With the year quickly coming to a close we've seen companies like Twitter and Google take a look back to highlight 2012's key trends and moments. Today Apple is joining in on the fun with their annual 'Best of" feature for the App Store. As usual, there's an Editor's Choice section with the best and runner-up apps and games for iPhone and iPad, along with a rundown of the most popular free and paid titles in a bunch of categories.
On the iPhone, Action Movie FX, the Bad Robot-developed app which allows you to add Hollywood special effects to your iPhone videos picked up the App of the Year award – and odd choice in my opinion but who knows what these picks are based on. Ubisoft's Rayman Jungle Run earned game of the year, with music app Figure and social word game Letterpress picking up the runner up slots for app and game respectively.
On the iPad, drawing and notebook app Paper from FiftyThree took home the app of the year award, while The Room, a puzzle title with a mystery element did the same for the gaming category. Action Movie FX's iPad version and Tiger Style's great Waking Mars were runner-ups here.
Ranked by downloads and sales, YouTube took the top free iPhone spot for 2012, Skype was took the same honor on the iPad, and Angry Birds Space won in the paid category for both iPhone and iPad.
There are also a ton of great apps featured in other various categories, including Airbnb, Uber and Square Wallet among the most disruptive apps of the year, Clear for its inventive use of touch gestures, Songza as a 'hidden gem', and lots more.
It's definitely been a busy year on the App Store with plenty of useful and entertaining titles to choose from. Beyond apps, Apple also offered picks for best movies, music, TV shows, podcasts, and books from iTunes. You can check out the full selection here (opens in iTunes).