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It's much harder to put together a 5 Apps post for the Zombie Apocalypse than you might think. Do we focus on serious topics like first aid, or do we try to inject a little humor like Plants vs. Zombies for "training skills"? In the end, we came to the conclusion that this was simply too complex a topic to limit to just five app titles. We give you five app topics instead -- and we've skipped the entertainment component. In that spirit of deadly serious preparedness training, we give you "5 App Categories for the Zombie Apocalypse." First Aid The app store is brimming with first aid applications. We liked the free Know-it-All First Aid refresher app, which seems to have plenty of good reviews and cover the basics. Other well-reviewed apps included Pocket First Aid and CPR ($3.99), and Emergency First Aid & Treatment Guide ($0.99). Emergency health response is a vital component of survival during the apocalypse. Maps During the Zombie Apocalypse, you'll want access to a navigation application that uses cached maps. These apps tend to be quite large (typically over a gigabyte) but when the zombies are after you and the Internet is dead, cached information may be a lifesaver. We recommend Navigon (various prices based on region) and TomTom (ditto). Survival manuals The App Store is home to any number of survival manuals. You may wish to check out iSurvival ($1.99), iSurvive ($1.99), the Army Ranger handbook ($2.99), Wilderness Survival ($3.99), or Survive It ($1.99). TUAW recommends against Zombie Apocalypse-specific titles (e.g. Zombie Apocalypse Manual, $0.99) as they do not provide as balanced coverage as the general topic apps. Flashlight apps There are a bajillion free flashlight apps on the App Store, many of them that can enable your built-in LED like this one. Flashlights can help you find your way through the moonless night as you run across the gravel pits. Be careful though. They can draw more attention to you by the hordes of the undead, who can see just as well as the living (especially when their glazed, bleeding eyes chance upon warm prey). You can use a free Safety Flasher to signal your compatriots once you know they haven't been infected. TUAW recommends against picking up multitool versions of flashlight apps. You don't want to be measuring shelves or using a level at the same time you're fleeing for your life. Read More

Posted 07/30/2010 at 12:48pm | by Florence Ion Image via Flickr user dabemurphy It was inevitably going to happen, and now that your friends and neighbors are walking around looking to sink their rotting teeth into some braiiiiiins you have to get out of here. Wait, what are you reading this for? Run away! (Actually, keep reading, otherwise you'll never know how to utilize all those Apple products you hoarded into your bag to help save your life.) You need a map to get you through the dark, perilous woods--or maybe just the convoluted grid of the urban jungle. Google Earth can probably get you most of the way there (where are you going again?), even though a third of their executives have probably turned into zombies themselves. It can also look up terrain, weather, which way the Earth is facing, and any site seeing tours you might be interested in taking (since everyone is a zombie, all the tours are free!). If you don't have a WiFi connection to launch Google Earth, then you might as well just lay down and consider yourself dead. They're going to eventually get to you. But at least you'll have all those shiny Apple products to distract your simple little zombie non-brain with. Put your 3G iPad to use with this wonderful RSS feeder. Connect it to your Google Reader account and keep tabs on all the local and national news stations reporting on the horde's whereabouts. And whatever you do, turn down the brightness on your iPad, because once the zombies catch a glimpse of the light, they're coming… We mentioned this app earlier today, but we wanted to remind you download it again because it's so essential to fighting the zombie apocalypse. It scans your friends and lets you know how infected their body is so that you know to get the heck out of wherever you are as fast as you possibly can. Anyway, haven't you already seen zombie movies? You're supposed to run away from anyone who has been bitten, no matter the emotional connection you have with them. Or you could do like Simon Pegg a la Shaun of the Dead and keep your best friend locked up in the garage because you just can't seem to part with his deteriorating corpse. You sicko. Tags: Read More

Posted 07/30/2010 at 9:27am | by Florence Ion The zombie apocalypse is coming, but there's no need to worry because there's always a handy iPhone app to get you through the drama of it all. The Zombie Survival Guide Scanner app [iTunes link] is now an iPhone app that can scan your friends and neighbors to detect how undead they really are. Hmm, 32%. Well, looks like she's got a ways to go before the infection takes over her--BRAIIIIIIIINSSS. Tags: Read More