App of the week:

The apps business is sometimes like the fashion industry: Fads sweep in and disappear just as fast.

Yet a handful of the 3,000 or so apps I have tested over the years have true staying power, changing over time but remaining either fabulously useful, well designed or the best in class. With this column ending this week, here are the apps that have persisted for the better part of five years.

Photography is a big hobby of mine, and the 360 Panorama app has been on my phone since it was released. T h i s c l e v e r a p p c o m - bines data from a phone’s movement sensors with a sequence of photos taken as you slowly spin around in one spot. The app then stitches together the photos into one final image that represents the entire spherical view of the place you were standing.

I also like Photo 360 by S fe ra on Android. I t has 360-degree imaging powers similar to those of 360 Panorama, though it is not quite as flexible when it comes to displaying the final images. Still, it has a neat feature that lets users take a 360-degree photo of an object, meaning you can immortalize a friend from every angle, or perhaps digitize a statue. This app is free.

I love the transformation applied by TinType, which costs $1 for iOS devices. This app turns your 21st-century d i g i t a l p h o t o s i n t o f au x 19th-century black-and-white ones, complete with artificial defects.

No phone home screen would be complete without gaming apps. My children have long endorsed “Roblox,” an online game full of user-generated content and puzzles, with graphics that may remind you of the blocky pixels of “Minecraft.” It is free.

My favorite game apps over the years also include “Jet Set Willy” ($2 on iOS), a re-creation of a gaming classic from the early days of home computing, and “Tiny Wings” ($1 on iOS), a cute, casual game that puts you in control of a bird that can swoop rather than fly.

But in the end, I keep coming back to “Angry Birds.” Thi s iconic game, where birds take aim at pigs, seems to capture the whole smartphone gaming genre perfectly. It requires just a little bit of attention and delivers big satisfaction when you finally blow up those dastardly green pigs. “Angry Birds Star Wars” (free) is my go-to edition because it combines some zero-g physics effects with images and characters from the famous science fiction movies.

Smartphones are valuable tools as well as entertainment devices, and the Evernote app illustrates the usefulness. This free download is an advanced note-taking app, but it also handles tasks like making to-do lists, jotting down agendas and making sketches. The app is flexible and has excellent search powers. More powerful features are available at a price, from $4 monthly to $70 annually, depending on your needs. The app has evolved over the years and has many rivals. OneNote is an excellent option (free on iOS and Android). Evernote has been criticized as being buggy and sometimes for posing potential privacy problems, but on the whole it is still best in its class.

T h e T E D a pp ( f re e o n iOS and Android) has also s t aye d on my phone for years, always ready to serve up a fascinating and educational TED Talks video. Sleep Cycle (free on iOS) has been a longtime companion, too, waking me at a more comfortable moment in my sleep cycle and helping me avoid the horrid lurch one sometimes gets with a timed alarm. Last, because I have a terrible memory for music, Shazam (free on iOS and Android) has been prominent on my phone’s home s c re e n for year s , a lways ready to identify a song.

And with that, I encourage you to keep exploring the app stores. But remember to put your phone down sometimes — there is no app for real life.