Best New iPhone Apps of 2010

What can we say? Mario Batali Cooks ($4.99) is simply a fantastic iPhone app. The foodies among us will love browsing through the stylish interface, and cooking novices will benefit from the step-by-step photos and videos provided for each recipe. Speaking of recipes, there are more than 60 Italian recipes included in the app. You'll also find a shopping list, wine pairings, and an area to bookmark recipes or mark favorites. If you like to cook, Mario Batali Cooks should be your next app download. It's expensive, but the price is on par with other excellent recipe apps. Overall rating: 5 stars out of 5. 

If you're concerned about the chemicals in sunscreen, the Environmental Working Group's Sunscreen Guide app (Free) is a must. This easy-to-use app contains ratings for more than 500 sunscreens, including information on any questionable or potentially harmful ingredients. The list of top sunscreens is incredibly helpful, and you can search for specific brands as well. Each sunscreen has a detail page with a full ingredient list and a link to buy that sunscreen online. We wish the search results were sorted by rating, but we still think the EWG Sunscreen app is one of the best new apps of 2010. Overall rating: 5 stars out of 5. 

Fans of This American Life, a popular show on National Public Radio, will love the new app ($2.99). Not only can you stream episodes for free, but you can also access archived episodes dating back to 1995. Thanks to push notifications, you can receive alerts when new shows are about to air, and Facebook/Twitter integration makes it easy to share your favorite episodes with friends. A polished interface and excellent audio quality make this one of our favorite new iPhone apps. Overall rating: 5 stars out of 5. 

If you have tons of friends on different chat networks, the Meebo app (Free) may make your life a little easier. It consolidates a variety of instant-messaging and chat services, including AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Facebook, MySpace, and many more. You can start chats with any of your online friends and add dozens of emoticons. If you are a serious chat fiend, you might find it annoying to type on the iPhone's small screen, but we didn't have any problems. Overall rating: 5 stars out of 5. 

The iPhone's Safari browser has its pros and cons. That's why we were so excited when the Opera Mini Browser (Free) was finally launched for the iPhone. This browser is fast, mainly because data is compressed and routed through Opera's servers rather than coming directly from the web. Data is encrypted before it goes to Opera's servers, but it's probably not the browser to choose for sensitive tasks like banking. Even so, we loved Opera's speedy response and found the larger navigation buttons easier to use than those on Safari. Overall rating: 4.5 stars out of 5. 

How to Cook Everything ($1.99) is part recipe app, part cooking instruction. This well-designed app is based on the book "How to Cook Everything" by New York Times columnist Mark Bittman. The app includes 2,000 original recipes, but the best part for cooking novices is the Kitchen Basics section, which explains common cooking techniques and what kind of equipment you should buy. All of the content is available offline, which is a major plus, and the integrated kitchen timer is super helpful. The shopping list isn't consolidated, though. Overall rating: 4.5 stars out of 5. 

Uface ($1.99) is a fun iPhone app that creates realistic sketches to use as avatars on social networking sites. It includes 300 facial characteristics, including your choice of eyes, lips, chins, eyebrows, noses, hairstyles, and more. You can create unlimited avatars and then post them on Facebook or Twitter. I hoped Uface would automatically replace my current avatar on Twitter, but it posted it as a link instead. That small quibble aside, the Uface app is worth a download for social media junkies. Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5.