With over 50,000 iPhone apps to choose from, it’s no wonder that iPhone users are scratching their heads over which apps are worth a few bucks and which apps aren’t even worth their download time.

Not one to wield our cosmopolitan and tech-savvy knowledge in an ungracious manner, MetroWize has taken the liberty of combing through mountains of app for your benefit. Check out the list below for a punchy top 10 shakedown of the best apps to suit your urbanite needs.

NYTimes
Even though we don’t all live in New York, we can all agree that a daily dose of obsessively updated news and events from those straightforwardly pithy New Yorkers can do us some good. The New York Times app is arguably the best of the news applications. It offers a streamlined, super easy-to-use, and hugely informative database of the latest news from around the world. You can sort your display by category, see the most popular articles, save your favorites, and even email an item of interest to your friends.

Getwize: Not sure what a word means or want to know more about something mentioned in an article? You can click on a highlighted phrase or keyword to read an entire page devoted to its back history and definition.

Flixster
Sure, you love the movies, but you can’t seem to catch a break. You’re too busy to look up show times, have no idea what’s currently showing, forgot what the name of that one movie, and don’t know which movie theater in your area is showing what movies.

Take a breath, dear movie-lover. Flixster is here to save the day. This comprehensive app offers everything you could possibly need to solve this quandary. Easily access a listing of the latest box office releases, see a calendar of what’s to come, watch high-res trailers, and see what’s out on DVD.

GetWize: Click on the title of a film to see nearby show times and theaters, a summary of the film, the trailer, and a link to Rotten Tomato reviews. FREE apps don’t get much better than this.

Style.com
The jet setting lifestyle is just a finger tap away with this jam-packed application. You can thank the people at Vogue/ Conde Nast for granting us with daily updates, high-res photos of the runway, genius fashion commentary, and the scoop on the swanky social scene. Now you can consider yourself a true cosmopolitan. You’ve got Style.com and MetroWize on your side.

GetWize: Check out the style blog and fashion video for relentless and real-time reviews/ footage of the latest and greatest.

Yelp
Okay, can we say “love at first bite”???? Well-known for its restaurant reviews, Yelp is actually the best, most comprehensive guide to...everything...written by people like you. The peeps at Yelp have smartly transferred the best features of their much-visited website to the hand held platform of your iPhone.

Download this FREE app and gain access to concise, yet comprehensive reviews on almost anything you can think of: food, dentists, parks, banks, drugstores, shopping malls, etc. Best of all, you can search for reviews by category, see what’s hot nearby, bookmark your favorites, and find contact information for any business.

Getwize: See an address on Yelp, but can’t figure out how to get there? Click on the address and you’ll be pushed to the Yelp map, which will show you exactly where you are in relation to the business. Hit the “Google Maps” button up top and you’ll be brought to the Google Maps app for easy GPS steering!

Shazam
Take a walk in any bustling city and you’ll hear at least a thousand different songs in one day. They’re everywhere- blasting in clothing stores, creating the “moods” in restaurants and on the screen, floating out of gigantic speakers in the park, and, of course, boasting the best or the worst in record stores.

Well, have you ever heard a tune and wondered what it was? Did you feel too embarrassed or just too lazy to just ask? Consider the days of letting these potentially life-changing songs slip away kaput. Shazam works, as hinted by its namesake, like magic. Simply open the app, tilt your speakers toward the floating notes and allow Shaz (as we call it here at MetroWize) to listen and compute. A mere seconds later, you will be gifted with the song’s title, artist, YoutTube and iTunes link, and a bookmarking option.

Love music? Now love Shazam.

GetWize: Use this nifty tool at home too- we’ve tested it on the speakers of a TV, while the actors were still talking. Yes, we know, we are also still in shock by how amazing technology and namely, Shaz, can be.

Pandora
While we’re on the subject of music, we’d like to introduce you to a cult internet hit that counts it fans across the spectrum of music: pop, rock, country, death metal, jazz, and even experimental noise. Pandora is the best radio you could ever wish for: it plays the artist you want to hear and streams similar tunes thereafter.

A demo, if you will:
1. Create a “station” by entering an artist. Let’s say… Postal Service.
2. Pandora will play songs by Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie, Iron & Wine, etc.
3. The album cover is displayed as each song plays.
4. Let Pandora know whether or not it’s doing a good job by hitting the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” icon at the bottom of the screen. A “thumbs down” will result in a skip to the next tune.
5. Now Pandora will play songs based on the preferences you’ve entered. It will never play a song that you gave a “thumbs down” ever again.

So you see, Pandora is a radio customized for you, by you. What could be better?

QuickTip
Put away that clunky calculator and stow away that furrowed brow. Those things are not appropriate at the dinner table anyway (especially in a restaurant). This handy app will help you calculate your tip in a jiffy.

Some straightforward directions:

1. Enter the amount of the total bill
2. Scroll to the desired percentage for tipping
3. Instantly see the tip change according to your scrolled percentage

Scramble
Please, someone, tell us why this game is so addictive? Yes, we’ve all been through the harrowing styling chairs of Sally’s Salon, frantically dressed our customers on Ranch Rush, even gleefully matched jewels on Bejeweled. But why is it that this FREE app never loses its glimmer?

Download Scramble, dear reader, and you, too will be sucked into the pleasures of Scramble. The concept of the game is simple: create as many words as you can using a 4x4 or 5x5 board of letters in a 2 or 3 minute time period. Rest assured, your days of mindless boredom while passing time on public transportation or waiting in line for table to be called are gone. Enjoy!

GetWize: Make sure you’ve got an Internet connection, and send challenges to your friends. Believe us, this adds an additional element of unbelievable fun to the app.

iFitness
Living in the city means looking good in its backdrop. You have to stay fit and show off your gym-trained bod. The only problem is… you don’t have the money for a personal trainer, nor do you have the time to go to the gym everyday.

Problem-solved: whip out that iPhone and drop a paltry $1.99 for iFitness and get the best (well, for its price) personal trainer you’ve ever had. The Washington Post and ABC News have lauded the app for its thorough, user-friendly, and highly effective interface. iFitness is: a thorough catalog featuring hundreds of instructional fitness videos, a personal workout tracking tool, and a status-emailing device for your best look ever.

iEmoji
Yes, yes… our iPhones are amazing! But have you ever noticed a very important and common cell phone feature is missing from this grand invention? Yes, it’s true. The iPhone does not appear on your doorstep with graphic icons aplenty (or… a- there). iEmoji solves this problem in one captivating swoop. Download the app for less than a buck and voila! Your keyboard now features Emojicons such as hearts, smileys, sushi, footballs, basketballs, stop signs, even toilets and showers (which, we here at Metrowize like to fondly follow-up with the masked smiley).

So let go of that tightly gripped dollar and wow your fellow iPhone users with the 450+ emojis at your disposal.

GetWize: Don’t forget, you can use these icons in emails, Notes, Calendar and other apps.

Honorable Mentions

-The Weather Channel: means what it says- check out the weather, anywhere.
-TapTap Revenge: tap along to your favorite tunes
-YouTube: watch countless videos about anything whenever you want
-BofA/ Chase, etc.: Check your account balance, make some transfers, spend a little dough
-MemeoPhoto: Upload your pics and share with those in your circle
-Stanza: Read the classics for free and gain access to other genres with a touch of the screen
-Dictionaire/ Dictionary: Make sure you know what you’re saying really means what you’re trying to say!
-iheartradio: Listen to a radio station located in any part of the US for free.

So bust out that iPhone, get near a WiFi connection and start downloading. Trust us, these apps will change your life forever.

Or… at least until better ones are released.