Shortly thereafter, the iPhone 2.0.2 update was released with hopes to provide numerous bug fixes and clear up some of those reception problems. We also posted a side-by-side comparison video of the iPhone 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 software, of which it would seem the update really produced a speed boost. Jobs also admitted to the numerous third-party app crashes users are experiencing and promised a fix for those as well.

On the business side of things, Apple seems to be geared up to produce 40 million iPhones next year. Plus, the iPhone is set to release in Turkey from Turkcell and in Russia in October. It was also determined that if you have a jailbroken iPhone, you can “kill” the kill switch fairly easily.

We had several fun things of note this week as well, including two reviews of free apps like PapiJump and Tris. We got a look at the Nike+ app, however it seems the screenshots may have been fakes.

A video demo showed up online of Real Racing, which is a networked multiplayer game for the iPhone. An app that simulates a hologram is also supposedly in the works. You can get your hands on a Mobile Phone Telescope for your iPhone as well, though it seems to be intended for paparazzi looking to get off a couple of quick photos.

If you’re a fan of Tetris, there’s an iPhone app you should download that provides a very similar experience for free. It’s called Tris and it’s currently ranked in the Top 25 Free apps on the iTunes App Store.

Tris is very much like Tetris. The object of the game is to make a solid row of blocks. Once you do this, the row disappears. Blocks drop from the ceiling and you can tap them to rotate them into a suitable position. But once they hit the floor, they are stuck that way.

The game gets more difficult as you progress because the speed with which the blocks drop increases. It can become quite challenging, to say the least!

There’s a lot to like about this game. It’s fun to play, quick and relatively easy. It provides an adequate challenge and has great response. However, I’m a bit underwhelmed. Perhaps because it is so very much like Tetris? I like Tetris because it’s Tetris. I would like to be able to like Tris because it’s Tris. But at this moment, that’s not possible.

I think I’ve finally found it: the ultimate free app that offers simple gameplay combined with addictive mechanics. I’m talking about PapiJump and if you haven’t gotten it already, download it from the App Store right this second!

Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating a tad but that’s not to say this app isn’t crazy fun. The idea is simple enough. To play, all you have to do is keep the bouncy ball with a smily face from falling. As you jump from level to level, the platforms get fewer and far in between, making your attempts more difficult.

You control the smily face by tilting the iPhone to the left and to the right. It’s really just as simple as it sounds. But simple is good, especially for on the go gaming when all you want to do is play for a few minutes here and there.

The object of the game is to get a high score. You can submit this score, as well. You can also view instructions on how to play, though doing so will take you out of the game and open the web browser.

PapiJump is easy and fun. And these days, that’s precisely what I want out of a game.

I’ve been having trouble finding new free games to try lately, so when I came across Cubicman Lite, I was pretty excited. And rightfully so. This game offers multiple modes of play plus vivid graphics and sound.

The object of the game is to roll a block across a board so that once you stand it upright, it will roll into the appropriate spot. This is more complicated than it sounds, really. And being that I’m not too fantastic with the whole visualizing shapes and how they’d look if moved around thing, this game is a toughie for me.

But that’s not to say it doesn’t deliver. You can play in free mode to just try to improve your score from all levels you’ve played in the past. Or you can play in arcade mode, which has a linear progression as the levels get progressively harder.

Difficult or not, this game is an amusing diversion that you should definitely try. That being said, I don’t know that I’d shell out the cash for the full version. While this is fun, the gameplay is rather repetitive and just really isn’t my sort of thing. It’s subjective really. Who knows, you may love it!

Even though crossword puzzles are difficult for me, I still enjoy doing them. That’s why when I saw Cross Light in the App Store, I had to download it. It’s free price tag helped, too.

So once I had this app loaded up on my iPhone, I started to play. And let me just say, the puzzles are not for the crossword puzzle novice (or dunce, like me). The clues are challenging. But I think what’s most impressive about this game is the functionality.

You get thirty puzzles with the free version of the game, plus each game offers hints for each clue. You can set the game to show you when you’ve entered in a wrong answer or wait to be surprised at the end. My only complaint? The hints are really just the answers.

The game also makes use of the accelerometer and provides both vertical and widescreen viewing options. All in all, Cross Light is quite comprehensive and really offers up a lot, especially for a free teaser app.

Snake is a classic arcade game, but I remember it most on my old Nokia 6150. I was rocking that phone at the end of the millennium and my absolute favorite feature was the Snake game. And now, I can relive that joy through Tilt Snake for the iPhone.

The game is exactly the same as I remember, except it runs off of the accelerometer. So instead of clicking arrows to move left, right, up or down to eat the little dot of food, you tilt the entire phone. And as always, you have to avoid your tail–otherwise the game is over.

I have to admit, I had a bit of trouble at first using tilting to maneuver the snake. However, once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy. But as the snake gets rather long, it can be difficult, just like the original game.

Tilt Snake is another simple and free game, but I definitely recommend downloading it. Once you get the hang of the tilting, you’ll be good to go to have some serious fun. Plus, it’s frustrating and addicting, which seem to be my two favorite qualities in a game.

While wading through the App Store, I’m always on the hunt for something new or a little bit different. I’ve played many reflex games before, especially those simple ones that make you click when the screen color changes. The faster you click, the better your reflexes. Well, that’s precisely what Touch Reflex is, just with touch. I mean, it’s all right in the name.

The game is simple enough. Once you start the game, you have to sit poised with your finger ready to tap the screen. Once the color changes, you must touch the screen as fast as possible. You do this three times and then your three times are averaged. You can then enter your time into the scoreboard.

While there aren’t very many options with this game, you can change the colors of the screen, if you have a preference. The default, however, is blue and green.

And that’s pretty much all there is to it. I know it doesn’t sound very exciting, and honestly, it isn’t. But if you want to test your reflexes, this is a free and easy way to do it. This app is worth the download if you’re interested, but not a must-have.

Okay, so this app does exactly what it says it will do. You are presented with two scroll wheels: one for your weight and one for your waist size. After selecting both numbers, you are given your body fat percentage. Now, if you switch it over to the BMI setting (body mass index), you’re asked to enter your weight and height. Then, your BMI will be presented.

These are useful numbers if you’re interested in your health, want to lose weight or want to achieve a certain body fat percentage but don’t feel like doing the math to figure it all out.

However, that’s all this app does. And unless you’re super familiar with BMI or how much of a body fat percentage you should have, these numbers are useless to you until you can look them up. This app would be a whole lot better if there were a reference chart included that showed you exactly where you measured up. Without this sort of reference, the apps is essentially useless on the go, unless you can look up a BMI chart, too. But if you ask me, that takes the convenience right out of this thing.

I’ve found another one. Yes, I’m talking about a free app that is sure to steal away much of my free time. It’s called Cubes Lite and this one is so fun and surprisingly difficult that I can’t put down my iPhone.

The object of this game is to match up as many cubes as you can of the same color before eliminating them. By touching a grouping of cubes, you can see how many points they’re worth. Double tapping will clear them. But the challenge is the fact that you only have a certain number of moves allowed per round. If, after your set number of moves, you haven’t reached the required score, the game will be over.

The game looks easy, but there is a level of strategy to it. It looks very much like a Rubix Cube, but each row doesn’t rotate on its own. However, you can turn the entire block of cubes around to get a look at each side to make the most of your combinations. The sound effects are clear and interesting as are the graphics. This one’s simple but a real joy to play.

I might just shell out the buck or two for the full version of this game.

The concept is simple, you have a bunch of comets floating around that you need to mine. There is a rather large area that you can navigate to find them. Once you have found one, you tap the screen and draw a lasso around it, then tap again to draw it in for mining. You can lasso more than one at the same time for double points. It’s relatively simple, and the four levels you get don’t last very long. It’s fun enough, but won’t keep you entertained for more than a few minutes. There is a full version of the game that you can purchase for $4.99 (as opposed to the Lite version, which is free) however, they don’t list how many levels there are on the paid version.

So this app is pretty much exactly what it sounds like–a convenient way to access Shakespeare’s works on the go. But it does have a few tricks up its sleeve. 

For instance, each play is broken up into acts to be accessed individually. Plus, the dramatis personae (that’s cast of characters) is accessible on its own as well. You can also increase the font size to make reading on the small screen easier. 

I found that you can’t scroll through the text, exactly, but you can double tap at the bottom of the screen to make it scroll up. This is a bit of a pain, but it helps you keep your place so that’s a good thing. Also, the inclusion of line numbers would be extremely helpful to those industrious students needing to take note of a particular passage. 

One other thing I would liked to have seen is perhaps links to words that are not a part of standard English anymore or a glossary of some sort. But again, this is a free app so I may be asking for too much. Or, (and even better) some of these additions may be included in future updates. A girl can hope! 

If you’re into literature, this one’s worth the download.

There is a paid version of this app as well. It’s aptly named Paper Football and sells for $4.99. The only difference so far as I can tell is that in the paid version you get to compete against the Jirbo community–so long as you have a Jirbo avatar. 

But this review isn’t about the paid version. It’s about the simple little free version that I thought would be fun to try. And sure, the concept is simple enough, but who would have ever dreamed that flicking a little football across an iPhone screen would be so difficult? 

You are given the option to play one or two players. If you play one-player, you’ll be playing against the game itself. Now, when it’s your turn, you have to slide the football across the table, but not so hard that if flies off the table. Instead, it must rest in the touchdown area. After a bit of fiddling, I was able to master this. 

But the next part is the field goal. I tried in vain to get the ball through the finger goalposts, but no matter how much I flicked and swiped, the most I could manage was a football that just tumbled onto the table and slide a bit. Apparently, you have to start below the image of the ball and swipe upwards. Silly me thought it would be okay to start my swipe on the football.

The graphics are very nice and the sound effects are good but the game mechanics aren’t very responsive and lag quite a bit. This one’s a nice idea but needs some work.

The app is relatively straightforward. You are presented with the image of a Magic 8 Ball, and you shake your iPhone when you need an answer. You will be greeted with one of the 20 classic responses that we all remember from the real thing. There’s really not much else to this freebie.

Even so, this is a simple yet fun diversion. It works much like pong, except you have to hit cubes with the ball and then make sure you hit the ball again with the paddle. Sounds simple enough, right? 

And it is, for the most part. However, sliding your finger along the small paddle can make you feel like an ogre. The responsiveness is good, but I felt my fingers were even too big for this game–and I have tiny fingers! 

You get three balls per round. So, the goal is to break all of the cubes above and then move onto the next level. It does get harder as the cubes become closer to the ball and you have to catch falling stars in between hitting the ball, but it’s all in all, fairly simple. 

What I love about this game though is the overall look. The colorful cubes are vibrant and stand out and when the ball hits a red cube, let’s say, the ball has a red trail until it hits a yellow cube, then it switches. It’s details like this that add to a game and BreakClassic has that little something extra. The sound effects aren’t anything special, but they are timed well. However, I tend to prefer to play games with any repetitive noises on silent so as to not drive myself insane with all the bings and boops. Not to mention drive everyone around me crazy, too.

Okay, so there’s nothing wrong with the game per say. Okay, let me start from the beginning. Jawbreaker is your standard, match up the same colored balls to eliminate them, sort of game. If you clear the board, you win. If not, you lose. But here’s the kicker. Regardless of whether you win or lose, the game starts over just the same. There’s no fanfare. No “Hey look! You won!” Nothing at all. 

So why does this upset me? I don’t need the validation of a “You Win.” I really don’t. But what I do need is the sense of progression. I need to feel like if I play the game again, I’m moving up to the next level. With this game, it’s one level, one board, one everything. Plus, the color gems don’t fall into place when some are eliminated. They just appear there. There’s no animation, so that’s a bit disappointing as well. 

And sure, it was free, but I don’t think I’ll play it again. Is that too harsh? Maybe so, but I’ve got to be honest here, folks. And Jawbreaker just didn’t do anything for me. Not even a free price tag can save this one.