Apps of the week: CanOpener, Heroes of Loot, Vert, and more…

The weekend is finally here. I’m heading out to the Tahoe Mountains again for a weekend of campfires, beers, and relaxation. I know I’ll be using my favorite stargazing apps to scan the night sky, but I’ll probably be sans-technology otherwise.

If you are not lucky enough to be experiencing nature this weekend, you’ll probably need some new apps to keep you busy. Whether you are trying to fine-tune your music, read your favorite blogs, or loot some dungeons, we have a list of apps and games that have made the grade this week…

CanOpener

This app makes listening to music with headphones about a hundred times better than without. You can selectively fine-tune the bass, treble, and cross feed of individual songs. Using special audio processor controls and meters, you can make the tinniest songs have full bass, or the muddiest music a little bit brighter. Send signals to the left or right side of your headphones, or flatten it out with the mono settings. You can also use presets to make the work easier. This app is available for $4.99.

Strata

I love it when someone comes up with a unique way of playing a puzzle game. This simple, yet challenging game will keep you guessing for hours. You must complete color-coordinated weaves of ribbons by strategically layering them to match a given pattern. Every move counts. If you make a mistake when laying down tiles at the beginning, you’ll have to start over to fix it. This game is available for $0.99.

Reeder 2

Remember when Google Reader was a thing? Remember how we all thought we would die without it? Well, plenty of RSS services picked up the slack. Now, the app that kept it all organized is available on the iPad again. This recent update of Reeder makes it officially universal. You can sync your Feedly, Feedbin, Feed Wrangler, and Readability accounts. You can also share and save articles through Pocket, Instapaper, Evernote, and more. This app is available for $4.99.

Heroes of Loot

If you are looking for a fun and exciting dungeon crawler that has a bit of shoot ‘em up gameplay mixed in, then Heroes of Loot has you covered. Not only will you be “crawling” from room to room, grabbing goodies and collecting gold, but you’ll be running through hallways, blasting away dozens of bad guys at a time as either an elf, wizard, warrior, or Valkyrie. This pixelated adventure is similar to classic dungeon crawl games like Gauntlet, but offers much more action than adventure. This game is available for $1.99.

Vert

Converting pounds to ounces has never looked so good. This simplistic conversion app looks perfect for the new iOS 7 operating system. Using a variety of formulas, convert more than 700 units across 30 categories. You can even find conversions for clothing sizes. I always get confused when figuring out my shoe size in the EU. You can even take advantage of a location-based currency converter so you will know how much your dollar is worth in almost any country you visit. This app is available for $0.99.

1Writer

There is a new minimalist text editor in town and its name is 1Writer. This basic app has a folder manager so you can add existing documents from Dropbox or iCloud. Create a to-do list, share documents, and add hashtags so you can group documents and find them easier. Share your files though Dropbox and Cloud.app as a plain text file, formatted text file, or PDF. You can even post your document on Twitter. If you are the type of writer who needs minimal distractions, but wants plenty of word processor features, 1Writer makes the grade. This app is available for $0.99.

Spirit Runner

As if there weren’t enough endless runner games in the App Store already, now is your chance to add another to your runner folder. This one is just a little bit different though. Sure, you are running down the path, collecting stuff and earning bonuses, but you must also continue to gather little purple spirits in order to survive. If you run out of spirit, you run out. To make things more complicated, you’ll also have to avoid bad spirits or they will drag you down. This game is available for $0.99.

CanOpener

Vert

Spirit Runner

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