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Design

Byte The App: 5 Must See Apps Of The 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.

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.

8mm Vintage Camera [iPhone, iPod touch]

If you have the

Hipstamatic app

for your iPhone and taking retro-looking photos of your cat just isn’t cutting it anymore, you may need to upgrade to moving images. This app, from

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Nexvio Inc.

, features different effects like dust and scratches, retro colors, flickering, light leaks, and frame jitters so you can relive the days of cinema past. Shoot grainy footage of a house party like it was a 1920s speakeasy, or go into the woods at night and use the jitter button to shoot Sam Raimi’s

The Evil Dead

frame for frame.

Synse [iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad]

Control music and non-generative visuals in

Michael Becker and Christian Sander's

VDJ

app, the first of its kind. It has three different modes—Paris, Fluid, Lifetime—which allow you to control the music using a visual touchscreen interface. For instance, in the mode called Paris a city scene is broken down into a grid structure with each component part representing a different instrument. Touching a region will light it up while playing the corresponding sound simultaneously, touch another to add to your audiovisual composition—this app’s not so much about music production, more an interactive audiovisual gaming experience.

Precorder: Pre-recording Video Camera [iPhone, iPod touch]

Inspired by the terrifying but sublime footage of jumping sharks that featured on the BBC’s

Planet Earth

, or more accurately, the camera technique used to film it, this app by

Ben Kamens and Jason Rosoff

constantly buffers video but only saves the last few seconds when you press record. The idea being that you can wait for that amazing/hideously embarrassing moment to happen, then press record safe in the knowledge you won’t miss those precious few beginning seconds. Or on the opposite end of the spectrum, it negates having to film hours of footage in anticipation of getting a great moment. Below is footage of the shark jump from

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Planet Earth

because it’s so awesome.

Flipboard [iPad]

This is a great app because it takes social networking sites—Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, and Flickr—(providing you use them) and turns them into a personal digital magazine, with your online life becoming the content. You can flip through and see who’s LOLing at what, who’s split with whom, who’s

OMG

so amazed at what event, or check on Flickr updates and browse websites all in a magazine-style interface. This elegantly designed and well-executed piece of software provides the best customized, glossy mag-like experience we’ve seen yet. If you have an iPad then get it, it’s free.

Kafkara [Android]
Using augmented reality, you can create slightly freaky looking talking avatars with people’s faces using this free app by Clive Cox, inspired by Franz Kafka’s short story “The Metamorphosis.” Once you have a face—you can choose friends, enemies, famous people—it texture-maps the image onto a selection of, currently, three different types of bodies, one of which is a flying wasp-like creature. The avatars’ lips move when you type in speech and the app uses a radar to see what other avatars have been created nearby. It’s pretty basic at the moment, using low-polygon 3D models, but the guy’s looking for more designs, so if you’re a 3D designer who wants to showcase your work, contact him at his website.