free stuff

The Associated Press reports that in an attempt to deter truancy, Aoyama Gakuin University will be handing out 550 iPhone 3Gs to students at the School of Social Informatics, making for a total of 1000 test run participants. The device, they hope, will be used by students for research purposes and to receive class schedule and lecture information.

SoftBank, the official carrier of the iPhone in Japan, is offering new users a free 8GB iPhone 3G or a 16GB for ¥11,520 (~$120) when they agree to sign up for a two year contract for basic, premium, or student plans as part of their "iPhone for Everybody Campaign". There is a catch, however. Instead of paying up front, users have to pay an additional ¥480 (~$5USD) on each monthly payment as part of the plan.

Google has released an iPhone-optomized interface for their Google Books search engine. Now, navigating to http://books.google.com/m/ on an iPhone or iPod Touch will take you to an iPhone-optomized version of the site. Using the new web app, users can browse their directory of over 1.5 million public--domain books, all of which can be read in their entirety right from the device, free of charge. Users can also search for words in the text and jump to individual pages.

[via Celestial Waste of Bandwidth]

Developer Secret Exit has released SPiN Lite [App Store], a free version of SPiN, [App Store, $4.99], their 3D shape matching puzzle game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game is played by spinning 3G shapes around on the screen to match the silhouette shown using the standard 2-fingered rotation gesture. Video after the break.

The guys at rmbrME have announced a new promotion for anyone attending Macworld SF 2009. Now everyone attending that makes a new business contact using their application will be entered in to a drawing for every new contact they make to win two free round-trip tickets to Hawaii.

The guys at MacHeist have created a new online promotion called the Mac Giving Tree. People that create a new MacHeist account are able to join the Mac Giving Tree, where they can get free applications for their Mac and iPhone. On Christmas, you can go back to the site and "unwrap" your presents. You get more presents for referring friends to the site. Check it out at GivingTree.MacHeist.com.

[via TUAW]

Phantom Fish has come up with a creative use for the 50 promotional app codes now given to them by Apple as developers. They have announced that for this holiday season they are giving away three free copies of BlogPress [App Store $9.99], their blogging tool for the iPhone, to purchasers of their RSS reader, Byline [App Store $4.99]. Starting today (December 15th), Byline purchasers can email their iTunes receipt to to giveaway [at] phantomphish.com, who will be choosing three winners at random every day from December 18th to the 31st.

We were pretty excited to hear about AT&T's free Wi-Fi for all iPhones subscribed to one of their data plans, but it doesn't surprise us that there's a catch. If you thought you could just wander into any Starbucks and sit down to enjoy some Wi-Fi, think again. Using their connection requires authentication, which you'll need a cell signal to complete.

Yet another round of developers are cutting the price of their apps or giving them free for a limited time. This time around it's Amnesia, Space Monkey, Blue Skies and Are you smarter than a 5th grader.

Another pile of developers are offering discounts on their applications or are offering them completely free for a given time in an attempt to stimulate sales and boost their rankings. Read on after the break for the list.