Greetings, online friends. Here’s the 2013 edition of our best iPhone apps list. You’ll find apps with staying power that have made previous years’ lists, along with a collection of apps that hit the scene this year and made a great first impression.
From utilities to food to shopping to music to travel and everything in between, there’s hopefully a little something for everyone here. These apps are presented in no particular order and are all free to download. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
1. Waze
Waze is an incredibly useful app for anyone who spends a meaningful amount of time in the car. Aside from providing turn-by-turn GPS directions, you’ll be alerted to speed traps, accidents and slowdowns up ahead of you thanks to data gleaned from other Waze users just like you. You can play the hero yourself, too, by reporting incidents along the way.
2. Songza
Sometimes you don’t want to put too much thought into your music. In that spirit, Songza offers up mood-based playlists cobbled together by music professionals. Stream a mix for working out or driving or unwinding or singing in the shower. The moods can get as specific as you like, and the service is free and unlimited if you’re willing to put up with some ads here and there.
3. Mailbox
Mailbox looks to tame your Gmail inbox by letting you quickly archive e-mails with a swipe or turn them into task-like entities to deal with later. The app’s design emphasizes speed and simplicity, helping you to slice through your mountain of messages in a matter of minutes. Yes, you’re basically engaging in digital procrastination, but at least it’ll help you feel somewhat organized. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of reaching inbox zero, if only for a short while.
4.Zeebox
Watching TV without thumbing through your smartphone at the same time seems to becoming the exception, not the norm. Zeebox acts as a companion to your tube time, identifying the show you’re watching by fingerprinting its audio track and then letting you interact with others watching the same show, play quiz-like games and more.
5. IFTTT
With so many web-based services to take advantage of nowadays, a little automation goes a long way. Think of IFTTT (If This, Then That) as a middleman that sits between all of them, letting them interact with each other. You can get an e-mail when it’s raining, save your iPhone photos to a cloud-based storage service, or get a text message when your stocks go up or down
6. Great Food Nearby
If you find yourself in a new city (or even in your own hometown) and can’t decide where to eat, Great Food Nearby can help. The more you use it, the more the app learns which kinds of restaurants you like and which styles of foods you crave, allowing it to steer you to restaurants in your general vicinity that it thinks you’ll like.
7. Lumosity Mobile
Just as you need to keep your body moving so it doesn’t turn to mush, your brain can benefit from daily exercise as well. Lumosity Mobile serves up daily brain teasers that aim to improve your memory, concentration and more, allowing you to track your progress just like you would with a physical workout regimen.
8. Umano
Believe it or not, sometimes there’s just too much stuff on the Internet to read every day. Umano picks out some of the gems and recreates them as audiobook-like pieces read by professional voice talent. It’s a nice way to get caught up at the end of each day, with articles from popular sources spread out across a wide array of content categories.
9. Burner
Whether you’re selling something on Craigslist or you’re setting up a potential first date, sometimes it’s a good idea to give out a temporary phone number that can be disposed of when the sun sets on its usefulness. The app grants you a free, one-day burner, with various options for longer-term burners at prices that aren’t outrageous.
10. Bump
Shuttling files from one device to another has always been more complicated than it needs to be. Bump tries to boil the act down to its simplest form, letting you and another Bump user bump your phones together (iPhone or Android) to swap goodies. The service lets you transfer files between your phone and computer, too, with the simple act of tapping your phone on your computer’s keyboard.
