New Apps
OmniFocus 2 for iPad ($40)—A long-awaited iPad refresh of the popular power-user productivity app. While OmniGroup came out with an updated, iOS 7-ified version of OmniFocus 2 for iPhone last year, the already more feature-rich iPad app lagged a bit, retaining its iOS 6 style UI, but remaining compatible with the OmniFocus suite of products. The new update features a meticulously revamped UI similar to that found in the iPhone and Mac versions, unifying the design language across the entire collection of apps. The iOS 8 extensions introduced to the iPhone version earlier this month are also here, allowing access to your OmniFocus tasks from the Today view, and the ability to create new entries from other apps like Safari using the iOS 8 Sharing extension. Users of the iPad version can now also create custom perspectives right on their iPad without having to rely on the Mac version, with combinations of view settings, searches, and filters to layout tasks in the most efficient manner for your own individual workflow.
Transmit ($10)—The highly acclaimed Mac FTP client comes to iOS, with an elegant UI design and support for the latest iOS 8 features such as Touch ID security, and the ability to share data to Transmit from other iOS apps, such as uploading your photos directly to your SFTP server. Even cooler, users with Transmit installed can open and use files directly from Transmit sources like FTP and WebDAV servers when using other compatible apps like Apple’s Pages, Numbers, or Keynote; files will automatically and silently be uploaded back to the original server when saved. All of the important file management features are here as well: you can transfer files, create folders, rename files, delete files, and even set permissions.
Manual – Custom Exposure Camera ($2)—This is a cool new little app that shows off—as the name implies—the manual camera controls now available in iOS 8. The app provides full independent control of settings such as shutter speed, ISO, white balance, focus, and exposure compensation in a quick and easy-to-use UI.
Two grids are available—Rule of Thirds and square—and you can also monitor exposure values in real-time, toggle the LED flash on for “fill” purposes, and save photos directly to your Camera Roll.
New Games
Asphalt Overdrive (Free)—The first spin-off of Gameloft’s popular Asphalt series, taking last year’s highly-acclaimed Asphalt 8: Airborne (iLounge Rating: A) in a whole new direction. Set in a “subtly retro new 80’s” version of California, Asphalt Overdrive takes a new mission-based approach where users can challenge themselves across seven different mission types ranging from escaping the cops to performing impressive stunts. Real-time lighting and particle effects create the amazing visuals that Asphalt players have come to expect as they race around the highways of Southern California, and as with the other games in the series, a collection of high-performance, fully licensed vehicles are available to be unlocked—30 iconic eighties cars in this case, including the Lambourghini Countach and Ferrari Testarossa.
Updates
Camera+ ($2)—The popular advanced custom camera app for iOS gets a major update for iOS 8, bringing users “ultimate control” over their photography with the addition of fully manual camera capabilities and advanced iOS 8 compatible editing features. Adding an intuitive wheel control, Camera+ now allows users to manually tweak settings for focus and exposure, as well as adding ISO, shutter speed, and white balance controls for more advanced users.
