As soon as the iPhone came out I wondered, “What will be in the next one that will make all the people that have one now upgrade.” There were a few ideas, better camera, better GPS, etc. Obviously adding a video camera to the 3GS was a huge step. It wasn’t enough for me to switch, but it was enough a product change that I considered it. Here are some thoughts about what people want in the iPhone 4.0. So far, it focuses almost entirely on the OS. I’m curious, though, are there any hardware changes that would be especially exciting for you? (OK, OK, besides battery life.)

I don’t know what’s more remarkable, how often I’ve heard of the 3G iPhones crapping out because of hardware issues or how easy it is to get a new phone from the Genius Bar at the Apple Store when it does. Seriously, this seems like the hidden story of the 3G phone. My guess is Apple knew very quickly that the 3Gs weren’t ready for primetime and went against about 25 years of corporate policy to make it easy to replace a malfunctioning product. I just got a new one today and I’m psyched!

I love the iPhone. I use mine incessantly. Mostly I use Mail, Safari, Google Apps, and Facebook. Maybe I’m just jaded, but most of the applications on the App store are garbage and don’t do anything terribly exciting. The other morning I downloaded the AccuWeather GPS-enabled iPhone app, though, and wow. This is the weather App for which you’ve been waiting. It uses GPS to give you the temperature at your current location, plus a “feels like” temperature. Plus there’s a radar section , finally. And to top it off a risk bar set up. It’s not perfect, but it’s the most perfect free weather App I’ve found. Also, it’s one of the more useful applications. Anybody have thoughts on other useful applications? Leave them in the comments. (By the way, the working definition for useful is something like “Not a light saber, zippo, or glass of beer.”

+++
Since writing this post a couple weeks ago, I’ve noticed a few quirks in the app that I would change if I was building the BEST iPhone app. If you’re looking at the 5-day forecast and you switch to a day a couple days away, it goes back to today when you toggle between night and day. Also, you can’t view today’s forecast more than a few hours into the future? It would be good if you could hit ‘next’ and move forward. Fact remains, it’s still more useful than all the others and I want to know what you’re using.

+++
Update: Thanks to digiphile in the comments for pointing out my error in leaving out Pandora. I was remiss. I don’t use it much, but that’s a great app. Also, since iTunes started streaming podcasts, I appreciate it even more.

We got iPhones last weekend and I thought I would note down some of my initial thoughts and questions. Some have been answered, and some I’ll just put out there for the internets to answer if they can. After a week, I’m pretty pleased. Except for a few features, it hasn’t completely blown my mind, but my expectations were higher than anything I’ve ever had expectations for.
Without further adieu, and in no particular order, my questions, observations, and experiences, with answers when found, are below the fold:

Read the rest of this entry »

I heard Neil Patrick Harris on Fresh Air talking about his new web musical, Dr. Horrible and thought it sounded pretty funny. I wasn’t going to say anything about it, just make it the first thing I add to my iPhone in a month or so (when I celebrate iPhonica), but now everyone’s talking about it and I don’t want to be left out anymore. If you’ve seen it, let me know what you think in the comments.