Best Apps of the Week: Tapatalk, Mr. Ludo, Rotopop and more

Best apps of the week 10_20_2013 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

What’s a phone without apps? We’d look ridiculous walking around with slabs of plastic and glass, holding it up to our faces. Luckily, there’s tons of apps out there to keep us from looking like fools – and a few that will make us look more foolish than ever. Here are our favorite apps, games, and updates out this week.

Runtastic Six Pack, Android & iOS (free)

Who says you can’t be on your phone all day and end up with six pack abs? Runtastic Six Pack promises to help you get that fully formed abdominal area that you’ve always wanted. With over fifty different belly-focused workouts, all organized for you in custom workouts that you can tackle in as little or as big of increments as you want, you can give yourself a form other than round. And if that doesn’t work, just draw that six pack on with a sharpie.

Tapatalk, Windows Phone (free)

There are a lot of places to talk on the internet. We usually think of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter but there’s still plenty of message boards and forums out there pulsing with conversation. Now you can join in on all the water cooler talk taking place online from your Windows device with Tapatalk. Get involved with online communities of all sorts – there are over 60,000 available from Tapatalk – and share your opinions and passions with the people that you most want to engage with outside your social network.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Android (free)

Despite the many safety precautions that have started to be implemented and actions taken to prevent malicious software from entering Android devices, it’s still possible to get infected. The odds lower if you have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware installed on your device. It detects and eliminates any threat that may be present or try to make its way onto your phone or tablet. It also guards your personal identity and data to make sure no app or person is accessing anything you wouldn’t want it to.

Netflix update, Android (free)

Streaming services don’t get much better than Netflix, but some Android users weren’t satisfied with the experience they were getting from the mobile app. Netflix hopes those complaints have been squashed with the latest update, which brings stabilization and upgrades alike. The tablet layout has been updated to better fit the bigger screens and navigation has been changed to a button-style layout to improve user’s ability to scroll through their potential selections, eliminating the lag that was present before as well. If you were getting impatient trying to find a movie on the app before, this is the fix you’ve been waiting for.

Terminology update, iOS ($3)

What happens when you take a Web browser and a language reference books and mash them into one? You get Terminology, which recently updated to version 3.0. When you’re connected to the Web, you can get web resources like Wikipedia and Google integrated into your searches, pulling information about the word in question. When you’re offline, you still have full access to dictionary and thesaurus services you need. Rebuilt for iOS 7, it’s sure to fit right in to your iOS ecosystem and provide you with the words to look way smarter than you are as you look up synonyms to use in iMessage conversations.

Amazon Instant Video update, iOS (free)

Netflix got an update for Android, so it’s only right that Netflix rival Amazon Instant Video updates for Android rival iOS. The power struggle continues. For Amazon Instant Video, the latest version of its app adds the ability to multitask with other apps while video from the service is playing via AirPlay. As with every iOS update coming through the App Store these days, Amazon Instant Video also gets the iOS 7 treatment with some bug fixes and compatibility improvements.

Batman: Arkham Origins, iOS (free)

Would there be anything better than being Batman? Yes, as it turns out: Being able to pretend to be Batman without actually having to take fists to the face on a regular basis. That’s what makes Batman: Arkham Origins so great. Don the mask of the Dark Knight and take to the streets of Gotham as you fight your way out of the city’s darkest corners. Controls are simple and intuitive, requiring you only to swipe and tap to play, but the gameplay is still rewarding because you’re the Batman, rocking any of 15 different Bat suits and using a plethora of Bat-centric weaponry.

Mr. Ludo, Android & iOS (free)

Have you (or do you currently) worked in an office that only inspired you to want to race out of it the first chance you got? Well, don’t do that because you’ll end up getting fired. Instead, just stay at your desk and live the fantasy with Mr. Ludo. This interactive board game draws its inspiration from Ludo and Parcheesi and presents players with the opportunity to relive favorite childhood games in a whole new way. Take a roll of virtual die as you work your way around the digitized game board and try to escape from your office cage before your opponents – computer or human – beat you to the door.

RotoPop, Android & iOS (free)

Fantasy football is one of the biggest games around, but it seems like at least half of the people who play show up for the draft and then never set their lineup all season. If you know those people (or are one of them), then RotoPop is a solid solution for you. Instead of picking a team for a whole season, you pick just for one game. You can even make adjustments during halftime like a real coach. It’s less of a commitment but no less fun.

Best Apps of the Week: Tapatalk, Mr. Ludo, Batman, and more