Free Apps Roundup for January 4, 2013

This week on the Free Apps Roundup: Happy New Year. You know what that means? Many developers are celebrating by offering games and apps free of charge for a limited time. It also means you’ve probably decided that you want to go to lose weight, quit smoking and workout more often. Walking can help you with both of those things, and it’s just leisurely enough that you can still play games on your iOS device. As such, I have a list of apps and games to make that time interesting. Why don’t you download a few and go for a walk?

The Top Three:

• Om Nom: Candy Flick – If you’ve ever played Cut the Rope, then you know how irresistibly fun it is to give candy to Om Nom. This game gives an extra dimension to Om Nom, meaning he’s now 3D! Actually, this game is an Augmented Reality game. You can either print out the target on a printer or use another iOS device as the target. All there is to do is flick yummy treats into your adorable little monster’s mouth. Fun for all.
• PicsArt Photo Studio – iOS is pretty good at taking pictures on its own, but if you want to manipulate your pictures, you’ll need another app. This app lets you perform tons of manipulations, apply masks, stickers, effects, insert clipart, callouts and more. You can even use this app to draw.
• Blueprint 3D – This is a really fun game with a unique style. You’re given a blueprint with tons of seemingly unrelated white lines on it. Your job is to manipulate these lines in 3D until they align and form the image they were meant to make. You can even take your own pictures and make them into puzzles of your own. Free for a limited time. Plus, you can get the iPad version for free, too. See link below.

Free for a limited time:

• Localscope – Your window to the world, this app lets you explore your surroundings, discover and find places, people and information around you using geo-tagged data.
• Fitness: 100 Ready Workouts – Did you make another empty threat in the direction of a workout facility? This app might help you make that empty threat into a real workout, or 100 to be more specific.
• Word Derby – What two things could combine better than horse racing and word making? I have no idea. But there’s a decent chance that you’ll have fun racing to pick letters to make the most points by making words in this multiplayer game. It’s like Scrabble mixed with horseplay.
• Souvenir – Turn the pictures on your iPad into virtual photo books with covers you design. Take those photo books and put them on a virtual bookshelf.
• Battlemass – Play matches on a boardgame-like tile map in this turn based strategy game. Each turn consists of combat, harvest and build phases.
• Halftone – This is a really fun image utility app. It lets you take your pictures and make them into comic strips. And who doesn’t like comics? No one.
• Woozzle – Like puzzle games? Here’s another for your to try. The game itself is simple, but it’s hard to master and will definitely keep you puzzled over 135 different levels.
• Woozzle HD – The same for iPad.
• Solitaire Double-Deck HD – Solitaire is basically the reason why computers exist. This game has three different flavors of solitaire: Klondike, Double-Deck and Half-Deck Solitaire.
• Blueprint 3D HD – The same as Blueprint 3D, just for your iPad.
• Starship Troopers: Invasion Mobile Infantry – Experience the excitement of taking out giant space arachnids, or as we Marines like to call them: “BUGS!” This is a fast-paced arcade style shooter. Hoo Rah!