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85 Best iPhone & iPad Apps Of Year 2011 [Editor’s Pick]

iOS fans spent a large part of 2011 anticipating the launch of the next model of iPhone, which turned out to be the iPhone 4S. Apple also released iOS 5, which brought many game-changing new features to the platform. 2011 saw the rise of Siri as well, the personal voice assistant that quickly became every 4S user’s favorite feature of the phone. To complement the awesome changes iOS went through during the course of the year, a lot of really good apps were released for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. During 2011, quite a few of these came to our attention, and here is a list of what we thought were the best of the lot.

Editor’s Note: All apps except for the ones that have a price mentioned in their descriptions are free. If you happen to find a paid app that doesn’t have its price mentioned, do let us know.

1. Skype for iPad (Free video, voice calls and chat)

Skype-Video-Call- -Chat

2. Path (A social network to share your memories and daily routine with your closest friends and loved ones)

IMG_0007 IMG_0014 IMG_0011

3. Evernote Hello (A new way to save contact info along with a log of your meetings with them)

Evernote Hello iOS Contact Card Evernote Hello iOS Sync

4. Flipboard (The popular news reader, now available for iPhone and iPod touch)

Flipboard iPhone Picks Flipboard iPhone Homepage

5. Dolphin Browser (Popular third-party Android browser with webzines, gesture based & Chrome-like tabbed browsing)

Page-actionsMenu-bar-(right)

6. exfm (Official exfm client for iOS; social networking for music fans)

Noting-a-songNow-Playing-Screen-With-iPod-Controls Integration

7. Google+ (The official iOS client for Google+)

Google   iPad HomeGoogle   Posts

8. TinyChat (Simultaneous video chat with up to 12 Facebook friends)

TinyChatFacebook-Video-Chat-With-12-Friends---TinyChat-for-iPhone,-iPad

9. IM+ Video (Instant messaging, photo sharing and video chat with Facebook friends)

Video Call IM  Video Chat

10. Magic Hour (Lets you apply photo filters, edit existing filters or create your own from scratch; has a massive online filter repository)

Choosing-filtersApplying-filters

11. Prey (Feature-rich anti-theft app that lets you track your stolen iPhone, iPad & iPod touch with ease)

Prey for iOS Prey iOS Settings

12. Evernote Food (Share what you ate and where you ate it)

IMG_0022 IMG_0031

13. My Xbox Live (Microsoft’s official Xbox Live app for iOS)

XBOX Spotlight Gallery iOS

14. Google Currents (Google’s sleek new news aggregator)

Google-Currents-Android-Landscape1

15. SimpleDrop (Sync data & stream media from your iOS device to your desktop or even Android devices)

SimpleDrop Devices SimpleDrop Menu

16. iShortcuts (Pin any Settings shortcut to home screen; you can call it SBSettings for non-jailbroken iDevices)

iShortcuts Homepage iShortcuts Icon Page

17. Waze (Navigation made easy with feedback about routes & traffic from fellow users)

Waze Reports Waze Menu

18. OneNote (Microsoft’s official iPad client for OneNote, lets you sync notes with SkyDrive)

IMG_0729

19. ZeroPC (Cloud data aggregator; view & access all your cloud data from one place)

Zero-PC-Cloud-Navigator-Android-Home

20. Stamped (Rate everything around you and earn credibility with experience)

Stamped Feed Stamped Comments

21. Podio (Manage all aspects of a project, collaborate with colleagues and keep track of work progress)

PodioTasks

22. Quora (Follow topics of interests, and get answers to relevant questions)

Quora QuestionsSuggested Topics

23. Moquu (Create GIF animations, add effects to them and share)

Photo EffectsMoquu TV

24. CardFlick (Create business cards, and flick them across the screen to share them with people near you)

CardFlickCardFlick Flicking

25. Facebook for iPad (The much-awaited dedicated iPad client for Facebook)

New Image5

26. Cards (Create custom greeting cards, get them printed and sent to an address of your choice)

Cards iOS 5 Theme

27. Find My Friends (Keep track of the current locations of your friends)

Find My Friends iOS5

28. Strimz (Stream your videos live to your Facebook Wall)

Strimz-Android-Facebook-Web

29. SkyDrive (Microsoft’s official SkyDrive client for iOS)

sky drive travels sky drive documents

30. SportCaster (Sports news, scores, live tweets & more)

31. Movie360 (Shoot videos with real-time filters)

Movie360 Sketch Effect Video Recording iPhone

32. Evernote Skitch for iPad (Add footnotes and annotations to maps, photos or webpages)

Skitch-for-iPad-Annotate-Webpages

33. LogMeIn [Free] (Remote desktop solution for iOS; remotely view & control your PC via your iDevice)

LogMeIn iOS Access LogMeIn iOS View

34. Action Movie FX (Add awesome special effects like car crashes and missile attacks to videos with a few taps)

actioon fx spcial fx

35. Dotti Disposable Camera (Use your iDevice to take photos, get them printed & delivered to you)

Dotti-Disposable-Camera-iOS-Android-Roll

36. PDF+PDF lite (Open two PDF files side by side and annotate them with ease)

Annotating-Menu

37. Web Scroll Capture (Take screenshots of the entire length of a webpage with a single tap)

Screen-shot-zoomed-in

38. Zip Browser (Extract the contents of ZIP files on the go, open and share contained files)

Zip-Browser-for-iOS

39. Remote Dictate (Speak to your iPhone 4S to get text typed on your desktop)

speaking in microphone-remote desktop server settings Remote Dictatae

40. 500px (The official client for image hosting website 500px)

500px iPad Feed

41. CloudOn (Use MS Office on your iPad; provides almost all the features of the desktop version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint)

CloudOn Office Word

42. OnSay (Make free voice calls to your Twitter friends)

OnSay OnSay Call Menu

43. OurPad (iPad only: Lets you use multiple accounts for any mailing service or social network)

OurPadOurPad Accounts

44. Fonzi (Allows shared control of music being played on an iDevice; perfect for parties)

IMG_0662 IMG_0658 IMG_0660

45. Hipstamatic Disposable (Allows real-time sharing of virtual disposable cameras with Facebook friends)

Hipstamatic-Disposable-for-ios prints hipstamatic

46. Fotopedia Wild Firends (Browse through, save and share wildlife photos from around the world)

fotopedia

47. Unstuck (iPad only: Your virtual mentor for when the going gets tough)

IMG_0695 IMG_0703

48. browsAR (Scan QR codes to view Facebook profiles in augmented reality)

QAR scanned picture browsAR

49. Alfred (Suggests eating places according to your preferences; learns with time)

Alfred-Android-Start Alfred-Android-Questions

50. SoundTracking (One of the most feature-rich music identification, discovery and sharing apps to date)

SoundTracking-Android-Trending SoundTracking-Android-Post

51. Facebook Messenger (Officail standalone IM client for Facebook chat)

52. Pho.to Lab (Easily the biggest collection of photo effects for iOS)

Pho.to Lab Pho.to Lab Crop Pho.to Lab Effect

53. iTunes Trailers (View latest movie info, ratings and locate theaters near you)

Trailers iOS 5

54. Gogobot (Helps you manage trips and create postcards with photos of your choice; lets you apply filters to photos)

Gogobot PostcardsGogobot Nearby Hub

55. HipGeo (Create a blog of your travels, share with friends and view their posts)

HipGeo HomepageHipGeo Profile Picture

56. Roamz (Discover popular places near you based on social media activity)

Roamz InterestsRoamz Popular Feed

57. Greplin (Search through the content of all your cloud accounts and social networks)

Greplin iOS FeedsGreplin iOS Other Services

58. Astrid (Dictate to create reminders, and access them via cloud)

Astrid for iOSAstrid for iOS Lists

59. Batch (Upload multiple photos to Facebook & Twitter in one go)

Batch iOS SelectionBatch iOS Options

60. Orchestra (Task management app that lets you team up with social network friends to accomplish tasks)

orchestra to do iOSorchestra to do iOS New Task

61. Livestand (iPad only: Yahoo’s official newsreader)

Livestand for iOS Category

62. IntoNow (Developed by Yahoo; lets you discover TV shows and chat with fans of any show)

IntoNow For iPad Show

63. Oink (Rate everything around you and share the ratings with friends)

Oinks Oink Places

64. Fanhattan (Purchase Movies & TV shows, chat with fans of a particular program)

Fanhattan for iPhone Movies Fanhattan for iPhone Episodes

65. Blippar (Augmented reality advertising app that overlays info and games over certain objects within the camera’s viewfinder)

Blippar Product Catalogue Blippar Cadbury

66. iTriage (Discover health-related information and keep track of your medical issues)

iTriage iTriage treatments

67. HighlightCam Social (A comprehensive video editor)

HighlightCam-Social-Android-iOS-Effects HighlightCam-Social-Android-iOS-Feed

68. TED (Get inspirational videos and talks on your iPhone)

Ted Featured TED Categories

69. JaxtrSMS (Send free text messages to any mobile number without SIM)

IMG_0197 Screenshot_2011-11-28-14-54-29

70. Pixable (View photos & videos from Facebook arranged into feeds)

CategoriesOwn Pixs

71. Songza (Stream playlists based on your mood or occasion)

SongzaNow Playing

72. Meteoric (Resume-supported download manager for iOS)

Meteoric Browser ViewMeteoric Downloads

73. Shutter Vox (Say “cheese” to snap photos)

Camera Vox 1Camera Vox 2

74. BookTrack (Adds sound effects & music to e-books based on the situation described in text)

BookTrack Paused

75. GifBoom (Create & share GIF animations from photos or videos; view GIFs created by other users)

GifBoom PopularGifBoom Options

76. Forkly (Rate food items and discover popular dainties near you)

Featured FoodsForkly Categories

77. Play By AOL Music (Stream and share music, and listen to radio)

78. Opuss (Share your creative writings publicly)

Opuss Opuss Compose

79. Cisco Connect Express (Allows you to remotely manage Cisco router settings)

02-Cisco-Connect-Express-Android-Home 06-Cisco-Connect-Express-Android-Connected-Users

80. Dragon Go! (Nuance’s accurate, comprehensive voice-controlled search engine)

Dragon-Go-Android-Welcome2Dragon-Go-Android-Ask

81. Adobe Reader (Official Adobe Reader client for iOS)

Adobe-Reader-For-iPhone-and-iPad

82. IntouchID (Automatically syncs any changes made to your contact info with your friends’ address books)

intouchID Profile intouchID-Request

83. College T.A (A complete personal assistant for students)

RegistrarAssignment

84. Snapseed ($4.99; iPad app of year 2011; feature-rich photo editing and styling app with an innovative and easy-to-use interface)

85. TeamSpeak ($4.99; Official iOS client for Teamspeak 2 and Teamspeak 3; allows you to join channels for Push-to-Talk group voice chat with other users)

Needless to say, we could not have included all the good apps that came out in 2011. The list consists of only those that were covered here at AddictiveTips. Do let us know in the comments section if your favorite app did not make its way in to the top 85.

If you liked this post, you might want to check out the following.

150 Best Windows Applications Of Year 2011

100 Best Mac Applications Of Year 2011

150 Best Android Apps Of Year 2011

30 Best Windows Phone 7 Apps Of Year 2011

20 Best Cydia Tweaks Of Year 2011

12 Comments

  1. If only President Bush had #27. Look closely at the location. I think it’s an easter egg in this article.

  2. Wunderlist.  We have it on our macs at home, my iphone and my husband’s ipad – all synced.  It’s easy to use, too.

  3. Those are all great apps but I feel like there is one
    missing. It is called DISH Remote Access and it allows me to access my DVR and
    Sling Adapter to stream all of my live TV channels as well as access, control
    and stream my DVR recordings. If I have access to 3g, 4g or WIFI I am ready to
    start streaming. DISH recently updated the iPad version and it now offers Video
    On Demand from HBO, Cinemax and other premium movie channels. As an employee I
    love that DISH is the only company to offer true TV Everywhere. What other app
    streams live TV where ever you go?