"nothing is really free when it comes to the iPhone..."
It is for us iPod touch owners, though.

When are they going to have free Golden Axe and Shinobi?

I have yet to see it for free yet. Still showing up as $1.99 both on my iPhone and on the iTunes Store. Anyone else having this problem?

Says $1.99 on my iTunes app. Maybe the change is going to take place tomorrow?

@Alexander L Trudeau: I am indeed having the same issue. I call shenanigans!

@B: Ditto... except for the buggy 3.0 firmware.

"Verizon customers like myself will have to make do with our smug satisfaction that nothing is really free when it comes to the iPhone, what with the ludicrously priced data plans."

Funny. Just for kicks, I decided to price what it would take to replace my iPhone with a Verizon phone. The data plan for a comparable phone (the HTC Touch Diamond™) is an eye popping $45 a month. That and 400 minutes of voice (the smallest number you can buy) to $92/month plus tax, or about $15 more a month than what you'd pay for the same thing with an iPhone.

I agree that AT&T's sms pricing is ridiculously high, but Verizon charges the same thing. AT&T wants $20 for their unlimited data on an iPhone; based on the throughput I get that works out to be about the same per megabyte cost as residential wired broadband from about 5 years ago.

@jamesn1: It's $30 now. $20 was for when the iphone originally came out.

i just made the switch and i'm saving about 30 bucks from what i was paying for equivalent service...

except it wasn't really equivalent because my phone had ZERO mac support and in order to get any email sync i had to leave a verizon application running on a windows machine at all times...

Owners of competing phones can write their own programs. For free!

Still showing as $1.99 as of 0905 PST- sounds like Phil didn't check his source before posting this...

@Alexander L Trudeau:

I'm seeing $1.99, too.

They should reduce the price on Sonic instead

@jamesn1: I don't know where you're getting the $45 from... I pay $29.99 for my data plan. Where are your figures from???

@jamesn1:
Sprint is cheaper... $99 for all you can eat voice, data & text... which is why I'm getting a Pre when my Verizon contract is up next month!

@Alexander L Trudeau: That's because it's a july 4th promotion, and today is the 3rd.

@Dustin Brewer: If you follow the source, and the source again (Unfortunately only linked via the word Sega in the article rather then an actual Source: type link), it goes back to Sega's blog:

[blogs.sega.com]

This should have read differently:

"Readers can get the excellent Puyo POP for free! Search for it under Columns Deluxe..."

@Alexander L Trudeau: It was for me as well, but if you click on Sega and look at the games they have to offer, it says "FREE".

@homebrewer302: Yeah, and that's the same as the iphone data plan. The data plan costs 30 bucks, people. That's EXACTLY the same as unlimited 3G data on Verizon.

That also spares us from the retarded $3.99 per megabyte (or partial megabyte) data charge that unsuspecting Verizon users get for using a byte when they accidentally fire up the crappy browser on their phone. Or download a ringtone.

That's right:
Ringtone on Verizon: $3.99
Minimum monthly data charge for using a fraction of a megabyte to download the ringtone THAT YOU PAID FOR: another $3.99

Cost to avoid this data scam: Sign up for "unlimited VCAST" ($15) or a "Nationwide Premium" plan--Costs $30 more than a "standard" plan.

So with Verizon you're screwed either way.

ATT's no saint, but it really pisses me off to see Verizon users cracking wise like they're some white knight. I had Verizon for 6 years. I know their entire scam inside and out.

@cc82: You get what you pay for ;)

@Trai_Dep: Oh yeah, and I'm sure MILLIONS of owners of said phones take advantage of that. Remind me again which phones? Android? So, that's one competing phone. Does BlackBerry give away their SDK? Not sure. And I guess Windows Mobile (hahaha).

If you really want to do homebrew on your iphone, writing and using your own apps, i sincerely doubt you're too dumb to figure out how to jailbreak your phone and run whatever you want. Seriously, like 1 minute on Google can get that done.

Not to mention you could also do it without jailbreaking, and get to sell your app on the store and everything for the $100 cost of the SDK. Hardly bank-breaking.

"Verizon customers like myself will have to make do with our smug satisfaction that nothing is really free when it comes to the iPhone, what with the ludicrously priced data plans."

You can stuff your Verizon bullshit up your ass, Phil.

FROM VERIZON'S SITE:
450 minutes + unlimited web and mobile email: $69.99 a month. This does NOT include Verizon's hardly-appealing video application, "VCAST" * This is what they refer to as a "Connect" plan.

FROM AT&T'S SITE:
450 minutes ($39.99) + iphone 3g data plan ($30): $69.99 a month. This includes access to YouTube and any other video app you can download.

Ludicrously priced? Oh, I get it. You don't even HAVE a data plan, do you? Because none of the pathetic phones Verizon lets you use has a decent web browser or any other compelling applications, so what use would unlimited data be to you?

AT&T offers those kinds of phones too. They're called "the free phone that they give old people, small children, and technophobes."

Sorry for lashing out, but you did start it. :p

@GarretN: >>It's free for this weekend ONLY, so grab it while you can. If it's not marked as free yet, try back in a bit. My sources tell me they are going to change the price by the end of the day today (Thursday), and it will be free all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.<<

I see it as "Free" on the abbreviated overview in the store, but 1.99 in the full individual listing.

@serke: It appears to currently list as "free" in the high-level overviews, and "1.99" in the detailed sections. If you open itunes, search for Sega, and click the "Get App" button (where it lists for free), you can get it for free. I've done this, and confirmed that they charged my account 0.00 dollars.

It may be free in individual listings, but it shows up at 1.99 for me there. I haven't been brave enough to just buy it to find out if it charges. And there is no where to click "get app" from the high-level views (where it lists as free) from the iPhone itself.

Despite the technical difficulties, thanks for the free Puyo Puyo, Sega!

It's free now, folks. Get it while you can.