iGeek
Today, I joined the ranks of the iPhone wielders.
Despite the phone being out two weeks now, when we got to the Rancho Cucamonga Apple Store this morning a little after 8, there was still a line around the corner of the building. I pity the fool who showed up at 5 minutes until 10 (the official store opening time) expecting to waltz right in and get a phone, especially since they had been letting people in since 8:25 or so. (My iPhone quest was aided by using the official site info on availability and not-so-official peeks at the raw feed, which is apparently updated about once an hour during the day.)
I picked up a 16 GB old school white iPhone, and despite an early glitch with the GPS (it thought I was in Germany east of Darmstadt until we left a 3G coverage area and the GPS righted itself), it’s been a great little machine.
While the GPS and high-speed Internet is nice — and its e-mail client is miles better than the one on my Treo — the real strength of the iPhone 3G, and the reason I made the jump from the Treo at last, is the Apps Store, which finally allows additional programs beyond what Steve Jobs thinks ought to be on the platform.
I’ve picked up a bunch of programs already, most of them free:
- Advent – A free version of the classic Colossal Cave Adventure.
- AIM – I haven’t had a working AOL Instant Messenger account in about a decade, but this is a good way to stay connected with people, so I plan to get a new account soon.
- AOL Radio – I can now listen to KROQ while driving around in the High Desert. Too bad WHFS is dead, or I’d listen to that, too. KCRW isn’t available using this app, but apparently NPR plans station feed apps soon enough anyway.
- Aurora Feint – A free demo game that combines puzzles with a roleplaying aspect. Haven’t tried it yet, but the price is right.
- BoxOffice – Uses GPS info to look up movie choices in your local area, complete with ratings from Rotten Tomatoes.
- Bubbles – Create and pop bubbles on the screen. It’s about as exciting as it sounds and is a good candidate for early deletion.
- City Guide – A guide to Washington DC, using Washington Post content.
- D20 Gaming Dice Set – A paid app (for 99 cents). Shut it!
- Google Mobile App – Search the iPhone (well, much of it) or the Web from one all-in-one search tool. People tell me this is awesome, but I don’t yet see why, unless it starts searching a lot more than my contacts.
- Labyrinth LE – A well-done version of the game where you move a metal ball across a wooden board covered in holes. Of course, I’m terrible at the game in real life, so the fact that this uses the accelerometer to realistically display how bad I am at it doesn’t really endear it to me.
- Magic 8 Ball – I had one of these on my Treo. This one actually works better, since you shake the iPhone to use it.
- Mobile News Network – An AP news reader.
- Moonlight Mahjongg Lite – Another free game. So far, it’s a well-done mah jongg game, but I always love the game more in theory than in practice.
- Morocco – Othello, on the iPhone. This will do until more backgammon choices become available. There’s only one in the app store currently, and I don’t want to shell out money for what is likely to be the least polished version available in a few months.
- NY Times – A New York Times news reader. This is just sitting in the spot that will one day be occupied by a Washington Post or Christian Science Monitor news reader will one day occupy, once they appear on the store.
- Pandora Radio – The awesomeness of Pandora, anywhere. Honestly, they could sell a portable Pandora player all by itself. Getting it as a freebie for the iPhone is amazing.
- Remote – Apple now allows me, via my phone, to control my home computer’s iTunes program. Frankly, it’s sort of spooky, but I guess this means I can play music for the cats or scare the crap out of burglars.
- Shazam – This little program can identify just about any music it hears. And then put up a link to sell it to you via iTunes.
- Tap Tap Revenge – This is a freebie pseudo-Guitar Hero sort of game. I’m guessing Guitar Hero or Rock Band will actually make the leap to the iPhone in some form in the next few months anyway.
- Tipulator – It’s amazing how many tip calculators are available in the App Store. I guess there’s a lot of drunks with iPhones. This one has a really polished and fun interface.
- Truphone – Use VOIP to make long distance calls for 6 cents a minute. There’s not a cheap stateside iPhone VOIP service yet, and I suspect AT&T likes it that way.
- Urbanspoon – The idea is great — shake the iPhone to get random suggestions of neighborhood restaurants, drawing on the Web site’s reviews. Unfortunately, the only reviews are for about 20 urban areas in the United States. This app has just bought a ticket to Delete Town.
- Weight Tracker – Lets me mathematically monitor how sexy I am.
- WordPress – Allows me to blog from anywhere in the world that I can get a cell phone signal, which I’m sure is good news for the world.
Notably absent are Super Monkey Ball, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Cart or any of the other console ports. Truthfully, I don’t really care that much about kart games and I’d rather save my money for when a Spyro game gets ported, a Monopoly game is added or for Star Wars: Force Unleashed or a good RPG.
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Nooooo.Treo-traitor.
Um, say, what DID you do with your old Treo?
Comment by mordechai luchins — July 25, 2008 @ 2:32
Geek!
One day the evil that is the Canadian cell phone industry will end in a glorious explosion and there’ll actually be a sensible iPhone plan. Or alternatively, UT Austin will call and tell me they just must have me!
They just raised prices on texting US numbers and took them out of my text plan. WTF, since when does the cost of cell phone services go up? /bangshead
Comment by Nicole — July 25, 2008 @ 7:48
The Treo that James munched on? (The alt, D and a few other keys still stick and the microphone works not at all.)
My plan was to donate it to Cell Phones for Soldiers unless someone I know really wants to take on a cell phone that basically only works as a text and e-mail device. (With the bonus of being able to listen to voicemail, but not actually call anyone back and actually talk to them.) The company they sell the phones to, Recellular, apparently totally redoes the phones they receive before they sell them (and give a calling card for the soldiers to the charity).
If you really want to take on the phone in its current shape, e-mail me and I’ll get it to you.
Comment by Beau — July 25, 2008 @ 8:53
Whoops, I was wrong: KCRW is indeed available on AOL Radio, although it’s not listed under Los Angeles stations (it’s in Santa Monica, which is LA to my way of thinking), and is further hidden under Talk Radio. (I was looking for KFI, which isn’t there, incidentally.)
Comment by Beau — July 25, 2008 @ 19:53