Apple’s iPhone is only a couple of months old, but it already feels like there are somewhere around a kajillion Web-based applications available. If you are looking for more that Web-based apps, however, that’s an option too, even though Apple doesn’t officially support adding applications to your iPhone -- and it’s easy enough for mere mortals to do.

Instead of dealing with potentially complex "jailbreaking" procedures so you can add new applications to your iPhone, download and install AppTapp instead. You download AppTapp to your computer, and the installer application takes care of adding a new application to your iPhone’s application list.

Once you finish installing the AppTapp iPhone Installer application, here’s how to add even more programs to your combination iPod and smart phone:

• Tap the AppTapp Installer icon.

Tap the Installer icon to add new apps.

• After the Installer application launches, it will load a list of available applications. Scroll through the list to find something you want to add to your iPhone. I recommend starting with SummerBoard. It’s a great application that lets you scroll through app icons when there are too many to fit on your iPhone display. It also lets you change the appearance of the application springboard (home screen).

Scroll through the list to find an application to install.

• Tap the name of the application you want to install, and then tap the Install button.
• Press the Home button to jump back to the home screen and try out your newly installed application.

Tap Install to add the app to your iPhone.

You may also want to install the Community Sources package. It adds several more applications for you to choose from.

Removing extra applications from your iPhone is easy, too:

• Tap the AppTapp Installer icon.
• Tap the Uninstall button.
• Tap the name of the application you want to remove.
• Tap the Uninstall button.

AppTapp gives you access to productivity applications, utilities, network tools, games, and more -- and once installed, each application lives on your iPhone instead of on the Web. That means that you don’t need to rely on an Internet connection to use the apps.

The downside is that each time Apple releases a software update for the iPhone, all of the applications you install yourself are likely to stop working or even be deleted. If that happens, the hard working coders that are developing these great iPhone applications will probably have fixes within a few days.

AppTapp is free, and is available for download at the Nullriver Web site.