The United States Congress has become one of the most ineffective bodies of our government. The approval rating for both houses of the Congress is abysmal. Most of us couldn’t care less about most of the bills passed or rejected by these folks (unless they affect us directly like SOPA). But those who are studying the world of political science need to be more familiar with the ins and outs of everything going on in this body of the government. The Congressional Record app for iPad contains documents and information you need to be familiar with for your studies.

The Congressional Record uses the data provided by the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, and the Government Printing Office to keep you up to date with the bills and resolutions considered in both the House and Senate. You can browse editions by date or search through them by keyword. You can always send documents to yourself by e-mail or to a PDF reader.

The Congressional Record contains the debates, proceedings, and activities of the U.S. Congress. Most of us probably don’t care about most of these as the approval ratings for both houses of the Congress are super low these days. But this app offers value for political science students and anyone else involved in the this world.

Supercross games can be quite fun to play with as long as you get your hands on the right one. An exciting super-cross game is ideally consist of multiple tracks, great controls, and plenty of bike upgrades. That’s what you get with DynaStunts for iPad. It is an attractive game that challenges you to show off your motorbike stunts and beat the clock at the same time.

DynaStunts has 25 unique tracks for players to play on. Each of these tracks have their own challenges. As you pick up DynaStars, you can buy more upgrades and goodies for your bike (including hemlets, goggles, suits, …). You can also buy DynaStars if you don’t want to wait too long. The controls are flexible and the graphics are very decent.

DynaStunts is pretty smooth and quite entertaining. It offers support for Game Center. You get to do all kinds of stunts, which means the game does not get old too fast. A pretty decent title for anyone into motocross games.

Adopting a gluten free diet can do wonders for your body. We have seen some of the best athletes in the world try it to get leaner and increase their energy level. Of course, some of us have to go on those types of diets for health reasons. Whatever the reason for your adoption of this type of diet, apps such as Gluten Free Registry HD are worth having around. It helps you find gluten-free friendly food businesses all around you.

Gluten Free Registry HD covers restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, and many other types of food businesses. It has over 24500 business listings in its database. Users can view businesses on the map, go through their menus, and take a look at their reviews. Websites for gluten free food businesses are included too.

The Gluten Free Registry app allows its users to suggest their favorite businesses. You can use it to search through restaurants based on the location you will be taking a trip to. It is a handy travel tool to have for anyone on a gluten free diet.

Rating: 88/100

If you have been watching ghost hunting shows on cable TV recently, chances are you have seen EMF devices used to detect supernatural presences. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, EMF detectors are fun devices to play around with. iEMF+ for iPad is a cool little app that turns your device in a magnetic field detector and simulator.

iEMF+ uses the magnetometer in your iOS device to detect changes in the local magnetic field in your surroundings. The app supports multiple units, scales, and magnifications. Filtering earth’s ambient field is supported. In order to reduce noisy sensor readings, you should turn Low Pass Filter on.

iEMF+ works great on iPhones too. You do want to make sure you try it on newer devices as iPhone 3G and iPod Touch only support the Simulation mode. The app does offer an audio effect feature and has multiple color schemes. Overall, a pretty fun app to play around with.

Getting rid of debt can be quite difficult especially if you have been accumulating a ton of it over the years. The sooner you start getting serious about paying off your debt, the better. Apps such as Debt Manager help you do that in a cheaper fashion. The app uses the Debt Snowball method to show you how to pay off all your debts in the fastest and cheapest way possible.

Debt Manager has an elegant user interface. It lets you track all your debt accounts on your tablet. It covers multiple pay off strategies. You can choose to focus on your lowest balance first. High-interest and highest-balance first methods are also supported. What’s nice about this tool is the fact that it lets you analyze each individual debt by itself.

Debt Manager is highly customizable. You have multiple options for payment periods. Extra amounts can be applied to each debt. The “What If” scenario analyzer is quite useful. Debt Manager’s interactive reports are more than decent. Users can take advantage of them to compare debts and visualize them. The calculators included save you time figuring out your payment and payoff date. Your debt information can be exported in PDF and HTML format, which is a plus.

Debt Manager is quite good looking and has a ton of useful features for anyone trying to get out of debt. It offers you a lot of bang for your buck.

The iPad 2 may not have a decent enough camera to capture super high quality photos. But iPad owners can always use their device to apply brilliant filters to their photos. Painteresque for iPad is a unique filter that gives your photos a more artistic look. It turns your photos to superb paintings in a flash. The good part is you won’t have to be a Photoshop expert to start using this app.

Painteresque works great for scenery, animals, and architecture photos. You can snap photos and apply this filter to them. Of course, the app accepts your existing photos too. The filter is quite fast and transforms your photos in a flash. It brings details that you may not notice in your original photos. For that very reason, it may not work great for pictures of people.

The Painteresque app for iPad is quite unique and elegant. It brings new life to your photos. This is one addictive filter for those into iPhotography.

The deadline for filing your tax return is fast approaching. Many folks file their taxes much sooner than that. Even if you don’t have all the documents you need to start filing your tax return, you can always use tax calculators to get an estimate on what the IRS could return to you this year. Unless your return is processed, you are not going to get that check in the mail though. MyTaxRefund is a cool little app that shows your refund status and estimated refund date.

In order to track your refund status, you are going to e-file your tax return. You are going to have to answer a couple of questions to find out when you can expect your return. The app tells you if your return is pending, accepted, or rejected. MyTaxRefund can’t predict the exact date your refund arrives but gives you the estimated date for that anyway.

If you have e-filed your tax return and expect a refund, MyTaxRefund is a nice tool to have around. You won’t have to guess too much with this app at your disposal.

Action car chase games such as Need for Speed are quite addictive. They can not only kill a lot of your time, they don’t get old too fast. Smash Cops is another one of those games that you are going to find hard to put down. The game combines great graphics, intense action, and superb game play to offer players a killer game experience.

Smash Cops is all about chasing felons and capturing them while avoiding civilian traffic. You get 4 different mini games to get yourself entertained with (which include some smashing, dodging, and weaving). I found the controls to be easy to get a handle on. In order to get the full experience out of this game, you are going to have to buy additional game packs (which could be a turnoff for some since the game is not exactly free).

Smash Cops has great visuals. You get to smash and flip other vehicles which is always nice. The game involves both pursing and escaping. AirPlay support is a huge plus. The car movement could be a tad bit better. Smash Cops is well worth playing if you are into the chase/pursue type of games.

I don’t know about you but I am a big fan of free educational courses that are available on the Internet. You may not always be able to attend some of the top schools around the U.S. But thanks to the free lectures available from some of these top institutions, you have plenty of content to watch and listen to everyday. iTunes U is an awesome educational app by Apple that gives you access to a ton of free lectures on your iPad or iPhone.

If you have used apps such as iBooks in the past, you are going to find iTunes U’s interface familiar. There are 500k free lectures, videos, books, and other material for you to go through in this app. The content available in iTunes U are from education and cultural institutions in 26 countries.

Not only the courses are free, you are also provided with assignments and updates from instructors (depending on the course you are taking). Users can take notes and highlight text in iBooks. Searching through courses to find what you are looking for is pretty straight forward.

We found iTunes to be a bit slow on our iPad. But it is one valuable app for anyone interested in listening to quality lectures on a daily basis. Considering that the app is available for free, we don’t have too much to complain about.

Losing weight and keeping it off can be a challenge for most of us. You are going to have to exercise and eat the right way to lose the extra weight. Adopting a calorie-based diet could certainly help. CalorieKing Calorie Counter is just the tool you need to check calories for the foods you want to take in.

CalorieKing Calorie Counter has a large database of over 70k foods you can search through to find more information about your meals. It covers 260 fast food chains and restaurants. Each entry includes calorie count, total fat, cholesterol, and other relevant information. This tool has an elegant interface and makes doing comparisons between different foods easier .

The CalorieKing app does not tell you how to eat right. But it does show you whether you are going over your calorie budget with the foods you are eating everyday. Whether you are adopting a carb or calorie based diet, the CalorieKing can more than help you stay on track.