Here are over 100 free and paid apps that are worth checking out, especially if you’re looking for ways to waste some time, say in line at the grocery store, or in the car on your way to some holiday festivities this year.

Tell us about your favorites in the comments.

Free Apps

You can get these apps for free, no strings attached. You can also find some “lite” versions of some paid applications.

Top Rated

Cube Runner (4.5 stars) – In this game, you “fly your ship across a landscape whilst avoiding the many treacherous cubes which lie in your path.” It’s like a flight simulator where everything is made of cubes.

PapiJump (4 stars) - Tilt your device to move Mr. Papi to the left and right to get him higher and higher towards the goal.

Touch4 (3.5 stars): Remember Connect 4? Here it is in all its iPhone/iPod glory. It’s multi-player and works over Wi-Fi. Okay, so the only accelerometer feature is shaking out the pieces, but that’s a game in itself, right?

JellyCar (3.5 stars): Possibly one of the hardest but addicting games that uses the accelerometer. In this game, you guide a little squishy car through squishy worlds trying to reach the exit.

Pretty Cool

iGolf (3 stars): Swing your iPhone like a golf club and the accelerometer gauges how fast you swung and how far your shot will travel.

Snowball (3 stars): Tilt your device to slide a penguin across some ice to keep him alive. The goal is to collect as many snowflakes as you can.

Space Path (2.5 stars): Use the accelerometer to stay balanced on the “space path” while you watch out for space junk and meteorites.

Scroll Driver (2.5 stars): Navigate your car along a straight road while avoiding obstacles – without crashing. The car points in the direction of the tilt when moving forward.

Square Jams (2.5 stars): Use the accelerometer to guide balls into hills. The description says it will “test your surgeon-like skills and patience.” Now that’s marketing!

Oh My Egg! (2.5 stars): Use the accelerometer in this game to guide a fat little chicken named Jack who can’t jump or fly and needs to collect eggs.

Silkworm 3-D (2.5 stars): Steer a silkworm using the accelerometer so that it can eat apples before the silkworm gets too long. Similar to the TiltSnake app, but with better graphics and more challenges.

iThrown (2.5 stars): The “game” in this app is trying not to destroy your iPhone while testing how fast you can throw a ball. Just hold onto your iPhone for dear life and throw a pitch.

Two-Up (2.5 stars): Gamble like the Australians when you use your device to toss two coins in the air and bet on the results.

Fire Tail (2.5 stars) - Capture different parts of your game “territory” to win in this game. Use the accelerometer to move or use the touch screen.

Worth a look

PocketHoops (2 stars): This is a simple physics-based basketball game that uses the accelerometer to influence gravity and bounce your ball off walls and perform trick shots.

Apache Lander (2 stars): Use the accelerometer in this game to land your helicopter safely on a heli-pad before you run out of fuel.

TiltSnake (2 stars): Modeled after the time-proven arcade game “Snake,” the accelerometer is used in this game to pilot a snake that needs to eat food in order to grow. As the snake gets bigger, you have to move faster, you remember the game.

Handy Snake (2 stars): Another “Snake” app. You use the accelerometer to control a snake who’s trying to catch rabbits while avoiding spiky creatures and a hungry mongoose.

iSKBan3D (1.5 stars): You are a cube of smiling ice in a space-world. The goal is for you to use the accelerometer to move along a path and push stones to where they belong on the path.

Beer Pong PRO (1.5 stars): This game utilizes the accelerometer to capture your arm motion when throwing the ping-pong ball. It’s multi-player too, so who needs a ping-pong table and plastic cups when you can just flick your wrist and take a swig from the bottle?

Apocalypse (1.5 stars): You are Go Go, an eye creature who must collect crystals while flying around avoiding falling enemies (by tilting) on his hoverboard.

Paid Apps

These apps range from $0.99 to $9.99. Most of them have free equivalents, but look out for the ones that have a “lite” version.

Top Rated

HupplePupple (5 stars): Tilt your device to guide a jumping smiley face around different worlds trying to collect hearts to bring to his girlfriend.

Shock Ball (5 stars): Protect your “Energy Orb” from obstacles and hazards by tilting your device and dodging “Shock Balls” to survive

Crazy Egg Jump (5 stars): You’re an egg and you must tilt your device to navigate your way into empty flying nests.

Python (5 stars): One of several “Snake” replicas for the iPhone where you use the accelerometer to move your snake around while eating fish and avoiding your own tail.

2079 (4.5 stars): This spaceship shooting game plays like the famed “Geometry Wars” and uses the accelerometer for movement.

Gaia (4.5 stars): Rotate your device to eliminate blocks that come into your way while playing through 20 hand-illustrated nature themed puzzles

Zone Warrior (4.5 stars): Part space flight, part arcade action, use the accelerometer to guide your spaceship in this game.

Scoops (4.5 stars): Stack your cone high into the sky by tilting your device left and right, catching as many scoops as you can and avoiding falling vegetables.

iTexun (4.5 stars): Navigate a 2-D environment by tilting your device to guide your ship through space while avoiding fiery pursuers.

Dashball (4.5 stars): Destroy colored blocks by controlling a bouncing ball with your accelerometer.

iSnake (4.5 stars): Tilt your device to play the classic “Snake” game that has graphics with a little more pizazz.

Bubble Bang (4 stars): Tap 2 or more bubbles of the same color that touch each other to let them explode. Re-sort and stack the bubbles by tilting the device.

Hairball (4 stars): Guide yourself as a hairball through an endless clogged pipe trying to keep pace with a continuous onslaught of filthy sludge.

Block Breaker Deluxe 2 (4 stars) – This brick breaking game lets you use the accelerometer to re-arrange and rotate brick formations by tilting the device.

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Cart 3D (4 stars) - This is a 3D kart-racing game where you tilt your device to get through 12 different tracks.

SolarQuest (4 stars): A space game where you “explore, duck and dodge” your way around to escape the planet’s gravitational pull.

Alien Attack (4 stars): Defend the earth from alien invaders by tilting the device from left to right in order to move your spaceship.

Asphalt 4: Elite Racing (4 stars): Use your device as a steering wheel to become the “ultimate VIP of urban racing”.

Kitten Jump (4 stars): Tilt your device to help a kitten jump from cloud to cloud while eating up butterflies and counting stars. Yup, I’m not kidding.

Beer Pong U (4 stars): A beer pong game that uses the accelerometer for aiming and throwing to “play beer pong on the go.” Because that’s what beer pong was made for, right?

De Blob (4 stars): Using the accelerometer, you can swoosh around as a blob and grow in girth, weight and speed as you devour paint pellets. Then use the pellets to paint the monochromatic world in bright colors.

Pass the Pigs (4 stars): This is a dice game using pigs as the device. Using the accelerometer, you can “shake shake shake” and roll your pigs as you try to reach 100 points

3-D Vector Ball (3.5 stars): Battle your way through an electronic labyrinth and use your accelerometer to serve, deflect and spike your way to glory.

Spore Origins (3.5 stars): Also available in a free “LE” version, you can tilt, turn and twist your custom-made creature through 30 levels of primordial ooze with the accelerometer.

Super Monkey Ball (3.5 stars): Guide a little monkey entrapped in a plastic ball to the goal by tilting your iPhone/iPod in the right direction and while collecting bananas though a variety of slopes and turns.

Blue Skies (3.5 stars) – Also available in a free “lite” version, you can use the accelerometer in this game to pilot your helicopter and out-maneuver enemy tanks, planes, helicopters, blimps and mines.

SuperBall 2 (3.5 stars): Also available in a free “lite” version, this pong-type game uses tilt controls to maneuver the ball in 23 different levels.

iFroggy Prince (3.5 stars): A mix between Frogger and Labyrinth, use your device to tilt your way through levels to challenge both your reaction time and your brain.

Matrix (3.5 stars): Guide a tiny little man through a maze by tilting your device in the direction you want him to go.

Ball in a Cup (3.5 stars): Tilt your device left or right to fling a ball into a moving cup.

Draconis (3.5 stars): Tilt your phone to move and play this 2D/3D shoot-em-up space game through 5 different levels.

FlashRiders (3.5 stars): Race your flash cycle against a computer opponent and stay alive by using the accelerometer to turn your cycle and avoid the “Flash Trails,” obstacles and outer walls.

Eat Bunny, Eat! (3.5 stars): Tilt your device to move a bunny and catch falling carrots while avoiding falling cans.

iNCLINE (3.5 stars): In this space-racing game, you use your accelerometer to guide yourself through space trying to pick up things and make it to the end.

Stellar Blaster (3.5 stars): Fly a ship through space while avoiding and/or vaporizing asteroids.

Tilt A Sketch (3.5 stars): This game uses the accelerometer to draw on a canvas using the constant pressure of gravity to ruin your work. Hard and extreme levels make it harder and harder to complete a picture.

TouchSports Tennis ‘09 (3.5 stars): Use your device as a racket and play tennis in this 3D sports action game.

AstroTilt (3.5 stars): This “Breakout”-type game uses the accelerometer in “tilt” mode to move the ball towards the blocks you want to break.

Aqua Forest (3.5 stars): Also available in a free “lite” version this is a very neat physics-based app where you can use the elements of nature, like water and heat to create realistic scenarios (like adding fire to water to create steam). It also has games where you use the elements to reach the end of a maze. Watch the YouTube video for a better look. It’s $7.99 but probably one of the better apps I’ve played around with.

Tilt Fighter (3.5 stars): This Galaga-style arcade game uses the accelerometer to maneuver your space ship past asteroids and through enemy fire.

Topple (3.5 stars): Stack and balance shapes and use the accelerometer to tilt your device and keep the blocks from tipping over.

Bubblets Tilt (3.5 stars) Arrange colored bubbles in a row to build your score before the bubbles reach the top. Use the accelerometer to tilt your screen to re-shift your bubbles into new groupings.

Plank (3.5 stars): Balance marbles on a log and try to match colors using the accelerometer to win in this game.

Virus (3.5 stars): Also available in a free “lite” version, this game utilizes real-time physics, blood-flow simulation and depth of field to defeat “viruses.”

Tilt Me (3.5 stars): Tilt your divide to roll some balls around mazes while making music as the balls collide with the walls and floor.

Shooter (3.5 stars): Shoot flying objects passing through day to night in different place, cities or landscapes using the accelerometer.

Pretty Cool

Cow Hunt (3 stars): This hunting game uses the accelerometer to aim at different types of cows which include army cows that parachute down, ninja cows, and cows with forcefields.

Cube Runner II (3 stars) – Much like the original free Cube Runner, you “fly your ship across a landscape whilst avoiding the many treacherous cubes which lie in your path,” except this time, the accelerometer also accounts for how fast you’re going by either tipping forwards or backwards.

Hooked: Pocket Fishing (3 stars): Catch some fish with this game that uses the accelerometer to cast and catch fish.

twistedBugs (3 stars): Try to kill as many bugs as you can within 60 seconds while the accelerometer moves bugs around.

Space Truckers (3 stars): Another space game, if you can really believe it. Fly your deep space transport ship “Betty” through congested space lanes by tilting your device and try to deliver your cargo.

Spacemania (3 stars): Classic arcade space shooter that takes place in the year 3043 and utilizes the accelerometer to navigate through space.

Serpents (3 stars): Tilt your device to block opponents and force them to collide with each other in an explosion of flames.

iSoccerFor2 (3 stars): Foosball for your iPhone! Control the handles with your fingers, but use the accelerometer to cheat the match.

Ninja (3 stars): Tilt your device to move a little ninja around while trying to avoid any obstacles. The goal of the game is to live as long as you can.

My Little Tank (3 stars): Choose accelerometer mode to move a tank and experience some miniature military mayhem.

MarbleMash (3 stars): Also available in a free “lite” version, you can race a marble against time in 150 different mazes using the accelerometer to guide your ball into a hole.

PAC-MAN (3 stars) & Ms. PAC MAN (2.5 stars) - Also available in a free “lite” version, dodge pesky ghosts by tilting or rotating your phone in Accelerometer Mode.

Armado (3 stars) – Also available in a free “lite” version, Armado is from the developers of Spore Origins for the iPod and iPhone. The accelerometer in this game guides Armado (an armadillo) as he rolls, jumps and crashes his way through this 3-D game with pretty impressive graphics.

Venger (3 stars): Also available in a free “lite” version, Venger is a 3-D space shooter. The accelerometer is used to steer your spaceship through trenches, tunnels and asteroid fields.

Moto Chaser (3 stars) – This is a motorcycle game with turns and jumps all steered by the accelerometer. Reviews claim that the accelerometer is “spot on.”

RhinoBall (3 stars) - Play as Rhino the hamster from the new Disney movie “Bolt.”

iFish (3 stars): A fishing game where you can catch over 50 different types of fish. The accelerometer controls casting and hooking.

GTS World Racing (3 stars): Accelerate, brake and steer using the accelerometer around 64 track layouts in 16 different worldwide locations.

Worth a Look

Dougie Moo’s Aqua Antics (2.5 stars): Guide a floating cow through water trying to collect and match colored balls.

Catch the Egg (2.5 stars): Try to catch eggs that are falling from the sky. The accelerometer determines whether or not you catch the egg. Reviewers seem to agree that buying a carton of eggs would be more worth the money though.

Bubble Trap (2.5 stars): Trap bugs inside of bubbles using the accelerometer to guide the bubbles.

Tripzee (2.5 stars): Roll the dice by shaking your device in this Yahtzee game.

Treasure Land (2.5 stars): Find treasures while avoiding deadly insects by utilizing indicators that use the accelerometer interface.

iHunt (2.5 stars) – This hunting game features accelerometer-based aiming and lets you hunt deer, pheasants and clay pigeons.

I Fishing (2.5 stars): This fishing simulator uses the accelerometer to cast, jig, aim your lure, and fight fish.

Wings Flight Simulator Experience (2.5 stars): Probably the most visually-appealing of the flight simulators, you can use the accelerometer in this game to coast around the 3-D world of over 50,000 square miles.

Crash Landing (2.5 stars): Tilt your iPhone to land your shuttle safely on a platform or the moon. The accelerometer controls the thrust, speed, angle and position.

AutoMangle (2.5 stars): Also available in a free “lite” version, this game totes itself as an “addictive vehicular combat game” with 192 different gameplay configurations. In general, the accelerometer is used for steering.

Beach Volleyball (2.5 stars): Play volleyball with your accelerometer while listening to your own music and soaking up the digital rays.

Xhake Shake (2.5 stars): Shake, flip, rub and tap your device to challenge your eye-hand response.

Head2Head 3D Racing (2.5 stars): Use the accelerometer to race your way through this game that uses physics emulation to control the vehicle suspension.

SpaceWar (2 stars): Guide your advanced spacecraft through space by tilting the device and destroying as many enemy spacecrafts as you can.

Quaddrazz (2 stars): Dissolve a 3D cube made up of dice by rotating or switching dice into rows of the same color or number.

MetalAngel (2 stars): Use your accelerometer to fly your ship across the universe. Drop atomic bombs and grab gems while you’re at it.

Paper Airplane (2 stars): Pop as many balloons as you can by throwing a paper airplane, without hitting any birds. Use the accelerometer to navigate your plane.

Amazing Maze (2 stars): Also available in a free “lite” version, the accelerometer is used in this game to guide balls to the center of a maze.

Elemental (2 stars): Also available in a free “lite” version, play this game to guide a little ball through earth, wind, fire and water using the accelerometer to open gates to new maps and worlds.

iBullseye (1.5 stars): In the most basic of all shooting games, this is simply a game to test your accuracy and steadiness using the accelerometer.

Balloonacy (1.5 stars): Tilt and guide a balloon around mazes that increase in difficulty as you progress.

Agents of Interpol (1.5 stars): A game that’s not very recommended by its users, this one uses the accelerometer to track a fugitive doctor’s global path of disruption.

Adrenalinic (1 star): Yet another space game where you tilt your device to avoid comets and other space junk while collecting yellow and blue stars.

Downhill (1 star): Ski and snowboard downhill by tilting your device.

LightSword Defense (1 star): Wield you LightSword while trying to battle space lasers.

Not Yet Rated

Pocket Skiing (not yet rated): Three tracks of skiing use the accelerometer to race against time to reach the race track checkpoints.

Prickly Pete (not yet rated): Guide Prickly Pete through the deep sea by using your accelerometer, eating eggs for energy while fighting off predator fish.

iLander Christmas Edition (not yet rated): Make sure Santa lands safely by tilting your device and landing his balloon between the yellow poles.

Interested in more iPhone resources? Check these out:

- Blogging: “13 Apps to Turn Your iPhone Into a Blogging Machine”
- Gaming: “12 Great Free Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch”
- Video: “Beyond YouTube: 10 Top iPhone Video Apps,” HOW TO: Convert Videos for Your iPhone”
- Navigation: “15+ Free iPhone Apps to Navigate Your World”
- Google: “Great Google iPhone Apps Not Made By Google“

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Bejeweled Optimized for the iPhone
Turn Your iPhone into a Computer Game Controller With iFun
Greystripe iPhone 3G API Lets Game Developers Earn Ad Revenue
Pac-Man lives on; Now on 3G iPod
iPhone Opening to Third-Party Apps; Not Other Networks
WeeWar is a Game Community

The interface itself has been streamlined for ease of use. Each of the three options can be configured in their own tabs by checking or unchecking checkboxes. All of the 27 new functions are added by default after installation. They range from deleting locked files over displaying information about the size of folders to synchronizing directories. Most users will probably stick with a basic set of functions and disable the ones that they do not need. Another option would be to add all functions to a submenu for a better overview.

The commands of other applications that show up when a file or folder is right-clicked that is triggering the event are shown as well. They are divided into submenus like Drives, Folders or Printers. A click on an entry will display the context menu entries that have been added by third party applications.

Each entry can be removed to optimize the menus.

File Menu Tools provide access to separators and folders that can be added to further optimize the display of the context menu entries. It is furthermore possible to move the entries around.

File Menu Tools provide an easy way to configure and optimize the Windnows Explorer context menu entries.

Windows Explorer Context Menu Editor

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Anyone who's ever edited or created a Wikipedia entry can attest to the fact that it's not that self-explanatory. They're in luck--the nonprofit anyone-can-edit encyclopedia has received $890,000 from the Stanton Foundation in order to make it easier to use.

More specifically, the grant was given to the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that encompasses Wikipedia. It'll fund the hire of three new software developers in the foundation's San Francisco office. Then, per a press release, the team will "commission research to identify the most common barriers to entry for first-time writers, and then work to systematically reduce or eliminate them...hiding complex elements of the user interface from people who don't need them."

Wikipedia will make all new code open-source.

"Wikipedia attracts writers who have a moderate-to-high level of technical understanding, but it excludes lots of smart, knowledgeable people who are less tech-centric," Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner said in the release. "One of our key priorities is to attract those people and persuade them to help write and edit the encyclopedia. I am thrilled that the Stanton Foundation recognizes the importance of that work, and will be helping us with it."

Also a plus for a more user-friendly Wikipedia: Ideally, its millions of articles will have a broader depth of coverage. My colleague Declan McCullagh did an assessment last year of the skew toward geeky pop-culture content: the article for the mythological figure Vulcan, for example, is about one tenth as long as the article for the Vulcans of Star Trek fame.

The Stanton Foundation was founded by broadcast executive Frank Stanton, who served as president of CBS (which publishes CNET News) from 1946 to 1971.

Next up with virtual world advertising dollars: Red Bull, which is partnering with Sony (SNE) to put a tropical island and airplane racing game on the PS3 virtual world "Home." Red Bull hosts real-life air shows too, so the concept isn't out of the blue.

Despite a spotty track record for virtual world advertising, Red Bull is on to a good idea. The problem marketers ran into in Second Life was they'd spend big bucks on a virtual storefront, and when people showed up there would be nothing to do.

You can't build fun things for avatars in Second Life because the user interface is so primitive that even walking is difficult. Both Pontiac and Acura tried giving away Second Life cars based on real-life models, but the virtual cars steered worse than early-80s arcade games like "Pole Position" and people junked them after five minutes.

For most corporations, Second Life meant deserted "virtual stores" that became an embarrassment for the companies involved. The handful of successful real world presences in Second Life -- both the CW's "Gossip Girl" region and a recreation of the set from Showtime's "The L Word" come to mind -- only took off after companies made long-term committments to tedious and expensive event planning run by human staff.

But unlike Second Life (or Google's Lively), the PS3 is purpose-built for gaming. If Red Bull can deliver a fun and free air racing game, the company can step back and reap the benefits of positive branding with no further effort.

And there's an added bonus: Red Bull can be fairly confident no one will storm their PS3 island with a barrage of flying penises.

See Also:
Why Reuters Left Second Life, And How Linden Lab Can Fix It
How Google Could Have Made Lively Work: No Sex, More Ads, Firefox
Second Life Offers Business Teleconferencing, Now Penis-Free

Photo: San Diego Shooter

Voice-transcription service Vlingo has launched a really fantastic new iPhone application that lets users talk into their phones to search the Web, dial contacts, and update their status on Twitter and Facebook. Much like Google's iPhone app which was released early last month, users are able to do all this without ever having to use their keyboard.

The big difference between Google's efforts and Vlingo's is the addition of Yahoo search, meaning users can pick the search engine of their choice. You're also able to auto-dial contacts by speaking their name. This, along with speech-to-text search of Google Maps, and the social network status updates gives users the utility of TwitterFone and the SayWho iPhone application in one piece of software.

I've been using the app over the past week and found it to be far more useful than Google's offering. It may be missing the really great (though iPhone SDK rule breaking) option to raise the handset to your head to begin a search, but it makes up for it with quite a bit more utility right from the get-go. The voice dialing is also exceptionally cool. Early on in the iPhone's lifetime there were a handful of jailbroken applications that let you do this, and they were genuinely useful before the inclusion of contact search. The added benefit of using Vlingo's system is that it cooks up a special voice recognition profile for your phone book since you initially have to send it in for processing.

The Twitter and Facebook update tool is also really well done, offering you a preview of the text before you send it, as well as a text counter to show you how many characters you have left. You're able to make any edits in case the transcription flubbed your words too. After having used TwitterFon and having its mistakes set in stone, this is a godsend.

Going forward the one thing that would really push this app over the top is a built-in browser, giving you option to open up search results within the app itself. Currently it jettisons you out to Safari, which you must then exit and re-open the Vlingo app if you intend on doing another voice-powered search.

Vlingo is free and should be available in the iTunes app store in the next few hours. Below are some screenshots of its interface. We'll have a video of it in action shortly.

Vlingo lets you update your Twitter and Facebook status, look up and call phone contacts, and search the Web--all with just your voice. (click to enlarge)

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Update: I've embedded the video below, and the app is now live.