App Reviews: Free Apps for the iPod Touch Roundup

Returning to my ongoing series of reviews of applications for the iPod Touch, today we will look at a handful of free applications. As with most free applications, none has enough depth to warrant a review of its own. There are enough free applications in the App Store to fill youriPod but are they worthwhile and do they work as well on an iPod Touch (versus an iPhone). This post will look at Twittelator (a Twitter client), Facebook and two games, PegJump and Cannon Challenge.

Twittelator by BigStonePhone
There are a variety of Twitter application options for the iPod Touch and iPhone including Twitterific, Twitterfon and Twittervision. Twittelator's primary distinction is that it is both free and ad-free. The interface is generally clean and uncluttered and it groups consecutive posts by the same author together. It has some location based features like an emergency post for help, but honestly I don't see this being much help on a Touch that requiresWiFi . Other than that, the application does what one would expect of a Twitter interface, though it could use a quick one-touch reply. There are actually a bunch of other features, but unless you are looking to browse featured posts or search Twitters - which may sound useful but really isn't in my opinion - you aren't likely to delve too deeply into the other features. Anyway, if you are looking for a free option to connect to Twitter when you are connected toWiFi but don't want to use your laptop (which is probably rare), then this is a good choice.

Facebook by Facebook
Are you one of those people who just can't get enough of Facebook? I'm not. To me Facebook is a way to find old high-school friends (even ones I didn't necessarily care to find) and to remind me of people's birthday's (since otherwise I never remember). So, assuming I find a compelling need to do either of these things when I am on WiFi but away from my laptop, the Facebook app will be little help. The home page shows status updates and photos from your friends, which is about the most useful piece of this program. You can view your own profile (you know how much I like to learn about myself), view a list of friends and their profiles, connect to chat (which I, personally, rarely do via Facebook) and manage your emails sent from Facebook. Anyway, in the end this application's usefulness will be slightly less than your own view of Facebook's usefulness, which, since I don't see Facebook as being terribly useful, makes this application, in my view, nearly useless - especially on the Touch.

PegJump by Seventy Nine Lines
This game is an electronic version of the classic game with wooden pegs and a wooden triangle board where the goal is to jump other pegs and, hopefully, in the end have one peg remaining (if you've ever eaten at a Crapper...er...Cracker Barrel, you've seen this game). Anyway, the goal of the game is simple and it can get very addictive, especially when you add in the timer and try to beat your best speed. In the end though, the simple-ness makes it repetitive and there is only so far you can go with the game - once you remember how to solve it, the game is no longer challenging. Still, the price is right and it can be a decent way to pass a few minutes while waiting in line.

Cannon Challenge by Discovery Channel
In this simple game you command a non-line-of-sight artillery cannon and your goal is to destroy all the targets with a limited amount of ammunition. You can adjust the elevation and velocity to avoid obstacles and land your shot on the target. It sounds simple but the targets are appropriately unforgiving so that a single digit change in velocity can make the difference between a hit and a miss. As the game goes on it does add to the quantity and difficulty of targets, even including some moving ones. As you might expect with free games, thegame-play can get redundant but I found this game fun and addictive.