By Kristi Palma
Boston.com staff

Reviewing: Fruit Ninja Free
By: Halfbrick Studios Pty Ltd
Available on: Android
Price: Free
Should you get it? Yes

My kids love fruit. And they love ninjas. So I figured a game called "Fruit Ninja Free" would be right up their alley. And I was right.

I downloaded it for free on my Kindle Fire. It's not new, but it's new to us. The point of the game is to slash fruit with your finger as it flies across the screen. You can choose from three different modes: arcade (fast-paced), classic (no timer), and zen (no bombs = "peaceful and relaxing" ninja action). My kids love the fast-moving arcade mode because of the power-up bananas. They love bananas. And these special glowing bananas do things like double your points and send eruptions of more fruit.

When I read the reviews for this app, the biggest complaint was all the ads on the free version. But I haven't found the ads to be too intrusive. Sure, an ad pops up now and again. But my little gamers know how to hit "skip" quickly and make them go away.

At 3 years old, my daughter takes joy in the simpler aspects of this game. The graphics are pretty good. She loves the splatter action and giggles when the juicy-sounding fruit - watermelons, coconuts, strawberries, and more - splatter on the wall after she cuts them. I mean, c'mon, kids love making a mess with food (even a virtual mess!).

Now my son, who is almost 6, pays attention to the points. He has this technique where he scribbles on the screen with his pointer finger to slice multiple fruit at the same time, which scores combos and earns bonus points. But he has to watch out for the bombs mixed in! If he hits those, they will subtract 10 points.

There are more levels to this game that my young kids haven't used and that adults and older kids probably enjoy. Fruit Ninja Free offers OpenFeint support, which lets you post your scores online. You can go into the dojo and unlock swag with enough points. There are fun facts about fruit. You can find your friends by importing them from Facebook.

But my kids simply love slashing fruit.

And that works for me when I'm stuck waiting at the doctor's office and need something to keep them happy and still.

By Robert S. Davis
Globe Staff

Reviewing: 360 Panorama
By: Occipital
Price: 99 cents
Platforms: Available on iOS (tested on iPhone and iPad) and Android
Should you get it?: Yes.

From a viewer's perspective, there are few things more dramatic and immersive than a panoramic photograph. But for photographers, the production of such sweeping images can be an onerous task that at first required specialty cameras and film as well as time and expertise.

Digital photography facilitated production, allowing photographers to stitch together many photos in an image editor or via a camera's built-in software. And now app-laden smartphones that rival the image quality of point-and-shoot cameras make producing stunning panoramas easier than ever.

At 99 cents, Occipital's 360 Panorama app offers iOS and Android users a powerful tool to create not only standard panoramic photos, but truly immersive, 360-degree images with sweeping views from sky to shoes. Image quality is often excellent and the app offers several options for sharing photos.

By Eric Bauer
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Ad Hawk
By: Sunlight Foundation
Price: Free
Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
Should you get it?: Only if you're not already turned off by politics

We're all sick of campaign ads.

But let's face it, for the next few weeks you won't be able to avoid them unless you disconnect your TV, radio, computer, and phone. Your best defense against this political blitzkrieg is to be aware and informed.

Or so believe the makers of Ad Hawk, a free app that identifies the campaign ad you're listening to and tells you who's behind it, where their money comes from, and where they stand politically.

It relies on technology similar to Shazam, the hall of fame app that identifies the song you're listening to, and using it couldn't be simpler.

By Rachel Raczka
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: Epicurious
By: Conde Nast Digital
Price: Free
Platforms: Tested on iPhone, available for iPad, Android, Nook Color, Windows Phone, and Kindle Fire
Should you get it?: Yes.

Let me preface this review by saying: I cook a lot. And I bake more than I cook. So I spent a fair amount of time using this app. But don't let that scare you away; I recommend the app for the experienced cook as well as the kitchen novice.

Touted as a portable version of the popular website that proclaims it's "for people who love to eat," the Epicurious app features the same seemingly endless supply of recipes sourced from the Conde Nast treasure trove of the likes of Bon Appetit, Self, and Gourmet magazines.

By Joel Abrams
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: [WordHero]
By: SVEN Studios
Price: Free
Platforms: Android
Should you get it?: Yes, if you want to heroically swipe words

As the Schoolhouse Rock song about zero taught me many years ago, there are all kinds of heroes. A word hero is apparently someone who can find words in a four-by-four grid and quickly swipe them. The mind boggles at this definition.

Playing [WordHero], you test the speed of your brain and your fingers against hundreds of people around the world, all looking for as many words as possible in the same arrangement of letters.

The app puts you in a league based on your average score, so beginners don't end up competing against folks with freakishly large vocabularies. The app does validate your words against a dictionary that is quite sizable.

By Kailani Koenig-Muenster
Globe Staff

Reviewing: Stitcher Radio
By: Stitcher
Price: Free
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, recent models from Blackberry, Palm, and Nook, Amazon Kindle Fire, desktop
Should you get it?: Yes, if you're interested in expanding the kind of content you get through radio

Sometimes you just don't want to stare at a screen anymore. If you're like me and you spend a significant part of the day surrounded by the glow of computers, TVs, phones, and other devices, your eyes can glaze over. When it's time to close them and just listen, back comes radio.

Until my smartphone, my relationship with radio had only stayed alive because of the car. I'd listen if I was driving and I didn't have a CD or MP3 plugin anywhere, or if I wanted to dip into the latest news headlines. But I'd almost always end up switching back and forth between the same four or five stations, and I could never call up a favorite show or a specific, contemporary topic on demand.

Now with several radio apps, you don't have to choose and settle. I started with TuneIn Radio, which boasts more than 40,000 stations and streamed seamlessly on my Android phone. Then as soon as someone recommended Stitcher Radio, I haven't gone back.

By: Kristi Palma
Boston.com staff

Reviewing: HT-C Flashlight
By: Health & Fun Appz
Price: Free
Platforms: Android
Should you get it?: Yes! If you have to be awake when the sun is down, it will come in handy more than you think.

One of my favorite apps on my Android is the flashlight app. It's one of those things you don't realize you need until you have it. Like a lint brush.

For starters, I wake up for work at 5 a.m. That means it's still dark and my hubby is softly, blissfully snoring. It means if I turn the bedroom light on, I may wake him up and face a confrontation that's less than blissful.

Enter the flashlight app. It turns on your camera's LED light so you can use it as a flashlight. With one quick click, I am peering into my jewelry box in the dark corner. I am digging for that green and silver necklace to match my skirt. And doing it discreetly (you're welcome, honey!).

By Martine Powers
Globe Staff

Reviewing: Splitwise
By: Splitwise
Available on: Android, iPhone
Price: Free
Should you get it? Yes

Talking with friends about money is awkward.

There's always that moment at the end of an otherwise lovely dinner when the check arrives ("Sorry, we don't split bills!"), everyone throws down cash, and somehow the table is $15 short. Cue accusatory looks. Usually, the most weak-willed member of the group - rarely the one who underpaid - ends up footing the remainder.

Now there's help: Splitwise, the app that serves as an objective third-party arbiter and doesn't mind prodding friends to fork over the appropriate cash.

By Matt Pepin
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: ESPN Fantasy Football
By: ESPN
Price: Free
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android
Should you get it?: Yes, if your fantasy football league is run on the ESPN platform

Colleague Zuri Berry recently pointed out how lousy the NFL '12 app is, and I couldn't agree more. By the second week of the season, I'd abandoned it as my second screen on Sundays, which left the door wide open for something else.

Enter ESPN's Fantasy Football app, a far more entertaining and convenient experience than simply logging on to ESPN.com to follow your fantasy football team.

By Zuri Berry
Boston.com Staff

Reviewing: NFL '12
By: NFL Enterprises LLC
Price: Free (with in-app subscription)
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android
Should you get it?: Only if you don't know how to operate your mobile Internet browser.

I think everybody is done complaining about the NFL's impasse with the referees now that there has been a labor resolution. The zebras returned for Thursday night's football game, and harmony was restored on the playing field.

But not in cyberspace. The complaints are still streaming in from the NFL's mobile app (iOS, Android), which went from an incredibly useful secondary screen with video highlights from each game last season, to a slowly updated and now costly expense.