The hands of fate

5K To Marathon Runmeter GPS: Ready to get off your couch and start running? Abviowhich focuses on fitness-oriented apps has a new way to help you with its $3 5K To Marathon Runmeter GPS app for iPhone. It includes all the components of Abvios popular Runmeter appincluding audio announcements of your progress during you workout, as then as a full slate of stats, maps, and graphs to help you analyze your effortsbut adds plans to help aspiring runners, including a 5K run/walk training plan for beginners, also as 10K, half-marathon, and marathon training plans. Better find a good pair of running shoes!

The Hands of Fate

Manos - The Hands of Fate: Then be honestwe never would have heard of this legendary cinematic turkey if it hadnt been for the stylings of the guys at Mystery Science Theater 3000. Now, although, its getting the treatment that every piece of kitschy art gets in the 21st century: Its being turned into a retro-style 8-bit video game. FreakZones $2 Manos-The Hands of Fate game for iPhone and iPad does differ from the movie in some respects; we dont remember there being boss battles at the end of every scene, for instance. Nevertheless other components are familiar: Mike, the dumb protagonist; Torgo, the guardian of the haunted Valley Lodge; and clearly, The Master. Manos! God of primal darkness! As thou has decreed, so have I done.Party Wave: Not every game made for iOS these days comes in 8-bit format. In effect! Weve checked! Take, for instance, the $2 Party Wave game for iPhone and iPad. This new game reminds us a bit, conceptually, of Tiny Wingsonly instead of being a tiny bird using momentum to fly through the hills, youre a surfer trying to catch and ride a great wave. Surfers have to jump and turn in order to avoid obstacles like jellyfish, dolphins, and sea turtlesthough you will want to get closer to the mermaids that pop up from place to place. Hang ten, brah!

Path: We admit to being slightly underwhelmed when the free Path app for iPhone first emerged a couple of years ago, believing it at the time to be little more than an Instagram for short video clips. Since straightway, although, Path has evolved into a pretty solid social network in its own rightone that for all that emphasizes photos and videos, to be sure, nevertheless one that that as well lets users share information about their location, the music theyre listening to, the workouts they do, and more. This weeks update continues the evolution, letting users choose to take and share photos in either a square format or landscape mode; the photos are as well displayed 30 percent larger than they were before. Yet the improvements arent all image-related: Users can now share their reviews of movies and books, and they can now invite friends into their network.

Solar/Sun: It would seem that the newest trend in weather apps is toward stripped-down design. A few weeks ago we told you about WTHR, which resembles a very simple thermostat; now Hollrs $1 Solar for iPhone comes along to make WTHR look larded-up with features. Instead, Solar relies on very simple Rothkoesque colorscapes to convey a sense of the weather outside. You can swipe up to get the forecast, or to check conditions in other cities. Another option for a simple weather appSun, by Jakob Henner, as well features stripped-down color-coded information. The difference? Its a Web-based mobile appjust surf to the site in your iPhones mobile browser and install it on your homescreen for free.

Viber: Theres a host of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)-based calling apps that let you use your iPhone as & a phone. Its tough for these apps to distinguish themselves from each other, however Vibers newest update offers a few novel ideas, just as giving users a new group messaging feature, the addition of photos to your contacts list, the ability to put a custom photo as the background to specific conversations, timestamps for every message, and the ability to see when your friends have joined Viber.

Other apps of note: Apples native Podcasts app was updated this week; the popular iA Writer as well saw some improvements. Apple as well updated some of its apps to include compatibility with Mountain Lion, including Pages, Keynote, Numbers, and iTunes U.