I have yet to pay for an app. I actually went thru all of the apps categories in the Apps World (not the games though) and looked at all the highly rated and free ones. Here're what I got (including some that I might've found on the web.
News: Yahoo news launcher, Social Feeds (it's pre-loaded but get some good RSS on there; the AP ones are good)
Sports: ScoreMobile is highly ranked, ESPN launcher, NBA Game Time (a little buggy)
Weather: The Weather Channel
Look up stuff: Flixster for movies, Yelp, LAPL (Los Angeles Public Library) To Go, ScanLife (sorta works for me)
Navigation: BB Maps, Google Maps, BlackBerry Traffic
For fun: Dilbert (20+ yrs of archives, free! You can go-to a specific day, *favorite* certain ones, or do a random generator...very cool), One Touch Flashlight, Storm Piano (do a search on this site)
Improving your stock BB: BeBuzz Free App (you can set certain callers to blink in various colors on your indicator light, plus you can get a blinking light for your MISSED CALLS!)
BerryWeather
Waze
Google Maps
Tether
PageOnce - just heard about this this weekend and it is possibly the best app to keep track of banking accounts, utility accounts, bills credit cards. So far I have my banking, my retirement account, netflix, Comcast, and Comed accounts on there. Gives you a nice quick glance on where you stand with finances.
There is a good selection of Blackberry apps ar cnet.com. Click on the dowloads tab and be amazed. Many cool apps which rent on appworld such as one that let's you take a pic of som$ething in a foreign language thenm converts it to Emglish.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
Google Mobile app
3001 Wisdom Quotes
Kindle App
The Light (flashlight)
QR Code Scanner
Cardstar
Ebay
Allstate
Linkedin
Google maps
Weather Channel
Pageonce
Amazon MP3
The last two are my favorites...
Beejive, waze, barcode assistant, alarm clock, the light (flashlight), Pattern Lock, My BB Bat, Gmail, Speaker On, Tunein Radio, Dropbox, Lookout mobile security, and don't forget, Crackberry store !...