Two dictionaries define the use of curate as a verb as follows:
curate Cambridge Dictionary:
verb [transitive]
- to be in charge of selecting and caring for objects to be shown in a museum or to form part of a collection of art, an exhibition, etc.:
She curated a recent exhibition of Indian artwork.
- to be in charge of selecting films, performers, events, etc. to be included in a festival:
a Messiaen festival curated by pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard
- to select things such as documents, music, products, or internet content to be included as part of a list or collection, or on a website:
a curated library of short movies available online
curate Oxford Dictionary:
verb [with object]
Select, organize, and look after the items in (a collection or exhibition):
both exhibitions are curated by the Centre’s director
He has had ten years of museum experience curating exhibitions, commissioning new works, and developing artist residency programs.
Plus, I am really excited to be guest curating a large exhibition from the museum's wonderful American Folk Art Collection.
Over the past decade, my father has been slowly curating a collection of AIDS posters from all over the world, for the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda.
Select the performers or performances that will feature in (an arts event or programme):
in past years the festival has been curated by the likes of David Bowie
The Observer is media partner of this year's Meltdown festival, which is curated by Patti Smith.
It's a great insane ending to a brilliantly curated day of music.
The concert is part of this Meltdown Festival curated by Morrissey.
Select, organize, and present (online content, merchandise, information, etc.), typically using professional or expert knowledge:
people not only want to connect when using a network but they also enjoy getting credit for sharing or curating information.
(as adjective curated) a curated alternative to the world’s most popular video portal
It's a curated platform with 225,000 apps.
Mr Hirschorn said that people not only want to connect when using a network but they also enjoy getting credit for sharing or curating information.
It appears that consumers like the integrated, curated systems and platforms that Apple has created.
Personally, I've only previously come across the use of curated in connection with art or historical artifacts (e.g. in a museum), but it's clear that it can be used in connection with lists or collections on the internet.
It's also clear, however, that it's only used in connection with collections of items that have been individually selected — one might have said 'hand-picked' in older terminology — "typically using professional or expert knowledge" (see third definition from Oxford Dictionary, above).
This is confirmed by the definition of curator:
curator Oxford Dictionary
noun
keeper or custodian of a museum or other collection:
the curator of drawings at the National Gallery
person who selects acts to perform at a music festival.
Next month, as curator of the Meltdown festival, she will play it in its entirety on stage for the first time.
Op's example sentence (in which the use of 'curated' is being considered) is:
Please select the best applications from all the ones that we've got.
I'm not clear exactly what items are intended to be referred to, nor exactly what meaning is intended to be conveyed, but, as it currently reads, that sentence means:
Please choose whichever applications you think are the best from our entire collection.
Although I may have misunderstood the intent, that sentence reads to me as if the customer is doing the choosing of what he/she thinks are "the best" items, from the entire collection available. On the other hand, a 'curated collection' should have already pre-selected only the best items, and not be offering "all the ones that we've got".
If the desired meaning does accord with my last sentence above, then I have the following suggestions:
Please make your choices from our carefully pre-selected [items]
Please make your selection from our expertly chosen collection of ...
Addendum
OP's additional clarification gives the following example:
Let's say there is a news app that shows me [all] news. But I only want to see specific news stories and not everything. So I would want the news app to ... [fill in the word here] ... the news stories before showing [them] to me.
First, on my understanding from the definitions and examples above, curation can only be done by a person: not by a machine.
Secondly, there is no specification of the criteria to be used by the app to select the appropriate ones to display; but (from the mention of "specific news stories") I assume the choice is based solely on the subject matter / content of the stories.
That is clearly not curation because it is not "using professional or expert knowledge" or any other careful selection by a person.
Without further information, the choice sounds merely as if it is categorisation or content choice. You could refer to the app "filtering the news stories by content/subject".
