2008 was an incredible year for developers and consumers of the Apple iPhone. With more than 10,000 applications in the App Store, users were inundated with options. Sometimes these applications were helpful additions to the basic functions of the device and other times they were odd, bizarre or even utterly useless. Here we attempt to survey the vast selection from the previous year with a selection of the most interesting and most confounding iPhone Apps we’ve come across.
Some of our favorite “Most Awesome” apps as selected by Wired:
Stanza
A book reader that grabs free titles from public domains, Stanza has soared in popularity — making the iPhone a worthy competitor to Amazon’s Kindle. And if those free books aren’t enough, Stanza recently expanded to incorporate a store to purchase commercial titles. The app did a good job pleasing Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrel, who modified his Moleskine notebook so he could embed his iPod touch in it. (That way, he could read e-books at the cafe while exuding an aura of pretentious artiness, instead of pretentious geekiness.) Download Stanza (Free)Shazam
Everyone’s familiar with this scenario: You hear a really catchy, unfamiliar song on the radio and you have no idea what it’s called. You hum it to yourself repeatedly and attempt to memorize the lyrics, only to forget it after slamming a few shots at the bar. Shazam will never leave you struggling to recollect these thoughts again: Hold the iPhone up to a speaker playing the unknown tune and the app will identify it — album, artist and song title — just like that. Download Shazam (Free)Pandora
Whoa whoa whoa — free downloaded music on a portable device? You don’t say. Pandora’s alternative music distribution made this happen, and the app is cool as hell on the iPhone. Add a station for an artist you like, and the app will play that artist’s music as well as similar tunes you might like. What better way to find new music with the wealth of new bands out there? Download Pandora (Free)
Google Earth
When Steve Jobs called the iPhone “Your life in your pocket,” he probably didn’t expect Google to deliver the world in your pocket. Well, virtually. Displaying satellite imagery around the world in a 3-D globe, Google Earth is one of the most intense, mindblowing apps that truly shows off the powers of the iPhone. If you want to impress your grandmother with a demonstration of just how far technology has come since she was a girl, this ought to do the trick. Download Google Earth (Free)
Some of the weirdest apps as selected by Yahoo:
Drunk Dialer — $0.99
Do you enjoy a drink or two? Do you also have a contact list full of your exes? You need this application. It prevents you from making those oh-so-embarrassing boozy, late-night calls to former partners you’d rather forget, by replacing the phone’s dial pad with one that requires you to hold the phone still to use. If you’re swaying, you’re out of luck. If you’re prone to late-night SMSing instead, though, you’re on your own. See in iTunesHold On! — free
How long can you press a button? Hold On! lets you find out: there’s nothing else to do except hold down a big button. Why would anybody want to do such a thing? No idea, but if you were looking for Most Useful iPhone Apps, you came to the wrong place. Perhaps the weirdest thing about it is that Apple has it listed in the “Productivity” category. Shrug. See in iTunes
It is difficult to name trends amongst such a diverse group, but clearly humor and originality struck a cord with the masses. The musical app, Ocarina, was listed in both the most awesome and weird for its innovative and playful use of the microphone. We have to admit, it’s been pretty enjoyable to play around with last year’s applications and we can’t wait to see what developers come up with in 2009.
[Image via TapTapTap]
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