It covers apps and games, with the prices referring to the initial download: so (Free) may mean (Freemium) in some cases.
Night Zookeeper Teleporting Torch (£1.99)
A timely reminder that not all children's apps are punting super-premium-priced in-app purchases. This is the second app from Night Zookeeper, and it's about encouraging children's creativity by setting them daily "drawing missions", themed around a zoo full of magical animals. Parents can set missions for their kids too, and the drawings are stored in the cloud for safekeeping.
iPad
Presented by Robin Ince, this app brings together scientists, writers and performers to talk about science, the universe, life and everything. It's a mixture of interviews and videos – "an interactive magazine-documentary-TV show all in one" as the developers put it. The app uses subscription billing: you get three months as part of the initial download fee, then it costs £3.99 a quarter (or £5.99 / £9.99 for six / 12 months at a time).
iPad
Only really useful if you're a registered Apple developer, whether you're going to the company's WWDC conference this month or not. If you are going, you'll find times, locations and descriptions for all the sessions. If you're not, you can watch the session videos for the full skinny on the next versions of iOS and OS X (once they're announced, obviously). The app is also being pored over for visual hints at Apple's rumoured move to "flat" design for iOS 7.
iPhone / iPad
Artist Grayson Perry's The Vanity of Small Differences tapestries were originally created as part of a TV series that saw him travelling around Britain. Now they're going on tour too, complete with an official app that lets you browse the artworks close-up, read about the inspiration behind them, and get Grayson's commentary for each of the six tapestries.
iPhone / iPad
Developer Ironhide Game Studio has released a sequel to its impressive Kingdom Rush tower defence game, promising more upgrades, abilities and enemies to fend off. The link above is for iPhone, but here's the HD iPad version.
iPhone / iPad
John Gruber is famous for blogging about Apple on his Daring Fireball site. Now he's turned app-maker as part of the team behind Vesper, "a simple and elegant tool for collecting notes, ideas, things to do". Everything can be tagged and grouped into "playlist-like collections", with photos attachable too.
iPhone
ScribbleMix is the latest new thing from Disney: a "hilarious and absurd drawing game played with friends". Sounds familiar... You're guessing phrases based on what friends draw, earning coins as you go. It's not the first Draw Something-inspired game, but the jury is out on whether it can be the first to rival the popularity of the original. On iOS, it comes with a limited-time Monsters University pack to tie in with the new movie.
iPhone / iPad
iPhone / iPad
Boxer (Free Apps)
Email app Mailbox made a splash earlier this year, but it only works with Gmail at the moment. Boxer works along similar lines – swiping your way towards Inbox Zero – but supports Exchange, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL as well as Gmail. It adds in Dropbox features for file attachments and a built-in To-Do list.
iPhone
Email app Mailbox made a splash earlier this year, but it only works with Gmail at the moment. Boxer works along similar lines – swiping your way towards Inbox Zero – but supports Exchange, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL as well as Gmail. It adds in Dropbox features for file attachments and a built-in To-Do list.
iPhone
It won't be long before we need an app to curate all the video-curation apps: there are plenty out there trying to help iPad users find videos to watch. Vidora looks like it has potential though: sorting videos from sources including YouTube, iTunes, Netflix, ESPN and Vice into themed channels, while learning what you do and don't like watching.
iPad
Another children's app with a one-off download fee rather than in-app purchases, this comes from a new developer named Hullabalu, and tells the story of a "young purple panda in the clouds" named Pandora. Animation, voice narration, lots of interactivity and a photography feature make it look great fun for children.
iPad
Comedy Central's new app is US-only for now, but looks very good. It digs into the channel's archives of stand-up comedy, offering sets from comedians including Louis C.K., Amy Schumer and Aziz Ansari. Videos are sorted into topics, searchable or simply streamed continuously, TV-style.
iPhone / iPad
This app comes from the National Film Board of Canada, and focuses on the work of animated filmmaker Norman McLaren. It includes 51 of his films, including Oscar-winning Neighbours, as well as 11 short documentaries, and a Paper Cut-Outs workshop to show you how to make your own short films in the style of McLaren.
iPad
SpongeBob SquarePants' latest app outing sees children building their own version of SpongeBob's Bikini Bottom underwater home, unlocking characters, buildings and animated clips as they go. As outlined in this separate article, it's also one of a growing number of big-brand children's games to offer super-premium in-app purchases, going up to £69.99 for jars of virtual Jellyfish Jelly.
iPhone / iPad
Everest (Free Apps)
US startup Everest's app wants to help its users "live your dreams and achieve personal goals" by breaking those goals down into small, achievable steps – then connecting you to other people who are working towards the same ambitions, to get encouragement.
iPhone
Massively multiplayer online game Total Domination has been very popular on the web, with more than 30m installs. Now developer Plarium has turned it into a separate mobile game for iOS, which sees you waging war in a post-apocalyptic world, building an army, fighting enemies and making alliances with other players.
iPhone / iPad
Something for the dads, here: a companion app for WOWMUM, which came out a few months back. It divides the UK up into 13k "WOWSpots" for parents: places to eat, playgrounds and parks, toy shops and so on, easily filterable and displayed on a map. There's even a "panic button" for nappy changing, for those awkward moments when your child has got to go. Or, indeed, has gone already and it's starting to seep out...
iPhone
Finally this week, the newly-universal Directional Dash, which gives a nifty spin to traditional block-clearing puzzlers across three game modes. Simple but intuitive swiping controls make it an addictive treat.
iPhone / iPad
That's this week's selection, but what do you think? Make your own recommendations, or give your views on the apps above, by posting a comment.
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