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The Best iPhone Apps Of The Year, According To Apple

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Flickr/Omar Jordan Fawahl

At the end of every year, Apple releases a list of the best iPhone apps.

Apple is known for being extremely selective, and this year’s list contains a mixture of everything — from helpful productivity apps to cutting-edge games with stunning graphics.

We’ve collected all of Apple’s top picks in one tidy place for you to learn more about each one and download your favorites.

Waterlogue turns your photos into artistic watercolors.

Waterlogue lets you watch as it paints over your photos to create a beautiful watercolor version. There’s 14 different styles, and you can create the perfect picture by tweaking wetness, pen outlines, and colors.

Price: $2.99

NYT Now is a great way to get your news on the run.

With handpicked stories from The New York Times’ editors, NYT Now is designed for mobile users. The app tells you “what you need to know to start your day,” pulling content from The New York Times and other news sources.

Price: Free

Health Mate uses your iPhone’s sensors to track your activity and heart rate.

Health Mate is a minimalistic activity tracking app that works with Apple’s Health app. There’s basic step counting, the ability to set goals, and a heart rate tool that uses your iPhone’s back camera for measurements.

Price: Free

Elevate helps you improve your memory, focus, and speaking skills.

Elevate features 25 short mini games that train your brain by asking you questions that will build your memory, reading comprehension, writing, math, focus, and speaking skills.

Price: Free

Steller lets you create stories with photos, videos, and text.

Designed to be as flexible as the story you want to tell, Steller helps you build and share multi-page stories that combine photos, text, and video however you’d like.

Price: Free

Locate and learn more about the stars with Star Walk 2.

Star Walk 2 features a gorgeous design that blends reality with cutting-edge technology and astronomical data. To discover something new, just point your phone to the sky and Star Walk will do the rest.

Price: $2.99

Yummly claims to give you access to “every recipe in the world.”

Yummly is a recipe and groceries app that lets you search top recipe sites and food blogs, helping you find, save, and organize your favorites.

Price: Free

Never forget your password or login details again with 1Password.

1Password securely stores your login details and passwords for your email, credit cards, and favorite websites. Using your iPhone’s fingerprint sensor, you can then quickly fill in online forms and login credentials.

Price: Free

Stay entertained with Buzzfeed’s app.

If you’re in the mood for some quizzes or just want a laugh, BuzzFeed’s app has your back. Its newest update includes a widget that will let you see trending posts in the “Today” view in the Notification Center.

Price: Free

Hyperlapse from Instagram transforms your shaky footage into a stunning time-lapse.

Usually, to create smooth time-lapse videos, you needed expensive tripods and stabilization gear. Luckily, Hyperlapse from Instagram uses image stabilization techniques to smooth out your shaky footage, and the results are impressive. It’s great for capturing sports, car rides, weather, crowds, and journeys on foot.

Price: Free

Yahoo News Digest turns browsing the news into a beautiful experience.

Yahoo News Digest sends you two curated digests of 7-10 articles each day: once in the morning and once in the evening. The articles pull from multiple sources, including essential factual nuggets called “atoms” that give you all you need to know in a beautiful format.

Price: Free

Camu is a great alternative to your Camera app, and it comes with a killer feature.

Camu is a photo and video app with all the usual features like filters and the ability to create photo collages, but its killer feature is “auto mode,” which only lets you snap a picture if your phone is completely still, which helps remove blur.

Price: Free

Human is an activity tracker that asks you to move at least 30 minutes a day.

Whether you’re walking, running, dancing, or biking, Human will track you throughout your day, encouraging you to hit 30 minutes of activity while showing how many calories you’ve burned.

Price: Free

Storehouse turns your photos into vivid visual narratives.

Storehouse makes it easy to snap pictures and format them into a beautiful and smart layout that lets you tell a story. The Storehouse Newsfeed also features great curated content, and it’s a great place to discover picture-based narratives from talented photographers.

PriceFree

Spring is a shopping app that works with Apple Pay.

By choosing your favorite fashion and luxury brands, Spring will customize what you see when you shop. There’s new products every day, “just-on-Spring” exclusives, and it works with Apple Pay so you can pay with a fingerprint.

Price: Free

Uber lets you request your own personal taxi with the push of a button.

Uber is a ride-sharing app that takes the hassle out of catching a cab. Using the app, you can request a car, track its progress, and be notified when it arrives. Payment is handled through the app as well, through a saved credit card or Apple Pay, so you can just get out and go when you get to your destination.

Price: Free

Network TV is a new way to browse and find internet videos.

Designed to learn from what videos you like watching, Network TV makes it easy to discover and share new internet videos by swiping, saving, and posting to your channel.

Price: Free

120 Sports is a great place to get expert commentary on trending sports topics.

120 Sports is a great way to see what’s buzzing in the sports world. The app features real-time highlights and expert commentary from in-house experts, and there’s over 10 hours of live programming each day. The best part? You don’t need any cable subscription.

Price: Free

SwiftKey Keyboard is a smart keyboard that learns from you while you swipe.

SwiftKey replaces your iPhone’s default keyboard and lets you swipe and slide your way from letter to letter, which can increase your texting speed.

Price: Free

Litely is great photo app for adding subtle filters.

Litely is powerful photo app that gives your photos a film-like tone. You can tap the screen with two fingers to see what your photo looked like before adding any presets, and the app’s non-destructive editing features means you never have to worry about losing your original.

Price: Free

Paper by Facebook combines your Newsfeed and current events in an elegant way.

Paper by Facebook is a unique way to ingest all of the stories you see on Facebook, whether they’re from your friends or a news outlet. You can post directly to Facebook from within the app, or customize the topics you’ll see with a nifty carousel that lets you mix culture, science, news, and whatever other topics are up your alley.

Price: Free

Camera+ is a great alternative to your iPhone’s default Camera app.

Camera+ features everything you need to snap and edit beautiful photos. There’s dozens of filters, photo frames, exposure and focus controls, and a handy tool called “Clarity” that brings out the best from your photos.

Price: $2.99

Cinamatic is a great tool for creating short films and sharing them on social media.

Cinamatic is a minimal video app lets you create short films up to 60 seconds in length. You can string together individual clips, choose a video filter, and then post easily to Instagram, Vine, YouTube, and Vimeo.

Price: Free

Games: Apple’s best iPhone games of 2014

Bonza reinvents the traditional crossword.

Bonza is a word puzzle that creates a new kind of crossword puzzle game by adding word search, jigsaw, and trivia into the mix.

Price: $0.99

Hitman GO is a stylized boardgame based on the popular video game franchise.

If you’re a fan of the stealth of the Hitman series, you’ll love Hitman GO. The game asks you and your friends to strategize and sneak your way toward your target, making your way through missions with beautiful diorama-style levels.

Price: $4.99

Timberman is an addicting arcade game where every tap matters.

Timberman asks you to chop as fast as you can through four different levels. The faster you chop, the longer you stay alive, just make sure to swap sides to avoid the descending branches.

Price: Free

Smash Hit lets you have fun while shattering and breaking beautiful game environments.

The point of this surreal but satisfying game is to toss marble spheres through abstract environments, clearing a pathway into the next.

Price: Free

Leo’s Fortune is the most beautiful platform adventure game we’ve ever seen.

Leo’s Fortune puts you in control of Leo as he bounces, slides, and soars through luscious hand-crafted levels in pursuit of his stolen gold. Leo’s Fortune’s gameplay is intuitive and downright fun, and the app won an Apple Design Award this year for its stellar overall design.

Price: $4.99

Monument Valley lets you explore fantastical environments with impossible geometry.

Monument Valley is brimming with surreal environments featuring complex structures with impossible geometry. By rotating each map, you can help guide Princess Ida through the maize of hidden paths and optical illusions.

Price: $3.99

Peak is a self-improvement app designed in collaboration with experts.

Peak features 20 games to keep the mental juices flowing and to improve your memory, focus, problem-solving skills, language skills, and mental agility.

Price: Free

Threes is a smart and simple game that quickly grows on you.

Threes is all about adding tiles together that add up to three or a multiple of three. Combing blocks frees up space, and keeps you in the game.

Price: $2.99

Trials Frontier is a classic motorcycle racer with extreme obstacles.

You might remember the Trials games on Xbox 360 or PC, and Trials Frontier is more of the same addicting and frustrating fun. Race against the clock as you try to maneuver over dangerous obstacles while trying to keep your balance.

Price: Free

Bicolor is a challenging puzzle game where each level only has two colors.

Designed to be easy to grasp but extremely difficult to master, Bicolor gets the tiny details right with incredible audio, challenging puzzles, and a beautiful design that only features two colors at once.

Price: $0.99

Adventure Beaks combines the fun of Mario and adds a bunch of penguins.

This platformer lets you customize your own penguin adventurer before you go run, jump, dive, and slide your way through exotic levels.

Price: Free

Rules! is a fast-paced puzzler.

Rules! requires a keen eye for details. You’re tasked with clearing the board of tiles as fast as you can, but you have to remove the tiles according to an ever-changing set of specific rules that add a nice twist.

Price: $1.99

Godus lets you play God and create and rule over your own civilization.

Godus is the newest game from the legendary Peter Molyneux, who made Fable. Godus lets you mold your own world, cast miracles, be worshipped by your little followers, and generally play God.

Price: Free

Wayward Souls is designed to change its levels every time you play.

Wayward Souls is a beautiful action-adventure game that is designed to be replayed. You can choose from six unique characters as you explore the procedurally generated levels, battle monsters, and avoid traps.

Price: $6.99

Rival Knights lets you joust against your friends.

Rival Knights lets you customize your own knight and horse with over 120 mounts, lances, and armor before you head online and joust against your friends or compete in PvP tournaments.

Price: Free

Battleheart Legacy is a thrilling fantasy RPG game.

With 12 different classes, Battleheart Legacy lets you create your own hero and dive right into the action. You can mix spells and skills to create your own play style as you explore the beautiful fantasy world and battle big bosses.

Price: $4.99

Fotonica is an abstract runner game where timing is everything.

Fotonica is a fast-paced game where you’ll need masterful timing to survive as you run, jump, and dive through seven futuristic levels.

Price: $2.99

RETRY is a fun new game from the creators of Angry Birds.

RETRY is named after the button you’ll be continually pressing as you play. This difficult arcade flying game has you control a tiny plane as it zooms, loops, and stalls its way through winding levels with little room for error.

Price: Free

World of Warriors lets you build a historic army and battle for dominance.

March into battle with your own army of cute and historically-accurate warriors in this combat adventure game that requires skillful timing and strategy instead of button mashing to win.

Price: Free

Castle Doombad is a tower defense game where the good guys are actually the bad guys.

This interesting tower defense games has you control Dr. Lord Evilstein as he tries to keep a captured princess away from the hordes of heroes trying to rescue her.

Price: Free

Spider-Man Unlimited puts a twist on infinite runner games like Temple Run.

Play as Spider-Man as he runs, swings, crawls, and punches his way through Manhattan, complete with a story that’s presented in comic-book-style format.

Price: Free

Defend against an alien invasion in XCOM: Enemy Within.

Expanding upon the popular XCOM: Enemy Unknown game, XCOM: Enemy Within is a turn-based shooter with new weapons, levels, enemies, and missions to keep you busy.

Price: $12.99

Experience a new take on a familiar game with Crazy Taxi: City Rush.

Crazy Taxi: City Rush is a re-imagining of the original Crazy Taxi games and features new one-touch controls and the ability to customize your cab for the first time.

Price: Free

FarmVille 2 is the sequel to the wildly popular FarmVille game.

FarmVille 2: Country Escape puts your farming skills to the test with the new ability to go on “farm adventures” to find rare goods and find new recipes. You can also raise animals, fish, join a Co-Op, and play offline as you try to nurture your own farm.

Price: Free

Toca Lab is a fun way to learn more about the elements.

Toca Lab turns the periodic table of elements into 118 characters, each with their own characteristics that you can explore by experimenting with a centrifuge, oscilloscope, Buensen burner, cooling agent, and mysterious test tubes.

Price: $2.99

Spellfall is a fun puzzle RPG with a new way to fight.

Spellfall features one-on-one combat and plenty of loot to customize your character, but the most interesting feature of the game is how you craft spells by matching the colorful icons.

Price: Free

Ruzzle Adventure is the single-player follow-up to the original Ruzzle.

Ruzzle Adventure is a word puzzle game that features hundreds of levels that ask you to create words before your time or turns run out.

Price: Free

Micromon lets you scratch that Pokemon itch.

Micromon might be heavily influenced by Pokemon, but that doesn’t mean this monster-catching RPG isn’t fun. With more than 130 monsters to capture, train, and evolve, Pokemon fans will find themselves right at home in the fantastical world of Pixekai.

Price: $0.99

TeleStory lets you write, direct, and star in your own “TV show.”

TeleStory shows kids the basics of creating your own TV show for fun. Kids can pick a theme, add over 30 minute animated scenes, write a script, pick a digital costume, and then record and broadcast the show online.

Price: $4.99

Nighty Night Circus is designed to put your children to sleep.

This bedtime story app features a quaint Christmas environment and beautiful graphics. Designed for children to view before bed, kids can tuck eight circus animals into bed each night by turning off the lights or blowing out candles.

Price: $2.99

Royal Revolt 2 mixes strategy and real-time battles into one exciting game.

Royal Revolt is a bit like the “Warcraft” games. You’re tasked with building an army, choosing a hero, and then invading the camps of other players.

Price: Free

Curious what Android has that Apple doesn’t?

15 Android-Only Apps That Will Make Your iPhone Friends Jealous>>

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