Hanx Writer

Once again we've gathered together the best iPhone apps and best iPad apps and games released this week! We'll regularly dig up the best, freshest social, music, photography and productivity apps for iOS, not to mention action games, shooter games, puzzle games, and anything in between. Come on and dig in to see our favorite App Store releases over the last seven days!

Light Apprentice

Light Apprentice is the first episode in a growing family of mobile gamebooks. You need to guide young Nate in a quest to defend his people from the evil Yhrosian Empire. Light Apprentice mixes meaningful decisionmaking with reaction-based minigames in a fantasy world cast in a graphic novel art style.

For a good old-fashioned story of good versus evil in a refreshing new kind of package, try out Light Apprentice.

Phoenix Wright Trilogy

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is the original legal sim game. Players set about defending their clients, and questioning a wide range of interesting witnesses in the pursuit of justice. You need to collect evidence from crime scenes and present it at just the right time to win your cases, as well as question people of interested outside the courtroom. The first two episodes of Ace Attorney are available for free, but then you can buy the rest and the two other games through in-app purchases.

Phoenix Wright is the most fun you'll have when it comes to lawyers.

Pako

Pako is a simple racing game where you have to avoid cops for as long as possible without crashing. Crashing happens really easily, so you'll need to have sharp reflexes to avoid authorities, other vehicles, and buildings in a variety of settings. The controls are as dead simple as the graphics, but you'll still find plenty of challenge to chew on here.

All in all, Pako's a great, straightforward romp with a solid soundtrack.

Size DOES Matter

Size DOES Matter is a rhythm-based reaction game where players need to expand, retract, and reposition a bar so that it fits through gaps of incoming barriers. Every stage is set to some awesome chiptunes, and you're rewarded points on how well you squeeze through the gaps, and multipliers for avoiding collisions. Climb the leaderboards and brag to your Game Center buddies.

Size DOES Matter puts the soundtrack front and center, strapping you in for the ride.

Spellfall

Spellfall is a fresh fantasy-themed freemium match-3 game with strong 3D graphics. Every level is framed as a battle between a wizard and a challenging foe, be it monster, man, or something in between. Tiles are all elementally-themed, offering tactical possibilities thanks to certain creature vulnerabilities, your own magical skills, and the gear you're using. You only get so many swaps before the enemy gets a turn to attack you, so make them count. Gather up coins along the way in order to upgrade your gear and take on bigger and badder challenges.

Spellfall is a highly polished puzzle title in a growing sea of RPG-esque matching games.

Hanx Writer

Hanx Writer

Hanx Writer is a dead simple but highly polished text editor for iPad that gives users a taste of old-school typewriters. This app was worked on with Tom Hanks, who has a well-known love for the machines, and you can see it in the app. Audio feedback on paper, return, and keystrokes have all been closely considered. Options allow you to do away with modern conveniences like blinking cursors or backspace keys, though the app works great with Bluetooth keyboards too. Final text can be copied or shared out to any receptive iOS apps. There are a variety of typewriter skins available through in-app purchases if the classic black one included in the free version doesn't do it for you.

Old-school authors will have a distinct appreciation for what Hanx Writer has to offer.

Vibrance

Why stick with the filters a photography app gives you? Vibrance lets you cook up your own with a wide selection of adjustments. Once you import your image, you can set the opacity for the filter being applied, then set up to ten colors to be filtered, each with their own saturation, contrast, and brightness values. Once you're happy with the filter, it can be applied to the photo then cropped and exported.

If you're bored with preset filters in your current photography apps, Vibrance will be a playground.

Humin

Humin is rich new contact management app that helps you remember how you met people. You can geotag meetings, see secondary relationships, and get quick access to all of their important contact information. Humin will even pop up if it finds out that someone you know is nearby, offering an opportunity to catch up with old friends.

Humin is a very ambitious take on the address book, and could change how you deal with your contacts.

Folia

Folia is a promising new way of writing. Beyond merely collaborating with peers for your documents, links can be made within documents which can embed other relevant documents or websites. Anyone you're sharing the Folia with can leave their annotations in the text too. Additional tools like highlighting, strikeout, and frames help you further edit your documents, plus standard text editing like bullet lists and subheadings.

For those that work on documents that need more than just a snippet of text as a cross-reference, Folia is for you.

Snipp3t

Snipp3t

Some folks find themselves readily embroiled in the news of celebrities, and there's always plenty to catch up on. In a surprise move this week, Microsoft released Snipp3t, an app designed specifically to follow your favorite personalities. Every one of them has a story timeline, plus you can buddy up with other users that are following the same celebrities to gossip. Stories for celebrities all have comment sections, so you can hear what the buzz is all about.

Whether you're interested in Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Lebron James, or anybody else in the limelight, Snipp3t will make sure you're always up to date.

Your favorite iPhone and iPad apps from this week?

A lot happens in the iOS App Store in a week, so feel free to leave a comment with your favorite recent release on iPhone and iPad! We're always looking for more, so don't be shy to drop us a line when you find something exciting!