I didn’t imagine I would find a device to be so much fun. An Apple iPod Touch 4 I bought last year has turned into one of my favorite time wasters, and my daughters love it too. It is also a wonderful productivity tool. My old Windows Mobile smartphone has seen its usage plummet, except occasionally as a GPS map, or for tethering my PC to the Web.

I have listed some of my favorite Game and non-Game apps below. It is hard to place them in any particular order, so I have just ordered them alphabetically. I have also mentioned the price I purchased the app for, if it wasn’t free.

Games

• Angry Birds (99c)

  This game is at the first position of the Top 25 list for several months now, it deserves its ranking.

• Cat Physics

  This a recent one for me, I grabbed it for its price (free) but already like it a lot.

• Cover Orange

  This is another favorite of mine and of my daughters.

• Cut the Rope (99c)

  My daughters love this one.

• Fruit Ninja (99c)

  I don’t find myself playing it much, but it is so good that I had to buy it. I am crazy for fruits and it makes my mouth water.

• PES 2010 (99c)

  I am not much of a football fan, my elder daughter is. I bought this game during the holidays for its price, but it keeps my daughter entertained, that makes it good enough for me.

• Pocket Frogs

  I have to admit, I am addicted to this game, it is my topmost time wasters. I am at only 13% of the achievements, which means I will be wasting quite a lot of my time over this one.

• Talking Tomcat

  This one is a favorite with my younger daughter. She loves poking the cat, talking or laughing at it, hear it repeat all of it back at her, you get the idea…

Non-Games

• Documents To Go (9.99)

  A convenient tool to view and (sparingly) edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations (Premium edition only) . I have not been able to project presentations using a dock connector to VGA adapter.

• Dropbox

  Makes it a breeze to get files into and out of the device. Requires an internet connection though.

• Facebook

  Social networks are quietly taking over from other means of communications, particularly email. Facebook is leading the charge and this app is a must have.

• Free Graphing Calculator

  Free graphing calculator for the Math buff. It has a full-features scientific calculator, 2D graphing functionality, a reference section with math formulas, and some other niceties tucked away, such as a triangle solver and a polynomial solver.

• Gyroscope

  Helps to get things nicely aligned, like a square ceiling light fixture aligned to the walls around it.

• iBooks

  Book reader with PDF viewing support.

• iHandy Level

  If you do any kind of work around the house that requires a perfectly horizontal or vertical surface, and you don’t have a level, this is a decent replacement.

• KAYAK

  Forward your flight and hotel booking confirmation to trips@kayak.com and a trip is created, all information is conveniently synced to the app on the device.

• Keeper

  A place to store those pesky passwords and PIN codes.

• Kindle

  Read your Kindle books on the device. Nothing fancy, just as it should be.

• Merriam Webster

  Nice free dictionary. You need to be online to use some features such as voice search and audio pronunciation.

• Network Ping Lite

  For the geek. It also has a simple telnet console.

• Pulse

  News reader. Makes sharing to Facebook a breeze.

• Skype

  It was good for voice, now it also does video.

• Soundhound

  Listens to a song and identifies it for you.

• wunderlist

  iCal does not have task lists, this app fits the bill.