Guitar! By Smule
Free
There are many games that simulate what it feels like to play the guitar, but none as relaxing as this one. All you have to do is strum and pick, which means swipe and tap the screen, to play a selection of easy-listening ballads by Leonard Cohen, Elton John, and Ben E. King. For many musicians, strumming gently on a guitar is a comforting way to come down from a stressful day and that’s what this app offers.
To add vocals it pulls in matching recordings from Smule’s popular Sing! Karaoke app. By default they supply some of the top-rated performances, but if you’re a confident singer you can record your own too.
You don’t have to know how to play the guitar in real life, the on-screen symbols are easy to pick up, and higher difficulty levels along with unlockable songs and guitars work to give you something to work for and make the activity last.
Mailbox
Free
Although your device comes with a default app to check e-mail accounts, if you use Mailbox instead you get a quick system for organizing those messages as they come in. A swipe will archive, delete, or “snooze” a message, meaning it will come back to you later on as a reminder. You can sort messages into lists, marking them for content related to shopping, videos, research, or your own topics. The gestures are simple, the icons friendly and natural, and it really doesn’t take long for the whole thing to be second nature.
You may have heard of Mailbox thanks to its initial reservation system that restricted who could use it. The sense of exclusivity drove quite a lot of hype, but thankfully that’s over now and anyone can grab it. The only problem? It’s still limited for use to Gmail accounts only. Other kinds of e-mail are to follow.
This is a beginning, Mailbox’s creators have a long list of tweaks to work out (like support for landscape mode on iPad), so it’s best to keep your old Mail app ready as backup while you enjoy the possibilities of “getting to zero” with this one.
Fast & Furious 6 The Game
Free
A tie-in to the current box office hit, this drag racing game is all about timing. There’s no steering, you are competing against other drivers along a short, straight strip, and so instead you have to start, shift, drift, and trigger the nitro at just the right moment to boost your speed to maximum effect. It’s a different kind of racing challenge, but a very interesting one.
With a large collection of licensed cars, a stylish take on the dark streets of London (so much so at times it seems like Vegas), and an impressive list of upgrades and customizations, it captures the fun and creative aspects of tuner culture as celebrated in the movies.
Although the races are quick, the game comes up with a variety of different challenges and scenarios, enough to create a sense of story. This may be about quick, pick-up-and-play gaming, but it manages to work in some sophisticated elements.
To be warned, it’s Free-To-Play, which means you occasionally run out of fuel for your car and must wait or pay money to skip. As someone unwilling to keep feeding money to a game like this, I found it manageable enough to avoid doing so.
