20 best iPhone and iPad apps this week

It's time for our weekly roundup of brand new and notable apps for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices.

It covers apps and games, with the prices referring to the initial download: so (Free) may mean (Freemium) in some cases. There's a separate roundup for Android apps, which was published earlier in the day.

For now, read on for this week's iOS selection (and when you've finished, check out previous Best iPhone and iPad apps posts).

The Championships, Wimbledon 2013 for iPad (Free)

Wimbledon is kicking off again today! Well, the tennis equivalent of kicking off, anyway. This year, there's an official iPad app from the All England Lawn Tennis Club, providing live scores, results and stats, draws and play schedules, and profiles of players. It'll also stream live radio, and a live video show with interviews, highlights and features on the tournament. It joins the existing smartphone apps, which have been updated for 2013.
iPad

Toca Builders (£0.69)

This is the latest app from acclaimed children's app-maker Toca Boca, and a step up in terms of complexity and creativity for the company. Inspired by Minecraft and Lego, it gets kids building structures from cubes, put in place by six cute robots who trundle around the virtual world. Children are free to build, paint and destroy whatever they like. For more on Toca Boca's strategy, read this interview.
iPhone / iPad

Soundwave Music Discovery (Free)

startup Soundwave wants to help people discover new music by following what friends and tastemakers are playing. The app tracks and shares song plays on Spotify and Rdio, as well as on your iOS device, while showing you the plays of others – as well as aggregated charts. For more on how it works, read this interview with Soundwave.
iPhone

Where's My Mickey? (£0.69 / £1.49)

Disney had a big hit with its Where's My Water? and Where's My Perry physics-puzzle games. Now it's applying that formula to its most famous character: Mickey Mouse. This game sees Mickey collecting water over more than 100 levels split into five episodes, with more available as in-app purchases. The link above is for the cheaper iPhone version, but here's the £1.29 "XL" iPad edition, which has extra levels designed for the bigger screen.
iPhone / iPad

ITN (Free)

News provider ITN released its first app a few years ago, but this is a completely new version to replace it on the App Store, with added iPad support. It mirrors ITN's website, with a thumbnail-heavy homepage of news, and plenty of videos to watch.
iPhone / iPad

XCOM: Enemy Unknown (£13.99)

iOS is on a good run of classic hardcore games at the moment, with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic out recently, and now XCOM: Enemy Unknown. This is a conversion of the much-loved PC and console game: a strategy epic where you build a base, research new technology and send your troops out into battle. Expensive for iOS, but engrossing enough to justify the price.
iPhone / iPad

CloudSpotter (£1.99)

This is a brilliant idea: an app designed to get you looking up at the sky rather than down at your iPhone. CloudSpotter is an app for identifying one of 40 different cloud-types, with gamified elements rewarding you with stars and badges as you try to collect the lot. Except there's a serious intent – explained at more length in this article – with the app helping Nasa monitor the effects of clouds on the Earth's climate.
iPhone

Bee-friend your garden (Free)

Here's another app that'll get you out into the natural world. It's a "Citizen Science project" from the University of Sussex, working with The Earthwatch Institute, Waitrose and The Crown Estate. It's asking people to record which pollinating insects visit their gardens, with graphs to show which plants are most popular – and data uploaded to a central database for the researchers to pore over.
iPhone / iPad

The Atlantic Weekly (Free)

The Atlantic is the latest magazine hoping to find new revenue streams from digital products, including apps. Its latest collects each week's best pieces from its websites and packages them up for weekend reading on iOS devices, charging £1.49 per issue, or a monthly £1.99 subscription.
iPhone / iPad

izik search (Free)

Search-engine app izik comes from Blekko, which has won a fair few fans on the web as a Google alternative. It promises "fun and functional" search, with results organised into categories, and a gesture-based user interface to quickly swipe between them.
iPhone / iPad

Charlie Brown's All-Stars! (£2.99)

Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang return for this storybook-app on iOS from Loud Crow Interactive, based around the exploits of Charlie's baseball team. The storyline comes with interactive activities: pitching, batting and catching, but also sewing a uniform, surfing with Snoopy and setting up Linus' inflatable pool.
iPhone / iPad

Delicious Official App for iPad (Free)

Social bookmarking service Delicious didn't fare too well when owned by Yahoo, but in 2011 it was bought by AVOS, the new company of YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. Now it has a brand new iPad app helping users root through their bookmarks and those of their network.
iPad

Monsters University (£0.69)

More Disney: this is the official mobile game for the latest Disney/Pixar movie, Monsters University. It's a pair of games, actually, both from the endless runner genre. Catch Archie sees you chasing down rival mascot Archie the Scare Pig, while Toxicity Challenge involves running through sewers avoiding glow-urchins.
iPhone / iPad

Gareth Thomas Fitness App (£1.99)

With the British and Irish Lions doing well Down Under, what better time for rugby veteran Gareth Thomas to launch his own fitness app? This offers a mixture of workout videos, diet plans and routines with the promise of "the perfect ripped body" as the end result. It's a spin-off from Thomas' existing fitness DVD.
iPhone / iPad

I Care If You Listen Magazine (Free)

Here's something good for fans of contemporary classical music: an iOS-only magazine delivered through Apple's Newsstand storefront offering interviews, reviews, videos and music technology articles. Issues will be published every two months for £1.99 via subscription.
iPhone / iPad

Thor Polysonic Synthesizer (£10.49)

This is the latest electronic-music creation app from Propellerhead Software, following its ReBirth and Figure apps onto iOS. It's based on the flagship synthesizer from Propellerhead's Reason music production software, promising "a thunderous sound, god-like sound sculpting capabilities and an innovative, lightning-fast keyboard designed for iPad". And LOTS of buttons. One for pro musicians and keen amateurs alike.
iPad

War of Nations (Free)

Social mobile games publisher Gree is behind this soldier 'em up game, which is being pitched as a "strategy MMO with military combat". That means building bases, creating armies and then battling against friends and strangers alike over the network, levelling up (and spending up to £69.99 at a time on in-app purchases) as you go.
iPhone / iPad

Play-Doh Create ABCs (£1.99)

A Play-Doh app sounds like a silly idea, given that it can't possibly recreate the squishy tactile fun (or the smell) of the real thing. But there's some good stuff here: a section for kids to learn to trace the letters of the alphabet using virtual Play-Doh, unlocking items (cars, rockets, monkeys etc) to arrange in their own colourful scenes.
iPhone / iPad

Puzzle Pirates (Free)

I know a fair few gamers who are still obsessed by Puzzle Pirates in its online/web form, so its new iPad version should bring the phenonemon to even more players. It sees you adventuring in a world full of other players, sailing your ship, sword-fighting and exploring new islands. Pretty much every activity in the game is represented by a puzzle, with virtual doubloon purchases funding your ambitions.
iPad

Gomma Friends (£0.69)

One final children's app this week, and one that wants to get kids playing and creating in the real world as well as on-screen. Gomma Friends is a dressing-up app with eight characters and a host of outfits and scenes to customise. But every time children complete a scene, they unlock printable card objects and characters, which they can then make for real by folding and sticking.
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.