We're starting to get the feeling that anyone with $99 in the bank and a computer can apply—and without too much difficulty be accepted—to Apple's iPhone Developer Program. To pick up on this yourself, you need only check out the free apps section of the App Store, which houses 200-plus titles in all different categories, from games to productivity to utilities to entertainment.

After whiling away a solid workday (and a few evenings), scouring the free apps area and downloading like mad, we feel uniquely qualified to present our Top 20 Free iPhone Apps list. To qualify for the list, it must:

- Be remarkably bizarre, pointless, or random
- Provide a unique or incredibly useful function
- Make us laugh, or provide instant, short-term amusement of the kind necessary or desirable while waiting in line at the DMV or doctor's office
- Cost nothing (duh)
- Be less than 1MB in size

 

And now…Here's the list:

 

1. BubbleWrap

Developer: Orsome
Verdict: Totally pointless but just the ticket when you need to fill 45 seconds until the stoplight changes (as a pedestrian, not a driver, people!) or until the next train comes.

A piece of bubble wrap appears onscreen and you pop as many bubbles as you can (without doubling up) in 45 seconds. We just wish you could pop multiple bubbles at once by sliding a finger across the screen the way you can do with bubble wrap in real life.

 

Poppin' good fun!

 

2. The Dark Knight: HaHaHa

Developer: Warner Bros. Technical Operations
Verdict: Totally pointless entertainment

Drawn in by the image of Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight, we couldn't resist installing this app, which is blatant marketing from Warner Bros. Studios. All the app does is allow you to impose a graffiti-like Joker face, or the scrawled words "Ha Ha Ha," or "Why So Serious?" on top of photos you snap on your iPhone. Once you do that, you can email the image to fellow batfans.

Barack's no Joker...(photo taken of a page from Rolling Stone magazine hanging in the Mac|Life office space.)

 

3. More Cowbell!

Developer: Maverick Software
Verdict: Totally pointless entertainment, and a must-have for SNL fans

If you're familiar with Tiny Violin (99 cents), you'll like More Cowbell—whose only purpose is to play the now-famous "I gotta Have More Cowbell!" line from the April 8, 2000, SNL skit featuring Christopher Walken as music producer Bruce Dickinson. After you tap once to hear the line, subsequent taps produce the "dink "dink" "dink" sounds of a cowbell.

 

Come on baby, Don't Fear the Reaper. Just give him more cowbell.

 

4. Mandelbrot

Developer: alpheccar
Verdict: Totally random but educational

Math geeks and aspiring math geeks—this app is for you. Mandelbrot is an interactive Mandelbrot set, a visual representation of a cset of points in the comlex plane.

It might bring on psychiatry flashbacks, but Mandelbrot's inkblot-like images are actually mathematical forms.

 

5. HoldOn!

Developer: IMAK Creations
Verdict: Totally pointless

The sole purpose of this app is to time how long you can keep your finger on a button on the screen. Yeah, it's pretty dumb, but there's something oddly satisfying about beating your colleagues' times—kind of like winning a thumb war or a staring contest.

 

I can hold on longer than you can!

 

6. Shazam

Developer: Shazam Entertainment
Verdict: Useful and entertaining

For a free app, Shazam has awesome return on investment—it easily recognized "My Bloody Valentine." Even when we just held up one headphone so it could "hear."

 

Prepare to be impressed by it's song-recognizing abilities.

 

7. SodaSnap Instant Postcards

Developer: Sodasnap Inc.
Verdict: Totally entertaining way to amuse yourself on vacation or in prime people-watching spots

Emailing snaps of random street scenes, wacky people, or cool stuff from your iPhone is one thing. Turning them into e-postcards with SodaSnap Instant Postcards lets you also say ":Wish you were here" with more than just a text-only email message.

 

We hope you put it to more exciting use than we did.

 

8. Rotary Dialer

Developer: Joshua Minor
Verdict: Totally pointless, but gets extra points for the fact that it actually works to dial a phone number

You might wonder, "why does this app exist?" and so did we, but like many other apps on this list, it offers a minute or two of amusement for zero money down.

This is the number to dial if you wanna leave a message for Mac|Life (extension 622).

 

9. Jared

Developer: Freeverse
Verdict: Totally pointless but totally cute

Longtime Mac users will recognize this talking, singing happy face with an incongruous Spanish accent. With Jared on your iPhone, you won't miss your Mac…and we know from experience that Jared's really good at cheering up the under 2 set when they accidentally bump their noggin and need something to distract them.

 

Who's's yellow and round and loves to sing happy songs? Jared!

 

10. Yes|No Free

Developer: Masayuki Akamatsu
Verdict: Totally pointless but useful if you don't have a coin to toss

Not as detailed in its responses as a Magic Eight Ball, Yes|No Free offers up a simple "Yes" or "No" when you tap the screen. It effectively turns your iPhone into the most expensive quarter in the world.

 

Should we adopt a labradoodle?

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11. Shakespeare

Developer: Readdle
Verdict: Totally useful for fans of the Bard

When you want to brush up on your Hamlet, Shakespeare comes in handy-dandy.

Why waste your time playing Super Monkey Ball?

 

12. UrbanSpoon

Developer: UrbanSpoon
Verdict: Totally useful for hungry, indecisive types, and one of the better uses of the iPhone 3G's GPS unit that we've seen

When we're really hungry, it seems to affect our ability to make important decisions—like where to eat. Tap Shake or shake your iPhone and UrbanSpoonserves up a random suggestion for a neearby eatery, which has been rated by other UrbanSpooners.

 

More fun than an actual slot machine, and you won't go broke.

 

13. Scribble

Developer: Zintin
Verdict: Totally pointless, but handy for making quick sketches that look like fat-tipped Sharpie drawings

Scribble is perfect for primitive doodles or taking down a number when no one will loan you a pen to write on your hand.

 

Don't hate us for our artistic ability. We were just born with it.

 

14. Talking Spanish Phrasebook

Developer: Coolgorilla
Verdict: totally useful—unless you need to say, "No thank you, I don't care to try the sautéed rattlesnake skin. I'm sure it's delicious, but I'm highly allergic."

Coolgorilla's Talking Spanish Phrasebook is the easiest way to get by with the locals when visiting a Spanish-speaking country, including California, Texas, and South Florida.

Ay caramba, I need sausages!

 

15. Dial Zero

Developer: Next Mobile Web
Verdict: Totally useful

For anyone who's ever gotten frustrated by an inability to get through to a live person when calling a large company's customer service line, Dial Zero is the answer. It gives you access to 600-plus U.S. companies' toll-free numbers, along with instructions for bypassing any automated phone-routing systems and cutting straight to a human being.

 

Ralph Nader would be proud.

16. PhoneSaber

Developer: The MacBox
Verdict: Totally entertaining

Star Wars Kid might advise otherwise, but iPhoneSaber can help your light saber battle fantasies come true.

 

Choose your laserbeam color, young Jedi.

 

17. Currency

Developer: Jeffrey Grossman
Verdict: Totally useful

As the name implies, this app lets you convert U.S. dollar amounts to any international currency. To change your default currency to something else, tap the info icon (lowercase i) and select your local currency from the list.

18. ReQall

Developer: QTech Inc.
Verdict: Totally handy.

Forgetful ones, this is for you! With ReQall, you can stop leaving yourself phone messages with reminders on your way to work and start using reQall instead. To get the most out of ReQall on your iPhone, create a free account online first at reqall.com. Now, to create a reminder, you can record a voice memo, which Reqall will turn into a text note type yourself a reminder, or call 888-9-REQALL and your voice reminder will appear in your to-do list a little later.

 

You'll get the best speech recognition results with simple voice reminders like "buy milk tomorrow."

 

19. iWant

Developer: Rudrajit Samanta Software
Verdict: Totally useful.

Wherever you are, if you need to find something (dry cleaners? drugstore? gas station?), iWant can help. It works OK on OG iPhones, but truly shines on the iPhone 3G, thanks to the GPS unit.

Need coffee? iWant delivers.

 

20. Stanza

Developer: Lexcycle
Verdict: Totally useful

There are countless ways to waste time on your iPhone, but with Stanza you can feed your mind, too. The app gives you access to a large catalog of classic written works like H.G. wells' The Time Machine, F. Scott fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise, and many more.

 

Pass the time in The Time Machine.

 

21.Banner Free

Developer: Masayuki Akamatsu
Verdict: Totally pointless, but possibly handy in a crowd

We couldn't help adding one more, since there are so many!All Banner free does is display a message of your choosing as a scrolling LED banner—not something you're likely to need, but it could be a fun way to get a cute boy (or girl's) attention on a crowded bus or dark theatre.

Catch someone's attention...Hi Mom!

We hope you enjoyed this exhaustive (exhausting?) list of the 21 coolest free iPhone apps in the App Store, but if we left out any you've become addicted to, hit us in the Comments!