So far as Ed Baig (usatoday.com) is concerned, “the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch” is “the killer app many of us expected,” an application that “turns the iPhone into an important new computing platform.” In his review, Baig takes a look at some of the apps — Pandora, AOL Radio, Super Monkey Ball, MooCowMusic: Band, Etch A Sketch, and five others — that can make “you feel like a kid in a toy store.”

“If you have an iPhone,” cautions Rik Fairlie (NYTimes.com), “you just might forget that the device is capable of making phone calls,” considering all of the diverting applications available on the new iPhone App Store. “Simple to use, thanks to its elegant and intuitive interface,” the App Store offers “an object lesson for other cellphone makers and carriers on how to make your customers’ phones indispensable.”

“iPhone 3G is the best touchscreen phone and media player by far on any network,” proclaims Mark Spoonauer (laptopmag.com) in his 4-star (out of five) review of iPhone 3G. “It delivers the best mobile Web experience on any smart phone,” offers “excellent App Store integration,” “vastly improved call quality,” and “Microsoft Exchange support.” And, he adds, iPhone 3G is a “stellar music and video player.”

Tomorrow, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight opens in theaters across the country. The eagerly anticipated film — with Christian Bale reprising his Batman role and Heath Ledger starring as the Joker — has already received rave reviews. Before you head to the theater, watch the trailers on the Movie Trailer site. You can even download them to take with you on your iPod.

In Mac OS X Leopard, Safari offers a great new search feature called Find. In addition to instant Google searches, Safari now lets you easily and quickly locate any text on any web page. Safari displays how many instances of your search term it found, and it highlights each instance on the page. To find out how you can take advantage of the new Find feature in Safari, read the latest Pro Tip of the Week.

It’s the software, maintains BusinessWeek’s Stephen Wildstrom, that “separates the iPhone from the pack.” And, he predicts, “the App Store will turn that gap into a gulf.” That’s because the iPhone “provides a unique combination of an extremely capable device, millions of customers hungry for ways to expand its usefulness, and an enthusiastic (crazed, one could say) community of developers.”

The iPhone 3G earns a four (out of five) mouse rating from Jason Snell (macworld.com), who reports that the new iPhone “improves on the original iPhone’s audio quality, offers access to a faster data network, and sports built-in GPS functionality.“ It also provides access to “the exciting new world of third-party software” and to “new Exchange syncing features.”

“I would have posted this sooner, but I just can’t put down the new iPhone 3G,” relates Eric Benderoff (chicagotribuine.com). “Blame the 3G speed. The faster network connection is such an improvement over the first iPhone that you’ll be hard-pressed to stop using the new iPhone because it truly has become a mini Mac in the palm of your hand.”

Carrying a piano around town has never been easier — now that MooCowMusic: Pianist lets you tickle the virtual ivories on your iPhone or iPod touch. Pianist offers a complete 88-key piano keyboard, each note sampled from a real piano. And Pianist, one of the more than 800 applications now available on the new App Store, offers multi-track recording, so you can even play a duet with yourself.

We’re all creatures of habit, even online. So if you’re web browsing routine has you visiting the same websites every day, you can use Safari in Mac OS X Leopard to open all of those sites at the same time — each in a separate tab, with just a single click. You’ll learn how by watching the latest Quick Tip of the Week.