On Monday, Apple announced it’s highly anticipated list of the best content available in all of the itunes store. Amongst the big winners were some obvious choices and a couple surprises. So we here at Cool Apps Man decided to break down Apple’s best of the best to see if their winners really are worthy of being the top go-to downloads.
Apple’s Best Apps of 2014
iPhone App of the Year: Elevate – Brain Training:
Elevate is a completely personalized brain training program designed to stimulate your focus, speaking, processing speed, memory, math, and more. Think of it as Lumosity, except it’s more more creative and visually more fluid.
Bottom line: With over 25 games of intelligence improving fun and a detailed feedback of performance stats of your in, it’s easy to see why Apple named the Elevate as the best overall app in their store.
Runner-Up: Hyperlapse from Instagram:
It seems as though time lapsed videos are all the rage these days and with apps like Instagram’s Hyperlapse it’s easy to see why. With Hyperlapse, want-to-be videographers can create beautifully stabilized videos that last up to 12 seconds. That means you can create the videos from the comfort of a couch or running while on a jog.
Bottom line: So whether you’re trying to capture a setting sun or an entire road trip, Hyperlapse easily sets the mood of your video for anyone who watches.
iPhone Game of the Year: Threes!:
Check one off for the little guys of gaming. That’s right, it wasn’t King of SuperCell who took home Apple’s high honor for game of the year. It was Sirvo LLC’s little engine that could, Threes!. In this simplistic puzzle game, the goal is create the largest number you can by matching like-numbered cards across the board. Eventually, your game will end when the board fills up with unmatchable cards.
Bottom line: Sure, there’s no explosions or candy matching, but don’t let that fool you. Threes! is hands down one of the most time consumingly addicting yet entertaining games you’ll ever find in the itunes store.
Runner-Up: Leo’s Fortune:
If the awards were based on visuals alone, 1337 & Senri LLC’s Leo’s Fortune might be the no brainer winner. With some of the most gorgeously detailed graphics you’ll find in an iPhone game, Leo’s Fortune is hands down one of the best games you can download right now. In this platform adventure game; you play as a cute little furball who must traverse trough perilous gaps, spiked bridges, and tunnels to locate your stolen gold. As you unravel the mystery of who the thief is, you’ll need to use your noggin to try and get through a variety of puzzling traps.
Bottom line: Trust me when we tell you, Leo’s Fortune is more than worth the $2.99 price tag.
iPad App of the Year: Pixelmator:
Pixelmator is the brilliant photo editor that gives you every tool completely alter and customize everything from your selfies to nature shots. By taking full advantage of of the iOS technologies, the team at Pixelmator has designed an app that feels much like any professional grad editor like Photoshop. Looking for awesome effects, you got it. Have to retouch some wedding pics, easy. Need to rid those devil eyes out of your family portrait, no problem.
Bottom line: If Photoshop is a bit too pricy for you, look no further than the just as efficient Pixelnator.
iPad Game of the Year: Monument Valley:
Much like Leo’s Fortune, Monument Valley is absolutely stunning in the graphics department. Here, you need to mold and manipulate a variety of castles so that you can guide a princess through the level safely.
Bottom line: By combining some really cool geometry features with surreal illusions, Monument valley is an easy contender for not only iPad game of the year, but game of the year no mater what p