Last week Apple announced their 2013 App Design Awards Winners and we thought it'd be a good idea to see what the pro reviews say about each winner. The data shows AppScores range from 97 to 83 and include two apps which we don't yet have AppScores for. The list includes games, utilities, weather apps, art/creative apps, to-do apps, web development apps, education apps, productivity apps and photo apps and covers the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac. It also includes two winners in the student category. We've listed them in order of AppScore to make browsing easier. For full details, be sure to click on each app's name to see quotes from and links to all the reviews that make up the AppScore. So, without further adieu, here's what the pro reviews have to say about Apple's winners:

AppScore rankings are based on aggregating professional review scores from around the web.

		WWF Together	97
		FREE: iPad
		From the app description: "Experience the world’s most amazing animals in one app — together. This interactive experience brings you closer to the stories of elephants, whales, rhinos and other fascinating species. Discover their lives and the work of WWF in a way you’ve never seen before. Try out “tiger vision,” stay as still as the polar bear during a hunt, and chop the panda’s bamboo. New species stories — which you can fold and share with the world — are added regularly." Here is a quote from MyMac: "Overall, WWF Together is perfectly suited for all audiences in all age groups. I throughly recommend this free app to everyone wanting to know even a little more about the world’s precious endangered species. It is certainly thought provoking" (February 1, 2012).

		Procreate – Sketch, paint, create.	93
		$4.99: iPad
		From the app description: "Packed with 48 beautiful brushes, from true-to-life sets of pencils, inks and paint brushes, to unique digital tools, Procreate is a full digital studio at your finger tips. Procreate paints fast. Really fast. The secret sauce to Procreate’s insane performance comes from the proprietary Silica engine. Silica renders strokes in 64 bit precision with a speed and accuracy that makes other software blush. You'll see your stroke blend, decay, and even smudge in realtime. After using Procreate for a short while, you’ll see just how natural and fluid painting on iPad can be." Here is a quote from 148Apps: "Procreate gives professional and amateur artists the tools they need and the simplicity they want to create their own masterpieces in real time" (November 8, 2011).

This week's Best iOS App for Kids is a great app for little ones to learn basic motor and cognitive development skills. The app, Tappie Colorit, is an education and game app that features puzzles to teach young kids, ages 1 to 3, the basics about colors and shapes. Tappie Colorit has 8 different puzzles that become more challenging as a child advances through the app. In each puzzle, your child will learn how to match colors and shapes. For example, a puzzle may feature a red ball, blue train and white rabbit. One of the item in the puzzle will disappear, leaving an outline of the item in the color that it was. It's up to your child to find the missing object and choose the right color of the object. Pro reviewers praise Tappie Colorit for being fun, adorable and educational. The app has an 88 AppScore and a reasonable price of $1.99. Read more about it below and let us know your thoughts.

AppScore rankings are based on aggregating professional review scores from around the web. Click on an app's name to see all the professional reviews.

		Tappie Colorit	88
		$1.99: iPad
		From the app description: "Tappie Colorit is the new touch-screen application suitable for small kids aged 1 to 3 years old. Kids are encouraged to figure out simple cognitive puzzles based on shape or color." Check out a quote from I Use This App: "Honestly, Tappie Colorit is genius! It’s adorable, fun, educational and exciting. You couldn’t ask for much more from an app geared towards toddlers. I don’t want to get too carried away with my excitement about how well this app works, but if you have a toddler and you don’t have an iPad or iPhone, get one – even if it’s just for the Tappie apps! In my opinion, the purchase is nothing compared to the results you get" (May 4, 2012). Here is another quote from Smart Apps For Kids: "Bottom line: Great app to use for children who are cognitively at the toddler or preschool stage of development in order to assess and develop shape and color recognition skills" (January 19, 2012).

We are back with five apps in our Top 5 iPhone and iPad Apps of the Week series. Our first app, Recordium - Highlight & Annotate Voice Recordings, has a 90 AppScore and allows you to record audio and then easily organize and search for specific moments in your recordings. The pro reviews praise the app for its sleek and straightforward design interface. In second is an app I really need in the mornings. The app is Wake Alarm with an 87 AppScore and it's an an alarm clock where simple gestures like slapping, flipping, shaking and swiping turn off or snooze the alarm. Pro reviewers call the app simple and effective. Halftone 2 takes third place with an 85 AppScore and is a photo app that stylizes your photos to look like comic book pages. Pro reviewers say it's a great update from the original Halftone app. In fourth are two apps tied with an 80 AppScore. Workout (7 Minute Body Fitness Exercise) is a health & fitness app that provides 7 minutes of exercises. It's based on a recent article in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal and pro reviewers call out the simplicity of this app as one of its selling points. The other app in fourth is Video Filters. Like its title says, it's an app that allows you to add filters to your video. I imagine its like Instagram but for video. The pro reviews say it's an easy buy because it offers a lot of features in one package. So there you have it, our list of top apps. Let us know what you think of the apps down below and see you next week.

Rank based on averaging professional review scores of non-games released 2 - 3 weeks ago to allow reviews to accumulate.

1.		Recordium - Highlight & Annotate Voice Recordings	90
		FREE (On Sale): iPhone, iPod touch & iPad (Universal)
		From the app description: "Recordium is a powerful yet elegant recording app designed for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Recordium lets you highlight the track while playing or recording audio, helping you focus on the most important parts of your recordings. Attachments such as notes, tags, and pictures can be easily added to any part of the recording." Check out a quote from Tapscape: "With a stunning array of features, solid tech specs, and a great interface, this superb app is a great tool for augmenting your voice recordings. Grab it while it’s free" (May 29, 2013).

2.		Wake Alarm	87
		$1.99 (On Sale): iPhone & iPod Touch
		From the app description: "Meet Wake, the most beautiful and innovative alarm for iPhone. Slap to snooze, flip your phone over to turn off alarms or Shake to wake. Get up your way with Wake! Wake combines simplicity and design into one revolutionary alarm app" Check out a quote from 148Apps: "Simple to use and covering all the relevant bases, such as recurring alarms, it’s tough to fault Wake Alarm" (May 29, 2013).

This week we have exactly five games in our Top 5 iPhone and iPad Games of the Week series. Little Luca leads off our list with an 89 AppScore. The game is a physics puzzler where your job is to get the fallen stars back into the sky by solving a series of challenges. The pro reviews say the game features great graphics, music and charm. Next up with an 83 AppScore is a game based on a popular Cartoon Network series, the game is Best Park In the Universe - Regular Show. Here the pro reviewers say it's for fans of beat-em-ups and one they could actually envision the show's characters playing. With our third place game, the pro reviews praise it as a fun casual title that is both challenging and beautiful. Blip Blup Free is the game, it has an 82 AppScore and it's a tile based puzzler where color is key. Tied for fourth are two games with an 81 AppScore. One is Quell Memento, a sliding puzzle game where you must put back together memories locked in an abandoned house. The pro reviews say this puzzler has a ton of content and is unique in that it also features an interesting storyline. Our other game in fourth is Dragon Bane Elite [Free MMORPG], an MMO (think a simplified World of Warcraft) where your role is to slay dragons. Pro reviewers call this game a must try for fans of PC MMO titles. Learn more about our Top 5 iPhone and iPad games below, let us know your thoughts and return next week for another set of five!

Rankings based on averaging professional review scores for games released 2 - 3 weeks ago to allow reviews to accumulate.

1.		Little Luca	89
		$0.99: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch (Universal)
		From the app description: "Luca had a dream once - that the stars in the sky suddenly fell. The stars spread all over the world. Deep into the oceans, high up the hills and all across space. It's your job to get the stars back! Bounce on the wobbly hills, get thrown in the wind, launch from strange gravity wells and zap across the screen through mysterious portals. But most of all look out for the dangerous volcanoes in the deep oceans!" Check out a quote from TheAppShack: "It’s very clear that a lot of love, effort and time has gone into this incredibly polished physics puzzler. It also brings that ‘something special’ to the table, making it stand out in the sea of physics puzzlers that have infested the AppStore over the last couple of years" (June 2, 2013).

2.		Best Park In the Universe - Regular Show	83
		$2.99: iPhone, iPod touch & iPad (Universal)
		From the app description: "Ready for the BIGGEST BEATDOWN in the cosmos? Help Mordecai and Rigby battle aliens, monsters and deranged park employees in Best Park in the Universe!" Check out a quote from Gamezebo: "The best part about The Best Park in the Universe is that it feels like a video game that Mordecai and Rigby would actually play themselves in the cartoon show, while slacking off during the work day and trying to avoid Benson’s constant list of chores to do around the park" (May 23, 2013).

Recently I received some sad personal news. As a result, I've been in a little bit of a funk. And it's been hard for me. My friend suggested I find some inspiration to up my mood. I happened upon TED an app based on the famous TED conferences and this week's Best Free iOS App of the Week. If you have never heard of TED conferences then let me tell you a little about them. TED are global conferences built under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". The conferences featuring inspiring, innovative and fascinating presentations from individuals in the world of technology, science, entertainment, medicine, business and design. Actually the letters of TED stand for technology, entertainment and design. Past presenters have included President Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Malcom Gladwell, Nobel Peace Prize winners and many more. Every speaker is given 18 minutes to present and must present in the most engaging way possible. Presentation have now been coined as TEDTalks. TED, the app, has an 85 AppScore and offers access to more than 1,400 TEDTalks. The app also provides these talks in over 90 languages. You can browse the talks by themes, tags, popularity or recency. The pro reviews praise the app's ability to make it easy to find the talks that interest you. These talks always get me going, get me excited about the future and the possibilities. I need that every now and then when I'm down. Find out more about the app below and let me know what inspiration you find through the app.

AppScores are based on aggregating and averaging independent professional review scores from around the web.

		TED	85
		Free: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
		From the app description: "The official TED app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch presents talks from some of the world's most fascinating people: education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks, business gurus and music legends. Find more than 1,400 TEDTalk videos (with more added each week) on the official TED app -- now for both iPad and iPhone. The entire library is at your fingertips to browse at any time, even when you’re not online. Watch TEDTalks with subtitles in over 90 languages directly on your device through our new video player, or use AirPlay to watch them on your home entertainment system. Curate your own playlist. Download full videos to your device and watch them when you’re offline. Listen to an on-demand playlist of TEDTalks audio at any time. The TED app updates almost every day with new talks from TED events around the world. Sort the featured library by recency or popularity. Browse talks by tags, themes, or language. Share your favorite talks with your friends. Tell us how much time you have and let us guide you through a delightful playlist. " Here is a review from Macworld about the app: "If you like Ted Talks, there’s plenty of content here, and endless ways to consume it—and if English isn’t your first language, this may be the best way to search for and watch the lectures. Ted tries to make the world of ideas accessible to a larger audience; this app certainly helps that mission" (April 2, 2013).

It's a light week for us with only one app meeting the criteria for our Top 5 iPhone and iPad Apps of the Week series. The app is Limelight Movie Library with a 77 AppScore. From the title I'm guessing you have a good idea of what the app is. Well, it is a movie library but it's also a bit of a social network tied in. In addition to organizing the movies you've seen, you can follow the movie libraries of your friends, rate movies so friends can see what you think, watch movie trailers and keep up to date on the details of movies you want to see. The pro reviews say it's "a joy to use", "is perfect for the critic who enjoys quantifying the massive number of films that they’ve seen" and has an interface that is "simply remarkable and intuitive". Sounds pretty good to me. So that's it for our non-game apps this week but if you're into games, check out our Top 5 iPhone and iPad Games of the Week series. We'll see you next week with more apps. Leave any thoughts below!

Rank based on averaging professional review scores of non-games released 2 - 3 weeks ago to allow reviews to accumulate.

1.		Limelight Movie Library	77
		$1.99: iPhone & iPod Touch
		From the app description: "With Limelight, you can: • Organize your entire movie library • Keep track of movies you want to watch, and when they're released to theaters • Follow your friends libraries, so you can always find something good to watch tonight • Rate movies you've already seen. Let your friends know if you liked it or not! • Browse thousands of movies. Find new movies to watch, and rekindle memories of ones you have already seen. You can get lost for days! • Watch beautiful trailers in our custom video player designed specifically for movie trailers. Did we mention that you can use AirPlay, too?" Check out a quote from 148Apps: "Really, Limelight is perfect for the critic who enjoys quantifying the massive number of films that they’ve seen, and dropping the hammer of judgment on them with as little effort as possible" (May 27, 2013).

We are back with five fun-filled games in our Top 5 iPhone and iPad Games of the Week series! Our first game, Frozen Synapse, delivers an 86 AppScore and is a tactical turned based strategy game ported from the PC. The pro reviews call it a natural fit for the iPad with chess like strategy and great multiplayer. Next up with an 85 AppScore, Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery : Episode 1 is an adventure puzzle game that takes place at camp. The pro reviews praise the app for its great visuals, one even deeming it like a Pixar film, and strong character/story development. For our third place game, the pro reviews say it's like having a carnival in the palm of your hand, except it's fair and call it simple, addictive, demanding and fun. With an 82 AppScore the game is Can Knockdown 3. Coming in fourth with an 81 AppScore is Bombcats, a physics puzzler where you help seven explosive felines save their cat friends. Pro reviewers call this game a great addition to the genre and praise its puzzle design and fun factor. Finally, in fifth with an 80 AppScore is Karateka Classic, a retro game based on the side scrolling karate classic from the 1980s. Like the pro reviews say, it will take you on a trip down memory lane and the gameplay holds up surprisingly well for a decades old title. Hope you enjoyed our Top 5 iPhone and iPad games, come back again next week for a new set. As always, let us know your thoughts on the games below.

Rankings based on averaging professional review scores for games released 2 - 3 weeks ago to allow reviews to accumulate.

1.		Frozen Synapse	86
		$6.99: iPad
		From the app description: "Frozen Synapse brings the simultaneous turn-based strategy genre bang up-to-date and lets you give detailed, accurate orders to your squad: classic gameplay with a modern interface. Plan your moves, test them out, then hit the "Prime" button: both you and your enemy's turns are executed simultaneously. Competitive-but-intuitive multiplayer and a huge single player campaign mean that Frozen Synapse will give you hours and hours of tactical delight." Check out a quote from Slide To Play: "There are few games that can claim the depth of gameplay and the polished experience that Frozen Synapse presents. Strategy fans should rejoice" (May 29, 2013).

2.		Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery : Episode 1	85
		$2.99: iPhone, iPod touch & iPad (Universal)
		From the app description: "A small boy, his big new friend, and a huge problem. Join Camp Eagle Feathers’ newest ‘Brave’, Jacob Jones, on an amazing adventure to uncover just what is going on at Camp Eagle Feather. From talking foxes and celebrity obsessed barmaids to dimwitted hunters and death-metal fan roommates, this is one summer vacation Jacob will never forget." Check out a quote from 148Apps: "Bundled with such attractive visuals and a 3-4 hour length, it’s a strong start for Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery: Episode 1 and I’m intrigued to see how future episodes develop" (May 20, 2013).

My friend recently got into a car accident and was a little shell shocked. As a result, she forgot to get the necessary information to file her accident properly. I wish I was there to have helped her. Nevertheless her accident made me go on a search for an app that could have provided her assistance in this type of situation. Our Best Free iOS App of the Week will do the trick. It's called Accident Wizard and has a 95 AppScore. The app offers a step by step guide to gathering the right and necessary information after an accident. Using the app's recording system you can document car damage, witness statements, injury charts, etc. Accident Wizard then generates a report based on your recordings that can be sent to your insurance company. The pro reviews praise the app's ability to make a difficult situation and process much easier. And I don't want to forget to mention the best part of the app, it provides immediate contact to emergency personnel, tow truck companies, healthcare providers and even accident attorneys with the push of a button. Let us know what you think of the app below and hopefully its an app you don't have to use often or ever but can nevertheless give you piece of mind.

AppScores are based on aggregating and averaging independent professional review scores from around the web.

		Accident Wizard	95
		Free: iPhone
		From the app description: "Accident Wizard by Auto Accident App is the first and only mobile phone application to offer free, instant, on-the-scene, live assistance to accident victims. Even better, our state-of-the-art App also provides one-button access to emergency personnel and step-by-step guidance through the information gathering process to ensure that no critical information or evidence is missed. Use the app’s Accident Recording System to easily document and send us every detail with pictures, audio witness statements, injury charts, car damage picture documentation and much more. Auto Accident App creates a comprehensive accident report, with attached pictures into a single email that you can send out to all necessary parties (such as medical, insurance company, legal, etc). Registration is simple and quick - instead of manually entering all kinds of details about your driving info, simply take a picture of your driving documents (drivers license, vehicle iregistration and insurance), and you are done. " Here is a review from The Smartphone App Review about the app: "Overall, this is a great app and one that will only prove its worth as time goes by. For a free offering, this is superb, and should be considered essential by all wise drivers" (May 18, 2013).

I love hanging out with my young nieces because they are so imaginative. They come up with the most interesting stories and reasons for why things are the way they are. When I am with them, I feel young and alive. This week's Best iOS App for Kids is the perfect app for me to enjoy with them. The app, Lil' Red - An Interactive Story, is an interactive book based on the classic children's story of Little Red Riding Hood with a twist. The twist is that the book contains no text or narration. It's up to you and your kid(s) to make up the story. I definitely can see my nieces making up some pretty adventurous stories. The app contains 12 illustrated interactive scenes, music and little hidden surprises. One of the pro reviews calls it "Simply delightful" and another says: "What I didn’t like: Nothing!" According to the app description Lil' Red - An Interactive Story is made for kids 2 and up. The app has an impressive 93 AppScore and a reasonable price of $3.99, a small price to pay for a little imagination. Read more about it below and let us know your thoughts.

AppScore rankings are based on aggregating professional review scores from around the web. Click on an app's name to see all the professional reviews.

		Lil' Red - An Interactive Story	93
		$3.99: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch (Universal)
		From the app description: "This interactive storybook is a unique interpretation of classic tale of "Little Red Riding Hood". Everything is told exclusively through animation, music, and interactivity - so kids and parents can tell the story in their own way without the use of text or narration. Navigate through lush environments filled with enchanting illustrations and memorable music... all made with thoughtful attention to detail. Young children will also delight in helping Lil' Red discover tons of hidden surprises." Check out a quote from Smart Apps For Kids: "Bottom Line: Breathtakingly original with a universal appeal. The music and artwork tell the story better than words ever could. Smartie award winner and critically acclaimed" (February 13, 2013).