2013 was another great year in the world of Apps. With just about everyone boasting a SmartPhone, and DumbPhones being a thing of the past, Apps are fast and furiously becoming one of the biggest and most contentious money-making industries in the world. We’re talking SmartPhone apps, and this is our first ‘Best of 2013‘  post starting with our Top 10 SmartPhone Apps and Games of 2013

What Apps are your top Apps for 2013? What Apps can’t you live without, have most drastically changed your life (for the better) or are you most glad you downloaded? What game could you not stop playing? Tapping your phone’s battery life within 2 hours… are you addicted to this game? The Apps and Games we chose below are not necessarily new Apps, they are the Apps we use the most, are most dependent on, and have increased our sense of joy we get out of life the most:

Here’s GeekShizzle’s Top 10 SmartPhone Apps and Games of 2013:

 

1. Clash of Clans

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If you’ve been following us here on GeekShizzle then you will know that we are huge Clash of Clans fans. The game, developed by SuperCell is one of the most addictive, cleverly designed games we’ve ever played. Clash of Clans has been on the top money-maker list on app stores since the day it launched. People make in-app purchases to speed up their building, attacking and/or defensive manoeuvres.

Clash of Clans is an addictive mixture of strategic planning and competitive fast-paced combats. Raise an army of Barbarians, War Wizards, Dragons and other mighty fighters. Join a clan of players and rise through the ranks, or create your own Clan to contest ownership of the Realm. Driving back the goblins is just the first step – your quest isn’t over until your clan reigns supreme over all others!

Clash of Clans

If you are new to Clash of Clans then follow all our Clash of Clans posts here, or check more related info below. You can download Clash of Clans for free from iTunes here.

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2. Plants vs. Zombies

Plants vs. zombies is another addictive game, so addictive that you will seriously lose out on sleep playing this game. One more level… one more level. Electronic Arts announced PopCap’s hotly anticipated Plants vs Zombies sequel topped sixteen million download since its August 16 App Store début. The publisher shared shortly after launch that players have now downloaded Plants vs Zombies 2 twenty-five million times. That’s nine million downloads in just ten days, averaging to a download rate of nearly a million copies per day.

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Download Plants vs. Zombies from iTunes here.

 

 

3. Infinity Blade 3

Infinity Blade III on the iPhone 5s

Infinity Blade 3 had one of the biggest anticipated releases for any SmartPhone game, especially the hardcore gaming iPhone fans. The reason being is that Infinity Blade was the game that is used to test the complete graphical performance and capabilities of the new iPhone 5s. Infinity Blade was even used as a demo when the iPhone 5s was just announced. Infinity Blade III represents the pinnacle of mobile gaming. Everyone is watching, and we simply could not wait to get footage of this game on the new iPhone 5s.

Apart from the expectations and the benchmarking the game was used for, Infinity Blade III is a very enjoyable hack’em and slash’em game. Download Infinity Blade 3 from iTunes here.

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4. Kingdom Rush: Frontiers

Developed By Ironhide Game Studio, this is considered to be the best and most addictive Tower Defence game currently on the market. Frontiers is the sequel that was released in September 2013.

Kingdom Rush received it’s high praise from it’s first version of it’s now Kingdom Rush series, called “Kingdom Rush”. Here’s the trailer for the highly anticipated and addictive Kingdom Rush Frontiers. This game gets insanely difficult, up to the point where you want to chuck your phone out the window. Prepare to play some of the levels over multiple times as the difficulty increases.

Download Kingdom Rush: Frontiers from iTunes here.

5. Google Maps / Apple Maps

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Whether you use Google Maps, or Apple Maps, using a Maps App with voice navigation is a must. It effectively replaced proper GPS-devices. We could not think of another App that saved us from getting lost, avoiding traffic disasters as well as assisting friends in finding a destination. It is difficult to comprehend how simple these Map Apps make it seem to navigate just about any street in the world with the ever-changing environment that is our roads. But, all we know is it works, and we need it.

 

6. Instagram

Instagram Video

Few Apps have revolutionised the way we take photos like Instagram did. Even with the massive amount of Apps that now gives us the ability to add filters to our photos Instagram remains a huge favourite.  Just about everyone we know is using Instagram. It has transformed our photos from boring looking landscapes into epic sunsets. Everyone is now a great photographer.

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7. WhatsApp

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WhatsApp remains one of the most popular Apps ever. The social chat-App has become so ingrained into our daily usage that we use it without even realizing it. We named WhatsApp as one of our Best Apps of 2013 not because it blew us away, or received new kick-ass functionalities, but purely because it has become an App that we cannot live without. Competitors have tried taking control of the market, especially Facebook with its complete reinvention of its Facebook messaging App, but few have yet to achieve the number of downloads from users that WhatsApp have.

8. SoundHound

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SoundHound is the surprise app on our list. We never knew that the ability to identify any song you hear would be so cool, necessary and enjoyable. Not only is SoundHound great at identifying any song, it is also used for sharing what you are listening to across multiple social networks. We’ve also been using Soundhound to identify the lyrics for a particular song. After the recent ‘iOS7’ revamp to SoundHound is has become even more user-friendly. If you’re not using SoundHound, get it, and if you’re using Shazaam, then well, at least you’re using a music identifying App.

Download SoundHound from iTunes here.

9. DataMan

dataman-pro-iphone-app dataman-ios

DataMan is an app which we ideally do not want to use. DataMan monitors your data usage and warns you whenever you are about to exceed your allowable amount of Data (Cap). Naturally we would all want unlimited data and never worry about how much data we use, but seeing as we’re not quite there yet, monitoring your data usage is a must. Enter DataMan: A straight forward good-looking App that warns you whenever you are about to use more than your monthly limit. It resets every month, after you’ve given it your monthly allowable limits.

Download DataMan from iTunes here.

10. Waze

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Waze is a great App if lots of people use it. Our biggest concern with Waze was that nobody in our area is using it. We were one of the first people to download and try it (in our area) which really means that Waze does not really provide any purpose to you whatsoever. The power of Waze comes into play when multiple people update traffic jams, speeding cameras, police blockades and accident locations on the App, which you can see when you open the App and then avoid driving through.

It was only after about a year of using it initially, that people around us started using it and we really started feeling the benefit of Waze, making it a worthy member of our Top Apps of 2013.

Download Waze from iTunes here.