iPhone App Watch - 10 apps that pass the test of time (plus one instant classic!)

Twittelator Pro. I've gone through many Twitter clients. Twinkle was one of the first to introduce a method to see what people nearby were twittering, but its lack of updates and ineffective blocking mechanism allowed it to be overrun by narcissistic, attention-seeking teens whose 20 tweets per hour quickly blotted out any chance at community interaction (at least in Seattle). Echofon has a nice, free client but it's been limiting. I tried Twittelator at actor Nathon Fillion's suggestion (he has solid geek advisors, it seems) and promptly broke my vow to never pay for a Twitter client. It rocks. It features flexible retweets, drafts, image previews, the ability to quickly view most types of content without switching apps, multiple account support and a substantial buffer for those busy Twitter days. This is my most used app ever.

Price: $5

Ping! Twitter is great, but there are times when I quickly need to message GrrlGotGame. We've blocked SMS because we don't need the expense and she was getting SMS spam that we were being charged for. Thankfully, there's an alternative that's both faster and cheaper. Ping! uses the iPhone notification API to quickly send messages to other users that you add to your contact list. No one else can Ping! you. We paid for the full version because we wanted to support the developer, but if you don't care about sharing pictures the free version works just fine.

Price: Free ad-supported version, or $1 for ad-free and $2 total to add picture support

Amazon.com. I have saved so much money using this app (also spent so much money with it)!. Whenever I'm shopping for a game, book, movie or music at a retail shop, I whip out my phone and see if Amazon can beat it. It helps that we use Amazon Prime, which means most purchases arrive in two days (sometimes overnight!) at no added charge, just the annual subscription fee. Last weekend I was eyeing the new Penny Arcade 11 1/2 Anniversary book at Barnes & Noble. I whipped out my phone and received it Monday for about $8-10 less.

Price: Free, but who knows how much you'll spend using it!

FX Photo Studio. If you tweet photos or post them to Facebook, this app lets you rotate, crop, lighten and more without leaving your iPhone. There are lots of features I don't use, and it's no Photoshop, but it's quick and easy to use when I need it. I find myself cleaning up photos at least weekly, and sometimes more often.

Price: $1.

Facebook. I still use Facebook daily and really appreciate the notifications I now get when someone sends me a message or replies to my status update. But I am a little annoyed that they recently stopped supporting my Zynga games. Until a few weeks ago, I could collect Café World and Farmville bonuses from my iPhone, but now it has stopped working. Anyway, this is still a good app - but it could be better. Worth having if you're active on Facebook, and the price is right.

Price: Free

Word Search Puzzle. I actually reviewed this app back more than a year ago, and I'm still playing it. The reason? They've added daily challenges. You can access a new small, medium and large puzzle challenge each day. You're timed from the moment you start, and quitting doesn't pause it. So you need to clear 1-2 minutes for the small ones and up to 15 minutes for the large ones. The first time I got first place in the world, you could hear me whoop in the next neighborhood I bet (too bad it didn't last, I ended up around 50th place by the end of the day). Lots of fun if you like word searches. The only negative is that there aren't any multi-screen puzzles.

Price: $1

Jigsawed. This is a recent acquisition, but thanks to the endlerss supply of images available on Flicker and from my own photo albums, it has endless replay value. The only negatives are that the really small puzzles are too hard to play without a zoom and it could benefit from having a drawer to stash the pieces you aren't working with. Maybe we'll get those in a future update, but as long as you stick with medium-sized puzzles you'll do fine.

Price: $2

SpringFling. I mentioned this on the podcast a little while back and it's stuck. The reason? Short gaming sessions, perfect for a little downtime. You use your finger to simulate compressing the spring and making him hop to platforms that are higher up. Some levels scroll, making you have to move quickly. You lose springiness, so every jump counts. Unless you’re awesomesauce, a gaming session only lasts a couple minutes and you can, uh, quit any time. Yeah, good luck with that.

Price: $1

iBlast Moki. A great little time waster. This one reminds me of a lot of one of my favorite games, Eets. Only instead of feeding your character mood-altering treats, you solve puzzles with timed explosions. It's fun with physics! You even create, share and download levels if the main game isn't enough for you. Like they said in Robocop: "I'd buy that for a dollar!"

Price: $1, Lite version available

Arachnadoodle. Peggle would have made my list if it weren't for this little gem. It's sort of like Peggle only with a spider who shoots webs, bounces off walls, connects pegs and traps bugs. It's a little hard to explain, but loads of fun. I've beaten it and keep going back for more. I have no idea - in real life, I'm a bit of an arachnophobe. I just wish they'd make more levels for this. I would buy them, day one, no questions asked. And there are very few apps that I buy expansions for.

Price: $1

Tweet Defense. This game hasn't had time to prove itself, but I can already tell I'll be playing it for months and possibly years to come. So we're calling it an "instant classic." Normally I don't care much for the tower defense genre. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of this, and then I realized: It's like solitaire - but with zombies! (Not literally, it just gives me the same "zone out and play for hours" feeling I get from a solid solitaire title.) You generally have a little time to plan your defense between rounds, and up to 20 zombies can slip past before you lose (I presume, since this hasn't actually happened to me yet). The "tweet" part comes in only to provide bonuses based on how active you are on Twitter - maybe that's why I haven’t lost yet! Thanks, tweeps!

Once again, PopCap loses out to a smaller indie game. I probably would have picked Plants vs. Zombies for this slot, which is excellent and certainly worth your attention, but Tweet Defense better suits my need for a little mindless fun. Save anywhere and come back any time to blast, burn and zap zombies. Awesome!

Price: $1 launch price