It's been awhile since I've written about applications on the iPhone. The last time I discussed a number of jailbreak apps that I had tried out or used heavily. However, since upgrading to the iPhone 3G, I have been running strictly legit apps. (I still have jailbroken apps on my original iPhone, but nothing really impressive.)
So what do I have on my iPhone? Here goes:
Page One/Line One:
- SMS
- Calendar
- Photos
- Camera
All standard Apple apps and in their original locations.
Page One/Line Two:
- YouTube
- Bloomberg
- Maps
- Weather
YouTube and Maps are the standard Apple apps. I have substituted the Bloomberg app for the standard Apple Stocks app because it is so much better; stores and provides more information; and is free. I don't use Apple's Stocks application. Weather is a Safari shortcut for the Weather Underground site (http://i.wund.com) and I have it set to my local weather. Weather Underground provides in-depth seven-day forecasts as well as local weather radar on the same page. I don't use Apple's Weather app.
Page One/Line Three:
- Mobile News
- Calculator
- Evernote
- Reader
Only the Calculator is an original Apple app. I have an HP-21-like financial calculator on the phone also, but find the Apple Calculator simple and reliable for most day-to-day uses. Mobile News is the Associated Press' free news application and I find it simple, and provides a great overview of world, US, political, and business news. While I still use Apple's notes app, it has been relegated to page two. Evernote is a free application that provides easy notetaking, allows voice recording, allows snapshot notes, and syncs all these in the cloud. Evernote also has Web access as well as an app that runs on the Mac. The result is information can be accessed virtually anywhere (unlike Apple's Notes app). Finally, Reader is a Safari shortcut to Google's iPhone-optimized reader page. This fills the bill for information not provided by Mobile News.
Page One/Line Four:
- Contacts
- Settings
- Twitterific
- Jott
Contacts and Setting are the standard Apple apps. Twitterific is my primary Twitter client and is used quite often. Jott is my preferred ToDo list application because it allows voice transcription of notes and ToDos. This makes it great when driving and something comes to mind that I wamt to remember.
The Dock:
- Phone
- Mail
- Safari
- iPod
These are all standard iPhone apps and in their original position.
With a few exceptions, these are the workhorse applications I use. I have a total of nine pages of apps and shortcuts, some used quite often and others that are there if I need them. Others of note include:
- 1Password for keeping track of various user IDs, passwords, and related Web site addresses.
- AppStore for keeping applications updated and installing new ones.
-AirSharing for keeping various Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files that
I need to reference on the iPhone.
- Wikipanion for looking up those quick items that don't require an in-depth Google search. It's a free app.
- Google Search with the voice recognition capability. I find that I use this app a lot more since they added the voice recognition.
- New York Times application. This fills the holes left by Mobile News and Google Reader, but the application is prone to frequent crashes.
- SportsTap, a comprehensive sports tracking application.
- iBlogger which I use to write most of my blog entries. I paid for this application and it has been worth every penny.
- i.TV for tracking what's on TV as well as finding what's playing at local theatres.
There are other applications that I use from time to time, but not nearly as frequently as the ones mentioned. I will cover some of them at a later time.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Update 2.2 Impressions
I've now have several days under the belt with iPhone OS X Update 2.2. The good is the Google Maps application with Streetview. In my opinion, Streetview works better on the iPhone than it does on a Mac or PC. It's clear, fast, smooth, and easy to use.
I also like the single-click home key push that takes you back to the first page on the Springboard. I didn't think I would use it that much, but I find I use it a lot.
The improved HTML handling in the email application is a nice touch. Whereas I used to pinch to expand a page, it seems to render that way naturally now.
The bad is that I am convinced the battery life is not as good as before the update. Apple has over their various updates made significant improvements to the power management on the iPhone. They seem to have taken a step backwards with this update. I had finally gotten to the point of getting a full day on the battery with moderate use. Now it seems that battery life has been reduced by 20% or so.
What say you?
I also like the single-click home key push that takes you back to the first page on the Springboard. I didn't think I would use it that much, but I find I use it a lot.
The improved HTML handling in the email application is a nice touch. Whereas I used to pinch to expand a page, it seems to render that way naturally now.
The bad is that I am convinced the battery life is not as good as before the update. Apple has over their various updates made significant improvements to the power management on the iPhone. They seem to have taken a step backwards with this update. I had finally gotten to the point of getting a full day on the battery with moderate use. Now it seems that battery life has been reduced by 20% or so.
What say you?
Monday, November 10, 2008
iPhone November 2008
It has been awhile since I posted to this blog for the primary reason that I did not have anything significant to add to the conversation about what a good or terrible phone the iPhone represents. However, there are a couple of items that I have not seen mentioned that I think warrant discussion: 3G coverage improvements; iPhone battery improvements; AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots; and blogging applications.
I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and when I first got my iPhone 3G, the 3G coverage was marginal at best. That is, in many places, a 3G signal was not available; where there was a signal, it was so weak that the phone would switch back and forth between 3G and EDGE; and when you did get a signal, it would suck the energy out of the battery in no time. Over the last month or so, that seems to have changed. With the release of the 2.1 update, the 3G radio seems more stable. In addition, it does not seem to drain the battery as fast. However, the biggest improvement appears to be the 3G network itself--finding a strong 3G signal now appears to be the rule instead of the exception. Quality has improved as has stability. Speed is exceptional.
Along with these 3G improvements has come a related improvement in battery life. I can now typically get a full day out of a charge, something I could not do just a few months ago.
Now for the bad news--AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots work terribly on the iPhone. First, the hoops you have to jump through just sign on to the hotspot is a genuine pain. You connect by Safari, fill out your phone number and agree to the terms and conditions. Then AT&T sends you an SMS message with a link to use for access. However, half the time, the link is not live (requiring you to enter a really long URL manually into a browser. Another quarter of the time, the link is bad and will tell you that you cannot connect and to try again later. If you should be so lucky to connect, the connection is flaky. That is, when I go to open another Safari window, AT&T will ask me to go through the sign-in procedure again. By this time, it is just simpler to turn on 3G.
Other than that, not much has changed. The iPhone still crashes periodically, although less than when first released. Some apps are good and some are bad. I have been trying out the free blogging applications. I tried to post this using LifeCast, but once the entry was completed it would not upload and I ended up having to manually enter the post online. Therefore I wouldn't recommend LifeCast.
WordPress is an outstanding free blog, but is limited to posting to the WordPress site only. However, it is easy to use, full featured and works well.
Finally, BlogWriter Lite works well, no labels or tags, but will allow you to compose on the iPhone and then post to a blog. I use it for a BlogSpot blog and it works great. The only problem is that it will allow the use of only one blog (I have four). I am willing to buy a blog app, but the choices at present seem to have significant bugs judging from the comments, so I will wait awhile longer.
What are you thoughts on 3G, battery life and blog applications? I would like to hear.
I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and when I first got my iPhone 3G, the 3G coverage was marginal at best. That is, in many places, a 3G signal was not available; where there was a signal, it was so weak that the phone would switch back and forth between 3G and EDGE; and when you did get a signal, it would suck the energy out of the battery in no time. Over the last month or so, that seems to have changed. With the release of the 2.1 update, the 3G radio seems more stable. In addition, it does not seem to drain the battery as fast. However, the biggest improvement appears to be the 3G network itself--finding a strong 3G signal now appears to be the rule instead of the exception. Quality has improved as has stability. Speed is exceptional.
Along with these 3G improvements has come a related improvement in battery life. I can now typically get a full day out of a charge, something I could not do just a few months ago.
Now for the bad news--AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots work terribly on the iPhone. First, the hoops you have to jump through just sign on to the hotspot is a genuine pain. You connect by Safari, fill out your phone number and agree to the terms and conditions. Then AT&T sends you an SMS message with a link to use for access. However, half the time, the link is not live (requiring you to enter a really long URL manually into a browser. Another quarter of the time, the link is bad and will tell you that you cannot connect and to try again later. If you should be so lucky to connect, the connection is flaky. That is, when I go to open another Safari window, AT&T will ask me to go through the sign-in procedure again. By this time, it is just simpler to turn on 3G.
Other than that, not much has changed. The iPhone still crashes periodically, although less than when first released. Some apps are good and some are bad. I have been trying out the free blogging applications. I tried to post this using LifeCast, but once the entry was completed it would not upload and I ended up having to manually enter the post online. Therefore I wouldn't recommend LifeCast.
WordPress is an outstanding free blog, but is limited to posting to the WordPress site only. However, it is easy to use, full featured and works well.
Finally, BlogWriter Lite works well, no labels or tags, but will allow you to compose on the iPhone and then post to a blog. I use it for a BlogSpot blog and it works great. The only problem is that it will allow the use of only one blog (I have four). I am willing to buy a blog app, but the choices at present seem to have significant bugs judging from the comments, so I will wait awhile longer.
What are you thoughts on 3G, battery life and blog applications? I would like to hear.
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