2009 was the year of the App Store, as Apple passed the two-billion downloads milestone for its store. The year also saw labels and artists jumping onto the bandwagon with their own branded iPhone apps.

The most successful, like Smule's I Am T-Pain (pictured right) sold tens of thousands of copies a day. It's only fair to point out that the vast majority sank down the app charts fairly quickly though – proving that iPhone apps provide a return on investment for the music industry wasn't a huge priority this year.

Even so, there was plenty of creativity being put to work. To highlight it, we've chosen a selection of 40 branded music apps that we thought were innovative this year – which were all covered in the Music Ally Daily Bulletin.

They're all based on artists, labels and other music brands – the list doesn't include apps for music services like Spotify or Pandora, nor does it include pure music games like Rock Band or Tap Tap Revenge (although one of the latter's artist-branded spin-offs is included).

Read on for a snapshot of what was released this year, and let us know your thoughts on the best and worst of what the App Store had to offer. Oh, and yes, we've put them in a rough order reflecting how much we liked them, starting with the best.

1. I Am T-Pain might be an obvious choice for top spot, but it combined technical innovation with stellar sales. Eschewing pure promotion, it let fans sing along with a selection of T-Pain songs while having their vocals Auto-Tuned on the fly. It also had good sharing features, used in-app payments to buy and download new tracks for use in the game, and recently added the ability to sing over any song in your iPhone music library. App Store

2. Little Boots Reactive Remixer was a branded version of existing iPhone app RjDj. Yes, it involved remixing three of Boots' tracks, but in two cases that was done based on the user's movement and external sounds – a properly interactive ambient experience. Or something. App Store

3. Hi, How Are You was a beautiful iPhone game based on the artwork of singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston. Described by the New York Times as "a kind of psycho-religious version of Frogger", it was a great game backed up with Daniel's visuals and music. App Store

4. Sonifi was one of the most fully featured ‘remix an artist' apps, being designed by and for trance artist BT. It let fans mess with the beats, bass, melodies and harmonies of his latest tracks. The killer feature, though, was a two-player ‘Jam Link' mode to collaborate over Bluetooth. App Store

5. Live Metallica (pictured) was an official app from the metal band that constantly offered a free stream of their latest gig, while also letting fans buy (no, NOT from iTunes) previous sets. Photos and notes from each show made it a must-have for fans.

6. iDrum Underworld Edition was another of the best examples of the popular ‘remix your favourite artist' app genre this year. It offered 13 tracks to mess around with in an intuitive square-tapping interface, with artwork from the band's design chums at Tomato. App Store

7. Johnny Cash: I See A Darkness was a graphic novel based on The Man In Black's life. It didn't include his songs, but had a clever ‘search and insert' feature to find his tracks on a user's iPhone to play at the relevant points of the story. App Store

8. nin: access was the official iPhone app for Nine Inch Nails – one of the more tech-savvy artists in the industry right now. It gives fans access to the community and multimedia sections of the band's website, as well as letting them chat and upload photos from their iPhone. App Store

9. The Presidents of the United States of America was an app by the band of the same name, offering four albums from their back catalogue as streams, as well as lost recordings, live tracks and other extras. App Store

10. Baby By Me Sound Lab was a remixing app created for 50 Cent by Romplr. It involved mixing and matching stems from his Baby By Me single, then posting the resulting remix to Facebook. It tied in with a contest, and sparked 250,000 downloads in a matter of weeks. App Store

11. Lady Gaga iOKi (pictured) was a karaoke app based on La Gaga, with instrumental and vocal remixes from four of her hits enabling people to sing along with her, then go it alone. In-app payments allowed new songs to be purchased and downloaded too, from Gaga and other artists. App Store

12. Deadmau5 Mix was one of the first ‘remix an artist' apps for iPhone, from an artist who would release several more apps later in the year. It let fans remix ten tracks by applying delays, effects, rewinds and cuts, complete with a virtual scratch pad. App Store

13. Metallica Revenge was one of Tapulous' artist-focused spin-offs from its Tap Tap Revenge games – although in fairness we could have picked its titles for Coldplay, Lady Gaga or the Dave Matthews Band in this slot. What these games nailed was the combination of gameplay and experiencing the actual music. App Store

14. Kelly Clarkson Open Mic was a singing game based on the American Idol winner, which scored fans on their ability to sing five of her tracks. It tied into a competition that put winners on-stage singing with Kelly herself during her tour soundchecks. App Store

15. Haus of Gaga was one of the first fruits of Universal Music Group's deal with Kyte, turning its artists' video blogs into iPhone apps. It offered new and archive episodes of the Transmission Gagavision vlog, as well as news, tourdates and live chat. App Store

16. Robbie Williams Racing was, would you believe it, a racing game based on Robbie Williams. No pure cash-in, though – besides his tracks featuring in the game, Robbie himself provided the commentary, with unlockable videos and photos for skilled players. App Store

17. Delicious Vinyl DJ was a music game based on the famous hip-hop label, getting players to match notes to the sounds of Young MC, Tone Loc, The Pharcyde and Masta Ace. A nifty way of getting value out of some venerable hits. App Store

18. Get Physical Mix was a compilation app based on the back catalogue of the Get Physical dance label, which allowed fans to DJ and mix the songs themselves, complete with a virtual scratch pad. App Store

19. Grateful Dead (pictured) was an interactive mosaic e-book – an iPhone version of one of those big pictures which lets you zoom in to see lots of little pictures. Those little pictures being 450 photos of the legendary jam-band, with fans able to comment on each, or share with friends. App Store

20. Gedda-Headz was a mini-game collection for iPhone that offered multiplayer and community features, while tying in with collectible real-world toys. We still haven't heard any music from the band it's supposedly based on, but it was nevertheless a neat idea. App Store

21. HWD was an app created for UK artist Heads We Dance, which allowed fans to stream the band's new album Love Technology two weeks before its official release, with news, photos and community features thrown in. App Store

22. It's Britney was Britney Spears' entry into the App Store, offering the usual news, Twitter feed, photo galleries and even a virtual lighter. There was also a UGC feature to paste your head onto the body of one of Britney's dancers, and most importantly, if you shake your iPhone, the app shouts "It's Britney Bitch!". App Store

23. Mariah Carey-oke was the best-named artist app of 2009, hands-down. The pun partly made up for the fact that her current label UMG doesn't have the rights to her classic hits – so four new tracks were included to dog-whistle along to. App Store

24. Twentyten was an iPhone ‘calendar' app revolving around the key 2010 dates of Belle & Sebastian, with a built-in news feed and bonus digital content. An elegant spin on the promo iPhone app idea. App Store

25. Snoop Dogg's iFizzle (pictured) was a fairly simple app, but with plenty of charm. It was a collection of audioclips of Snoop's "most popular and iconic" phrases and quotes. Yep, including "Fo Shizzle My Nizzle". App Store

26. Phanatic was an app built for hardcore fans of jam-band Phish, offering a comprehensive database of setlists from the band's history. That included links to YouTube videos of performances, and the ability to generate stats in mid-show – e.g. ‘when was the last time they played this?'. App Store

27. Ziggy Marley's Music Mixer was another remixing app, but with the neat twist of a slot-machine interface – users could shake their iPhone to randomly mix up Ziggy's songs. Or they could put the time in to mess about with the tracks themselves, of course. App Store

28. Remix David Bowie – Space Oddity was… well, the title gives it away. It let iPhone users mess around with Bowie's classic hit by tweaking individual tracks, then save the mix as a ringtone. App Store

29. Riff King was a branded app for UK metallers Saxon, with streaming samples of the band's latest album and their new video. However, it also tied in with their YouTube UGC contest – also called Riff King – letting users of the app watch the latest entries. App Store

30. Usher's Top 100 didn't actually focus on R&B star Usher's music – instead, it saw him turn curator, picking 100 of his favourite tracks which users could stream through the same tech used for the PUSA application. App Store

31. The Heavy was the official app from Ninja Tune artist The Heavy, and it offered their entire back catalogue on a streaming basis, plus three videos, news and tourdates, and live footage. But it's the streaming element that intrigued us most. App Store

32. Coldplay Strawberry Swing (pictured) was an app created for Coldplay by online TV firm Babelgum. It showcased the video for the band's Strawberry Swing single as well as their previous videos, bundling in a game for good measure.

33. Deadmau5 Live was yet another iPhone app based on the innovative dance artist. It let fans vote on what songs he should play as his encore at his London Roundhouse gig in October, before serving up a 20-minute live recording once the show was done. (Not still available)

34. New Boyz – iJerkin' was a music game created for WMG act The New Boyz, based on their apparently-popular You're A Jerk dance moves. We stress ‘apparently'. Players could tap, slide and shake to make the band pop their moves, and then buy more tracks. App Store

35. What The Funkytown! was unusual, in that it was based on a song rather than an artist or label. It was a virtual scratching app to monkey about with Funkytown, speeding it up and slowing it down, or even playing it in reverse. App Store

36. Snow Patrol: Snowflake was the band's second iPhone app, providing a news feed, forum and the ability to upload photos at gigs to the band's website. The snowflake theme was carried through to a section where fans could create their own unique flakes. App Store

37. Kiss Virtual Concert Lighter (pictured) was, well, a virtual concert lighter. With 24 branded virtual lighter cases to choose from, a scrolling text marquee, and a "realistic flame". Novelty personalisation, yes, but fun with it. App Store

38. Delphic was a soundtoy app released to promote the band of the same name's new single. A simple drum loop was complemented by the fan tapping on-screen pads to trigger samples. App Store

39. Kiss Me Thru The Phone was an app based around the Soulja Boy song of the same name. It was a photo customisation tool to help fans ‘add swag' to their pics, or plant virtual kisses on friends and family before sharing the results. App Store

40. Pepsi Rock Band was an app created to promote the Rock Band console games. It let people put their own faces on the shoulders of characters from the games, then share them via email, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. It also provided buy links for songs from Pepsi's ad campaign. (not still available)

The leading digital music business information and strategy company, Music Ally, has been providing publications, consulting, and research to the music and technology industries since 2001.

Previously, Osama Bin Laden knocked out Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and President Obama defeated Steve Jobs, but the Google Duo held out until the semifinals, when President Bush liberated them. That is officially the oddest sentence I have ever written. Way to go, Washington Post. This is incredibly weird. [Washington Post via Wonkette]

Take a look at your Blu-ray library for a minute. See anything missing? If not, you're not looking hard enough. Because for every high-def release of The Proposal that Hollywood shoves out the door, a Raiders of the Lost Ark stays on the shelf. Right now, whether it's a rights issue or a matter of strategic timing, a team of highly qualified artists and technicians are putting the finishing touches on Cheaper By the Dozen 2's Blu-ray release instead of dreaming up interactive features for Alien.

That's just scratching the surface. Right now on Amazon you can buy a 20th Century Fox Blu-ray bundle of three genuinely funny comedies—Napoleon Dynamite, Office Space and Young Frankenstein—that have nothing in common other than being completely unnecessary to watch in high-def. You know what three movies Fox hasn't put on Blu-ray at all? A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

This shouldn't be so hard, Hollywood. Whatever problems you're working through right now, get it figured out. You've only got like 2.5 more years before broadband puts the whole Blu-ray concept completely out of business. To help get you started, here's a list of 20 movies we need right now, and 10 that you should pass on altogether, before you waste any more time.

20 Movies That Should Be on Blu-ray

And 10 That Really Shouldn't

1. "Battlestar Galactica" (59.4)
2. "Mad Men" (57.7)
3. "Damages" (56.3)
4. "Rescue Me" (53.2)
5.(tie) "True Blood" (46.9)
5.(tie) "Stargate Universe" (46.9)
7.(tie) "Sanctuary" (45.9)
7.(tie) "Heroes" (45.9)
9. "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (45.5)
10.(tie) "10 Things I Hate About You" (44.9)
10.(tie) "Dollhouse" (44.9)
10.(tie) "Melrose Place" (44.9)

Other than a couple of tween-driven clunkers at the bottom of the list—and the people who forgot to take "Heroes" off their DVR in 2007—this is a comprehensive list of some of the best, least watched TV of the year. Which makes sense, given the way the ratings are structured. A million people DVRing "Mad Men" is going to make a much bigger difference to that show's time-shifted rating than a million people DVRing "American Idol." So what you're left with is essentially ten shows with passionate, technologically savvy fan bases. Though it looks like in a couple of these cases, not quite passionate enough to save the show from extinction. Sorry, "Dollhouse." I should've done more to spread the word. [NY Times]

Nothing is immune, be it cameras, laptops, game controllers or ebook readers, and the trend is showing no signs of stopping. The consumer electronics industry, it seems, is slowly become one big episode of Pimp My Ride. Anyway, on with the screens.

An ill-timed half-step in the generational console wars, the Sega Dreamcast is remembered primarily as a failure. But for the purposes of this list, we'll rosily remember it as the first console to include displays in its controller. Strictly speaking, the "display" was one of the functions of the Visual Memory System cartridges, which each contained its own processor, memory, battery and, of course, 48x32 monochrome panel. Despite some genuinely OK uses—keeping certain controls secret during multiplayer games, or displaying FPS stats—the hardware couldn't really do the concept justice. [Pic via Axess]

When switched off, Samsung's TL220 and TL225 point-and-shoots look like any other boring camera. Switched on, they still look like any other boring camera, except for an odd-looking, forward-facing second display. Samsung's advertising angle is all about MySpace-style self-portraiture and making babies smile with horrifying clown animations, but the visual countdown timer is the only feature I think I'd ever end up appreciating.

Every stumble Barnes & Noble's eReader takes into the limlight reveals something stranger. First, we find out it'll run Android, a smartphone OS. Then we discover it's going to have two screens—a traditional E-ink display up top, and a multitouch LCD down below. There's no denying this makes for some great gadget porn, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out if it's a good idea, because really, that's not at all clear.

Nintendo's entire DS pitch was about the second display, which was intended mainly as a touchscreen control interface. Early reviewers didn't really know what to make of it. Now, reviewers take Nintendo's two-screened style for granted.

The Eee Keyboard looks more like a one-off Ben Heck mod than it does a real product—a theory almost supported by its endlessly creeping release date. Today, units are about ready to ship, meaning that you'll be able to buy a QWERTY keyboard with a full-fledged computer in it, and a secondary touchscreen display crammed into the right-hand side.

Lenovo's ThinkPad W700ds captures the spirit of the extraneous second screen perfectly. One second you're just tapping away at your big, bland, work-issued laptop, then BAM! A secret monitor pops out of the side of your main screen. This is pure Inspector Gadget, right here. And man, the pitch for this thing over at Lenovo HQ must've been utterly spectacular. Thanks, namely Lenovo engineer! I hope this worked out for you.

Lenovo's secondary displays are covert; you know, hush hush. Sharp's, on the other hand, are out 'n' proud—in fact, Sharp's Mebius NJ70A carries its extra pixels right in the middle of its face, where you'd normally find a trackpad. Actually, this multitouch capacitive display is the trackpad.

The first generation of OLPC hardware was, despite some interesting flourishes, pure laptop. The first few generations of tablets PCs were nothing more than notebooks with an extra hinge. The next take on both concepts, the XO 2 and Microsoft's Courier, respectively, took everyone by surprise by killing keyboards in favor of displays. Neither is available yet, so the jury is out—way out—on whether or not our future has two screens, or just one.

If our 140-character bits of brilliance ever overwhelm you, and they will, try managing the streams with these five best Twitter clients, courtesy Lifehacker. You'll be deftly surfing a sea of Tweets with us twits in no time at all. [Lifehacker]

Here are ten cameras designed to capture the kinds of images that humans by all means shouldn't be able to see, and that you and I will probably never have the opportunity—or need—to shoot.

Why, it's just a handy list of the five best online apartment search tools the web has to offer. Perfect for apartment hunting season (i.e. September-ish, back to school time, etc).

As with all Lifehacker lists, this one was generated by readers like you. [Lifehacker]

Here are ten machines that are so enormous that they'll screw with your sense of what's large, what's small, and what is truly gigantic—each handily put into scale.

A fair bit longer than the Eiffel Tower laid flat, is how big. [DarkRoasted Blend]

The Komatsu 9xx Series mining trucks look a bit like Tonka toys. No, they look exactly like Tonka toys. [MiningTopNews]

24-foot-tall Tonka toys, mind you. [E-Transport.ro]

Howard Hughes' ill-conceived, ill-fated Spruce Goose has always been fascinating to me. HAY GUYS, LET'S MAKE A PLANE OUT OF WOOD! WHAT COULD GO WRONG? [Colorado U]

Along with being a hugely strange idea, it was hugely huge. That's the 1019-ft Queen Mary cruise ship, for reference. [DriveArchive]

The Bagger 288 strip-mining machine has gained plenty of notoriety on the internet, mainly on account of looking like it was designed to kill. It isn't, at all, but you can't fault us for jumping to conclusions. Look at it! [DRB]

The general public's unease about this horror machine won't be helped by the fact that it's large enough to saw large ships in half, and gobble up a bulldozer without so much as flinching. [Wikimedia]

Old Soviet military hardware is incredibly interesting—a vestige of a time when both of the world's superpowers applied their distinctively different philosophies to a race to design some of the most ridiculous machines ever created. But surely this photo of a Typhoon Class submarine is just the victim of some zoom lens distortion, right? [DGIBNET]

Ha ha, not at all. Those there are humans, see? [Webpark.ru]

The Space Shuttle Conveyor is a literally-named, track-driven machine that you've probably seen before, saddled with one of NASA's various, now-dormant spacecraft. But it's hard to even judge how big the shuttle is, much less its ride. [NASA]

As you probably guessed, it's inconceivably gigantic.

The B-2 Bomber is another familiar piece of hardware, but one that is usually pictured without comparison, flying through the air, looking secretive. It's a stealth plane, and it's shaped like a Styrofoam glider, so I always imagined it as fairly lithe. [Af.mil]

It's actually startlingly large, with a wingspan of over 172ft. [OklahomaCity on Flickr]

Anyone with knowledge of power generation can tell you that it's no wimpy windmill that can pump out six megawatts of power, and that this windmill must be fairly substantial.

Whether they'll be able to find the words to fully describe how substantial it is is another matter entirely. Those orange specks peeking out of the fan's face like insects? Those are maintenance workers. [Giz]

At first glance the Knock Nevis supertanker, with its weird name and goofy-large "No Smoking" sign below the officer's deck, looks like your average cargo ship: Pretty big, pretty flat and and pretty boring. [Wikimedia]

Far from it: The largest ship in the world, measuring in at over 1,500 feet long, ole' Nevis is a floating city. [DamnCoolPics]

The Mil Mi-26 is one of the classic sense-of-scale killers, since its proportions are almost exactly like a regular helicopter, just bigger. How much bigger? [Wikimedia]

That little black thing hanging from the Mi-26's hook there is a Chinook, which is nearly a hundred feet long. [Aerospaceweb]

The MacRumors forums have a couple of ongoing, constantly updated lists, though of course we can't verify their massive efforts. Here's part one and everything since part one of their informal list, and a slightly more structured list can be found here.

If you want something a little easier to read, iPhone User Guide has posted a nice and simple list of (at the moment) 113 new updates they've found, from font changes to new customization options to iPhone 3.0's ability to display album information when the device is locked.

And, as always, check out our features:

• 10 Things to Check Out in iPhone 3.0
• Our iPhone 3.0 Review
• The Complete Guide to iPhone 3.0

We all know the US lags way behind in broadband penetration (a phrase that never fails to sound far dirtier than it is), but it's still a little disheartening to find exactly how far. The top 5, which consists of South Korea, Singapore, The Netherlands, Denmark, and Taiwan, are all over 80% penetration while the US struggles at only 60%. Hell, even Canada hit 76%, and they've got way more land and way fewer people. This will change, of course; Obama's pledged to increase broadband penetration, though at the moment he still has to fistfight his way through the legislature or whatever it is he needs to do to get anything passed. Still, it's nice to see Estonia get some good press for once. [Ars Technica]

Smallest CRT TV
Although smaller CRT screens can be had (such as those used in old camcorder viewfinders), they won't hook up to your Wii. This 1.5-inch TV will actually connect to A/V equipment via standard RCA cables. See the video for the tiniest game of Wario ever. Strangely, this little marvel came as part of a miniature living room diorama.

Smallest PC
It's the world's smallest Linux PC, or else it's very close. Smaller than the Gumstix, smaller than the SpaceCube, the PicoTux is horrendously underpowered, has two three connectors: a 5.5v DC input, ethernet jack, and serial port. But none of that matters, because this is pure novelty rendered in silicon and metal.

Smallest 35mm Camera
Anyone can make a tiny digital camera, but matters are a little more complicated when you have to accommodate a 35mm strip of film. The Rollei was built in 1962, and remains one of the smallest fully operational standard film cameras ever made. How small is it? That's it next to a regular roll of film, inset. Small by 35mm standards, but probably gargantuan to you and your digicam-addled mind.

Smallest Combustion Engine
Sensationally hailed as a battery replacement a few years back, this tiny little butane-powered combustion engine was developed at the University of Birmingham. It promptly fell off the map, probably because people stopped listening to its maker after he suggested using one of these carbon emitters in a pacemaker. Seriously.

Smallest Fuel Cell
Speaking of battery replacements, here's a plausible one: this 0.7 volt, 3mm fuel cell created at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign won't do your iPod much good, and actually carries less charge than your average button cell watch battery. But as a proof of concept and a sign of better things to come, this self-contained speck of a fuel cell is thrilling.

Smallest Optical Mouse
Our own John Mahoney put it best when he said of the Z-Nano, "the threshold of practicality here has been violated." Indeed it has. The Z-Nano may be the only mouse you could buy that would be less comfortable than your netbook's touchpad.

Smallest Hard Disk Drive
I'm sure there was a time when making teensy hard drives seemed like a great idea. It was a time that spawned such wonders as the Microdrive HDD-in-a-CF-card, and which culminated in this, Toshiba's .85-inch, 8GB hard drive. As for why they never got any smaller, well, last month I purchased a 16GB Compact Flash card for $24. So.

Smallest Production Car
The smallest production car ever, the Peel P50 was manufactured on Britain's Isle of Man for an original price of £199. That was in 1962. The P50's salient features, not to mention its size, are best illustrated on your left, by Jeremy Clarkson's ill-fated test drive on Top Gear.

Smallest Revolver
A 5.5cm long Swiss revolver that fires actual 2.3mm (that'd be about .09 caliber) bullets at over 300mph, the SwissMiniGun is Guinness-certified. It's illegal to import due to being technically unclassifiable under US law, and it's said to be fatal. Possibly just as a choking hazard.

Smallest Netbook
There are smaller UMPCs out there, but they're a nigh-on impossible pain to use, and most of them run custom-built Linux distributions that can make simple tasks a chore. The UMID mbook doesn't sacrifice much for its size—it's Atom-powered, runs XP, has a full keyboard and even a webcam—it's just scaled down. How far? Well, that screen you see there, that's 4.3 inches.

1. Grin and Bear it
The polite thing to do when you get a gift that you want nothing to do with is to smile, thank the person who gave it to you, then toss the crappy gadget in the back of your closet forever. This essentially forfeits the gift to uselessness in the name of manners, which is nice, I guess.

2. Regift
If you still want to get some value out of your crappy gift, simply give it to someone else. Then they'll have to figure out some way to make an electronic thesaurus useful, and you won't have to spend the money on another present. It's the circle of life.

3. Return it
If the person who gave you your gift won't be offended, you can always just ask for the receipt and then go swap it out for something you actually want. On the upside, they'll learn that you don't like gifts like that, but on the downside, you'll probably hurt their feelings.

4. eBay
If you're too polite to ask for the receipt but still want to turn your crappy gift into cash, eBay is the way to go. Just make sure you take nice looking pictures and put some time into making the listing look good, as that's as important as anything when it comes to getting a good price for your crappy gadget.

5. Hack it
When aunts hand you lemons, make lemonade. Why not open up that MP3 player and see if you can't make it a bit more interesting? Bust out that soldering iron and cement yourself as being the biggest geek in the family once more.

6. Destroy it
Destroying a piece of technology can be very satisfying. If all else fails, you might as well wreck your crappy gift. Blow it up, run it over with your car, light it on fire or toss it off the roof of your office building. It may just be the only way to make a 64MB USB thumb drive fun.