Having missed out on a 3G iPhone, thanks to O2's shoddy organisation, planning and web servers, I have been consolodating myself with the iPhone software update.
The 2.0 software covers most of the existing applications, many with just minor tweaks, but some are quite a bit better (caculator), and some are new (address book).
The real fun comes when downloading applications from the app store. You can do this via iTunes, or from the iPhone its self, the latter being a really impressive way of getting applications!
There are some really good apps, so silly ones and some crap ones. These are the best ones I have found so far:
- Twitterific
- Twitterific is a great application for twitter, it's got some nice features for replying and DMs, and also allows you to tweet photos (vai 3rd party service) and location. It does tend to crash a bit, and could do with a smaller "inbox" but I could see myself getting the paid version at some point. The main thing I think it misses is an out box for twittering offline (on the tube).
- Monkey Ball
- A great game once you get use to the controls. The graphics are really impressive, and for a fiver it's a bargain considering it would be £30ish on the DS or PSP.
- Remote
- The iTunes remote from Apple works via WiFi and is really cool if you have a mac linked up to a stereo or TV. However it doesn't work with front row, or via bluetooth which is a shame. It is really making me think about getting an airport express for the back room.
- Shazam
- Shazam app lets you discover info about a song by putting your phone up to a speaker, and also stores a log of songs you have discovered. I guess they are making money out of referrals to the iTunes music store, great idea IMO.
- The facebook application is really good, and something that makes me want to use FaceBook more. Chat, mail, and status updates in one place is something I hope Google will do soon.
I am hoping Google release some native applications soon, but aside from those I really want:
- RSS reader that links up with Google reader
- Wordpress blogging application (that works well offline)
- Yahoo Fantasy football app
- Live premiership football updates
- Fire Eagle app
- GPS app (for 3G iPhone)
- Track pad remote mouse (for controlling a Mac's mouse)
- Terminal app, for SSH etc
- Disk mode application, file browser
- Tetris, multi player
- BBC iPlayer with download mode
- Wikipedia with offline cache
- London Tube map, TFL application
I am also excited about apple's upcoming push notification for applications, so that IM apps and RSS apps can get updates when they are not running. I am also keen for Google to add push email, otherwise I may make the jump to moble me