15 Best iPhone Apps for Newbies (2012)

All the latest talk about the iPhone 5 is on the hardware, like a bigger screen, faster chip, LTE support, but it’s the apps that matter most. Lucky for iPhone owners, iOS apps are some of the best on the mobile market. Here are 15 apps – some classic, some new — that must be on your new iPhone.

It’s one of the most overlooked apps on the iPhone. But when you need it, you really need it. We’re talking about a flashlight app. While there are many in the iTunes Store, we like the Flashlight app (free). It turns on quickly and uses the iPhone’s camera flash to deliver a concentrated beam, rather than the light from the home screen.

There still isn’t a better way to check on flights than the tried-and-true FlightTrack Pro ($10) for the iPhone. It’s a classic, sure, and one of the best apps on the iTunes Store. Whether you’re trying to catch a flight or pick someone up, this app is invaluable. If you don’t have this app before heading to the airport, you’ll probably download it as soon as you get there.

This app gained instant fame because it solved a digital age-old problem: How can I read cool Web stuff later? Enter Instapaper ($4), an app that renders a Web page in a readable format and then makes it available on any Instapaper-supported device, from PC to the iPhone and vice-versa. In fact, Instapaper is so popular that Apple built in similar functionality in iOS – but it isn’t as good.