If you are the owner of an iPhone or an iPod Touch, Apple’s App store (launched last month in India) is where you can spend most of your time downloading cool applications. There are two ways to access the App Store — through your iPhone (just tap on the App Store icon) or through iTunes. Here, you will find applications under different categories and a list of the top 25 that are most downloaded, most for free, some payable for via credit card. Not surprisingly, Games is the most popular category. Utilities, Social Networking, Music, Finance, Sports, Books, Entertainment and Photography are some of the other interesting categories. You will be surprised at how powerful the iPhone or the Touch can be with the right applications installed. A look at six must-have apps.

Games (Most free)

Tris is the most downloaded application as on Monday morning. Like Tetris, the falling-block game it is rather addictive. Labyrinth is another fantastic game that puts to full use the iPhone/iPod Touch’s accelerometer, moving a ball across a wooden maze. If you wanna show off your gadget, Labyrinth is the app to download and play! Bubble Wrap is another cool tool. It’s the virtual version of bubblewrap and once you start, you can’t stop popping those bubbles over and over again. Defy the laws of physics in Newton’s Cradle or bring back the good ol’ Pacman days.

Omnifocus ($19.99)

An extended To-Do application, it sorts tasks by Project, Place, Person or Date. Save and edit your grocery list and even enter photos and voice recordings to value-add. It’s worth a buy to ensure strict task management.

oomberg (Free)

The fastest way to track your stocks and different stock markets. Bloomberg comes with up-to-date financial news, price charts and company descriptions. Tap on ‘My Stocks’ at the bottom and add or delete your own stocks. You can also see a mini-graph of a particular stock and flip the phone to its side for a full graph. The only thing which you can’t do as of now is trade!

Remote (Free)

Use the iPhone/Touch as a remote to control iTunes on your PC/laptop. Because it works on wifi (unlike the infrared technology used by TV remotes), you don’t have to tilt the remote until it finds the angle it works with! Use the iPhone/Touch upright or sideways, as long as you are within the wifi radius. Play, pause, skip or shuffle. It can control Apple TVs, too.

Facebook/Google Talk/ Wikipanion (Free)

Operating Facebook via GPRS on a mobile phone is easy but it’s reformatted so well on the iPhone/Touch that you wouldn’t want to get back to the PC. No scooting required. Same goes for Google Talk. Wikipanion is Wikipedia with easy-to-read custom formatted pages.