When you watch the commercials for the IPhone and see the sleek design, the bubbly colorful icons, and the touchscreen; it seems like a really interesting gadget.  It's when you get a hold of one and begin to play around with the features, sift through the features, and start to play around with the 1000's of add-on applications that you quickly realize how much Apple has truly revolutionized the mobile world.  The real power . . . is definitely in the add-on applications, known as 'Apps'. 

There are literally 1000's of add-on applications available and more coming everyday.  Although games are very popular, there are an amazing amount of the little apps that help organize and make life a little bit easier and a ton of them are FREE (many also have a cost ranging from .99 on up).  I'll admit that I haven't been "sold" on this device but when my husband upgraded the software on his ITouch and we began exploring these add-on, we both quickly realized how beneficial this device can be.  For example, do you have a ton of store discount cards that you fumble to find or are dangling from your keychain?  Ever wonder when someone would make it simple?  Someone has!  A company known as www.MyCardStar.com developed an app that you simply select the store, enter your number for the card, and it produces and stores the barcode on your phone which can be scanned at the store. 

Many of the applications also utilize the built in GPS and email to make finding things easier when you are unfamiliar with your surroundings and/or want to 'share' the information with others.  One of our personal favorites is the i.TV app.  This powerful little add-on allows you to pull up the latest movies, rad a synopsis, watch a preview, shows the nearest (automatically from your GPS locator) theaters and showtimes, and gives directions to the theater.  Netflix subscriber? You can also add the movie to you Netflix que so you'll never miss another movie when it comes out on DVD.  And as the company name suggests, there is the TV portion which allows you to pull up your local programming and if you have a Tivo, you can set it to record right on your phone. 

It would be impossible to go through them all, but there are apps for almost anything you can think of.  The grocery store lists and recipe guides, religion, news, business, book buying, dining out, ereaders, conversions, social networking, so forth and so on.  Visit Apple's App store today to browse through the apps available.  And here's some of our personal favorites (all of these are FREE as well since we have been surfing through to see what they really can do).

• Barnes & Noble - Shop for books, get a synopsis, reserve it at the nearest store, find events goingon at the closest store and email share it with a friend, and much more.  A definite for Book lovers.
• ITranslate - Type in a word or phrase and translate it into one of the 42 languages available.  Perfect for the traveler.
• Epicurious - Thousands of great recipes and shopping lists. 
• WikiHow - If you can wonder about how to do something, it's probably in this one.  How to change a tire, deliver a baby, perform CPR, start a fire, organize a closet, so forth and so on. 
• Grocery Gadget - Set up up lists, keep track of spending as your shopping, coupons, import recipes, email your lists, and much more.  This free version is limited to one list and 20 items, but you can get the pay version for $2.99 which unlocks a whole lot more.
• OpenTable - Find restaurants nearby, get directions, view the menu, and book reservations. 
• And there are more. 

I'm not personally a big gadget person.  I want things that are real-world and make life easier, and this device and all of those out there putting together these wonderful applications, have definitely created something truly amazing.  It defitnitely is on my list for the next cell phone.