After two solid months of using my iPhone 3G, I decided it was time for a short update. As many of you know, I used a Palm device for many years, ending with the Treo from 2003 through this August. When the first iPhone came out, I was intrigued, but thought Apple missed the boat, for me, by not utilizing the fastest cellular data network and not allowing 3rd party applications. When they announced the new iPhone last January and finally released it this summer, they had added the fast cellular network service and opened the system for third party development. It caught my attention in a big way this as it has 7 million other new iPhone 3G owners since its release in July.
Overall, the iPhone has performed wonderfully and with the exception of no cut, copy and paste (when Apple? when?) it has performed admirably. I have been able to duplicate all the functions I used the Treo for, and added many new capabilities. I use the phone the most…after all, it is a cell phone. The visual voice mail system that lets you pick which message to listen to first or have the ability to visually pause, rewind or fast forward voice mail is stunningly implemented and makes managing voice mail much easier.
For extra applications, I settled on SplashID to manage my passwords, Grocery Zen to create shopping lists (I get through the store in at least 25% less time now), Now Playing to look up movie times, Pandora for listening to music (don’t have much time to do this, but it works well), Woot On! to check the daily Woot, but especially helpful when there is a Woot Off, WeDict for a dictionary, Wikipanion for great mobile access to Wikipedia, SportsTap keeps me up to date on sports I follow, Units application for converting volume, length, weight, etc. I also downloaded and occasionally use Word Warp, Sudoku, Tris (tetris clone), reMovem, and Blocks Classic for quick games. For future travel, I downloaded the mobile versions of Yelp and Hotels.com.
The built-in email application works well, and I use it daily in addition to browsing the web. The iPhone truly has exceeded my expectations, and I have no regrets about moving from the Palm based Treo and over to the iPhone. Apple promises to add cut, copy, and paste to the iPhone at some point. I hope they make it quick!
If you happen to own an iPhone, leave a comment below and let me know what your experiences are with it. Also, let me know what applications you have added and which are your favorites.
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- What I learned in the first 4 days of my iPhone 3G
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- My iPhone 3G is on its way
- iPhone – cool because it’s marketed that way
- Is the iPhone another Newton?
Tags: Apple, copy, download, email, iPhone, music, Pandora, paste, remove, update, Word
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HelpMeRick.com started as a monthly tip site for beginners in 1996, and now supports our popular call-in computer show, and hosts thousands of useful computer tips and links.
You don’t miss the hard keyboard?
I played with one for a bit and was consistantly frustrated because my fingers don’t seem to make it do what I want it to.
The virtual keyboard was another learning curve, thanks for mentioning. The Treo keyboard, I thought, worked quite well. However, after working with the iPhone keyboard over the past couple of months, I find that I trust the predictive text more and more and am almost as fast as I was on the Treo keyboard.
I have used a couple of Palm handhelds over the years, and now all my contacts are in the Palm desktop app. I liked being able to enter contacts on my computer (full-sized keyboard, for instance, is a convenience). Is there a desktop contact app that works with the iPhone? I don’t use Outlook. I have thought of getting a Treo just to be able to use my legacy Palm apps like Desktop.
If you don’t want to use Outlook, you can use the Google contacts part of Gmail to sync the iPhone. I still like the Treo, but compared to the iPhone, overall it’s pretty dated.
Google Earth and AroundMe are great apps to add to the iphone. Still looking for new apps to add..