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Apps & New Releases — Oct. 3, 2014

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Apps

fitscreeennnnFitStar Personal Trainer
Free

Has the stress of midterms led to excessive delivery pizzas? Already starting to worry about the freshman fifteen? Keep healthy and active using FitStar Personal Trainer, a free app that gives you access to hundreds of workout routines that will fit into your busy schedule. Users can also take advantage of the fact that the FitStar Personal Trainer app works in conjunction with the MyFitnessPal app, a highly rated calorie tracker. There’s nothing wrong with a weekly trip to Wisey’s, but this app will help you squeeze in a few extra crunches whenever possible.

gif keyboardGIF Keyboard
Free

GIFs have countless possibilities. Already widely used to jazz up otherwise boring emails, these famous images can now be smoothly added to your texts. When words or emojis just won’t cut it, turn to the new GIF Keyboard app to amp up your messages. This app allows you to select from categories of emotions and offers millions of short clips, ensuring that you will always have the perfect response. GIF Keyboard is compatible with iMessage, WhatsApp, Twitter, Messenger, SnapChat and Email, which means that the right GIF is literally at your fingertips.

ebatesEbates Cash Back & Coupons
Free

College gives you the freedom to buy things on your own, but most of us are on a pretty tight budget. Save some money with this new, free app. Ebates Cash Back & Coupons basically pays you to do what you already love and find very convenient – online shopping. With various offers and discounts, you can save up to 26 percent on your purchase just by creating a free account with the app. You even get an automatic $5 bonus when you make your first purchase. The app syncs with hundreds of popular retailers: from JCPenney to the Home Depot to Sephora. Beyond rebates, Ebates also helps you find great coupons, special offers and free shipping from the stores you already love.

New Releases

carrie-underwood-something-in-the-water“Something in the Water”
Carrie Underwood
★★★★★

Ten years after winning American Idol, Carrie Underwood is still swimming in fame with her fabulous country sound. Her new best-of album “Greatest Hits: Decade #1” comes out Dec. 9. Underwood celebrates this achievement with her passionate, upbeat single “Something in the Water.” The song begins with a fast beat that transitions into a pleasantly slow verse that highlights Underwood’s powerful vocals. The rest of the single picks up momentum and succeeds in capturing the singer’s classic country sound.

Lorde-Yellow-Flicker-Beat-iTunes“Yellow Flicker Beat”
Lorde
★★★☆☆

Taken from the upcoming The Hunger Games soundtrack, this single initially succeeds in delivering a shivering, memorable intensity. Lorde’s famed, sultry voice is complemented by a buzzing chorus that fades into a similarly gripping beat. Unfortunately, the single never challenges Lorde’s vocal range, and it lacks the melodic variety of her hit song “Royals.” The buildup drops into a mediocre chorus, leaving the listener largely unsatisfied.

One_Direction_-_Steal_My_Girl“Steal My Girl”
One Direction
★☆☆☆☆

The infamous boy-band is back with sass in anticipation of their latest album, “Four.” “Steal My Girl” has all of the essentials that make up this pop group’s signature sound. The single begins with a slightly more techno feel than most of the group’s other songs, incorporating staccato vocals with a strong bass-and-piano riff that is topped off with a layer of synthetic beats. It builds into a perfectly harmonized chorus that, while not musically inaccurate, is disappointingly unoriginal: the same standard One Direction package. Loyal One-D fans will immediately swoon, but new fans should beware.

jaden-smith-blue-ocean“Blue Ocean”
Jaden Smith
★★★★☆

Posted on his sister Willow Smith’s SoundCloud account, Jaden Smith’s new song is a surprise to all. The song begins with simple, rather weak vocals that are accompanied by a piano. The next segment of the song shifts into synthetic beats and slowly rapped lyrics that are surprisingly profound for the brother of Willow, whose hit “I Whip My Hair Back and Forth” caused quite the controversy. While some parts of the 7-minute song are stronger than others, it possesses elements of raw experimentation and youthful emotion that somehow manage to captivate the listener.

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Play While You Wait

Travel AppsAs Hoyas gear up to travel home for Thanksgiving break, many will find themselves bored waiting in an airport terminal or sitting on a train. Most of us instinctively turn to our phones to pass the time, but while travelling, there often isn’t WiFi around and cellular connection isn’t the best. To alleviate your woes, 4E has compiled some of the best apps to download and play while you anxiously wait to return home.

94 Seconds – This is basically a one-person game of Scattergories. As the name implies, you have 94 seconds to name something within a category, given one letter. For example, it could give you the category of fruit and the letter B, and you would type banana, blueberry, etc. Fair warning: This game is extremely addictive.IMG_2201-1

Flow – If you haven’t heard of this game, you need to go download it immediately. It’s extremely simple: You connect dots of the same color and try to fill up the board. Don’t let the lack of difficulty fool you. This game will literally keep you occupied for hours. There are an insane number of levels to complete, making it the perfect game to play while traveling.screen568x568

Candy Crush Saga – Almost everyone has heard of this game by now, and for good reason: It’s a great game to play when you’ve got some time to kill. Here’s a little cheat I’ve learned while playing: If you run out of lives and don’t want to wait, set your phone’s clock forward a few hours and go back into the game. Voila! More lives! (I play this game compulsively.)candycrushsaga

Any “Bloons Tower Defense” game – This is geared more towards those of you who like strategic games rather than puzzles. The main objective of the game is to pop “bloons” before they reach the end of a track that spans the screen, using towers that shoot darts, bombs and even lasers as you upgrade. Once you get up to around level 50, the game becomes more challenging, but regardless of difficulty, it remains wildly entertaining.bloons-tower-defense-3-screenshot0

Tiny Wings – This game is $0.99, but it’s worth the small purchase. Use landscaped hills to carry a tiny bird across “islands” before the sun goes down. I know it’s a strange description, but trust me, Tiny Wings is both exhilarating and addicting.screen568x568-1

Go download some (or all) of these games in the hopes that you won’t fall asleep and miss your flight. Safe travels home, Hoyas!

Photos: Inside Social Games, iTunes, Edrants, Rapidtyping, TrickTrackToe
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NextGUTS: Up To Date Transport Info

next guts

You asked, and Georgetown answered.  Citing numerous requests by students and app users, the Georgetown Mobile App has been updated to include a NextGUTS feature.  This allows users to track the location of GUTS buses and shuttles in real time, at any hour.  It will also have constantly updated arrival times for the buses, so riders can better anticipate what time they need to be at the stop.

IMG_0445IMG_0446

This new feature will certainly help out all Hoyas attempting to leave or to get back to campus, whether it’s for a basketball game, going out to dinner, or visiting the museums for a day.  The shuttle times for the Rosslyn, Dupont, Wisconsin, and Law Center buses are all included.  Be sure to check out the new feature if you already have the app, or download it at m.georgetown.edu or appstore.com/georgetown (the Apple App Store)!

Photo: Georgetown Mobile App