The northlondonhippy

Archive for the ‘apple’ Category

I’m angry.

I’m pissed off.

I’m hopping, fucking mad.

Apple showed off the new iPhone 3GS a couple of days ago and it is a desirable piece of kit. While not a huge leap in technology, the new hardware-based features of this new model make me want one.

You’d think, in the middle of a deep recession, that spending my hard earned cash would be easy.

Think again.

O2, the mobile network here in the UK that has exclusive rights to sell iPhones are being quite foolish about upgrades to existing customers like me. They seem to think its sensible for me to take out a 2nd mortgage to upgrade to the new model.

Existing subscribers are gold dust to companies like O2 or at least they should be, but it seems this time that is not the case.

In the cell phone industry, networks refer to it as “churn”, or the loss of customer to other networks.

There was a lot of “churn” here in the UK last summer, when loads of people dumped their existing networks to move to O2, so they could have an iPhone 3G. I was amongst that large group of switchers myself.

I love my iPhone, its easily the coolest device I’ve ever owned. I have no regrets about changing networks to get one.

Early adopters, like myself and many of my friends and work colleagues, drive technology sales in that we buy first, pay full whack, then show it off to our mates who end up buying them too.

I can think of half a dozen people right off the top of my head, who bought an iPhone because I personally introduced them to mine. I’m sure the same is true for many other early adopters; we should all be on commission really.

Instead, O2 don’t respect us and are actually going out of their way to penalise people who bought their iPhone 3G’s last July. Do you think that makes me keen to persuade others to get an iPhone from O2 now?

O2 want to sell me a 32gb iPhone for the same cost they’re selling them to new subscribers, £269 I believe. I could just about wear that, if I had to, but they also want me to pay the remainder of my contract as a penalty.

A penalty?

I want the latest handset from my current network provider and they want to charge me a penalty? Why not just smack me in the face and get it over with?

I have 6 months left on my current contract and I am on the £45 a month tariff.

£45 x 6 = £270 (it doubles the cost of the phone).

Its stupid beyond belief.

They want me to pay £539.00 to upgrade my handset, when someone off the street just signing up to O2 would get it for half that.

Its madness!

I’m an existing customer, I should be treated better than a new customer. Show me a little love and I’ll show you some back, but try to screw me over and I’ll cost you money.

How?

I’m still working on that, but I have a couple ideas.

Everyone who wants to upgrade their iPhone should each spend at least one hour on the telephone with O2 customer services.

You’re not going to get any joy, but you are going to waste their time and in business, time is money.

For every minute you keep one of their sales reps occupied, that’s another minute they are not selling a brand new phone.

Be polite and just keep repeating yourself, its what the O2 rep is going to do, so you might as well do the same.

Escalate too, they hate that. Ask to speak to a supervisor, then the supervisor’s supervisor, then the department manager. The key is to keep them on the phone as long as you can. And call them from your iPhone, because the call is free to you, but it does cost O2 in network bandwidth.

Say anything, use some of my arguments, sing them a song, tell bad jokes, whatever will keep them talking.

Then use the word “churn”, that will scare them.

Keep telling them existing customers are getting a raw deal.

O2’s line is that the iPhone 3G was subsidised, which is why they want to force people to see out their contracts before getting a new handset. Its bullshit, but that’s the tack their taking.

Like I give a shit about their profit!

If they did a bad deal with us last year, tough. Don’t try to fix it by screwing us over a year later. That’s not smart.

I don’t want the new iPhone in 6 months, because it will be a six month old phone then.

And I know 6 months after that, a better iPhone will be released. And here’s the thing, the differences between the iPhone 3G and the 3GS aren’t that huge, but that might not be true with next year’s model. Who knows? And who wants to gamble on it?

The really smart thing to do is buy the new iPhone 3GS privately once an unlock is available, then switch networks. O2 are being so myopic about this, I am very tempted to follow this path and show others how to do it too!

O2 are going for short term profit, when success in customer relations only comes by playing a long game.

People are seething over this, check out mobile phone forums or Twitter. Every newspaper has had a story on this massive O2 cock-up too.

I’m definitely not the only one who wants to push back hard at O2.

I can’t do this alone, we need every other iPhone owner looking to upgrade to take action.

“Brand management” is a marketing buzzword these days and O2 have done some real damage to themselves. They might be able to put a ridiculously high price on upgrading, but having a well-respected brand is priceless.

Can you hear that, O2? Its the sound of your stock price dropping fast. I don’t see a net to catch it, do you?

O2 can either work out a better plan for us to upgrade, or they will start to haemorrhage subscribers. If O2 don’t make us all happy and soon, its going to cost them plenty.

( #O2fail - search for it on Twitter! )

This is a little warning from your friendly, neighbour hippy.

Do you tweet from your iPhone? Are you broadcasting your location with every tweet when you are at home? Do you know what I am talking about?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, especially that last one, you really need to pay attention to this.

Your iPhone is location-aware, so to an extent is your iPod touch. You probably know this already. It means it can work out your location using GPS, wi-fi and/or cell phone tower information to a reasonably accurate degree. That feature is built right into the core architecture of your iPhone.

Having that information at the core, means applications like many iPhone Twitter clients, can magically grab your exact location (expressed in latitude and longitude) and attach it to your tweets and Twitter account.

If you look at people’s Twitter profiles, occasionally you will see two sets of numbers where their city would normally be…if you cut and paste those numbers into Google Maps, it shows you their exact location.

Perhaps there are times when you want to broadcast your location, for example, you are visiting a famous landmark and want your tweets to reflect that. Or maybe you are out on a Saturday night and you want your friends to easily be able to find you, because its your round. That’s all cool.

But what if you are at home, merrily tweeting away about your two-week holiday abroad that starts tomorrow and you’re not aware you’re sending out your home address with every message? Suppose you have a photo of yourself on your account, or hundreds of them on your linked Facebook page.

What would it take for some enterprising criminal to park up on your street and watch for you to leave, knowing your flat will be empty for a fortnight?

Very little.

Think I’m being paranoid? Think again, because something like this happened recently in Arizona. Here, check out this local report.

So what can you do to avoid this happening to you?

Simple, become more aware of location awareness.

If you tweet from your iPhone (or iPod Touch, or any other location aware device, if one exists), go into the settings of your preferred Twitter client and turn off location services. The setting is someplace different in every app, and if you can’t find it in the app, look on the main settings section from your home screen.

When the app asks you to turn them on again, like it did the first time you used the app, say “no”, unless you want to broadcast your location. And if you are home, or where you work, this should probably always be “no”.

You can re-enable this feature if you do want to use it, when you are out and about, but I really recommend keeping it switched off as your default setting.

Also, check your own Twitter profile, to see what you have listed as your location. You might discover a little surprise.

If you wish to change it, log into your account from the web and go to Settings, then find the little box for location and type something suitably vague. Mine says: “north London, UK, Earth”, in case anyone confuses it with the Venusian version.

There’s one more simple thing you can do to protect yourself, when you send tweets, don’t give out too many specific track-able, real-world details about yourself.

I realise if you are tweeting under your own name, and can be found by directory enquiries or (gasp) in the white pages, it may already be too late, but if you are at all privacy minded, neither of those things will be true of you. They are certainly not true of me, but I am extremely protective of my privacy online and off.

If you’re someone who didn’t realise you’ve been practically attaching your home address to every tweet sent from your iPhone, this advice is especially for you. Just send me what you saved in the increase to your home contents insurance post-burglary and we’ll call it even.

With the massive success of the iPhone app store, app development is on the upswing. I’m seeing report after report about people who’ve never written a line of code in their lives, suddenly trying to learn how to create apps for the iPhone.

Its sensible, as the relative ease with which you can sell your app combined with the potential profits make this a very appealing proposition to many.

Personally, I haven’t written any software in nearly 30 years, when I used to have a very rudimentary understanding of BASIC. Here’s a sample of what I mean:

10 Print “Fuck You”
20 Goto 10

Yes, that’s about how sophisticated I got. And wow, did that little programme make people laugh. Things have changed a lot since then.

The problem with developing apps for the iPhone is the amount you need to learn to do it. It’s the steep learning curve that is probably putting some people off trying.

What if you didn’t have to learn anything?

What if you could piece an app together the same way you’d design a website or automator action?

Enter iApp, the latest software to join the other programs in iLife.

Well, technically it hasn’t yet, but I am taking a wild guess that it will in the future.

iPhone apps are just chunks of code and APIs strung together, so why can’t Apple build an iLife style application that would allow dummies like me to design applications for the iPhone with a simple, clean and easy to use interface.

Just imagine assembling a list of simple instructions, the same way you would put together an automator script, which are then compiled and transferred to your iPhone via iTunes.

Apple have already done this for music, video, DVD authoring, ring-tone creating and website design, so why can’t they do it for iPhone applications?

The short answer is that they can and if I was to venture a guess, they are probably working on just such a product right now.

Think about it: they could completely democratise programming apps for the iPhone, allowing anyone with a good idea and some free time the chance to design their very own application with a very gentle learning curve. And if you think your app is good enough and would be of interest to others, you can register to sell it on iTunes and watch the dosh roll in.

Do I think this is coming soon? Who knows?

I do think some form of simple iPhone app creation will come. And its going to be a major game-changer when it does.

Hey fuckers! I’m blogging from my iPhone again.

I am having a rather dull and dreary night at work with precious little to actually do.

Covering a war is lively at first and then you settle into a routine. Yes I am as callous and jaded as I sound. I have been covering wars for around 20 years, they’re all pretty much the same. People die, lots of them.

Life is so fragile and we are all so breakable. Its a wonder more of us aren’t killed more often.

The thing about covering wars from a distance, as I’ve mostly done, is you get to see some of the most harrowing scenes of suffering. By the time it arrives on the tv in your living room, its been sanitized and censored, to protect you from images you are likely to find distressing.

I strongly disagree with that. You have just as much right to see the uncensored horrors as I do and my media colleagues should not be denying you from seeing the truth.

I don’t find strong images offensive, but I do think war and the needless slaughter of civilians is extremely offensive.

I guess I picked the wrong job. Or rather the wrong job chose me!

(blogged from my iPhone)

Seven days into the brand spankin’ new year and I am already filled with optimism and hope. And by optimism and hope, I really mean depression and despair.

All my tv wants to show me is that nasty shit going on in the mideast. Why do they keep making sequels to that movie? I’ve seen it all before. That said, there’s something more upsetting about it this time. Its wholesale slaughter at an industrial scale and it sickens me.

I just wish I could change the channel but I really wanna see how it all turns out. Maybe someone could tip me off just before Rambo arrives and illustrates the pointlessness rather than glory of warfare. And by Rambo, of course I mean Gandhi.

I’m bored to the point of disgust at seeing children murdered and maimed. I can’t be the only one who has seen more than enough of this shit. Why don’t they all just stop?

Closer to home, or rather right here at home, north London has been submerged in sub-zero temperatures for what seems like a few weeks now, with each successive night providing another record-breaking low. Brrrrrrrrrrrr!

The thermometer in my car hit a rather chilly -2 yesterday, which was an all time record low for me and it hasn’t gone above +1 in over a week.

We’re not used to this sort of cold here in London and its bringing everyone down, especially with no respite in sight. All we need is some snow to complete this wintery hell and trust me, I’m not wishing for it.

And the economy is so far into the toilet it can taste the salt in the ocean.

Weed is going be returned to Class B from its present position in the more appropriate and recommended by gov’t advisors, Class C. That really sucks.

Things are indeed looking distinctly bleak as 2009 begins.

Even Apple let me down yesterday, with a MacWorld keynote devoid of any new toys for me to purchase. My credit card was revved up and ready, but it had nowhere to go.

Remember, if it weren’t for cool consumer electronics and soft drugs, I would have no joy in my life.

And its my birthday in a couple weeks, I could really do without that.

Oh moan, moan, moan, moan, moan!

Hey fuckers!

Dig this shit! I now have the ability to post to my blog directly from my iPhone.

At least I think I do. We will find out for sure when I attempt to post this bad boy on my site.

If you’re reading this shit, then it worked. And you can maybe expect more mobile blogging on the future.

There’s only ten days left till xmas and if you haven’t finished your shopping yet, I’m here to help.

Its a short list of potential gifts, but ones that will be certain to impress and dazzle the recipient. Also, you can order them online and have them ready to dole out on xmas without having to leave the comfort of your home. That’s the best way to xmas shop!

Kodak Zi6 HD Videocamera
Amazon UK: £ 89.99

The Kodak Zi6 HD Videocamera is an impressive little piece of kit. While pocket sized, this little marvel shoots in gloriously rich and detailed 720p High-Def, while recording onto cheap and readily available SD cards.

The Zi6 also shoots in standard, YouTube friendly VGA, has a built in USB connector and works like a dream. On my Mac, it just appears as a hard drive on the desktop, you drag the files onto your desktop, then into iMovie, which can handle them in HD quality.

On a PC, the Zi6 includes built in editing software, that you can run from the camera. Sweet.

It also shoots stills, has a 2x optical zoom and works off standard or rechargable AA batteries. I am so impressed with this camera already.

I bought mine a few weeks ago and paid £119.99, which means at £89.99, its already a major bargain! If you’re looking for a simple to use pocket videocamera that won’t break the bank, this is the camera for you.

iPod Touch
Amazon UK: £149-£254 depending upon storage (8gb, 16gb or 32gb)

I know I go on and on about my iPhone, but what if you are already happy with your current mobile deal, but still want to play with the coolest hand held gadget ever? The iPod Touch is for you!

The iPod Touch is basically an iPhone without the phone. It does nearly everything an iPhone can do except make and receive telephone calls, send and receive SMS messages, take photos and have proper GPS. Other than that, it does everything else.

You can run most apps on an iPod Touch, you can surf the net, send and receive emails, it does have some location awareness based on wi-fi positioning. Oh and it plays music and videos and displays photos too.

I bought one for Mrs. Hippy last xmas and she absolutely loves it. She used it for music until the Apple App Store opened and that’s when she really got hooked. She now uses it for surfing, for gaming and its rarely not in her hands.

The 2nd generation iPod Touch is even slimmer than the first and its added a small speaker and the ability to input audio via an external microphone, making it even more flexible than the original model.

The only negative Mrs. H has come up with on it is it makes her wish she had an iPhone. The lack of connectivity when there is no wi-fi available is a real sticking point. Other than that, its nearly a perfect device, guaranteed to be used daily by whoever you might give it to.

Volcano Vaporiser
everyonedoesit.com - £279.75 for the standard model

I bought one of these a few months ago, but it is something I’ve coveted for ages. Near as I can tell, its the only vape that really works and consistently delivers good results.

The Volcano Vaporiser does one thing and does it very well, it takes your favourite herb (like weed) and turns the active bits into vapour, while leaving the nasty bits alone.

When you smoke weed, you burn everything, including the carbon-based bits which contain the known carcinogens and other nasties. You also burn a good chunk of the THC, before it reaches your lungs.

A vaporiser only burns the THC. leaving the other components alone. The weed doesn’t actually burn, but it does get a bit toasted and turns brown.

The Volcano works by filling a small chamber, which holds your weed between two screens. You place this chamber on top of the base unit, where it is heated to the proper temperature. You then engage a small fan, which blows air up through the chamber, filling an attached balloon with very sweet, pure vapour.

When you inhale it, you can definitely taste the weed, but your throat and lungs don’t feel anything at all. The vapour is at room temp, so its not hot and dry like smoke, and it is very light, though you can see it when you exhale.

The head on vapour is also different from smoking and is hard to describe. It is deceptively strong, clean, clear and every enjoyable.

By far the most impressive thing about using a Volcano is how little weed you actually need to get high. A week’s worth of what I would smoke, would probably last 5-6 weeks in the volcano. A spliff’s worth in the chamber is enough to get 4 people pleasantly stoned and then some.

And when you are done vaping the weed, don’t throw it away, there’s still some THC left in it, which you can extract by making cannabutter. You could even smoke it if you were desperate, though that would kind of defeat the purpose of vaping.

I know the Volcano is expensive (and I bought the even pricier digital version), but it will more than pay for itself with the money you will save on weed. Add the health benefits and you’ve got a really useful, beneficial device that will change your life.

I bought mine because I am planning on giving up cigarettes in the new year. When I do, I’m going to want to cut down on my spliffs as well and I think this will help loads.

That’s it for this year, just three hi-tech toys which will amaze anyone you might decide to give them to. And if you’re shopping for yourself, even better, you’d love them all too!

I read in the last week or so that there are now over 10,000 apps available for the iPhone and that’s only in the last six months since the App Store opened.

Wow!

That’s a lot of applications for the world’s favourite, ultra-clever smart phone.

Some of them are completely pointless and fun, others are very useful and some are just plain cool. I’ve gone a bit app mad and downloaded loads of them, so many that I am going to run out space soon.

That’s ok, because at some point, I know I am going to have to cull my apps and lose the ones I hardly, if ever use. For now, though I’m all about the apps.

I’ve already reviewed some of my favourite apps, CLICK HERE to magically travel back in time to those heady, crazy days, of August 2008.

Since then, I’ve found some even cooler apps to share with you. Some of them are free, some are paid for, but nearly all of them serve a useful purpose and most of them are used by yours truly on a daily basis.

Google Search
This app has been around since day one of the App Store, but the recent update added a feature that will not only impress your mates, but actually works.

The latest version of Google’s search app doesn’t require any buttons, you put the phone to your ear, wait for the tone to cue you and then speak your search and it understands you and displays your results lightening quick!

Like if you say “ show me pictures of naked women”, it fills your screen with very pretty pictures. And if you have the “safe search” option switched off, you’ll get some hands free porn, which if you think about it, could have some applications of its own.

Seriously, its very cool and a quick demo will blow most people away.

Weather Bug
There are a lot of weather apps for your iPhone, but this one is my favourite.
You choose a weather centre nearest to you from a list provided and the app then displays the temperature, wind speed, along with all the usual stuff like humidity and barometer pressure…in real time.

You can watch the wind change direction and speed while the app is running and it also tells you what the wind chill is, a useful tool when choosing what coat to wear. The app also provides forecasts for the next few days, but here’s the other killer feature, it shows you the most recent satellite weather photo for your region.

This app is a must-have if you dig the weather, or like to know how cold it is outside. Trust me, baby its chilly.

TV Plus
This one is really only of use to you if you live in the UK and subscribe to SKY TV and have a SKY+ box. For those of you who don’t know what I mean (my pals in America!), its a combination TiVO and satellite tv receiver and is my digital platform of choice.

If you have a SKY+ and an iPhone, you will really love this one. TV Plus displays the SKY programme guide for the next seven days, with descriptions for each programme, on every channel. If you’ve signed up for a MySKY account, you can enter your details into the app, then, and here’s the killer bit, once you’re set up, you can enter recordings into your SKY+ from anywhere you have a connection via wi-fi, EDGE or 3G.

I’m not sure if I am explaining this well. Say you’re at work and you’ve forgot to put a recording in for some tv show, it doesn’t matter what. You can find the programme on the virtual programme guide on your iPhone and tap the record button and through some magic voodoo jiggery pokery, the recording just appears in your SKY+ planner as if you entered it with the remote from the proximity of your sofa. Amazing.

Set up is slightly complex, but the step-by-step instructions were very clear and easy to follow - I had it up and running in no time. It probably took longer to sign up for the MySKY account (free from SKY.com) than it did to set up the app and my SKY+ box.

Just be aware that the remote recordings work best when you have more than 30 minutes before the programme begins, otherwise there don’t seem to be any limitations. It’s well worth the price!

iTap
I wasn’t that impressed with iTap initially, but since the most recent update, it really shines. Its a simple app that turns your iPhone into a remote track pad for a Mac and just about anything you can do with a mouse, you can do with iTap, including right clicking. iTap now also has a keyboard, for remote text entry.

I have a Mac Mini connected to my tv and I can do most things with my Logitech Harmony Remote, including control Front Row and iTunes, but the one thing I’ve never been able to do is put the Mini to sleep. With the little white Apple remote, no problem, I press and hold the centre button and voila, my Mini is snoring. I can’t seem to come up with a way to replicate that command with the Harmony remote.

With iTap, I don’t have to, I can just start it and in two taps, my Mini is dreaming of electric sheep.

iTap requires a small piece of receiver software to be installed on your Mac, but it was very easy, just drag it into your apps folder, run it, then from the menu bar icon, select “open on start-up” to add it to your log in items. Then just forget about it.

Mocha VNC Lite
iTap is great, if you can see your Mac’s screen, but what if you can’t?

There are many occasions where I need to do something with the Mac Mini, while the tv is in use and I don’t want to switch over to the Mini to do something quick and simple. Instead I use Mocha VNC Lite.

VNC stands for virtual network control and if you’re running Leopard, its built into the operating system and called screen sharing. Because it is built into the operating system, its very easy to enable, just go into the preference pane under sharing, click the screen sharing box and set a password for remote login. Your Mac is now ready to be remotely controlled.

Mocha VNC Lite allows you to connect to your Mac and control it, with the touchscreen acting as a trackpad with the remote Mac’s output displayed on the iPhone’s screen.

With Mocha VNC Lite, I can start and stop downloads, I can run apps, enter text through the integrated keyboard, all from another room, or even in my back garden. I’ve only got it set up to work within my home network, but people who are better at the real tech stuff can probably get it to work over the internet, from anywhere in the world.

Its a freebie, though there is a paid version, which I should buy myself.

iTalk Recorder
Griffin’s iTalk Recorder is another simple, yet well designed and useful app that does what it says on the tin. It records sound, but it does it very well.

You can choose the quality, from good enough to be broadcast on FM radio to very low, but still listen-able and the length of the recording is only limited by your available flash memory.

Transferring your audio to your Mac is a breeze, there is an application that you need to install which wirelessly connects your Mac to your iPhone and you just drag over the files you need.

This app is works so well that I bet I could use it to do voxpops on the street that sounded good enough to be transmitted on the radio. Of course, I’d look like a dick, walking up to people and making them talk into an upside-down iPhone, but you get the idea.

AirCamLiveVideo
This app is extremely cool and I have absolutely no purpose for it, not even a nefarious one.

AirCamLiveVideo turns your iPhone into a wireless remote receiver for the built-in isight camera in your iMac or MacBook and it also works with the old external isights. It should work with other webcams as well, though best to check before downloading the app.

Again, you need to install a small piece of software on your Mac to transmit the images (and now audio too) from your Mac to your iPhone. Start the software on the Mac, run the app on your iPhone and away you go. It self-configures via Bonjour and you can password protect the live stream to keep prying eyes away.

Like I said, I have no practical application for this one, its just very cool and futuristic. I also think its the most expensive app I’ve bought so far. It was a fiver, but now that I’ve reviewed it, bang that’s coming off next year’s taxes as a website expense.

Now - Geo-networking
This is a weird one and I’ve yet to really work out its usefulness.

This app lets you post a tag on a location in real time, and they only remain there for a day or so. You can also search for other people’s tags.

Posting appears simple, you allow the app to know your location, put in your line of copy and hit send. Be careful what you post and where you post it, though.

The reason to be careful is that when you do a search, you can see what all the other people have posted, complete with directions to get there. You don’t want to be sitting at home posting “sex available, no charge”.

Or maybe, you do.

And yes, I have seen labels such as my example above posted on a map of the world. The app is global and should work wherever you are on the planet.

When you do a search, the app hands off some data to the iPhone’s built in map app, and you can watch a collection of red pins descend across the global. Tap a pin to read the attached description text, zoom in and see where they are or switch to the satellite view.

For me, its an easy, fun way to generate addresses for playing with the new “street view” function added in the iPhone’s software update to version 2.2.

The UK hasn’t been blessed with street view just yet, but most of the continental US has and guess where most of the posters on this app are from? Although bizarrely, Google did have some street views available for an Italian suburb and it does look like London will be added soon, which means I’ll be able to virtually stalk myself.

And speaking of stalking, tell me this doesn’t sound fun. Next week, I’m going to be posting “www.northlondonhippy.com” via this app, at various locations throughout London. If you’re really quick, and you can get there in time, you might catch a glimpse of me and my iPhone in action.

If you don’t, at least you’ll know that you are standing in the exact spot where I stood when I posted it. If that doesn’t make the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up, I don’t know what will!

And that my friends and iPhone fans is my latest collection of super-neat-o-cool iPhone apps, but it by no means complete. There are plenty of others I like and probably my absolute favourite is yet to come. Enjoy!

After my recent flurry of posts about my new iPhone 3G, I’ve noticed lots of new visitors attracted to my site by this particular subject. With the rumours of Apple planning on shifting 45 million more of them next year its likely to remain a popular topic for some time.

And with good reason as the iPhone is the most powerful pocket-sized device available so far thanks to the ability to add additional applications that extend the functionality nearly to infinity. It truly is a Swiss Army Knife of gadgets.

As a result of my recent health problems, I’ve pretty much had the last month with nothing but time on my hands and my iPhone in my hands. I’ve barely put it down, its the first thing I fondle when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I stroke before drifting off to sleep.

As much as I adore my iPhone, and believe me I do, I’m not going to lie to you about the smoothness of the experience. I’ve been suffering with some of the issues and problems you may have read about; apps crashing on launch, apps and updates not installing properly and the dreaded poor signal on the 3G network, but even with these niggles, it is still an amazing piece of kit.

I believe the problems I’ve had are addressable and Apple will be able to fix them through software updates. The last update, to 2.0.2 has already stopped the crashes on the phone itself and since installing it, I haven’t had a spontaneous restart.

I did have to do a full restore though, as I had lost some apps when iTunes tried to install their updated versions. It took a couple of hours and the most recent back-up I had done was around a week old, so I lost some SMS messages and a few other bits of data, but the phone is now working well.

The 3G issues persist for me and it could be that the coverage where I live isn’t that great, but I have trouble believing that, since I live in London. I hope it improves and soon.

I’ve installed dozens of apps already, stretching across 5 home screens and I thought I would share a few interesting ones with you, that you might not have heard of yet.

Simplify Media
Simplify Media is very cool, it allows you to stream your entire iTunes collection (unprotected tracks only, nothing with iTunes DRM), over wi-fi, Edge and 3G to your iPhone and it really works. In real terms, it means there is no storage limit on your iPhone, it will hold as much as your Mac or PC at home. You install a small piece of software on your networked computer, install the app on your iPhone, log into both devices with the same account and your entire musical collection magically pops up on your iPhone and you can play any track! The app is currently free, but after 100,000 downloads, they will start charging for it. Grab it while you can!

Sol Free Solitaire
There are many versions of this popular solo card game, but I like this one, mainly because it is free. I’m not much of a gamer, but I used to play Solitaire on Windows PCs and its nice to have a version to play on my iPhone. The interface is smooth, you tap the card you want to move, then tap the card you wish to move it to and it away it goes. There are several variations to play, my favourite is Klondike 3,

Dual Level
This is another app that’s free, which makes it preferable to the paid versions. Its a simple idea, when you start the app, the screen turns into virtual horizontal and a vertical spirit levels linked to the built in accelerometers. You can use it to level hanging pictures or anything else you might use a spirit level for - very cool!

iVote
This is a simple app which lists poll questions for you to respond to, ranging from politics to personal, with the results available for you to break down in various ways. It’s more geared towards Americas (like almost everything online!), but it is a fun app and a real time waster. I like it!

WhosHere
Of all the social networking apps, this one shows the most promise with its simple, yet focused function. It’s a chat app that uses your location to show you other iPhone and iPod Touch users and their approximate proximity. In other words, its a location based chat application which is very clever. You fill out a profile with as much, or as little (or nothing) and tap the near button - you are then presented with a list of people, their profiles and the approx distance from you. You can set the proximity of your search from as little as 5 miles up to 3000 miles. You can also blur your location, up to 2 miles from where you really are, so you do have options to maintain some privacy. The app’s user base seems to be growing fast and yes, this one is free too.

PhotoSwap
PhotoSwap is very new, its only been available for less than a week (at the time of my writing) and I find it strangely addictive. The premise is simple, you take a photograph on your iPhone and the app sends it to a random stranger, while you receive a photo from the same random stranger that receives yours - that’s the photo swap. Once you receive a photo, you have the option of replying directly to that person with another photo, effectively having a conversation with iPhone snaps. I’ve received all sorts of photos; city skylines, beach views, people’s homes, pets, all sorts really. And before your sick imagination conjures visions of body parts, I’ll disappoint you - I have yet to receive anything offensive and there is a “report” button to tap if you do. The app allows you to chose a user name, plus one line of description for a mini-profile (accessed through the main settings via the home screen not directly from the app) and you can choose to show your location on a map. I would suggest turning off the location stuff if you are at home and only use it when you are out in public. It might sound a bit strange, but try it, I think you will agree that there is something very endearing about using it.

This is just a small selection of apps that have caught my attention, there are literally over 1000 of them available already, with more being added to the App Store every day. Have a look, I’m sure there are some that will appeal to you too.

And I’m still waiting for the two apps I’ll pay for, TomTom navigation software for the car and a SlingPlayer client. I’d lay you odds I have both before the year is out!

After all the whinging and complaining over the last week about my problems getting my new iPhone 3G from O2, I thought I would share some of my initial impressions of it.

Yes, that’s right…I’ve got my brand new, shiny, lickable, 16gb black iPhone 3G. I exclusively revealed this exciting bit of news on FaceBook last Thursday when it was delivered to my north London lair.

And again, yes, you read that right, I posted it on my FaceBook profile, as a status update.

Status updates on FaceBook are a lot like Twitter posts. It’s another reason why you should be my FaceBook friend!

Even though it was 6 days later than expected, I was still very pleased to be receiving iPhone 3G and couldn’t wait to unbox it and fire it up.

I didn’t buy the original iPhone, as it was only released officially here in the UK around 8 months ago. My reasoning was sound, or so I thought. As I expected a 2nd generation of iPhone to come out around now, I didn’t want to be in a position of wanting to buy it so soon after getting the 1st gen.

How was I to know that O2 were going to be handing out cheap (or free) upgrades to existing customers? Doh!

I was bit disappointed that Apple left out a couple of goodies that shipped with the original iPhone - the dock and the microfibre cloth to wipe the screen. The lack of the microfibre cloth is a real silly miss, they can’t cost that much when you’re buying a million of them.

The touchscreen does pick up a lot of fingerprints, though they are only really noticeable when the the screen is off. When the screen is illuminated, its very bright and you really don’t see any.

The screen is actually gloriously bright, extremely crisp and pin sharp. I could easily watch a full length film or television programme on it and probably will. The multi-touch control of the device is nothing short of astounding. It’s extremely intuitive and very accurate.

The iPod functions are also impressive and it blows away my old 60gb 5th gen iPod with video.

I’ve also set up several email accounts on my iPhone. If you want to reach me when I am on the go, you can contact northlondonhippy@gmail.com or northlondonhippy@yahoo.co.uk and I’ll receive them pretty goddamn quickly! You might even get a mobile reply…

I’ve also got the FaceBook mobile application, AIM for instant messaging and I’ve been playing around on Twitter with that cool app called Twinkle. I’m northlondonhippy on all of those services too, though Twitter registered my username as n_londonhippy because they don’t give you enough characters for my full online name.

Surfing the web on the iPhone is something else I’ve spent a good deal of time doing and its the first hand-held device that gives you any sort of useful internet experience. I’ve accessed the net from various mobile phones and an old Palm Pilot of mine and I’ve always found it sorely lacking. Spend ten minutes doing the same on the iPhone 3G and you will wonder how you lived without it. I’ve used both wi-fi and the 3G network and pages load very quickly too.

I read that the new iPhone 3G has about as much computing power as a laptop made in 2003; similar processing power and storage is what I took that to mean. Think about it - I’m now carrying something as powerful as a five-year-old laptop in my pocket now. It blows my mind!

There really are only 2 major differences between the new iPhone 3G and the original iPhone (and yes, I know there are plenty of minor changes, just humour me, please). The inclusion of 3G network access and GPS.

The GPS is nothing short of amazing. Even sitting here , deep inside my north London lair, not near any windows and it still knows where I am with frightening accuracy. The map software lets you know how certain it is of your location, by using variously sized circles to indicate your approximate location, until it is certain and then places a push-pin like marker where you are. Outside with no obstructions, when the iPhone can see the sky, you get a remarkably accurate reading of your location, so much so that if you walk a bit, the blue dot adjusts to your new position.

The location data isn’t only utilised by the map application, but any app can grab it. This includes geo-tagging of your photos and with some Twitter apps, can include your location so you can track people nearby. Spooky!

Can someone please release some turn-by-turn, good enough to work in my car, navigation software? I’ve read that TomTom have already written the app, so why can’t I buy it already? My old TomTom is massive, compared to my tiny, slim little iPhone, if I didn’t have to carry the TomTom with me, it would be a real bonus and my pockets would thank you.

And while I’m at it with a wishlist, could someone please design, manufacture and sell the following:

A powered dock for use in my car, that has a suction-cup windscreen mount, so I can position the iPhone like a SatNav, plus a built-in, sophisticated FM transmitter that scans to find the best frequency and then beams audio to my in-car stereo, in high quality.

My super-dooper in-car dock/transmitter/mount is not actually such a big ask and it would sell like proverbial hotcakes. Bundle it with a code to get a navigation app and you would probably sell 500,000 of them in the first year alone. I’m giving you a multimillion pound idea here, for free, so if one of you do this, at least cut me in for a slice of the pie. Or just send me one of these cool in-car suction-cup, FM-transmitter thingies for free. It’s the least you could do!

There is a third thing that separates the new iPhone 3G from its predecessor, though you can upgrade the original to the new 2.0 software and enjoy it as well. I’m talking about third party applications which you can access via iTunes or on the iPhone itself. Some apps are free, others cost. So far, I’ve only installed the freebies.

I’m not being cheap, its just none of the pay apps have really appealed to me and the best ones seem to be games and I’m not that bothered. When I see one I like the look of (navigation software!!!!!), I’ll happily part with my readies.

There are so many applications available already that I’m not going to actually talk about any of the specific ones now, but I’d rather come back at another time to give them proper attention.

What can’t be denied is that this is the real game changer with the iPhone 3G, the ability to do so many cool things with it. And that’s just today, who knows what tomorrow’s killer application for the iPhone might be…perhaps one of you out there in internetland is already working on the next HUGE thing! Just whisper it in my ear, before your start-up has its IPO, so I can get in on the ground floor and make a little dirty lucre too…!

The one thing no-one seems to ever mention when they write about the iPhone is the phone itself. I think that shows you how far we come with personal technology and gadgets, that the voice-communication function of something with the word “phone” in its name, is taken for granted and doesn’t matter that much.

It does to me and one of my concerns about the iPhone was how it performed as a basic mobile telephone.

It turns out I had nothing to fear, the iPhone is a very robust cellphone. Calls over my network on 3G are clear and the connection seems strong. The speakerphone function really works too, dialling a contact or a phone number is also very simple and works very well.

What’s interesting about the iPhone is the many standard mobile phone functions it DOESN’T do. There’s no MMS messaging, so no sending photos as text messages. There’s no way to forward a text message either. The iPhone has BlueTooth, but the only thing it uses it for is to connect a wireless headset. You can’t send a photo to your computer, or to another phone, you can’t exchange contacts with another phone, you can’t even Bluejack strangers!

I don’t really understand why Apple has locked these functions out. At the very least, let us send photos over bluetooth. And synching notes from my Mac would be useful too!

Something else I don’t understand is the lack of cut & paste. It couldn’t be that hard to get a clipboard like functionality running on it. It’s supposed to be the same software that runs on Macs, so what’s the problem? I know some Apple big-wig mentioned that it was on their list of things to do and they just didn’t have time to get to it, but that comes off sounding lame. There’s got to be some marketing reason for withholding this function, I just haven’t a clue what it could be!

All of these cool things do come at a cost and I don’t mean your monthly bill, though they might sting a bit too. I mean battery life, or the lack of it. Surfing the net, checking emails, playing with apps, all drain the battery far faster than you would like and its very easy to see it drop 50% in a couple of hours.

I could see carrying a spare dock cable and attaching it to the nearest PC at every opportunity. It’s another reason why I want a powered dock for the car. I don’t see how I would get through a full day of serious usage without topping up the battery a couple of times.

So am I happy with my new iPhone?

What do you think? It’s easily the coolest, most powerful device I’ve ever had the pleasure of owning. I’m looking forward to 18 months of delirious joy as I find new and fun things to do with it.

And at the end of 18 months, I can only imagine what sort of iPhone I will be upgrading to then! It will probably transport me to a virtual new reality where I’m the king of the universe and everyone worships me as a living god. Now, that’s a app I’d buy!