App reviews: JotterPad, Fallout Shelter
Inspiration can strike at any time, so it's always useful to have a simple, easy-to-use writing program on hand. JotterPad is just that: elegant, clean and designed to keep you from getting distracted. That doesn't mean, however, that it's underpowered. The app has extensive sharing, layout and productivity features that make it an invaluable tool for wordsmiths. It has built-in dictionaries and research tools. It lets you save documents in just about every file format you'd commonly need, and even syncs with Dropbox. The free version of the app is useful unto itself, though it's possible to buy even more features -- typefaces, etc. -- for a $6 upgrade.
Other touches set JotterPad apart from the slew of competing apps. One nice feature, for example, is a "night mode" that makes recording any midnight inspiration a little easier on your eyes. And you can also opt to extend the keyboard and add extra, useful functions that you may need if you're inserting images or want handy access to symbol keys. But the real beauty of the app is that you can tuck all of that away if you want to just focus and write. Free for Android devices.
Fallout Shelter
This is a twisted take on games such as "The Sims," in which players control every aspect of the lives of a small community. A mobile addition to the "Fallout" game series, the app puts players in charge of an underground shelter built after nuclear bombing ravages the Earth's surface. Players command everything about the community as its "overseer," from how it manages food and power to what citizens' children are named. The game is simple enough for anyone to play, but parents should note that it's rated 12 and up thanks to the sort of cynical gallows humor you might expect from a game set in a post-apocalyptic imagining of the Eisenhower age. Death and cartoonish violence are inescapable, even if the art makes it all look like a cartoon.
You'll definitely get more out of Fallout Shelter if you've played any of its related console games. It's rife with in-jokes for fans, who'll recognize its aesthetic as well as props and enemies pulled from the series. But you don't have to come armed with deep "Fallout" knowledge to enjoy Fallout Shelter -- just a dark sense of humor. Free for iOS devices.