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It's January 6th, 2012, and today marks the end of the TUAW Best of 2011 awards. This was a massive undertaking, with 25 separate categories all requiring their own nominations and voting from our readers. We've learned some lessons for next year's event -- start earlier, watch for astroturfing in the nominations, drop some unpopular categories -- and the Best of 2012 will be even better. The editorial staff here at TUAW agreed with many of the reader picks, but we had our own opinions on some others. We want to thank all of the thousands of TUAW readers who took time to consider their favorite accessories and apps, nominate them for an award, and then vote in the competition. Without further ado, here's the full list of winners as well as our picks for the TUAW Best of 2011: Editor picks: 13" and 11" MacBook Air, 13" MacBook Pro Peripheral or Accessory: OWC Data Doubler and OWC Mercury 6G SSD Editor picks: Magic Trackpad, OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD Editor picks: Mophie Juice Pack Air, Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation, iChair Editor picks: Apple Smart Cover, AViiQ Smart Case,Twelve South BookBook, ModulR System, OtterBox Defender Editor picks: Apple TV, iCade, Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation Read More

The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you -- the readers -- and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We'll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often! Happy New Year, TUAW readers! If you're not struggling with the after-effects of too much partying last night, TUAW would like your votes for the best iPad utility app of 2011. The nominees in our penultimate TUAW Best of 2011 category are: You have a couple of days to vote, and the winners will be announced on January 5, 2012. Let the voting begin! What is the best iPad utility app of 2011? Read More

By Rob LeFebvre on December 29th, 2011 As 2011 winds on down, we take a look back at some of the finest apps released this past year. Pocket Informant – While iCal is nice, sometimes we need a more robust solution – hopefully one that works seamlessly with Google calendar. This is that app. While there’s no universal app yet, we find this one to be compelling enough on either device type. $7.99 $12.99 Released: 2009-03-27 :: Category: Productivity $9.99 $14.99 Released: 2010-07-22 :: Category: Productivity American Presidents for iPad – With over 300 gorgeous vintage images and photographs, this is an educational app for everyone. There are biographies of every US president, a historical timeline, and detailed quizzes on the text itself. Presidential history never looked so good. $4.99 iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad Released: 2011-08-04 :: Category: Education Camera+ – This one gets a lot of play on our personal iPhones, bringing a ton of extra funtionality we really wish the native Camera app had, including multi touch exposure adjustment, grid line compotition help, and loads of effects and post-processing abilities. Also, it’s super easy to share to a ton of different services, not just the default Apple ones. $0.99 Released: 2010-06-07 :: Category: Photography 1Password – Seriously, we have a ton of passwords out there. Some we use a lot, and remember, while others, well, not so much. We’re guessing you do, too. Enter 1Password, the super vault of all those pesky passwords that we can’t seem to keep track of any more. There’s a version for iPhone only, iPad only, and a universal version. $5.99 $9.99 Released: 2008-07-29 :: Category: Productivity $5.99 $9.99 iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad Released: 2010-04-01 :: Category: Productivity $8.99 $14.99 Released: 2009-06-17 :: Category: Utilities Sketchbook Mobile – Feeling creative? Artsy, even? Want to doodle a little while you wait for your constantly late friend to show up to the cafe? Pull out that iPhone and sketch a little, why don’t you? The smaller version of this app (there’s also a pro version available for iPads) packs quite a punch in a tiny little package, including multitouch navigation, up to 6 layers per image file, and 10 levels of undo and redo. $1.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad Released: 2009-09-17 :: Category: Entertainment $4.99 Released: 2010-04-01 :: Category: Entertainment Band Read More

If you just got a new iPhone for Christmas, there's one handy utility app that you might want to purchase right away. It's 1Password for iPhone (sale priced at US$5.99) from Agile Bits Solutions, and it was named the best iPhone utility app in reader voting in TUAW's Best of 2011 awards. The app is a favorite of the TUAW staff, and it's obvious from the voting that 1Password is used faithfully by many of our readers as well -- the app pulled in 49.7 percent of the votes, thoroughly trouncing the other nominees in this category. It actually comes in two flavors -- the iPhone-only version linked to above, and the universal 1Password Pro (currently on sale for $8.99) that synchronizes with 1Password on Mac and iPad. Apple had the runner-up in this category. Find My iPhone (free), an amazing app that has reunited many lost or stolen iPhones with their owners, nabbed 32.3 percent of the votes. Congratulations to Agile Bits for their win, and thanks to all of the TUAW readers who took part in the nomination and voting process for the utility category in the Best of 2011. Read More

The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you -- the readers -- and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We'll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often! TUAW is asking for your votes for the best iPhone utility app of 2011. Since a majority of nominations were from the wrong categories, and some were even for the wrong platform, a straw poll of favorite iPhone utilities was taken with a sampling of Web luminaries and makes up our list of candidates. The nominees are Flashlight (sale priced at US$0.99, regularly $1.99), Apple's Airport Utility (free), Skyfire Web Browser ($2.99), 1Password for iPhone ($5.99), and the app that has saved a lot of iPhones, Apple's Find My iPhone (free). And now, let the voting begin! The results will be announced on December 26, 2011. What is the best iPhone utility app of 2011? Read More

And so it begins -- the App Store has its busiest time of the year over the Christmas holiday, when iPhones and iPads and iTunes gift cards are unwrapped under the Christmas tree, and millions of people take to the App Store to pick up some great apps. There are lots of sales coming out this week. We'll have more posts each day, and stay tuned to our Twitter account for even more. That's just the beginning -- stay tuned all through the week for more deals on lots of different apps and games around the App Store. Everything will likely be sorted by Thursday (as that's when developers become unable to make any more price or app changes), but before then, we'll see lots and lots of apps on sale, no doubt. Read More

By Seth Clifford, Wednesday, Oct 26, 2011 | Since I began using smartphones in 2004, they’ve become an indispensable part of my daily workflow. When I bought my first iPhone (a 3G in 2008), that workflow changed immensely, and for the better. The wide variety of apps available for the platform and the connected nature of the tools Apple provides make iOS a very compelling choice for managing many aspects of our business. At Nickelfish, I do a lot of different things, but a large part of my daily routine is maintenance of all our systems, both user desktops and laptops as well as our online accounts, backups, and services. I use a combination of apps to manage all of this easily. 1Password syncing to Dropbox means I have all the information for everyone’s accounts as well as software licenses and secure notes at my fingertips. I use Screens to monitor a few different machines via VNC around the office, making sure backups and updates are running and completing, and test machines are still testing the way we need them to. I use a variety of Dropbox-linked text editors to take and refer to notes throughout the day, notably WriteUp and Elements on iOS and nvALT (a Notational Velocity fork by Brett Terpstra) on my MacBook Pro. I’m currently using iCloud for my contacts, personal calendars and a personal email account. But we synchronize our company mail, contacts, and calendars with a Google Apps business account, so we’re set up with the standards on everyone’s Macs. Apple Mail and iCal run all day, and we all have those accounts hooked into our phones too. We used to run iCal server off of our Xserve internally and had our mail hosted externally, but we made the decision to bring everything together into Google Apps several months ago because of the availability of apps plugging into it. iOS has a ton of different calendar apps that can either sync with Google or with the iOS calendar accounts, as well as apps that tie into Google Docs, so people can choose how they want to hit those services, and there’s definitely something for everyone. When I’m out of the office, I rely on a few of the iPhone’s heavy hitters – Mail and iMessages – to stay in touch, as well as a few fantastic third-party apps. I use Verbs for IM when I’m Read More

Oft nachgefragt: ein Beitrags-Update über meine ‘Homescreens‘. Seit März 2011, als die letzte Aktualisierung dieser Artikel-Serie erfolgte, hat sich die eine oder andere App verschoben, geändert und aussortiert. Der derzeit aktuellen Stand ist an dieser Stelle festgehalten. Vielleicht finden an diesem Montag ja speziell frische 4S-Käufer, die einen ersten Grundbedarf an Software benötigen, die eine oder andere Anregung. Ich persönlich ziehe jede individuelle Empfehlungen allen generischen ‘Hitlisten’ vor. Genau deshalb soll mein privater Einblick auch nicht alleine bleiben: Wer Screenshots oder Tipps von seinen verwendeten Apps in den Kommentaren kundtun möchte, ist dazu herzlich eingeladen. Zwei Anmerkungen noch: Die zwei benutzten Hintergrundbilder gibt es hier und hier. Auf meinem Standby-Screen befinden sich dieses und dieses Bild. Außerdem führe ich zwei Ordner mit ‘Review’-Software, die ich mir für dieses Blog noch genauer anschauen möchte. Da diese Programme (noch) keine Empfehlungen sind, verbleiben sie für diesen Artikel ohne Erwähnung. Außerdem verstecken sich in den iPhone-Ordnern: Delivery Status touch (3.99 €); Dropbox (kostenlos); eBay (kostenlos); iCab Mobile (1.59 €); Skype (kostenlos); WeatherPro (2.99 €); Tumblr (kostenlos); Verbs (0.79 €); WhatsApp (kostenlos); PayPal (kostenlos); Analytics Pro (4.99 €); Boxcar (kostenlos); Articles (2.39 €); Instapaper (3.99 €); Facebook (kostenlos); Kicktipp (kostenlos); Flickit Pro (3.99 €); 360 Panorama (0.79 €); Lab (0.79 €); Halftone (0.79 €); Instagram (kostenlos); Finnish English (2.39 €); Evernote (kostenlos); Reeder (2.39 €); CrashPlan (kostenlos); Meine Freunde suchen (kostenlos); Shazam (kostenlos); Synonymwörterbuch (19.99 €); iSSH (7.99 €); Handoff (1.59 €); Screens (15.99 €); Google+ (kostenlos) und AirPort Dienstprogramm (kostenlos). Außerdem verstecken sich in den Ordnern: Evernote (kostenlos); iOutBank (9.99 €); Pages (7.99 €); iSSH (7.99 €); Dropbox (kostenlos); iMovie (3.99 €); Skype (kostenlos); Numbers (7.99 €); Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery (3.99 €); Bumpy Road (2.39 €); Cut the Rope (1.59 €); Emberwind HD (1.59 €); Groove Coaster (2.39 €); The Last Rocket (2.39 €); Contre Jour HD (2.39 €); ShadowGun (3.99 €); Comic Zeal (5.99 €); Flipboard (kostenlos); Kindle (kostenlos); Tagesschau (kostenlos); Wired (2.99 €); Zeit Online (kostenlos); Big Picture (2.39 €); Color Splash (1.59 €); Instagallery (1.59 €); Instamap (1.59 €); PhotoSync (1.59 €); Remote (kostenlos); Boxee (kostenlos); iCab Mobile (1.59 €); Simplenote (kostenlos); Air Display (7.99 €) und PDF Expert (7.99 €). * Alle Affiliate-Links (Danke!) führen direkt in den App Store. Read More

By Allyson Kazmucha, Thursday, May 26, 2011 | Passwords are an important part of having an online presence. I always tell friends and family that you should never ever have the same password for all of your accounts. (Do they listen? Probably not.) Either way, having the same password means if someone gets hold of one of your accounts, they could potentially have access to all of them. Having separate passwords is the best idea but then comes keeping track of all of them. Apps like 1Password and DataVault set out to solve that problem. I took a look at both of these popular password management apps and pitted them against each other. Follow along to see which one came out on top! When it comes to password management, I want to have easy access to my passwords regardless where I’m at. Both of these apps seem to provide that. Both 1Password and DataVault have iOS apps, desktop apps, and syncing services. So if you need to reinstall your desktop client or iOS client, you won’t have to re-enter all your passwords. I’ll have to give the edge to DataVault on this one simply for the fact that they offer many more ways to sync your data than 1Password does. 1Password currently offers wifi syncing and syncing with Dropbox. DataVault offers the same but also offers syncing with MobileMe, iTunes file sharing, ad-hoc, and sync servers such as Box.net. So if you don’t feel comfortable syncing with Dropbox or over wifi, DataVault may be a good option. Both apps have tons of features. You can create any kind of entry imaginable from logins, credit card accounts, bank accounts, and more. The desktop clients also offer a ton of profile options to auto-fill forms. Even though we are talking about the iOS version of these apps, I think it’s still important to talk about their desktop counterparts since they do work together for one single solution. In my testing, both seemed efficient and did their job well. Feature-wise they’re about even. I’m the type of person that doesn’t want to spend an hour learning to use an app before actually being able to utilize it. (I’m a Mac user for a reason!) I somewhat felt this way while using DataVault. The interface felt uncoordinated and clunky. I had to figure out what exactly I was supposed to put in each field and Read More

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, May 9, 2011 | TiPb’s developer spotlights are like DVD/iTunes Extras for the App Store — a weekly look behind the scenes at the programers and designers that bring you the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games you love. This week Rene talks with Marc Edwards of Bjango. What can we call you? Marc Edwards. What can we call your company? Bjango. Where are you situated? Melbourne, Australia. Yes, that giant, mostly empty island at the end of the earth. It’s a great place to live, provided you avoid the killer snakes, killer spiders, killer sharks and various other nasties. What apps, other than your own, do you currently use the most often? 1Password, Brushes, The Early Edition, Reeder (yes, two RSS readers) and Our Choice. There’s some obvious and potentially boring choices in there, but those are the current apps I’ve been using daily or enjoying. How long have you been a developer? We started building Mac Dashboard Widgets in 2005, which quickly turned into Mac app development. Prior to that I’d designed some fairly basic websites. And prior to that, I spent most of my time designing for print and for TV advertising. Creating software is incredibly rewarding and challenging, so I think I’ll be doing it for quite some time. How long have you been an iOS developer? We’ve been building iOS apps since the day the SDK was publicly available. Amazingly, that was just 3 years ago. It feels like an eternity. Do you develop for any other platform in addition to iOS? If so, which one(s)? We’re a Mac and iOS only shop. We’ve dabbled on other platforms and will continue to keep an eye out for opportunities, but for now, Mac OS X and iOS are great places to be. A big part of that is the users—iOS and Mac users seem to appreciate high quality software. What primary computer setup do you use for your iOS development? I use a 2010 Mac Pro with a 24″ LED Cinema Display, a couple of Drobos and lots of backup drives inside the Mac. I bought a Magic Trackpad and have tried to use it, but I keep going back to the Magic Mouse. I also have a Razer Deathadder, but use the Magic Mouse for all design related tasks. All pretty stock, really. I’m not a fan of dual displays—I’d Read More