I am a bit of an iPhone app junkie and from time to time there is one that just sucks me in.  Wurdle is one of those new iPhone Apps that did just that.  It is a word game like a wordsearch but the letters can go in any direction and you are not given a list of words.  You have to find as many as you can in a pre-set time window.  The longer the words the more points you get.

I am going to keep this post short because I must get back to my Wurdle…..

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Do you like music?  Do you have rythm?  Are you sure?  Try the iPhone App Tap Tap Revenge.

Tap Tap Revenge sends dots down lines and you have to touch them before they go off of the bottom of the screen.  The dots come in different patterns that are somewhat matched to the beat of the music.

You can compare your score with others on the internet too.

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Here is a very simple app on the iPhone that is one of those things that is just ingenious.  The app is called Level and as the name says….  It is a Level.  You know one of those things that have a little air bubble that is in the center when it is level?

Start up level and turn the iPhone lengthwise or leave it standing up and you will get a level with a little bubble.  Using the built in accelerometer in the iPhone, the Application can determine what angle the iPhone is at.  It tells you the angle in degrees as well as a virtual level on the screen.

Oh, and there is more.  Set the iPhone on a flat surface facing up and you have another level.  This is a round bubble level.

So next time you are handing that new picture, no need to run to the garage and try to find that level, reach for your electronic best friend, your iPhone.

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Ok, by now we all know some of things that are not included in the iPhone that most other new phones these days include.  One of them is Voice Dialing.

The only thing I can figure is Apple is counting on the App developers to come up with things that will fill the gaps.

Well for voice dialing there is a new App in the App Store called Voice Dialer that is trying to fill the gap of voice dialing.  Unfortunately it still requires some iPhone hands on to get it to work.

Because of the developer agreement with Apple, applications are not allowed to run in the background.  So there is no way currently to detect when someone pushed the button on their bluetooth headset.  So to dial by voice you must first load the application by tapping on Voice Dialer.

Then you must touch the large button on the top part of the screen while giving the phone a command.

So how does it work?  Actually pretty well.  The first version I had would not automatically dial the number, you had to click on the number you wanted to dial.  The latest update that I have does allow you to set a timer that will automatically dial after a set number of seconds.

I can only think this is so you can verify the person it selected is the correct person.

So far I have found the matches it finds to be pretty accurate.  There is also no voice training like other voice dialers.  You can use simple commands like “call John appleseed work” or “call nickname dad mobile”.

After speaking the command you will quickly see the contact information on the screen and after the set number of seconds for auto-dial, the dialing process begins.

This is still a young app and I am excited to see where they take the app.  This is the first voice dialer app that is work writing about.

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A new security flaw was found in iPhones that have password protection turned on.  This is not a problem if you do not have password enabled, after all, it is already wide open.

This is the flaw:  When asked for a password, click on the emergency call button then double tap the home button.  If you have your home button setup to go to your favorites you will see a list of your favorites.

From the favorites screen you can click on the blue arrow and see all of the personal information for that favorite contact.

And there is more…  If you click on the email address for the contact you can compose and email, click on cancel and you are back at your email account selection screen and you can then read all of the emails in all accounts.

If in the favorite contact details screen you click on send text message then you can click cancel and you then have access to all of the text messages in your phone.

If you have the home button set to bring up the iPod application, you can click on emergency dial then double click the home button and have full access to your iPod.  No real security issue there that I can see.

The temporary quick fix for this Security Flaw is to go to settings -> General -> Home button and set it to Home.  With this setting there is no more security flaw.

So the question is, was this a “feature”.  I can see where some people would like access to the favorites in an emergency situation.  However, there should be no access allowed to the personal information and definitely no access to the actual email application.

Lets say you are out with your kids and you fall and break your leg and you need the kids to call for help.  But that password on the phone is so they cannot use the phone.  They can at least call home, spouse, etc. without the password.

It appears that the next release of the iPhone will solve this problem.  For now it can solved by changing the options.  But, more than likely you do not have the password turned on anyways so it does not matter.

There has been large concern about the security of the iPhone, should you be worried?  I don’t think so.  This is the first major security flaw so far since the release of iPhone 2.0.  If you compare that to the large number of security flaws that are found in windows mobile, they are not doing too bad.

Sorry Windows Mobile, I really like you too……

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I have been wanting to blog some on the new applications on the iPhone.  This is really my first and it is first because it has to be my favorite application.

The application is called Shazam.  Shazam is an application that listens to a song on the radio or playing from anywhere else and queries a database of music and tells you the name of the song, the album and the artist.  It then allows you purchase the music from iTunes.

It does not work so well when you sing the song, in fact it never worked for me.  But, I cannot sing either   From the description though it can only index the original music from an artist.

You can visit www.shazam.com for more information but they really do not say much about how they do this.  It is amazing to me that they can identify music in just a few seconds.  So far I have had a great experience.  More than 9 out of 10 songs I have used shazam on are found.  And in one click you can purchase right from iTunes.

Of course that quick access to iTunes can be a dangerous thing for some people

There is no charge for the iPhone application and it can be downloaded right from the app store on the iPhone or in iTunes.

If you have an iPhone and have not yet downloaded Shazam, I recomend that you do.  You will be amazed as well.

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Apparently some of the folks over at boy genius have been seeing some logs of files for a new release of the iPhone.  It seems that build 5B101 is the 2.0.1 software for first-generation iPhones, while 5B103 is for 3G iPhones.

No details on what is in the update or when it will be released yet.  There have been complaints about the accelerometer and camera.  I personally can report a much worse battery life than before the update and also lots of lockups and need to reboot.

More updates to follow I am sure.

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Ok, I have had the upgrade now for almost 2 weeks.  And I have been on vacation so I am writing this without checking to see if another iPhone update is available.

Battery life on 2.0 is much worse than before the upgrade.  Applications seem to be locking up on me and I have to reboot the phone to fix them.  Twice now I have had to perform a hard reset by holding down the power button the function button on the front.

It has been a bit frustrating since the upgrade.  The upgrade did add a ton of cool nice new shiny stuff.

I will check for an update later tonight and see if maybe Apple released some fixes for the glaring issues while I was out relaxing in the sun.

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Ok, so the new iPhone has been out for 7 days and iPhone 2.0 software has been out just a little bit longer.  I am still on my old original iPhone but now with iPhone 2.0.

So far I am not overly impressed.  Well let me say, I love the new stuff they added but they also added some not so good stuff as well.  There are a ton more problems.  The problems are not just with the new iPhone but with iPhone 2.0.

New Stuff:

Lets start out with some of the positives first….

1. My #1 is it now support Activesync via Microsoft Exchange OWA.  This is major.  I can now use the iPhone with my corporate email, with security, etc.  And Amazingly, it works much better than my Windows Mobile 6.0 device I have been carrying around for my corporate email.I mean I can add a calendar entry and in seconds it appears in my outlook calendar.  Email is fast and best of all.  There is no more searching the GAL for people.  It does it for you automagically in the background.  Very Cool.
2. My number two big item….  3rd party app support that can be installed and run locally.  Shouldn’t this have been in the first release after all?
3. Bulk Email deletion is much better now.  Plus they added another little secret deletion trick (see the Tips and Tricks below).
4. They put the contacts on as an icon/app now so you no longer have to go into the phone to get to your contacts.
5. The new AppStore where you can download low cost or FREE applications for the iPhone and install them on the iPhone.  So you can actually play them on a plan when the wireless is off.  There are some really cool apps out there and they are just starting to become available.  Just wait till a little time goes by.

I will be writing some followup blogs on some of the Applications that are available on the iPhone.

Problems:

Of course with every new code release there are problems.  Some of these problems are taking some of the fun out of the iPhone for me.

1. Battery life with iPhone 2.0 is horrible.  It does not last half as long as it did prior to the software upgrade.
2. Programs Lock up.  Sometimes it locks up for as long as 30 seconds.  There does not appear any specific program that causes it or it happens in.   I have been doing lots of reboots which seems to fix it for a little while.

What is still missing?

Well, I am a little disappointed that the new iPhone 2.0 does not have a few features.

1. There is still no copy and paste functionality.
2. There is no voice dial.
3. GPS is not a navigateable GPS.  It only shows a little dot where you are located.  It gives no directions, etc.

The App Store:

The new App Store on the iPhone is cool.  You can see a quick list of applications that are available for the iPhone.  Many of them are free, the rest are low cost app.  There are some very cool applications, games, etc available.

I am going to spend some more blog time reviewing a few of these apps.

Tips and Tricks:

Screen capture

The iPhone 2.0 now has a screen capture function.  When you perform a screen capture the image of the screen is saved into your camera roll of pictures.  You can really freak some one if you take a screen capture then view the picture.  It looks just like the desktop.

Quick Email Delete

New in iPhone 2.0 is the ability to quickly delete a single email message.  Apple made the bulk delete much better than before with the edit button.  Now, if you have only one email you want to delete….  Slid your finger over the message starting at the right edge towards the left edge.  A delete button will pop up on the message.

Keep checking back for more iPhone updates and application reviews.

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