5 can't-miss apps: Touch Pianist, Thred and more

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Tech news has been busy this week, with Oculus finally confirming a release date and Google releasing the schedule for its upcoming developers conference. So you may have missed some of the week's best new apps.

Luckily, each weekend, we round up a few of our favorite new and updated apps. This week's list includes an app that lets you play classical music on a piano, a social app from the creator of the Sims and a weight-tracking app.

Check out the gallery, below, to see our top picks. If you're looking for more, take a look at our last roundup here.

Into%20the%20circle

Into the Circle

Into the Circle is one of those simple games that is trickier than it seems. The premise is somewhat like darts, in that you want to perfectly aim and time shots to make it into the circles, with extra points for landing in the center. But the speed and angles get progressively more difficult as the levels advance, which takes the games from simple to frustrating very quickly.
Keep an eye on: The circles in the distance. If you overshoot your next target, you can still continue provided you make it into a circle somewhere on the board.

Pro tip: If you run out of stars and want to get around the game’s somewhat maddening freemium constraints, kill the app and restart. It won’t save your previous progress, but it does allow you to start over without making an in-app purchase or clicking through the app’s ads.

iOS: free
Image: Gameblyr

Slim

Slim

The aim of Slim’s weight tracking app is to help you not only with daily tracking, but also with small game features like reminders and in-app rewards for meeting goals.

Keep an eye on: The app also supports Touch ID at login to ensure your data is kept private.

Pro tip: Apple Health integration allows you to automatically sync your weight from Wi-Fi-enabled scales like Fitbit’s or Withings’ with the Health app.

iOS: $0.99
Image: Josef Moser

Tastebud

Tastebud

Looking for new music and podcasts to listen to? New books to read? TV and movies to watch and apps to download? Tastebud users ask for recommendations and get suggestions from their extended social networks.

Keep an eye on: Your notifications to find out when people you know need a rec or when someone likes one of your suggestions.
Pro tip: You can customize your feed to filter out certain categories you’re not interested in.

iOS: free
 Image: Josar Media Inc
 
Thred

Thred

Created by the man behind the Sims and SimCity games, Thred is a social app that’s a bit like Twitter cofounder Biz Stone’s Super. Users share brief stories by overlaying text and stickers onto images.

Keep an eye on: The featured section, which has some of the app’s more popular ideas. You can also switch to an “everyone” view to get a sense of what all users are sharing.

Pro tip: The app has a neat scroller control that helps you easily search through your camera roll chronologically to find photos on any given day.

iOS: free
Image: Syntertainment Incorporated
Touch%20pianist

Touch Pianist

A simple but beautiful app, Touch Pianist takes classical music you’ve heard a million times and recreates it as a visualization that you “play” just by tapping on the screen in the right rhythm.

Keep an eye on: The app’s music catalog, which comes with more than a dozen songs preloaded for free. You can buy additional scores through in-app purchases.

Pro tip: Don’t be afraid to play too fast or too slow or mix up the beat a bit; the music holds up, regardless of your skill level. Tapping farther down on the screen decreases the volume while moving higher increases it.

iOS: free