Don’t you just hate it when you buy an app and then see it on sale (or worse, free) the next day? Pandorabox, from AppZap, is designed to take the agony out of app shopping with an app that lets you know when apps are on sale. You can filter apps by new (free and paid), by price drop and new apps.

Pandorabox will also let you know several times a day when free and paid apps are released into the App Store.

You can find out more about an app by going to a list and tapping on it and if you decide you want to download it, another tap will take you to the App Store. If you prefer to wait, you can add the app to your favorites and download it later. You can also search for apps by name and download or save them to your favorites.

There are a few of these app-tracking apps in the App Store. Manta Research’s AppSniper and Proximi’s BargainBin come immediately to mind. The three use different interfaces, of course, but they all pretty much do the same things.

In terms of features, I tend to lean toward AppSniper. One of its features I like is that you can “snipe” an app. Search for the app you would like to track, set the price you’re willing to pay for it, and if, or when, the app falls below your threshold, AppSniper will alert you.

AppSniper also lists the most popular apps in games, music, weather and in other categories you’ll find in the AppStore. It also has configurations for when it syncs with its servers, filters for genre, store, sellers and others.

I looked at AppSniper a few months back and found it somewhat ho-hum at the time. What I particularly disliked was that the app crashed on me constantly and I took it off my iPhone. I decided to look at it again as part of this review of Pandorabox and it’s been updated quite a bit. It hasn’t crashed on me yet. However, it loads slowly, compared to the other two apps.

AppSniper is $0.99, unlike Pandorabox and BargainBin, which are free.

If you’re interested in keeping an eye on what iPhone apps go on sale or when new apps are introduced, any one of these apps will do the job. Try the free ones, first, just in case AppSniper happens to go on sale.

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category: Best Free Apps, Productivity