johndiii's Journal: New iPhone!

I bought an iPhone on Saturday. So far, I like it very much. Very good UI, really making use of the capabilities of the touch screen. I was already somewhat used to it, from using the touchpad on my MacBook. The multi-touch pad on the MacBook is a major stride forward from any other computer I've used, and the iPhone follows the same paradigm.

Looking for a Twitter client. Any recommendations? I've looked at several in the app store, and it's hard to compare features.

Also, if anyone has a favorite chess, sudoku, or solitaire app, I'd be glad to hear of it.

I'm going to use Handbrake to rip a movie for it tonight, and see how that goes. Much fun. Nothing better than a new tech gadget. :-)

Cool

[Shadow Wrought]

A couple of my friends have iPhones and they really like them. I'm intrigued by them, but don't have the budget for one anytime soon.

If you send out a tweet about iPhone apps you'll get some good replies. I know @SamTheButcher has tried many and can give you some good guidance.

Re:

[tomhudson]

Your signature needs an "Ironic" mod for this thread :-)

Re:

[johndiii]

Saw your tweet, and clicked through a page. When I tried to get back, I got the "Twitter is over capacity" page. I'll catch up when I can. :-)

I still don't get the iPhone....

[Corporate Troll]

Won't buy it too... Waaaaaay too expensive. (700€++ without contract? No can do...)

Re:

[johndiii]

I'm not sure what the exchange rate is right now, but that's a huge price difference. For new AT&T customers, they are selling the 8GB model for $199, and the 16GB model for $100 more. I was quite set on avoiding a contract this time around, but the phone was too good. :-) I have a couple of good friends who have them, and I've had a chance to play with theirs a little. That completely pulled me in.

Re:

[Corporate Troll]

Well that was the price at launch in Luxembourg. By now all operators offer it, and usually it's 99€ for the phone but 35€/month for 24 months (with only 2GB/month download) Linky [luxgsm.lu]

It's next to impossible to get it without contract, and those who do simply make you pay the 24 months... Look, I'm used to pay for my phones upfront: inbetween 30€ and 200€ (The latter, I haven't done in ages!) is acceptable. My plan pretty much costs me 10€ to 15€ for two phones every month! What

Transformed

[Alioth]

The iPhone completely transformed the way I use my mobile phone. And 90% of this is due to the interface, not the features. I've tried other smartphones but the interface just gets in your way (Windows Mobile is especially bad in this respect) which means although they are cheaper and perhaps have more features, they are ultimately a waste of money because I'd not use them for anything more than phone calls and texts, and non-smartphones often have better UI for doing that.

So even though the iPhone was expe

Re:

[johndiii]

Yes, that's exactly it. I looked at a Windows Mobile phone, and I was not impressed. But the UI on the iPhone was designed extremely well. Makes it a pleasure to use.

Apps...

[FortKnox]

Apps worth having:

• TwitterFon: I've tried a variety of twitter apps, fon is free and the best
• Wikipanion: Free wikipedia app that makes it much easier to read wikipedia from the phone
• PNC Mobile: Or any other bank app... if you like to keep track of your banking on the fly
• iFitness: The only app I've purchased. If you work out and want to keep track, its the best out there.
• WebMD: If you do webMD, this has the symptom app already built in
• Dictionary.com: Great app (huuuge 35MB!), but its all offline with pronun

Re:

[johndiii]

I got Sudoku Grab today. It will digitize a puzzle from a photo, and has a pretty good solving interface.

Twitterfon works pretty well. I installed Shazam and TWC the other, but I haven't tried Shazam yet. TWC works well.

Thanks for the tips. I love this phone. :-)