1. Ghostly Discovery

Like Pandora, last.fm, Slacker Radio and its experimental counterpart, Fluid Radio, this app offers streaming music options based on user input, but adds the innovative feature of “mood-based discovery.” Listeners pick their disposition from a circular colour wheel, then drag from the categories of digital to organic and faster to slower. Selections are then plucked from the rosters of forward-thinking electronic labels Ghostly International and Spectral Sound, featuring artists such as Matthew Dear, Gold Panda, School of Seven Bells and many more. Obviously these micro-genres aren’t for everyone, but for fans of beats, Ghostly Discovery is the perfect pocket DJ.

2. ShopSavvy

If, like me, you grew up watching CBC’s Street Cents, you know it’s important to be a well-informed consumer. This ingenious app allows penny-pinching users to scan the barcodes of various shelved products with their mobile camera to find the best prices online and at other nearby stores. Fittingly, the download is free.

3. Google Mobile

In my mind, this app proves decisively that we live in the future. On top of Google’s well-known features (Images, Videos, News, Books, Gmail, etc.), it also provides a voice search function to dictate queries into your handheld device. Currently, this supports 15 languages. Yet the wildest function by far is Google Goggles, allowing users to snap photos of anything in their surrounding area to receive Google search results, recognizing everything from landmarks to logos, book and album covers to product labels and even artwork. It’s like Shazam, but with life. The potential for this one is mind-blowing, and brings the world one step closer to Star Trek tricorders.

4. Fruit Ninja

With all the gaming apps competing for your spare time (Angry Birds, Sky Burger, Pocket Legends, Epic Citadel, Trivial Pursuit, Street Fighter 4, Monkey Island 2, etc.) it’s tough to separate the cream from the crap. However, Fruit Ninja has become one of the most popular paid titles out there for a reason, and that’s because it’s as addictive as digital crack. What better way to vent your real-life frustrations then by slicing through gushy oranges, pineapples and melons with a sword (controlled by your finger)? Happily, the graphics are as sharp as the selection of blades.

5. Pop Montreal

Fast Forward Weekly contributor Marc Rimmer deserves serious props for helping create this clean, stylish, user-friendly tool. While other festival apps in the past have been confusing, clunky and constantly crashing from their unwieldy file size, attendees of Pop Montreal 2010 gained a practical one-stop handheld hub, piecing together show schedules, venue maps, artist info, ticket prices plus access to related Twitter posts. Take note, other fests.