Amid the flurry of year-end ranking lists that come out each December, Apple released its list of the top iPhone and iPad apps coming from the App Store this year. As the highest-valued tech company in the world, and a major source for software, the App Store provides insight into cultural trends, as well as the versatility of these devices.

The top three free iPad apps as ranked by Apple were: Skype for iPad, Temple Run and Facebook. The diversity among the software that made the top three demonstrates that the iPad, and its younger cousin the iPad mini, are great devices for social connectivity as well as business use.

The top-ranked paid apps this year were: Angry Birds Space HD, Where's My Water? and Pages for iPad. Overall, the most popular apps on both lists are a mixture of popular games as well as productive software that makes the iPad a more useful device.

Apple also chose its own apps of the year, an honor given to software that makes this remarkable hardware even more impressive. The free iPad app of the year, as chosen by the executives at Apple. was Paper. Paper is a sketchbook app that allows its user to  make sketches, diagrams and take notes. It also lets you color your pictures in, and even choose a color for your notebook.

The App Store is undoubtedly a part of what makes the iPad and all other iOS products as useful as they are. If you're looking to purchase a new iPad, want to make it even more powerful than it already is, think of having it customized by the experts at PortableOne. We've taken our years of experience in customized laptops and applied them to Apple tablets to make them the best around.