iPad Applications of the Year 2009-10

You might notice a few things about these apps: A lot of them are iPhone carryovers, and a lot of them cost more than you might be used to in the App Store economy. Both are valid observations! But for a first batch, these apps do look rather spectacular.

Netflix: Netflix streaming, over Wi-Fi. That's thousands of movies and shows, if you have an Netflix account. (Which costs, what, like 9 bucks a month nowadays? Brilliant) Free.

Marvel Comics: The iPad is like something out of a sci-fi movie. Or a comic book. Also, it is a comic book. Excelsior! Free reader, paid comics.

iBooks: Apple's ebook store, which we saw in the keynote. It's the best thing going for iPad ebooks for now; we'll have to wait and see how if anyone else (Amazon, B&N) can do better.

Yahoo Entertainment: A TV listings guide/entertainment news/video hub, which pulls from Yahoo's vast network of sites. Free, and worth the download if just to see the sheer level of design.

SoundHound: IDs any music that's playing with a seriously fast recognition engine, but doesn't stop there: It does lyrics, music discovery, charts (based on what people are IDing, not buying) and full playlist playback. $5.

Shazam: Song recognition, but it won't recognize your own singing or humming like SoundHound, nor is its song recognition quite as good. But! It's free. So...

Pandora: Pandora's free music discovery app isn't overly ambitious in its transition to the iPad, sticking to its basic customized radio feature, while presenting artist info along your playlists.

Plants vs. Zombies: A simple tower defense game, in which you plant a variety of monstrous foliage to stop a horde of zombies from invading your house. $10

Fieldrunners: The classic iPhone tower defense game, except bigger. $8

Civilization Revolution: We sent around an email a few weeks ago about which kind of apps we really wanted for the iPad, and RTSes and turn-based strategy games were in everyone's top 5 $13

Labyrinth 2: The iPhone's best marble rolling game was enjoyable precisely because of how complicated it had become-you weren't just dodging holes, you were dodging lasers, cannons, winds and security cameras. Plus, the subtle 3D graphics were always beautiful. $8

Smule Magic Piano: Piano apps for the iPad were inevitable. Contorted, bizarre, gamelike piano apps? Even better. $3

NYT Editor's Choice: This is what the New York Times looks like on the iPad. Free.

USA Today: USA Today, too, decided to go with a faux-newspaper look. Free.

WSJ: The Wall Street Journal's paper-chic app is conservative, so to speak

BBC: There's something serene and reassuring about the BBC's news coverage, whether it be video, print, or radio-all of which are here.

Bloomberg: Well hey, you iPad is now a hardcore finance terminal. Extra points for the All Business aesthetic. Free

These are the best iPad applications seen in AppStore, iPad application developmentis seeing a great leap in terms of quality and quantity of apps.