Photo editors are available by the dozens on the iOS platform, but a very few of them create a niche for themselves and leave a smile on users face. Well, Gifture is just the app that lives by this statement to the fullest and does the job in the best possible way, especially when it comes to easily creating beautifully animated photos.

Created by Toaast a developer that has been quite loyal to the App Store; Gifture is an app that does make a mark for itself and lives up to a few expectations of the user to say the least about its productivity.

On firing up Gifture for the first time, the app may appear to be just another Instagram wannabe. On the other hand, this might just work great for users who have been hooked to Instagram and now look for a much better alternative. Icons on the bottom (in Portrait orientation) direct you to different parts of the app, Feed shows your friends' updates as well as Popular stream images from others. The Activity displays the likes, comments, and favorites for animations and users you are following, and Account lets you view and change your in-app settings.

One great thing, and possibly the most applauded feature of Gifture, is the ability to create and share animated GIFs from either your iPhone/iPod Touch's Camera Roll or immediately from original shots. Better still, this free app allows users to accomplish GIF animations in a span of few seconds. "Choose from several awesome options to capture a sequence of photos then style it by varying the playback rate, and adding one of many filter effects to transform it into an animation you’ll want to share."

Users can also use Gifture for editing and sharing of their individual image files, just the way they would with Instagram or other photo-sharing apps. Gifture is a good option to include, but if you are primarily looking to share standalone images, then it is better suggested to use a more dedicated app for that task as Gifture's filter selection and its sharing options are limited.

Overall, despite sporting few drawbacks, this brand new app has an impressive level of user interaction. Also, being available only to iOS 5.0 and later, it has certain fluidity to its name. Highly-recommended for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch (4th Gen) users, especially if you want to break the monotony with some animated fun.

Related Links:
Developer Website
Gifture Support
Gifture on Twitter
Gifture on Facebook
Gifture on TNW

We have played a lot of zombies games and some of them have really blown us away with the level of realism packed inside. This is what Samurai vs Zombie is all about. An action-packed game with oodles of characters and wonderful surroundings.

The game was created by Glu Mobile, a developer that has joined the A-league of smartphone game developers long time ago. Since than, Glu has produced some of the most amazing game titles such as Frontline Commando, Blood & Glory, Guitar Hero, Gun Bros Multiplayer and many more. Samurai vs Zombie really sticks to the legacy of great gaming fan.

If you think about Samurai vs Zombie as a run of the mill mindless game, think again. The app has a certain feel to it which helps it to create a niche in the casual gaming segment. What Glu Mobile really achieves here is creating a game out-of-the-box without making it look like a mash up of their past titles.

Samurai vs Zombies defense puts players in the shoes of a heroic samurai who has sworn to defend the gates of his sacred village against the oncoming horde of brain-dead attackers. That onslaught just happens to be coming from swarms of zombies who are hungry for some samurai bite. Game graphics are really neat with some really nice visuals thrown in here and there, keeping in mind the Freemium legacy of Glu Mobile.

The controls of the game are the definition of simplicity. Hold to the left of the screen to go left and hold the right for right. Players are blessed with additional power-ups and ability to call in reinforcements that sit on the bottom of the screen and can be commanded with a single touch.

Players are not left to their own fate for defeating the brain-dead junkies. Aside from being armed with a bow and arrow and a powerful sword, players also have full ability to seek help in the form of summonable samurais that will join in their fight. Archers, swordsmen, warriors, and eventually even riflemen and heroes on horseback will come to help.

Overall, the game is full of action, adventure, hack-and-slash, fast-paced gameplay, awesome visuals so-on and so-forth. It is a freemium app and hence the need of integrating in-app purchases was a must for Glu, but interestingly players need not make any in-app purchase to smoothly glide through in-game levels. A very big boon to enjoy this marvel of a game.

Related Links:
Developer Website
Samurai vs Zombies on App Store
Samurai vs Zombies on Google Play
Glu Mobile on Facebook

Fring was the first ever video-calling solution to offer free group video-conferencing and in recent updates, it has also offered free unlimited voice calls to other Fring users without any purchase of credits or tariff plans.

In today's mobile industry, Android, iOS and recently Symbian seem to be having a ball with developers queuing up to develop apps for these operating systems. Another first has arrived on Google Android, Symbian and iOS.

Fring further heightens the video-calling experience with exceptional video-call quality. This is made possible with the use of DVQ (Dynamic Video Quality) technology integrated, which automatically adjusts the call quality according to the users bandwidth speed and connection strength.

The focus of the app is connectivity and it does a pretty sweet job without breaking a sweat. Loaded with technology and advanced features, Fring is a must have app on all supported devices. There are multiple competitor apps like Nimbuzz, Viber, Tango, which do the job well, but they miss out on the group video-calling feature and that is what makes Fring to stand out.

Related Links:
Official Website
Fring on Nokia OVI Store
Fring on Android
Fring on App Store
Fring on Facebook
Fring on Twitter

This one is for the serious business users or people who are a bit too obsessed with lists and locations. Catch is an app that packs-in a great punch and does its job really well. The app helps in capturing of ideas, picture-notes, jotting down written notes, attaching reminders and the likes with the ability to sync to the cloud and being available whenever and wherever.

Created by Catch.com, a Top Developer on the Android Market, the app is well executed and on many instances it does come at par with Evernote, if not surpass it.

The app has been updated and has introduced a new feature called Streams. Under this, users get the option to keep all their data private or share and collaborate with others. Moreover, the app provides the users with three free streams to get started with and easily enables to invite and manage contributors.

The app takes a plethora of cues from the Evernote app, but still somewhere down the line holds its own firm ground. Evernote, for example, facilitates the access of notes in a jiffy with the inclusion of a dashboard on smaller devices, allows for the addition of text, voice recordings and multiple images to any note. In Catch app all of those notes are synced in the cloud and then made available on any Android and iOS device.

The Free version allows users to save files and use them for future reference. It also has a premium version up for offer called Catch Pro, with the availability of 10 streams and upload of 1GB of content each month. Catch Premier validates 50 streams and 5GB of new content every month. A fairly moderate user can easily get through with the free Catch version, but the heavy-duty professionals could advance to the paid versions.

Overall, the app is great and really does match up to Evernote on many counts; surpassing it with its slick user-interface which seems more appealing than that of its rival. So now it all comes down to personal choice for the user. Available on both Android & iOS, Catch is the app to have for memory gatherers.

Related Links:
Developer Website

Want to do more than just chatting with your Fb friends? It just could be that Facebook have heard your plea with the Facebook Messenger. Now, not only you have the option to chat with your friends, but also share your world with them in a full-fledged manner, all from your smartphone. (Umm..quite literally).

Facebook messenger opens a door to an all-new multimedia sharing world as it is now possible to share pictures, videos, current locations, and also have group chat with just one click.

Usually Blackberry owners were the more privileged ones with the BBM services, and only through BBM were the above mentioned activities possible as even the new iMessage feature on the iOS 5 is limited to iOS products. Facebook messenger makes complete sense, as almost everyone with a smartphone is hooked onto Facebook.

The biggest strength of the Messenger and the attribute which will help it to rub shoulders with the mainstream IMs will be the cross-platform support; Android users can happily share files with iOS users without any limitations and restrictions. Facebook messenger on many occasions feels, responds and looks like the Blackberry Messenger. For instance, in the updated version 1.5, users can now see when the recipient is typing.

Another big plus is the ability to send text messages from the app to non-Fb messenger users. Its a complete IM solution with the most intuitive form of sharing integrated into the entire system, at the same time, not being platform-specific.

The updated version is available across Android, iOS and Blackberry, and brings in support for additional 12 languages for iOS and 22 languages for Android. There is also a new-improved way of messaging contacts whom you message most often. The whole User-Interface of the product is very clean and also to a certain degree bears a resemblance to the Facebook mobile app.

Facebook Messenger is a free app and has no limitations when it comes to usage and functionality. There is also no activation fees after a certain time involved. All Fb addicts should give this app a try and discover the endless possibilities of Social Networking via Facebook.

Blackberry users visit fb.me/msgr from your Blackberry Smartphone, as direct search does not show Facebook Messenger in the App World.

Related Links:
Facebook Messenger Website
Facebook Messenger for Android
Facebook Messenger for iOS

Usually while browsing the web on the smartphone, the tiny screen is not the only distraction, it is the clutter of the mobile web-pages and the numerous adverts. So if this is the source of your distraction, then it is time to install the Readability app on your device and make reading a pleasurable experience.

Developed by Readability, LLC., the app is a great product and really does the job without beating around the bush. The Safari browser on iOS 5 already has this feature, but users who want a more personalized experience will surely dive-in to try this one.

The Readability app turns any website into a clean and easy to read experience; you can also save a given web page to read the content at a later time. To a users' surprise, the app works very well and intelligently finds out the content to be ironed out of sight. Users can catch up on reading what they have saved with the free Readability add-on for the web browser.

The activation of the Readability feature helps in making the entire web-page layout a clean, uncluttered, elegant, single-column reading view, with the typography provided by Hoefler & Frere-Jones.

Users who are very particular about their reading material will love the customization options such as adjusting type size, contrast and margins according to their liking. Moreover, with Facebook integration, users can post their favorite reads along with comments on the social-networking site in a jiffy.

Overall, the app is great and with the web-browser add-on and the dedicated app, reading articles on the device will no more be annoying. Moreover, users of Readability enjoy an unlimited, searchable archive that syncs on the web. As soon as users are done reading an article, simply tap it to archive.

Related Links:
Official Website
Application Support

Wikipedia might have received a wide array of custom apps on the iOS platform already, but Wikiamo could just be one of the best of such apps out there so far. As an intuitive Wikipedia viewer, it makes the entire reading process a pure joy.

Developed by Satoshi Nakagawa, the app is really uncluttered and provides the readers with a host of options for the best Wikipedia article viewing.

Basically, Wikiamo formats the original article for comfortable reading. This is not all, however, as readers can easily bookmark articles for later or just for ease-of-access. The history feature is really a great addition to the app, as it could also become a source for future references.

iPod Touch and iPad (Wi-Fi only) users always find themselves in a fix with on-the-go internet connectivity, this is where the page cache feature helps. Under this, readers can cache a article and access it offline anytime. Also the app adds some very helpful features such as, links to articles in other available languages as well as multilingual incremental search.
Users can also decide on the articles' font size, use auto-rotate, shake the device to change page, or use Wikipedia search bar when the app is fired-up.

Wikiamo is said to be the best free Wikipedia reader on the App Store. There is an alternative to this app called Wikipedia Mobile, but it retails at $2.99 and offers no extra features above Wikiamo.

Related Links:
Official Website
Developer Page
Wikiamo on iPhoneAppReview

Miss going to the carnival and playing those standard carnie games? Well, here's your chance to bring the fun wherever you are or simply satisfy your nostalgia for the old times.

Can Knockdown is the electronic version of those throw-a-ball-on-a-stack-of-bottles carnival game that you might remember playing as a kid.

The game is created by Infinite Games. The company is no newbie to the world of portable gaming, having released several games in different platforms like Symbian, PPC, Palm, and even N-Gage. For their iPhone and iPad game titles, the list includes Sky Force and Sky Force Reloaded, iQuarium, Sailboat Championship and among others.

Playing Can Knockdown is just as easy as you remember it. All you have to do is flick the ball and send it flying down a stack of cans at the edge of the screen. It's simple and fun yet highly addictive gaming.

The levels start off easy with just three cans. As you progress, the number of cans increase and the stacks get a bit complicated. Of course, you get several shots at your disposal (five to be exact) so don't worry if you don't get all of the cans at first throw. The better your aim though the more points you get hence, it's always good to polish those throwing skills.

Since it's an iPad game, it does take liberties in adding a few special and unique touches to the traditional game. For instance, there are exploding cans that will help you topple down the stack much faster when you hit it. Other times you can get an extra ball if you hit a particular can. To add to the challenge, there is a set time wherein you have to knock down all the cans.

Can Knockdown might feature a simple gameplay but it's highly entertaining. Even though the game might not be something you'll play for hours and hours in one sitting, it's definitely a great diversion to have for those little pockets of time where you find yourself not doing anything.

Related Links:
Can Knockdown on iTunes
Can Knockdown on DroidGamers
Can Knockdown on Me and My Droid
Infinite Dreams Official Website

Draw Something and join the craze.

Remember 'pictionary" the boardgame where you draw a picture and your team mate must guess quickly to win. Imagine playing this on an smart phone or iPad and you've got the newest app sensation, Draw Something.

You are the artist and you are given a palette of colors and a word to draw with your finger on the screen. The object is to get your opponent to guess it correctly. If they do, you both get play money that can be used to buy new paint colors and brush shapes so essentially you are improving your skills as wells as the game.

This app is literally sweeping the globe bringing a classic fun game to social networking. iPad owners are in particular falling into addiction. iPhone phones and Androids have some limitations when it comes to the screen size that can be frustrating but they've still made it the world's number one app (overtaking Angry Birds).

Now, you don't have to be artist to enjoy or win the games you play. However, those with a true heart of the artist will love to contribute to the website and it's a super way to promote your talent or be amazed by other creative types. Check out the Official Fan Website (see link below) to get hints, tricks, funny facts, top drawings, news and more.

Related Links:
Draw Something Official Fan Page
Draw Something on Facebook
Draw Something Official Website

Instagram is a beautiful way to share your world. It's a photo and moment sharing reinvented with lashings of retro style. Snap a picture, choose a filter to transform it and then post it to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

The app is taking over the world with around 30 million active users; it was an exclusive Apple product until last week when the Android version was released and racked up more than 1 million downloads in 12 hours. And now Instagram was officially taken over by Facebook for a nifty sum of $1 billion.

Instagram places your photos into a square shape, in homage to both the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras, with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Then together with the filters you give your snaps a retro look.

Like so many of the coolest apps around, it manages to combine the tactile feel of something retro and make it accessible in the cyber world.

Share your photos in a simple photo stream with friends to see and follow your friends' photos with the click of a single button. Every day you open up Instagram, you'll see new photos from your friends and also creative people in your networks from around the world.

Instagram is fast, it's stylish and a great social networking tool that lets you to share snap shots of your life with friends and families. You can also use your Instagram on iPhones, iPads or iPod Touch running iOS 3.1.2 or above (download link below). It's also available on Android camera phone running 2.2 or higher.

Related Links:
Instagram Website
Instagram on Twitter
Instagram on Facebook
Itunes Store
Google Play
Instagram Blog