Apple shortlisted the 16 best apps and games for 2022 that it says have inspired consumers to engage “more deeply with the world, expand their imaginations and stay connected to friends and loved ones”.
The winners represent a diverse community of developers from around the world whose apps and games on Apple’s App Store were selected for delivering “exceptional experiences” and having a “profound cultural impact”.
Apps were selected on different platforms such as iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. The list also included five cultural impact winners that have had a lasting effect on people’s lives and influenced culture in 2022, the company said.
“This year’s winners reimagined our experiences with apps that delivered fresh, thoughtful and genuine perspectives,” Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook said in a statement provided by Apple.
“From self-taught solo creators to international teams spanning the globe, these entrepreneurs are making a meaningful impact and represent the ways in which apps and games influence our communities and lives.”
Launched in 2008, Apple’s App Store is currently home to 1.8 million apps and visited by more than half a billion people each week across 175 regions.
Apple's shortlist of the 16 best apps and games of 2022 includes:
Gentler Streak
This exercise and fitness tracker lets users find a personal balance between fitness and rest.
It responds to users’ readiness and proposes daily workout actions that keep them within healthy activity levels. Rest and active recovery are part of the actions that keep the streak going, the app developers said.
It displays real-time heart rate zones and the effect of training while working out, so users can adjust the intensity of their workouts to avoid exhaustion or step them up if needed.
How We Feel
This free app was created to help people better understand their emotions and find strategies to help them navigate them in the moment. It prompts users to tap into their emotional well-being with the ease of daily check-ins.
Conceived in conjunction with Yale University's Centre for Emotional Intelligence, How We Feel helps people find the right word to describe their emotions while also tracking their sleep, exercise and health to spot patterns over time.
Moncage
The game is a puzzle adventure that takes place inside a mysterious cube, with each side of the cube housing a unique world, including an old factory, a light tower, an amusement park and a church.
At first sight, they may seem random and unrelated, but on closer inspection, users are “mesmerised by the subtle and intricate ways of how these worlds connect”, the developer said.
Users can use their imaginations and intelligence to find the connection and pinpoint every possible interaction between different sides of the cube. Behind the puzzles lies a story with a surprising twist for players to uncover.
BeReal
This social app allows users to share their daily life in photos with friends. Every day at a different time, everyone is notified simultaneously that they need to capture and share a photo within two minutes.
It is a “new and unique way to discover who your friends really are in their daily life”, the company said.
GoodNotes 5
This app allows users to access digital notes that are synched on various devices using iCloud.
Users can search their handwritten notes, typed text and document outlines. They can create unlimited folders and subfolders, or mark favourite ones to keep everything organised. They can also add hyperlinks to external websites, videos and articles to build their knowledge map.
Wylde Flowers
Play as Tara, who arrives on a rural island to help her grandmother and the family farm.
Users can explore a world of magical realms, beautiful beaches and secretive forests. They can transform the Wylde family farm into a productive place with fresh vegetables and fruit trees.
They can also wield their wands and broomsticks to use magical abilities to tend the farm, control the weather and change the seasons.
Dot’s Home
This app is a production of the Rise-Home Stories project — a creative collaboration between multimedia storytellers and housing and land justice advocates who have come together over the course of three years to reimagine the past, present and future of our communities by transforming the stories we tell about them.
It is a single-player, narrative-driven video game that follows a young black woman in Detroit living in her grandmother’s home as she travels through time to relive key moments in her family’s history where race, place and home collide in difficult choices.
Locket Widget
This app shows live photos from users’ best friends on their home screen. Users and their best friends will see new pictures from each other every time they unlock their phone.
“It’s a little glimpse of what everyone’s up to throughout the day,” the company said.
Waterllama
With its colourful design and guidance, Waterllama makes meeting hydration goals fun. It uses creative challenges, reminders and cuddly characters to keep users on track.
How big is App Store?
Over the years, App Store has become an engine of economic growth for the apps and games development community, enabling $643 billion in billings and sales during 2020.
Developers have earned more than $260 billion through the sale of digital goods and services since the launch of the marketplace, the company said in January.
It helps creators and learners of all ages and backgrounds connect with the tools and information they need to build innovative products.
App Store’s best apps and games of 2022
- BeReal
- GoodNotes 5
- MacFamilyTree
- ViX
- Gentler Streak
- Apex Legends Mobile
- Moncage
- Inscryption
- El Hijo
- Wylde Flowers
- League of Legends Esports Manager
- How We Feel
- Dot’s Home
- Locket Widget
- Waterllama
- Inua
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
The%20specs
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Turkish Ladies
Various artists, Sony Music Turkey
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
The specs: 2019 BMW i8 Roadster
Price, base: Dh708,750
Engine: 1.5L three-cylinder petrol, plus 11.6 kWh lithium-ion battery
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power: 374hp (total)
Torque: 570Nm (total)
Fuel economy, combined: 2.0L / 100km
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20SupplyVan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ELaunch%20year%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2029%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20MRO%20and%20e-commerce%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Seed%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
SPECS
Mini John Cooper Works Clubman and Mini John Cooper Works Countryman
Engine: two-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 306hp
Torque: 450Nm
Price: JCW Clubman, Dh220,500; JCW Countryman, Dh225,500
Kanye%20West
%3Cp%3EYe%20%E2%80%94%20the%20rapper%20formerly%20known%20as%20Kanye%20West%20%E2%80%94%20has%20seen%20his%20net%20worth%20fall%20to%20%24400%20million%20in%20recent%20weeks.%20That%E2%80%99s%20a%20precipitous%20drop%20from%20Bloomberg%E2%80%99s%20estimates%20of%20%246.8%20billion%20at%20the%20end%20of%202021.%3Cbr%3EYe%E2%80%99s%20wealth%20plunged%20after%20business%20partners%2C%20including%20Adidas%2C%20severed%20ties%20with%20him%20on%20the%20back%20of%20anti-Semitic%20remarks%20earlier%20this%20year.%3Cbr%3EWest%E2%80%99s%20present%20net%20worth%20derives%20from%20cash%2C%20his%20music%2C%20real%20estate%20and%20a%20stake%20in%20former%20wife%20Kim%20Kardashian%E2%80%99s%20shapewear%20firm%2C%20Skims.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
Under-21 European Championship Final
Germany 1 Spain 0
Weiser (40')
RACE RESULTS
1. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes) 1hr 21min 48.527sec
2. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Ferrari) at 0.658sec
3. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Red Bull) 6.012
4. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 7.430
5. Kimi Räikkönen (FIN/Ferrari) 20.370
6. Romain Grosjean (FRA/Haas) 1:13.160
7. Sergio Pérez (MEX/Force India) 1 lap
8. Esteban Ocon (FRA/Force India) 1 lap
9. Felipe Massa (BRA/Williams) 1 lap
10. Lance Stroll (CAN/Williams) 1 lap
11. Jolyon Palmer (GBR/Renault) 1 lap
12. Stoffel Vandoorne (BEL/McLaren) 1 lap
13. Nico Hülkenberg (GER/Renault) 1 lap
14. Pascal Wehrlein (GER/Sauber) 1 lap
15. Marcus Ericsson (SWE/Sauber) 2 laps
16. Daniil Kvyat (RUS/Toro Rosso) 3 laps
