So, best iPad apps time again: that bit of the week where yours truly casts a weary, TFT screen-addled eye over the finest offerings from the App Store. Apple’s touchy feelie tablet is only as good as the software you choose to dump on it, and we’ve sifted through the gubbins to bring you “deets” on the best – both free and, well, not free. Take a gander at our best iPad apps of the week right here, then get thee to iTunes to grab them.
Worms 2: Armageddon
£2.99 iTunes
No retro gamer worth his or her salt can deny the simple power of Worms: a turn-based strategy classic that sees you attempt to destroy your opponents’ four-strong teams of annelid assassins while attempting to keep your own alive. A wide and bizarre range of weaponry and gadgets awaits your worms’ fingertips (yes, we know they don’t have fingertips) as they do battle over a series of randomly-generated landscapes. Hilarious chaos is sure to ensue, whether you play alone or with a group of mates via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or the old-fashioned “pass de iPad on de left hand side” method. One of the best iPad apps for multiplayer funsome yet.
Flip Clock HD
£Free iTunes
Whack your iPad in a dock and you can use it as a nifty digital photo frame, and with this free app you can also use it as a hipster-friendly flip clock that not only shows you the time but also the weather for your location (and a five-day forecast too). Its alarm function allows you to rise to your favourite playlist to boot: we recommend “Wake Up” by The Arcade Fire, or “Morning Has Broken” by Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam.
TED
£Free iTunes
The TED Conference may have been mercilessly mocked in a recent Stuff White People Like update (“When a white person finds out that you have a PhD and attempts to engage you in a conversation about String Theory, you should know that all of their understanding comes from a twenty-minute talk they listened to while running on a treadmill.”) but these talks from scientists, visionaries and other brainiacs are frequently enlightening – and this official app features over 700 of them, making it one of the best iPad apps for casual learning we’ve seen yet.
ReBirth for iPad
£8.99 iTunes
If Damon Albarn can make the next Gorillaz album on his iPad, what’s stopping you crafting your own electro-opus on yours? There are a number of music apps of varying levels of quality already on the scene, and they’re now joined by ReBirth for iPad, which recreates three legendary dance music devices – the Roland TB-303 bass synth, Roland TR-808 drum machine and Roland TR-909 drum machine – and plonks them under a lovely-looking interface.
Lego Creationary
£Free iTunes
We got all excited when we first spotted this, thinking it would let us build the awesome Lego pirate ship we could never afford as a young ‘un – then bolt a pair of jumbo jet wings onto it to make it more awesomer still. Sadly it doesn’t, but it’s still very much worth a look. It’s a game that tasks you with guessing the thing being built from Lego bricks: the faster you guess, the more points you win.
