Know your Iphone: Top 10 best apps for new iPhone users

Breaking down the top 10 best social, productivity, video, music, and other apps and games for your new iPhone

Did you or someone you know just get a brand new iPhone or iPod touch, and are wondering which are the top 10 very best, most must-have apps and games you absolutely need to jump into the App Store and download now, now, now? Well, you're in luck -- whether you want to show off the beautiful Retina display, test the power of the dual-core Apple A5 processor, need to get things done, or just want to have some fun, TiPb's top 10 have got your back! As part of our ongoing iPhone new users guide, here are our top 10 favorite, most highly recommended iPhone apps to get you started!

Note: App prices are current as of the time of this writing but can and do change frequently over time, including going up, down, and going on sale. Some free apps also sell additional content via in-app-purchase, or require a subscription. Always read app descriptions thoroughly before purchasing or downloading.

Social apps: Facebook for iPhone

Top 10 apps for iPhone 4S - Facebook for iPhone

Facebook is one of the most popular sites on the web, and not surprisingly, it's also one of the most popular apps on iPhone. While Facebook for iPhone has a well earned reputation for general bugginess, it's also been steadily improving as of late. Sure, you can visit Facebook.com on Safari, but the app gives you much, much more functionality, not the least of which is photo uploads. You also get Places, Messages, Chat, and many of your other favorite Facebook features.

Casual games: Angry Birds

Angry Birds is like the Mario or Sonic of iPhone and iPod touch gaming -- so synonymous with iOS that even though it's not made by Apple, even though it's on other platforms now, it's still the most famous, and still one of the most fun games ever to grace the App Store. While the idea of slingshotting variously powered birds at the variously fashioned fortifications and popping variously evil green pigs might seem thin at first, excellent gameplay and a constant stream of updates keep it fresh -- and continuously at or near the top of the charts. Give it a fling... and prepare to lose many an hour chasing those elusive three star ratings.

Communications/IM apps: Skype

Top 10 apps for your new iPhone 4S - Skype

The iPhone is a phone, so it makes voice calls, it has FaceTime so it makes video calls, and it has iMessage, so it can do IM. What place is there, then, for Skype for iPhone? Turns out, a lot. FaceTime and iMessage are Apple-only technologies, so they don't play nicely with other devices and platforms, and phone calls -- especially international phone calls cost a lot of money. Microsoft's Skype runs on almost every device and operating system, is free to call other Skype users, and cheap to call phones.

Productivity apps: Numbers, Pages, and Keynote

Top 10 apps for your new iPhone 4S - Keynote, Numbers, and Pages

Apple's iWork suite, which consists of Keynote for presentations, Numbers for spreadsheets, and Pages for word processing has recently been updated to work with iCloud, so all your documents get stored and synced between your devices (including, eventually, iWork for Mac when Apple updates it). Keynote was built for Steve Jobs so it's absolutely best in class, while Numbers and Pages are easy to use and produce great looking docs.

Action/arcade games: Infinity Blade II

Epic's Unreal 3 engine exploded onto iPhone with Infinity Blade, an on-rails sword fighting extravaganza with some of the best visuals we've ever seen. Infinity Blade II takes all of that to a whole new level. You literally will not believe a game that looks this good is running on your phone.

Infinity Blade II picks up where the first left off, with you locked in a battle with the Deathless, only this time the stakes are higher, the enemies badder, and the weapons more powerful than ever. It's still a tad repetitive at times, but it quickly becomes as addictive as it is gorgeous, and ChAIR typically has regular updates so there's always new gear, new enemies, and new aspects to enjoy.

Music apps: Rdio

While Pandora, Slacker, and Spotify get a lot of attention, Rdio's focus on social networking means it really excels at music discovery -- you get to see what the people you're following are listening to. You can cache music for offline listening, so you can load up on Wi-Fi and save your data, and the available selection of music is great for mainstream and alternative music lovers alike. Give it a try with the free 7-day trial.

Photo apps: Instagram

Instagram is the current king of iPhone photography apps, and it took the crown through a brilliant combination of easy-to-apply filters and super simple social sharing. The latest version not only adds even more filters, but all tilt-shift effects. Whether you want to quickly share great looking snap shots to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare, or Posterous, Instagram has you covered. In style.

Video apps: Air Video

Air Video automagically transcodes on the the fly and streams your videos -- almost any videos, in almost any format -- from your Windows or Mac PC to your iPhone. If you have an Apple TV, you can also beam them straight to your big screen television as well. If you've got a ton of content on your computer and you want to watch it on your iPhone, this is the app for you.

Internet apps: Dropbox

Dropbox is an amazing cloud sync solution not just for iPhone but for iPad, Mac, Windows, Linux, and basically everything you can imagine (several of us store almost our entire home directories in Dropbox). Not only does it give you access to any and all files in your Dropbox folder -- along with easy links for sharing and the ability to store favorites locally -- but many, many other apps use Dropbox to handle their sync as well, from password apps to writing apps to note taking apps. You get 2GB for free and can buy more if you need it. It's different than Apple's iCloud, but it's just as awesome.

Also check out:

1Password lets you have security and convenience with all your logins, credit cards, and accounts available on your iPhone. $14.99 - App Store link
Skyfire is a web browser that lets you watch some Flash videos on your iPhone. $2.99 - App Store link
Screens is a VNC client that lets you remote desktop to your Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. $19.99 - App Store link
Articles wraps up Wikipedia into a great looking, easy to use app. $2.99 - App Store link

Location/GPS apps: NAVIGON

Get full fledged turn-by-turn driving directions on your iPhone so you can keep your eyes where they belong -- on the road. NAVIGON provides on-board maps which means it keeps working in areas where there's no data coverage. You can buy regional, country, or continents at a time, and there are also options for live traffic updates, parking directions, and enhanced panoramic views of the surroundings.