Apps Rush: PlayART, VLC Beta, Samsung S Health, Critical Strike Portable, Flutterby Butterflies & more

A selection of 11 new and notable apps for you today: PlayART by Tapook Art purists may shudder at the thought of children mashing up Van Gogh's sunflowers with Monet's waterlillies, but that's the idea behind Tapook's PlayART app. Aimed at 5-13 year-olds, it lets them resize, rotate and flip elements from classic artworks by Van Gogh, Monet, Cézanne, Rousseau and Klee, to be saved and shared with family and friends. iPad VLC Beta Open source media player VLC has launched in beta for Android devices, although its developers warn it's "intended for power users and hackers. This version is NOT stable and is slower than the final version. It might kill your kitten, destroy your house and start the mayan apocalypse." It promises to play most audio and video file formats, as well as streaming files. Android Samsung S Health Samsung showed off its "personal wellness" app earlier this year, but it's now available to download for the company's Galaxy S III smartphone. The app tracks various health metrics, and can connect to blood glucose meters, blood pressure monitors and body composition scales to pull in more data. In the UK, it's available through the handset's More Services store. Android Critical Strike Portable Craving a Counter Strike-style FPS fix for your Android device? Critical Strike Portable is well worth a look. Studio OnMars' free-to-play game offers a mixture of single-player and online deathmatching modes, while enabling people to create their own maps using Unity 3D. Android Flutterby Butterflies There are hordes of cheap'n'nasty flash-card and alphabet apps for kids on the App Store. Flutterby Butterflies stands out for its craft, though: its colour and letter-matching games include illustrations by former Beatles collaborator Alan Aldridge, while the team at developer FeeFiFoFun has a background making light-shows for the likes of Pink Floyd and Cirque du Soleil. iPhone / iPad Speedball 2 Evolution Here's a retro fix for Android gamers, as classic 16-bit title Speedball 2 pops up on the Google Play store. Having been a hit on iOS in 2011, the Android edition keeps its key features, including a range of solo modes including a 10-season career. Android CouchSurfing CouchSurfing describes itself as a "social travel network", helping people connect when on their travels to find food, parties and beds for the night (or, indeed, sofas). The app helps people find likeminded users and communicate before turning up at their gaff. Android Traffic Panic London Nothing to do with the Olympic Games, despite the title. This freemium game from British publisher Neon Play is part of its existing Traffic Panic franchise, getting players to control traffic lights to ensure everything flows smoothly on the capital's streets. Or, alternatively, to manipulate massive great pile-ups. iPhone / iPad Encyclopaedia Britannica Fresh from announcing plans to shift from print to digital, the Encyclopaedia Britannica has made its debut on Windows Phone. This 2012 edition includes 80,000 articles and tens of thousands of images and charts, as well as an offline-reading mode. A one-year subscription is bundled into the download price. Windows Phone Chasing Yello Alas, nothing to do with the pioneering Swiss band Yello – although their The Race single would be an apt soundtrack to an endless runner game. Actually, this is less running and more swimming: a colourful arcade game focused on a fish named Mathilda. Power-ups and social challenges are included. iPhone / iPad