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Apple names 'Action Movie FX' and 'Paper' as Apps of the YearDec 13, 2012 (Los Angeles Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Apple has announced its iTunes Best of 2012 winners, and its two top apps include a movie special effects editor for the iPhone and a sketching app for the iPad. Action Movie FX took top honors for the iPhone category. The app is free and lets users shoot short scenes that are then enhanced with special effects such as falling rocks and vehicles and various types of missile attacks. Additional special effects, such as tornadoes and alien attacks, can be purchased within the app. For the iPad, Paper by FiftyThree was named app of the year. That app is also free and turns the iPad into a sketchbook. Users can make sketches using a pen tool with various colors, and they can export their sketches to social networks or save them on their tablet. They can also purchase additional sketching tools to make more complex sketches. Besides naming the best apps, Apple also announced the top performers of 2012. The top free iPhone app was YouTube, which Google launched after Apple removed the pre-installed YouTube app in September. Behind it was Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo social network, and Draw Something Free, which is like a mobile version of Pictionary that was extremely popular at the start of the year. On the iPad, the top free app was Skype, followed by Temple Run, the popular arcade game. Facebook was the third most popular app. In the paid iPhone category, Angry Birds Space topped the list, which was one of the new titles of 2012 for the Angry Birds franchise. It was followed by WhatsApp Messenger, which costs $0.99 but lets users who buy the app send each other unlimited SMS-like messages regardless of the country they're in or the device they use. Third on the list was the paid version of Draw Something, which removes ads. For the iPad, Angry Birds Space, the iPad-optimized version of the game, was also at the top. Behind it was Where's My Water, a game app by Disney, and Pages, the word processor by Apple. ___ (c)2012 the Los Angeles Times Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |