Free Apps roundup for January 29th, 2010

This week has been all about the iPad, and for good reason. It’s an amazing device; if only we could buy one now. Alas, you’ll have to make do with your iPhone or iPod touch for the time being. Remember, the iPad will be able to run all of your current apps when you finally get one, so go crazy downloading!

• ComicBookLover – While you’re waiting impatiently to get your hands on an iPad, why not download an app that would probably be more fun on one? This app makes it possible for you to read comics on your iPhone without converting them to a different format and emailing them to yourself. It sync CBZ and CBR format comics straight to the device over WiFi. All this for free, can you believe it? Actually, they have a desktop version that isn’t free, but the syncing tool is, and you can find it here. Can’t wait to try this on an iPad!
• Classics – This may or may not still be free, but it was at the time of this writing. This is one of the App Store’s most popular reading apps. So popular, that it seems to have influence Apple’s own upcoming iBooks app and store. Download it while it’s free. If you like reading, you’ll like this.
• TV-Guide USA – For some reason, TV guide data is rarely free. The reason for this still escapes me. Anyway, here’s a rare find. And I know it doesn’t matter to you because you watch all of your TV shows online. I still thought it was fun.
• Menu Pages – A great app to browse menus and make reservations at select restaurants in New York, San Francisco, Philidelphia, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC and South Florida. Everyone else, you’re out of luck, for now. Sorry.
• Hertz iPhone – Need a rental car reservation? Right now? Yeah, there’s an app for that, but I can’t imagine why someone would turn to an iPhone app as their first method of doing this task. Still, I’ve been wrong in the past.
• Boomerang AR – I could never get a boomerang to work as a kid, so perhaps this is the answer. It uses your iPhone’s camera to overlay a virtual boomerang. The cool cats call it augmented reality, but I think I saw you lookin like a fool with your pants on the ground, so you might call it the picture thing. You can throw it, but it likely won’t come back to you, because it’s programmed to be at least mildly realistic…
• SpinIn Lite – Not sure about the name, because it’s actually a block sliding game. There are a number of blocks inside of a square board that can only slide so far against each other to let out the small piece you’re trying to remove. Classic game mechanics with nice graphics.
• Simple Metronome – Simply a beautiful metronome, and god knows you need it!