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The iPhone has some wonderful strengths as a gaming machine, along with some very serious flaws. The lack of a physical controller means that developers are forced to use tilt and touch controls for their games, which has lead to some interesting control solutions. That means it can be tough to create a straightforward port of existing titles. Konami is forgoing the usual clone titles and tower defense games for its first jump onto Apple's "gaming platform," bringing both Dance Dance Revolution and Silent Hill titles to the iPhone. This is a much riskier strategy than creating more casual-friendly puzzle or word games;

iPhone 2.1 represented both a large leap of stability across the OS and a brisk stride of new features in key areas like the iPod app and even SMS. Now that folks have dug through recent builds of the beta iPhone 2.2 updates, Apple will apparently maintain a casual jogging pace with new features, though you wouldn't know it from the release notes.

For hardcore gamers, the iPhone hasn't had much to offer. The games are mostly light-hearted, casual games that you play when you need a short distraction. They're also a big compromise compared to what you can play on traditional game platforms.

The fastest growing trend in social networking is location-based iPhone and Android apps, which tell the online world exactly which restaurant you're eating at or driveway you're parked in. Applications like FourSquare and Gowalla profess to better connect us with our friends. But more and more applications use them to let people meet up - and ultimately hook up.

Mophie are back, with the third incarnation of their Juice Pack iPhone battery cradle. The Mophie Juice Pack Air claims to have answered most of the criticisms of the earlier models, while still offering to almost double iPhone 3G runtime. Is this a must-have cradle, or just a cradle of filth - SlashGear set to finding out.

Moon Drop, a $1 game from NimbleBit with a free lite counterpart, is a small, enjoyable diversion.

Have you played Peggle? This iPhone game came out some time ago and was an immediate hit at the app store for it's strange and extremely addictive gameplay. The game just went on sale for 99 cents, but it will only last until midnight Sunday, June 14.