The iPhone’s native clock app certainly leaves something to be desired, and the iPad didn’t even ship with one. Now that apps can run in the background with iOS 4 – already available for iPhones, and coming soon to the iPad – there are quite a few free alarm clock apps that will come in handy. The iPad’s large screen also makes for an ideal nightstand clock, and there are a few apps that take full advantage of that.

For the time being, until iOS 4 is made available to iPad users, be sure to launch the app before you go to sleep if you want to use your iPad as an alarm clock.

The following is a collection of some free alarm clock apps for iPhone and iPad.

Waku Free

Waku Free is a quirky alarm clock app for the iPad and iPhone that sets itself apart from the rest of the apps with its unique graphics. Waku is also a cut above the rest of the free apps because it allows you to use the music on your iPad as the sounds you’ll wake up to. That said, their own hilarious sound effects might help get your day started on the right note.

And don’t be put off by the bright screen – it actually has a switch that allows you to dim the lights and get some shuteye.

Nightstand Central

The free version of the iPhone and iPad app, Nightstand Central displays the time, date and weather of the location of your choice. The alarm can be set to the sound of church bells, a traditional alarm clock and a dial up modem, amongst a few other sounds.

Nightstand Central has a snooze feature, and also gives you a variety of wallpapers to choose from, although one of the darker wallpapers will make more sense if you’ll be keeping the iPad or iPhone by your bed.

Night Stand Lite

Night Stand Lite, not to be confused with Nightstand Central, is another minimalist iPad and iPhone alarm clock with two choices in the app’s appearance. You can select the digital clock, with the colours of your choice, or set it to display 6 clocks set to 6 different timezones.

While it has no snooze option, you can choose which days you want the alarm to be repeated, and can wake up to a small selection of sounds from birds to glass breaking. Although waking up to the sound of glass breaking doesn’t really sound all that pleasant.

What’s your favorite iPhone or iPad alarm clock app? Why not share them with us in the comment?

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Halloween is almost here. So are you ready for the holiday? Are you looking for some frightening iPhone apps to play with? Are you brave enough? Now it's time to prove it.

No. 1 Pumpkin Ninja 

Developer: David Tillotson

Price: 99 cents

This is a fun little game that involves swiping your finger at falling pumpkins on your screen, thus slicing them in half like (in the game's words) "a true ninja." We're somewhat surprised that "true ninjas" spend their time cutting plants in half while they're falling from the sky, but perhaps ninjas are simply so secretive that we don't know anything about the weird stuff they do in their free time.

No. 2 iDrakula 

Developer: Sourcebooks, Inc.

Price: $1.99

Here's an imaginative app that uses text messages and voicemails to retell the story of Dracula. So one morning you might wake up to find a text message from your "friend" Lucy Westerna complaining that after hanging out with the Count last night, she woke up with "a wicked hickey." It's not quite how Bram Stoker would have put it, but what the heck. Maybe his book would have been improved if it included more passages along the lines of "I vant 2 drink ur bl00d LOL."

No. 3 Scene It? Horror 

Developer: Screenlife LLC

Price: $1.99

Scene It? is a classic movie trivia game that uses video and sound clips, famous quotes, and puzzles to keep players stumped. This special horror edition of the game features some of the most famous horror films ever made, including "The Evil Dead" series, "The Exorcist," "The Shining" and "Frankenstein." A really cool game to have at Halloween parties.

No. 4 ZombieSmash! 

Developer: gamedoctors

Price: $0.99

ZombieSmash! has perhaps the most inscrutable description we've ever read, as its developers have branded it a "'Survival Comedy' game, featuring undead-themed castle defense and entertaining, physics-based gameplay." Yeah, we don't know what that means either, but from what we can tell the premise of the game is that you can use various destructive implements, including boulders, wrecking balls and even asteroids to smash up zombies. And let's be honest: Crushing the living dead with heavy objects is a terrific stress reliever.

No. 5 DOOM Resurrection 

Developer: id Software

Price: $6.99

Relive the glorious mid-90s by going around with a gun and blowing away vaguely-defined-but-nonetheless-menacing enemies on your smartphone. The original DOOM was the first first-person shooter to really hit it big, so you'll be playing a real classic here if you choose to buy it.

Which one do you like the best? Or which do you think is the most horrible one? Share your ideas with us.

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If you love typography, you may be interested in this poetic visual art app--TypeDrawing.

TypeDrawing is an entertainment app compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It is easy to use and perfect for creating typography art and unique watermark.

You can start it by typing a sentence you want to say, and then just draw with your finger. This simple action leads you to make stunning typography and wallpapers.

• Main Features:

Text-Every language, Unicode, Emoji support

       -Text you typed is saved automatically in archive

Color-Full color support by standard Color Wheel

       -Random Color & Shadow Option

Background-White, black, Notes and Photos

                 -Photo Opacity Control

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