The iPhone is a sweet piece of gadgetry. So sweet that others are trying their best to copy it. Some of the iPhone wannabes are actually not bad if you compare them feature for feature to a naked iPhone.

There’s one feature, however, that few wannabes have managed, and that’s the ability to run third party applications. With the release of the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) Apple has pretty much solidified its grip on the smartphone market. Vendors both wee and gynormous are pushing out apps for Apple’s WunderPhone at a phenomenal rate, and many of these apps are... (wait for it...) FREE!

So, just as I have been doing weekly with Free on iTunes, I’m going to offer up on a monthly basis reviews of free, or nearly free applications available for the iPhone.

Even better, I’m going to rate the app using my oh-so-scientific rating system:

• Get It Now! : This app is so hot that I would be happy to pay a small mound of real American dollars for it.
• Hot! : Some minor flaws here, but the idea and execution behind this app means it’s smokin’!
• Good to Go! : Flawed, but not a show stopper. This app is worth some attention.
• Hmmm... : Serious flaws here, the app does the job, but not without a lot of flogging. It may find niche use for those with a high tolerance for pain.
• What were they thinking? : This isn’t an application, it’s a virtual disaster. Avoid!

My ratings will be purely subjective, but I’ll tell you why I like or don’t like something. I will also put my rating at the beginning on a review so you’ll right away what you’re getting into.

So, without further ado, let’s get on with this month’s Free on iPhone.

WeatherBug: Hot!
I’ve always had a thing for weather. I love rain, snowfalls mesmerize me, and thunderstorms leave me in awe. I like the bite of frigid Winter air, and the steamy, still soup of Summer afternoons. Don’t even talk to me about clouds.

As you might imagine one of the first apps I loaded up on my iPhone had to do with weather. Don’t give me that wimpy weather app that comes on stock iPhones, it gives a 5 day forecast and that’s it. No radar, no current temperature, wind speed, rainfall totals, nothing!

Static radar is better than no radar.

If you want a weather app with some meat, check out WeatherBug. You get current temperature plus projected highs and lows, rainfall total for the day, wind gusts, humidity, and dew point. You also get a three day forecast at a glance which expands to a five day forecast when you go into the detail view. But that’s not all...

WeatherBug also features local radar and webcam views from locations around your area. Very, very cool.

As you would expect, you can keep track of several locations around the country or around the world, and WeatherBug is location aware, so you can allow it to give you weather using the iPhone’s locator (GPS or cell tower triangulation) to find out where you are.

Nice to see what is really like outside around your area.

And there’s still more!!! WeatherBug will tell when there’s an active weather alert in your area.

Alas, WeatherBug is not without...um...bugs. While WeatherBug will tell you there’s an alert, it won’t go further and give you any details about the alert, which almost makes the feature useless. Still you get the warning and that’s something.

The radar view is static, a dreadful shame. And you can only expand the map but so far, so you can’t see the weather action in your part of town. I suppose it’s to be expected for the price of admission.

The webcam views are nice, but I’d like it if I could pick the ones I wanted. I’m not sure, but I think it picks webcams in the area at random.

There are a few other minor irritators in WeatherBug, but they are truly minor when compared to all the nice things the apps does and does well.

WeatherBug is the first app to rate my "Hot" rating. Great app at a great price.

AP Mobile News Network: Hot!
If you’ve got a weather app on your iPhone then it stands to reason that you have to have a news app. There are plenty of freebie news apps available and each has something nice about them, but for a general news reader the AP Mobile News Network app shines.

MNN App has a simple but effective interface

It’s nothing fancy, Mobile News lists the top stories just as other readers do and usually includes a photo along side the headline, but what I like about this reader is that it will give you local stories as well as national, international, sports, entertainment, business, politics, and much more.

I also like the ability to save a story I find interesting. No more trying to remember the details of a particular bit of news during a conversation, just whip out your iPhone, fire up Mobile News and there you go.

There are galleries to browse and movies to watch as well, making this a well rounded news portal. It’s hard to believe it’s free.

Local news, sports and more at your fingertips.

I’m not enamored with the search function, it only looks in current stories, though it does look through your saved stories as well. It would be nice if it allowed online searches.

Also, because it is Associated Press, you only get AP news, which may mean that you won’t get a story or all of the story that might appear elsewhere. Still AP is a world renowned news organization so if it isn’t in AP it’s probably not worth your time. (Kidding, of course. You might need another news app for a more rounded perspective.)

Photos, movies, politics, world news; it’s all there.

I like an application that sits there out of the way until I need it and when I do, it gives me everything I’m looking for. Mobile News is like that. No beeping, flashing or other annoyances, but when I want top stories, there they are.

Clean interface, lots of stuff to look at, local reporting, photos, movies and more make AP Mobile News Network app another HOT app for this month.

Aurora Feint: Get It Now!
Ok, You got your weather, you got your news, now you need some play time.

Takes a while to load, but it’s worth the wait.

You are gonna love this: Aurora Feint.

Explaining Aurora Feint is a tough one. At once it’s a puzzle game with elements of character building. How the character is used is anyone’s guess, but the game is the first part of a larger game being developed exclusively for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Mine elements by dragging, turning, tilting.

You build your character’s abilities by mining elements and using them to buy items, books and spells from a store and then build at Smith or learn at the Tower. As you acquire more power ups the symbols appear as you mine, and when you match squares using them they produce interesting effects.

The mining is actually a match-three puzzle game where getting three or more like squares in a row removes them and gives you points, but this game has a twist, literally.

Using the iPhone’s accelerometer, the game lets you rotate the screen and the puzzle pieces respond as if gravity actually affects them. Turn the screen upside down and more pieces reveal themselves as they fall to what is now the bottom of the screen. By touching and dragging the squares around the screen you can easily match them up, but the trick is to do it so that you get extra points by causing extra matches. You can also use a two-touch drag to reveal more squares.

Play the game a while and you’ll see what I mean. You’ll be twisting and matching with the best of them in no time.

Mine enough elements and you’ll move up a level, which kicks the speed of how fast the tiles appear up a notch.

If the game play wasn’t enough to win you over, the look and feel of the game will definitely seal the deal. It’s so polished that it looks like it came out of a box and you paid good money for it.

Buy books, scrolls and more then learn to use them in the mines.

I’ve only run into a few very minor glitches: A "Low Memory" warning will appear from time to time. I don’t understand why. I have a 16GB 3G iPhone and nothing else is usually running when I play Aurora Feint. Very puzzling.

I’ve also had the game hang on me once, but that could have been the iPhone’s firmware acting up. It’s only happened once so it’s really a non-issue.

The Map gets you to the different areas and is nice to look at, too.

There are plenty of games for the iPhone with more on the way, but Aurora Feint sets a high bar for quality, playability, and price. Get it now!

Ok, that’s it for this month. Be sure to let me hear about some of your favorite freebies.

Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.