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5 iPhone apps to help you pass the time over the Thanksgiving holiday

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:54PM EST
Best iPhone iPad Apps

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Thanksgiving is a double-edged sword. It’s one of the few opportunities we have during the year to gather around a table with our family members and eat an enormous meal, but the enraging political discussions, pointless disagreements and awkward interactions are all but inevitable.

When you need a few minutes to compose yourself, there’s nothing better than a distracting app on your iPhone, so be sure to load up these five apps before you head out to eat turkey on Thursday.

DON’T MISS: 5 incredible iPhone and iPad apps you have to check out right now

Kingdom Rush Origins

Currently $2.99 on the App Store.

Kingdom Rush: Origins is the third installment of the award-winning Kingdom Rush saga, loved by millions and earning accolades from gamers and critics around the globe. Take a trip back to the beginning, before Vez’nan ever thought to threaten the kingdom with the gem of power, and experience even more of the lightning-fast, exceptionally captivating gameplay that made the franchise a cornerstone of essential tower defense games. In this exciting prequel, command your elven army and defend mystical lands from sea serpents, evil sorcerers, and wave after wave of gnoll tribesman, all with the help of brand-spankin’ new towers, heroes, and spells to fend off every last baddie.

Kingdom Rush: Origins packs in a treasure trove of new content and features while keeping the signature look that millions have come to love.

GAME FEATURES

• Re-enter the world of Kingdom Rush: visit mysterious elven forests, magical faery realms and even floating ruins of an ancient metropolis!
• Unleash the power of the elves with brand new towers and troops! Elf Archers, Mystic Mages, Stone Druids and the Elven Infantry make up the backbone of your army.
• Discover eight new specialized tower upgrades with over 18 abilities! Vanquish your enemies with elven marksmen, runed bears, magic-wielding wizards, and even giant animated trees.
• Take up arms against 30 new enemy types and engage in epic boss battles! Face hordes of Gnolls, giant spiders, and the terrible Twilight army.
• Master and upgrade nine legendary heroes and their awesome powers and spells!
• Rain lightning, summon reinforcements, and use each hero’s unique power to obliterate scores of enemies!
• Immerse yourself in hours of gameplay with over 70 achievements, with three difficulty modes for the newbs and veterans alike.
• Play different game modes – Classic, Iron, and Heroic – and prove your mettle as a master tactician.
• Purchase new-and-improved equipment using your hard earned gems in a revamped Gnome shop.
• Study your enemies and your towers with an in-game encyclopedia

Download Kingdom Rush Origins

Godfire: Rise of Prometheus

Currently $0.99 on the App Store.

Become titan Prometheus as he embarks on an epic quest to retrieve the all-powerful Godfire Spark and save mankind.

VICIOUS COMBAT AGAINST HORDES OF ENEMIES
Fight using a dynamic combat system and unleash devastating wrath attacks while freely navigating the battlefield using intuitive controller or touch controls.

CHALLENGING BOSS BATTLES
Confront nightmarish creatures in visually stunning, multi-phased boss battles.

FREE EXPLORATION
Discover a beautiful world of myth and technology riddled with secrets, puzzles and dozens of unique items to discover across three difficulty levels.

NEXT-GEN QUALITY GRAPHICS
Witness amazing Unreal Engine-powered visuals, created in collaboration with Oscar-nominated animation studio Platige Image.

EPIC STORY
Immerse yourself in the story of Prometheus, with fully featured cutscenes and dialogues voiced by professional actors.

COMPETETIVE SURVIVAL MODE
Fight against countless waves of bloodthirsty enemies, earn unique rewards and challenge your friends to beat your high scores.

ENDLESS CUSTOMIZATION
Level up Prometheus, learn new skills and discover a variety of upgradable weapons, armor and magical items!

NEW CONTENT UPDATES
Regular free content updates introducing new story chapters, survival arenas, weapons, and more.

Download Godfire: Rise of Prometheus

Earn to Die 2

Currently $1.99 on the App Store.

Drive your car through a zombie apocalypse in this massive follow-up to the chart-topping hit Earn to Die!

An evacuation ship is waiting on the other side of the country. The only thing that stands in your way: city after city overrun by zombies . With only a run-down car and a small amount of cash you face a familiar situation… to drive through hordes of zombies in order to survive!

BRAND NEW STORY MODE
Earn to Die 2 introduces a massive new Story Mode, five times longer than its predecessor. The game departs its familiar desert setting and delves into the depths of cities infested by zombies.

MULTI-TIERED LEVELS:
Levels are now multi-tiered! Drive across decayed highway overpasses, via underground tunnels, or smash through epic zombie filled factories. Whichever path you choose to take, you won’t be able to escape the zombie hordes – your only choice is to smash through them!

BUILD A ZOMBIE-SLAUGHTERING MACHINE
Unlock and upgrade 10 different vehicles, including a sports car, a fire truck, and even an ice-cream van. Each vehicle can be equipped with a range of upgrades, such as armored frames, roof-mounted guns, boosters and more. Those zombies will stand no chance.

DESTRUCTIBLE VEHICLES
Vehicles are now fully destructible. Hang on for your life as your vehicle gets smashed to smithereens if you aren’t too careful.

MORE ZOMBIES. MORE DESTRUCTION. MORE MAYHEM.
What are you waiting for? That rescue ship isn’t going to wait forever! Prepare yourself for a wild ride – and seriously, there is nothing like smashing through zombie-filled factories!

For those brave enough to survive the apocalypse, a brand new Missions Mode is also coming soon.

Download Earn to Die 2

Hype Machine

Currently $3.99 on the App Store.

Discover the most talked-about music from blogs around the world. This is the Hype Machine in your pocket.

Every day, thousands of people around the world write about music they love — and it all ends up on Hype Machine. We watch for new posts on over 800 of the most interesting blogs and make it easy to follow this chaotic world.

You can listen to the newest tracks posted just minutes ago, the most popular tracks of the day, and check out what your friends have discovered on the service. Each week, we also hand-pick an album that you can stream in its entirety before you can buy it. All this, without ads or monthly fees.

Hype Machine lets you navigate the vibrant world of blogs in a few ways:

• LATEST: Music being discussed right now, constantly updated
• POPULAR: Tracks that are getting the most love on the Hype Machine
• FAVORITES: Your favorite tracks on the Hype Machine. A simple offline view lets you see your recently played favorites when you are in air or underground.
• FEED: Customized new posts from your favorite blogs, and friends
• FRIENDS: Music your friends are loving right now
• GENRES: Newest tracks posted on blogs organized by genre
• BLOG DIRECTORY: Every blog we track at http://hypem.com/blogs
• ALBUM PREMIERE: Preview a new album, in full, every week

Oh yeah, and the app scrobbles to Last.fm. Just enable it in your Hype Machine settings at http://hypem.com

Download Hype Machine

Living Earth

Currently $2.99 on the App Store.

A clock and weather app unlike any you’ve ever seen. Living Earth presents a stunning live 3D simulation of our planet with weather, forecasts and world clock for cities around the world. View global cloud patterns, hurricanes and tropical storms. Explore and experience amazing weather dynamics on our planet with real time weather maps and tropical cyclone tracking. Gaze at our planet floating amongst a universe of thousands of accurately rendered stars and gain a completely new perspective on time and weather.

FEATURES

● Live clouds from near real time satellite cloud data – updated every 3 hours. View global cloud patterns, hurricanes and tropical storms.
● Live weather maps of temperature, humidity, wind and forecasts.
● World clock, weather and extended forecast for millions of cities around the world with 10 day and 2-hour forecasts.
● Tropical cyclone notifications. Receive push notifications of new tropical cyclones and updates on current storm systems.
● Notification Center Widget provides quick access to weather essentials, sunrise/sunset times, world clock and active tropical cyclones (requires iOS8).
● Home Screen temperature icon. The current temperature for your location can be displayed on your Home Screen icon.
● Stars, constellations, and the Milky Way are displayed accurately in time and space.
● Sunrise and Sunset times.
● Observe the changing seasons throughout the year. View snow and ice coverage as well as other seasonal changes on our globe.
● Alarm Clock with music playlist. Wake up to a stunning view of the planet with your favorite music!
● iCloud city syncing with Living Earth App for Mac.

Quality detailed weather information is provided by Weather Underground the most reliable, accurate weather information available!

Download Living Earth

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.