Gadgets Gizmos Gossip

2010 has undoubtedly been the year of the app, with boastful iPhone owners declaring ‘there’s an app for that!’ whenever they get the chance. With hundreds of thousands of applications available via the App Store, there’s an incredible array of choice and variety of entertaining, functional or useful apps available to users; making it very difficult to choose a top three.

With that said however, we’ll give it a crack. Here are my personal top three iPhone apps of 2010:

1. Angry Birds

There was no way this fantastic little app wasn’t going to make it into my top 3; the most addictive, well designed and widely popular iPhone game of 2010, Angry Birds has seen millions of downloads and numerous updates and additions. As with most phenomenally addictive games, Angry Birds is an incredibly simple idea; destroy structures and green pigs with an array of destructive birds … and that’s about it. It’s fantastic.

2. Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic is an amazingly retro photography application, that turns your basic iPhone camera into an old-school analogue one. Hipstamatic features numerous different lenses and effects, which can be changed with the simple swipe of a finger. Add into that a myriad of different films and borders, social media integration and a flash, and you’ve got yourself one of the best photography apps of the year.

3. iMovie

It seemed inevitable that Apple would take their extremely popular and intuitive video editing software for the Mac and create an iPhone version; what they have come up with is the best portable and easy to use smartphone video editing software package available. Created specifically for the iPhone4, iMovie lets you record and edit HD videos as you take them, upload them directly to social media or send them to loved ones via wifi or 3G. If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a crack, it’s truly one of the best video editing packages you’ll ever use.

Written by Andrew, who works for a company specialising in digital signage and room control systems.

The iPhone has become incredibly popular over the last few years, and offers one of the best mobile operating systems in existence (alongside Google’s Android OS). The number of applications available for the phone is now momumental; there are so many it can often be difficult to sort your way through them all looking for what you need.

So to try and help out a little bit, here’s the first in what will become a ‘Top App’ series. Here’s the top car-related applications for your iPhone:

1. AA Fuel Prices

This genius little app will find the cheapest fuel prices in your area, and will even direct you to the cheapest filling station closest to you. It’s £4.99 so it’s not the least expensive app you’ll ever come across, but it’s reliable and it will make you the money back in no time, just by saving you money on your petrol.

2. TomTom UK & Ireland

Satellite navigation systems have been increasingly popular over the last couple of years, but they can be quite expensive. So why waste the money on an expensive Sat Nav system when you get download one for your iPhone? Admittedly it’s not the cheapest app in the world at £49.99, but  it’s less expensive than buying a seperate sat nav machine and you don’t have to worry about carrying around an extra gadget.
The app features all UK and Ireland road maps, making it the perfect solution if you’re looking to find your way around the UK.

3. Free Parking

This application helps you locate free parking spaces, and costs just £1.79. Currently the app only works in London, but it’s extremely useful if you do find yourself regularly looking for parking spaces in the capital. If they roll out the same service for the whole of the UK however, this would be one of the most useful driving apps in existence.

4. RAC Traffic

This one does pretty much what you’d expect it to do; it warns you of particularly bad traffic problems and queues, allowing you to avoid them and get where you’re going quicker. The app itself works brilliantly, and it’s free, so you can’t really complain.

5. Car Spotter

Car Spotter costs just 49p, and allows you to find your car when you’ve forgotten where you left it. When you park you can leave video and voice memos, or simply log the position via GPS, then when you’re on your way back and have forgotten where you parked.

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Guest post by Steve; a freelance copywriter in his spare time, who’s day job is working for a company specialising in temporary car insurance, specifically dar car insurance.