As if there weren’t enough people reviewing the iPhone 3G I thought I’d throw in my $.02.
In short, so far, it’s fantastic. The speed of the internet is at worst 3x faster then the first gen iPhone, that alone makes the purchase worth it (to me). The aGPS is surprisingly fast as can get a lock in about 10 seconds, much better then I expected.
With the 2.0 firmware comes the Apple Application Store, and I can say I’m very happy with most of the applications I’ve tried. Though, not all applications live up to what they promise. Here’s a few apps that I’ve installed that I now can’t live without.
Apple Remote:
Absolutely fantastic. Remotely controls iTunes or an AppleTV from anywhere on the same WiFi network. This is great since I can control iTunes which plays through my AppleTV and thus my home stereo system.
Twitteriffic:
I miss Twinkle but this will do for now. It does a decent job but it definitely lacks the features from the jailbreak-required app.
Facebook + Myspace:
Thankfully I’ll never have to go to myspace.com again after using the MySpace app. The Facebook app is nice as well, but I think I’ll stick with the webapp version until they can match features on the native app.
Shazam:
Listens to what it can hear playing and tries (very well actually) to find the song, album, and artist. I threw some tough music at it and it was about 80% accurate. In normal circumstances I can see it being easily 100%.
Pandora + AOL Radio:
I like Pandora quite a bit and this is exactly what you’d expect from an application they offer. Plays a personalized playlist of music they think you’d like, does a great job too. AOL Radio really surprised me with the quality of the audio and selection of songs. Both are a must since they’re free after all.
Last.FM:
And here’s where I start to get angry with Apple. The Last.FM app is a direct continuation of c99koder’s work on MobileScrobbler missing one enormously important feature… scrobbling. Apple has intentionally not allowed applications to run in the background thus crippling a number of applications that otherwise would have been fantastic. Last.FM and IM applications are broken because of this. This needs to be fixed, or I’ll be jailbreaking at the first opportunity.
Loopt + Whrrl:
Whrrl is utterly horrible from what I’ve seen so far. Whrrl is a “where are your friends now, and where do they recommend” gone wrong. It’s cumbersome and preforms poorly and it was excrutatingly difficult to add a friend. Loopt seems to be a much better “where are your friends” app, but sadly I only have two friends who use it. If you’re a Loopt member and I know you (even sort of) send me an invite (aaron period lake from Google’s fine mail service).
So far I’m very happy with the new iPhone, it’s almost all I could have expected. Will Android beat the iPhone? Time will tell.
July 13, 2008

When I did freelance work a few years ago I managed my time with Excel spreadsheets and Notepad. This method works but it’s by no means an elegant way to track time. Adobe’s 
I'm Aaron Lake; this is my blog. I'm 26 years old, and have