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Games

Byte The App: 5 Must See Apps Of The Week 3/3

The app stores are teeming with new releases, but who has time to go through them all? We do. Bringing you a selection of the most interesting, creative, and innovative apps each week.

The app stores are teeming with new releases, but who has time to go through them all? We do. Bringing you a selection of the most interesting, creative, and innovative apps each week. Submit your suggestions for next week in the comments below.

AR Invaders [iPhone 4, iPod touch]

We’ve all seen the films, be it

The Day the Earth Stood Still

,

Independence Day

, or

Mars Attacks

. The alien invasion starts with their ominous presence in the skies, usually in the shape of a flying saucer (because advanced alien technology would

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definitely

look like dishware), and while an alien invasion would no doubt be terrifying, it would also be kind of awesome, right? Which is where this app comes in. Using the power of AR, this space invaders app lets you put the alien menace in the city, town, or field where you live. You get to zap the alien hordes into non-existence while people around you wonder why you’re pointing your phone in the air and frantically moving it about.

Divide [Android]
When it comes to the human mind, a split personality can lead to all sorts of problems. At best you’ll become a supervillain or start a cult fight club. At worst you’ll go insane and end up in a mental hospital. On a smartphone, however, a split personality can be something beneficial. Divide from Enterproid lets your phone to behave as though it were two separate devices, allowing you multiple profiles—one for personal, one for business, with the work one registering with your work email and taking on their security, so appeasing worried IT departments. Then you’ll have the phone equivalent of business on top, party on the sides.

NBA Jam [iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad]
Remember NBA Jam? It was an amazing game, if for no other reason than the commentator’s catchphrases alone. The shrieks of “He’s on fire!”, “Slam-a-Jamma!” and other overexcited exclamations gave you an extra incentive to win, just so you could hear them. And the palm-sweating game made it onto a few platforms over the years: arcade, SNES, Mega Drive (or Genesis depending on your location on the planet), Game Boy. And as of last month, it’s finally made it onto iOS. If you’re a fan then watching the video below featuring a player slam dunking a flaming basketball will be enough to make you want it. Immediately. And it has big head mode.

Opinionaided [iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad]
Making decisions is hard work. Do you take the blue pill or the red pill? Chicken or beef? Tea or coffee? Stay or go? Left or right? A total minefield. Well, as with most things, there’s now an app for that. Opinionaided allows you to build a profile (or use your Facebook account) and connect with other users who can vote or leave a comment on things you ask. So instead of wrestling with indecision, just crowdsource your query and at the tap of a button you’ll have the opinionated answers of strangers in real-time. What could possibly go wrong? Android version is coming soon.

WolframAlpha [iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android]
And so we go from the opinions of everybody to the opinions of experts with this app version of the WolframAlpha website. You can ask this app the weight of a Argentinosaurus and it’ll tell you the answer (75 to 90 short tons by the way). Or you could flip through the various examples and browse subjects like Life Sciences or Music. You can enter names, dates, stocks, formulae, calculations, measurements, anything and it will answer by breaking up the query into categories which you can click on and explore. It’s a “computational knowledge engine,” basically a bit like having one of those spaceship super computers in your pocket.