The list you’re about to read is a collection of apps I’ve found recently and thought were particularly interesting, fun, or useful. Most of these apps can be found on Apple’s App Store and the Android market, and the majority of them are free. Take into consideration that they are not in any particular order; they are simply too different to compare:

TIKL: Android Market and App Store (Free) – I recently discovered this one browsing the Android Market and thought it sounded interesting– if it worked, that is. Turns out it works flawlessly. TIKL is basically a phone walkie-talkie. You select a contact from your contact list and press a button to talk. Done. Not only is this surprisingly fun, but it’s also quite useful when you want to talk to someone easily. I highly recommend it.

Pandora: Android Market and App Store (Free) – Most people already know what Pandora is, but if you don’t, you can use it to search for playlists based on your music taste. Based on the tracks you select, it chooses similar ones from its extensive library that you may also enjoy. It’s a great app for any music junkie.

Goggles: Android Market (Free) – This app is similar to Barcode Scanner, if you’ve ever used it, but it’s able to take a full picture of any object, analyze it, and tell you what it recognizes in the photo. After an item is recognized, you can follow a link to Google to find more information. Not only is this fun to show off to friends, but it can be especially useful when you need more information on things. A word to the wise here, be aware that if no object is recognized, results can be rather… strange. I’ve had a few cases where I couldn’t help but laugh at what it brought up. Other than that minor flaw, the app is great, and I recommend it to anyone.

IMDb (Internet Movie Database): Android Market and App Store (Free) – Now if there are any movie buffs or wannabe movie buffs out there, then this app is for you. As a regulation ‘cinephile,’ I love this app. I particularly enjoy using it to prove my friends wrong about certain movie topics and to watch their faces turn to disgust as I gloat. The app is great for providing the information you already know, want to know, and even the stuff you never knew wanted to know. I can spend a good amount of time just scrolling through actors and reading their biographies, which also contain a lot of surprises. It’s great stuff, truly.

Angry Birds: Android Market (Free) and App Store ($0.99) – Now before you groan and say “of course he put that in,” let me just say that I also get tired of hearing about Angry Birds all of the time, so just acknowledge that what I am saying is based just off of the original, truly addictive game. If you play Angry Birds, you know of the addictive fun, the frustration that caused you to (almost) throw your phone across the room, the over excessive joy of beating a level that you’ve been stuck on for nearly a year, and more. But, like all great games, Angry Birds has its fair share of haters. If you like Angry Birds, disregard them; they’re the minority anyways. I would just like to commend the people at Rovio Mobile for coming out of nowhere and absolutely sweeping the stage. This game is fantastic.