The Artist's Picks: RealCalc

RealCalc:


Hello all, and welcome to the Apocalypse! Which is evidently not happening. (If it was happening, then you wouldn't be reading this, so I'm safe :P)

Continuing last week's talk about calculators, here we have RealCalc, an app that pretty much turns your smartphone or tablet into an old-school scientific calculator.

It's pretty cool when you first look at the screen-- it looks exactly like a calculator, no  status bar or anything!

As you can see, it has a pretty fleshed-out group of features, and works very well in my experience. My favourite thing about the interface is that you can press and hold on a button and it will activate the yellow secondary function without having to reach up and press the SHIFT key first.

Since it is just a scientific calculator, there is no fancy graphing mode or anything, but for basic calculations it excells.

Also, it works at night, unlike those old scientific calculators which had solar panels on them. It has no ads, but doesn't come with fraction support; you have to buy the Pro version for that.

Anyways, see you next week for more of my Android favourites.

The Artist's Picks: handyCalc

handyCalc:

http://dft.ba/-handycalc

Welcome back to another Artist's Picks.

Lets talk about calculators for a bit. handyCalc is simply the handiest calculator you'll ever need. Ever. It has graphing capability, it's able to solve algebraic functions, and even has a currency converter. 

No matter what your need is, handyCalc delivers, from simple calculations to advanced transcendental functions.

In addition (ha ha, a pun!) to the regular keyboard of numbers and arithmetic signs, you can access the range of advanced mathematical functions like the trigonometric operators and higher power exponents. If you can't find a certain function, you can type yours in using a QUERTY keyboard. This keyboard is also used to input variables so you can solve complex equations like:

If only I had something like this while going through high school!

When calculating, you also can get little popups before you hit the equals button, like the value of your last answer if you're including it in the current calculation, or, in this case, it states the sum and average:

You can also graph functions about x, but I find that the graphing option is a little lacking compared to other calculator apps on the Play Store. It's still massively better than my old TI-84 though.

This calculator has no ads at all, so download it for free and take advantage of the handiest calculator ever!

The Artist's Picks: Ultimate Star Wars Lightsaber

Ultimate Star Wars Lightsaber:

http://dft.ba/-ultimate-lightsaber

Welcome back to another Artist's Picks, and as you can see, I managed to get Star Wars into my recommendations!

But seriously, this app is super fun. Pretty much what this does is turn your phone into a mini lightsaber. You can set any colour imaginable, and even change the hilt design.

When you activate the lightsaber by tapping on the screen, it starts up by making the characteristic hummmmm noise we're all familiar with. When you swing your phone, the app makes a very cool vwummm noise, like in the movies. The best part is when you swing downwards hard enough, the sound the phone will emit is what happens when two lightsabers clash in the movies, and if your phone has a flash, it will light it up.

If you're feeling in the mood, you can also set the app to play background music; which includes many of John Williams' classic pieces. (My favourite is Duel of the Fates, the battle theme in Episode I)

The cumulative effect of all this is to provide you with the sensation of holding a lightsaber (or as close as you can get without an actual laser sword), and it's pretty fun to just swing it and pretend you're a Jedi (or Sith).

If only I'd had this when I was a kid!

It is ad-supported, but still free, so go to the Play Store and start swinging your very own lightsaber!

May the Force be with you, and see you next week!

App Bites #39: ToolBox

Welcome back to another App Bite. As I've mentioned before, I'm going to be doing a bunch of App Bites on Windows 8 apps, so up today is, not surprisingly, a Windows 8 app.





Toolbox:

Toolbox, created by Vectorform, is one of those apps that really makes use of the whole Windows 8 design and the features that come along with the design. Toolbox is a grouping of apps such as a custom Facebook app, a custom Internet apps, a custom stopwatch app, etc. that can all be launched simultaneously via certain present configurations, or by themselves. The apps are all great, and a recent update added more as well as what they call the "tool depot" which gives news about coming soon apps. Yes Toolbox has some glitches, but the majority of it's features work, and since it is so new I'm going to let the slight imperfections slide.

All in all, though, Toolbox is a great Windows 8 app that I definitely encourage anyone with a Windows 8 device to pick up. Don't worry it's free, and you can grab it here.

The Artist Picks: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Welcome back to The Artist's Picks. An offline dictionary is what's being reviewed today, and I must say it comes in handy an awful lot.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

http://dft.ba/-merriam-webster

One of the awesome things about the Internet is that you can look up any word, any time. No more lugging your dictionary around when the time comes to crack open a big technical book. However, sometimes the Internet is unavailable; you're out in the woods camping, or simply out of range of WiFi when someone asks you to look up what 'excoriate' means.

So I present to you the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the mobile counterpart to that big book that you likely have on your bookshelf in one place or another. This app has definitions to almost every word imaginable, and so far I have not run up against any words it doesn't know.

It supports voice search, and also has a 'word of the day' which gives you a random word every day. In case a simple definition is not enough, the app can also tell you the word's pronunciation, its origin, and it even has a built in thesaurus.

But the absolute best thing about this app is that it stores all of its considerable amount of definitions offline, so you don't have to look for Internet access next time you need to look a definition up. However, storing all this data does make it one of the larger-sized apps out there. However it only comes to about 120 megabytes in total, so unless you're really tight in terms of internal storage, you should be fine.

Like every other app I review, it is free and waiting for you to check out!

App Bites #37: ARMED!

Today's App Bite will be the first App Bite to talk about a Windows 8 app. Exciting eh?






ARMED!:

ARMED! is, as mentioned, a Windows 8 app and it was created by Sickhead Games and you can pick it up for free right here for any of your Windows 8 devices. Basically the app is like a much simpler version of Civilization but with robots instead of people. What you do is you build different buildings that either defend, heal or create units or your main powerhouses which are like your bases. ARMED! is a played through a turn based style of play over multiple modes including one to play against your friends online. There are currently seven unique maps, and tones of upgrades and things to build. The game is very fun to play, and seems relatively glitchless which is quite a feat considering its a Windows 8 app. I also love the graphics, sure they don't compare to console or other PC games, but they do look pretty darn good for an app.

So I recommend checking this app out, just hit up the link above if you can't find it. And I'm going to try and do more App Bites or full reviews on Windows 8 apps because there really isn't much information about these extremely new apps out there and I know most of you are curious as to how good (or bad) Windows 8 apps really are. So check back soon for more Windows 8 app reviews.

The Artist's Picks: Bump

Happy Friday, and welcome back to the Artist's Picks. I'm reviewing Bump today, a pretty cool file-sharing app.

http://dft.ba/-bump-app

In the eventuality you want to share pictures with someone, your only option is usually to email the shots to them. You could also post the pictures to Facebook, but what if your friend wants the pictures you took to be downloaded to their phone? Well, just start up Bump, and tap your phones together and you're done! The photos are magically transferred over.

Photos aren't the only things you can Bump. You can also transfer contact information and app suggestions. You can even transfer your pictures to your computer, if you go to http://bu.mp and tap your phone on your spacebar.

I don't use this app too often, but in case I take a bunch of photos with a friend and want to share them quickly, it's good to know that I have it installed.

If you're like me and enjoy sharing photos quickly and instantaneously, go ahead and download this app.

Apps Plus News- 100 Posts!

We've made it! The first official milestone for the new Apps Plus blog! Today we've reached 100 posts!

And don't worry we have no plans of slowing down. Keep checking back daily for more reviews, comics, commentaries and more! Remember to check out our Blip or YouTube pages to see our commentaries, or visit our Commentaries page to see a complete archive of all the videos we've ever made.

Halloween Speical: Angry Birds Halloween

Yes as suspected Rovio is back again for the third Halloween themed update so far for Angry Birds Seasons. So what is new? Ghost blocks that's what! Ghost blocks are these brand new block which, in the name of Halloween, are pure evil. Basically they can hold up other blocks, but if you launch a bird right at it, the bird will just continue right on through. The only way to destroy the ghost blocks are to have them tumble down causing them to split into four which, if they tumble enough, will then finally cause them to disappear.

Other then ghost blocks, though, there isn't really that much that is new. A new pig called Frankenswine is introduced and the other pigs have various Halloween costumes on, but other then minor aesthetics like that nothing has changed. The levels are still fun to play nonetheless and they get you in the Halloween spirit.

If you somehow don't already have Angry Birds Seasons you can click either of these links to pick it up.                                                            App Store | Google Play