You don’t need to buy the new iPhone 3G to have a new iPhone. I didn’t. Upgrading my iPhone’s operating system to 2.0 gave me most of the new iPhone 3G’s functionalities – such as App Store, support for Cisco VPN, push/pull technology, and of course, the most important little function which is lacking in the old version – the ability to lock the phone.
The App Store made available hundreds of new applications, 20% of which are free, with thousands more in the pipeline. I installed a couple of the free apps and found some interesting. I was particularly fond of Phanfare’s ability to upload the just-taken pictures to your Phanfare account in real time so you don’t have to store the pictures locally. This is particularly useful when on vacation and have your friends and family see your photos as they happen.
Jott is another nice utility that you can actually use while on the go. The iPhone becomes a transcriber where it turns your voice into text and stores them in your Jott account for later retrieval. Not only does it work like a notepad on steroids. You can also call Jott’s 800 number to compose and send emails and text messages using only your voice, add appointments to your calendar, shop at Amazon, etc. Now that’s nifty.
I also like VSnax, a free mobile video service that offers news, sports highlights, gossip, short film, etc. Currently, the service has CBS, Spike, VH1, G4, and The Style networks. You need to be on a wi-fi network, however, to get the best results. I tried it with Edge network and it was very frustrating to say the least. Sling Media will be coming out with their version for the iPhone and I can’t wait to watch my favorite shows streaming from my slingbox at home.
Then there are search apps for virtually anything, such as events, movies, people, restaurants, etc. The beauty of these search engines is that they are specialty search engines so you don’t get irrelavant results. One particular search app that I like is Yelp which searches for restaurants, bars, banks, service stations and drugstores in your current location. Click on the address and you will be brought to Google maps complete with directions. Click on the telephone number and iPhone will automatically dial the listed number.
