Top 5 iPhone & iPad Apps Of The Week (7/19/12)

This week's top five offers a wide range of apps. Kicking off our list is The Sonnets by William Shakespeare, a digital collection of William Shakespeare's love poems performed to camera by a star-studded cast, followed by Bomax - The Cranky Alarm, an alarm clock with mini-games to wake you up. Tying for third place are: Spider-Man AR Book HD, an augmented reality ebook that brings the Spider-Man story to life and Cheddar an uncluttered productivity app that creates simple text based todo lists. Closing out our top five is Chrome, an app version of Google's Chrome web browser. See what this week's app have to offer below and let us know what you think of them in the comments. We want to hear from you!

As always our iPhone and iPad app rankings are based on aggregating professional review scores from around the web.

1.		The Sonnets by William Shakespeare	100
		$13.99: iPad
		The Sonnets by William Shakespeare bring Shakespeare's immortal collection of love poems in an interactive digital edition that allows you to explore, appreciate and understand this great work of literature. All 154 sonnets are performed to camera by a star-studded cast including Sir Patrick Stewart (Star Trek, X-Men, Royal Shakespeare Company), David Tennant (Dr Who, Hamlet), Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City), Fiona Shaw (The Waste Land, Harry Potter), Stephen Fry (The Hobbit) and Dominic West (The Wire). These performances – all specially filmed for the app – are synchronized to the text, which highlights line by line as each sonnet is spoken. Check out a quote from PadGadget: "To buy or not to buy: Regardless of age, any student of the English language will learn from The Sonnets. Even though the app is one of the App Store’s pricier offerings, it remains a good value. As the use of iPads in education continues to grow, apps such as The Sonnets provide a compelling reason for a teacher to bring the iPad into the classroom" (July 3, 2012).

2.		Bomax - The Cranky Alarm	90
		$0.99: iPhone and iPod Touch
		Bomax is an interactive alarm character with never ending tricks that are guaranteed to wake you up or keep you on schedule. He’s a badger and his sole existence is to ensure you never oversleep, run late for work, school or any appointment. Bomax is a unique, super effective character with voice scheduling functionality. At each alarm occurrence, he enjoys engaging his users in mini-games where the only way to shut him up is to defeat him. Check out a quote from AppCraver: "Bomax – The Cranky Alarm is an alarm clock that means business. The mini games are fun and could probably be played on their own. If you are looking for an alarm that won’t take pity on you, then Bomax is here to give you an extra kick in the morning. Overall, I think the alarm is great and is the best app I have used in a long time" (July 9, 2012).

T3.		Spider-Man AR Book HD	87
		$4.99: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch (Universal App)
		Spider-Man AR Book HD is an interactive augmented reality ebook that lets you become part of the story. In the app you can put on an augmented reality Spider-Man mask, put on Peter's Father's augmented reality glasses, make your own augmented reality badge, try to stop augmented reality spiders that crawl on your face, collect augmented reality spiders in a jar and become Spider-Man by experiencing his Spidey-Sense. Check out a quote from Crazy Mike's Apps: "I fondly remember watching Spiderman cartoons and loving them as a young girl (along with all the other super heroes of the ’70s era). Obviously, Spiderman has remained a classic and it’s great to see this classic super hero being experienced by kids of this generation through exciting Augmented Reality, Entertainment apps like Spider-Man AR Book HD" (July 6, 2012).

T3.		Cheddar	87
		FREE: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch (Universal App)
		Many todo lists have lots of clutter around creating tasks, adding tags, setting due dates, assigning to people, etc. Cheddar is just text. Type in the box. Press return. Done. If you want to tag a task, use a hashtag just like you would on Twitter. You can also use Markdown in your tasks for extra awesome. Cheddar is super simple and instantly in sync on all of your devices. Check out a quote from Cheddar: "Overall, Cheddar is one of the best to-do list applications I have ever used. It is simple to use, and the Markdown and tagging support gives the app a little extra oomph. All of your tasks will be synced across all of your platforms, which is awesome to see in a free service. Not to mention that the app is gorgeous in all its versions" (July 5, 2012).

5.		Chrome	80
		FREE: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch (Universal App)
		Chrome, now available on your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Sign in to sync your personalized Chrome experience from your computer, and bring it with you anywhere you go. Check out a quote from Appletell: "All in all, I’m impressed and pleased with Chrome for iOS. The interface appearance doesn’t blow me away, but then interface aesthetics have never been desktop Chrome’s strong suit either. Functionally, however, it stands out, and that’s what counts, IMHO" (July 1, 2012).

For more of the Top 5 series, check out past Top 5 Apps and Top 5 Games posts. Also, check out our other series Favorite iPhone and iPad Apps and Games, Best Free iPhone and iPad Apps and Games, Best iPhone and iPad Apps and Games for Kids, The AppScore 100 and iPhone and iPad App Giveaways.

Notes: Top 5 is based on apps released two weeks prior, 6/24/12-6/30/12, to the current week to allow for reviews to come in. AppScores, prices, ranking, and availability are accurate as of 7/19/12. To make the list an AppScore of 75 or above is needed and the primary app category cannot be "Games".