iPhone Web Apps I Actually Use

Having just taken a small vacation and coming up two months of iPhone ownership, I thought I’d take a look at the web apps I routinely use on my iPhone. There are a lot of very nice iPhone web apps out there programmed by very bright and imaginative people. I’ve probably got about 50 of them linked on my “iPhone Applications” favorites bar but I’ve been making a conscious effort to track those applications that I actually use and thought I’d report on them here.

NewsGator Mobile

Not long after I switched, I went ahead and purchased a license for NetNewsWire which is an excellent news reading program loaded with features and constantly being refined by an active, committed Mac developer. It came with a free subscription to the NewsGator service which is an online reader component. It syncs with NetNewsWire and their iPhone app is really clean and easy to use. I toyed a bit with Google Reader which is free (that is always a good thing) but found the NewsGator/NetNewsWire combo easier for me to use.
Anyway I can check my subscriptions anytime on the iPhone and read through, trash, or clip for later viewing on my Mac very easily from anywhere (including the Edge network). This is my most frequently clicked iPhone web application.

Tadalist.com

I’ve previously blogged about how I use this simple online to-do application from 37Signals with its accompanying browser application for grown up computers to drive shopping lists and other to-do items between my iPhone and OmniFocus. It is free and Edge friendly. My good friend, Darren over at MacWingnut.com prefers todoist.com which is, frankly, much sexier in a geeky sort of way with gmail integration, quicksilver support and other things that sound fun but I like the simplicity of Tada. This is partly because I view it only as a stepping stone to getting tasks in my actual task vault, OmniFocus, wherein Darren (I believe) uses Todoist for the whole nine yards.
I am also trying 37Signals’ accompanying product BackPackit for a month to see if it is worth the trouble. This is sort a Kluge to get around the fact that Apple does not sync the Notes on my iPhone or give me a way to secure them. Ugh. I’ll report more on BackPackit at later date when I’ve had more time to work with it.

Traffic

A necessity for living in Southern California. This is a great supplement to the little red lines I keep seeing in Google Maps.

Applists.com

This is a collection of all the various iPhone web applications that appears to be updated more than most and gives you a simple place to look for what is new.
There are others. Many, many others. But as pretty and neat as they look, I really don’t load them very often.
I am hoping Apple opens the iPhone up. If I could get an iPhone version of OmniOutliner, OmniFocus, and Yojimbo, I would be one very happy camper.

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The iPhone IMAP Shuffle

Time to share one of my dirty little secrets. Until a few days ago, I had no clue how IMAP really worked. I know that we had a very bad experience with some IMAP thingy at the office a few years ago and one of my techs at the time told me to use POP and forget about it. So I did.
Well fast forward a few years and now I’m finding myself reading the same email 3 times: Once on my iPhone, once on my Mac, and once on my office windows box. It is starting to drive me batty. It is bad enough when spam sneaks through my filters once but to get it three times is maddening.
So I’ve been emailing off and on a bit with Dave Hamilton who does the excellent Mac Geek Gab podcast about my iPhone and he asked me how it handles IMAP. This got me thinking about why I wasn’t using IMAP and I realized that I had no idea what it really was but maybe it would solve this problem. Of course it did. For those of us non-techy monkey types, IMAP simply keeps your mail somewhere on the net and allows you to manage it from any mail client. So I can delete the spam viagra add once and never see it again. I also can sort emails into my various archives and attack those items in my “to respond” folder from anywhere courtesy of my iPhone.
There are some great web resources for figuring this all out. One that was helpful to me was this Screencast at AllForces.
Now there are a few things I have yet to sort out. My office email is based on a specific law office management program and I don’t think the IMAP pill can solve that problem. Also, the MacSparky email address is not on a IMAP server so I’m going to have to figure out the cheapest/easiest way to move it onto one. Finally, there is a another acronym in these email programs that escapes me and I need to figure out. Specifically, what the heck is SSL? I guess that is a question for another day.

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iPhone Phun

I know I’m posting too much on the iPhone as of late but today I can’t help myself. I had another very early day and found myself on the top floor of Los Angeles Superior Court building at 7:30 a.m. with no wifi connection and time to kill. Using my new phone I was able to check mail, review an attached contract, arrange my calendar for the next few days, and follow up with a few web threads I am participating in. Now granted all but that last task was possible on my Treo, they weren’t easy. With the iPhone, they are.
I also have been playing with several of the iPhone sites that act as a navigator for iPhone online applications. The three that I’m currently toying with are Gridgets, Leaflits, and AppLists. Currently Applists is my favorite but I’ll post more detailed thoughts after I’ve spent some more time with them and AFTER I’ve gotten back to Mac posting for awhile.

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iPhone and Web Bookmarklets

Well I learned something new today. These funny little bookmarks that run like mini applications on your Mac and iPhone. LifeClever wrote up a really nice collection of them right here.
Using these “bookmarklets” you can cut out several steps from your typical web search. I particularly like the thesaurus, google images, and wikipedia bookmarklets.
When you really want to geek out, try YubNub which allows you to access a variety of search engines. I tried to figure out how to link the bookmarklets but must admit that I’m clueless so follow the above link over to LifeClever and drag them up to your bookmarks. I made a separate folder of iPhone applications and several of these found their way in but I also find them very useful when at my Mac.

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MacSparky’s Favorite iPhone Applications

I have been collecting an eclectic mix of web based applications on my shiny new iPhone and I thought I’d share a few here:

GasApp

I realize the terms “cheap” and “gas” have become mutually exclusive. Regardless, GasApp is great. Works fine on an edge network and finds you the least expensive gas in town. The google map integration is a nice touch.

One Trip

This was my first iPhone app and still one of my favorites. An excellent shopping list web app. It looks very nice but still manageable on the Edge in the vegetable section of my supermarket

iPhone Digg

I never really “got it” with Digg but sitting on the couch thumbing through it on my iPhone is a whole new story.

iActu

This is a great newspaper mashup organized like a newsstand. Not all that Edge friendly but still very nice over tea.

AccuWeather

The weather widget is perfectly fine for most of my needs. But if I really want to geek out on weather, I go here.

Telekinesis

This looks to be the most interesting of the bunch. I can’t really recommend it since I haven’t had a chance to try it yet but it is supposed to be able to allow you to remotely access and control your Mac from your iPhone. This should allow you to do things like remotely control iTunes, run applescripts, or access your iSight camera. I’m a little concerned about the security of it all but I’m going to be looking into it soon.
There are so many new ones being posted every day I am sure this list will get revised over time. As an aside, I organize these by a seperate tab “iPhone” applications. Please drop me an email or comment as to your favorite iPhone applications.

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MacSparky’s iPhone Review

If you would like to hear my dulcet tones, this review was broadcast on Surfbits Macreview Cast #115.
This week I’m going to talk about a newly released product that you might have heard about, the iPhone.
Those of you that have visited my blog have read about me explaining how I had no plans to buy an iPhone and was going to try and stick it out with my Treo. Well between that outstanding video on Apple’s website and all the excitement I got sucked in.
So I braved the crowds and actually made a few friends on iDay and got myself a shiny new iPhone. I have now been using it for almost a week. Since just about every web site on the Internet has reviewed this gadget I thought I would just talk a bit about how I use my iPhone.
Setting up the iPhone was a breeze. I plugged it into iTunes, electronically pledged my business to AT&T for two years and picked what data I wanted synced over. It took about 10 minutes. Once it was done I unplugged the iPhone and started using it. There was no manual configuration at all, it was already done. My three email accounts, photo albums, calendar and video were all set up. As of the time of this writing I still haven’t bothered with the manual.
The user interface of this phone is nothing less than stunning. If you haven’t already, watch the 20 minute video at Apple’s website. It has to be seen to be believed.
I know a lot of people have been saying the iPhone is not a “business” phone but I’m not really sure that is true. I have been using my new phone to keep in touch with clients and my office via email like never before. Email is just easier with the iPhone. I particularly like the built in word/excel/pdf attachment viewer.
Also, for the first time in my career I can go to legal websites without a laptop. For example I was standing in the hallway talking to an attorney who said a certain statute supported his argument. I pulled out my iPhone, fired up Safari and found the statute right there which, coincidentally did NOT support his claim.
I’ve never had a GPS device and google map integration doesn’t track where I am, but it certainly is nice getting directions to some of the far off places I drive too, even if I have to click it at each turn. Living in Southern California, the live traffic is great.
It is also a joy finally being able to sync with iCal to my handheld device. Everytime I used to sync my Treo I would knock on wood, throw salt over my shoulder and a host of other rituals in effort to please the sync gods. Now I just plug in my iPhone and it is seamless.
Of course it also has a phone. I haven’t noticed any real difference in switching from Verizon to AT&T. I think both have pretty good coverage here in Orange County. I really like the user interface and visual voicemail is great since I usually have quite a few messages. It is really much nicer than my old phone.
There are a few things about the iPhone that I would change to accomodate my work. First, I wish it would support my portable bluetooth keyboard. I’m actually okay with the on screen type pad but I have a portable bluetooth keyboard that is really convenient for banging out text while sitting on a plane and not worrying about the lady next to me spilling her juice and nuts all over my MacBook. While it works fine with the bluetooth hands free device in my car, it appears the iPhone does not support blootooth keyboards .. yet at least. Second, I would really like to have a program on the iPhone that holds secured data. I have some text files with sensitive information and I can’t put them on my iPhone without some sort of security. This is a feature that goes way back on the Palm and should be on the iPhone. Finally, where is my task list? The calendar is fine but it should get my tasks out of iCal. I’ve solved this last problem by emailing myself pdf print outs from OmniFocus. Fortunately all of these problems are software based and, hopefully, temporary.
Play on the iPhone is a complete Joy. The screen is so vivid, my pictures look fantastic as well as my little vignette videos of my kids that I occasionally use to torture friends and colleagues. I watched the last Harry Potter movie on it and it was an enjoyable experience. I never really cared much for movies on my wife’s video iPod. I never really paid much attention to YouTube but now that it is on my phone I must admit it is a guilty pleasure to sit around and watch some of those crazy videos … has anyone watched Chad Vader?
There has been a lot of talk about the inferiority of the Edge network but fortunately I’m nearly always around an accessable WiFi spot. A few times I’ve done some browsing with WiFI turned off and it is doable but not nearly as fast as WiFi. I really don’t have many complaints on that issue.
In summary the iPhone is not perfect but has been a huge upgrade for me. It really is the Macintosh experience on a phone and that, in itself, is a wonderful thing.

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iPhone at Work

Well today was the first time I used my iPhone for work and a busy day it was. I had to wake up at 4:30 am and be in Court about 100 miles away from my home. The gogle map application got me there without benefit of a printed map (a first for me) and web browsing while waiting for the judge to show up was too fun. There are a few warts but I am enjoying this phone. Ill be reviewing it this weekend on the MacReviewCast in detail.

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One Crow, Slightly Burnt

Well after all my yacking about sticking with Treo I got sucked into the iDay hype and ended up buying an iPhone. I’ve spent a few hours with it now and love it. It doesn’t do anything particularly new, it just does everything much prettier and easier. I’ll probably do a more thorough review for Surfbits but for now I’m having too much fun.

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My Treo iPhone

Well as the cool-aid logo implies, I do like my Apple gadgets. Unfortunately, the iPhone is not one of the gadgets I’ll be able to use. My office is on Verizon and my office calendar system will only sync with Pocket PC or the Palm OS (for now at least). So it appears I am out of the running for that tempting iPhone.
But of course technolust can breed a bit of creativity. I did a search at PalmGear for OS X and found a few apps that make my Treo “almost” feel like an iPhone. There are a variety of launchers and other fancy pants add ons but the two that I ended up using are Font Smoother and Icons Plus. Using these two apps I have been able to set my Palm system font to the Mac Lucida Font (or something Very close) and I’ve replaced the blocky Palm icons with the OS X set. For instance, Snapper mail now has an Apple Mail icon.
Now granted these cheap parlor tricks don’t give me the functionality or user experience of an iPhone, (Don’t EVER try to surf the web on a Treo BTW) but still it makes me smile and when I show it to other geeks they freak out a bit which is entertainment in its own right.
By the way, does anyone else wish Apple will make an iPhone without the phone? Kind of a souped up iPod with all those nice tricks and perhaps a WiFi receiver to surf the web when in range? If they do, sign me up!

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