iPhone After Two Months
Posted on | September 20, 2008 | No Comments
After seeing D’arcy’s post today I felt the motivation to get off my butt and finish my iPhone review / showcase of my increasingly cluttered screens. First my screen setup followed up by short reviews of each application.
My first screen is my main screen which I reserve for applications I use most or are what I deem critical to the phone.
My second screen was originally influenced that on my iPod touch I placed all Internet using appliations on the second page. However with the iPhone this has changed significantly, and the second screen is roughly my photography/utility/Web screen.
My third screen is relatively simple and is exclusively devoted to games.
My fourth screen is a catchall screen for apps I use very infrequently and web bookmarks I really should delete.
On my layout I try and keep the bottom row clear if possible - it feels considerably cleaner and swiping with my digit doesn’t blot out any information (say a badge on an icon). The information in question doesn’t actually matter but I am not a fan of blotting out my viewing window unless necessary. The bottom row gives me a safe place to swipe without fear of opening an app. (Had this happen with 1.1.4 on my iPod touch but not since 2.0.)
“Home Row”
Phone: I like the app and keep it here because double taping my home button takes me to the iPod application. Biggest complaint was fixed in 2.1 as the contacts lag was fixed.
Calendar: I’ve got the time at the top, and the date at the bottom. I don’t use the calendar a lot but appreciate having the date visible at all times. It does it job and gets out of your way.
Safari: Best mobile browser availble. Only wish is that I could use newer versions of Webkit. Don’t miss not having flash ads all over the place. I never really use Java anyway.
Settings: Easy access to turn WiFi on or off among other things. It means I don’t have to go digging when wanting to change a setting.
“Screen 0”
iPod: No review needed. In 2.1 much nicer than 2.0.
Mail: For what I want Mail is an excellent Mail application reading and composing my email. Biggest annoyance is that I can’t mark items as unread. Having used POP accounts on my iPod touch I must say IMAP or death - I will archive older mail on my desktop to keep my mailbox down in size.
Maps: The GPS built into the iPhone 3G makes using this app even more enjoyable. It just works and works well.
Weather: A bookmark to Environment Canada’s website on the weather for Calgary. I like the view of Apple’s provided application but the accuracy is even more atrocious than Environment Canada. I’ll take the lesser but uliet if two evils.
Contacts: No review needed.
Notes: Useless because it can’t sync with anything but good for when you need to jot something down temporarily.
Calculator: No review needed. It works.
NetNewsWire: The first third party application on my iPhone - is very, very well designed and syncs with a subset of my NewsGator feeds. Excellent way to stay informed when killing time on an hour long commute on public transit.
SMS: It works. No review needed.
Spend: I have fallen out of using this application (which thankfully now has a non ugly logo) due to issues in iPhone OS 2.0.2. I lost data twice and had the iPhone uninstall everything once as well. Now after 2.1 as someone who hates to keep receipts it makes recording transactions easy so I can input them into Quicken at home.
Twitterrific Premium: Hands down one of the best designed applications on the App Store. It just works, allows you to view webpages without leaving the application, and with the premium version gives a version I find much more readable. It’s light, fast and exceptionally well designed. Best Twitter client IMNSHO.
Things: This application rivals Twitterrific for best design in an iPhone application. With 1.1 they introcued syncing allowing me to keep snippets of what needed to be done with me wherever I was. Super highly recommended as it’s super intuative - if you like the desktop version you’ll LOVE the phone version as well.
1Password: The latest addition to my iPhone I am presently trying out using a passwrd manager and need access to a subset of passwords on the go. Won’t be stating on the front page as I don’t use it all that often.
“Screen 2”
There is no screen one.
Camera: It works and the quality is what you would expect from such a small camera.
Photos: Dont use this as often as I should. But it dies the dusplay of photos exceptionally well.
Exposure Premium: Also one of the first applications I installed on my iPhone - this would be akin to Photos but for Flickr with more features. My favourite feature is the Near Me feature that will use the location services to show pictures taken close to your location.
WordPress: Used to type the large majority of this post, it’s a great little piece of software to create posts from your iPhone. Not perfect but faster and more screen friendly than using the WP-admin UI in Safari.
Remote: One of Apple’s add on programs - it’s awesome controlling your computer that is downstairs to play to the Airport Express in the room beside you so you can have some music playing without having to navigate floors.
iTunes: No review needed but my credit card is quite fit. Only wish it wasn’t WiFi only.
App Store: Like the iTunes store, no review needed but my credit card is quite fit.
Shazam: While my personal use for this application has been limited and when it first hit the App Store a couple songs I threw at it were spotty it’s a great tool to have around. I can never remember the names of songs and it’s works very nicely all things considered.
PhotoCalc: An application I use quite infrequently but very much worth the money I spent for it the times I do have to use the program. The reference, sunrise, sunset, and moon phase section is worth it’s weight in gold. (At least for me)
Seismometer: This is a recent application. It was recommended to me and for $0.99 it’s very much entertaining for seeing how much vibration and such is occurring. As I type this section on my iMac, I can see the seismometer jiggle as I type faster and harder versus softer and/or slower.
pTerm: This was the first ssh client available for the iPhone, and it works well enough. When it first came out there were some serious issues: namely no arrow keys, escape key, etc. making some commands impossible. However in a pinch when I need to log onto one of my servers to check the status of something it does work. Personally I’d rather get to a computer if possible, but it does handle a regular sized Terminal window well on the iPhone screen (allows moving it like a webpage) despite the keyboard consuming the majority of the screen.
Mocha VNC: I had first tried the light version and was impressed that it worked causing me to pay for the full version to support the development of a VNC application for the iPhone. Very much like pTerm - it’s great in a pinch and all that’s available but if I could I’d rather get onto a computer as scrolling around a large screen gets very cumbersome very fast. (But is the best solution to showing a large screen on a small screen and making it actually usable).
“Screen 3”
reMovem free: I was recommended this application as well but have yet to get around to playing it.
Koi Pond: The water effects are amazing, and if anything the application is perfect for showing off what the iPhone can do. It’s mostly useless but fun and entertaining in brief short 30-60 seconds stints.
Cro-Mag Rally: One of the first applications I got for my iPhone - the game brings back many of the memories I had of playing Cro-Mag Rally back in OS 9. The super loose controls, the decent and entertaining graphics, and the sheer amount of hate I forgot about because of said controls. While I don’t play the game anymore I know several people who don’t mind it. It’s the only application I regret buying on the App Store.
Aurora Feint: A highly popular free game - the puzzles have been very entertaining but I have not devoted enough time to actually delve into the game deeper and start exploring much past the first 5 minutes. A shame really because it’s a very well designed game.
3-Tuple: Doesn’t seem to be available on the store anymore - but another app I was recommended but have yet to play.
Sudoku Unlimited: One of the only games I actually play with some regularity (say once a week). I like the inputs and how well it’s put together. Of course there are 9 million other Sudoku games on the AppStore but I like this one best.
Othello: It’s the game of Othello and I forgot just how out of shape I was on this game as the computer is schooling me even on easy mode. Fun game however.
Tris: No longer on the App Store because of a Cease and Desist - but it’s Tetris and it’s great. It has some bugs but I like it a lot more than the official Tetris game by EA (which is just bloat - I want to get to my game fast not 2 minutes later).
Spinner Free: Another game I have to show off what the iPhone can do - it’s easy and I don’t play it often but it shows off the accelerometer well as you just have to rotate the phone (landscape) around your arrow to lead it to the goal. Easy, and a great casual game for killing time.
Spore: Owning Spore itself, the cell stage was a lot of fun and I wasn’t sure how closely it would resemble it when looking at the screenshots and reviews. It’s not much like it at all in terms of gameplay. You tilt to control your character and I must say it’s a lot of fun and thankfully is nice and casual allowing me to get to my game and out real quickly if I need to.
CarriesDots: Another free game. Simple, casual, fun. That’s all I wanted and it’s perfect. It is a two player game however.
Brain Challenge: Like Brain Age but for the iPhone with more games. It’s fun although the loading times are a bit frustrating at times. Don’t regret buying this application one bit.
“Screen 4”
Empire: Bookmark to CalgaryMovies.com for the Empire Studio 16 theatre. HORRIBLE theatre, but it’s close.
Chinook: Another bookmark to CalgaryMovies.com but for Chinook.
Flickr: A holdout from my iPod touch this is just a link to my Flickr page - I really just use Exposure or flip to Safari instead from now on. I should get around to removing it.
YouTube: Only use it when people send me links to YouTube. It plays Rick Astley very nicely.
Stocks: Never use it.
Weather: Pretty but a PITA. See why I have the Environment Canada bookmark on my front page.
Clock: I never use the other features in Clock, so the time in the bar up top works great.
Banner Free: Scrolls words across your iPhone screen as if it was a large LED sign. Fun to send small messages by showing it off.
Instapaper: I use Instapaper on my desktops quite a bit, but the iPhone version leaves me wanting quite a bit. It’s slow - since I understand it caches a text version on the iPhone itself - but it’s not apparent it does it. It only lists 10 items at a time and requires you to update it which is a 60-120 second operation to get the next 10 items. I like to be able to flip through my Instapaper items (which number about 200) to see which things that had interested me I’d like to read and see if they’re actually worth bookmarking. I won’t be upgrading to the pro version.
Flixshop: “Grocery Gadget” in the iTunes Store. Flixshop on the iPhone? Huh? Glad I didn’t pay for it - I haven’t got around to trying it out yet.
Air Sharing: Another application waiting to be tried given I got it for free during the big buzz that it’s a great application.
Bible: It just works. ‘Nuff said.
Last.fm: I don’t use this often but the couple of times I’ve used it, it means I can listen to radio on the go at times. It’s been spotty for me on cell service however - and since my iPhone has music I want I don’t pay it much heed.
Conclusion
So after two months I still have to say the iPhone is the best phone I’ve owned by FAR. Except for some hiccups under 2.0.2, namely when I switched computers it decided to nuke items, and the occasional requirement to restart it every couple of days which still exists under 2.1 I have enjoyed using my iPhone tremendously. My data usage is also considerably lower than I expected. When Rogers announced the 400MB data on the lowest plan I thought I’d blow past that amount very easily - in reality the first month was 198 MB whereas the second month increased to 240.5MB, whereas this month I’m only on track to use 300MB.
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