Here are our picks of the top 4 app updates that brought great features and more stability to our iPhones this week.

Initially, the eBay application didn't provide very much for us to do. You could see information on the items you were selling, bidding on, and place a new bid. You could also search for new auctions, but that was about as good as it got. With the latest update eBay has added the option for advanced search refinement to provide users with better search results, along with an auto-complete feature with suggestions from the most popular related queries. Sellers can now see the number of users watching their auction. eBay has also added support for international search and language support. The app's responsiveness and speed has also improved significantly. The improvements in this update come closer to eliminating the need for iPhone users to head directly to the eBay site.

Pandora

Pandora has released v1.2 of their iPhone app and we're more than impressed. We were in love with the app from the beginning, but there were some kinks and quirks that needed to be worked out. Some of these issues have been addressed in v1.2. For example, streaming quality and connection over not only the 3G network, but also the weaker EDGE has improved significantly. Pandora has graciously provided the option for high quality streaming over 3G. Now users don't have to suffer EDGE quality when on the 3G network. Users can now view past bookmarked songs and create stations from them, share them, buy them in iTunes, or delete them. Overall station editing has improved with the option to include stations in your Quickmix. All in all, the options for this great app have been given a significant boost in the latest update.

Palringo

Palringo is one of the most stable multi-IM apps available in the App Store. The latest update for Palringo provides a significant list of new features and stability fixes. New features include:

• Unread private messages now saved on exit
• Progress bars for sending/receiving voice/photos
• Reduced network usage (now using compression so that logging in over EDGE/GPRS/3G should be noticeably faster)
• Support for Y! Japan
• Support for SSL/TLS on XMPP (Jabber/GTalk)
• Spam filtering for non-Palringo services such as MSN
• Ability to disable predictive input
• Ability to set the default status to Away/Busy when leaving Palringo (while the server keeps you connected)
• Remembers your status on all services (MSN/Yahoo/etc.)
• Added russian translation

The update also includes numerous fixes for adding GTalk and XMPP accounts, international character support, more accurate French and Polish translations, sending high-resolution photos, and the "invisible" button now works. We highly recommend trying out this app if you haven't already.

Snapture

Snapture is only available for jailbroken iPhones, but is one of the most fantastic camera apps available. Snapture provides more options for taking photos with your iPhone and has replaced the default camera app for many iPhone users. The latest update for Snapture includes support for firmware 2.1 along with three new color filters modes: red, blue, and green. Snapture is available in Cydia, though not Installer. You can download the free, but basic version of Snapture or you can pony up $7.99 to get the premium version and the newest beta features first.

QuickView from Snapture Labs on Vimeo.

The Palringo app for the iPhone is small enough to download over Edge or 3G. To get started you'll need to have a Palringo account. If you don't already have one, there's a link available in the app that will take you to the registration site. Registration is quick and easy and no confirmation email is necessary to respond to.

Supported services for Palringo include:

• Windows Live Messenger
• Yahoo! Messenger
• AIM
• Gadu-Gadu
• ICQ
• XMPP / Jabber
• Google Talk
• iChat

Conversing with Friends

The user interface for Palringo is fantastic! Adding networks and friends to each of the services is quick and easy. All of your online contacts are shown together alphabetically regardless of service. When you receive a message, you'll see a small mail icon pop up in the lower left corner accompanied by a chirping notification sound. Press the mail icon and you'll see a list of all your conversations along with a notification of which ones have new messages. You can leave conversations open and simply swipe your finger across the screen to switch from one conversation to another. You can also send an image from your camera or albums on your iPhone to friends.

Goodbye AOL and Hello Palringo

Palringo for the iPhone is a great application to have and highly recommended. According to Palringo's description of the app,

"Using Palringo uses hardly any data: just one megabyte is sufficient for Palringo to send and receive the equivalent of about 4500 SMS messages, 32 picture messages, or up to 15 minutes of voice messages."