Five months later with the iPhone

I have to say that I am impressed. I genuinely enjoy my phone. I am surprised how much I use it at the expense of the computer. I do most of my browsing of South Bay Riders as well as my email on the phone. Most of my blogging is done on the phone as well with the WordPress application.

One of the biggest benefits I’ve seen with the phone is the ability to use the in between time more effectively. When sitting in line at the DMV I can follow up on email at the office or browse the web. That is pretty cool. My laptop battery is now dead on a five hour flight and I can continue the blog on the phone.

Applications are a bit mixed. Some of them have been great. Others not so much. Which ones do I like?

• Road Trip – is a neat little app that tracks all the expenses about your car. You can key in gas, service, etc and it will calculate the MPG as well as the cost per day and mile to drive that vehicle.
• Lose It – this app tracks your calories in and out. You can key in food as you eat it and it will calculate the nutritional breakdown. You can also add in negative calories for exercise. The food database is not near as complete as Calorie King, but it is not bad.
• BikeMateGPS – this app tracks your bike ride via GPS. It tracks the major stats like speed, elevation, distance, and time. It will also overlay your route on Google Maps as well.

There are a number of cruddy apps out there as well. My shortlist is as follows:

• Google Maps – this one is not so bad, but it leaves a LOT to be desired. It is hard to get the directions app to start from current position once you edit the start. I would have also expected the app to use bigger text and more GPS style graphics in the navigation mode.
• Greatest Road – my main gripe is that it is slow.
• Speedometer – this one seems the most elusive. All I am looking for is an analog speedometer that is large on screen and is reasonably accurate. I cannot find either.

All in all, I am very happy with it. I am also excited about the iPad. It is a bit much at $500, but as prices come down that space becomes more appealing to me. I totally get the market they are going after, it is just not worth it for me at that price.