iMore's choice: Best apps for iPhone

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The absolute best App Store apps for your iPhone, carefully curated and often updated by the staff of iMore.

With hundreds of thousands of apps in the App Store it can be difficult -- and expensive -- to find the perfect one to fit your needs. That's where iMore comes in. Whenever we do an app review, an app vs. app comparison, or top apps pick, we take the best of the best of the best, the winners, the absolute staff favorites, and list them here. Focusing on beautiful design, simple usability, and phenomenal experience, these apps are iMore's choice.

Note: This list is very much a work in progress and we'll be adding to it, and changing the apps as new and better ones are released, so check back often!

For a broader sampling of apps and games that you can try without buying, check out our best free iPhone apps and best free iPhone games lists.

Best camera app: Camera+

Camera+ 3.0 brings focus and exposure locks, better photo management, app integration API's, and more

If you've been looking to upgrade your iPhoneography from the built-in iPhone Camera app to something a little more flexible and powerful, then check out Camera+. Built by photographers for photographers, the latest update not only continues Camera+'s great features and filter sets, but adds the ability to lock focus and exposure, mulit-photo imports, improved social sharing, app integration (so you can get to Camera+ from within other apps), and more.

Best calendar app: Agenda

Agenda for iPhone and iPad review

If you need both more functionality and more elegance than the built in iOS Calendar app, you need Agenda. In addition to performing the normal tasks you'd expect any good calendar app to do, Agenda also lets you confirm appointments via text message or email from directly within the app. Similarly, you can inform necessary parties if you're going to be late.

Best cloud storage app: Dropbox

Get twice the online storage for the same price with new Dropbox plans and pricing

Dropbox has become the default way to sync files on iOS. It does things iCloud wants no part of, and while pro accounts can still be pricier than competitive services, but most people won't need more than the free account offers anyway. iPhones and iPads are app-centric devices, and more apps work with Dropbox than anything else.

Best ebook reader app: iBooks

iBooks is Apple's free ebook and PDF reading app for iPhone. It's a stylish way to read not only books purchased from the iBookstore, but all the free books from the massive Project Gutenberg library as well as any of your own ePub or PDF files. Apple's book catalog isn't as big as Amazon's Kindle library, but the reading experience itself is far superior.

Best educational video app: Khan Archiver

Khan Academy is one of the best products of education and the internet, and with the Khan Archiver app for the iPhone, you have free access videos on topics ranging from kindergarten, advanced science, humanities, history, and more. You can even download the videos to watch offline.

Best email app: Sparrow

Sparrow for iPhone updated: push coming soon as yearly subscription

Sparrow is great for Gmail users because it handles labels extremely well. It also supports iMAP for Google Apps, iCloud, Yahoo, AOL, Mobile Me and custom IMAP accounts, as well as POP. You can use Facebook to assign avatars to your friends, and add attachments while composing a message. It also has a beautifully designed pane navigation layout, pull to refresh, alias support, and custom signatures for each email account.

Best launcher app: Launch Center Pro

Launch Center Pro for iPhone review

"Launch actions, not apps" is Launch Center Pro's motto and the app allows you to do just that. From composing an email/message (with or without a default recipient/body), to creating quick dialers, Safari searches and page launches, to a flashlight utility, and the ability to insert a custom URL string that can either launch an app function or a web page, Launch Center lets you do everything you need to do on your iPhone, faster than ever before.

Best navigation app: NAVIGON

Navigon-for-iPhone-main-menu

NAVIGON is the best iPhone navigation map for those who want the security of on-board maps, anywhere around the word, without the hassle of huge, up-front downloads or updates. They've got a ton of options as in-app purchases, and while those can add up, you can also pick and choose only the ones you want to keep costs down. If you want power and flexibility, Navigon is a great choice.

Best password manager app: 1Password Pro

1Password lets you have the security of strong, unique password with the convenience of easy password entry. Store all your logins, accounts, cards, and notes securely, sync them via Dropbox, and open them in the built-in web browser. Everything you need to stay safe when you're mobile is built right in to 1Password.

Best personalized magazine app: Zite

Zite is not only personal to each user, but it grows more personal over time as you use it. The way Zite recommends new content is something none of its competitors can match. Bottom line, Zite is the best social magazine app currently available on the iPhone.

Best podcast app: Instacast

Instacast-player-controls

Instacast is expensive if you want the full package, but it's also the best overall podcast app for iPhone right now. It strikes the best balance between simplicity and features, making it easy to use but still powerful. For most users, most of the time, Instacast is podcast app to get.

Best read later app: Pocket

Pocket vs Instapaper vs Readability native app support

Pocket provides the best design and user experience for the broadest base of users, both on the app and on the website. If you want more than Apple's built in Reading List provides, or you're new to the whole idea of "read later" and time-shifting content, give Pocket a go.

Best RSS app: Reeder

Reeder-for-iPhone-review

The updated version of Reeder has made an already great app even better. Native Google Reader integration for subscribing and unsubscribing is not only a great addition but the developer managed to keep it clean, simple, and easy to figure out.

Best stocks app: Bloomberg

Free Bloomberg app for iPhone

Bloomberg for iPhone is a great way for casual traders and investors to interact with their stocks and stay up to date with world news. Whether you need to casually monitor stocks on your iPhone or just find the urge to check out financial news, the free Bloomberg app has you covered -- for free!

Best streaming internet music app: Slacker

Slacker provides a nice streaming service for free with an easy to maneuver through interface. You can even get offline caching for only $4/month. That's a very sought after feature for many users who want to be more conservative with their carrier data. You won't get it cheaper than you do with Slacker.

Best text editor app: Byword

Byword for iPhone and iPad review

Byword is fantastic app for all writers, especially those who write in Markdown. The clean, simple environment will have a positive impact on your productivity -- guaranteed.

Best travel advisory app: Tripit

The free TripIt app for iPhone, when paired with a free TripIt account, becomes your virtual travel assistant. Simply email any flight or hotel confirmations to TripIt and they'll automagically get logged and displayed on your iPhone, along with helpful maps and additional information to make your travel safer and easier.

Best task management app: OmniFocus

It's hard to beat OmniFocus' feature set, which includes Siri integration, location-based reminders, and Forecasts. If price is no object, and you want the most powerful, versatile task management solution for iPhone, with options for syncing with iPad and/or Mac, then you want OmniFocus.

Best Twitter app: Tweetbot

Keep your Twitter timeline and DM's synced between devices with Tweetbot for iPhone and iPad

Tweetbot might feel over-designed to some, but it's well-designed. It has a ton of features for power users, including the best push-notification implementation in the business. As far as general purpose Twitter apps go, Tweetbot hits the best balance for the widest range of our readers.

Best VNC app: Screens

Screens 2.0 review: The best designed, easiest to use VNC app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac

With iCloud integration, SSH keys, and a re-designed Screens Connect, Screens 2.0 handles remote computing better and faster than ever before. Screens is also the most iPhone, iPad, and Mac-like remote computing app on the market today, and that makes it the easiest to setup and the most familiar to use.

Best weather app: Weather Neue

Weather Neue for iPhone review

Weather Neue is an iPhone weather app designed for minimalists. Instead of a plethora of features and options, Weather Neue simply consists of one screen that gives you the current weather conditions, a 3 day forecast, and other basic weather information.

Best web browser app: Chrome

Chrome vs Atomic vs Mercury Tabbed Browsing

If you want a browser that has a better layout than Safari and allows you easy access to bookmarks and other open tabs across all your desktop computers, Chrome is it. There may not be gesture support or a ton of customization options, but it works flawlessly and has a beautiful interface.

Your choices?

Think we got it wrong? Think we included an app we ought not have included? Think we missed an all-star about we out not have missed? Let us know in the comments. We'll be updating this often, and our choices can and will change over time. This is your community, help us make iMore's choice, your choice.

Leanna Lofte and Ally Kazmucha contributed major sections of this article

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.