By ComboApp App Promotion Agency Team
What do we do on Christmas? What do we do to create the right atmosphere to feel some fuzziness while spending time with our friends or family? Cooking, Xmas Tree decorating, hanging bells and whistles here and there in the house, checking Netflix, Hulu or both for some new movie / TV series to watch. Have I missed something? Right – we take our iPad / Nexus 7 / Kindle Fire from a table or pull out iPhone / Galaxy / and dive into the App Store or Google Play universe to find some cool apps to have fun with. Each year there are new candidates to check out; let’s see what we have this year. Well, we aren’t claiming it’s the ultimate list, but we feel these 10 apps are definitely the ones to download.
Here we go:
Bet You Didn’t Know
Ok, we bet you didn’t know that there is “Bet You Didn’t Know” (BYDK) app 🙂 I guess before describing the app I should ask – “How curious are you?” Well, apart from being curious if the world is going to end on December 21st and you won’t need to drag yourself each morning to the office 🙂 So, even if you don’t wake up each morning wondering how the universe began, most likely there is stuff you find interesting, therefore BYDK app is what doctor or rather Santa said for you. Picture this: it’s December 24th, right – you’ve successfully passed the 21-st :-), and while the dinner is being cooked and all gifts are lying under the Xmas Tree, it’s a good time to spend with your son or daughter on a coach feeding your curiosity.
BYDK has been built after the famous History Channel documentary series “MANKIND The Story of All of Us”. It consists of the many facts from the history of ancient world, arts, communication, food, science, money, technology and more. By typing categories name you can filter out categories that aren’t interesting to you, hit DONE and begin flipping through the pile of curious facts. To shake the things up a bit, no pun intended, just shake iPad or iPhone and get a new fact. You can mark the facts you’ve liked with Favorites tag, check out facts other people have found interesting, as well as filter out the ones you haven’t read yet. You can tweet, post on Facebook or email any fact with a tap of a button, no copy + pasting required. There are also about 50 short videos on various topics hosted on a History Channel server to watch, like Mankind and Invention, Taming the Horse and many others to get glimpses into our history. Last but not least it’s free as you would expect from the History Channel. Certainly they haven’t developed this app with a profit in mind, this is just another way to popularize the channel. Way to go!
Christmas Countdown
How many days, hours and minutes are left until the Xmas? Depending on the day you’ll read these lines, the answer will vary. Perhaps it will be minus day, minus week – if you’ll read it afterwards 🙂 Anyway, each year there is an anticipation for Xmas to come and some of us, for the most part kids, count days and hours till this day!
The Christmas Countdown does just that – counts how much time is left till Xmas, sure thing. A countdown clock alone would look boring and so the app will also play cheerful music like Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairies, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Jingle Bells and couple others. Plus you can put a Snowman, Santa, Reindeer, Elf, your own photo on a background. Here is an idea for you – put your iPad / iPhone on a stand on your Xmas dinner table with the app being launched, just make sure there is no glass of wine or something next to it – you want a holiday to come, not a disaster 😉
SantasVillage
Over the centuries Santa has been bringing our kids tons of toys, come on – let’s forget for a minute that it has actually been our job ;-), so, we believe it’s time for us to do something for Santa to reward his titanic effort! When have you built a village for the last time? How about the one for Santa? Yes – SantaVillage is the game to build a village with up to 150 buildings for Santa’s elves, create toy factories, make lots of toys, teach reindeer how to fly, and meet magical neighbors like Yobo the Yeti. No pun intended, the game has all bells and whistles you would expect from a full fledged family game to come together and have fun on Xmas.
Just image you would try to do it in a real life – first of all you need to figure out where exactly Santa lives, buy a ticket, spend a night in an airport because your flight will be delayed for sure, another 15 hrs or so to fly to Laplandia…you’ve figured it out 🙂 Now with SantasVillage it’s under your fingertips, literally!
Santa’s List (Santa’s Christmas Village)
Well, Santa has a life full of challenge! This app is a tough call for Santa and again – he needs your help with separating naughty and nice children. I think every teacher in a secondary school or a kindergarten educator would feel a compassion for Santa in this game and so don’t underestimate the game’s importance! Btw this game is from the creators the SantasVillage and so if you’ve played it already you know what to expect from the game. One of the bonuses of helping Santa is that you’ll master letter recognition!
And here is the last bit – try to play this game after the second or third toast ;-).
First Words Christmas
Look what folks from Learning Touch has come up with for this Christmas! The popular educational app for toddlers is now available with a Christmas theme! First Words Christmas has 40 beautifully illustrated Christmas words and matching holiday sounds, from Bell to Toys, Cookies to Star, all of your favorite Christmas words are here.
It’s indisputable that the best time in life to experience Xmas is when you a toddler – no job, no mortgage payments, no taxes, of course there is always something you can be upset about, but comparing with being your 30th – 40-th to being a toddler is just awesome. By default the iPad multi-touching technology is what drives toddlers interest to the device and hence when it’s combined with an educational value, the real magic begins…
We see it as a perfect way to entertain and yet to educate your child in a Xmas time when learning the writing of such words as Santa, lights, holly does make the most sense!
TapStartup
What position do you hold in a company you work at? If you are top executive, CEO, COO, CTO or some other “C” – just skip this review, there isn’t anything interesting for you. Right – just move on with a weekly routine. But if you are not – welcome to the world of TapStartup. This is your chance to become a boss and tell other people what to do, when and how fast! Everything you’ve been hearing over and over from your boss, in TapStartup you get your chance for a revenge!
But on the other hand, it’s not only about yelling and screaming on your employees: you can build a new company, move to a bigger office, calculate your imaginable income. Yes – you won’t find a pile of cash in pocket after spending couple hours with a game, sorry – the technology is not there yet, but we can guarantee you an emotional relief from being in boss shoes for a while 😉 You’ll be able to control how much income each of your employees brings, wake them up when it’s necessary to overcome this hard to resist after lunch nap! You will find many things you would expect from an office such as water cooler, snacks and more in the game.
We bet you wouldn’t argue with us that the game is the one to share with your colleagues while they are enjoying Xmas holidays.
PuXXles
It’s no brainer that there are puzzle apps on the App Store and dozens of messaging apps, but not a combination of those. But we bet you haven’t seen the one like PuXXles: it beautifully molds easy to use messaging with a puzzle riddling. Don’t get us wrong, it’s not about trying to figure out what she / he actually meant, did she / he actually mean it or was it an excuse ;-) No, PuXXles brings fun and cool feeling in what by now we’ve began considering mundane – sending a text message. It goes like – let’s say it’s Xmas Eve and you’re laying on a bed and wondering “Hm…” Yes – you’ve been trying to impress her and by scratching your head you realize that all ideas, which are running in your head, are way less than awesome, to put it mildly. Now you know that she loves puzzles, yes – you can send her just a puzzle, but if you will lock a message with a puzzle about something that you both love, it will most definitely work better! Sure thing this is not the only application for the app but certainly the one we are quite often desperately need help with. Check out a short video to see how the thing works HERE.
Funny Cartoons
In fact you don’t have to wait till Xmas to have fun by sending a cartoon like you can see above this line to a friend of you saying something like “Would it be cool if we can do it with…” Put any name you are in such a mood about 🙂 The old school was googling for a funny picture and picking up the right one, but quite frankly it was a hassle. With Funny Cartoons it’s a kid`s stuff to pick a cartoon from a library under your fingertips, open a message with it and fire it out to a friend of your! The other cool thing about it is you can include your photo into a cartoon and put a new spin for an old photo.
So it’s about that small thing that may help you to fix your honey’s mood or spoil a day to your enemy :-), you decide!
Talking Anya Dress Up & Pet Puppies
If somehow you couldn’t manage to bring your child`s friends at home to let him / her have fun, there is a cure for this situation. Meet Talking Anya Dress Up & Pet Puppies!
Now, if your name is Anya, please – no offence because this game has your name in its title and most likely you haven’t been paid royalties for using it there 🙂 Anyway, Anya is a cute toddler who is always ready to talk, well, as long as your iPad is charged. Actually talking is just to begin with: Anya can do a way more – dancing, eating cupcakes (please not too much – she is kind of on diet), tossing a beach ball between two iPads, hula-hoop twirling, smiling, reacting to touching her hair, nose – don’t worry she won’t give you a slam, just be friendly – don’t offend this little beauty :-)
See this little puppy staying next to her? It’s not being photoshopped, Anya has 5 adorable puppies to play with and so here is another extra bonus – no need to clean the mess after a real puppy, especially on Xmas Eve ;-)
Oh – one more thing, do you know what Augmented Reality is? Please don’t bother Wikipedia, I’m not here to show off with a smart ass term, in a nutshell it means you’ll be able to see Anya in your room, yes – you’ve read it right. Ok, it’s hard to explain – just download the game and try it yourself, you’ll love it!
Boom The Rock
Let’s rock a bit, actually way more than a bit! Let’s rock in a big way with Boom The Rock! As you’ve already guessed by looking at this cool dude with a rocket in his hand and photos of comets next to him, the game is about saving the place we call home – the Earth! Think of yourself as a Bruce Willis on this Xmas and sure thing you will survive at the end of the game, it’s not THAT dangerous!
Ok, here is what you gotta do in the game, basically it’s about 3 things:
Fly your rocket around obstacles and help it dodge moving threats like aliens & space rocks.
Make sure your rocket picks up every floating pack of explosives to arm it with enough BOOM to blow the incoming asteroids to dust.
Blow up asteroids before they have enough time to lumber past and destroy the world!
Sounds easy? Really? Think twice! Folks, it’s the real challenge here for you – rock&roll!
Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year!
