Our inaugural AppAwards just ended. I’m very happy with the turnout (almost 60,000 votes cast) and the 252 apps which were nominated in our 54 categories were among the best the App Store has to offer.
However, some apps didn’t make the cut and this is as much a place for you to vent about it as it is for me.
Though I was on the AppAwards nomination committee, I am not an iPhone God.
And though I wish I was, I am not, in fact, perfect. It is with great sadness that I mourn the absence of these great apps from the AppAwards nominations.
Read It Later Pro ($2.99), Read It Later (Free)
Read It Later is such a cool idea and it works great. If you haven’t tried it, the app lets you add any link to your Read It Later List. It’s ideal for airplanes, subways or car rides where you don’t have internet access or want to save battery by turning off the network connection.
Much like Beejive before it had Push Notifications, I didn’t give this app a chance because it didn’t seem like an elegant or workable solution. Beejive used to send you an email whenever you had a new message. I didn’t think that would work out and never sprung the $10 to buy the app. However, I finally did and was surprised how great it was. Now it’s a moot point thanks to Push Notifications.
Read It Later seemed unusable because there was no “read it later” button in my Google Reader. Boy was I wrong. Turns out you can add bookmarklets to any browser, including Mobile Safari, that do a great good job of saving links for later. It works really well in Google Reader on the iPhone which is what matters to me.
Until there’s a quality newsreader app that features smart Push Notifications for read counts/breaking news, Read It Later will be the only news app on my home page.
Pocket Tanks Deluxe ($4.99), Pocket Tanks (Free)
I’ve played Pocket Tanks for the better part of 10 years and wrote the developer, Michael P. Welch, out of the blue a couple months ago just on the off chance he was going to develop an iPhone version.
Turns out it was only days away from release.
The iPhone version rocks and gives iShoot a run for its money. Pocket Tanks is all about the weapons and it has a ton of them. You could play the game for hours and still not try out every weapon.
It has a loyal following on the Mac/PC and I guarantee it will develop a similar following on the iPhone.
Though I didn’t nominate it because I still don’t think it can compete with iShoot head to head because it still needs wifi multiplayer.
If you haven’t tried it out yet, make sure to download the free version.
Cooliris (free)
Probably the best search experience for images on the iPhone.
You can tilt the iPhone, swipe or pinch and zoom across a wall of images. You can search Google, Flickr, Yahoo, Youtube, SmugMug or DeviantART. You can save any image to your camera roll. You can tweet an image directly from the app. In short, this is a perfect iPhone app.
Coolirirs was certainly a contender for Most Innovative User Interface or Best User Interface, but those were both extremely competitive and subjective categories. In retrospect, I wish it was nominated for either of those categories.
Definitely worth a download. Guaranteed you’ll like it.
The Also-Ran’s, The Shouldn’t Have Won’s, Your Unforgivable Omissions And Next Year
Seriously, Rolando 2 for app of the year? Am I the only one upset about this? Sure those little rolly guys are cute but Textfree Unlimited saved me $5/month. There are a lot of categories where I scratched my head at the winner but could see why it won. Sure Shazam is amazing, but have you tried out photo recognition in Evernote? How about ReQall? Speech to text to task with Push Notifications is pretty awesome.
But Rolando 2, seriously?
Oh well.
I’m starting early on my campaign for Mover 2 to be App Of The Year in 2010. It’s still in Apple’s queue awaiting approval or rejection. Please get approved. Please get approved.
Installed on two iPhones or iPod Touches, Mover 2 will (eventually) let you slide all sorts of media from one iPhone to another. Right now, with Mover 1, you can only share photos and contacts on wifi. Eventually you’ll be able to share videos, bookmarks and copied text over bluetooth. Vote Mover, 2010!
Finally, that brings me to you. I want you to tell me the most under-appreciated apps of the 2008-2009 app year. Did they lose? Were they overlooked? Let me know in the comments.
I couldn’t agree more with you regarding the App of the year.
i couldnt agree less. rolando 2 is an incredible game, probably the best on the iphone (tough call between that and real racing). if you dont have it, seriously buy it you cant possilbly regret it. the fact that its only been out a month doesnt mean it shouldnt have as much a chance of winning as the others. it definitely deserved app of the year
I agree. Seems like some things were more flavour of the week than anything else.
Midomi FTW. I can’t believe Shazam got 2 awards and the far superior Midomi got shafted!
Ian, have you noticed the disclaimer at the bottom of the Textfree Unlimited description mentioning a “yearly fee” for users who get the app after 6/17? No mention of the amount of the fee but it could cut into your $5/mo savings if you aren’t exempt. This might have something to do with its negative reception.
I also have the free version but it doesn’t seem to work. But more likely my friends are just ignoring me. Infinite SMS worked flawlessly for me. I paid the $.99 and a few days later the powers that be killed it. That experience still stings. And in light of the recent Amazon book burning fiasco it’s wise to remember that Apple also supposedly has this same power to remotely delete our apps.
As far as overlooked apps I’d say i.TV, which I use every day and saves me having to buy or more likely, scrounge, a weekly paper from the local coffee house. Also surprised a Twitter app didn’t win App of Year since Twitter on my iTouch has revolutionized the way I approach the web. AppAdvice, for example, is the best integrated site on Twitter/iPhone. It’s really easy to follow your posts and access comments through your Twitter feed. Great job on that and the awards.
Adaptunes is way under-appreciated! It’s just so darn useful.
If you check your Twitter responses, I made a comment about a game winning app of the year. Sad sad sad. I guess a bunch of teens voted. Sure I am almost 40, and a I have some games, but I can think of a few apps that should have won. Heck, anything other than a game.
Documents to Go, Twitterific Premium, Shazam, anything.
When seaching for my perfect Twitter app I compared a lot of the ones included by you but as twitts are short and fast messages I rejected any app without landscape writing and finally I discovered Landscape Twitting!.
Is a surprise not to see this app in your reviews. Fast 2 fingers tipping, full screen view with fast icons, in app web browsing for links, option to update of FB at the same time, in app pictures,…
Probably it will be more nice shatted apps like this one. I can´t considere any app made to write without landscape mode.
Where was Archon… i did submit it to the games category.
I came across this new note app about a few weeks ago, it’s called AwesomeNote by BRID http://brid.co.kr/ According to the developer’s website, it has some great features and more underway like the ability to synce notes with google docs. It can easily replace the iPhone notes app; imagine when the upcoming features are released. Since not considered for this year’s appawards, I hope it makes next year, meanwhile a review of the app would be cool. (I’m not affiliated with the developer, I just find the app very usefull for taking notes and boosting productivity)
checkout AwesomeNote app! It can easily replace the default iPhone notes app. A review would be cool too.
Ian, what about the “yearly fee,” mentioned at the bottom of the description, for users who DL Textfree Unlimited after 6/17?
Lee, yeah I do know about the yearly fee. And yes, it will eat into the savings. You have to admit, $6 a year is so much more reasonable than $5 a month.
What about Loopt? That has to be one of the most useful apps If you have friends and family that use it. It was way robbed. IT’S MY APP OF THE YEAR!
I’m surprised Galcon didn’t win. Galcon is one of the best games on the App Store, featuring seamless online game play and several singleplayer modes. I’m surprised it’s not more well known. The people that do know it love it however.
RSS Reader: iNews. Better than ALL of them.
wow, my apologies for that double post, trouble posting on myside…
I very much enjoyed the Awards and the buzz that they created. Is the iPhone now the best portable computer on the market?
Next year, please consider making prizes available to non-US AppStore accounts.
CUP destroyer is an awesome puzzle game.