Congrats on the 3G, John!

Favorite apps? Well they have to be free - lol. I currently have:

Pandora
NY Times
AIM
Labyrinth (remember this old game of skill?)
Meebo (pre AIM IM app)
AOL Radio
eBay
reQall (very cool - check it out)
Whrrl (has potential)
Cellfire (coupons, discounts!)
Mobile News (I like the icon)
iScopes
Flashlight (basically a white screen to help you see in the dark and because I am a geek)

As far as weather, I like Who is Hot from Weather Underground. It's a slick little interface that shows a pic of your contact, their name and home city, the current temp and an icon showing current conditions. Pressing the icon delves into deeper weather detail (lots).

EDIT to add: Just looked at Shazam and read the reviews. Seems like an amazing app. Do you find it really works?

Shazam has worked everytime I've tried it (5 or 6 times). You just put the iPhone up to the radio speaker and it vibrates when it figures out the song. Then it gives you links to iTunes to purchase or to Youtube to watch a video with the song.

I'll have to try some of the other ones you mentioned.

John -

Shazam is amazing. It identified 5 out of 5 mainstream songs and 5 out of 6 really obscure titles. Amazing.

NYTimes, Mobile News & Bloomburg.so far

Doug

I'm really liking Yelp right now. Great for looking up restaurants on the fly in a certain area. I used Shazam when I first got my 3G and it was not so accurate with hummed tunes (imagine that!) but better with recorded music. Pandora is very cool as well.

Finally home! Opened the Silver Boxes...danced a bit. Don't have to work tomorrow, soooo ... have time to check out some apps! Thanks, guys!

I updated mine today, it was successful. Since I seem to be "living by cell" lately with all these contractors, I didn't check into any of the new stuff. I'm being very cautious.

So far, I have loaded 14 free apps but the ones I use most are Bloomburg, weatherbug,sportsTap, Smugmug but especially Evernote. I started using it before it became available on the phone. It's my memory bank.

Am lovin my Apple products and my next expenditure will be for AppleTV.

Cheers! Ray

Hee hee...

Me too!! Should have gotten the 16 gig as I'm already loaded up and I haven't even begun playing!

There is a firmware update available. Sync your phone and you will be prompted to upgrade to v 2.0.1. Be sure to sync your phone before running the update.

The update is 100% bug fixes - nothing new but worthy of doing all the same.

There have been reports of excessive download times. Mine took about 10 minutes per phone.

Robert:

Just did the update...Took close to 10 minutes here, too

I was not prompted to upgrade. I had to click the 'look for upgrades" box.

Perhaps because i have a 'older' iPhone, ie not 3g? Don't know.
Just wanted to share my findings.

To Suzanne: They called me crazy when I insisted on getting the 16 gig model. It is ever so comforting to know that one has room to expand.

Doug

my 3G didn't prompt me either ... I had to tell it to go look for it. So you're not alone, Doug ... :D

Sorry, Gents, my bad. Does NOT prompt you.

We took advantage of MA's tax free weekend and finally ordered our iPhones today!

Congrats, A! I hope you do not have to wait too long for the phones to arrive.

2.0.2 released - all bug fixes. :)

Thanks Robert! According to an email my hubby received last night, they are on their way and will probably be here tomorrow!

Dude - beat me to it! LOL. I'll hunt around for more detail on the specific fixes and post later. Also for MobileMe users, an e-mail from the MM team...

We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make. To recognize our users' patience, we are giving every MobileMe subscriber as of today a free 60 day extension. This is in addition to the one month extension most subscribers have already received. We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of. We know that MobileMe's launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around. Read this article for more details. Here\'s the link.

The MobileMe Team

EDIT to add - Andrea - WOO HOO! Enjoy and please post your thoughts once you have activated and gone for a test drive.

Congrats! That's so cool! All we got was a stupid refrigerator.

Andrea - looking forward to seeing your iPhone pics. :)

We got the new fridge (and stove and dishwasher) 3 years ago.

Well, our phones arrived at AT&T yesterday - pretty quickly I would say - and I've just started getting to know it and downloading some apps.

Haven't tried the camera yet Masaki - soon though!

Well, a recent rumor has just come up that states that the new iPod Touch which is scheduled for release in the next month or so may have GPS built in. If this happens, I may have to eat my words that I said when captjohn asked in another thread whether the iPod Touch will ever get GPS.

It looks as though the iPod Touch won't change much in terms of look but the iPod Nano will look very different.



Also price decreases for the iPods in order to maintain price positioning with the $199 iPhone are coming.

I'm hearing GPS and 3G. Highly polarized issue on the Apple boards I frequent. Time will tell.

Masaki,
Is that photo of the new iPod or nano? Why'd they go and make it long and skinny? I thought the nano was fine as it was.

I want an iphone so bad!!!

Lauri - the iPod Nano. I think that they're going with a standard of widescreen dimensions for their iPods to make sure that movies display correctly, which is why the shape is long and narrow.

Ok, this is not an iPhone question.... but I know that the Mac gurus hang out here....

I'm thinking of getting a small imac portable as a travel laptop. What are your thougts on getting a re-furb from the Apple store instead of a new one? It is about a $200 savings.

Thanks, Doug

Now I'm thinking I may want the new iPod touch and just keep my separate old but adequate phone for calls. I don't do much texting but I would love internet and GPS. We'll see what happens Sept 7.

Doug, can you get Apple Care with a refurb? If so, I'd say go for it. I can't find a portable imac listed, does it have a battery?

I bought a Nokia N810 for Roar2; still have the Epson gadget I bought for picture storage on Roar1. With the Nokia thing, I can receive emails (elderly mom, house in last phases of construction, etc) and make Skype calls as long as we are in Cape Town. I'm trying to wait for a newer version of the MacBook Air, and this little toy looked like a good way to still stay in touch.

Hey Doug:

I think you probably mean one of these (psst - there is no portable imac):



A refurbed MacBook would be a great option. Save the $200 bucks.

Or maybe one of these:



I do not have a lot of experience with the MacBook Air, refurbed, or otherwise. Personally, from a user and financial perspective, I'd go with the MacBook.

I m fairly confident that AppleCare Pam mentions is available on refurbed MacBooks (it is on refurbed iPhones) so I would absolutely purchase it.

Here is a link to AppleCare FAQ\'S....\'d call or visit a local store and ask.


Hope this helps.

Doug,
There are strong indications that Apple is going to release a new line of MacBooks in September. If you aren't in a hurry, you may want to wait. When the new ones come out, the refurbs may drop in price or at least get a bump in speed.

Yes, I mean the MacBook. Thanks, Robert.
John, you are right, but I would want to have it for ROAR 2. So that would mean I would need to order it now.
Of course, It would be just my travel computer. I wouldn't need the latest, greatest for that. That's why I'm not ever considering the Macbook Air. Don't need to spend the extra for it. Basic level MacBook would seem to do what I need.

Thanks everyone for the advice, Doug

Just got the iphone. Love it. The guy at the apple store put my work email on it and everything.
True to form, I left it on all day, and took it to the grocery store last night. Did anyone call? Of course not!

Hope you do not mind my joining the MAC conversation but I thought you might be interested in a different computer idea for travel. I have a 3 pound Sony Vaio TZ170N with a gorgeous screen (although small), an included DVD drive, WiFi, and a battery that lasts about 5 to 6 hours if you are careful. I got it for Panda because of the light weight and features, and love it. It is perfect for storing and editing photos as well as the usual applications. Of course I have to put up with Vista, but it is getting much better than it was at first.

Merril

Merril:

Thanks for the suggestion. Sony Vaio is a good product. Got one & replacing it - maybe - with this MacBook. 3 pounds is great, but the macBook is only 5..not a big deal. . . & no Vista (sorry, I know it is not as bad as they make it out to be......but I like the Mac OS.)

BTW, just found out that orders from the Apple store online get a 5% refund if you use the Discover card & order thru the Discover link.

Doug

PS: AppleCare will eat up all the savings of buying a refurb MacBook. Might as well buy a new one. Or maybe i'll take the chance.

Merril,
I'm with you, love my Sony Vaio. Bought the Mac, returned after 3 days....ugh. What's wrong with Vista?

I recently bought a macbook. I love, love, love it although I'm still adjusting to the differences from the PC world.

Suzie,

When I first got the Vaio over a year ago, Vista was crashing a lot for no reason. It has been pretty good for months now after many updates from Microsoft. If you are newer to Vista you might not have problems. I also cleaned up the computer by deleting a lot of programs I did not need.

Merril

I absolutely love my little Sony T27GN. It did not miss a beat for the 8 weeks we were away this year. It's perfect for travelling as it fits in my handbag and is so light to carry. The only thing I didn't like was paying for it.....so expensive in Australia but if you buy it overseas there's no local warranty. We did have issues with Vista but all was solved with time and patience.

Just nudging this thread back on topic... :)

An update - finally!.....


Major iPhone Firmware Update Reported To Be Available On Tuesday

Posted by Eric Zeman, Sep 8, 2008 09:51 AM

The 3G iPhone has no doubt had a bumpy introduction to the market. Signal issues, system crashes and other glitches have plagued users. Most recently, a glaring security flaw allowed people to bypass the password lock code and gain access to the iPhone's contact list. Firmware update 2.1, believed to be announced at tomorrow's Apple event, might fix everything.

Tomorrow in San Francisco, Apple is holding an event. The bulk of analysts, bloggers and media believe the event will center on the company's line of iPods and music-playing devices. Part of the potential news could be iTunes 8, a new version of Apple's desktop jukebox software. No one knows for sure what iTunes 8 may bring, though Digg's Kevin Rose has predicted that it will include a Grid View, Genius Sidebar and another feature that resembles the Pandora Internet radio service.

That's all well and good, but the meatier reports suggest that Apple will also announce a fix to the iPhone's bugs. Apple CEO Steve Jobs himself said in an email that Apple would have a fix for the iPhone's problems in September. The "Let's Rock" event scheduled for September 9 is the perfect opportunity for Apple to publicly own up to the iPhone's problems and offer users some relief.

Aside from fixing the security hole and 3G reception issues, firmware 2.1 is said to bring some other new features. They include better GPS functionality, which could power true turn-by-turn directions; and the push notification service.

Whether or not tomorrow's event will truly "Rock" is yet to be seen, though skeptics don't think it will. As long as the iPhone's reception issues are finally and fully cleared up, the iPod updates are secondary news.

Thought you iPhone people would be interested in an article that appeared in yesterday's NYT Travel section reviewing new Travel Apps available for the iPhone. I cut it out for future use, as I'm hoping to get an iPhone by the end of the year. See iPhone Travel Apps

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Eugene