iPhone

part of David A. Buser's website

Favorite Apps

Must-have

• Beejive IM
• Shazam
• reQall
• Remote
• TWC (The Weather Channel)
• Air Mouse
• Facebook
• Dictionary (from dictionary.com)
• ESPN ScoreCenter
• FlightControl
• iBlast Moki
• Ski Report
• Stanza

Apps of interest for pilots

• AOPA Airports
• ForeFlight Checklist

Also worth checking out

• Skype
• Fandango
• Zillow
• Sol Free
• Twinkle
• moonlight mahjong lite
• WordPress
• SudokuFree
• PegJump
• Pandora
• Evernote

Mini-review

Good

• Visual Voicemail -- freaking fantastic
• Can play iPod songs thru inbuilt speaker -- I don't think any other iPod can do this Update 15 Sep 2008: 2G iPod Touch can now do this
• Web browser -- almost as functional as full version of Safari. Light years ahead of BlackBerry browser and Mobile IE, not sure how it compares with mobile version of Opera?
• GPS
• Wifi
• Accelerometer -- in many apps, screen reorients when you tilt iPhone on its side
• Can disable autocaps (compare to Blackberry)
• Push syncing of email, contacts, calendar with either mobileMe or Exchange (free Exchange account available from mail2web.com)
• contact syncing with Yahoo and Google -- non-Push, but no mobileMe required
• Can control desktop iTunes using Apple Remote on iPhone
• App store -- 3rd party apps, can install directly from iPhone
• Can buy songs on iTunes store directly from iPhone
• Multitouch -- easy to scroll and zoom things like web pages

Bad

• Cannot sync podcasts w/o connecting to iTunes computer and syncing
• Cannot play songs directly to Airport Express via WiFi
• No LED for visible missed-call/voicemail/SMS alert
• Keyboard is a bit of a compromise. Slider would have been nicer
• Cannot record movies using camera Update 23 Jun 2009: Now possible using 3GS
• No push apps 'til at least September Update 23 Jun 2009: Push apps released as part of iPhone 3.0 . Better late than never!
• AT&T only
• Proprietary connector rather than standard USB. Maybe they had to do this to make it dockable ... ?
• Battery not user-replaceable
• No Flash player
• No SSH, VNC, or RDC client (yet)??
  Update 18 July 2008: VNC client available free from iTunes store
  Update 7 Aug: iPhone and iPod touch get their first SSH client, TouchTerm
• No to-do list that syncs with Exchange task list?
• No search function in native email client Update 23 Jun 2009: Released as part of iPhone 3.0
• Animated GIFs may not exceed 2MB decompressed
• No way to see a log of all calls (including outbound)?
  Correction 7 Aug: this is actually possible using Phone -> Recents -> All
• Difficult to jump between inboxes for two different accounts in mail client
• No support for flash memory cards
• Entering a birthday for a contact does not cause the birthday to appear in the calendar
• Call list does not show outgoing vs. incoming call indication Update 23 Jun 2009: Corrected in iPhone 3.0
• Can only sync with one Exchange account. Not sure how this compares with Windows Mobile.
• Can only send video and music to TV output. i.e., TV output cannot mirror iPhone screen. Added 15 Sep 2008
• No turn-by-turn GPS navigation. Added 6 Oct 2008 Update 23 Jun 2009: TomTom has announced software that supports this
• All-day appointments show the wrong start date in the invitations list. Added 24 Oct 2008

Ugly

• AOL Instant Messenger -- AIM must be the active application, and the phone must stay awake, or you get logged out Update 23 Jun 2009: AIM now supports push
• No missed-call/voicemail/SMS repeating vibrating alert
• Cannot disable autocorrect Update 23 Jun 2009: Corrected in 3.0 ... Joy!!

Useful links

Kate: http://ripdev.com/kate/
dev-team blog: http://blog.iphone-dev.org/
pwnage 2.0 guide: http://coachhowland.blogspot.com/2008/07/pwnage-20.html
AppTapp: http://www.apptapp.com/
mobileterminal: http://code.google.com/p/mobileterminal/