Now, in general the apps, music or books one would buy for their iDevice is more of a personal decision. The books and music I like in particular will vary widely from that of another. Likewise my choice of apps ans games is based on my picky choices. So for me, purchasing something for my iDevice that I did not implicitly request, as a gift for me, may be a risky path to take. So one thing that works every time without fail is gift cards. Normally I am not a big fan of gift cards, but with iTunes it is certainly a good option. Apple has provided a great way of sending gift cards of any denomination, in addition to allowing you to buy iTunes gift cards from all your major stores (usually located close to checkout). These cards are great and I of course use them often to give out to people as gifts when I know they are into iDevices. The card can be used in any of the Apple stores for iDevices. The system automatically tracks a credit on your account for the amount you have remaining.

Now on the other hand if you are buying that first _______ for someone special, there are usually a few good apps that you can buy for that person, loading up that iDevice before they unwrap it. You can find a lot of what I would consider suggestions on my top ten lists depending on the type of apps your special someone would most benefit from. There are also many free options and it never hurts to try them out as long as they don’t give you too much of a headache.

For Christmas my wife stuffed my stocking full of gift cards, quite smart of her considering I may have a few suggestions of what to buy for me, but other than that she would have no idea. I too stuffed hers full of these gift cards as she loves to buy books from the iBookstore. I have already almost spent all of my gift cards all on the first day, but that is because I already knew what I wanted to buy. Some things that made my list this year:

Infinity Blade: (review to come)

This game is spectacular, I love playing it. The graphics are stunning and this app works great on either your iPhone or iPad. The game play of course is quite elementary (for now) but the developers are working hard to add on more. The graphics though are just absolutely incredible! This game was released just a few weeks ago, and the developers have already completed an update to add more to the game. The reviews that this game has received have mostly all been positive.

The Gathering Storm: (from iBooks, book 12 of the The Wheel of Time)

Book 13, The Towers of Midnight was recently released in hardback. Unfortunately it has not yet been released into the iBookstore. I have though, already read book 13 the good old fashioned way and am now re-reading all of the books and am now on book 12. I really enjoy reading the books in iBooks for all of its features. Book 13 is due out at the end of next month, the real question is, can I wait that long?

The Walking Dead:

This is a television series on AMC. Unfortunately, not ever watching living tv or commercials has its downsides, I miss sometimes the new series that are coming out. In this case, this show has gotten great reviews and is very well liked, but I missed all of the first season and they haven’t been rerun yet. This series is not available on Hulu or Netflix. So alternatively I purchased the first season through iTunes and watched it on my new TV.

What are some of the apps you bought this year for Christmas? Whether you got a new device or are just loading up the old one, what was your favorite iTunes purchase this year?