The 2012 App Gems Awards
Apple rightly takes a lot of pride in the size of its App Store—more than 750,000 apps are available for the iPhone and iPad, according to the company’s last count. But the risk of having such a massive emporium for mobile software is that the sheer volume of not-so-hot apps pushes the truly great offerings out of the spotlight. Not to worry, though: Plenty of iOS apps still combine great design and must-have features to help you get even more out of your iPhone and iPad. We’ve discovered nearly two dozen apps in the past year that remind us how the App Store and the iOS universe are about quality, not just quantity.
10000000
Mash together two very different iOS gaming genres—the cascading-tile puzzle (à la Bejeweled) and the venerable dungeon crawl—and toss in the old-school, eight-bit-graphics look of a 1980s arcade game, and you have 10000000. The name refers to the number of points you’re aiming to accumulate, which you do by guiding your blocky little character through a dungeon that scrolls across the screen: You move left to right as the dungeon creeps by. If you get stuck battling one of the many monsters or trying to unlock one of the treasure-filled chests, you slowly edge backward; end up at the left edge of the screen, and that run is over. You can redeem points accumulated in the dungeon for the usual weapons, armor, and magical items. It isn’t the originality of the concept that made this one of our favorite games of the year; it’s the whole-hearted embrace of old-fashioned simplicity in design and execution.—Dan Miller 4 out of 5 rating; $2, EightyEight Games
Any.DO
Any.do is an iPhone-only to-do app that stands out in a very crowded field of to-do apps thanks to its clean look and simplicity: To rearrange tasks, just tap, hold, and then drag. Tapping a task causes a palette of options—priority, note, alarm, contact, and folder—to slide down. The app integrates voice input and syncs task lists with other iOS or Android devices. And you can manage your lists in any browser. Any.do is one taskmaster I’d recommend to almost anyone.—Dan Miller 4.5 out of 5 rating; $1; Any.do
Barefoot World Atlas
You’ll need 1.5GB of space on your iOS device to fit Barefoot World Atlas, but if you have grade school–aged kids who are curious about the world, it’s worth it. The digital version of Nick Crane’s book takes great advantage of iOS’s touch interface, offering a spinnable, tappable globe packed with information about other countries and landmarks. An update added iPhone compatibility, putting the colorful world of this reference app in more people’s hands.—Philip Michaels 4 out of 5 rating; $5; Touch Press
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