When the first edition of this book appeared in the summer of 2009, Apple’s App Store offered around 50,000 mini-programs. Little more than a year later, the App Store has passed the 250,000 mark and is blazing a trail toward a 300,000 apps. With all of them clamoring for your attention, how do you know which ones rise above the others and which ones you should avoid like day-old sushi in a heat wave?

You could trawl the App Store for new releases every week, listen to Apple’s Genius suggestions, or poll iPhone- and iPod Touch-owning friends. Or you could get a book like the one you’re holding, the brand-new edition of Best iPhone Apps.

So what does it mean to be the “best”? If you think about it, best really is a loaded word. Its usage lurches between something you can prove (as in, “Toy Story 3 had the best ticket sales of any movie opening this weekend”) and something that’s a matter of personal or collective opinion (as in, “The Oscar for Best Picture goes to...”).

A combination of factors came into play when I selected this year’s best iPhone apps. The biggest one was copious amounts of time spent in the App Store, downloading and testing hundreds of apps to see how they performed. User interface was also a consideration—was the app easy to use and navigate, or did it seem like it was designed by the Galactic Avengers from Planet Garble? And yes, even some personal opinion went into the decision-making.

Other aspects of the evaluation process—like overall sales, App Store popularity, professional reviews, and user ratings—held less sway, but couldn’t be ignored. After all, when you see that Angry Birds is the best-selling game several weeks in a row, gets overwhelmingly rave reviews, and has a devoted fan base around the world, you wonder what all the fuss is about and download the game. (And when the app’s sheer inventiveness consumes so much time that it nearly causes the author to miss a deadline, the app tends to get included in Best iPhone Apps.)

The seven chapters in this book touch on the major aspects of your daily life, from work to play, and home to travel. So sit back, relax, and take a stroll through the next 200 pages or so. You’ll find apps that will change how you use your iDevice—and maybe make you use it more often.

Have fun stormin’ the App Store!

About the Author

J.D. Biersdorfer is the author of iPad: The Missing Manual, iPod: The Missing Manual, Netbooks: The Missing Manual, and several other books. She writes for the New York Times (a lot); has written for the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design, Budget Travel, and Rolling Stone; and has contributed essays to several books on the collision of technology, art, and pop culture. She got her first iPhone at an AT&T store in Pennsylvania on June 29, 2007, and her current iPhone on June 24, 2010, after standing in line at Apple’s West 14th St. store in Manhattan for 6 hours. She welcomes feedback at [email protected] , but suggests contacting the app’s developer if you’re having a specific problem.