Looks like Apple store employees will be getting at least 3 exclusive and separate applications that will help with several important tasks. One of them will allow employees to swap iPhones or iPods on the store floor, which previously could only be done at the Genius Bar.

Another proprietary app will help employees in the stock room. The apps should make tasks done in all of Apple’s retail locations easier and more efficient.

Wait. I thought HDTVs were all about watching actual TV. Well, VUDU thinks it’s all about apps and they may be right. VUDU has today made both Picasa and Flickr access possible through LG and Mitsubishi sets with integrated VUDU software.

Yes, this was already available to those of you relying on one of VUDU’s set-top boxes, but some of us like to have everything within the display itself. Pandora streaming is also available on VUDU-fied Mitsubishi panels, but LG has “requested that only free TV and games be available on their devices.”

What better way to celebrate Halloween then with an iPhone app or 10. Below are 10 of our favorites. All are ghoulishly good fun and will get you in the Halloween spirit. Plus, these will give you something to do while you are hiding in your house, pretending you aren’t home and eating all the candy yourself. You disgust me. But if you share some of that chocolate, I won’t tell.

Apple has announced yet another milestone along with all of the other milestones it has hit. In the iPhone and iPod Touch App store, they have now reached 2 billion iPhone apps downloaded.

This news comes only five months after Apple announced that their app store had reached the 1 Billion mark. One wonders how many fart and booby apps that accounts for.

Pizza Hut has their own iPhone app, so why not Starbucks? The first application is called myStarbucks and is basically a store locater and beverage information tool. Users can use it to check the nutrition value of the coffee or food that Starbucks offers. Good luck with that.

The other app helps users pay off the remaining credit on their cards, allowing one to transfer money into it. Starbucks hopes that the iPhone applications will give users a faster way to order, thereby making more sales.

We can thank Apple for the massive boom in awareness and availability of apps for smartphones. The Apple App Store has been a runaway sales success and has spawned a litany of competing offerings from other smartphone makers.

According to research firm ABI Research the future of smartphone and mobile applications lies in cloud computing. The research firm says that a new architecture for cloud-based apps will change the way the apps are developed, acquired, and used. ABI figures that the market for could-based apps will reach $20 million annually by 2014.

PlayStation’s Al De Leon was recently asked about possibility of developers producing non-game applications for the new PSP Go. His answer? He stated that content “will mostly be games, but there’s an opportunity to look at non-gaming applications.”

While that isn’t hard confirmation, it does suggest that they’ve began to look into non-game apps. Any guesses as to what we may see? Maybe we’ll learn more at Gamescom in August.

It hasn’t been long and there may not be a ton of Pre apps available yet, but apparently there are enough for an impressive 666,511 downloads as of June 17th. By now it is likely close to or past the 700,000 mark.

I’d call that a success. As shown in the above graph, they’ve been rising steadily as more apps become available, and we don’t see any signs of the numbers dropping. It’s still early, but things are looking great for Pre app downloads. That graph is sure to spike as more fart and beer apps show up.

Nokia’s Ovi Store will start out with a large catalog of items compared to their direct competitors, like the iTunes App Store and the Android Market. They’ll start out with about a stunning 20,000 apps. The Ovi Store is scheduled to open in late spring, just in time for the release of the Nokia N97 in July.

The store items are said to include games, general apps and even short videos. GPS will be used to filter content by city and locality. This marks a sharp contrast to the first app stores. The iTunes App Store started with only 500 apps and the Android Market started with about 50 apps. App stores are here to stay.

Motorola has announced the MOTOROKR W6, which is a clamshell targeted at those into sports and music. The phone is preloaded with training software to keep track of your physical condition, calories burned and your workout schedule.

It also comes with dedicated music keys, a robust media player and support for stereo Bluetooth. Other specs include 1.3 Megapixel camera and Micro SD card slot. Nothing on pricing and availability just yet. Looks like the phone may hit Mexico first, then hit the rest of the world.

Apparently there aren’t enough slobbering babies teething while biting down on an iPhone. That must be why a developer in Colorado created an iPhone app that caters to babies specifically. The iPhone Pacifier 1 application.

The app teaches kids aged 1-3 basic cognitive, vocabulary, and counting skills while keeping their attention with “stunning visual effects” and classical music. Hmmm. Sounds just like adults. The difficulty settings can be adjusted should you have a smarter than average baby.

The Application Store is coming in July. It’s chock full of applications too. Here’s a brief rundown. eBay has an auction application for the iPhone—available from the store for free. Loopt is an application that uses CoreLocation services to find people near you, you stalker. A dedicated TypePad client will be available for free. How about the AP delivering a news channel, that can handle photos, news, and video from the AP network. Mow Cow is a music application that allows you to have a band in your pocket, just be careful where you play. Major League Baseball even got in on the act with a baseball app for stats, results, and video. Modality will let you see anatomical images and really zoom in for some queasy fun. And that’s not a complete list either.