AppUp: An App Store for Your Netbook

It's an app, app, app, app world. The little programs give iPhones, Droids, Nexuses and other smartphones their superpowers, so why shouldn't netbooks enjoy similar perks? After all, they're compact, low-powered devices; apps seem like a natural fit.

Intel certainly seems to think so, hence the introduction of the AppUp Center -- an app store for netbooks. This free tool provides a netbook-friendly interface for browsing, purchasing, and installing netbook-friendly software. Take a look:

By my estimate, the AppUp Center currently offers around 100 neatly categorized apps, a good portion of which are free. Most of the others sell in the $0.99-9.99 range, though there's actually one title (a video-conferencing app) priced at $199.99.

Because this is a store, you need to sign up for an account and provide a credit card number, even if you just download freebie apps. Kind of annoying, but understandable.

On the plus side, all it takes is a click of the Get or Buy App link for any given title to download and then install it. Gotta like that kind of speed and simplicity.

AppUp Center is currently in beta, and it shows. The program crashed on me the first time I tried to create an account, and its navigation tools leave something to be desired. But if you're netbook user, I definitely recommend giving it a try. If nothing else, you're likely to discover some great netbook apps you didn't even know existed.