By now most everyone knows about Apple's deficient Maps app in iOS 6 -- particularly those who counted on the former Google-powered app for public transit directions. Apple CEO Tim Cook publically apologized for the Maps app and said the company is working to make the app better. But in the meantime, if you need public transit directions, you're going to have to rely on third-party apps from the App Store.

Before you start sifting through hundreds of transit apps, I put together this collection so you can get the help you need right away. It's important to note that there are several apps that are made for specific cities and you can try searching for your city in the App Store if you want a more localized experience. I chose apps that cover most of the big cities in the U.S. along with several other countries.

In this image, TransitMap shows where the train lets off and you'll continue from there by bus.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET )

TransitMap (99 cents) gives you public transit directions for the quickest route to your destination and offers global transit inf... [Read more]

A little Internet Explorer shell named Netcaptor introduced tabbed browsing, and major players like Opera and Mozilla Firefox (and then Google Chrome) made the feature a default tool for surfing the Web. Even though Microsoft eventually added tabbed browsing to its own browser with Internet Explorer 7, the idea of tabs never really translated to the Windows Explorer ... until QTTabBar. (Credit: http://qttabbar.sourceforge.net/ )

QTTabBar is an extension that brings tab functionality to the Windows Explorer file browser. Began as a project by a Japanese developer known as Quizo, QTTabBar (which also goes by QT TabBar) added tabs to Window Explorer during the many years when Windows XP and Vista were the latest releases. For unknown reasons, Quizo dropped development on the extension before Windows 7, but it was picked up by a user known as "ShiningMasamune" (real name Paul Accisano), who has since made it compatible with Windows 7.

The version we tried out today is written by Mr. Accisano, who has made sign... [Read more]

The Yandex Store.

(Credit: Yandex )

Google Play will soon have another competitor.

Russian search engine Yandex announced today that it will soon launch an "alternative" application marketplace for Android users. Dubbed Yandex.Store, the marketplace will offer nearly 40,000 applications and allow vendors to bundle another app store into their devices.

Yandex.Store is also a white-box offering, meaning vendors can place their own branding on top of it. According to Yandex, Russian carrier MegaFon has already signed on to the service.

As with other application stores, Yandex's option takes 30 percent of the revenue generated from apps. In addition, Yandex.store supports in-app purchasing with help from mobile billing and credit cards.

Still, Yandex.Store has a long way to go to even come close to matching Google Play. Just last week, Google announced that its application store, which is running on the vast majority of Android-based devices, hit 675,000 available apps and 25 billion downloads.

Yandex.Store will launch at the end of the month. When it does, it won't be anywhere near the only Google Play alternative. Amazon, for example, offers its own marketplace, cal... [Read more]