There are certain apps that are so good that I tend to take them for granted. In other words, I tend to assume that everyone already knows how cool those apps are, and that I might not have anything more to say about them that would add to what you already know. But then I stop, and realize, there are a lot of apps to keep an eye on, and at the same time, the really good apps – the ones you turn to again and again – typically progress and evolve, as the developers add new features and functionality that enhance the overall use of that app in the first place.

So where am I going with all of this? I continue to be hooked on Socially! I’ve been a big fan of this free, feature-loaded app since its early days in Ovi Store – I first wrote about it here in the Ovi Daily App a little more than a year ago.

In that time, the developers at Antarix who created Socially have continued to work on it, refine it, and make it better each and every time. Interestingly, on the Antarix website, they describe themselves as: “A young web startup obsessed with combining the social web & the ubiquitous mobile phone.” Happily, their obsession is a healthy one, and it is entirely to our benefit.

Currently, version 3.04 is available for download – if you have an older version of the app, or at any point after your first install – you can check for updates within the app simply be clicking the button in the upper-right corner of the app that looks like an arrow pointing down. There you will see a prompt to “Check for new version.”

From the Settings button – which looks like a small gear on the top-level navigation in the app, you can control how the app connects to the Web (which is needed for updates), how often you will get new updates, and more.

Socially packs a lot of goodies into its neat and well-organized package of social media information sharing. For starters, the app includes an easy way for you to sync it with your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare accounts. You can enable any of those four services in just a few steps by allowing those services to be accessed by the Socially application – this is all permission-based stuff. You will have to do this individually for each service, but once you set it up, you’re good to go.

First, as you can see, everything within the app is designed so that it is easy to read, and makes good use of the available space on your mobile screen. The app works in both portrait or landscape mode, but I find it is easier to view in portrait. The app will toggle through the list of updates presented on screen, and if you need more, you can refresh simply by pressing the first button showing the arrows going around in a circle in the top-level navigation.

If you want to see the latest updates and highlights from your friends and contacts to a specific service, such as Facebook, simply click on the icon for that service, and a list of recent updates will display. Click on any of those updates that you like, and you will have options for further interaction, such as “Like” and “Comment” for Facebook posts; and Reply, Retweet and Favorite for Twitter posts. You get the idea.

When you have something to say, or Tweet, or post to your wall, one comment does it all. From the home screen of Socially, click on the icon for the speech bubble, and you will have a prompt to “Say something” – and below that text-input box you will see that all of the services you have enabled will be checked, so you can post to any or all four of those services at once. You can also add your location to your updates, if you want.

Now, here’s the crazy part … I’m just scratching the surface of what this app can do … Among other things you will find:

• Any of your phone contacts will be synced with the accounts for those individuals that you are connected to online, so when you receive a call from that person, you will see his/her latest update before you even answer the phone …
• It has a built-in call blocking feature to keep away unwanted callers …
• Within the Facebook section, you can call up a list of upcoming birthdays from your friend list …
• In the Twitter section, you have search, and top trends, and you can see detailed information about who is following you/who you are following, etc.

I could go on and on. If you need to know more, there are a couple of options. In the app, there is a detailed Help section, within the “Options” portion of the app.

Or you can visit the Socially website for a detailed overview of the app, as well as a listing of the features found in the latest version of the app. It is also worth noting that Socially is available for a huge range of Nokia Symbian devices – a complete list is available online.

Socially is free to download in Ovi Store – honestly, I don’t know how they continue to do that! – and you won’t see any ads while using the app either. The features just seem to keep on coming – I wonder what the developers at Antarix will think of next?