Winners of the 2008 Best iPhone App Ever Awards Announced

prMac ^ | 01/08/2009 | Jeff Scott

[Swordmaker]

San Francisco, CA - The winners of the 2008 Best App Ever Awards have now been announced in the inaugural competition honoring the best iPhone apps and games released in the iTunes App Store.

"The goal of the awards was to help publicize some applications that people may never have seen. Some of the best apps have never been featured on the iTunes front page or in an iPhone TV ad, yet they deserve recognition and publicity for the great work the developers have done." said Jeff Scott, founder of 148Apps and the Best App Ever Awards.

And it looks like this worked. We heard from many developers of nominated apps that their sales went up once they were nominated. One developer, Portegno Apps, developer of nominee Cartoonize Me, saw sales go up 25% after being nominated.

Sponsored by 148Apps, the voting saw an amazing 98,190 votes cast in the week that voting was open. Voters cast their votes for a variety of iPhone apps in 34 different categories covering applications and games. Categories such as Most Innovative App and Best Productivity Killer were extremely popular with voters.

Winners in each category:

Best App Ever: Shazam by Shazam Entertainment Ltd.

Most Innovative App: Shazam by Shazam Entertainment Ltd.

Most Useful App: Air Sharing by Avatron Software, Inc.

Best Free or Ad Supported App: Stanza by Lexcycle

Best 99 Cent App: Ocarina by Smule

Best iPhone WOW App: Shazam by Shazam Entertainment Ltd.

Best Productivity Enhancer: Things by Cultured Code

Best Productivity Killer: Facebook by Facebook

Best Feel Like A Local App: Now Playing by Cyrus Najmabadi

Best Outdoor Use App: RunKeeper Free by FitnessKeeper, Inc.

Best Musical Instrument App: Ocarina by Smule

Best Social Networking App: Facebook by Facebook

Best Photography App: Pano by Debacle Software

Best Kid Distraction App: iChalky by Eric Metois

Most Creative Use of iPhone Hardware: Ocarina by Smule

Best Use of Location Services: Urbanspoon by Urbanspoon

Most Original User Interface: Weightbot by Tapbots

Best User Interface: Twitterrific by The Iconfactory

Most Innovative Game: Touchgrind by Illusion Labs

Best Original Game: Fieldrunners by Subatomic Studios, LLC

Best Game Port: SimCity by Electronic Arts

Best Casual Game: Labyrinth by Codify AB

Best Long-Play Game: Fieldrunners by Subatomic Studios, LLC

Best Free or Ad Supported Game: Chess With Friends by Newtoy Inc.

Best 99 Cent Game: Moto Chaser by Freeverse, Inc.

Best Game Graphics: Rolando by ngmoco, Inc.

Best Game Controls: Rolando by ngmoco, Inc.

Best Arcade Game: Air Hockey by Acceleroto

Best Puzzle Game: Enigmo by Pangea Software, Inc.

Best Traditional Game: Texas Hold'em by Apple Inc.

Best Racing Game: Cro-Mag Rally by Pangea Software, Inc.

Best Kids Game: JellyCar by Walaber

Best Strategy Game: Fieldrunners by Subatomic Studios, LLC

Best Word Game: Chicktionary by Blockdot, Inc.

The list of winners and nominees is available on the site and also as a PDF and text file. The Best App Ever Awards will return in the fall to help honor the best apps of 2009.

The mission of the Best App Ever Awards is to help recognize the best iPhone applications released to the iTunes App Store in 2008, not just the best selling. Nominees for each category were determined both by nominees submitted on the Best App Ever site and from a nomination committee. The nomination committee is comprised of industry people including bloggers and iPhone app developers. For a list of the members of the nomination committee, see the site. The name for the Best App Ever Awards comes from a friend of the site who would introduce the latest application he downloaded when showing friends as the best app ever.

The mission of 148Apps is getting the word out about the very best in iPhone OS applications through editorial reviews and news. In addition to the reviews and news, 148Apps keeps track of what's currently popular, new, trends, and app prices changes in the iTunes App Store.

[Swordmaker]

Winners of the 2008 Best iPhone App awards... PING!

I've gotten hooked on Labyrinth... an iPhone converted to an emulation of the marble labyrinth game that was played by twiddling two knobs to tilt the playing surface and control a steel marble around without falling through the holes... amazing on the iPhone... and addicting.

MacPing!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Cyropaedia]

I dig iChalky....

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Only thing that really matters for Iphone in 2009 to make it more than just a hyped toy: Getting web browser to support flash and the phone to support MMS. Until then, its a pretty touch screen boat anchor with 99.9% of its applications designed for those who watch Hanna Montana daily.

[Spktyr]

Ummmm.... no. I find it a *very* useful IT tool.

And I find MMS to be pretty much useless on any device that already has email.

[Swordmaker]

Getting web browser to support flash and the phone to support MMS.

Strange, i use it for business daily. I really don't think that Flash and MMS is really all that great. If I want to send a picture, I email it. I would like cut/copy and paste...

[cowtowney]

I nominate ifart for “most useful”

[driftdiver]

iboob also has potential

[USMCWife6869]

I’m an old fashioned girl. Bejeweled is still my favorite time waster LOL.

[DainBramage]

My wife is a big fan of Ivibrate. I cant figure it out but ...to each his own I guess.

[prismsinc]

I read up on that. The reason that flash isn’t supported is because of the huge consumption of battery power to run it.

[SJSAMPLE]

I’ve NEVER been an Apple fan, but my wife replaced her Razor with an iPhone and I’m amazed at the usefulness of this thing.

As an IT professional, it’s strange that I stay away from gadgets. But, I’ve been there and expended resources on shiny trinkets of little value.

Phone.
Email.
Photos.
Movies.
Music.
Google Earth.
GPS mapping.

And that interface - amazing.

My Blackberry 8830 World Phone seems like an abacus next to the iPhone.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Best killer app: Pandora

[Natty Bumppo@frontier.net]

Properly configured with the correct suite of apps; an iPhone or iPod Touch is one of the most capable wireless testing/hacking tools available at any price.

I say that as someone who is an experienced user (and thinks very highly of) the Berkeley Varitronics Systems (BVS) Yellowjacket line of products.

Beyond the currently available suite of “network,” “utility,” and “security” apps (impressive enough in their own capabilities), You can “jailbreak” an iPhone or iPod Touch, and if you know UNIX, upload and integrate exploits.

While admittedly the geolocation and direction finding capabilities of an iPhone or iPod Touch are currently not as sophisticated as those found in the upper end of the BVS product line, it is a lot easier to socially engineer access with an iPhone or iPod Touch than it is with a Yelowjacket, a lot easier to be covert, and a lot easier to explain its presence, if you’re caught. The iPhone or iPod Touch is a lot cheaper with better battery life as well.

Anyone who thinks any currently shipping Apple product is a “toy” is demonstrating their ignorance of the inherent capabilities of the hardware and software.

-Natty, CISSP

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks, great comments.

[ReignOfError]

Anything without MMS and Flash is a toy? You are using a definition of the word with which I am unfamiliar.

[Big Giant Head]

What? No X-Plane? I just read through an article about the flight simulator on the I-phone, along with a flight planner that works fabulously, especially at altitude where one shouldn’t run a hard drive.

[Swordmaker]

What? No X-Plane? I just read through an article about the flight simulator on the I-phone, along with a flight planner that works fabulously, especially at altitude where one shouldn’t run a hard drive.

Unfortunately, any iPhone user that would have voted for X-Plane flew off... and when they found themselves at 30,000 feet they lost their concentration. Few survived the subsequent high velocity Earth encounter. Ergo, no votes.