12 Great Free Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch

 

Why should you put a dent in your wallet when there are so many great free applications out there for the iPhone and iPod Touch?  There are tons of games for the devices, but the vast majority of them cost money, so we’ve sorted through and located 12 totally free ones for you to throw on your gadgets and entertain yourself throughout the day.

Unlike with Firefox or WordPress addons, where we always tell you not to load everything we list, there doesn’t seem to be any problem with loading lots of iPhone or iPod Touch apps.  Just make sure you have enough memory for the programs and you can easily load all 12 of these on your device.

Blanks - A simple word game that gives you a definition and four choices as to what the word may be.  Fun and educational all at once.

Cannon Challenge - Made by the Discovery Channel, Cannon Challenge is based on their show Future Weapons, and firing a Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) cannon at targets of varying distance.  Equal parts addicting and challenging.  As you can tell from the screenshot, the game is played entirely in the horizontal position.

Crash Landing - This game uses the iPhone and iPod Touch accelerometer to control the descent of a starship, aiming to land on the platform on the moon.  If you have as much luck as I did, you’ll see the message in the above screenshot a lot.

Cube Runner - You use the accelerometer to pilot a ship through a landscape littered with mysterious polygonal cubes that have appeared.  Though the ship lacks any sort of gun, it feels a bit like the classic Starfox game from the Super Nintendo system.  New maps can be designed and shared with friends.

Dactyl - A fast-paced game of bomb diffusing that helps you practice your dexterity and frazzles your nerves as bombs explode.

Fire Drop - A puzzle game that tries to test your speed and your willingness to see how far you can push your luck.  The more cauldrons you burn at once, the higher the score, but make sure you don’t fill the entire screen!

Fit2Vote - Politics come to iPhone gaming with Fit2Vote.  You will be asked to name who said the quote, Obama or McCain, and tilt your phone to the left for the Democrat and to the right for the Republican.  Once you have gotten 50 correct, you are deemed “Fit2Vote.”

Frotz - An interface for playing text-based adventure games that harken back to games like Zork, Bard’s Tale and Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy from the 1980’s.

Othello - Also known by the name “Reversi” on just about every Windows computer sold for years, it is the familiar game played on an 8 X 8 grid with the object of controlling the majority of the board at the end of the game.

SimStapler - Why risk dangerous stapler injuries by using a real stapler?  SimStapler provides you with all the fun and excitement of real stapling in a fun, safe, manner.  App has an old school Mac look, and with it being a red Swingline stapler, you can feel free to make Office Space jokes.

Tap Tap Revenge - The perfect free game for all of the Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution fans who need a fix whenever they are away from home.  A bit difficult to play on the iPod Touch as it lacks an external speaker, but works fine with headphones.

Warcraft Characters - Not so much a game in and of itself, but a way for you to look up World of Warcraft characters on the go and see their stats, skills and equipment no matter where you are.

Knibble Offers Free Games for iPhone

Knibble is offering a new service with games designed specifically for the iPhone. Games include sudoku, bejeweled, and tic tac toe. Knibble iPhone requires no downloads and can be accessed by iPhone users by navigating to iphone.knibble.com on their device. The games are free and will be ad-supported.

Knibble also operates Knibble.com, an online gaming site with more than 10,000 total games.

Free iPhone Apps for Social Media Stuff

Instant Messaging

AIM - Keep in touch with all of your fellow AIM using friends while you’re on the go.

fring - You can converse with all of your AIM, fring, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN,  Skype, Twitter and Yahoo friends from this one handy little application.

IRChon - An Internet Relay Chat client for the iPhone and iPod Touch that allows you to be connected to multiple servers at once.

MobileLinked IM - Multi IM client that currently only supports MSN and Yahoo, but in the future will add AIM, GTalk, ICQ and QQ.

Nimbuzz - Allows you to chat with your friends on AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN, MySpace, Skype and Yahoo.  Also provides VoIP calls via Wi-Fi.

Palringo - An instant messaging client that allows you to use it like a walkie talkie, send images or just chat as you always would.  Works with AIM, Gadu Gadu, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN and Yahoo.

Papaya Game Edition - A little bit of everything rolled into one application.  You can play games on it, make VoIP calls and chat with friends on AIM, GTalk, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo.

QQ - A stand-alone instant messaging client that allows you to chat over the various connectivity networks of the iPhone, find new friends, run multiple conversations and more.

Truphone - Allows you to call your friends via VoIP on MSN, Skype and Truphone.  There is also a version for second generation iPod Touches.

Location Based

Active Eagle - Keep your Yahoo Fire Eagle account updated by using this app to send your location via the iPhone’s GPS.

Bliin - A social network that allows you to constantly update your location so other members can see where you are depending on what privacy level you have set.  Has all the other usual trappings of a social network such as messages, groups and so on.

Brightkite - Keep your friends updated on where you currently are, and keep them abreast of what you’re doing.

byNotes - byNotes allows you to message your friends and let them know where you are.

CityWatch - Explore the area around you by looking at geotagged photos on Flickr and Zannel, add your own, message with people around you and more.

iCloseBy WiFi - A location-based way of meeting people based on their access to the same WiFi hotspot that you are using.  Is also cross platform so you can meet people on laptops and other WiFi enabled devices.

Limbo - See where your friends are and what they are doing, transmit your own activities, look up where to go next and more.  Features support for 200 countries.

Loopt - A location-based social network that works across over 100 mobile devices and can share updates with sites like Facebook and Twitter.

MarcoPolo - See how far away your Facebook friends are, get directions to drive to them and more.

Moximity - Moximity integrates with your Facebook and Twitter friends to see where they last checked in, and if it is anywhere close to you.

Nicado Locate - Updates your profile on Nicado with your current location.

nrme - A location-based social network that functions somewhat like Twitter.  You can set for how far away from you you want it to collect messages.

Puppyo! - A location-based message board service that allows you to talk to people from anywhere on Earth, or you can filter it down to just those in your general vicinity.

Spidr - Spidr gives you the ability to connect to various local “webs” to talk with other “spidrs” that are near you.  If there is no web for your area, you create one, and other users will be able to find you automatically.

Twinkle - A location aware social network for the iPhone and iPod Touch that is also capable of updating your Twitter account.  You can update where you are, send pictures, chat with nearby people and more.

Whos Here - Whos Here allows you to set up a profile, indicate the type of person you want to meet by age and gender, and it will show you the people nearby that meet that criteria.  Instant messaging inside of the application does not use any texting credits.

Whrrl - See which of your friends is around your current location, get suggestions on places to go and even filter down to the types of places that interest you.

Microblogging

Comeks - A microblogging service based around adding comic book style word balloons to images to make comics. You can then email these images, share them, make postcards or send them to social sites such as Bebo, Facebook or Friendster.

FoneSonar - Update friends with where you are and what you are doing and this will post to your FoneSonar profile as well as Facebook and Twitter if you so desire.

GPSTwit - GPSTwit allows you to send location information along with your status update to your Twitter account.

Gyazickr - A Twitter client that is all about taking a photo, writing a caption, and posting it.  That’s it, and not a comprehensive Twitter client by their own admission.

JustUpdate - A Twitter client that does nothing but give you an update field and a characters remaining counter.

KoornkUpdate - An updating application for Koornk that gives you an update field and the number of characters remaining.

NatsuLion - A Twitter client based on NatsuLion for Mac OSX.  Has separate tabs for replies, unread Tweets, timeline and several more features.

Rejaw - Allows you to read messages and send shouts to the Rejaw network.

Summizer - Search Twitter for just about anything you want, save searches for later use, disable avatars when you are on an EDGE network for faster loading and more.

Tweeter - A very minimalistic Twitter application for updating your account.

Twitfire - A Twitter client with a unique way of erasing a tweet if you want to start over: shake your device like an Etch-A-Sketch.  Also has a built-in web browser, URL shortening, Google Map insertion capabilities and more.

Twittelator - A Twitter client with built-in search, ability to explore the public timeline, bookmarks for Tweets and many other features.

TwitterFon - A light-weight Twitter client that allows you to search tweets, send photos, retweet and everything else you would come to expect.

Twitterlink - A plugin for the mobile Safari that allows you to hit the bookmark icon and choose to tweet the page you are on.  This will shorten the URL to 17 characters so you have room to describe what it is.

Twitterrific - This Twitter client allows you to see links in a mini-browser, look at user profiles, see direct messages and a host of other features.

Twittervision - An application that allows you to see where tweets from the public timeline are coming from via a map overlay.

Twitter Trend - See what the hottest conversations are on Twitter in a tag cloud-like interface.

Twitxr - Allows you to share photos with your friends on Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Twitter and Twitxr.

Social Network

1337pwns iNXES XBOX Live Friends - An XBox Live friends app that supports the avatar-based update to the system.  Allows you to sort friends, see detailed gaming history and more.

Bluepulse - A mobile phone only social network that allows for messaging. Share your status, start groups and so on.  iPhone app users also get the ability to directly upload photos.

Facebook - The ever-expanding and always on everyone’s lips social network, Facebook has a well established application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Geeks - This application allows you to stay in touch with all of your friends on Chris Prillo’s social network, Geeks.

LinkedIn - The LinkedIn application allows you to view your professional social networking profile anytime you want from anywhere.

MySpace Mobile - Send and receive messages, leave comments, add new photos to your MySpace account and more.

Netlog - Gives you access to your Netlog social network account.  Browse your friends’ photos, sign their guestbooks, send messages and more.

Xing - Keep up with your business network even while you are on the go by seeing what they are up to, reading and responding to messages and more.