Oh look, loyal readers! It’s time for the Free App Roundup!
As always, these apps are free for a limited time, so act fast and get them while you can for absolutely nothing!
Zip! Zilch! Nada!
Let’s go!
Designing your habitats is incredibly easy.
BuggyFun (iOS iPad, $1.99 FREE)
It may sound cliché, but one of my favorite things as a kid, apart from my GameBoy, was the ant farm that an errant cousin got me for my birthday. Unlike the classic ones, of which I ended up with a few of, mine was comprised of a clear gel and in a cylinder. Watching the little guys create the infrastructure was really quick incredible. They’re a little harder to find these days and BuggyFun steps in on a rudimentary level. But in terms of the kiddos? It’s a blast. Three different bugs, each with their own characteristics of course, are there to choose from and this time you, not the insects themselves, get to design the home they live in. Plot the layout the way your child sees fit in a manner that’s easy and intuitive with just a few different types of map blocks. The limited choice is actually quite versatile and in messing around with it, I never had any issues in making what I wanted. In the vein of the long-vaunted Tamagotchi, you can add food to feed them and keep them happy. It’s colorful, cute, and quite a bit of fun.
Apollo MIDI interface with your Mac is an incredible feature.
Nice to Be Your Friend Synth (iOS, $2.99 FREE)
One of my favorite things is music and its something I’ve been making for a very long time. NTBYFS isn’t going to replace my Korg anytime soon, but it is actually quite useful in terms of getting something down quickly when I don’t have access to any of my instruments. At least that’s what I believed it to be at first. It turns out this powerful little app can actually do quite a bit, from supporting MIDI input and output, the ability to control sequencers and triggers, and even Audiobus support which allows for quick recording. The Bluetooth capability surrounding NTBYFS allows you to send your MIDI signal directly to your Mac, as long as you have Apollo running on your receiving device. Needless to say, it’s not going to be replacing my standard controllers, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised in its capability as of recent. As for the installed effects, which personally take a backseat to the controlling ability of the app, you get the standard far of pianos, stringed instruments, and an assortment of synthesizer. But the “multiplayer” function of the app is the most interesting. The second keyboard you’ll see come up is flipped and facing away, allowing for an accompaniment to be played along by someone else. Or, in all likelihood, for you and your friend to make an incredible racket. Either way, its good fun and picking this application up for free almost felt like I was robbing the developers. I am, needless to say, a fan.
Part Two of our Free App Roundup is coming tomorrow! Stay tuned!
