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The original Buddha Machine is a $23 transistor radio-size audio player that offers tranquil loops of eastern chants and songs. Now the Buddha Machine has made the jump to the iPhone with this less expensive version.

As wonderfully odd as the original player is, there's even more to love with this app. For one, you can view the player in any of the seven original colors. Just give your iPhone a shake to change the look. The nine included music loops are in high-res audio, so they sound even better. Plus, you'll always have it with you when you need a little Zen.

We love the calm that this app brings, and have it on whenever we're working or resting. Download the Buddha Machine ($3.99, available here) and bring some serenity to your busy life.

The new year is a great time for new goals, and if you'd like to lose a few pounds you'll love this free food guide. This is by far the most helpful diet guide we've seen.

Start by creating a daily calorie budget that will help you shed the weight you want to lose. Then, each time you eat you record your meals. You can also input your exercise routines, so that you can see how many calories you're burning and understand how that helps your progress.

This is a great app for anyone trying to eat healthy, but we think it's a godsend for people who don't understand the basics. Lose It! (available here) gives you a simple way to track your calories so that you understand how to budget meals, and breaks down what you're eating so that you understand how fats, carbs, and proteins make up your foods.

If you think keeping track of your calories has to be a chore, download this app and find out how simple it can be.

We couldn't resist the temptation to look back on the best apps of the year (or half-year, since the App Store hasn't been around that long), but we wanted to give you something you could use. These aren't the flashiest or most novel apps that came out; instead, these are the ten we find ourselves using the most.

New iPhone owners, take note: these are the ten workhorses we couldn't live without.

AP Mobile News Network (free, available here): We love to read news on the go, and this app offers quick headlines. It's much faster than the New York Times news app, and delivers even more results.

Camera Bag ($2.99, available here): Not only is this photo app fun to use, but it lets you make artistic creations in seconds. We like the Helga filter the best. It give a moody, washed-out look to any setting. 

Wi-Fi for AT&T ($.99, available here): Going online at an AT&T hotspot, such as those found in Starbucks, is a snap with this app. It takes the hassle out of logging on.

Google Mobile App (free, available here): Start your searches here. Google helps you find results quickly, and even includes an audio search so that you don't have to type.

Listomni Lists ($6.99, available here): The best list-making app on the iPhone, Listomni is incredibly helpful for remembering tasks you need to do or items you need to buy.

Midomi (free, available here): What's that song? Midomi will tell you. Use it to identify a song on the radio or input lyrics from a song running through your head.

Pandora (free, available here): When we want to hear streaming music, we find ourselves turning to Pandora every time. This app lets you create custom stations, so that you can hear the songs you like best.

Remote (free, available here): Remote was the missing link in our home stereo system. Now we can doze on the couch while easily controlling the music playing on our computer.

Shovel (free, available here): Stay in touch with what's getting dug on Digg.com with Shovel, an excellent reader for the site. It lets you view all the comments on a post, and is much more stable since its recent update.

Where (free, available here): There are many GPS-enabled apps for the iPhone, but Where is our favorite. We use it to find nearby gas stations, events, movies, and Starbucks locations.

Apple has been calling the iPhone a gaming platform lately, and a few more apps like I Love Katamari ($7.99, available here) could make believers out of us.

This is an iPhone version of a hugely popular bizarre PlayStation game from Japan. You play as a small prince, son of the King of All Cosmos, whose job it is to roll a small sticky ball (a katamari) around so that things will attach to it. As the ball grows, you can collect larger and larger items.

You play by tilting the iPhone in any direction, and the game is surprisingly responsive. Choose from one of four mode: story mode (roll up requested items), time attack mode (roll up as much as possible in the time limit), exact size challenge mode (get your ball to match a given size), and eternal mode (work at your own pace, without any limits).

We love the silliness of the game, and dig the pop Japanese score that goes with it. While it's one of the oddest premises ever for a video game, I Love Katamari is a crazy good time.

Since the iPhone doesn't have a to-do list of its own (pretty please, Apple?), we've been on the lookout for a feature-rich app that does the job. The best we've found is Listomni Lists ($6.99, available here). This app stores several to-do lists for different categories, such as groceries, general to-dos, gifts to buy, music to buy, and movies to see.

You're free to make up your own lists, as needed. For example, we made one called Hardware, because we can never remember what we need to buy at the hardware store.

When you've finished with an item on one of your lists, you can tap to check it off. That's essential—the buzz that list addicts feel when we check off an item is what keeps us going. The app also includes a lock, in case you want to keep your lists private. The only thing we could want is a desktop app that syncs with it.

This is the best list app we've found so far, but if you have a different favorite let us know in the comments.

The iPhone is a bargain-hunter's delight, and nothing makes saving money easier that Fresh Deals, available here. This app shows you the best sales going from a variety of savvy shopping sites. You can view all the deals on one page, or select the category you want to see, such as Baby, Computer, or Electronics.

The interface can be a little tricky, so let us show you around:

Even though every page shows only four products, you can scroll the line of pictures to the left to see more deals in that category. It took us a while to figure that out. Not every deal has a picture, and we'd like to see that fixed. Below the line of pictures you'll see a description of the highlighted deal, and below that is a bar that shows how new or old the deal is.

When you've found something that interests you, you can e-mail it to yourself or to someone who you think would be interested. We think it's a great all-in-one tool for finding the Internet's biggest bargains.

Eating out, part 1: If you love restaurants, this app is a must-have-and a terrific bargain, too. For less than the cost of one printed Zagat guide you get reviews for major cities around the world. If you're a frequent flyer, you'll never again wonder where to get a bite. If you stay close to home, you'll discover places you never knew in your own city.

Zagat to go '09 ($9.99, available here) can determine your current location and give you reviews for nearby spots, or you can pick from locations anywhere around the globe. Filter on criteria that matter to you, such as price or service, or use the included lists to survey only the best locations. Besides restaurants, the app also includes nightlife, hotel, and store reviews.

While we'd love to say the app is perfect, it's missing a few features. Perhaps they'll be added in an update.

You can't narrow down your choices by using two filters (such as finding only vegetarian restaurants in the West Village) and you can't view several locations on a map at once. (There's a map option, but you can only view one location at a time.)

A few improvements would make this essential app even better.

Eating Out, part 2: Business diners especially will love this handy, simple, and completely free app, which makes choosing a restaurant and making reservations blissfully simple.

Start by either letting OpenTable (available here) use your current location or picking another. Then select when you'd like a reservation and how many are in your party.

The app will instantly show you 20 top restaurants for your area where you can get a table. It even provides descriptions, price estimates, and a map showing all the places on your list. You'll have a great spot booked in under a minute.

In testing, we were blown away by how OpenTable removes the tedious process of calling restaurants and asking if they have an opening. We also love that registered users can send directions to friends with just a few taps. The developers have really thought of everything with this slick and simple application.

Comic fans, you're going to love the deal that ComicZeal ($1.99, available here) offers. This clever app lets you download scans of several golden age comics to your iPhone, then lets you read them however you prefer. You can zoom in and out, then move to the next panel or page with the flick of a finger.

The ComicZeal library so far includes ten different titles with varying amounts of each comic. We hope the developer will add more over time. Right now, we're enjoying the available issues of Police Comics, which show the Spirit's and Plastic Man's earliest adventures.

The app remembers your place in each comic you download, so you can pick-up your comics with ease whenever you like. For less than the price of one new comic book, this is the best comic deal around.

Amazon and Overstock are great, but our favorite online shopping site is Woot.com, where you never know what you'll get. We log in everyday to see if the daily woot is a home theater system, an unsuccessful MP3 player, or something completely off the wall.

With the well-designed WootWatch (available here), we can monitor what's on sale anywhere we go. It even let's us know when there's a woot-off-it which a myriad of helpful and hopeless items are sold off in quick succession-complete with the site's spinning lights.

Woot.com has grown and this app supports all it offers, including the daily t-shirt sale and the daily wine bargain. When you find something you like, you can buy directly through the app. The latest update includes an alert that lets you know when a new item is available.