recently, i have been using iphunny which downloads topical humourous comments from the likes of jay leno and conan o brien... some of them make me smile, and smiling is important.

seismometer is also fun... does what it says on the tin.

I installed Fring on my iPhone 3G and it all works cool e.g Yahoo Msgr, Skype and SIP's.... However one feature I dislike which is that the communicator doesn't stay ON after switching to the main menu or other application. I spoke to my friends who use Nokia with Fring and there is no such problem. Does this mean everytime I want to chat I need to stay in Fring mode or is it just one of the early versions of Fring on iPhone 3G that needs to have this bug fixed?

BTW: Has anyone tried to install Nimbuzz on iPhone 3G or it is not available yet?

Apple doesn't allow for programs to work in the background. So yes - Fring needs to be open all the time if you want to remain connected. That's probably the most annoying thing about the iPhone :-(

peter

I was trying out the SkypeOut part of Fring over the weekend and it's terrible - massive audio lag which makes it almost unusable for me. That was on the wireless network at home. Using the same service on the laptop on the same network worked great.

Don't know about the other SIP services though, might well be a different story.

At least you have managed to get thru with your Skype out ... When I tried to make a Skypeout phone call to my colleagues in South Africa who btw also use 3G, I would get a notorious message ''Voice is not available with 3G connection type'' so is that to say it only works with WLAN?

yes, that's the next limitation. It's part of Apple deal with the phone providers - they don't allow cheap calls to be made through 3G. The Android phone doesn't either, btw.

peter

So summarizing not all the gold is shining... Once you get this cellphone you are frilled by all the applications but soon you realize that there are so many limits that make it less attractive than e.g. Nokia95???

the iPhone has massively superior usability but its functionality is inferior to some other smartphones due to mostly aritfical limitations. Everyone has to decide what's more important to him. I personally still have my iPhone but I'm looking at some alternatives (notably the Samsung Omnia and the HTC Touch HD). I'm not in any kind of rush to switch, though - the iPhone's not THAT bad, especially since it now has decent stability (introed through FW 2.1)

peter

I agree... It is good sometimes when connected to iTunes store, to alllow software upgrade to be loaded into ones iPhone... although such exercise takes at least on my Notebook, good 15 minutes!

Coincidentally, John Gruber has just put up an interesting post about a similar topic. Worth a look.

EDIT: For those who haven't come across him before, the author is a reasonably well-respected* pundit on the Apple scene.



*In other words, he tends to be referred to and quoted by other mainstream Apple-related sites as a source of some knowledge and authority. YMMV.

RjDj, fun little sound app, takes stuff coming in through the microphone, and screws around with it to be played back in the headphones. Suprisingly awsome.

Hi!

I've just downloaded 'Pumpkin'. You can create your own pumkin face (more than 1'000 combinations possible), and your face makes scary growling sound when you shake the Iphone... Totally futile, I agree, but very funny. My toddler is a great fan...

Some recent goodies from the app store:

Dual level (a 2-axis spirit level)
Airsharing (Killer app for copying files between iphone and PC over wifi)
Flight Tracker (brilliant flight checker which tells you dept/arr times, gate and even if the baggage is in the hall)
CityGuide (A worldwide city guide - right now it only covers CH which suits me fine )
Trailguru (Register for an account and then have all your GPS data synced with their server and over-displayed on a googlemap)

i did a search for "flights" but didnt find it... only BA Flights?

Maybe because i use a UK itunes account?

Sorry mate, the app is called Flight Tracker (by a company called Splashdata). I was reading the text on the launch icon which is simply "flights". Its something like 1 or 2 quid but well worth it.

I've started to use GottaGo! which will give you public transport directions and schedules from and to any point in Switzerland. This includes CFF, city buses, walking ... it can even get your current location from the GPS to use as a starting point !

The Fring that I have installed on my thingy is fairly satisfactory, besides the fact that it cannot run in the background, but one can live with it. However what bothers me immensily and I cannot understand how to get rid off it is the following...

How can I clear the dialled numbers history? It keeps on accumulating and simply doesn't do any good?

Google Earth. Goody goody

I used this until it told me, at my local tram stop, to walk ten minutes to catch a bus somewhere else.