Wading through the thousands of apps available for iPhone and iPad can be a mind-boggling experience, and let's be honest - there are many you don't need, or they don't do exactly what they promise. The new Sydney Cafe Culture app isn't one of these; in fact, if you are a lover of caffeine and live in Sydney, it's an essential guide to the best cafes on offer.

Created by local travel writers, and husband and wife duo, Sally and Gordon Hammond, this is one app which is easy to use, and has 300 cafes in its database. There are several ways to use it. One is to browse through listings in alphabetical order; click on any one and it will take to you a real photograph of the cafe's frontage, and place it on a map. 

The information provided includes a full review, even down to the size of the servings and what coffee beans are used, whether or not street parking is available, opening hours and more. There are also filters so you can search through the listings very specifically, from places which offer all-day breakfast, to bookshop cafes, with additional sorting tools allowing you to organise by name, distance, cost or neighbourhood.

The other way to search is by cafe name. If you're spending the afternoon in Dee Why and someone has recommended a specific place for your post-lunch caffeine fix, type its name into the search engine and if the cafe is listed in the database, the app will find it for you with all the same information as above. 

Other facilities include allowing for user comments about the cafes listed - the good, the bad and the ugly - and thanks to Gordon's skills as a photographer there is a huge database of images which some people may find useful, if the aesthetics of a cafe are of importance. There's also a map function which places where you are in relation to local cafes. Zoom in and click on any of the flags, and it will bring up some basic information about that cafe. Click on the cafe image, and it will take you directly to the listing; click on the info and it will offer up directions.

Since it first launched, this nifty app has already been updated to version 1.3, featuring another 60 listings with images. That makes the total number of cafes in the database 300. If you decided to download it you'll need to connect your iPhone or iPad to wi-fi, as the photography element makes it quite big at 237mb. There's also a single version for both pieces of equipment which is highly convenient, eliminating the need for different version and getting up to speed with both.