Holy guacamole, it's practically October? October is tomorrow? Is this the fastest year ever, or what? As the leaves start turning and the days get shorter, it's comforting to know that some things never change -- like all the sales in the App Store.
OK, technically those do change; they change all the time! Which is why we tell you about them, in Friday's Price Drop column. This week we'll help you work out, pig out, and then bliss out with one of the funnest games of all time.
It may not be bikini season anymore, unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere where it's right around the corner, or you take a vacation somewhere warm for the holidays. But any time of year is a good time to exercise your way into better shape. FitnessBuilder for iPhone/iPod touch used to be $9.99, but now it's a free download, and you get full access for the first month to all the app's exercise videos and workout plans. After that, you'll have to re-up via in-app purchase, from $4.99 per month to $34.99 per year. But give it a whirl now and it won't cost you anything to try.
And if you decide you need another fitness option, or the "freemium" model used by FitnessBuilder is a turn-off, check out GAIN Fitness, a new iPhone app that lets you create custom workouts, promising "personal trainer quality exercise." You can specify if you're working out at home or in a gym (since the eqiupment will be much different obviously), tailor workouts to various goals (overall health and longevity, fat loss, or muscle building), and/or focus on different areas of your body. It's even got some game aspects to get you in a competitive mood, in case working out isn't its own reward. The app is free right now, usually $2.99.
All that working out made you hungry, huh? I got hungry just thinking about it. Fall is the perfect time for baking, or making homemade soup, or dusting off your chili recipe. And if you've ever tried to manage cooking times for a bunch of dishes all simmering simultaneously, say, by scribbling those times on a Post-It and trying to reset your microwave timer over and over (Thanksgiving, we're looking at you), you'll love this universal app. KitchenPad Timer can keep track of what's in your oven and on your stove, how long it's been there, and when it needs to be taken out, stirred, have the temperature changed, whatever. It's got audio alerts and even push notifications in case it's running in the background while you use your favorite recipe app. Brilliant. Oh, and it's free right now, down from $1.99.
Look, I'll admit it, the fall is all about eating for me. And if you're one of those foodie types who likes to take pictures of beautiful plates of food before digging in, Yummy! Cam is a fun iPhone app that will retouch them to look their most scrumptous. You can even add fake (but realistic-looking!) steam. And it's free through the month of October in honor of the developer's brand-new baby. (Mazel tov!)
And for dessert, how about a game? We love this physics-based puzzle game -- it's as easy to pick up as any casual game, but fiendishly hard to finish. Oh, and it's MetaCritic's highest-ranked game of all time, scoring a 98. We loved it on the Mac, we love it on Steam, we helped you get better at it, and we love it on iOS, where it's 99 cents this weekend, either just for iPhone/iPod touch, or the universal HD version for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
