Shiny new apple toy.

[rmd]

As I mentioned on Twitter last nite, I got an iPhone yesterday. Verdict so far, quite shiny and cute. I'm still getting settled in to it, as far as losing useful apps. (any suggestions for free apps?)

Comments

[cz_unit]

I'm still on the shoulder about getting a free Iphone or an ITouch: Do you see the integration of phone/internet over WEP to be worth $2k over 2 years?

CZ

[rmd.livejournal.com]

eh? where's the $2K?

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

Can't remember if I replied to your twitter. Sam has a lot more recommendations but here's my quick list:

Twitterific (iphone twitter app)
Kiwi (wikipedia for the iphone)
Pandora and/or Radio Paradise
Stanza (and a lot of books are available for free - this one has really helped me deal with long waits for bus or doctor without having to carry a book)
Lightsaber (who doesn't need their phone to double as a Jedi weapon? :)
Flixster - finds movie listing in your area

and while not free, we LOVE Omnifocus (which we used on our macs and our phones - the syncing means it is a truly useful organizing tool).

One of us!!!
Motion X Poker (dice poker) for fun ...

[cz_unit]

$80 a month times 24 months (length of contract)

CZ

[johnromkey.livejournal.com]

$2K's a bit misleading. Presumably I'd have a 'plain' phone if I didn't have my iPhone; the iPhone premium that I'm paying is the $30/month data charge, which for two years is $720. And I want data on my phone; it gets me a lot of functionality while I'm away from Wifi (which is most of the time that I'm out of the house) and saves me from needing another several hundred dollar device that can use wifi.

Where does the 'free iPhone' from from?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i've already got a cellphone, tho. it's only $30/mo to add the unlimited data. it's totally worth $720 over two years.

[cz_unit]

Fair enough; my circumstances are a bit different.

In my circumstance work pays for my BBerry which has phone and data service (however it doth suck data-wise). They're not interested in subsidizing my own toy, so the extra $$$ is on my wallet.

I almost never use the phone feature on the BB anyway, so it's not like I am using a work tool for home use. Most important thing is the clock and the ability to check GroupWise.

If I could just get a data plan with the IP I would be on it in a second; however in my case I'd have to freight the phone talk cost which to me is like a large hole in the floor.

And yeah, $80 a month isn't that much but it's a fixed expense. I always try to keep those low if possible; I'd rather pick up a new and more efficient dryer for 1k than pay 1k for phone service. Unless the 3G is what makes the Iphone worth having.

Free is I have one of those super-cool black Apple cards that entitles me to $300 of something. I'm not sure if it's an Iphone only or if I can use it on an ITouch; if I can't use it on a touch then I really need to think about this. In a way it's a bit of a white elephant (though a really cool one)

CZ

[cz_unit]

Ah ok. Drat then; I have a work-paid BBerry and I never use the telephone anyway (aside from calling work to say hello). I'm guessing you can't get a 3G without the $50 base voice plan, correct?

CZ

[johnromkey.livejournal.com]

I thought those super-cool black Apple cards came from someone buying them and giving them to someone else ;-)

I've heard that you can get the data plan only if you can convince AT&T that you're deaf. I'm not sure if that's true or not.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

ah. yeah, i've been avoiding a blackberry at work, since i don't want to be that fucking reachable (the pager is bad enough)

[spazzkat.livejournal.com]

GABBA GABBA ONE OF US!

There's a free Facebook ap that's okay. Um.. there's an okay LJ ap for posting that's easier than navigating to the site. The NY times has a pretty decent news reader. There's an ssh client called Touch Term that's a bit hard to read BUT I can't imagine it's easy to get SSH on a display that small with a touch keyboard. If you travel a bit I recommend dropping the cash on Flight Update. I think it's like $4 or so. You give it the flight numbers of a trip you're taking and it'll tell you if the planes are on time and what gate connecting flights will be at. It's _extremely_ handy to have along when you have connecting flights.

[sapphira-altair.livejournal.com]

I second twitterific, flixster and pandora. I also use the Amazon.com app frequently, as well as the google app (yay, voice searching!) and the weather channel app (which gives you more detail than the regular weather app). Also, the zippo lighter app is fun at concerts... :)

[judith-s.livejournal.com]

The delta in cost between the BBerry and the iPhone isn't much. My firm "upgraded" us all from BBerries and Treos with Goodlink, which is what we had before. Overall cost differential was under 10%.

[judith-s.livejournal.com]

I think Shazam is funny, although I don't use it much. (Let it listen to a song for 10 seconds, and it identifies the song. Works mostly on rock/pop).

Stanza is my default ibook reader. I also like WikiTap as my dictionary/Wikipedia link. And I use Translator for German/English, although I think that might've been a 99cent app. Yelp is pretty decent for finding out what's a good place to eat locally. The two games I play are MotionX poker and WordWarp. The kids love Bubbles and Hangman.

[cz_unit]

*nod* Always a good point.

In my career I struggled with that one for awhile, then finally came to the understanding with employers that in return for me being reachable after hours, my "in the office" hours were limited to around 10am-4pm or so including lunch.

The concept of working 40+ and then working evenings and weekends really sounds evil.

CZ

[cz_unit]

*nod* We've kicked the thought around at work and will probably give the IPhones a try now that SalesFarce and NotifyLink both run on IPhone. However that still would not allow this phone to be covered since it is personal property (policy states that if it's for work it's supplied by the company. Very fair actually)

[cz_unit]

*nod* Yep, that's the case; this was basically a gift. And the cards are amazing; they're the kind of thing that you should be able to flash and get into a super seekrit club or something :-)

Maybe I can just give it to my church or something; but in your opinion would an Itouch be worth anything to you as a device?

CZ

[johnromkey.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah... the iPod Touch is a very nice gadget. The mail reader is top notch for a gadget-based mail program, Safari is a very good web browser... and it's a very good iPod. It can do everything an iPhone can, minus the phone, camera and true GPS, and only over wifi.

If I didn't have an iPhone already I'd definitely have an iPod Touch as my music player and for semi-mobile web browsing and email.

[johnromkey.livejournal.com]

Half the fun is trying out apps and deciding that they're crap and never using them again.

Free keepers for me have been:

Remote (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284417350&mt=8) - lets you remote control iTunes or an Apple TV

Taxi (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=288670013&mt=8) - has GPS support and tells you the numbers of taxi companies nearby

Twitterific (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284540316&mt=8) - for when I'm really bored. The free version has ads, or you can buy it without ads.

NewNewsWire (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284881860&mt=8) - free feed reader - though with Google Reader's good iPhone support I haven't bothered much with it

iTalk (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=293673304&mt=8) - oddly free voice recorder from Griffin Technology

ebay (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=282614216&mt=8) - what it says... official app from ebay

Oblique (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=291102639&mt=8) - Oblique Strategies for the iPhone

OpenTable (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=296581815&mt=8) - iPhone interface to the dining reservations site

Urbanspoon (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284708449&mt=8) - another web site front end

MotionX GPS Lite (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=293935935&mt=8) - gives lots of GPS info

Just Light (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=302956392&mt=8) - turns the screen white... like a flashlight...

Coin Toss (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=287965865&mt=8) ...

Radio Paradise (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=294813449&mt=8) - works more reliably to listen to them than listening through Mobile Safari does

iSteam (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=300748973&mt=8) - good for 30 seconds of amusement once

two of my favorite pay apps are

Bloom (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=292792586&mt=8) - probably my favorite iPhone app. Brian Eno in your iPhone.

OmniFocus (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284885288&mt=8) - I'm not sure this is worth it if you don't use OmniFocus on a mac as well. It's a great todo list organizer, for "getting things done". I don't really GTD but I do keep my lists of crap to do in Omnifocus and sometimes remember to refer to them. I keep my grocery list in it too, as Apple has oddly chosen not to sync over iCal todo list items to the iPhone.

I try free things with abandon and every so often go through my phone and wipe the crap from it. Which, after doing this review, I think I need to do again.

[johnromkey.livejournal.com]

I mean to also say that I replaced my Palm TX with my iPhone... all the stuff that made the iPhone a good replacement for it is true of the iPod Touch as well. The one glaring problem I have with the iPhone/iPod Touch is that Apple doesn't provide a To Do list interface. I keep (kept) my To Do list in iCal on my Mac and had full access to it on my Palm Pilot. I find it very odd (and annoying) that they do calendar synchronization to the iPhone/iPod Touch but don't do anything with To Do items.

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

I second the use of Omnifocus as a GTD/organizing tool!

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Not all of these applications are free, but I like them.

Advent - Text based adventure.
Adventure - Atari 2600 console game Adventure. Blocky graphics cuteness
Air Sharing - For getting files onto the iPhone. Will view many types of files.
Amazon Mobile
Blocks Classic - A nice breakout game.
Bloomberg - Stocks
Blue Defense Lite - Game, I'm likely to buy the regular version, and there's a second game by them that also looks good.
Cube Runner - Piloting through a maze of blocks game.
Evernote - note taking application, has a website version.
Enigmo - Physics rube goldberg game with drops.
Frotz - Zcode reader for Infocom games.
Google Earth
Google Mobile
LED Football - The old LED football game that really started handheld games in the first place
Livejournal.app - Can annoyingly double-post, though.
Missile Command - Excellent old school arcade game conversion. Multi-touch is really nice with this.
Movies - Find movies, and upcoming and just released DVDs.
MultiConvert - units conversion utility which seems to convert virtually anything.
NIght Camera - Uses accelerometer to sense when you're not moving to take pictures.
OmniFocus - GTD to-dos. (Things looks to be very nice as well for this.)
Pandora Radio - Pandora iPhone client
Remote - Controls multiple iTunes libraries and Apple TVs.
Rogue - I think this is NetHack?
Rooms - IRC client.
Shazam - "What's this song playing?" discovery application.
Slotz Racer - Cute slot car race and construction set.
Spawn Illuminati - Interactive screen saver.
Splash ID - Password vault with a Mac client as well.
Splash Shopper - Lists management with a Mac client.
TouchMines - Minesweeper. (Guilty addiction.)
Urbanspoon - Restaurant discovery and choosing application. Shake to pick a random restaurant nearby.
Viper Lite - An okay Defender conversion.
1Password - Another password vault, with a Mac client that works with Safari and Firefox.
2079 - Cute arcade game
5800+ Drinks And Cocktails - Alcohol!

And, App Shopper (http://www.appshopper.com/) is a good application discovery site which has a nice feed of new applications.