11 cool new apps for the iPhone

With the release of the iPhone 2.0 software on Friday and the opening of the App Store -- where hundreds of third-party applications are now available -- Apple Inc.'s iPhone has taken a major leap toward becoming a premiere mobile platform.

Since the iPhone's arrival last year, one of the constant complaints about it was that the hardware was a technological marvel but the software was lacking. A little over a year after its debut, Apple released not only the most significant hardware upgrade since the iPhone's inception, but also the most significant software release to date. Best of all, the apps work on the first-generation iPhone as well as the newer iPhone 3G, and on the iPod Touch. (You have to pay $9.95 to update the iPod Touch so it can run third-party applications, though.)