In a year dominated by mobile apps there’s never been so much to install on your handset.
From clever business and organisational add-ons to multimedia extravaganzas, we’ve barely spent a week without something new to occupy our thumbs.
But which apps deserve the title “Best of 2008”? Read on. If you haven’t installed these already, you’ve missed a treat in the last 12 months!
1. Kyte
We’ve been using our Nokias to capture high quality video for years, but until this year it tended to stay on the device itself, or at best, offloaded to a PC or shovelled onto Ovi. By that time it’s old news, but then came Kyte.
Letting us stream live video from our mobiles direct to the web, Kyte changed the way we record video for ever. From concerts to birthday parties, we’ve been sharing our experiences as they happen. It’ll even record video for uploading later on, just incase we drop out of network coverage.
2. Nokia Maps 3.0
As Nokia whipped the covers off Nokia Maps 3.0 our jaws hit the floor. Full 3D landmarks, syncing with routes planned on Ovi, and walking directions that’ll get us to our destination even if there’s no obvious path in between. And that’s before we took it out in the car.
Speed limits update over the air to stop us getting a speeding ticket, updates to the 3D engine make zooming and panning faster than ever, and built-in lane assistance means we’re always in the right position when we pull up to a junction.
Nokia Maps is now a serious competitor to a dedicated satnav, oh, and did we mention it’s free?
3. Friend View
We’ve been promised the futuristic concept of location-aware social networking more times than meals in pill form and flying cars, but Nokia finally delivered it this year. Friend View is a simple app that plots your mates on a map, along with recent messages from them. It’s designed to let you track down nearby buddies, or see what they’re up to at a glance.
It’s still in the experimental stages, but is remarkably stable, clutter-free and simple to use.
OK, so it’s another social network to sign up for, but when it’s genuinely useful and more innovative than most, we can see the benefit. After all, would you rather meet up with your buddies for a drink, or spend the day throwing virtual sheep at them?