So I can browse the App store myself, and read ratings and reviews, but with the 100,000+ iPhone apps out there, are there better ways to do this?
Word of mouth? App review sites? Cool app-of-the-day? Any worthwhile "App-finder" apps?
Its hard to tell the difference between objective app-review/rating sites and the millions of other ad-filled spamsites out there.
So how do you find out about worthwhile apps?
(Edited to make community wiki)
"app.itize.us is a painstakingly curated presentation of the best produced and designed iPhone and iPad applications available for download via the App Store."
App Shopper is a wonderfully designed app cataloging/tracking site - check their TOP apps section.
Free App A Day also provides some interesting apps. As the name says, every day brings a game or app that's free that day only.
Try Appsaurus.
It is a recommendation system based on your feedback. As you browse through enough apps and give a yes/no/maybe, it will get better at predicting what kind of apps you are looking for. Works reasonably well for me after only a few weeks.
For games, I visit TouchArcade in the weekends, when most of the deals and promotional price drops happen. I visit occasionally mid-week as well, and when I see a game that looks interesting, I add it to my appshopper wish list to be notified when a price-drop happens (not all of them happen during weekends, and they are usually very short).
If I later don't like (or don't play) the game, it's way better to deal with it when you haven't paid the normal full price. On the other hand, there are games I can't wait to try and I impulse-buy them as well. So I'm not a cheapskate after all (I think)
This Apple SE question can also help you find good stuff. Or at least it shows exactly which apps this community likes the most — any spam or ads would quickly be downvoted.
(Right now it is of limited use, but if more people added their votes and missing favourites, it could become pretty great. Like the OS X app question.)
App Store's Genius functionality has been the best in terms of personalized recommendations for me:
http://macapper.com/2009/09/10/impressions-app-store-genius/
The Revision3 show AppJudgment does video reviews of apps. They do a download/don't download rating and make a list of pros and cons for the apps they review.
I also suggest you get a few friends in Game Center, you can see what they are playing (I’ve found a few good things that way).
I've found looking at featured users on http://homescreen.me is a constante source of app purchasing inspiration.
App Ratings, Recommendations, and Every Apple/iOS Site are good research materials when you know what you're looking for, but there is one main way that you can go about discovering a good iOS app:
By having a use case that needs to be fulfilled by one.
Watch out for a new apps sharing platform coming out soon: Frenzapp
Frenzapp focuses on a streamlined and simplified UI to help user quickly find and share relevant iPhone apps with their Facebook friends
It should be out on the App Store later this month (http://www.frenzapp.com) but you can already watch the preview video here:
Follow top "iPhone people" on Twitter, subscribe to good Apple blogs like Daring Fireball, TUAW, and MG Siegler on TechCrunch, and check the App Store featured section in iTunes on a weekly basis.
If an app is really good, you are bound to hear about it eventually.
I know its not a website, but I find most of my apps from my friends, as well as iPhone developers. I follow a few on Twitter, and they share some great apps at times.