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I tend to go through phases where I can continually change the apps I have on my home page, and the apps I use the most. There are however five apps that will never leave their prime positions. These are my most-used apps, the ones I can't function without, the ones I use everyday, over and over again.

Like Rene, my most-used apps of 2011 are probably the built in iPhone and iPad Safari browser, Mail app, and Reminders, Calendars, etc. via Siri. That's just the nature of the job. But since I'm TiPb's resident app editor, I also get to spend time with an incredible amount and array of App Store apps. Here are the ones I spent the most of my time with this year.

Not content with having one of the most popular apps in the history of iOS, Facebook launched a second -- Facebook Messenger to create a quicker, cleaner path to owning your conversations. While Facebook as diversifying, LinkedIn was differentiating, releasing a new version of their app with their own, finally unique take on the social experience.

Path also released a new version with a bold, breathtaking new user experience and slightly more picturesque and timeline based focus. Apple added yet another separate social network to their portfolio, this time Find my Friends which offers very fine grained privacy control wrapped it more stitched leather than a puffy couch. And Google got into the game in a huge way with Google+.

Twitter for iPhone shed it's Tweetie heritage and while power users howled, it just might have become more usable for the mainstream. Luckily power users had plenty of places to turn with Tweetbot offering an entirely different take, with that trademark Tapbots look and increasingly deep functionality, and Twittelator Neue offering eye-popping animation and amped up interactions.

Verbs also did the remarkable by showing how simply and elegantly instant messages could be handled on mobile.

Incredibly different, incredibly rich, it's hard to pick just nine, never mind one -- but that's your job. Vote up top and tell us why you voted they way you did in the comments! These are your awards, so get to it!

There are hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps for just about everything -- so how come the one you need, the one you know just has to be there, is so hard to find? Enter TiPb's new weekly feature where staff and readers alike sort through the App Store and help you find just the right App for That. This week, @Bitterblade asks:

I want a twitter app that syncs unread tweets between my iPhone and iPad.

We're going to switch things up a little this time, and instead of recommending a specific app, we're going to take a look at a service that can be used between multiple apps. To find out what it is, follow along after the break!