Nearly iPhone time

Yep, nearly.. FINALLY.. time to get me an iPhone. July 11th is approaching, I've "registered my interest" with O2, I'm past the end of my Orange contract (happened a couple of months back, just as O2 reduced the 8Gb iPhone price, something didn't smell right then, despite how tempted I was, so I held off.. cheers me), and I'm all set for 3G iPhone goodness (all being well with credit checks and the like!!!).


So, I've started looking in a little more detail at the available apps, after all the iPhone functionality is good, but I want more from it.

iPhone 2.0 can display all manner of Office docs, so that's ok, but you can't create/edit any. now I don't know if I'll actually need to, but I may well consider Google Docs as a possible solution. I don't currently use them, so I'll have to try them out on here first.

The GPS side of things will also be an interesting one. I'm hoping the iPhone will save me having to buy a separate SatNav device (such as a TomTom 520T that I've been considering), I don't think that the standard Google Maps will suffice, so I'll be waiting to see what TomTom's software's like, but I'll certainly give the standard system a go in the mean time on upcoming jobs (with printed directions as well, just in case!!!)

Web Apps
First stop on the App train was the Web Apps page and there's a fair few on there, including Virtual Panda...but I'm steering clear of stuff like that for the time being (no doubt I'll play some sort of game on it at some point), I'm looking at what is actually going to be of use to me, in the same sort of way I'm looking at Facebook apps. So...

Obviously, I use FB a fair bit, so this is a no-brainer, it's also a bit odd to me as to how it classifies as an 'app' rather than just an iPhone optimised page. (to be fair that's pretty much just what the Web Apps are though)

This seems interesting, a simple tape logging app, which could be quite useful, however, having thought about it a little more, possibly TOO simple, what could be great for quickly and easily logging tapes on the fly, could be a complete waste of time as there appears to be no way to export the data. So if I did want to log on loc. perhaps a Google Docs approach would be better, i'll def give it a go though.

I'm not sure if this is THE Twitter client that people are using (there's probably a Jailbreak app out there), but looks ok, the other options are simply going to twitter.com via Safari, or seeing what Twitteriffic on iPhone will be like (I've switched to twhirl on the desktop now though)

It's specific to camera work, not sure if I'd actually use it, but work knowing it's there.

This is pretty awesome, I can definitely see myself (at least one of my friends has already been using it) referring to this reasonably regularly, you can select the camera, bear in mind this is for video cameras, everything from the Canon GL up to the Sony F23.

Similar to the above, but geared more towards stills photography by the looks of it, unfortunately I couldn't get the site up to investigate.

Another reasonably handy app, a little ugly compared to the Digital Heaven widget, and to be fair, I'm probably more likely to use the widget as it'll be on to the edit station, but maybe I'll be in PC world, wondering how big a hard drive I need for location digitising... you never know.

This isn't in the web app list, but they've recently announced the iPhone compatibility and it's an interesting service.

I haven't seen any other "productivity" apps that I think would give me any better functionality than the existing iPhone functions (for what I need), feel free to suggest tho.


Native Apps
So next up, the App Store, this hasn't launched yet, but there's various announcements on line (specifically I've been checking posts on tuaw.com)

Okay okay, I said no stupid apps, but we're talking Lightsaber's here!!

(possibly Tube 2) Uses the Location functions of the iPhone, tells you your nearest Tube station, then you can plan a route to where you want to go. While this does seem ok, quite useful, possibly quicker than consulting my trusty tube map leaflet, for an app that will probably be charged for there does seem to be a lack of functionality/features. Post Code search? Service updates? option of actual tube map rather than overlay?

Nothing else has sprung up yet, ebay app possibly.


Jailbreak Apps
Now I don't intend to jailbreak my phone unless there is a 100% absolute need to, I'm hoping any actual useful apps will find their way to the App Store. Many developers are complaining about not being accepted, ok Apple are limiting the initial numbers, fair enough, the other thing I think is there's a lot of crap apps out there. However...

Yes this would be useful, if you combine it with other apps for using the files that are on your device. Good news is that they're working on an SDK version.

Notes looks a little weak for typing any serious text docs, so we're between Google Docs, but if you're offline or no signal (out in a field or something) A handy text editor would be nice.

An IM client for iPhone, supposed to be pretty good. Would I use it? I don't know, I use AIM, but would I need it on an iPhone?

Yes, play NES ROMs on the iPhone, tempting, very tempting, but very against what I'm trying to do app wise!! And I wouldn't jailbreak my phone for it.


So, I keep looking, no doubt more will come to light once the App Store is up and running and I actually have an iPhone and am using it on a regular basis.

Thoughts?

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