Zombieville USA 2 for iPhone

Zombieville USA 2 is a side-scrolling arcade shooter that expands on the potential of the original Zombieville USA by adding tons of weapons, more unlockable content (including playable characters), and an upgradable skill system that makes for some fun RPG elements.
The gameplay has remained gratifyingly simple: you run from left to right, kill as many zombies as possible in 2.5 minutes (or longer, if you want to push your luck), and smash boxes and other objects for money and ammo. The RPG elements come in as you choose your buildout for each level, picking three weapons and three skills. You start the game with a pistol, shotgun, and baseball bat, but you can buy and pay to upgrade almost 20 weapons in all, everything from a minigun to a chainsaw, and different effects (such as knockback capabilities) make for interesting choices depending on which kinds of zombies you'll be facing in the game's unlockable (and increasingly zombie-infested) levels. A wide variety of upgradable skills offers similarly challenging choices, as you decide whether to focus on certain kinds of weapons, or invest in something like speed or the ability to find more ammo or money.
What makes Zombieville USA 2 so much fun, in addition to its cartoonish gore, is that the complexity of these choices doesn't weigh down the gameplay or the interface at all, and the ability to experiment with--and power up--different skills and weapons encourages quick 2.5-minute sessions as you build up your arsenal and skill base.
We'd love to see even more levels--and skill and weapon choices, too--but Zombieville USA 2 is already a solid game, a worthwhile download for fans of side-scrolling shooters.

CHIVE Pro for iPhone

Chive Pro is a mobile app for fans of Internet entertainment site TheChive, with which you can view, navigate, and discuss frequently updated Chive photo and video galleries and other Chive content.
The app lets you browse a subset of Chive content from the site, with tabs for the latest photos and videos as well as tabs for discussions ("Buzz"), top-rated content, and categories such as "Awesome," "FLBP" (Future Lower Back Problems), "Gaming," "Movies," "Photoshop," and "WTF." Navigation is smooth and quick-loading, with an integrated video player and good use of the touch interface for flipping through photos. You can also easily vote to like or dislike a piece of content, read and post comments, and connect through Facebook.
Anyone unfamiliar with TheChive should definitely check out the site (or the TheChive Lite app) before downloading the paid app, just to familiarize yourself with its particular insidery brand of random, prurient, college-fueled, and/or sports-related Internet ephemera. If you're interested in viewing young ladies' bottoms--always PG-13 but with an R-rated sensibility--then Chive Pro may be the app for you. If not, give this app a wide berth.

TGI Black Friday for Android

The TGI Black Friday app doesn't just provide you with a comprehensive listing of Black Friday deals, it also gives you some nifty tools to make sure your shopping experience goes smoothly.
The most important part of the TGI Black Friday app is, of course, the coupons. The app, along with its sister site tgiblackfriday.com, aggregates an enormous number of Black Friday advertisements, many of which are leaked up to a month ahead of time. The coupons from these ads are then listed in the app, and can be browsed by date added, store name, or category. Don't feel like swiping through a bunch of listings? You can also search for products or stores straight away. TGI Black Friday even lets you download and view PDF scans of the advertisements directly from within the app, which is great for verifying the legitimacy of deals.
One thing we love about TGI Black Friday is its built-in shopping list creator. While browsing through coupons, you can use it to keep track of everything you plan on buying. And of course, when the big day hits, all you have to do is fire up your list to make sure you haven't forgotten anything. We also appreciate the app's sharing tool, which lets you share any coupon with friends via Gmail, Facebook, or any of your other installed apps. It sends the product name, sale price, and even a link to the listing on tgiblackfriday.com.
Overall, we highly recommend TGI Black Friday. It's great not only for planning your after-Thanksgiving shopping trips beforehand, but also for referencing items when the big day finally hits. Its list of coupons is comprehensive, and it's sharing and shopping list tools can't be beat.

PRI for Android

Take your favorite public radio programs from PRI with you!.

Price Check by Amazon for iPhone

With a tap of your finger, Amazon's Price Check app for iPhone lets you cross-check prices against those on Amazon.com. Big time shoppers should definitely consider adding it to their download queues.
Using Price Check is as simple as it gets. Just fire it up, and point your phone's camera at the bar code of a product while you're out shopping. The app will then pull up the matching product (if available) for you to see its price on Amazon.com. If you can't access the bar code, you can also search by typing or saying the name of the product, or by snapping a picture of it (for books, CDs, DVDs, or video games). Price Check even lets you go one step further and purchase the product, if you find that Amazon's prices are cheaper.
For frequent shoppers, downloading this app is a no-brainer. It's unbelievably simple, and in our trials, each of the three search options worked beautifully.

Tote Notes for Android

Ever made plans or laid out action steps while on a business call, and wish you had taken notes? Maybe you were on your Bluetooth headset while driving, or you couldn't find a pen. Or maybe you just plain hate scrawling anything on paper at all.

Enter Tote Notes, a brilliantly conceived app that pops up after voice calls so you can dictate notes before you forget any important details. It not only records voice notes, it e-mails them to you, and even transcribes them to text so you can easily search for them later.
Here's how it works. Download the app and go through the quick setup process. First, tell it whether you want Tote Notes to activate after every call, or only after calls during "work hours" (8 a.m. to 6 p.m.). Next, enter the e-mail address that you want your Tote Notes sent to. From there, every time you end a call, a Tote Notes dialog box will pop up asking whether you want to record a note. If you do, anything you say will automatically be recorded and e-mailed as an MP3 file, along with the contact info of the caller (if it's saved in your phone's address book), and a transcript of your recorded note in the body of the e-mail. In all of our trials, the app worked like a charm, and the transcriptions (powered by Google Voice) were more or less spot on.
The free version of Tote Notes only allows a maximum recording time of 30 seconds; the Pro gives you 2 minutes. Either should still be enough time to get out all of the important details.
One thing we think Tote Notes can improve on is its settings; we wish we could set a custom activity period. For instance, we might want to set our workday for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Thursdays (wouldn't that be lovely). Also, it would be really nice if we could set Tote Notes to pop up only after calls with specific contacts.
Overall, we think Tote Notes is a great tool for busy professionals who often arrange meetings, make deals, or discuss other important details over the phone. It provides a uniquely convenient way to take notes, works beautifully, and best of all, it's free.

Walmart for iPhone

The Wal-Mart app for iOS does a great job laying out shopping categories for its huge inventory, letting you browse to items quickly. The interface includes categories on the left navigation bar that let you drill down to specifics, and a bigger window on the right to view results.
The Wal-Mart app takes advantage of the iPad's screen real estate well, by keeping navigation and viewing windows all on the same screen. Once you've drilled down to a category, you can get more product viewing area by swiping the navigation bar to the side. Then you can swipe up our down to view all the listings in that category. We really like how the app is logically laid out, allowing you to switch gears completely midsearch and start over in only a couple of touches.
The app has a few handy extras as well. You can sign in to your account for easy purchasing, set your local store to find out the deals associated with that location, and even get directions on a map to the store of your choice. This is particularly helpful if you want to line up some deals before running down to your nearest location--handy when you need a gift fast.
Overall, the Wal-Mart app is a great way to shop on the iPad with tons of categories to browse, an easy-to-use interface, and tools for finding nearby bargains. If you're a Wal-Mart shopper and want to browse items on the iPad, this app is perfect for the job.