From third-party keyboards to boutique e-commerce, we covered a lot of ground with new iOS apps in September.
Here, we filter through the noise to present you with our selection of the best App Store newcomers from the past month.
SwiftKey
With the launch of iOS 8 last month, a number of third-party keyboards vied for your attention on Apple’s refreshed operating system.
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SwiftKey was also part of the merry band of new entrants on iOS, serving up system-wide access to its slick, intelligent keyboard that learns your typing habits. Fleksy’s another one worth checking out.
➤ SwiftKey
Storehouse
Apple’s former user experience evangelist and UI designer Mark Kawano and his co-founder Timothy Donnelly launched Storehouse earlier this, and we called it an impressive iPad app that lets you quickly lay out and publish photos, videos and text as shareable stories. And last month, it arrived for iPhone users too.
Kawano’s design and UX credentials, which include iPhoto, Aperture and Photoshop, are evident in Storehouse. The app is minimalist, intuitive and relies heavily on gestures.
Checky
Checky is setting out its stall to answer one, simple question: How many times each day do you check your phone?
It really is that simple – it may lead to life-changing habits that encourage you to keep your phone in your pocket more often. But more likely, it will just let you compete with pals to see who’s the biggest mobile phone addict.
➤ Checky
FIFA 15 Ultimate Team
EA launched FIFA 15 Ultimate Team (UT) last month, introducing more than 10,000 players from 500 teams. It lets you build your dream team and see how they fare against their rivals. It differs from the main FIFA games insofar as you ‘unlock’ players for your team.
Manual
Manual is a new camera app that lets you control all the important settings with easy-to use pop-up slider bars. You can adjust shutter speed, ISO, white balance, focus and exposure compensation.
➤ Manual
Tiiny
Digg founder Kevin Rose launched Tiiny last month, a fun iPhone app for sharing temporary photos and videos.
Tiiny shows you a grid of 212×212-pixel photos and looping videos from people you follow, which are automatically deleted after 24 hours. As we noted at the time of launch, the basic concept is based on the Explore/Hashtag views you’ll see on Instagram.
While Tiiny does follow a broader trend for photo and video-sharing, it is beautifully designed nonetheless.
➤ Tiiny
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Tictail
Tictail is a simple DIY solution for online stores. It’s not a retailer itself – it’s more of a “Tumblr of e-commerce,” delivering an easy-to-use platform for building virtual stores. However, with the launch of its first dedicated mobile app, Tictail is taking a different approach, focusing on the consumer market itself.
Tictail for iOS aggregates its customers’ products under a single digital roof. It lets you search for – and buy – from a myriad of boutiques and brands. Kind of like Etsy, or perhaps even Fab, but for everything.
➤ Tictail
Tempo
More than a year after Tempo launched its smart calendar app for iPhone, it was finally optimized for iPad users too.
Tempo understands the context around your event and not only pulls in addresses and directions, but contact information for people you’re meeting, related documents and more. It also supports natural language input.
Tempo was spun from the vaults of SRI International, the same non-profit research institute that gave rise to Siri.
➤ Tempo
Homejoy (US, Canada)
Homejoy is a service for booking cleaners, though it’s only open for those in the US, UK and Canada for now. It finally launched a native iPhone app too, though the UK has been omitted from the launch for now.
Users input their cleaning requirements and select a preferred date to receive a cost estimate based on how long it should take. To help make estimates a bit more accurate, it also allows for the addition of specific tasks, like cleaning the oven, doing laundry or cleansing the refrigerator.
➤ Homejoy
Angry Birds Stella
Angry Birds Stella is a female-focused variant of Rovio’s ridiculously popular Angry Birds franchise. You’re basically battling to save Golden Island from a baddie and the ubiquitous green piggies.
The gameplay uses the familiar slingshot approach, with a few new moves thrown in for good measure.
Reddit AMA
Last month, Reddit introduced an app that makes it easy to peruse its treasure trove of crowdsourced interviews with famous people.
Users can switch between trending, recent and all-time popular AMAs — each one is summarized and laid out to let you skim-read the questions, answers and conversations that may be buried deep within the platform.
Yahoo News Digest
Yahoo launched its News Digest app beyond iPhone and Android and onto iPad last month.
It’s an app that gives users news roundups twice a day, and serves as the succession to Summly, the startup founded by British teenager Nick D’Aloisio and which Yahoo acquired last year.
What…you want more?!?
If you’re on the hunt for more iOS apps, check out some of the best ones from August, peruse through our other monthly roundups so far, or put your feet up and check out our pick of the bunch from the whole of 2013. Alternatively, you can check out some of the best Android apps from the past month too – some of which you may recognize from the iOS incarnations listed here.
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