HBO has added their own iPhone app to the App Store this week, offering interactive programming guide and clips and previews of samples.

Although full-length episodes are not available through the app, the app will give users the option to buy full episodes from iTunes or Amazon with one click.

The app can  connect to Twitter and Facebook.

Video clips will be available for True Blood, Entourage, Bored to Death and others, and behind-the-scenes features will be available alongside bios of the actors. The interactive guide allows users to check HBO episode guides for all shows or favorites to select the notifications.

Rival premium broadcaster Showtime has an app as well, but streams some episodes for free.

Simply surfing the apps is a highly impractical method of finding what you need.  Apps With over 120,000 and climbing – with some predicting that the Apple Apps App Store could reach 300,000 in 2010, users have a desperate need for tools that can help identify applications that meet their needs or may be of interest to them.

Apple’s Genius feature for the App Store recommends apps that you might be interested in, but – despite its name – the algorithm is not very smart. The Apple Genius feature bases its recommendations purely on past app purchases you have made.

This approach has two critical limitations. First, because there is no test or test apps before purchase,  many users purchase a wide variety of apps that they subsequently delete or never use. A purchase is a purchase, though, and those apps are reflected in the Genius recommendations. The second issue is that the Genius feature will not help if you are looking for an app for a specific purpose that does not fit the mold of your purchases before app.

A new app available through the Apple iTunes App Store promises to help users find the iPhone and iPod Touch apps to satisfy their needs and interests. Appsaurus provides more intelligent app recommendations than Apple’s recently introduced Genius feature.

Appsaurus tackles those issues by analyzing your needs more intelligently. Rather than only looking at past app purchases, Appsaurus “learns” about your interests and habits. To begin the process, Appsaurus presents you with lists of apps and you tap the ones you like and swipe away the ones you don’t like to “train” Appsaurus.

As you continue to train the app, Appsaurus “evolves” until it reaches the “All-Knowing” stage. Even then, though, Appsaurus continues to hone its understanding of what you like based on apps you choose or prohibition. .

Appsaurus also does more than just make app recommendations–it is dubbed “a thesaurus for apps”, offering a powerful search capability that is missing from the native App Store. You can browse the extensive inventory of Apple’s App Store based on keywords,  or app price, or other criteria.

Variety is great, and it’s very impressive to have 120,000 apps going on 300,000. I expect that there will be many other app search tools and “thesauruses” following in Appsaurus’ footsteps, and that Apple itself will continue to improve the  Genius feature to meet the needs of users.

For now, Appsaurus represents a must-have app, though, if you want a chance to be  able to find the app needle in the App Store haystack.

This week’s U.S. iPhone revenue charts see Activision’s increasingly evergreen Call of Duty: World at War Zombies and Gameloft’s distinctly Halo-like N.O.V.A. leading over EA’s Need for Speed: Shift and The Sims 3.

This week grossing U. S. App Store titles are:

1. Call of Duty: World at War Zombies ($9.99)
2. N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance ($6.99)
3. Need for Speed: Shift ($6.99)
4. The Sims 3 ($6.99)
5. Tetris ($2.99)
6. Rock Band ($4.99)
7. Bejeweled 2 ($2.99)
8. Madden NFL 10 ($5.99)
9. Skee-Ball ($0.99)
10. James Cameron’s Avatar ($9.99)

Activision’s Call of Duty: World at War Zombies retakes the top chart spot this week, pushing Gameloft’s Halo-like FPS N.O.V.A. to second place.

EA’s Need for Speed:Shift jumped to third place after a recent sale price drop momentum.The publisher continues to see chart success with The Sims 3, Tetris, Rock Band, and Madden NFL 10, all of which place high in today’s rankings.

Freeverse’s 99-cent arcade bowling sim Skee-Ball returns to the top-grossing charts at ninth place this week, as Gameloft’s iPhone adaptation of James Cameron’s Avatar follows close behind at tenth.

The data are courtesy of informing public sales of Apple.All titles in the App Store’s “Games” category are considered in chart rankings.

Dearborn, Mich. — Ford is set to become the first automaker to offer a factory-installed HD radio option with iTunes tagging when it introduces the technology next year. This announcement follows a statement last week that the next-generation Ford Sync will essentially allow passengers to turn their vehicle into a rolling Wi-Fi hot spot by plugging a mobile modem or “air card” into the standard USB port.

Ford said that about 2,000 radio stations in the United States being broadcast in digital HD quality, with another 1.100 radio stations and HD2 channels HD3.

With the HD radio comes iTunes tagging capability. Through the Sync system, drivers will be able to simply press a button labeled “Tag” on the radio display, storing up to 100 songs heard over the radio in the receiver’s memory.Customers can connect an iPod to data synchronization system and receive a list of reproduction of these ‘labels’ songs appear automatically. You can then conveniently preview and buy all the music you want.

New additions “iTunes Tagging HD Radio technology and are strong to the growing collection of comfort and technology features of Ford, we offer our customers make driving more pleasant.This is another example of Ford’s commitment to bring the widest variety of factory-installed customer-focused technology, features and conveniences to millions of people,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas.

Next year, all Ford vehicles in 2011 will offer the standard radio, HD Radio,Sirius Satellite Radio and even Internet radio if you choose to set it up.

The system will automatically pick up HD signals and provide exclusive access to HD radio HD2/HD3 channels. These “mini-stations” or “sister” channels are found directly adjacent to the main channel on the dial, if they are available. Examples of these stations include a dedicated HD3 channel in Dallas to cover the Cowboys 24/7 and a similar HD2 station in Pittsburgh to cover the Penguins around the clock.