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2008 Best iPhone App Ever winners announced

by Mike Schramm Jan 9th 2009 at 10:00AM

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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The voting only went underway a while ago, but they've just announced the winners for the 2008 Best App Ever awards, celebrating (according...
 

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listenclose

Song recognition software isn't new but the method it was. I don't recall ever seeing an program give a tactile and audible warning with the sample was finish recording, nor provide an itunes purchase or youtube link.

January 10 2009 at 8:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nic

Shazam?
it's only identified 1 song (from radio or tv) for me out of about 20 attempts.
junk in my book...

January 10 2009 at 8:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
directeco

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.

January 09 2009 at 5:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Movie Freak

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

January 09 2009 at 4:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Inginious

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!

January 09 2009 at 2:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Inginious's comment
Meatty

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

January 09 2009 at 2:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Snaab4

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.

January 09 2009 at 1:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Snaab4's comment
Snaab4

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!

January 09 2009 at 1:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Galley

D'oh! Exactly zero of my choices were winners.

January 09 2009 at 12:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brad Zimmerman

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.

January 09 2009 at 12:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Scott F

Yeah, what's wrong with Ocarina? It's a pretty neat app, and really innovative.

January 09 2009 at 12:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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