I have had an iPhone 3G for about a year now, and have amassed a fairly large amount of apps in this short period of time (over 100).  I have narrowed my list of apps down to the ten that I feel are the best overall. Some are just for fun, while others are a little more practical for designers.

Like playing games that you can easily pick up? Check out games to play in your down time.

1)   Timewerks

Current AppStore Price: $9.99 (Free Lite version now available)

As a freelance designer, I use this nifty app multiple times a day. It has a very slick and clean interface, which is extremely easy to use and navigate around.

Some features (from the App Store description) are:

• Track multiple projects and clients
• Quickly and easily add hours and notes for each project task
• Customize different hourly rates for different types of tasks
• Select unbilled tasks and create invoices directly from the app
• Easily email created invoices
• Create client records from new or existing Contacts
• Calculate sales taxes, discounts and support multiple currencies
• Credit Card Terminal (separate app) integration

I highly recommend all freelancers that need to keep track of hours easily and on-the-go, to purchase this app. At least try the lite version and see how great it is.

OVERALL SCORE   9.5/10

2)   Pandora Radio

Current AppStore Price: Free

Pandora Radio is a very popular Internet radio site Pandora. If you are not signed up for Pandora (which is free) already, you can do so as soon as you start up the app. This app is just as clever and useful as the website version. You can enter an artist name, song, album, or genre, and Pandora plays a never-ending playlist of songs that are similar.

You also have the option to give a thumbs-up (play more songs like this) or thumbs-down (don’t play this song again). There is also nice iTunes integration built-in, which allows you to purchase the current song.

The only negative thing (about Pandora as a whole, not just the app) is that you can only skip five songs an hour. But this can be worked around by just making another playlist.

OVERALL SCORE  9/10

3)   FreeMemory 1.4

Current AppStore Price: $0.99

iPhones are just like computers; they occasionally get bogged down with background processes and need to be restarted. When this happens, apps act very slowly and sometime crash.

FreeMemory 1.4 saves you the aggravation of having to restart your device whenever its memory gets low. Simply open the application and you are provided with the current (live) available memory (in nice large green numbers). Below this is a large button that says “Free Memory,” which does just that. You can also view the current running processes of the device, and the current battery charge level.

I use this app fairly regularly to make sure the phone is running at top speed all the time. Other available alternatives to FreeMemory 1.4 are MemoryInfo and System Activity Monitor.

OVERALL SCORE  8/10

4)   TweetDeck

Current AppStore Price: Free

There are numerous Twitter applications out there for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but none come close to this brute. This is the mobile (and long awaited) version of the extremely popular TweetDeck desktop application.

This has it all, you can create groups, search, and manage multiple accounts, and easily post tweets, images, links, and more. You can add “columns” of information that are easily scrolled (horizontally) through to view everything about your Twitter community in seconds.

Some nifty features (from the App Store description) include:

• View all tweets in real-time
• View notifications for new tweets received
• Syncs easily with your current TweekDeck columns/account
• Reply and send direct messages with ease
• Easily re-tweet
• Shorten and share links with multiple URL shorteners
• Follow and un-follow people
• Use Twitpic and YFrog to share pictures easily
• Shake the iPhone to refresh your columns (really cool)

I have only recently gotten into the Twitter buzz, but I love it, and I would be lost in the ocean of tweets if it wasn’t for this amazing app.

The app occasionally quits, but hopefully that will be fixed with updates. But you can’t lose with a free app, especially one that out-performs most paid Twitter apps.

P.S. Feel free to follow me on Twitter

OVERALL SCORE   9.5/10

5)   Shazam

Current AppStore Price: Free

Have you ever been sitting in a coffee shop, or listening to the radio, and though “I love this song, but who is it?” Well now you have the answer (along with many other things) in your hand with this little app.

With Shazam you can identify music tracks, buy them, and share the tags with friends.

Features (from the App Store description) include:

• Identify music anywhere: from the radio, TV, film, or in a store by simply holding your iPhone towards the music and hitting “Tag.”
• Buy music you hear: all the tags are integrated with iTunes allowing you to purchase the song easily
• Watch the YouTube video of the song right in the app
• Tweet the song into Twitter
• Organize your tags by artist, title, or date
• (New) View your tags on a map to see where your musical journey has taken you

I don’t use this app too often, but if I ever hear a song I don’t know, I whip it out and watch in astonishment of how cool it is. I even test it on very obscure songs to see how large its library is, and it never fails.

OVERALL SCORE   9/10

6)   CraigSearch Free

Current AppStore Price:  Free

There are a plethora of CraigsList apps out there, none of which have more than a 3 out of 5 star rating. So what’s the best of the worst? This app seems to be the best I’ve tried (since most are free to use).

Whether you are searching for a used computer, bike, puppy, or a job, this app is extremely easy to use. You can have the pages render like they do exactly from the CL site, or in a more Web 2.0 looking layout.

You can search for posting by ‘image only’ or by ‘price’ and by all of the normal categories.  I use this app on a daily basis to look for freelance and full-time job positions.

OVERALL SCORE 7/10

7)   Around Me

Current AppStore Price: Free

AroundMe allows you to quickly find out information about your current surroundings. How many times have you found yourself needing to find the closest gas station, bar bank, or food store? AroundMe quickly identifying your position and allows you to choose the nearest Bank, Bar, Gas Station, Hospital, Hotel, Movie Theatre, Parking, Restaurant, Supermarket, Theatre, and Taxi.

AroundMe then shows you a complete list of all the businesses in the category you have chosen along with the distance from where you are. From there, you can choose to see its location on a map, view the route from where you are, add the information to your contact list, or even email the information to yourself or a friend.

Overall this app is very convenient for finding basically anything you can need in a new city that you might be visiting, or in your own city for finding new places to explore.

OVERALL SCORE 9/10

8)   Urbanspoon

Current AppStore Price: Free

Urbanspoon is the best app when you are in confusion on where to eat dinner, lunch, or anything in between. Just start up the app, shake the iPhone and the Urbanspoon ‘slot machine’ will pick a good restaurant for you to try. After the slots stop spinning, the app chooses a close city, a food style, and a price range. You can then lock in any of the three options and spin again to find something more specific.

Say your starving and wanted to find the cheapest ‘hot dog’ joint around, lock in ‘hot dogs’ and ‘$’ and give it a shake. Or say you want to take your date out to the most expensive Italian restaurant around, lock in “Italian” and “$$$$” and away you go.

You can also see all nearby restaurants from your current location, as well as see reviews about the restaurant.

OVERALL SCORE 9/10

9)   What’s On TV?

Current AppStore Price: Free

Have you ever been away from your television and wonder what time your favorite show is on? Or what you ever just wanted to easily know what’s on your favorite stations? What’s On TV is a perfect solution for just that. This app is basically a portable TV guide built in to your phone (or iPod).

The app has full support for thousands of television providers around the country (and Canada).

Some interesting features (from the App Store description) include:

• Over 11,000 channels and 13,000 providers
• Custom channel lists to only show your favorites
• Save shows to your favorites to quickly view upcoming show times
• View individual channel listings
• Configure to only show HD or New shows
• View episode summaries for shows

OVERALL SCORE 8/10

10) WebMD Mobile

Current AppStore Price: Free

WebMD mobile give you trusted medical information on demand when you need it the most. Whether you need to look up symptoms, find drug or treatment information, or need basic first aid, this app is the answer.

WebMD is always an easier answer than having to go to the doctors. This is basically the pocket version of the extremely popular website (http://www.webmd.com), with an extremely easy interface to use and browse easily.

“WebMD. Better Information. Better Health.”  Enough said.

OVERALL SCORE 9/10

Hopefully this list has helped provide information on some of my favorite apps. Go out and try them yourself, they are all great.

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