iPhone4 & Me

I’ve been asked a few times now why I’ve chosen the iPhone, what kind of protection do I use on my iPhone, and what are some cool apps to download. I’ll try to briefly answer those questions here without boring the rest of you who are unfortunate not to own one.

OTHER OPTIONS

Honestly when it comes down to it, I don’t like the other options out there. When I heard the iPhone4 was coming out and all the specs and features were confirmed, I looked into every other option that could compete (Nexus One by Google, any number of Android phones, Palm Pre). For various reasons (namely 2 of those options don’t really even exist anymore) including poor usability I just wasn’t inspired to switch from an experience I was already more than happy to be a part of. Does that make me a fanboy? I don’t know, I don’t care. I’m just happy with my product and I’m sticking with it until I’m not.

PROTECTION

When I originally bought my iPhone 3G I bought a case for it along with a screen protector.  After using the case for a month, I ditiched it.  It made the phone chunky and awkward. The iPhone got dirtier than without the case on. And in the end the ultimate reason was because the case broke and I was no longer interested in dealing with any case at all. I never did put the screen protector on. After seeing other people with similar options and noticing all the little bubbles on their screen and lack of color, I was just willing to deal with the consequences of not having one.

My phone rarely leaves my hands or my pants pocket. I was very careful to place my phone in one pocket, and keep my keys and loose change in the other.  That’s all I keep in my pockets anyways so that worked for me.

2 years later is my 3G in mint condition? No. Would anyone buy it if it was? No. Did I ever drop my phone? Yes. The backing of the phone is worn down, the seams are starting to come loose, there are a few scratches on the screen and there are a couple of scars from drops to the ground. The phone has been loved. It took a beating and kept on ticking.

APPS OF CHOICE

To begin with, there is a lot of good stuff in the app store, but there is even more junk in the app store. You will at some point buy an app and regret it after using it the first time. Deal with your loss and move on.

  • Docked Apps - Phone, iPod, Mail and Calendar
    These are my go to apps. These are the apps that I use more often than anything else. 

  • Social Apps
    Twitter - My favorite twitter client
    Facebook - Who doesn’t have facebook?
    Gowalla - A great and fun location based service.

  • Entertainment
    Flixter - Theatre listings, Movie trailers, reviews, and upcoming stuff.
    360Live - See which xbox friends are online without turning on your console.
    Rdio - Best online music service of all time.
    Shazam - Turn this on when you want to find the name of that tune.
    Remote - Control your iTunes library from your iPhone.
    iTV - See what’s on TV.

  • Productivity
    TeuxDeux - A great to-do list. My favorite of many tried.
    Simplenote - Great little note taking application
    Reeder - The BEST RSS reader out there by far.
    Converbot - Let this guy do the math for you.
    Dropbox - No more need for that pesky flash drive. Sign up here.

  • Photography
    Hipstamatic - fun little camera
    Mill Colour - great free editing application
    PS Express - another great editing application
    Flickr - Flickr on your iPhone

  • Games
    Bejeweled 2 - my facvorite 5 minute game
    Scrabble - what else can be said?
    Canabalt -  a great way to pass the time.

  • Informative
    Weather Eye - weather application
    Yellow Pages - Look up some numbers
    Dictionary - look up a word