All the best new apps and app updates to land in the App Store this week [May 18 – May 22]

BY Kelly Hodgkins

Published 23 May 2015

app store

Each week, a new round of apps and app updates land in the iOS App Store. This week is no exception with the debut of Carbo – Handwriting in the Digital Age and a major update to Splice – Video Editor and Photo Slideshow Maker. These titles are only a sampling of what is available. Read on for our weekly picks of the best new apps and app updates that you shouldn’t miss.

Apple’s App of the Week

Magnetized: Magnetized is an abstract physics puzzle game, total 80 levels! $2.99 → Free

Apple’s highlighted collections

Apple this week updated the iOS App Store and is now featuring apps that promote accessibility awareness and girl power. Apple also highlights shopping apps that’ll help you find the best Memorial Day Deals

Top iPhone and iPad Apps in the App store

  • Top Free iPhone: Facebook Messenger [Free] Instantly reach the people in your life—for free. Messenger is just like texting, but you don’t have to pay for every message (it works with your data plan).
  • Top Paid iPhone: Alto’s Adventure [$0.99] Above the placid ivory snow lies a sleepy mountain village, brimming with the promise of adventure.
  • Top Free iPad: YouTube [Free] Get the official YouTube app for iPhone and iPad. Catch up with your favorite channels, enjoy the world’s largest music collection, and share easily with friends.
  • Top Paid iPad: Minecraft [$6.99] Play the biggest update to Minecraft: Pocket Edition so far! It’s the overhaul of a generation. Download it now and see for yourself!
  • Top Grossing iPhone and iPad: Clash of Clans [Free] From rage-­filled Barbarians with glorious mustaches to pyromaniac wizards, raise your own army and lead your clan to victory! Build your village to fend off raiders, battle against millions of players worldwide, and forge a powerful clan with others to destroy enemy clans.

New and Notable Apps

Capitals – Free Word Battle [Free] Play against your friends to spell the best words and expand your territory. Use strategy to defend your capital and knock out your opponent’s!

Skiing Yeti Mountain [Free] Carve your way through hundreds of levels as you search for the elusive Yeti.

Bad Dinos [$2.99] Play Bad Dinos – a new kind of tower-defense game that makes the rest feel ancient!

Carbo – Handwriting in the Digital Age [$3.99] Carbo lets you capture and organize handwritten notes and sketches, bringing handwriting in the digital age, right on your iPhone and iPad.

Mixels Rush – Use Mixes, Maxes and Murps to Outrun the Nixels [$2.99] Use awesome new Mixels and make crazy combinations to beat the annoying Nixels in Mixels Rush!

Battles of the Ancient World II [$2.99] The ‘Battles of the Ancient World’ game system is a tactical simulation of some of the greatest and most important battles from 333 B.C. to 60 A.D

60Hz – TV Series Tracker [On sale for $0.99, down from $3.99] TL;DR – 60Hz helps you track TV shows – it’s awesome – works with Trakt – Buy it!

OptOpt [Free] OptOpt let you switch or launch application fast and with less key strokes.

Atlantic Fleet [$9.99] Atlantic Fleet is a turn-based tactical and strategic simulation of the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II.

ColorSnapper 2 [$6.99] ColorSnapper2 — the Mac OS X color picker app for designers & developers which makes it easy to collect, adjust, organize and export colors of any pixel of the screen.

Updates you don’t want to miss

Splice – Video Editor and Photo Slideshow Maker [Free] Simple and powerful, Splice is the best video editor for your iPhone!. Version 3.0 includes the following changes:

  • new editing capabilities
  • enhanced effects and transitions
  • an expanded music library
  • cross-platform sharing options

DataMan Next : Track Data Usage In Real-Time [$1.99] DataMan is the simplest and clearest app to track your data usage. . Version 8.6 includes the following changes:

  • New widget styles and colors. Open Settings > Widget.
  • Choose Complete style to show Days Left in the widget.
  • Turn off or darken colors in the widget.
  • New Theme fonts. Use DIN to get the Apple Watch look 🙂

Scanbot · Document Scanner & QR Reader [Free] canbot is your premium mobile scanner app for documents and QR codes. Version 3.8 includes the following changes:

  • For all users: Option to delete documents after upload
  • For all users: New sharing UI with PDF, Images or Text option
  • For all users: Quick Setting per Scan (OCR on/off, Auto-Snap)
  • For all users: Image uploading to Evernote
  • For all users: New layout for iPad, supporting all orientations, collapsible document list
  • For all users: Fixed problem with importing PDFs from Mail.app
  • For all users: Improved scan quality settings
  • For all users: Uploads are now working better with bad internet connections
  • For Pro users: SmartNaming: new UI & date tokens
  • For Pro users: Optimized OCR
  • For Pro users: Change/remove passcode now possible with TouchID

Lumy – Helps You Track Photographic Times [$1.99] Lumy helps you take beautiful photographs by letting you keep track of the Magical hour (also known as Golden Hour). Version 1.5 includes the following changes:

  • Support for Apple Watch. ( Photographic Times on your wrist, Exactly where you want it to be. )
  • Switch between selected locations time zone and native timezone.
  • Now you can drop a pin exactly where you want in the Map view.
  • Various bug fixes.

Plants by Tinybop [$2.99] Unearth the secrets of the green kingdom! Explore the forest, desert, and grasslands in this interactive diorama of the world’s biomes.. Version 1.1.4 includes the following changes:

  • Updated to play better with our new Tinybop apps, Homes, Simple Machines, and The Robot Factory.

Unread: RSS News Reader [Free] Rediscover the joy of reading your favorite writers with Unread, an RSS reader for iPhone. Version 1.5.1 includes the following changes:

  • Two new font sizes: Atomic and Galactic.
  • Huge revamp of system sharing features to include sharing more data to more apps.
  • Share sheet shows the URL you are about to share.

PCalc – The Best Calculator [$9.99] PCalc is the powerful choice for scientists, engineers, students, programmers, or indeed anybody looking for a feature rich calculator.. Version 3.4 includes the following changes:

  • Added support for the Apple Watch – now you can use PCalc without taking your phone out your pocket! Includes a full calculator app, a tip calculator, and a glance to see the result of your most recent calculations.
  • Added a warning message to avoid accidental layout editing.

DEAD EYES [$0.99] DEAD EYES is a turn-based puzzle game in a grey foggy world being taken over by zombies. . Version 1.2 includes the following changes:

  • Bugs fixed in level 79/80
  • Ranking bug fixed (Ranking competition for how fast you get through lvl80)
  • Facebook sharing is now enabled!

LastPass: Password Manager and Secure Digital Vault [Free] LastPass is a password manager that simplifies everything you do online by remembering your passwords, logging into websites instantly, creating strong passwords for every account, and so much more. . Version 3.11 includes the following changes:

  • Fixed: Prevent text on ‘Did you Know’ notification from overlaying buttons.
  • Fixed: Secure notes were not properly saved if interface was non-English.
  • Fixed: Show correct secure note if selected from quick search.
  • Fixed: Secure notes now accepts all character sets.
  • Fixed: Security challenge score incorrectly identified vulnerable sites.
  • Improved: Interface for attachments that have not been downloaded yet.

Know of a new app or app update that is not on the list? Then share your personal favorites in the comments.