Bonk!, tldarling, Jam Looper, and other apps to check out this weekend

Apps to check out this weekend

We’ll keep things short and sweet this week. The latest edition of our Apps of the Week roundup includes a fun new photo editor from Jimmy Fallon, an app that auto-summarizes long web articles, a minimal music-maker, and of course two new games for you to check out.

Bonk!

bonk

The digital team from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon has turned a popular segment into a hit app. Bonk! is a photo editor that uses state of the art “facial squish technology” designed to bend and bulge faces in just the right places. This kind of reminds me of the effects you see in live face filters on Snapchat and elsewhere, except they aren’t live. Just take/load up your photo, line up the face and press “BONK.” Is it groundbreaking? No. But it should provide some light entertainment this weekend. This app is available for free.

tldarling

tldr

Here’s an interesting concept for an app. Tldarling does exactly what its name implies: summarizes web articles for you. Just pop in the source URL, tap the button, and within seconds you will get the tldr (too long, didn’t read) version of the article. The app uses a customized version of the keyword-ranking TF-IDF algorithm to create its summaries, and it even has an app extension, so you can access them from within other apps. Admittedly, the edges are still rough here, but it’s still worth checking out. This app is available for free.

Jam Looper

jam

Looking for an app to coerce the inner musician out of you? Check out Jam Looper. This minimal music maker is well designed and super easy to operate. It features smart automatic looping and multiple channel recording, so you can create a beat from a variety of sounds or instruments, loop it, and then go back and add vocals or harmony to it. The whole thing makes for a seamless, pleasant experience that is a dramatic departure from the more pro-focused apps that have complex UIs filled with buttons and sliders. Jam Looper is available for free.

Six!

six

The concept of Six! is simple: You must move a hexagonal block down a tower of blocks, by tapping on the blocks and making them disappear. The twist is, as the blocks are destroyed, the hexagon will start to wobble and roll, and the tower will begin to tilt. It is your job to keep the tower balanced, and the hexagon from gaining momentum and rolling off. All of this makes for beautiful chaos, and some addictive gameplay. If you get bored this weekend, you might want to check this out. Six! is available for free.

Space Marshals 2

space

The sci-fi wild west adventure in outer space continues with Space Marshals 2. This tactical top-down shooter puts you in the shoes of specialist Burton in his struggle against the criminal elements of the galaxy. This isn’t your ordinary dual-stick shooter. The emphasis is on tactical combat and stealth, rather than just spraying bullets, and there’s a story! This is the type of game you can really dive into, making it perfect for a Saturday afternoon or a lazy Sunday. Space Marshals 2 is available for $5.99.

More apps to check out

Apps updated this week