Sorting the Jewels from the Junk in the iTunes Store

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Alessandro Della Bella / EPA

By By Jeremy Caplan

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Remember when cell phones were just for making calls? The new iPhone 3G, which launched on July 11, dials phone numbers, but it also runs some 800 add-on applications — developers are creating more daily — that enable you to compare hotel room prices, read Shakespeare, even examine brain scans. About a quarter of the miniature applications, or apps, are free (others mostly cost less than $10 each), so Apple users are snapping them up like candy, with 10 million downloads so far. Glitches may be common as the programs work out their debut-stage kinks, but here are our picks for the coolest of the free programs.

See pictures of the iPhone 3G hitting stores around the world.

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Top iPhone Applications

Favorite Downloads