Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Freeware, iTunes, iPhone, iPod touch
2008 Best iPhone App Ever winners announced
The voting only went underway a while ago, but they've just announced the winners for the 2008 Best App Ever awards, celebrating (according to 148apps.com and the people they got to nominate and vote in their contest) the best iPhone apps of last year. As I said for the voting, you can probably take most of this with a grain of salt, but there's no question that there are some awesome apps in here, and probably at least one or two you'll be interested in checking out if you haven't yet.Shazam won big in the "Best Overall", "Most Innovative," and "Best WOW" categories, and that is well worth it: Shazam is super reliable and works great as a "music recognizer." Rolando picked up "Best Game Graphics," and "Best Game Controls." Fieldrunners also picked up two awards for "Best Strategy Game" and "Best Long-play Game."
Unfortunately, the much-despised (by me) Ocarina won three total awards, including "Best 99 cent app" (I would have chosen Koi Pond over that one easily and that's one where Weightbot was made to win), but feel free to ignore me and my iPhone app crankiness. There are lots of great iPhone apps here (especially when you dive into the nominations), and overall, we're looking at the best of a terrific first year of iPhone development. Onward to 2009!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
pickleman77 said 10:30AM on 1-09-2009
It pisses me off how much credit Shazam is getting when my crappy four-year-old phone has been able to do that for ages. It's hardly "Innovative" and "WOW" inspiring.
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Ron said 11:43AM on 1-09-2009
Just because it's been around for a while doesn't mean it's not a great app and it works almost every single time!
You can't say that about many free (or even paid) iPhone apps.... :(
pickleman77 said 4:29PM on 1-09-2009
My main point is that "Most Innovative" isn't fitting.
pman555123 said 11:54AM on 1-12-2009
I agree 100% pickleman!
My 2 year old Verizon phone can do the same thing with a program that came PREINSTALLED on my phone. Shazaam is just a copy of that program. It really annoyed me how Apple was showing how cool the iphone is because it could recognize a song...yet my verizon LG could do the same thing 2 years ago...
Jax said 10:42AM on 1-09-2009
What's wrong with Ocarina? It may not be useful (neither is Koi Pond) but it is pretty innovative. The idea that you can listen to others playing their Ocarinas in real time on a big 3D globe is what does it for me. That's just so cool.
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Dave said 4:28PM on 1-09-2009
Maybe Mike's not a musician? Or doesn't enjoy that style of instrument.
Ocarina is great; I'm glad it won a few spots.
george said 11:32AM on 1-09-2009
Fieldrunners won three awards: Best Strategy Game, Best Original Game, Best Long-Play Game.
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Jason Martin said 12:11PM on 1-09-2009
I too don't get how Shazam won best overall and most innovative. Make no mistake, it's a nice app, but what's the innovation? And there seriously aren't better apps out there that aren't 1-trick ponies? Nothing against Shazam. It does what it does very well, but the best overall? I don't think so.
And I too love Ocarina. My kids play with Koi Pond when I need to occupy them with something, but that's about it. I've pulled out the Ocarina app and played a few things on it plenty of times. It was a big hit with friends and family over the holidays after I found Ocarina sheet music for Christmas carols. Yep, I'm a geek.
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Scott F said 12:43PM on 1-09-2009
Yeah, what's wrong with Ocarina? It's a pretty neat app, and really innovative.
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Brad Zimmerman said 12:52PM on 1-09-2009
I love how there are four categories, top 148 free apps, top 148 free games, top 148 paid apps and top 148 paid games ...and there are games in both the games and apps categories. Some of us couldn't give a flying f at a rolling donut about some crappy racing game/shoot-em-up/tetris-ripoff and would rather DO something with our iPhones. The fact that the top paid "app" is "iFart Mobile - Fart Machine for all ages" says it all.
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Galley said 12:52PM on 1-09-2009
D'oh! Exactly zero of my choices were winners.
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Snaab4 said 1:12PM on 1-09-2009
The confusion in understanding what EST means is common. In fact, the FOX TV show "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?" demonstrates how many people in the US think they can get through life without knowing little tidbits like the difference between EST and EDT! In general, I find that computer systems administrators in the majority don't know the difference! The solution would be to delete the second letter and just make it ET (or CT, MT, PT, etc) and then the date would dictate whether daylight or standard.
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Snaab4 said 1:15PM on 1-09-2009
Where did that old comment come from?
My real comment is:
I think SHAZAM is one of the absolute best apps I have on the iPhone, but it really denigrates the uniqueness of the iPhone, since it has been around for quite a few years and is available on other platforms. If the poll is for the best iPhone app ever, then SHAZAM should step aside for something else that ONLY runs on the iPhone!
Meatty said 2:40PM on 1-09-2009
What about Showtimes? That app rocks. It's easily the best movie app for the iPhone.
http://www.macworld.com/article/137430/2008/12/showtimes.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/137755/2008/12/bestiphoneapps_entertain.html
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Inginious said 2:24PM on 1-09-2009
Wow, i think this was a popularity contest and not "best of" award,
midomi is, by far, the better application with many more features
than shazam!
I bet it only got high votes because of the commercial!
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Dorv said 9:26PM on 1-09-2009
As someone who used Shazam extensively (played in a pub trivia league where they allowed "cheating" (using phones/computers/etc) to get the drunk people who didn't know anything into the game), I tried, and was never able to get midomi to work for me with any level of frequency (and by that, I mean ever).
Pickelman: Its the way it goes, sometimes, I guess. The people that bring something into the mainstream are the ones that get the credit.
Jimbo said 7:56AM on 1-10-2009
That "crappy four-year-old phone" that Pickelman was talking about was probably also powered by Shazam even if the app or dial in service was branded by someone else. They have been doing it for about 6 years and were the first people to offer this service. It is just the first time such a large community has collectively know about it.
Pseudological said 7:30PM on 1-10-2009
It was made by Shazam. In the UK at least. You dialed 2580 and Shazam would give you all the info. I'm glad they're finally getting some well deserved attention.
Movie Freak said 4:10PM on 1-09-2009
I think Hot Popcorn is on its way to becoming the best movie app on the iPhone. It is definitely my favorite!
http://www.touchmyapps.com/2008/12/30/a-look-at-hot-popcorn-a-must-have-for-movie-junkies/
http://www.appcraver.com/hot-popcorn-iphone
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directeco said 5:09PM on 1-09-2009
I voted for Ocarina specifically because Mike Schramm was so hard on it. I didn't think he was being fair to it. I don't even own the app.
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