This month there's a shoot 'em up, the complete Shakespeare, travel planning and task management, a recording studio and a recipe book: all available on an iPhone near you.

First stop is Earth Vs Moon (£1.19) a shoot 'em up that evokes the classics (Space Invaders and Missile Command) but renders them as a glossy, graphics-heavy solar bunfight with explosions galore, no tiresome back story (they're coming to get us) and plenty of sly humour (the end of the tutorial mission is laugh-out-loud funny). Plenty of levels and enemy variations, five monster bosses and a super-simple control system together with a nice retro vibe make this a palpable hit; and there's a free 'lite' version too.

Those of a more cultural turn will enjoy Shakespeare (free) which crams all the bard's plays (including ones of more doubtful heritage like Two Noble Kinsmen and Sir Thomas More), poems and sonnets into a single iPhone application that's viewable in portrait or landscape, has re-sizable text and is completely searchable. There a couple of sweet navigational touches too: tap the bottom of the screen to move the text up a page at a time and turn the iPhone upside down to view the content full-screen.

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Want somewhere to go while you catch up on all that reading? Kayak (free) aggregates flights and hotel information from more than 400 travel sites and delivers them to the iPhone. Now that's a lot of information on such a tiny screen, but Kayak does a good job with plenty of ways to filter results (cheapest, soonest, by airport or airline and so on), so it doesn't descend into a disorganised mess.

Another way to stay organised is to use Put Things Off (£1.79) the self-styled laid-back task manager. Rather than badgering you for details like priorities and projects or weighing everything down by making it synch with an online or desktop version, PTO simply divides tasks into things that need doing today and those that can be put off. Deferred tasks can be assigned a specific date or you can just put them off for a set number of days. It could use a couple of extra features: a badge on the icon to show how many tasks are due that day and alarms so it checks in with you rather than the other way around, but even so, this is a relaxed and attractive way to get things done.

Being organised leaves you more time to play and there's no better way for the musically inclined to get their kicks than with Fourtrack (£5.99) an electronic version of the classic four track portastudio which lets you record a track, then listen to it playing back while you a record a second, then a third and so on; you can even bounce multiple tracks down onto a single track and then carry on recording. It works best with an external mic (if you use the iPhone's built-in one you can only listen back on headphones) but the results are excellent. The latest version adds basic drums tracks to the metronome sounds and if they could only work out an elegant way to export mixes directly from the iPhone this would be the Best. Music. App. Ever.

And finally, everyone needs to eat, right? With Epicurious Recipes and Shopping List (free) you'll never be stuck for a menu idea again. This iPhone app gives you access to more than 25,000 recipes, lets you save the ones you like and e-mail them to friends. You can browse by meal type, use powerful search filters like ingredients, cuisine, dietary requirements and so on, and then have Epicurious build a shopping list based on the ingredients which you can then tick off as you buy them. when it's time to cook, turn the iPhone on its side to get a full screen view of the preparation instructions.

As above. All the apps are available from the App Store on iTunes.