Apple App Store

Angry Birds has met its match, and it's another bird game for the iPhone. Tiny Wings was launched one week ago with little fanfare and has managed to become the top paid app in the iTunes App Store. The overnight success of previously unknown developer Andreas Illiger is earning him $0.99 per download.

The app itself is small enough to download over a 3G connection and features graphics that change every single day. Gameplay only requires one finger and a desire to beat your previous high score. The object of the game is to fly for as long as possible in one day before night comes and you're forced to sleep.

Apple's iOS App Store just keeps getting bigger. The unstoppable torrent of mobile apps available via iTunes has soared to more than 350,000 titles, with 60,000 of these specific to the iPad. Apps are divided amongst 20 different categories and available for download in 90 countries worldwide.

The App Store just surpassed 10 billion individual software downloads since its initial launch in July 2008. In fact, this amounts to a whopping 18 million average downloads every day the App Store has been in operation. Assuming there are roughly 160 million iOS users, each iPhone, iPad or iPod touch owner has acquired an average of 62 apps for their device.

As another holiday descends upon America, the App Store is brimming with iPhone apps to celebrate the occasion. Our simple search for "Thanksgiving" along with some shopping and Black Friday apps brought the total to almost 200. Not as excessive as the Halloween app count but daunting nonetheless.

You're going to have that iPhone with you anyway, so why not use it to help navigate through and enjoy this coming week? Here are ten Thanksgiving and Black Friday apps to try. All of these applications are available through the App Store for $2.99 or less.

iTunes normally overflows with holiday spirit and this Halloween is no different. A simple search in the App Store for "Halloween" results in 1,077 iPhone apps. Over one thousand apps? Maybe a more specific search is in order, but in the meantime we're going to narrow it down to the lucky number thirteen. They're all available now for $1.99 or less.

In one example of a dramatic reversal of App Store policy, Apple has finally accepted two third-party Google Voice iPhone applications after rejecting the apps over a year ago. The apps are named GV Mobile+ and GV Connect, each available on iTunes to US users for $2.99.

The official Google Voice app remains in limbo, with Google claiming in a letter to the FCC that Apple rejected the app. Apple stated that it was reviewing the app but the company hasn't updated the status of its review in the past year. Google Voice duplicates dialing and telephony features built into the iPhone.