Image rights from top to bottom: Funn Media, Philipp Stollenmayer.
Calory is designed to make it
quick to enter your calorie
intake for each meal, helping
you log your calories and eat
more healthily. Its homepage shows a
circle that gradually fills as you approach
100% of your daily intake, giving you an
at–a–glance view of how you’re doing.
There’s a vast library of meals and
ingredients, each with calorie intake noted.
You can specify the serving size from
a handful of default options, but you can
only add custom serving sizes to some
meals, which seems like an oversight.
The app’s most useful feature is its
History section, allowing you to see your
One of the best games in the
early days of the iPhone was
Eliss. An artistic multi-touch
delight, it showcased that
not everything had been done in the
world of gaming. A decade later, Song of
Bloom confidently demonstrates that’s
still very much the case.
Ultimately a puzzle game, Song of
Bloom also feels every inch an art piece.
Whether or not you believe games can be
art, you’ll be left in no doubt that Song of
Bloom is artistic in nature, and has great
artistry within its range of tactile
vignettes, which beg you to experiment
and play with them.
Calory
Quickly count your calories
Free (IAPs) From Funn Media, calory.app
Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch Needs iOS 11.0 and watchOS 5.0 or later
Song of Bloom
An art game that blossoms
$1.99 From Philipp Stollenmayer, kamibox.de/songofbloom
Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 8.0 or later
GREATAWESOMEEntering a new meal and viewing your progress
is fast and straightforward.Probably don’t do this kind of thing in an actual
gallery — they won’t like it.intake by week, month, or year. You can
also view your weight gained or lost on
a graph; you can enter your weight
manually, or the app can use Apple
Health data to calculate it for you. That
tie–in is a great addition, particularly if
you track your fitness with an Apple
Watch. We also like Calory’s option to set
your own custom Siri Shortcuts from
within the app.
Premium features include a handy
Today widget, a larger food database,
plus water and nutrient tracking. The
base app has enough to help you improve
your diet, but the premium features are
certainly worth considering.Progress happens by performing
specific actions at precise moments. In
the animated looping narrative sketches
that begin each turn, drawing a shape in
the right place is enough to access a new
scene. But when you’re immersed within
that scene, you’ll sometimes need to
interact with your device in ways that
games don’t usually demand.
All of which probably sounds a bit
vague, but Song of Bloom is a better
experience when it retains the capacity
to surprise. Also, while it’s unique, clever,
and sometimes demands somewhat
obscure solutions, regular hints are
provided to help you.We wish it made better use of color:
its two–tone screen makes it hard to pick
out details and some judicious highlights
could’ve helped. It’s a minor hitch,
though, compared to the app’s benefits.
THE BOTTOM LINE. A good app with
well–thought–out features, but it needs
some extra polish. ALEX BLAKEShort of getting stuck, chances are an
hour in and you’ll be done. But if you want
something more than another me–too
match–three, this is a superb addition.
THE BOTTOM LINE. Unconventional
and beguiling, Song of Bloom shows
games can still say something new.
CRAIG GRANNELLTough testing, trusted ratings
maclife.com APR 2020 63