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Games

Byte The App: Must See Apps Of The Week 1/26

Fingle is Twister for your fingers, Krink lets you virtually graffiti your photos, two different apps let you compose music using either a 16-step music synthesizer or your own DNA, and get a glance at the future of HD...

The app stores are teeming with new releases, but who has time to go through them all? We do. Bringing you a selection of the most interesting, creative, and innovative apps each week. Submit your suggestions for next week in the comments below.

Fingle [iPad]

Ah, the warmth of human touch—remember how that feels? These days you’re more likely to be in regular contact with the smooth indifference of a retina display than a human hand, but don’t fret, because with this app you can do both. Players have to drag buttons of a distinct color onto their corresponding targets using their fingers, with the tantalizing prospect of your digits becoming entwined in an illicit embrace. It’s Twister for hands basically.

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Krink [iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad]
Krink makes marker pens and ink for street artists still using the old analog methods to art up the urban environment. But now they want in on some digital action and have brought out this app that replicates the markers in the virtual terrain. Release you inner Banksy by dripping digital ink over your photos or start from scratch on a blank canvas. Then become a global virtual street art phenomenon, but always remember to conceal your identity.

MINI-COMPOSER [iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad]
Electronic musician Karl Bartos and artist Masayuki Akamatsu have teamed up for this app that lets you simply create music using a 16-step music synthesizer. It was built to aid the Red Cross site and it’s free, but they ask for donations to help the relief effort for the tsunami that devastated Japan last year. It has four drumbeat loops that correspond with a graphic, like a man walking, and a grid-style sequencer.

GeneGroove [iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad]
This is another music-making app but it uses your own genome data to create the sounds. The catch is that you have to use the genetic data from a specific company called 23andMe, but the concept is intriguing. You upload your raw data and the app analyzes the genome, then generates a key which GeneGroove uses to generate a melody. And there you have it, generative art created using your DNA.

UpNext HD Maps [iPad, Android]
Forget Google Maps, these guys are upping the game—or at least attempting to. Currently they only have maps for the US and the app is available only on tablet devices, but it means you can explore 3D buildings and tap on them to look inside. It also comes integrated with Foursquare and Yelp. This looks like the future, until we get augmented reality mapping anyway.