Ever since the ­Apple App Store was launched this month, more than 500 ­programs have been made available for the iPod touch. We take a look at some of the best ones available

THE list of paid applications on the App Store is quite extensive, and it predictably includes a large number of games and our list reflects that.

Super Monkey Ball

Apple fanboys will probably have heard of Super Monkey Ball from Sega — it’s one of the major 3D games to be promised together with the announcement of Apple’s decision to allow third-party applications to be installed on the iPhone/iPod touch platform.

GOING BANANAS:In Super Monkey Ball, tilt the iPod in the direction you want the monkey to go along a very challenging obstacle course, collecting bananas.

Costing just US$9.99 (RM32.90), Super Monkey Ball is also the poster child for what you can do with the accelerometer built into the iPod touch and iPhone.

The goal of the game is simple — you need to guide your monkey (housed in a ­transparent bubble!) by tilting the iPod in the direction you want the monkey to go along a very challenging obstacle course, collecting bananas and heading towards the gateway to the next level.

We were quite excited to try Super Monkey Ball, and it was the first application we bought when the App Store opened for business.

After trying it, however, the experience was more frustrating than enjoyable as the controls were very difficult to master.

However, after a few days, we learned the secret — Super Monkey Ball is best played with both hands resting on a table. This way you start off with a stable base and the table also helps to prevent you from making expansive movements which will kill your monkey in no time.

Once we got the hang of it, Super Monkey Ballturned out to be a very enjoyable game, and the graphics are truly outstanding.

Definitely worth a buy, as long as you have the patience to learn the difficult control system.

Trism

If Super Monkey Ballis a little too intense a gaming experience for you, you might like to try a more casual game like Trism.

MORE THAN A CLONE: Trism is a fun yet addictive puzzle game that has you matching coloured pieces to one another.

Similar to the popular Bejeweled, Trism takes it to another level by introducing the element of gravity into it — yes you heard right, gravity actually plays a part in the game and I’ll explain how in a minute.

First, the objective of the game is, like Bejeweled, to destroy crystals by sliding them around the board so that three or more ­crystals line up.

However, Trism differs from Bejeweled in that you move triangles horizontally and diagonally, instead of square crystals ­horizontally and vertically.

Here’s where the element of gravity comes in — whenever you clear a space, crystals will fall down to fill the empty space and in Trism, how you hold the iPod touch will determine how the crystals will fall.

This added element gives you another way to strategise — by choosing your slide and then tilting your iPod in the appropriate direction, you have at least some control over the way the crystals fall.

eWallet

eWallet has been a mainstay in my Pocket PC for some time now — it’s one of the core suite of applications I consider an important part of my use of a PDA.

eWallet is a simple app — it helps keep all your important information handy, such as passport numbers, bank account numbers and whatnot so that when you need to ­quickly refer to it, it’s there.

Of course all this information needs to be protected in case your handheld falls into the wrong hands and eWallet provides that with a strong 256-bit encryption and password to protect your data.

The iPod version of eWallet looks just like the Pocket PC version, in that it allows you to enter all your information and organise them into categories.

However, unlike the Pocket PC version, the iPod eWallet doesn’t come with a ­desktop PC component that you can also use to manage and edit your passwords on your desktop PC.

This also means that if you have an existing eWallet file, you can’t just synch it up with the iPod and will have to manually enter it all in again one by one.

This aside, eWallet does what it promises and for only US$9.99 (RM32.90), it’s in line with most apps in the App Store and in fact cheaper than the Pocket PC version.

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D

This title is an extremely fun, fast-paced racing game set in a 3D world with nicely detailed characters and colourful, yet ­challenging, race courses.

For US$9.99 (RM32.90), I must say that this is simply one of the best looking games on the iPod touch after Super Monkey Ball.

Choose from six distinct different racers from the Crash universe and battle it out in a tournament race, story mode or race against the clock in time trial mode.

This isn’t a straight up racing game as racers will have access to a variety of power ups that will allow them to launch missiles, or leave a trail of TNT explosives.

All in all, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3Dis a blast to play in short bursts, making it the perfect game when you are on the go.

Bomberman Touch

BOMBS AWAY: Bomberman Touch features an intuitive touch control scheme that is easy to learn and loads of fun to play.

Bomberman Touch is another fun game to pass your time with on your iPod touch. The US$7.99 (RM26.40) game plays very similarly to classic Bomberman games whereby you take control the titular character from a top down view and begin navigating through a level clearing enemies with your bombs.

The game’s intuitive touch controls allow players to move Bomberman across the level using a virtual D-pad and plant bombs along the way to take out enemies and obstructions.

Players can also make use of power ups scattered across the level to increase the blast radius of their bomb, number of bombs you can plant and running speed.

Despite it being a relatively short game, Bomberman Touch is still a fun and ­challenging game that even Bomberman veterans will enjoy.

Critter Crunch

Critter Crunchis a unique puzzle game that sports a quirky art style with a rich colourful hand-painted backgrounds.

YUMMY: Keep the food chain going to score more points in the irresistibly adorable Critter Crunch.

The objective of the game is to fill up Biggs’ hunger meter by feeding him jewels dropped by smaller critters. Control Biggs by moving him from column to column and tap him to use his long tongue to grab critters and feed them to larger critters to set a food chain in motion, to clear the screen.

The longer the food chain, the larger the jewels and higher the number of points you score. There are also bonuses for bursting multiple critters and special critters that keep the game fresh.

For a game that costs US$9.99 (RM32.90), I found Critter Crunch to be a surprisingly deep game with plenty of interesting game modes that will keep you coming back time and time again.

Best free apps

Another great thing about the App Store is that you don’t have to shell out any money for some cool programs. Here’s a list of some of the best you can get for free.

Remote

Remote is actually produced by a the ­software engineers at Apple and it’s ­function is very straightforward — it allows you to use your iPod as a wireless remote to control iTunes.

For example, it allows you to connect to any number of machines within your WiFi network (although only one at a time of course) — as long as they are running iTunes 7.7 (which you should already have if you have the App Store).

Pairing is also easy since all you need to do is use the iPod to discover the iTunes library of the machine you want to pair.

Once paired, Remote’s interface looks ­exactly like your normal Music library in the iPod — you can view and scroll through music and videos pulled from the iTunes you’re connected to.

The cool thing is that you can even adjust volume and control playback exactly as if your were running it on your iPod.

This feature is great if you have a home theatre PC, and since it’s connected via WiFi, you’re not limited by line of sight or distance from your computer — only how far you are from your wireless router.

Zenbe

Another application we wish the iPod had was a To-do list — my needs are pretty simple and all I need is something which I can create a number of lists in different categories (say shopping, chores, etc) and have little check boxes next to each entry so I can check them off.

Zenbe lists provides all these features and more.

Apart from being able to create lists and check them off, Zenbe has a number of nice little touches that make it an even better experience — for example as soon as you check off an item, it immediately moves to the bottom of the list.

If that isn’t enough Zenbe allows you to add a gadget to the iGoogle homepage with your list to add items or delete them and then have it all wirelessly sync so you can edit on your PC as well as the iPod. Best of all, it’s all free.

Stanza

If you’re bored with watching movies and listening to music on the iPod, Stanzacould be the answer.

It’s a free e-book reader that allows users to browse hundreds of free ebooks online and download them directly to your iPod. Simply put Stanza is a book lover’s dream come through!

There’s an amazing collection of books that you can access including classics like Moby Dick, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, 1984, Animal Farm, Beyond Good and Evil and many more.

Stanza neatly categorises books that you download by author, title and latest books that you’ve read. The application even remembers the last page you’ve read, never lose a page again.

Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook

Planning to head to Beijing for the Olympics but need to brush up on your Mandarin? No problem. At absolutely no charge at all, the Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebookis an ­application that will arm you with all the essential phrases you may use on your travels.

The phrasebook contains lots of different phrases you can use to communicate with the locals when asking for directions, going ­shopping and even for emergencies.

The most useful aspect of this application is that it actually reads out the phrase that you are looking for. Phrases are also written in both Pinyin and Chinese characters, so even if your pronunciation is far off, you can still manage by getting the person you are communicating with to read the words.