The iPhone Sudoku introduced here on July 3, 2007 was a browser game by Steve McLaughlin at iphonesudoku.com. It belonged to the iPhone’s earliest wave of web software: a puzzle you opened on a website, before downloading games from an App Store became familiar.
This reconstruction uses the original article’s archived page to establish the developer and destination. A later July 2008 snapshot of the game documents its controls. That later snapshot helps explain the experience, but cannot prove every control was present in the first release.
Choose a number, then a square
The archived instructions describe entering a digit by selecting it from a row below the board and then tapping a cell. An empty selection acted as an eraser. Players could choose a difficulty, start another puzzle, ask for help or reveal the solution.
This number-first approach has a distinct rhythm. When working through several possible locations for one digit, you can keep that digit selected and inspect the board. When filling a single cell, remember that selecting a new number changes what the next tap will enter. Knowing which action comes first reduces avoidable mistakes.
Small controls make a big difference
For any touch-based Sudoku game, separate your solving decision from the tap used to record it. Check the selected number, identify the intended cell and enter it once. If the interface uses a mode for pencil notes, confirm that mode before entering a candidate instead of a final answer.
Before committing to a long puzzle, find out how the game handles leaving the page, starting again and revealing an answer. These controls affect whether an interrupted session remains useful. A quick practice board can reveal more about an interface than a long list of advertised features.
The familiar rules give you a consistent way to compare interfaces: each digit belongs once in every row, column and three-by-three box. A helpful interface makes those relationships easier to inspect without deciding the puzzle for you.
A separate option on current iPhones
Apple’s current Sudoku guide for News describes puzzles for News+ subscribers, including notes, checking tools and hints. Availability varies by country or region. This is a separate modern product, not a new version of Steve McLaughlin’s website.
The old domain and developer credit are therefore the right identifiers for this 2007 listing. An archived game page is a historical reference; it does not establish that the original site still offers a working puzzle today.