Phone Specification

Software instruments on which GarageBand relies are notoriously processor-intensive, and so the iPhone 5s added grunt makes for a stabler, faster, smoother music-making process. The wider screen is also beneficial, giving you a few extra keys when composing and enabling you to see more notes when editing MIDI.

Download GarageBand from iTunes

One of the more ambitious apps on the iPhone, iMovie is a movie-making studio in your pocket. The iPhone 5s camera is great for shooting HD, and iMovie enables you to rapidly edit your creations and publish them to YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook.

Download iMovie from iTunes

Photogenes interface is a mite quirky, but we prefer it to the rather opaque iPhoto for image-editing. The app includes a number of basic editing tools, export options, special effects and other features, and on an iPhone 5 it flies.

Download from Photogene for iPhone iTunes

The iPhone 5 includes the best iPhone camera yet, but Apples Camera app is pretty basic. Camera+ is therefore worth investing in if youre serious about iPhone photography.

Youll get access to touch exposure and focus, a stabiliser, a surprisingly reasonable digital zoom, in-app cropping and effects, timers and burst-shooting.

Download Camera+ from iTunes

Apples iBooks might play second fiddle to Kindle in terms of selection and pricing, but it offers a wonderful reading experience on the iPhone 5. The high-quality screen combined with its revised height (thereby providing more words per page) makes it a no-brainer free download.

Download iBooks from iTunes

Although perhaps better known on tablets, Flipboard is an essential download for iPhone 5 owners. With minimal set-up, it can become your personal news magazine, filled with beautiful imagery and engaging stories. Again, the iPhone 5s taller screen enables you to see more of anything at any one time, and the devices A6 chip ensures perfect performance.

Download Flipboard from iTunes

For any iPhone 5 owner wedded to text-based content, Reeder is a must-have download. The client works seamlessly with Fever, Readability and Google Reader, enabling you to easily keep up with your favourite websites. On Apples latest smartphone, Reeder is blazing fast and looks wonderful.

Download Reeder from iTunes

Many smartphone owners would be lost without a Twitter client and Tweetbot is the best there is for iOS. The iPhone 5s taller screen improves the app from a usability standpoint, displaying more tweets and replies at any one time, along with giving the posting screen room to breathe.

Download Tweetbot from iTunes

BBC iPlayer has long been the standout on-demand TV app on iOS, and its even better on the iPhone 5, where the picture fills the gorgeous widescreen display. Its also fantastic to see the BBC regularly trumpeting about AirPlay rather than, in the case of many of the corporations rivals, hobbling it.

Download BBC iPlayer from iTunes

The Apple-created YouTube app was unceremoniously ditched from iOS 6, but Google rose to the challenge and created a replacement. On the iPhone 5, the tall screens great for browsing, and when flipped 90 degrees, its perfect for watching widescreen video. Like BBC iPlayer, YouTube also supports AirPlay.

Download YouTube from iTunes

Googles data was also ousted from iOS 6, with Apple instead using its own data, with - to be charitable - decidedly mixed results. This free app is a better bet; its fast and beautifully designed, and the iPhone 5s bigger screen is handy for browsing and also checking out step-by-step directions. On the move, turn-by-turn on 3G also proves effective.

Download Google Maps from iTunes

Apples own Calendar app is fine, but Fantastical has two advantages: excellent natural input for events, and an emphasis on a list view, thereby making it easier to see upcoming appointments at a glance. Naturally, the iPhone 5 means being able to view more of these at once, which is fab (unless any of said events mention dentist).

Download Fantastical from iTunes

With lots of people banging on about skeuomorphism in apps, its perhaps surprising more products like Soulver dont exist. It rethinks and reinvents the calculator, making it relevant for modern computing, and the result is half spreadsheet, half back of an envelope.

On the iPhone 4, it feels cramped, but on the iPhone 5 theres plenty of room for its line-based calculations.

Download Soulver from iTunes

Task managers are commonplace on iOS, but we have a real sweet spot for 30/30. Its beautifully designed, and the straightforward manner in which you can set up task loops makes it perfect for Pomodoro-style time management. IAPs provide extra icons or a thank-you to the author, and the iPhone 5 screen really shows off the sleek interface.

Download 30/30 from iTunes

Apples vision of the future is files existing within apps, which is fine if you only use few apps with few documents. For the rest of us, a file system is still required and Dropbox brings this to iOS. On the iPhone 5, the taller screen enables you to see more items at once, but even if Sir Jony Ive had given the device a two-inch square screen, wed still be recommending Dropbox.

Download Dropbox from iTunes

Swipey swordplay with RPG levelling up is what Infinity Blade II is all about. The visuals are gorgeous and the iPhone 5s full resolution is supported. Given the demanding nature of the app, youll be grateful for that A6 chip, too.

Download Infinity Blade II from iTunes

The best arcade racer for iOS, Most Wanted is a stupid amount of fun as you speed about, smashing up cops, drifting for miles, and generally being a menace on wheels.On slower hardware, though, dropped frames periodically pull you out of the experience; no such problems on the more powerful iPhone 5.

Download Need for Speed Most Wanted from iTunes

Source: Radar