Not that I’m an Apple fan, but was curious to know what all the fuss was about with this iPod Touch. I found the 8Gb model at Walmart , and opened a door to the wonderment of “apps”.  The device, slightly bigger than a credit card, has become part of my daily routine, and I’d even hazard to call it my new “lifeline” for staying connected to my business tasks, social networks, email, and Google.

You probably heard that the Apple  iTunes, has so many apps, you’d never get through them all – and it’s true. There honestly aren’t enough hours in a day to try all of them. Although being the frugal person I’ve become, I quickly found instant joy in the ones that were free, which helped to narrow my scope.

There was no sense in having this pod-thing unless it was going to either make my life easier, or make information more accessible. I had my receipt ready in case it proved necessary, but to my surprise I found just the apps I needed:

Skype – keeps me close to my Skype contacts, and I found that with a microphone you can even use the telephone features. I bet Apple wasn’t counting on that one. (No need to buy an iPhone now. Ha!)

Ping.fm – lets me blast messages to all my social networks at one time. Trying to do them individually is time-consuming.

TwitterFon – lets me post my Tweets (not “Twits”, as some call it), in seconds. It keeps me logged in so I can see what’s going on in the webiverse whenever I want – sans cell phone or laptop. Kewl!

Google – For me, a day without my Google, is like a day without sunshine. The Google app makes it easy to do ALL of my Googling, GMail, and other G-features, without breaking a sweat. Heaven, I tell you.

LinkedIn and MySpace – even though the Ping.fm app connects me to these apps, it only lets me blast status updates and not interact with “my people”. So having the LinkedIn and MySpace apps makes it easy to taste the ambiance and stay connected – up close and personally.

CraigSearch and eBay – I was never a Craigslist junkie until now. I downloaded this app just for the sake of having it available, but now I use it as much as I use my eBay app.  It only takes me a minute to find anything I’m looking for, and I don’t get sidetracked with ads and other goings-on.

Textfree – Ahhh. Sending text messages from the iPod Touch is handy. I’m still getting used to the keyboard, and the auto spell feature (which is wrong most of the time).

Ustream.tv – streaming video. Have to watch Bill Anderson, “Wake Up with Bill”  over at 900AM WURD. Some of the other shows stream live too, and when I’m having a little downtime (with WiFi) it’s a great filler.

Huffington Post – A girl’s gotta have her news, right? This is an awesome app that covers the news gamut with a single touch . There’s a ton in iTunes like this, but Huffpost’s app has become one of my favorites.