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Great list of apps! Thanks for this. I plan to try out some of these when I have a moment. Only thing is, why no 'best racing game' category, given there are a number of them out there? My vote would have to go to Firemint's Real Racing. The game absolutely rocks! Though it would mean Firemint wins 2 categories. They make some awesome iPhone apps, so why not.

Other than that, nice list.

Not too fond of the CNN Mobile application - I deleted it and went back to the mobile browser version. The application is populated with incessant popup advertising (as are the TIME and FOX News apps) - the static ads on the web pages are far less maddening to deal with.

I have over 50 added apps to my 64GB iPod Touch. To date the only no free apps are the 2 spreadsheet apps, Mariner Calc & DocsToGo. They do a fairly good job considering the small physical size of the iPod Touch. They + a calendar & address book is the reasons for replacing my aging Palms. I would have liked to see some business class apps. After all I have to make & keep this iPod a good tax deduction.

I found a couple of the mentioned apps that I may try out. iBird Explorer Plus & Pocket Universe sound like some apps that I'd like to try out when we do our tent camping. No young kids for us, but the grand kids are getting older & ready to spend some time camping. Where we usually go there is no cell phone service so not so much would be gained if I would add an iPhone or other smart phone.

bonesb, on 15 December 2009 - 10:48 AM, said:

I agree.

@MorrisTheCat: We actually picked 20 apps and then "categorized" them. We just didn't like any of the racing games enough to pick them in the top 20.

bonesb, on 15 December 2009 - 10:48 AM, said:

To clarify for those who haven't used CNN Mobile, there are no pop-up ads. Just a single, inline banner, ~three lines high, in each story.

I realize that some people want no ads, ever, but I think the ads in the CNN Mobile app are reasonable (and much less distracting than those in many other ad-supported apps I've tried).

Great list. I am also fond of X-Plane apps for the iPhone.

I realy love an app called Jumi Gamer. It turns your iPhone/iPod touch into a motion sensitive gamepad for PC games. Great little gaming companion for home or when your on the go.
Sadly, it doesn't fall into any of those categories.

I loved finding out about Pocket Universe. My son is an astronomy enthusiast and this would come very handy when taking that telescope out for the nught.

Great picks, for the most part. Instapaper and Tweetie 2 are probably my most oft used apps. They are brilliant, and I can't imagine my iPhone without them. I also have iBird Explorer Pro, and it is a fantastic resource. CNN is decent.

For photography, I really have to take issue. Best Camera is possibly the most overhyped app in the Store. The tools are completely crude. Yes you can stack filters, but so what? You don't have any ability to control them. The cropping is absolutely pathetic. The Social Media aspect is also flawed - you have to first create an account with BestCamera.com in order to upload to Twitter. You can't upload to Flickr at all! This is a shameless marketing tool for the photographer Chase Jarvis, and less a photo editing app. Even Photoshop Mobile has a much better editing UI, and it's at the bottom of the heap for photo-editing apps as far as I'm concerned. Tools like Photogene, Photoforge, and iRetouch offer much better control, more features at similar prices to Best Camera. Even the brand new clipboard app Pastebot has a better crop tool. Sorry to see Macworld fall for the hype.

For Social Networking, I agree, the Facebook app is excellent and much nicer than using the site. Wish there was an equivalent app for Mac. I'd also like to throw in a shout out to Mobile Fotos which is in my opinion the best Flickr app on the market. It's really well set up to let you navigate to all of your contacts' photos, and it allows you to upload and manage your own photos with ease.

For Search, I think Wolfram Alpha was overlooked. The voice feature with Google is nice (and innovative), but I think it's a total cop out that they just rely on Mobile Safari and web apps for all of the other tools like Gmail, Reader, etc. This is pretty lame, as you even acknowledge above. Wolfram Alpha is expensive, but amazing. The sheer amount of data and information accessible in an iPhone friendly format is nothing short of staggering. With their current price break at $20, it's a steal. It's replaced all of my calculator and conversion apps. Unless you need to be offline, there is no need to get a scientific or financial calculator app (which tend to be pricey).

Finally, I think there should be a category focusing on innovation. TextExpander does not fit neatly into any of these categories, and yet they've created an amazing API that apps like Tweetie 2, WriteRoom, and SimpleNote have been able to capitalize on. The app itself is a decent notetaker. Given the limitations on background processing, I think they've done a hell of a job bringing their technology to the iPhone and I'll be anxious to see what other apps capitalize on their API in the next year (I'm hoping for Evernote and Things to start). An app like TextExpander is more than just a standalone app - they've created a framework for other developers to add value to their own apps (for free), and that's a game-changer.

I think an innovation category would be of value next year as well, and I can see newly released apps such as Dragon Dictation and Pastebot in the running.

sterlingz, on 16 December 2009 - 06:51 AM, said:

Wolfram Alpha is not Search.

For a magnificent game: Crayon Physics

Did you consider Twittelator Pro when deciding on the best Twitter client? It can do EVERYTHING Tweetie 2 can do AND MORE. It costs $4.99, so if you DID consider it, I can see why you might have picked Tweetie 2. Other than the price, EVERYTHING about Twittelator Pro is leaps and bounds better than Tweetie 2.

It's easy to go into the App Store and look at "Most Popular" under Social Networking, but not good journalism. Not to imply that this is the only research you did, but it seems like it.

I am not being paid for saying this whatsoever.
twitter.com/JoelBAvery

I agree that Wolfram Alpha has become my "goto" app for a wide variety of uses, including search. At $50 I found the price bar too high to get it, but at $20 I was ready to give it a try. Once you get the hang of using it (how to structure input strings, etc), it's an amazingly powerful app on a mobile device like the iPhone. Having this much informational power in my pocket is truly transformational, a whole new way of going about in the world.