It’s not outside the realm of possibility that we’ve spent waayyyy more time on the new Web Apps Index than is really healthy, but how much sleep does a person really need?

One of the great things about bringing together all of this iPhone- and iPod Touch-specific software is the inspirational function of a site like this — seeing how everyone has creatively responded to these new platforms and their parameters. The software that’s being designed right now will not only help us to be more productive, but will also help to establish some of the basic features and functions that users will grow to expect as this platform develops and solidifies.

We were blown away, for example, by the nifty interface on Ultralingua’s dictionary app (Ars Technica also mentions this briefly in their story about the introduction of the Web Apps Index). The brilliance of Ultralingua’s popup-list interface is not only handy in the context of their program (and we see interesting and ready-made educational applications for software like this), but also suggests possibilities for other applications: an attendance program that lets teachers click on a student’s picture to record various kinds of absences, a survey or “clicker” tool that lets students choose various options in a “multiple-choice” format, an interactive timeline application that lets people see the contexts — cultural, historical, political and economic — that surround a particular date or event. Or take Tap & Go’s ability to combine maps and comments to make an interactive writing experience for an archeological site or a museum, or use an interface like iActu’s as a front end for interacting with e-portfolios… You get the idea.

So while the Web Apps Index doesn’t currently have an “education” channel for iPhone software, we see the site itself as inherently educational — and we think that’s a very good thing, indeed.