Plain and simple - my iPhone makes me happy.

I do love my iPhone. I was without it for about four hours last Friday as my husband upgraded my phone (the very first iPhone) to an iPhone 4. Hooray for upgrades (and amazing husbands)! I digress. The point is I had to find work-arounds to my technopenia, or lack of technology. (Yes, I made that word up. Don’t be alarmed.)

I use my iPhone all day long. It connects me to work, home, the rest of the world. While you likely know of many of these apps, here are the top iPhone apps that rock my world.

Social media: Facebook, Tweetdeck, and Instagram. I don’t use Instagram socially, though; I just happen to love all the different photo filters. I used to have issues with Tweetdeck on my old phone, so I installed Twitter for iPhone, as well. I am more of a Tweetdeck, girl, though.

Notes: Thank heavens for Evernote. It really does help me remember everything. I have found that it has kept me on pace with the Post A Day 2011 Challenge, allowing me to email, DM (via Twitter), photo, or input future blog post content.

Religion: Speaking of heaven…I usually always have a book with me. Even when I don’t have one in hard copy, I can always turn to my phone to save the day. My all-time favorite book? The world’s best-seller: the Bible. YouVersion is a most excellent app with features like reading plans, multiple bookmarks, social sharing, and commentary notes. If you ever see me tweeting from church (which my pastor highly encourages, by the way), you know YouVersion is right there with me, too.

Radio: Pandora wins. Currently, I can listen to music in my office while I work. Some days it is a distraction, and I have to turn it off. Other days, it is like aural coffee. If Grooveshark ever made an app, though, I think I might be persuaded otherwise.

Keeping Up: I subscribe to a lot of blogs. Healthcare, technology, business, nonprofit – I am an equal opportunity blog reader. MobileRSS changed my RSS reading habits. I used to access my Google Reader whenever I remembered, which was not very often. Sometimes I would read months old content (Gasp!). MobileRSS syncs with Google Reader, reminding me daily via the app icon to read all my favorite blogs.

Blog: The WordPress app is a great addition to my app collection. I can post, approve and reply to comments. It’s a great tool to have, for sure.

Video: TED Mobile lets you browse through all the inspirational TED talks. It is perfect for airport waits and other moments you wish you had a book or something else “purposeful” to do.

Kids: Giraffe’s Matching Zoo has saved my ears and sanity on more than one occasion. It is a smaller, techno version of the Memory game, and kids match two zoo animals. It is simple yet effective. Gotta love that! Be warned this app does have zoo animal sounds. Ear buds to the rescue!

I don’t know if you have found the pattern between these apps, but they are all free. iPhone + free apps = happiness.