The Best iPhone Apps of 2008 [Bestmodo 2008]

Only five months since Apple launched the App Store, and there are now tens of thousands of apps. Don't worry, we did the hard part, trying them out and picking the year's best: We already selected our 20 essential iPhone apps not too long ago—November 14, to be exact. That's recent enough to still be fresh, but to those 20, we're adding 10 more, several of which have debuted between then and now. As a package, they're 30 apps every iPhone owner should take a close look at. They're what we use every day, and many of them are free. The complete selection of our previous 20 essentials plus the 10 new apps can be viewed in our special Bestmodo Phone App directory. If you'd like, you can peruse all of our first 20 here on one page, and also, see the new additions to the list separately here: EasyWriter: It seems simple—you can type URLs in landscape mode with its larger, more luxuriously spaced keyboard. Why not emails? EasyWriter solved it. Free; $2.99 for Pro edition
Facebook: For Facebookers (um, everyone, right?) it's essential—a beautifully designed, uber-functional implementation that's always with you. Free
EverNote: Already a popular web service and found on other devices, Evernote does something that every location-aware cameraphone should be able to do: quickly take and store geotagged photos so you can remember stuff. Free
Google Mobile: Google Mobile was a solid app (but not particularly essential)—and then came voice search. Free
RjDj: A totally unique music application that processes sound from your environment and replays it according to a set program, creating a trippy, always-evolving soundscape. Free to try; $2.99 expanded version
VLC Remote: One of the first apps we loved was the iTunes Remote—now, the Swiss army knife of media players VLC has one of its very own. Free ad-supported simple version; $1.99 for more controls and no ads
Wikipedia Mobile: Finally, the definitive Wikipedia reader for the iPhone. $2.99
Night Camera: Thanks to its accelerometer, your iPhone knows when it's being jiggled. Night Camera, simply and ingeniously, uses this data to make your low-light picture clearer. $0.99
Tweetie: Twitter apps: there are a lot of 'em. Tweetie, though, is the closest you'll get to the Twitter desktop experience, and therefore our best of. $2.99
Recorder: While not the sexiest apps, a good solid voice recorder can be incredibly handy—especially if you are a handsome FBI investigator in the town of Twin Peaks. $0.99