The iPhone made a huge splash on the smartphone front a few short years ago and its climb to superstardom has been successfully aggressive. With such a large fan base and a devoted following, the App Store attached to the iconic smartphone attracted a whole lot of attention from the developer's circle, thus filling up the App Store with a plethora of options.

As a user, however, I didn't enjoy trudging through a crowd of 350,000 in order to find the shining stars of the group. That's why I put together this little list of apps that I found to be exceptional. Let me know if I missed a knock-out app or two. (I mean, I doubt it... but nobody's perfect.)

1. Angry Birds

Price: $0.99

I know you're sick of seeing this on a top app list...but get over it because it deserves to be here. It was the first game I got on my iPhone 3GS and I still play it daily. It is the perfect game for the casual gamer and is easy enough that even your mom won't have trouble with it. Just ask mine.

The game play is simple. You hurl flightless birds into various structures that house evil green pigs in order to bring them all crashing down and squash them. And in case you need motivation, the pigs are evil because they are stealing your unborn children. Oh yeah. It's on.

Note: I officially recommend all the versions of Angry Birds because they are all great. However, do start with the original since it offers the most bang for your buck. Plus, it will give you street cred.

2. Tiny Wings

Price: $0.99

The App Store really responds to cute, colorful, and flightless birds. The newest offering, Tiny Wings, whose main character is that adorable little bird up there, is one of the only games in a long, long while that has been able to usurp Angry Birds from its #1 spot on the iTunes Chart.

You are a ball disguised as a bird, making your way through a bunch of little hills. When you approach a valley, you press anywhere on the screen to fold your wings and rocket down it. You gain speed by letting go of the screen which makes you lighter by spreading your wings jumping off the following hill.

3. Instapaper

Price: $4.99

Instapaper stores articles offline for you to read later. It's perfect for people like me, who have too much they want to read and not enough time to read it. It frees you from your computer and lets you take your reading wherever you go, whether you have Internet or not.

First, you sign up for a Read Later account. Next, add the 'Read Later' website link to your Bookmarks Bar of any web browser that you choose. That includes the mobile versions of Safari that run on your iPhone and iPad. Once you do that, the next time you find an interesting article without the time to read it, simply click your new 'Read Later" bookmark and it will be saved to your Instapaper account, where you can pick up where you left off.

Note: If you need to do offline reading, like when you take your Wi-Fi only iPad on the road, make sure that you sync the Instapaper app while you do have a connection.

4. Facely HD

Price: $1.99

Facely HD has grown in popularity over the last few months and it is easy to see why. It has a great layout and offers a much better user experience than the official Facebook app. I love the ability to change the standard "Facebook Blue" to any color of your choosing, I have switched from black to aqua green and everything in between. It's constantly being improved, with almost-weekly new updates to fix any problems that users may encounter, as well as add new functionality. It had its fair share of glitches at the start, but they are long gone now.

5. Words with Friends

Which pint-sized fowl do you prefer?