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TUAW Best of 2012 Awards: Mac products
While the Mac wasn't the first Apple computer, for many people it represents Apple's design and corporate philosophy the best. By creating the first personal computer that could literally be used by anyone, Apple and the Mac set the standard for generations of computer owners. In this, the last of our TUAW Best of 2012 Awards posts, we'll look at all of the best software and hardware products for Mac as nominated and voted for by TUAW readers. Be sure to check out our TUAW Best of 2012 iPhone and iPad winners as well. Best Mac Game App of 2012 Rovio hits the trifecta, with Angry Birds Star Wars ($4.99) winning the Best Game of 2012 for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Picking up 52 percent of the total vote, the irritated avians handily beat out runner-up Sid Meier's Civilization V: Campaign Edition ($39.99). Best Mac Music App of 2012 In a landslide, Apple's iTunes 11 (free) won the Best Mac Music App honors with a whopping 81 percent of reader votes. Apparently, the redesign of the Mac's default music app resonated with readers, who were overwhelming in their support of the app. The app that lets you "soundtrack your life," Spotify (free) was the runner-up in the Mac music app category, grabbing a respectable 11 percent of the vote. Best Mac Photo App of 2012 Apple's pro photo app, Aperture ($79.99) brought home the trophy in the photo app category for Macs. Third-party apps didn't fare too well this year, as the runner-up was another Apple app: iPhoto '11 ($14.99, included as part of iLife '11 on all new Macs). Best Mac Productivity App of 2012 When TUAW readers reach for an app that's going to help them become more productive, they go for Alfred (free). This app won in 2011 as the best Mac utility -- this year, it moved to the productivity category and handily wiped out competition like runner-up Evernote (free). Congratulations to the Running With Crayons development team on making a great app even better in 2012. Best Mac Social Networking App of 2012 The winner in the Mac social networking app category was a surprise. Sure, everyone uses Twitter and Facebook, but a lot of our readers apparently also love their Jabber, MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, and IRC, because the big winner with almost half of the total votes was Adium (free). Runner-up in the social networking category was the official Twitter app (free). Tweetbot for Mac had a large number of votes this year and may possibly surpass the official app in 2013 voting. Best Mac Utility App of 2012 As votes were being tallied for the Mac categories in TUAW Best of 2012 voting, I wondered if AgileBits would pull in another win for 1Password ($49.99). After all, it had won in both the iPad and iPhone utility app categories. Sure enough, 1Password remains a favorite of TUAW readers as almost 60 percent of those voting selected the app as their favorite Mac utility. The next most popular utility app as voted by TUAW readers was MacPaw's CleanMyMac ($29.95 for lifetime license). The app cleans out caches and logs, completely removes apps, and pulls out those internationalization files that can eat up hard disk space. Best Mac Video App of 2012 Aperture won our Best Mac Photo App of 2012 award, and Apple's Pro software teams continued the family tradition in the video app category. Final Cut Pro X ($299.99) trashed the competition with almost 43 percent of all reader votes. Runner-up in this category was Handbrake (free), a widely-used and loved open source video transcoder. If you've ever wanted to convert a DVD to a digital format for viewing on your Mac, iPhone or iPad, Handbrake is the way to go. Best Mac Accessory of 2012 There was no contest in the Mac accessory category: the winner, the Apple TV ($99) was the overwhelming favorite with almost 90 percent of the vote. It's almost worth saying that if you own a Mac, iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, you need an Apple TV as well. The runner-up for best Mac accessory of 2012 was a fitness device. Fitbit ($59.95 for the Fitbit Zip, $99.95 for the Fitbit One) is a great way to keep track of just how active you are during the day and how well you sleep (Fitbit One only) during the night. Best Mac Peripheral of 2012 LaCie has been in the Mac peripheral business for many years, and the company pays attention to details when designing its storage products. This year's best Mac peripheral is the company's mobile Thunderbolt drive, the Little Big Disk ($349.99 to $999.00, available in both HD and SSD varieties). An Apple product made it into the runner-up position. The Magic Trackpad ($69) is a favorite of many Mac desktop computer users, providing multi-touch gesture support for Mac OS X. And that, dear readers, is the last of the TUAW Best of 2012. As before, we thank you for your participation both in nominating your favorite devices and software during the past year, and for supporting those choices with your votes.
TUAW Best of 2012 Awards: iPad products
For the past two years, TUAW readers have done the Apple world a service by nominating and then voting for the cream of the crop when it comes to software and hardware products. The TUAW Best of 2012 awards for iPhone have already been announced; now it's time to look at the winners in the iPad categories. The envelopes, please... Best iPad Game App of 2012 May the birds be with you. For the second time in the TUAW Best of 2012 voting, Angry Birds Star Wars has walked away with top honors (the first was for Best iPhone Game App of 2012). This time, it's the iPad version; Rovio's Angry Birds Star Wars HD ($2.99) grabbed almost 54 percent of the votes tallied, while Plants vs. Zombies HD ($0.99) pulled into the runner-up position with 14 percent of all the gamer votes. Best iPad Music App of 2012 Congratulations to the winner of the TUAW Best of 2012 Music App -- Algoriddim djay (on sale for $9.99). The app, which lets iPad owners and professional disc jockeys spin tunes on virtual turntables, pulled in almost 30 percent of all of the votes in this category. Internet radio app Pandora Radio (free) is the runner-up, with about 22 percent of the vote. Best iPad Photo App of 2012 It's great to see deserving apps grab TUAW Best of 2012 awards, and one that I've personally been a fan of is Occipital's 360 Panorama ($0.99, universal). This app, which takes amazing panorama shots simply by waving an iPad (or iPhone) up and down while turning around, pulled in almost one-third of the votes for the best iPad photo app. The runner-up was Apple's own iPhoto ($4.99) app, a surprisingly good universal photo editing and organization application. Best iPad Productivity App of 2012 Of the three iPad productivity apps that were in the final voting for the Best of 2012 award, one stood out as the walk-away winner with 44 percent of votes tallied -- Dropbox (free). The app also won in this category in the iPhone voting, showing that the app has universal appeal -- no pun intended. There was a tie for the runner-up spot between perennial favorite Evernote (free) and a surprise entry -- Cooking Planit HD ($4.99). Both apps grabbed 28 percent of the vote from TUAW readers. Best iPad Social Networking App of 2012 Love 'em or hate 'em, almost everybody uses Facebook (free). The app was the walkaway winner of this category both for iPad and iPhone with almost 59 percent of the vote, and solid improvements in the app during 2012 point to a bright future for Facebook on iOS devices. The runner-up is the Twitter app that beat the official Twitter app -- Tweetbot for Twitter (iPad edition, $2.99). Best iPad Utility App of 2012 If you checked out the results of the TUAW Best of 2012 voting for iPhone earlier today, you'll know that AgileBits' 1Password won the big prize. Well, the iPad version of 1Password ($7.99) solidly won the top honors for Best iPad Utility App of 2012 with 53 percent of all readers voting for the password manager. The runner-up wasn't a surprise to me, as I prefer Google's Chrome Browser for iPad (free) to Mobile Safari. 24 percent of voters chose Chrome as their pick. Best iPad Video App of 2012 Congratulations to Apple's iMovie for iOS team, as iMovie ($4.99, universal) was the favorite of TUAW readers. Our readers apparently like to watch movies as much as they like to make them, as Netflix (free) was the runner-up in the video app category. Best iPad Case of 2012 iPad cases are a very personal choice for most people, with functionality and style often battling it out. When new iPad owners see the variety of choices in the Apple Store, many of them reach instinctively for the Apple iPad Smart Case ($49). It's a relatively low-cost and functional iPad case offering both protection and a stand. When it comes to style, though, the Twelve South BookBook for iPad ($79.99) took the votes and almost ran away with the win -- there was a razor-thin margin of nine votes between the category winner and the runner-up. Best iPad Accessory of 2012 Apple came in as both the winner and runner-up in the best iPad accessory category. This year's favorite iPad accessory according to TUAW readers was the Apple Wireless Keyboard ($69), garnering about 45 percent of all the votes. Close behind with 36 percent of the votes was the Apple TV ($99), considered by many to be the only way to easily beam content from your iPad to an HDTV. And that wraps up our TUAW Best of 2012 iPad awards. Coming up tomorrow will the the final set of categories, the awards for Mac. Thanks to all of the TUAW readers who took the time and effort to nominate and vote for their favorite products.
TUAW Best of 2012 Awards: iPhone products
The votes have been tallied, and TUAW is proud to present the Best of 2012 Awards for iPhone products. These products, both hardware and software, represent the choices of TUAW readers in various categories. We're still working on the posts for iPad and Mac products, which will be published over the next few days. And now, the envelopes please... Best iPhone Game App of 2012 In this all-important category, one game flew higher than them all and came in with close to 47 percent of the votes: Angry Birds Star Wars ($0.99). Coming in a distant runner-up with 14 percent of the votes was my personal favorite game of 2012, Letterpress (free, with $0.99 upgrade). Best iPhone Music App of 2012 Apple occasionally hits a home run with its in-house apps, and in the music app category, GarageBand ($4.99) was the choice of over a third of all voters. The runner-up was Pandora Radio (free) with 27 percent of the tally. Best iPhone Navigation App of 2012 That didn't take long -- the new Google Maps app (free) only arrived on December 12, but it won the Best iPhone Navigation App of 2012 award with almost half of the votes tallied. A big hooray to Apple Maps, though, for coming in as the runner-up with 20 percent of the votes. Best iPhone Photo App of 2012 Congratulations to Camera+ (on sale for $0.99) for winning the 2012 kudos after coming in as the runner-up in 2011. Camera+ kicked some shutter butt, grabbing 48 percent of the vote. Despite widespread concerns about recent changes in the free Instagram app terms and conditions, the social photo app came in second place with almost a quarter of the vote. Best iPhone Productivity App of 2012 When it comes to getting work done, TUAW readers had one overwhelming favorite iPhone tool -- Dropbox (free). The app and service walked away with 61 percent of the vote, with the runner-up Evernote at distant 23.8 percent. Best iPhone Social Networking App of 2012 People "liked" the free Facebook app for iPhone, voting it in as the top iPhone social networking app of 2012 with over a third of the votes tallied. A surprising 23 percent of voters picked free "bump iPhones to exchange stuff" app Bump as the runner-up. Best iPhone Utility App of 2012 With well over half of the votes in this category, password manager 1Password ($7.99) was re-elected as the top iPhone utility app. Apple's Find My iPhone app also reprised its runner-up award from 2011 with almost 42 percent of the vote. Best iPhone Video App of 2012 In this category, Apple's $4.99 iMovie app narrowly edged out the free YouTube app as the favorite video app of 2012. How close was it? The margin of difference was a scant 8 votes. Best iPhone Case of 2012 This is a huge category, with literally hundreds of iPhone cases on the market. However, a handful of cases stood out enough to make it to the final vote, and of that hallowed few, one case manufacturer stood out. LifeProof's cases for iPhones killed the competition by grabbing 44 percent of the vote. There were two runners-up with exactly the same 20.2 percent vote tally -- Mophie's Juice Pack battery pack cases and Otterbox's Commuter Series. The results for the case category were fascinating, showing that iPhone owners seem to value protection over style. Best iPhone Accessory of 2012 Should we be surprised that Apple is the manufacturer of the top iPhone accessory of 2012? Almost 61 percent of all TUAW readers voting in the Best of 2012 awards picked Apple's Lightning to 30-pin adapter ($29.00) as the best iPhone accessory. My personal guess is that it was the most needed accessory for iPhone aficionados. The runner-up has a loyal following: Jawbone's Jambox ($179.95 and up) wireless speaker picked up almost a quarter of the votes in the accessory category. Many thanks to all of the TUAW readers who took the time to nominate and vote for their favorite products for iPhone.
Best of 2012 Statistics: Breaking down Joystiq's awards
To decide its top ten games of the year, Joystiq goes through a fairly strict voting procedure, which is much more civil than the battle royale you might imagine our process to be. And now, you can get a better idea of how all that procedure works – while you're looking at some cool infographics.Here's how it works: each editorial staff member picks his or her top five games of the year, with no stipulation other than: the games listed must be 2012 releases in North America and not include any re-releases or upgraded versions of previously released software (sorry, Persona 4 Golden!).But the staff doesn't only select five favorites; they can list as many games as they want for the awards, with the caveat that anything listed after number five is considered their "Best of the Rest" selection.Each of the top five votes carries a weight. Number 1 is worth five points, number 5 is worth one – this is the game's base score. Listing a game as a "Best of the Rest" also carries some weight: .5 points toward the final tally per appearance on the "BotR" list. Ties are broken by the number of times a game appears on the base list – represented here as "Top Five Voted" – and, if further tie-breaking is required, by how many times it appears on the "BotR" list.Super Hexagon is a good example of how this system works as intended. The game made multiple appearances within the staff's top five lists, and appeared on the "BotR" list many times. Eventually, the game's score carried it into the fifth spot. Surprising, yes, but we collectively loved it enough to put it there.In the case of something like FTL: Faster Than Light and Borderlands 2, those games most frequently appeared in "Best of the Rest" sections of staff lists. Despite only cracking the top five of a few lists, both games were just shy of enough points to make the list due to these numerous Best of the Rests; if it was the top twelve of 2012, FTL and Borderlands 2 would be in there. It was that close.For the top spot, Journey edged out XCOM: Enemy Unknown by a mere three points. Three!
Best of the Rest: Jordan's picks of 2012
Joystiq is revealing its 10 favorite games of 2012 throughout the week. Keep reading for more top selections and every writer's personal, impassioned picks in Best of the Rest roundups. Tekken Tag Tournament 2With as old of a genre as fighting games are, it seems reasonable to assume the gaming development world would have their creation down to a fine science, but that's not the case. As I discovered over the course of several reviews this year, many studios still get the basic fundamentals of a fighter wrong, shipping games with lackluster arcade modes, poor online architecture and/or a lack of expanded single-player content.Tekken Tag Tournament 2, however, succeeded where most others failed by offering a full-featured smörgåsbord of single-player content, bolstered by a delightfully robust selection of local multiplayer modes and one of the best, most refined fighting engines ever developed. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is easily the best Tekken game there's ever been, of this there can be no doubt, but it's more than that. It also happens to be the very best fighting game that 2012 had to offer.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2012: Journey
Watchmen, the monumental graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, was once deemed "unfilmable." So entrenched were the creators in the structure and language of their chosen medium, that no interpretation, even if faithful to the plot and characters, could truly convey as intended this study of duplicitous, damaged superheroes.One of my favorite novels, "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski, belongs best in a book, which you flutter through, turn upside down and decode in mad layers. The core of it, however, is a spooky, spatially suspect house. Hollywood can probably handle that – and I'd go see the results – but it wouldn't be the same without the scribbled anecdotes, the cover and the spine.Journey is an unfilmable video game, despite being rooted in a concept that's miraculously relatable and explainable (for a game). A slender being, draped in beautiful and unfettered fabrics, is drawn to a mountain. The beacon beckons not with words, but a language enmeshed with the world itself. Some designers show they care by putting a dot on your screen; others make you a mountain.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2012: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
In the ultimate showdown of "us versus them," your decisions will determine the fate of countless soldiers, the XCOM project, Earth and, oh yeah, humanity. No pressure, Commander.XCOM: Enemy Unknown doesn't just update and re-imagine a classic PC game for a new generation. It executes on bringing a deep strategy game to consoles without skipping a beat. Developer Firaxis is well-known for creating accessible epic-scale strategy through its Civilization series. In XCOM it applies those skills acquired over a very long career – talents that went underappreciated with Civilization: Revolution – and streamlines the strategy genre to a point where everyone can feel welcome, and aficionados of the genre can recognize the brilliance in the simplicity.%Gallery-167636%
Best of the Rest: Mike Schramm's picks of 2012
Joystiq is revealing its 10 favorite games of 2012 throughout the week. Keep reading for more top selections and every writer's personal, impassioned picks in Best of the Rest roundups. Puzzle CraftFirst, I'd like to take a quick bow. Last year at this time (while lauding the great Jetpack Joyride), I pointed out that we'd never chosen a first-released-on-mobile game for our top 10 list, and that 2012 might be the year it would finally happen. And as you've seen on our final list, we did finally pick a game that fits that definition in 2012.But it wasn't my pick: For my money, Puzzle Craft is the best mobile game of the year, and definitely in my top five overall. Right now it's free on iOS, and offers a gorgeous and polished mix of casual puzzle gameplay that slowly gets more and more rewarding and complex as you level up and stockpile farm-based goodies. I love the "days of the year" time mechanic, I love the way that the rules change as you grow your town, and I just plain love this game. Hopefully we'll see new content in the new year, because I've been at max level for a while now. Max level, that is, on all three devices I've installed it on.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2012: The Walking Dead
Telltale's The Walking Dead proves the old adage true at nearly every turn: You just can't satisfy everyone all the time. As Lee Everett, you're going to fail someone no matter what you do. Every decision – including indecision – will piss someone off at best and get someone killed at worst. What's remarkable about The Walking Dead is that you actually care about these fictional relationships at all.At some point, however, the arguments, accusations and attacks cease to be important. People break apart. Relationships fall away. Eventually, only one thing matters: The safety of a little girl.
Best of the Rest: JC's picks of 2012
Joystiq is revealing its 10 favorite games of 2012 throughout the week. Keep reading for more top selections and every writer's personal, impassioned picks in Best of the Rest roundups. Kid Icarus UprisingI tried not to push Kid Icarus Uprising on my coworkers, despite enjoying it more than anything else I played this year. It's ... not the friendliest game, and requires an investment to enjoy that maybe I wouldn't have put in, had I not reviewed the game. I hated it until I loved it.The insane, uncomfortable control scheme is a massive turnoff for the first few hours of gameplay, though I swear it clicks later (and is deeply customizable). The script is goofy to the point of being embarrassing, though it also swung to "hilarious" as the game went on. And the multiplayer takes a lot of "training," being based on the same weird control scheme as the ground battles from the single-player game – and it became the only online multiplayer game I cared to put hours of my own time into in 2012.Kid Icarus Uprising's high barrier to entry makes it very un-Nintendo-like, and the kind of game I usually wouldn't deem worthy of a second look. I'm the kind of person who doesn't want to play a game if I have to wait for it to get fun. But Uprising's payoff is so worth it.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2012: Fez
Years of hype, several delays, a self-destructively outspoken developer, framerate stutters, game-breaking crashes, and now post-patch blues. While I don't agree, I can certainly understand why some have little time for Fez even before getting into the game underneath all the mess. That's a shame, because the game is an absolute peach.The Fez I played back in April, which crashed nine times in all and stuttered on numerous occasions, was worth the tribulations and then some. I raced through it across the release weekend, throwing myself at the challenge of finding all the cubes hidden within the cryptographic platformer, and doing so without any outside help whatsoever (OK, maybe a little). It should have been a maddening exercise of frustration and ire, but instead I had an airy grin plastered across my features throughout.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2012: Super Hexagon
Super Hexagon is about an insignificant speck squeezing through gaps in a concentric, never-ending sequence of ever-shrinking shapes. In other words, Super Hexagon is about:1. Escaping debt in a constrictive economy2. Escaping a prison made of lasers3. The inevitability of death and the hope of reincarnation4. Resilience in the face of constant adversity5. Maintaining individuality in an increasingly homogenous society6. Being in a relationship with a control freak6. Slipping past tourists who are walking too goddamn slowly6. Recognizing Satan's insidious grip on your soul7. Dodging awkward hugs8. Fitting through a coffee shop's door before it closes so you don't have to touch it9. Wearing multiple corsets at once10. Trying to reach a human being on FedEx's customer support line
Joystiq Top 10 of 2012: Dishonored
Dishonored is a convoluted work, and key in reclaiming the word "convoluted" for the purposes of praise. Simplicity has a place in the finest games, but sometimes you just want to get wrapped up in things. A scarf metaphor might have gone here, had it not come from the paranoia induced by Dishonored's deadly contempt for unshielded necks. There's dignity and integrity to Dishonored's vision, projected from creators who have pursued their ideals with conviction. "This is what we think video games are about," says Arkane Studios. They're about being a rogue catalyst with power(s) and agency, wedged inside a tightly wound coil of combat mechanisms, traversal techniques and environments that communicate an alternate world, history and life without using words. They're about finding paths and learning how to exploit your abilities. They're about blocking a painter's view of his subject, just to be a dick. They're about emptying a safe before you sell the combination to an ignorant buyer. And yes, they're about stabbing necks and piling the attached bodies beneath the mansion's stairwell. Maids hate their lives while a vengeful assassin is on the loose.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2012: Halo 4
Halo 4 wasn't supposed to happen. Halo 3 was meant to conclude the story of John 117, the man we all know as Master Chief, and Halo: Reach put a bow on the franchise, leaving us to sit back and wait for whatever grand universe Bungie would reveal next.But that's not how things shook out. Instead, Bungie left Microsoft entirely, and Halo was left in the care of 343 Industries, a studio created exclusively to shepherd the franchise going forward. Who would have guessed that the untested team would create not only one of the best games of 2012, but one of the best games in the entire Halo series?
Best of the Rest: Jess' picks of 2012
Joystiq is revealing its 10 favorite games of 2012 throughout the week. Keep reading for more top selections and every writer's personal, impassioned picks in Best of the Rest roundups. FTL: Faster Than LightI find tremendous pleasure in games that allow me to name my characters, humanize them and create their unique, intricate backstories, for the sole purpose of making me watch those beloved little guys burn to death on a cramped space ship. No game does this better, or more often, than FTL: Faster Than Light.Another alluring aspect of FTL is that it's an indie game that looks indie. The game's strength lies in the incredible interstellar journey the player takes with her crew, and the graphics do everything they can to stay out of the way of these space battles and indiscriminate deaths. It's a mental game, high-energy in synapse rather than the screen – much as I've heard the original X-COM described. And like X-COM, playing FTL isn't just a wonderful experience today, but it promises greater, better things to come from Subset Games.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2012: Mark of the Ninja
Traditionally, being a "ninja" in a video game means you have supernatural speed and strength, and as such you feel confident running down a street in broad daylight, slicing through anything in your path. Role models like Joe Musashi and Ryu Hayabusa exemplify the video game ninja, a super-strong, invincible monster who feels no compulsion to seek shadows, unless those shadows are full of still-unperforated alien monsters.In Mark of the Ninja, you're just as supernaturally capable as any NES-era ninja, able to cling to almost any wall and grapple from vantage point to vantage point instantly. But Klei Entertainment built this ninja game around the stealth you'd expect from the profession, and did so in a way that feels every bit as natural as Ryu tossing a column of flame at an eagle.
Best of the Rest: Richard's picks of 2012
Joystiq is revealing its 10 favorite games of 2012 throughout the week. Keep reading for more top selections and every writer's personal, impassioned picks in Best of the Rest roundups. Asura's WrathAsura's Wrath is one of the strangest, grandest, most wonderful games I have ever played. It's not the sort of game you'll play for months on end. In fact, you might only ever play it once. The point, however, is that you should play it. The amount of pure, unbridled insanity on display is worth the price of admission alone, with more improbable and impossible things happening than I could catalog here: death duels on the moon, enemies the size of planets, enemies larger than planets, you name it.It's also responsible for the single best bit of critical hyperbole I've ever come up with, and I stand by it. As I said in my review, "Asura's Wrath is a glittering, golden starchild of incredulity, and I love it."
Best of the Rest: Mike Suszek's picks of 2012
Joystiq is revealing its 10 favorite games of 2012 throughout the week. Keep reading for more top selections and every writer's personal, impassioned picks in Best of the Rest roundups. FIFA Soccer 13I'd argue that sports games haven't quite accomplished what EA Canada managed to do this year with FIFA 13: Mix in a subtle sense of unpredictability that you'd expect from the sport the game represents. FIFA 13's first touch controls forces players to calculate their decisions on the field more carefully than ever before, as one bad bounce can create an opening for your opponent. Layered with that unpredictability and an always-improving AI is the EA Sports Football Club Catalogue, which builds on the XP system pervasive throughout the game by offering players in-game rewards for their efforts. FIFA 13 is a complete game, and is unquestionably my favorite sports game of 2012.
Vote for the TUAW Best of 2012
The nominations have been collected and analyzed. Now it's time for readers to vote for what they consider the TUAW Best of 2012. If you nominated an app or accessory and it doesn't appear on the ballot, it's probably because it didn't receive a lot of support from other readers. Please enter your name and email address so that we can eliminate ballet-box stuffing, and then vote for one item in each category. The voting remains open through January 3, 2013 at 11:59 PM ET, and winners will be announced on January 4, 2013. Loading...
TUAW Best of 2012 Personal Picks: Michael Rose
At the start of 2012, Apple customers and employees were emerging from the initial mourning period for founder and chairman Steve Jobs. Twelve months later, with the first full post-Jobs year in the books, Apple is (mostly) on track with some remarkable successes and only one or two noticeable calamities. Here's my highly idiosyncratic list of pleasant surprises from the year that was. You can browse my colleagues' lists here. Best Free Upgrade: Hulu Plus on Apple TV. There's nothing better than getting new tricks out of an old dog, and with July's unexpected addition of Hulu Plus to the Apple TV, I found new delight in my little black hockey puck. The other subscription, purchase and streaming services on the Apple TV are all worthwhile, but I was already a Hulu Plus subscriber. I'd jumped through several hoops to get VGA and audio from my MacBook into my TV for those instances when I wanted to screen a Hulu show in larger format; it was enough of a pain to discourage me from getting the most out of my subscription. Hulu's ad-supplemented service might not be a perfect all-you-can-eat TV option, but it certainly makes cord-cutting a more appealing possibility. Having it on the Apple TV gives Apple's "hobby" more credibility as a true living room reformer. Whether or not the hypothetical "Apple television" debuts in 2013, the current offering (including the March hardware upgrade to 1080p) has some legs. Honorable mention: We had to wander through the wilderness for a few months -- quite literally, in some cases -- before finding our way to a better navigation and mapping solution on iPhone. Not everyone rejected Apple's new Maps app. But for those who had issues, the problems were real and really annoying. Never mind the 3D views, Siri integration and free, fast turn-by-turn directions that we'd been waiting years to get; if point A to point B ends you at point nowhere, that's no good. Thanks to the introduction of Google's new app in December, we have something close to the best of both worlds. An improving, imperfect on-board solution that's still offering next-gen functionality as the underlying POI database catches up; plus another free, sleek and easy Google-powered app that's delivering more (TBT navigation! Voice!) than the old app ever did. Best Hardware Milestone: MacBook Pro with Retina display. Six months in, and some days I'm still not sure I made the right choice in going for the Retina 15" MBP over a fully souped-up MacBook Air. But then I spend a week away from my desktop, absorbed in the so-sharp-it-might-cut-you screen of the MBP and the remarkable performance of the all-solid-state architecture, and the extra weight in my backpack doesn't bother me so much. Apple's great leap forward in portable displays comes with a steep sticker price, and there are still a few rough edges with naïve screenshot tools and key un-Retinized apps that show up as blocky as refugees from MacPaint Mountain. (I'm looking at you, ScreenSteps 2.) But Apple's willingness to push the envelope on HiDPI display technology -- and customers' comfort level with buying in -- once again puts the company's portable computing offerings at the top of the heap. Honorable mention: No word yet from Thor's lawyers, but the mobile-to-Mac revamp of Apple's peripheral connectivity with Thunderbolt and Lightning has caused less pain than I expected and delivered more benefits than I hoped. The pace of Thunderbolt peripheral releases has sped up from a stall to a modest trot, and Mac support for the fast USB 3 standard has also helped ease the aggravation of dealing with dongles and adapters for legacy FireWire gear. On the iOS side, the Lightning connector delivers more mechanical reliability while maintaining solid compatibility with docks, clocks and chargers via the 30-pin adapter lineup. Of course, the Lightning adapter wouldn't have anything to connect to without the handsome iPhone 5, fourth-gen iPad and iPad mini. Worst Surprise: For anyone who was hoping to cash in on resale of an iPad 3rd generation, it's got to be the "early" introduction of the Lightning-equipped fourth gen iPad. You live and you learn. Best OS Overhauls: iOS 6 and Mountain Lion. Neither of Apple's big OS releases this year escaped criticism and controversy. iOS 6 faced the aforementioned Maps migraines, and Mountain Lion's Gatekeeper app security and Facebook integration. But the benefits of the new systems outweigh the drawbacks. Mountain Lion's on-board Dictation support, Notification Center and baked-in AirPlay mirroring helped make 2012 easier than 2011. iOS 6's panorama photos, improved Siri, Passbook, expanded Open In menu, the indispensable Guided Access and even Maps brought the mobile platform forward. Honorable mention: This was the year the Mac App Store came into its own as a valid, vibrant channel for Mac software. Many of my favorite Mac apps have found a home on the MAS; several more, unfortunately, have backed off the store as the sandboxing restrictions proved too challenging or detrimental to core functionality. Here's hoping that the 2013 MAS delivers some of the flexibility these apps need to thrive. Favorite Mac Apps: It took too long (really, way too long) for Cultured Code's Things to deliver cloud synchronization of tasks -- but now that it's here as part of Things 2, it's made my daily routine a lot easier. All my iOS devices and my Mac have the same to-do list instantaneously, with no fuss. (Yes, I could get some of the same mileage out of iCloud and Reminders, but I need more categorization and tagging options in my crazy register of things that are overdue.) Likewise, the newly streamlined BusyCal 2 delivers a solid and reliable calendar for anyone who needs more than Apple's Calendar or Microsoft's Outlook can supply. Honorable mention: The dead simple screenshare/remote meeting tool join.me, from the fine folks at LogMeIn, works great on the Mac and surprisingly well on the iPad. It's so much easier than most meeting tools, it's almost unfair. Bonus points for the feature that lets you hand off control and sharing to one of your attendees, then reclaim the mouse for your own; as a last-ditch, low-fi remote support tool (when Messages screensharing and Back to my Mac falls down) it's a delight. Favorite iOS Apps: I never imagined that a third-party "killer app" would revitalize an iOS baked-in feature, but I stand corrected. Loren Brichter's Letterpress is that app, and it's singlehandedly made Game Center cool again. I was also excited to see the official Khan Academy iPad app make its debut, for all your math video needs. Readdle's Calendars app is a must-have for anyone wrangling multiple Google calendars and reasonably priced at $6.99; I've dinged Readdle in the past for some questionable UI choices in its apps, but Calendars is clean and clever. Finally, for maintaining my inner serenity (to say nothing of my multiple time-zone sleep patterns), I depend on the library of Andrew Johnson relaxation apps. You can get a taste of Johnson's gravelly Scottish tones in the free Relaxing Holidays app, or browse his entire hypnotherapy catalog on the App Store and in the audiobooks section. (Bonus points for one of the best app names of all time, if you imagine it being shouted by an angry spouse as you head out to the pub.) Favorite Accessories: Speaking of behavior modification, the Fitbit activity tracker has given me insight into my sleep and fitness level in 2012 (spoiler alert: it's not so good), and the motivation to step it up in 2013. Fitbit's Ultra pedometer, my model, has been discontinued in favor of the One tracker; the new unit adds direct wireless sync to Bluetooth 4.0 iOS devices. Since I do quite a bit of flying, the automatic noise cancellation in the Fanny Wang 3000 Series headphones makes a big difference in podcast and music listening onboard. The FW 'phones are somewhat oversize for everyday use, but in noisy environments they're exactly what the ear doctor ordered. Also in the road warrior category, I spent a lot of 2012 looking for the perfect iPad keyboard/case combo. I may not have found the ideal fit, but until I do the Adonit writer keyboard and case has made my iPad a more effective writing tool. The keyboard is leagues better than the cheap Bluetooth options from some other vendors (ahem, Boxwave) and the easy-clip frame lets me quickly transition from convertible to standalone iPad use. Best Raging Against The Dying Of The Light: Macworld | iWorld. When Apple made its last official appearance at Macworld Expo in early 2009, the conventional wisdom was that the tradeshow and conference would not survive much longer without the imprimatur of the mother company. So much for the conventional wisdom, I suppose. While smaller and scrappier, the show continues to draw an audience of eager Mac and iOS fans, developers and creative pros. For last year's event, Paul Kent and his team at IDG rebranded the show as Macworld | iWorld, acknowledging the shifting platform emphasis toward mobile while making the show's name much harder to print correctly. The upcoming fourth post-Apple edition will be kicking off on January 31 and running through February 2. TUAW will be there, and after a one-year hiatus, so will I -- and I'm looking forward to seeing many of you there, too.
