iPhone discussion

[Workdawg]

I'm putting this here to keep the flaming away... on point. I know a few people have iPhones, and I'm included in the club now as I just got mine Sunday. Happy with it so far, wondering what apps people have and if you guys have any tips/tricks to share.

I found a way to make your own ringtones instead of paying Apple $1 to use and music you've already bought from them to make a ringtone out of it. I found the info on a vid on youtube, but the basics are as follows:

An iTunes recognized ringtone is .m4r extension.
-First step is to load your ringtone into iTunes, mp3s work fine.
-Go into Edit>Preferences, Importing tab. Set importing to encode in ACC format.
-Rightclick mp3 ringtone and do Convert to ACC. You get a new file that's .m4a
-Rightclick that file, select the option that shows you the file in explorer.
-Rename the file and change the extension to .m4r (you must have file extensions shown in folder options to be able to actually change the extension).
-Then load the new .m4r file into iTunes and it should appear as a ringtone.
-Make sure iTunes is set to sync your ringtone and you're done.

My testing seems to indicate that ringtones have to be under a certain length to be synced to your iPhone though. If it's too long it won't show up in the sync options. I had 1 that was 1:00 long, and two that were less than 0:38, the 1:00 long one didn't show up so I had to cut the end off it.

I used Audacity for cutting it up, pretty easy to use, but you have to download a file to make it export the file as an MP3 when you're done. If you go to Download.com you can find Audacity.

------------------

My Apps so far:
Shazam: Music identifier - haven't tried it, but lots of good reviews.
Pandora: Custom Radio - haven't really tried it either but I've used Pandora online and it's awesome
Labyrinth LE: A cool little game that simulates the wooden game that you tilt to move the ball around and try to avoid holes to get to the end. Works REALLY well with the motion sensing in the phone.
Scribble: Pretty much just a drawing board, has 4 colors, you can save drawings as photos, then send them via email.
CheckPlease: A tip calculator that also allows you to calculate the bill if you want to split it. Haven't really used it yet.
BoxOffice: See movie times and stuff like that, uses GPS to find your location and show nearby theaters. Has links to call the theater and show it on maps. Seems cool.
UrbanSpoon: A cool restaurant review/finder app. You can find nearby places to eat, see reviews from UrbanSpoon.com, get maps, phone numbers, etc. The main cool thing is the random chooser. You can shake the phone to have it randomly select a place near you. It has 3 categories chosen randomly, City, Price, and type of food. Any of which you can manually select and lock so it only randomizes the other ones. Seems to work well.
Restaurant: A little app with a list of restaurants, mostly fast food, and it lists the menu and nutrition facts. You can find the restaurants nearby and track your daily intake of food that it has nutrition facts for. There doesn't seem to be a way enter your own info though. The database is supposedly being constantly updated with new restaurants and stuff, it's got an option to download new updates.
WeatherBug: Weather app. See current conditions at various locations, enter locations for quick access. You can see radar and weather cameras. The radar seems to be really slow for me when I tested it, but could just be bad luck at the time. Everything else works fine though.

[mazdamn02]

Pandora rocks, simply awesome. My one complaint is when you switch apps you can't continue to listen. An update just came out for it so it pauses and resumes the song when you come back to it, which is a step in the right direction...

[DrWebster]

AOL Radio is pretty good. I've also got Remote (which kicks ass, it's a remote control for iTunes on your computer) and a VNC client on my iPod touch too.

[Workdawg]

How does the remote connect to your computer? Bluetooth?

[mazdamn02]

wifi son.

[Picklz]

omg they have a vnc client too?! god damn I have to get one of these!

[Workdawg]

Yeah, I need to get the VNC going and try it out. I don't usually leave my computer on at home though.

[Schmitty]

I haven't used the VNC client, but I have used iPhone Remote, which lets you do some sweet stuff (iSight, stream music, Video, docs).

The MLB app is cool, lets you watch highlights seconds after they occur.

Facebook.app is hella cool as is Twinkle.

[Workdawg]

Update for new apps I've tried out.

SpeechCloud Voice Dialer: A voice dialer. You fire it up, hold a button on the screen, say the name of the person you want to call and their contact info pops up. Press one button to call. It works quite well, got most of my contacts on the first try. Doesn't require you to record voice dial commands like my last phone did, which is a plus.

Writing Pad: A simple note taking app, at first glance. It actually has its own keyboard that takes input differently than the normal keyboard. Instead of typing each key, you drag your finger across the letters of the word you want to type and it figures out what word you wanted and inserts it. It works surprisingly well and is quite innovative. It automatically capitalizes after periods and automatically inserts spaces in between words. It also has the ability to learn new words if you just type them in normally.

Mocha VNC Lite: A VNC app. They claim to have tested it with a few different free VNC servers, I use TightVNC as the server on my desktop. It took me 5 mins to setup and it works. Uses safari style scrolling and zooming to get around your desktop/view. Touch the mouse button at the bottom of the screen to activate clicking, keyboard to open up a keyboard. There's also a button to bring up the VNC menu. TightVNC has an option to auto-logout when you disconnect which is also nice. It performs pretty well. It's a little sluggish on 3g, but wifi it works quite well.


GAMES

Moonlight Mahjong Lite: A mahjong game. Uses multitouch to zoom around and change angles, touch tiles to remove them. Has multiple tile layouts. Not much to say, you can play Mahjong.

Spinner: A maze game in which you hold the phone vertically and your guy constantly moves in one direction, you rotate the phone to avoid the sides of the maze. Sorta fun at first, gets lame though.

Comet Cowboy Lite: A pretty fun little game. Comets float across the screen and you have to lasso them. You tap once to activate a lasso, then you draw a circle around them to lasso them, one more tap to reel them in. Each level requires more comets in a certain time period. It's simple, but fun.

Othello: Play othello, three different difficulties.

Subway Lite: A puzzle game involving moving pieces from their starting positions to the end. Different color pieces can only move on certain tracks, making it a bit trickier. Sorta fun.

MyLite: A flashlight app with a few options, strobing, multiple colors, etc.

[Big Nate]

Got the phone love it. And never thought I would say that.

[mazdamn02]

Got the phone love it. And never thought I would say that.

Welcome to the nerd club, you'll love it here. Be sure to pick up "cowbell" on the app store, that way we can practice our music skillz for tom and jay.

[DrWebster]

Bwahahahaaa....Katamari on the iPhone!!!!

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/15/i-love-katamari-in-the-app-store-optimization-not-included/

[Picklz]

Got my iphone earlier this week, our numbers are growing here :) lol. So far I love it. Haven't had a ton of time to play with different apps yet but here are a couple I've found so far that I like quite a bit:

WootWatch - Displays the current item on Woot.com, you can slide the pic left/right to get different views, it also has buttons on the bottom to check sellout.woot, shirt.woot, etc.

TrackerLite - Allows you to enter in tracking numbers from fedex, ups, dhl, etc and name them, then you select which one you wish to track and it poll's the appropriate site and shows tracking information on your phone.

Also I picked up an "Invisible Shield" by Zagg, It's a single screen protector, comes with some solution for application and a squeegee thing. Goes on almost like a piece of window tint (but thicker). Was fairly easy to install and so far I'm very impressed, I don't normally like screen protectors but I can't really tell this one is there, I'll update with how it holds up but it's supposed to have a 'lifetime warranty' (haven't read the details on that).

[Big Nate]

The App lux sucks. i have never won. Risk only no dice just the computer kicking your ass.

[WhiteSpy9]

Has anyone played SimCity yet on their iPhone?
That looks amazing.

[Picklz]

Ohh no I haven't, is that one free or no?

[Big Nate]

Not free :(

[Workdawg]

A couple new apps:

iShoot Lite - artillery style game with a handful of available weapons. It's pretty fun.
iMob Online - They claim its an MMO, which I guess it kinda is, but its more turn and text based. Download it and join me! friend code = 114106167

[mazdamn02]

I bought a zagg screen protector, ruined the first one, had someone from best buy install the second one (for free)... I like it a lot so far.

[Workdawg]

A pretty cool looking webpage for app shopping... tracks price changes so you can find those "today only" temporarily free apps.

http://appshopper.com/

[mazdamn02]

Shelly has an iPhone now too!!! Bwa ha ha!

[mazdamn02]

So I dropped the big bucks and got Katamari on the iPhone. It is awesome.

That is all..

[YSOSLO]

Here's something for those of you that might be interested in personalizing your iPhone

Skins from decalgirl.com (http://www.decalgirl.com/browse.cfm/2,277.htm)

[Workdawg]

Those are kind of cool... I know they make screen protectors with a mirror finish like that one phone has. When the screen is off, it reflects, but when the screen is on you can see it fine. I suppose those skins are the same idea.

[WhiteSpy9]

This looks pretty cool

The iPhone Becomes a Web Server
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_iphone_becomes_a_web_server.php

[mazdamn02]

Has anyone been able to post on the mnmazda chatbox on their iPhone?

[Workdawg]

iPhone OS 3.0, June 17th!

Copy/Paste, MMS (when ATT stops sucking), Tethering (when ATT also stops sucking, might need a special plan for it), Safari is supposed to be faster, Landscape keyboard in all native apps, they opened up the googlemaps API so developers can use it in their apps (turn-by-turn navigation)... all kinds of goodies.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5283055/iphone-os-30-available-on-june-17th
http://live.gizmodo.com/

[Schmitty]

Anyone wanna buy my 3G in a few weeks?

[Workdawg]

Are you eligible for an upgrade already or are you going to bite the bullet and pay full price for the new one?

[Picklz]

Has anyone been able to post on the mnmazda chatbox on their iPhone?

Yes this works now.

[AJ]

Cause I rox.

[blueamcat]

Has anyone been able to post on the mnmazda chatbox on their iPhone?

I use it on my iTouch. It works!

[Schmitty]

Are you eligible for an upgrade already or are you going to bite the bullet and pay full price for the new one?

I'm not under contract so I can sign up for 2 years and get the discounted price.

[Workdawg]

Lucky you. Can I come work at BB? lol

[DrWebster]

Long story short: I'm one of the cool kids now.

[Picklz]

Welcome to the cool kid club :D did you get a 3G or a 3GS?

[DrWebster]

32GB black 3GS for me, 8GB black 3G for Nelly, MobileMe family pack for both of us.

[Picklz]

Nice dude, congrats.

[Workdawg]

Nice

[YSOSLO]

Colin you've gone to the Dark Side?!?!?!?!....d00d


I'd probably be there too if I could possible justify the cost. I'm just afraid I'd never use it as much as most...although now that my intarwebs are cutoff at work, perhaps it's something I should consider as a way to keep the chatbox going while at work...lol

[Big Nate]

iphone is now helping me be a better person. I don't even know what i did before it.

[DrWebster]

Well, my biggest concern about switching to the iPhone was AT&T's service...thus far, I've been pretty impressed with it. Full bars at home, and even full bars at my desk at work on 3G (I used to barely get one bar on EDGE with T-Mobile). 3G is a shit ton faster than EDGE too, it's like I'm surfing on Wi-Fi. Yeah, AT&T costs a little more than T-Mobile (their family plans start $10/month higher than T-Mo, and the iPhone data plan is $5 more per month and doesn't include text messages), but for the increase in speed and functionality I can justify it.

[JohnnyT]

I think your experience, along with many others who have such great praise for the iPhone will make me switch to it come September. Now, since you have both - 3GS or 3G???

[DrWebster]

3GS vs 3G is a tough decision. You can only get the 3G in 8GB, so if you want more storage than that you'll have to go 3GS. The 3GS has a few nifty add-ons compared to the 3G (compass, voice command, faster processor), but I don't think those are worth the $100 premium alone. I wanted the most storage possible, as my iPhone will replace two other iPods I have, so the choice for me was obvious. The 16GB 3GS for $200 is certainly a good deal when you compare it to other smartphones at that price point (e.g. BlackBerry 8900, Palm Pre).

[Workdawg]

3GS no question. If I were eligible for an upgrade, I'd probably go for it.

[DrWebster]

I should also add that the activation process for the iPhone was ridiculously easy...you don't even need to call your old carrier to cancel your service. Porting our phone numbers from T-Mobile took 5 minutes at most; it took maybe half an hour at the Apple Store to do the whole deal, and we walked out with two completely functioning iPhones, with our numbers ported and everything.

[JohnnyT]

Do you think it's recommended to go to the Apple store over AT&T?

[Picklz]

I was going to buy mine at BestBuy (so I could get teh reward zone points) but they were out of stock so I bought mine at AT&T, had no issues was in and out in ~15 minutes with a new activated phone, couldn't have been easier. I suspect the same would be true anywhere you buy it.

[DrWebster]

I'd get it at the Apple Store. Even the guy we worked with at the Apple Store said it's much easier to get an iPhone there, than at the AT&T store.

[Workdawg]

The guy at the Apple Store said it's easier to buy from the Apple Store? Nowai!

[DrWebster]

The guy at the Apple Store said it's easier to buy from the Apple Store? Nowai!

Well, in so many words, he basically said that the people at the AT&T stores are morons. YMMV.

[Workdawg]

With OS 3.0, I'm sure you all know you can now select multiple pictures in the Photos app. From there, you can choose either "share" or "copy". Share will allow you to email them to someone, and automatically puts the pics in the body of a new email, pretty handy. However, something I just found out is that when you "share" pics, it scales them down to only 800x600, instead of full resolution. Instead of "sharing", you can copy the same images, create a new email manually, and paste them into it. This method is a little more work, a couple taps, but it keeps the images at full resolution. I'm not sure why the software works that way, but it does... here's some proof.

Pic sent via "share":
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii318/Workdawg17/Smush/1248221050.jpg

Pic sent by copy/paste into an email:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii318/Workdawg17/Smush/1248789259.jpg

[Picklz]

Nice Tip!

[Workdawg]

A few new Apps I've found that are pretty cool...

Word Ace (http://appshopper.com/games/word-ace) - It's like Texas Hold 'em and scrabble had a baby. Instead of cards, you get letters with different values and try to spell the highest valued word. Pretty cool.

Waze (http://appshopper.com/navigation/waze) - "Crowdsourced navigation" It's a cool navigation app, with turn-by-turn directions, live traffic info, all of that. The only catch is that it's all provided by users. Users map the roads (it comes with a US govt map, and as users drive along the roads, it fills in the roads as "confirmed" roads. Users can also add new roads if there is a road not on the map. You get points for "confirming roads". Also, you can add realtime info about traffic and cops and such.

Live Poker - by Zanga (http://appshopper.com/games/live-poker) - Apparently this is also a facebook app... but its on the iPhone too. Live Texas Hold 'em. Pretty good interface and all that.

Fish Food Frenzy Free (http://appshopper.com/games/fish-food-frenzy-free) - A basic copy of the flash game Fishy... motion control. Pretty cool for short time killer.

[Picklz]

So I was looking around for some decent way of tracking my monies in various accounts, as well as doing budgeting, and was hoping I could find something that would also work on the iphone.

I came across mint.com - signed up a few days ago and have been playing around with it. Once you create an account you add in your checking and savings accounts, credit card accounts, loans, etc etc. It downloads your balance and transaction information and creates an estimated budget in certain areas, you can go through and edit/delete these or add new ones. It tracks your spending per category, your overall cashflow for the month, and you can configure alerts and such.

There is a nice iphone app for it which was a significant reason for me trying it out. Near as I can tell it's completely free (app and account). I expected to find some 'extra' features that you could upgrade to use, but so far everything is open and available to use.

I'll post some more after I've used it for a while but so far I really like it.

[pingwin77]

Here is a sample of what I have, there are some more but these are the ones I use the most:

Shazam, Pandora, Facebook, Coin toss,

Windowcast - Set a few basic parameters (ideal temp, cloud coverage, humidity) and the app basically gives you a thumbs up or down if today will be what you like.

The Weather Channel - for when you need to know the details of the forecast.

Tweetdeck - Used to update Twitter accounts. You can have multiple accounts and control them all from one app.

Linked in - Keep up on your linked in accounts

Evernote - note taking software. Voice notes, Picture notes, text notes, back-up to your computer and you can share.

Cardsnap (lite) - Create contacts by simply snapping a picture of their business card. 3Gs works great with the camera, 3g needs to have the Griffin Clarify (http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/clarifi) case. I have it on my 3g and it works awesome!

OpenTable - make reservations at local restaurants and earn points redeemable for dining deals.

ESPN score center - Get up to date scores across many sports. You can add your favorite teams so they always appear at the top of the list.

iFitness - track your workouts such as reps, weight, exercises done that day. Also has built in routines and graphing. easy to back up. I LOVE this app.

Fandango - Find movies, watch trailers, order tickets.

Urbanspoon - find random places to eat in your area.

FML - easy to access to everyone's favorite "feel better about myself" site.

Yahoo fantasy football '09 - track your team with live scoring and make changes to your roster. supports multiple teams.

MLB at bat 2009 - listen to live games and watch highlights shortly after they happen.

Nervsounds - Toolbox of annoying sounds such as fingernails on a blackboard, mosquito, fork on a plate and more. Drives people nuts!

Bump - transfer contact information with a simple fist-pound.

Lightsaber - the name says it all. motion based sounds and everything!

Drinks free - 5000+ drink recipes

Guitar chords - cheat sheet will finger layouts and tabs for all major guitar chords

My Delicious - Keep track of you bookmarks for surfing the web. This way you will have them at any computer you are at.

Snatch - virtual mouse for your Mac. includes a track pad with both right and left mouse clicks, keyboard and completely customizable control layouts

Dog Whistle - just as it is labeled. really mess with your friends or neighbor's pain in the a$$ dog!

Picturesafe - keep those personal pictures lock up and out of your camera roll so prying eyes do not see them. Password protected.

[Picklz]

Alright so new app I founded

http://www.rockyourphone.com/index.php/myprofiles.html

Lets you customize rings/alerts/etc based on a TON of settings, location, who's calling or emailing, what you select etc. The one thing the phone has been missing is the ability to have different sound 'profiles' so I could have the phone behave one way at work and another at home, etc. Looks like this might do the trick for that. I'm going to check the free trial out, will report back my findings.

[WhiteSpy9]

WHAT IS AN IPHONE?!?!?!?!


I see schmitty using this app with twitter/facebook:
http://gowalla.com/

Looks cool, thought I would share.
I like the idea of being able to share unique, tasty, or otherwise interesting places with people and having something that provides directions/information/linkage to said place with very little user interaction is scwheet.

[Workdawg]

I've also signed up for mint, it's pretty cool. Nice to have all your account information in one place, etc. It took me a little while to get it setup on PC, adding all my accounts and stuff, and I'm still missing some that aren't available... but it's cool anyway.

I downloaded another game that seems pretty interesting, "Words with Friends". It appears to be a scrabble clone that you can play "online" with your friends. I haven't been able to test it out really yet, but from what I understand, it's kind of like email chess or some similar game. You can play many games at once (up to 20) and it lists all your games and whether or not it's your turn. It saves the state of the board until you come back and play again.

Some of you should sign up so we can test it out.

[DrWebster]

Alright so new app I founded

http://www.rockyourphone.com/index.php/myprofiles.html

Lets you customize rings/alerts/etc based on a TON of settings, location, who's calling or emailing, what you select etc. The one thing the phone has been missing is the ability to have different sound 'profiles' so I could have the phone behave one way at work and another at home, etc. Looks like this might do the trick for that. I'm going to check the free trial out, will report back my findings.

That looks awesome, I'm gonna have to check it out. Being able to customize ringtones/notifications for different phone numbers and e-mail addresses is one of the things I miss from my BlackBerry.

[Picklz]

Alright so that rock your phone thing..it basically is a software jailbreak for your phone that then lets you shop from the rockyourphone store, replacing the app store, I'm not sure if you can still purchase from the regular app store or not.

I was going to give it a try, but it only supports os 3.0 right now not 3.1, so no joy :(

[DrWebster]

Well fuck that then. Not terribly thrilled about jailbreaking.

[Workdawg]

ZOMG http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone

[mazdamn02]

I saw, I want. I'm eligible for upgrade now, I skipped the 3G"S", so this is on my to buy list.

[Workdawg]

Hell yeah. I'm eligible in august IIRC, and I'm fairly certain my upgrade will be to iPhone4. I'll consider what else is out there when the time comes, but that thing looks sweet, and OS4 sounds like a sweet upgrade too.

[mazdamn02]

Super Multitasking FTW. Internet radio in the background FTMFW. Video chat OMGWTFBBQ! Sweet!
I'm hoping this thing has at least 64GB memory. A dozen movies and my entire music collection no problem.