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iPhone: Now what?
multimoog
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
By which I mean: I just got a new iPhone and I want to know the best stuff to do with it. I know there's a ton of people here who have/love them, and I want in on the secrets you guys have accumulated. Note: since I already have an iPhone, this is not the place to weigh the pros and cons of iPhones, and if it starts I'll promptly tell you to bugger off.
So, like I said: now what?
So, like I said: now what?
multimoog on
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EXPLORE!
shazam is a must.
Twitterific is great if you twitter
Palringo is a great free multi-IM app
Pandora is great.
Shazam is a song-ID tool that's super great
Take My car is a handy little "here's where I parked" app
Yelp, Urban spoon, and around me are handy for finding restaurants and the like
netnewswire is a good rss reader
Facebook has a good app if you use it
Jailbreaking in general is actually pretty useful.
Satans..... hints.....
Does jailbreaking lock you out of the app store?
Good question!
no, it doesn't.
It might be worth noting that Apple and the EFF are about to duke it out over whether or not you're legally allowed to tinker with your phone, and there's a very real possibility that the government will side with Apple. It's currently at least quasi-legal (as there are real questions about the legality of using an EULA to tell someone what they can and can't do with a product they own), but if you're wanting to stay 100% right with the law, you may want to hold out for a few months to see how that debate plays out.
Also: what are the pros and cons of jailbreaking/tethering/otherwise futzing with your iPhone? I like the idea of using its internet to feed my laptop, but that sounds like it's iffy at best.
For entertainment, Bounce is a very fun little game, the EA Tetris isn't bad (I got it for $5, if it's back up to $10 it would be less good)... other than Sudoku, I haven't gotten too many other games yet, so I'm also looking for recommendations there
For other stuff, other than what Six recommended (which is a great list, Pandora especially is awesome), I've been reading some classics off of the google books site (http://books.google.com), which while a little buggy is still very fun... the official AIM and Facebook clients aren't bad...
I'll have to look what I have later, I have my phone off for a bit to install my new protective casing
Apple is really, really holding the device back from its full potential.
Except that almost all of the genuinely exciting stuff happening on the iPhone right now is the result of jailbreaking.
Page 1:
-I have the calendar app synced to my Google Calendar. It works great, better than it does for syncing contacts (emails can't be labeled, no custom labels). I still use the Gmail contacts sync through iTunes.
-The Weather Channel app is better than the native app.
-Sportacular is good for checking sports scores. You can set up your favorite teams and use it for fantasy teams.
-What's On is a good way to check TV listings.
-Byline ($5) is the best way to read your Google Reader without using the web app.
Page 2:
-Quickpedia is mobile Wikipedia. Useful.
-Shovel is how I get caught up on Digg.com
-I use Flixter for movie times
-FStream takes internet radio and streams it to your phone.
Page 3:
-Urbanspoon can be useful to read restaurant reviews.
-iHandy level works pretty well.
Page 4:
-Solitare Lite is free Solitare with no ads
-Tangram Pro ($1) is a great puzzle game with tons of puzzles (~250 I think)
-Labyrinth LE works great. The full version is a little pricey though.
-PapiJump, Cube Runner, Hangman, Dots Free and reMovem Free all get my attention regularly.
Page 5:
-Checkers works good, but I can't seem to win ever. Maybe I just suck.
-Shanghai is my wife's favorite game. It's basically Mah Jongg.
-Space Buster Lite is a frantic "brick breaker" game.
- Twitterific / AIM / Facebook (obviously only useful if you use those respective services)
- Google (much better than the Safari search box)
- Evernote (if you don't already use it, check out www.evernote.com)
- MyMote (only if you have a MyhTV box)
- NY Times (IMO the best of the news apps)
- Yelp (IMO the best of the food recommendation apps)
- Wiki Mobile (costs a few bucks, but my fave of the Wikipedia apps)
- Pandora (or swap in Last.fm)
- iTV (TV listings + movie showtimes)
- PhoneFlix (manage NetFlix library)
Fun apps:
- Rimshot! (free instantrimshot.com-esque app)
- GalCon (like Risk, but real-time and in space. $10, but I think there's a demo)
- TapDefense (awesome free tower defense)
I personally have mine jailbreaked, just so I can use tethering (get PdaNet, which is the AFAIK the only tethering software out there that doesn't use a SOCKS proxy) and Intelliscreen (displays calendar/weather/mail/useful stuff on the unlock screen) .
I first bought the InvisibleShield from Zagg.com, but the installation was difficult and I didn't like how the edges of the shield (where the glue is) picked up lint in my pocket. I returned it and bought Power Support's Crystal Film. I love it, and I'd definitely recommend it over the InvisibleShield. Installation was a breeze, the screen still acts as it did when no protector was on it (fingerprints at all), no glue, and it fits perfectly with my case.
For my case, I bought the Incase one from Best Buy. Since the Crystal Film only protects the screen (one thing the InvisibleShield had over the others was the back protection), I wanted a sleek case to make it easier to hold and protect it from bumps. It's kinda pricey ($35), but I tried others and I liked it the best.
I just installed mine, and after fighting with the edge parts from the back piece (which are a giant pain in the ass to get annealed to the iphone), it's looking alright... obviously I can't comment on the edges picking up lint yet, but hopefully it'll be acceptable
Remote (lets you use the iPhone as a remote for iTunes on your computer... awesome).
The Weather Channel was mentioned... again, the best Weather app.
USA Today - pretty self explanatory. I wish it downloaded whole articles, instead of just headers, but I still enjoy it.
Pandora - Internet radio. Fucking rocks.
ShopShop - interactive shopping list. I use it every week for grocery shopping.
Lose It! - Keeps track of your eating every meal, and gives a good estimate on the number of calories consumed. Does not get into fat content, so you still need to pay attention. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but I've been using it, and it has been helping me control eating (when I can see that number, I can say "oh shit, hold back a bit!")
Games and such:
BubbleWrap - you have a sheet of bubble wrap on your iPhone. And you pop it. You know it's fun, so stop fucking laughing.
Super Deadbeef - horizontal scrolling shooter, you use the touch screen to lock onto targets and fire. Mix R-Type and Panzer Dragoon and I suppose you'll get the idea. Not as good as either, but still fun.
iShoot - Scorched Earth on the iPhone. There's a demo that's fun, but I loved it so much I bought the full version. Which was $2.99. Well worth it.
Vay - the only JRPG on the iPhone. It's a port from the SegaCD, and is pretty faithful. Old school, but fun.
Hero of Sparta - Action hack-and-slash game. This game is fucking great, and has some pretty good music. Also just dropped to $5.99.
Cube Runner - Move forward, tilt the phone to dodge incoming cubes. That's it. It will eat your time.
Someone else mentioned Galcon, and yes the game is worth having at least the demo for.
Other stuff:
Dice bag - You a D&D player? Forget your dice at home? This is a dice-rolling app, with all 6 flavors of dice represented (d30s don't count).
WoWTalent - World of Warcraft talent calculator.
Characters - iPhone version of WoW Armory.
Chest - iPhone version of WoW AtlasLoot.
Those last three are for nerds......................
Edit: I've seen lots of mention of Shazam being cool. I've only ever had it identify one song, and I've tried about a dozen times.
deets please.
Satans..... hints.....
Not if you had the app store update before you jailbreak.
And Radio where you have some modicum of control over what they play is guaranteed to be a better experience- you'll like more of what they play than Sirius.
Satans..... hints.....
Just grab the VoIPover3G package in Cydia, and you can force Fring (and other apps) to run via 3G, even if they normally want WiFi. I'm not sure if AT&T's 3G network is fast enough to keep up or not, but it works great on Rogers.
Satans..... hints.....
As mentioned before, Facebook has a really nice application. I use a program called uStream to see some video feeds, but it has a pretty low rating (2/5 stars - it works alright for me though).
A bit random and useless, but has anyone found a bevel application? I know it exists.
Edit: cloudeagle mentioned a really good one! Shazam is sweet.
--Units. Will convert any measurement to damn near any other measurement, and also has a currency exchange updated daily.
--iTV. I'll second that, as its TV and movie listings are extremely handy.
--Shazam. Hearing a song and you want to know who sings it/what its name is? Activate Shazam, hold it up for five seconds, and wait another five seconds for the results. It's extremely accurate and goddamn magic.
--Translator works reasonably well for translating things from one language to another.
--Drinks. If you like mixed drinks, this sucker has thousands of them, separated by category or ingredient.
--Bejeweled 2. This little time-waster is extremely polished and addictive, plus it's only three bucks.
This is one of the things that interests me the most - have you done this? If so, for how long a stretch at a time have you used this? If I were to do it, it'd get heavy use. How well does this work, and for how long is it useable?
I've only used it with my 2G iPhone, but it works great there. I've had it on for about an hour straight with no real problems, although the phone did get a little warm. I don't know about what the 3G speeds would look like, but the Edge connection while tethered seemed multiple times faster than using Mobile Safari on Edge.
If anyone else has more experience using this method, that'd be great to hear. One of the reasons I went with getting an iPhone is because my internet fee just went up from $40/mo to $60/mo for broadband. So I'm downgrading to an inexpensive DSL plan at $20/mo, and keeping my monthly costs the same by getting rid of my shitty old cell phone for something that can do more than make calls. The ideal situation would be: use my 3G iPhone as a modem for my laptop and use the DSL for gaming on my PS3 and Wii.
The only downside is I'm on the internet a LOT - I work from home doing work on the web all day, meaning my computer and iPhone would be active for at least 12 hours a day. It would be SUCH an added value for the data plan if that is a viable option, though. Can an iPhone handle that kind of stress?
It feels a LOT like satellite-based broadband (which I guess it almost is, heh). It isn't dialup slow or anything, but it'll be noticeably slower than even a cheap DSL package.
Well:
The things I hate about my iPhone 3g that jailbreaking resolved:
- The springboard theme. (Winterboard)
- The horrible contact list import options. (Still unresolved, but I've accepted it.)
- The lack of MMS support. (I like SwirlyMMS... so far.)
- Custom ringtones for songs not in the iTunes store.
The only drawbacks that I've noticed are slight slowdowns when loading certain screens.
Bejeweled 2 was the first app I bought, btw. you should totally get it. It is fun.
I can say, at least, that this isn't an issue, having spent far too much time making custom ringtones for all my contacts in GarageBand (for free, with non-iTunes songs).
That's good to know - thanks! I might restrict that use to tethering when I'm using my laptop at a coffee shop or something (as places like Barnes & Noble still charge an hourly rate for wifi).
To make a custom ringtone:
1. Take MP3, Edit down to appropriate length using any audio editor
2. Use iTunes to convert to AAC
3. Change file extension to .m4r (I've heard that the filename also has to be exactly 7 characters, which is something I adhere to, though I'm not sure it's strictly necessary)
4. Add back to iTunes. Sync.
Point taken. Now I want to turn this thread's topic to: why jailbreak? I don't have problems with any of the reasons you listed. I haven't seen any great apps that aren't on the App Store for cheap/free. Aside from tethering my phone to my MacBook, I haven't seen anything so far that's even tempting me slightly to want to jailbreak. And this article says there's a chance I could get hit with some kind of fee from AT&T for doing it.
Essentially, sell me on jailbreaking. I'm not a hax0rz, so playing with the guts of the thing has less than zero interest. Has anyone here experienced major problems after doing it, or been hit with fees for doing something to a jailbroken iPhone? I'm already paying over $70 a month for the thing, I'd like to keep the wrath of AT&T from descending. I haven't even been with them a full calendar week yet and they already screwed up my bill, which is exactly what I was afraid of.
Alternately, if you're on a Mac:
1) open your sound/music in Garage Band,
2) edit
3) Share > ringtone to iTunes
simple, no extra apps, or converting and it's all automated.
I'm not a hacker at all. Like, I'm technologically backwards but even I jailbroke mine and it's both easy/fun to do it. You can watch videos on youtube showing you step by step how to do it.
I'm not sure what the AT&T thing you're talking about is but I can't see any way in which they would ever know your phone is hacked.
Finally, as for why jailbreak it? First off, it's kinda fun. Secondly, why only open yourself to one stream of apps? I'll admit that the app store has some great apps but why not have this second channel of apps available to yourself as well? Finally, and this is the biggest thing for me, is that jailbreaking allows you to customize just about every aspect of your machine. Video backgrounds, cool themes, icons, etc.