Lory Gil

Writer of all things app related, traveler of the space-time continuum, baker of really great cookies. Follow me @appaholik

MTN: the first mountain simulator for iOS

Lory Gil ∙ July 4, 2014

I recently came across this very interesting “game” which allows players to experience what it is like to be a mountain. It’s called an “ambient procedural mountain game”, a “mountain simulator”, and a “relax ‘em up”. If you saw that description, wouldn’t you want to find out, what the f?

MTN is this strange, unique display of a mountainside that you create, based on your own drawings, and then watch for 50 hours as life goes on around it. We sat down with the app for as many hours as possible and have a review of MTN for you below...

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Oscura Second Shadow review: retro platform gaming comes out of the shadows

Lory Gil ∙ Updated February 5, 2018

One of my favorite category of games is the traditional platformer. It reminds me of running home after school to start up my Nintendo for hours of Super Mario Bros. game sessions. Things have gotten more complex over the years, but a simple, effective platform game can still keep me posted in my chair for hours.

Oscura Second Shadow is one of those traditional platformers that make gaming on mobile devices a treat. By combining old-school mechanics with modern touch screen controls, this game is a solid investment. We’ve got a hands-on game review of Oscura for your reading pleasure…

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Tinker app will make sure you stay productive

Lory Gil ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

I’m the kind of person who needs constant self-supervision. I don’t work in an office and I am surrounded by my playthings. I regularly need to remind myself to get back to work because there is no one looking over my shoulder telling me to do so.

Tinker - Tweak Your Productivity is a goal minded productivity app that makes it possible for you to be on task, every minute of the day. Instead of creating long lists of things to do and trying to prioritize them, this app has you create duration-based goals that help you stay on track until your time is up. Read on for our app review of Tinker…

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Shutter stores every photo you take in the cloud for free

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 27, 2018

We’ve all been there. We are on vacation or at an event, snapping pictures or shooting video clips of our kids doing something funny, when we run out of storage space on our iPhone. There are plenty of options for saving pictures on social networking sites or in iCloud. However, we don’t necessarily want to share hundreds of pictures of the 5K we just ran on Facebook and Apple’s free iCloud storage is limited. Even Dropbox limits your free storage to 2GB.

Shutter by StreamNation aims to solve our storage needs by allowing users to take photos and video from within the app and automatically store content in an unlimited free cloud-based service…

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Upopa brings their Hopeless Blobs to the World Cup

Lory Gil ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Being a cute, glowing, terrified Blob is a tough job. Those little guys have been lost in dark caves, abandoned in outer space, and now they are faced with angry mobs as they take on the job of goalie at this year’s “Football Cup.”

Hopeless: Football Cup brings all of the excitement of the biggest football tournament in the world to an isolated spot on the play field. Help protect the blobs from a barrage of balls as furious football fans express their true feelings…

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Watchup provides video news based on your interests

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 27, 2018

With news aggregates like Flipboard and Pulse, we have the blogging world at our fingertips. However, we don’t always want to read the news. Sometimes we want to veg out watching bite-sized stories that interest us the most.

Watchup: Your Daily Newscast brings together popular video clips of news that is relevant to your personal taste. Instead of turning on CNN only to watch hours of boring segments in hopes of seeing something that interests you, this app lets you tailor your news-watching experience…

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Weekly helps you keep track of tasks and goals

Lory Gil ∙ June 27, 2014

There are some tasks that need to be taken care of only once. Those can easily be listed in any format, including the good old-fashioned pencil and paper method. Other tasks are meant to be done every day. They are more like goals than tasks. Nonetheless, they still need to be tracked.

Weekly is a task tracker that makes it incredibly simple for you to add content, update activities, and see your progress at a glance. We’ve got an app review of Weekly for you today to see if it is something you’d be interested in…

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Paperama turns your iOS device into a fun origami game

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 27, 2018

The art of origami is both impressive and beautiful. I’ve always been interested in paper craft and origami is an art form that requires patience and skills. Reading the instructions for origami is like reading a different language.

Paperama takes the complexities of origami and mixes it with the challenge of puzzle solving. Already a huge hit on Android, FDG Entertainment has brought the game to iOS. We’ve got an in-depth game review of Paperama below…

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Audibly lets you play your music in sync across multiple iOS devices

Lory Gil ∙ June 25, 2014

Whenever I go camping, if I’ve forgotten to grab a wireless speaker, I have trouble getting the music from my iPhone loud enough to be heard over the roar of the fire. I’ve figured out a way to create a bigger sound by resting my device inside a metal bowl, but it is still fairly quiet.

Audibly lets you connect multiple iPhones together to create a stereo-like experience. Broadcast music from one iPhone and the others will pick it up and play it as well. Talk about DIY surround sound…

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The best apps for diabetics

Lory Gil ∙ Updated December 19, 2018

Diabetics must pay close attention to the things they do and don’t put into their bodies. Keeping track of important data can be a daunting task.

We’ve got a list of what we think are the best apps for diabetics. Check them out to see if one of them is right for you.

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Grub turns the classic game of ‘Snake’ into something worth playing again

Lory Gil ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Do you remember the game Snake? Some might even argue that it was the earliest mobile game, at least on a phone and not as a separate device. Players would control a stack of pixels that would grow every time the snake would reach the tiny dot. If you touched the edge, you’d die. If you got too long and ran into yourself, you’d die.

Grub takes the basic concept of snake and reimagines it for today’s mobile needs. It is much more colorful and animated than the 1997 version. Plus there is more to the game than trying to catch one tiny dot…

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