As expected, the iPhone applications are really pretty awesome. Disregarding the weird seemingly random way applications made it to the store (flashlight applications? or phonesaber but no Netflix app?) the selection is pretty awesome - especially in the free versions.
Twitterrific, is, as expected, awesome, if a little slow on the scroll. The New York Times applicaiton is pretty cool too - I’m impressed with the overall look and speed of the app. Yelp is also a solid app, provide quick and easy access to location based information - something the other location aware apps could learn from.
The language apps are solid - providing a very easy interface with clear recorded content to play back the phrases and such. Very nice.
Pownce and Eventful are nice but I generally update Pownce but don’t actively use it (maybe this will change) and Eventful has always been on my radar but until I downloaded the app I hadn’t registered. Interesting side note - I wonder how many of these apps: Eventful, Pownce, Twitter (via Twitterrific), Yelp, Whrrl, Loopt, etc - have registered ridiculous number of new users who are using the iPhone apps now? The winners will be the ones who hold on to the users.
The Facebook app is clean and simple, providing a nice interface that I would otherwise use Safari to view.
So let’s talk about some of my favorites and some of my not so favorites.
Twitterrific. The interface is like the appliction on the map - but the addition of location services and direct twitpic posting is awesome. Hands down I’ll probably use the app now, more then any other app. Wish for this? I’d love for either Twitter to provide it’s own location based networking site - like Loopt - or provide a way to update Brightkite or Loopt or Whrrl or whatever. Whoever they pick would be happy for the business. Plus everyone is grabing location information, while I understand Twitter is only updating the general location info for my account, it’d be nice if it could pass that as well since Twitterrific is sendig it anyway - in the tweet.
Evernote. Clean simple interface (did you know you could do voice notes!? just found out via the iPhone app - awesome). Does exactly what its supposed to. But I can’t edit a note? What’s up with that?
Remote. Impressive and only Apple could have gotten it right. Very cool and should be a default application when you buy a phone or touch.
AIM. Nice - haven’t used it a ton but the interface is awesome. Swipe to go to the next conversation? Genius!. Both it and Twitterrific will definitely benefit in my book from push updates later this year.
Bloomberg. It’s great to see them give away an app that provides the kind of financial information I’d expect from a Google financial app - portfolio, news, international markets. Awesome. I may never open the Stocks app again and I may remove the Google finance shortcut from my home screen.
Pandora. Holy cow. Streaming internet radio of my own channel? Take that Congress. Awesome and fast even on EDGE. Just need a cable for the car and I think I may never listen to the radio again.
Jared. Nice to see that Apple made sure he was there at the opening. Wouldn’t have been right to have a new platform without Jared.
Airme and Shozu. I like both these apps. Sending images to Flickr without compression is great. However, neither has been solid. Shozu just won’t send anything while Airme is now in a repeating crash. But - Airme has contacted me via Twitter and hopefully will help resolve the issues. Meanwhile Shozu is on the short list for the next to get deleted. If Airme and it’s dead easy interface comes back, I don’t need Shozu, much less it’s crazy list of connected services when Facebook, Twitterrific and the rest provide the same sending interface. UPDATE - Airme just got back to me and their working on updates. That’s good enough for me, later Shozu.
Ok, the stinkers in the group.
BoxOffice and Movies.app - both gone from the phone. Both had interface issues and bad location aware issues. I also suspect one of them was causing stability issues.
Loopt and Whrrl. Both are pretty cool - frankly I like Yelp’s integration of location aware better then both. Whrrl’s maps are horrible and I can’t control the zoom - stupid. Loopt apparently is working to alienate it’s customers via this response. And while I’m glad it’ll update Twitter for me, why take a photo if you aren’t going to pass it to twitpic? Meanwhile Whrrl’s interface makes me dread using it and frankly it just doesn’t seem to make my happy to use it. Both are moving quickly in the wrong direction on my list.
Weatherbug. Apparently it hasn’t learned how to save locations well (it’s crashed and upon restart lost the locations) and limiting to three is kind of lame. Providing access to closer weather stations is awesome. Providing a radar map via Google is fantastic - but couldn’t we center it since it knows where I am? Maybe a little zoom as well? Fix some of these issues and it could replace my Weather app. Until then, 2 or 3 home screen for you!
What happens in the next week is really important here. Apparently developers didn’t have a lot of testing ability given the restrictions on how many phones applications during the early SDK phase could be tested on. Real world experiences are proving to be different in many respects then what the developers expected. Their ability to update and fix problems with the applications in this early period will definitely provide them with a unique opportunity to grab marketshare from later applications that do the same. Thus the issues with Loopt, Whrrl, Shozu and Airme are instructive. First to update and responds wins. Brightkite says their coming and while I agree it’s gotta be right, they better hurry. As long as Loopt and Whrrl suck for me, Brightkite is still in the running but if they were to magically fix their problems, it could be tough to switch back.
If I’m a Brightkite or someone similar I’d be worried too about the fact that we’re not there and we’re losing the opportunity to sign up people who haven’t even signed up for a similar service. How many of the new to the location based social networking crowd, who stay past this initial time period, will switch when Brightkite shows up? There’s a lot of people for whom the iPhone experience is new, not being ready to grab them could be a serious tactical error (Plurk where are you!?) and you run the risk of only moving your previously installed base which is probably smaller then the iPhone base.
Nevertheless - watching this unfold is awesome. The opportunity to connect and interact with information and people provided by these applications (good and bad) is awesome. In a couple of months, when push comes, wow. I can barely contain it - certainly my wife is done hearing about it.
Now. Back to rearranging my home screens and throwing away some of these apps…