While the Jott! application for the iPhone is a cool idea--no need to make a phone call to create a note--I am finding it somewhat frustrating. When you make a phone Jott! note there is a gap between making the call and the message being transcribed to the Web service. This is to be expected. Transcribing takes time.

Jott! is a note taking service for your cell phone.  Basically the idea is this--you need to take a note, you don't have the time to write it down (or don't have a pen and paper handy), but you do have your cell phone.  Speed dial Jott!'s number, say "Jott Note" and carefully say your note.  Within a few minutes it has been transcribed and is available to you on the Web.

The idea behind Truphone is that when you don't have an affordable cell phone signal, you can use broadband VoIP on your iPhone (or other compatible mobile phone) to make phone calls.

Downloading Truphone on the iPhone is simple. Go to the Apps store and search for Truphone--load the app as usual. When you click on application the first time, it runs you through setting up your phone which is as simple as entering your phone number into the phone and clicking "Go". Truphone calls you and asks you to enter code that you pre selected. After you have crossed that bridge, the phone sends you an SMS message with a username and password for the Truphone site. You do your final setup on the site and they credit you $4.00 to start with. An email validation is sent to your email account.

Mocha VNC Lite is a free iPhone app. They also have an "full" version, but the additional features weren't compelling enough to convince me to pony up $6. These features are:

• another keyboard
• support for right mouse button
• macro support
• ctrl-alt-del key

Mocha VNC and VNC Lite are categorized under Business Apps. Mocha encourages you to try the lite version before buying the full version.

While I was in Denmark version 2.0 of the iPhone software was released. This brought into being the "Apps Store" allowing, finally, third party apps on un-jail-breaked iPhones. I've downloaded a few--and will likely download more--and thought I'd do a series of blog posts on some of them. My Nokia-using friends have enjoyed using ShoZu for uploading photos to different apps from a cell phone.

I've been living with an iPhone now for several months and there are things about it that I absolutely love and other things that I'm still not very happy about.

I've found that AT&T, the only official iPhone service in the United States, service is spottier than my old Sprint service. I broke away from Sprint, and a shared minutes program with my wife, because I wanted to really immerse myself in the iPhone experience.

Over the weekend, I purchased an iPhone. I have been a long time Sprint customer for cellular service--my wife and I have had a shared plan for some time. My latest phone had been a Treo 650--which has been a great phone. Prior to the 650 I had a 600. Prior to that I had a Palm Vx along with a cell phone. You can probably see the PDA pattern.

When the iPhone came out I felt the pull, but still had quite some time left on my contract with Sprint.

Lets get the things about the iPhone I don't like out of the way:

1. In the US, the phone is tied to one carrier--AT&T
2. On a device that costs between $400-$500, what is with the measly 2 mega pixel camera?
3. When you send a photo attached to an email, it reduces the size to 640x480
4. Where the heck is 3G?
5. I have been a pretty heavy user of Dial Up Networking (DUN)--basically, you pair your phone to your laptop and you can access the Internet through that connection. It is slow, but it works. DUN is not supported by the iPhone without a hack.

Ok, now that we've got my dislikes out of the way, let me just say that the experience of unboxing an iPhone is similar to taking other Apple products out of the packaging. It is a very satisfying experience.

Finally some iPhone sanity from Apple.

They appear to be opening the platform up to third party developers. 

I am an Apple fan.  I've used Macs since the ][e and either owned or have heavily used a Plus, LCIII, Bondi Blue iMac, G5 iMac, iBook, and a Macbook Pro.  I've owned two different iPods.  When the iPhone was announced and then shipped, my wife strongly encouraged me to buy one and replace my aging Treo 650.  My current carrier is Sprint, which makes that problematic.  Besides, I rarely purchase hardware before it goes through a couple of revisions.  That said, I've handled the iPhone several times and it is slick.

I want one...

I decided to check on when InfoTech registered the name iPhone.  It was in 1996.  At this point Apple had never used the "i" in any of its products.  In fact, it wasn't until 1998 that Apple released the iMac.  The iBook was released in 1999.  In 2001, the iPod was released.The point that I'm making here is that the use of "i" didn't have a lick of precedence when the orginal trademark was made.