Apps have been around for years now but they’ve finally come of age as they’re officially recognised in the Oxford English Dictionary. There are thousands to choose from, and at the last count there were over half a million, ranging from useful apps designed to enhance your life through to silly apps to make you grin. Here is our top ten for 2012, just don't blame us if your battery runs out or your friends stop speaking to you.


Top 10 Mobile Phone Apps of 2012

Top 10 Mobile Phone Apps of 2012


Disgusting app

Perfect if you want to gross out your granny or just vent your spleen after a particularly nauseating conversation with the boss. Hurl has a stomach turning selection of technicolour yawns to choose from. Whether you favour blowing chunks or full-throttle projectile vomiting, Hurl should keep you happy for days.

Pointless app

This app is strictly for phone tossers, who are perhaps better defined as those with nothing better to do than juggle their smartphones in the air. Hang Time will measure how high you can throw your phone. Yes, if you have a hankering to know just how high you can throw that very expensive piece of hardware, Hang Time will tell you. It won’t buy you another phone when you break it though.

Useful app

We’re all guilty of using our phones as impromptu torches when the power goes off or we’ve dropped something under the car. But Flashlight taps into your camera's flash and produces a powerful directional beam that you can really use to find things in the dark. Oh, and it’s free.

Free app

Because it’s lovely to see the people you’re talking to. And because not everyone you love has the requisite hardware, get Skype. This little widget gives you free face to face calling no matter where you are or what kind of computer or phone you’re currently brandishing. The app is free and Skype to Skype calls are free. What are you waiting for?

Geek app

Fair enough, it might be stereotyping to say that your average geek is a tad on the socially inept side. But just in case the myth is true, Conversation Starter steps into those life destroying chasms of silence and gives you something to say. It can come up with anything from opening gambits through to no-nonsense small talk. Ideal for geeks who find themselves stuck in a lift, lunching with the boss or trying to attract a significant other.

Because You Never Know app

Suspicious about what the man over the road keeps in his shed? Worried about leaks from the nuclear plant across the way? You can have your own portable Geiger counter in seconds, just download the Radioactivity Counter to be on the safe side. Be warned though, it will suck your battery dry and it probably isn't good for much more than terrifying your younger brother.

Money Saving app

No more agonising moments when you arrive home, proudly show off your new purchase only to have your flatmate point out that you could have saved twenty quid if you’d only gone to the shop around the corner. Red Laser lets you discreetly scan barcodes while you're in the shop. That way you can compare prices as well as user reviews so you don’t come home with a turkey (unless that’s what you actually went shopping for in the first place).

Handy app

Ever fancied digging up a hoard of Roman gold? Then the Metal Detector app is just for you. Okay, it may take a long time to crawl around a muddy field wielding a smartphone, but it really works. And you can always use it to check if there’s a water pipe in the wall before you start knocking nails in.

Annoying app

If you don’t want to trust old fashioned rain forecasting techniques like looking out of the window or checking whether it rained on Saint Swithin’s day, then download the Rainy Days rain radar app. You can depress the living daylights out of friends, family and colleagues by confidently reminding them of that hefty weather front moving in off the Atlantic.
 
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