10 Apps That Defined 2011

I have a guest blogger today, Kathleen Hubert, who writes on a variety of different sites. You can find more of her work at ledtv.org: With tablets and smartphones hitting record sales in 2011, it comes as no surprise that this past year has been considered the year of the app. Both Android's and iPhone's app markets are now filled to the brim with nearly a half-million apps of all shapes and sizes. Here is a glimpse at ten of the top apps that helped to define mobile technology in 2011. 1. Pandora Pandora is the premier music app. Users create custom stations based off of their favorite songs and Pandora does the rest. 2. Mint Quicken was the leading finance app until Mint came along. Mint combines information from all bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and investments into a single, straightforward portfolio. 3. ZamZar With so many operating systems and manufacturers, smartphone owners need files of all types. ZamZar can change any type of file to a similar format. Files fewer than 100 MB are completely free. 4. Angry Birds No app list is complete without Angry Birds. The top sellers of this physics game are Angry Birds: Seasons and Angry Birds: Rio. 5. Splashup Photoshop is simply too unwieldy to use on most mobile platforms. This is why Splashup offers a similar look and feel as Photoshop in a condensed user interface. 6. TV Show StreamThe TV Show Stream app scours the internet for thousands of mobile-friendly TV shows and even a few movies. Is your data plan reaching its limit? Seamlessly swap over to your LED TV and use this app to look up interesting facts about your favorite shows and actors as you watch them. 7. Skype Redefined for 2011, the Skype app offers a huge number of free services, including text messaging, local calls, voice mail, chat rooms, and video calls. 8. Evernote The Evernote app allows users to store notes, Word documents, movies, pictures, and songs on an offline server. Users can then access and save them on any sync'd device. 9. Kindle Kindle is the top reading app on the market. Individuals can access any of the books on their Amazon account in seconds. 10. Remember the Milk The Remember the Milk app syncs all calendars, emails, mobile devices, computers, and even social networks so that users will never forget those important tasks.