messaging and emailing directly through the app too, should you require it.
- If you find the idea of updating your contacts list a pain, or haven’t updated it in a while, give it a go.
Kero Blaster
For: iOS
Cost: €4.49
- If you’re a gamer, chances are you will have heard of Cave Story, and rightly so as it’s one of the best indie games created.
- Studio Pixel’s latest game is Kero Blaster, it’s another shoot-em-up but just as fun and as charming.
- Taking control of a bipedal frog (because why not?), you make your way across a number of strange levels blasting everything in site. It’s just as fun as it sounds.
- Its real joy comes from the controls. How it handles shooting – it lets you control the direction while it auto-fires – works incredibly well and movement is smooth.
- It’s not as long a game as you might expect, but you’ll be playing it again as soon as it’s finished.
Word Lens
For: iOS, Android
Cost: Free
- Let’s get this out of the way first, Word Lens isn’t a new app, but it’s was recently made free (Google purchased it last weekend for those wondering why), and so is essential if you’re going abroad.
- Word Lens is an augmented reality app that can translate text into your native language.
- Even better, it doesn’t even require an internet connection to work, making it even more useful.
- It works better when you’re translating standard text, it has a bit of difficulty recognising stylised text but the majority of public signs and notices are written normally, this won’t be a major problem.
- Windows Phone users should go for Bing Translator which offers the same features.
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This scampi happening!
That’s a-pall ling.
That must have caused haddock.
the plaice is in bits
Sure they were packed in like sardines
You’re codding me!
An overturned truck of fish has been causing problems on the main Cork-Dublin road, take care if you are approaching the area, and get off your bloddy phoines!!!
Large scale traffic disruption
Create your own fish pun, dont leave it to salmon else
clean up is gonna cost a few squid.
at least there is a ray of hope it will open later
Are sole.
pollocks
Gonna have to avoid the plaice
was that at the turn Pike
A dangerous plaice to crash
i would hake to be travelling that road this morning
A plaice to avoid this morning.
On a SCALE of one to ten how much of a fishy story is this?
It`s a mackerel that no-one was hurt
Your all gillty of terrible fish puns…
Now were fin ished
Don’t panic they say it will be cleared up in a whale
Full “scale” emergency declared.
This story is a red herring.
These fish puns should be funny.
Dont plaice the sole of your foot to hard on the breaks. otherwise you will skate across the road. okay ill get my coat!!!! lol
That driver will have to be schooled on his driving.
Something smells, are they trying to bait us?,
The driver was Whiting a text message, it was an easy mistHake to make, no Trout about it.
Right folks, fin-ish up there now, do yis not have homes to goldfish?
Would ye all stop blubbering on!!?
You don’t have to be a brain sturgeon to come up with a good fish pun but it would dolphinetly kelp.
The fish will………..
Doh!
Monorail!
maybe they made up this story just for the “halibut”.
I read the first 10 fish puns here hoping they would make me laugh but, no pun in 10 did.
Ah don’t be such a stickleback.
Ah Ted. That must make you feel very out of plaice. We are all having a whale of a time too. But we are bound to worm a smile out of you yet and get you off your hook or should we just let you flounder.
All we need now is a few loaves, and we’d have a miracle.
There is something fishy about that crash .
Two hours and not one fanny pun, standards are slipping.
eel get a few points on his licence for that !
They will have to PIKE them by hand onto trucks
If you don’t want the fish dont maul it il have them for tea
I don’t give a dam about water charges. (See what I did there?
Talk to me when someone is organising a protest against property tax or USC.
Looks like it will be the healthiest section of the motorway.
Pollocks.
Eel bet they were worth a few squid.
Salmons head is going to roll for this.
Bleedin Topes…
Chr@@t there’s a load of lads here that would do well ablow in the opera house!!
orca ward situation to be in
wrong time, wrong plaice!
something fishy about that
have your say