On July 11, Apple's App Store will celebrate its first birthday. And, when you look back, it's pretty amazing to see just how far the App Store has come in its first year of life.

The App Store has truly revolutionized the way people get software on their smartphones. Before it arrived, you had to go out to third-party shops, find the titles that worked on your phone, and download them -- either over-the-air to your phone, or to your computer, which meant that you then had to sync the software over to your smartphone. The App Store changed all that: With a few taps of the screen, you can get the software you want installed right on your phone.

The App Store works so well that most major smartphone makers have launched their own versions of it. One of the more successful is BlackBerry App World, which earlier this week reached its own milestone: 2,000 applications are now available in the store.

That number, though, pales in comparison to the number of apps available for the iPhone. Estimates put it at nearly 63,000, which would mean that, in the last month, the App Store has grown at an astonishing rate of 299 apps per day, according to DigitalBeat.

All those apps are the App Store's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness. While variety makes the store great, it also makes sifting through the available titles a challenge. Here are a few guides to help you in your search:

- The Best Twitter Apps for Your iPhone

- The Best Office and Productivity Apps for Your iPhone

- iPhone Apps to Organize Your Life (New York Times)

Image © Apple

Can't wait to get your hands on the new T-Mobile myTouch 3G? If so, you can pre-order the upcoming Google Android-based smartphone today, but only if you're a current T-Mobile customer.

T-Mobile announced that it will begin accepting pre-orders for the upcoming phone at T-MobilemyTouch.com, and says that customers who place an order between July 8 and 28 will get their myTouch 3G smartphones ahead of the retail launch, which is scheduled for August 5.

The T-Mobile myTouch 3G will be the carrier's second Android-based phone, after the T-Mobile G1, which launched last year. Unlike the G1, the myTouch won't include a hardware keyboard, but the all-touch-screen phone will offer a slimmer, sleeker design.

Image © T-Mobile

Nokia is denying reports that the company plans to launch a mobile phone running Google's Android operating system as soon as September. The report originally appeared in the Guardian, a British newspaper, and quickly spread around the Web. But Nokia says there is "absolutely no truth" to the story.

The Guardian's story, published this morning, said that Nokia's Android-powered phone would be a touch-screen device and would be unveiled at the Nokia World conference this fall. The story called the move a "strategic U-turn" for Nokia, as the company has always used the Symbian platform in its mobile phones.

And, indeed, had the report proved true, a switch to Android would have been a complete change of direction for Nokia -- and, in my opinion, a much needed one. The Symbian platform is aging, and it shows. I've spent some time testing Symbian recently on both the Nokia N97 and the Nokia E75, and the platform really can't compete with today's newer, slicker operating systems like the iPhone OS, Palm's webOS and Google Android. It lacks the pizzazz and the polish that these newer OSes have.

But Nokia says it has no plans to move to Android,telling Reuters: "Everyone knows that Symbian is our preferred platform for advanced mobile devices." If that's so, I hope that the Symbian platform gets the overhaul it needs, and soon.

Image © Open Handset Alliance

The T-Mobile Dash smartphone has been around for almost three years -- that's eons for a smartphone. At last, though, the Dash is getting an upgrade, in the form of the new T-Mobile Dash 3G.

Announced today, the T-Mobile Dash 3G features a host of improved features, including a 2-megapixel camera (up from 1.3-megapixels on the original phone), built-in GPS, and -- as the name implies -- support for T-Mobile's 3G network.

While the new Dash 3G is attractive and easy to use, it's not quite a must-have phone. As my full review of the Dash 3G explains, the phone has some flaws, starting with its too-steep $170 price tag.

Image © T-Mobile