Megatheriums for Breakfast

Well, I finally did it.

After six months of loving my iPod Touch but carrying a separate mobile phone, I gave in and signed up for a fully-fledged iPhone when the 3GS model came out.

My justification was that I would only have to carry one device with me on my morning walks, or when I was driving. That’s my excuse, but what I was really drooling over were some of the exciting new capabilities that the iPhone has which are still missing from the iPod Touch.

Here we have an elegant, powerful, multi-functional pocket computer with some astonishing capabilities. It’s truly a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of electronic devices.

Rehashing my earlier list of functions of the iPod Touch, now expanded by the addition of iPhone 3GS features:

I can (and do!) use it to:

* Store my contacts, calendar, notes, photos
* Get my email from several accounts
* Calculate
* Act as an an alarm clock and stop watch
* Keep track of my working time on various projects
* Listen to music – I have some 160 albums on it
* Listen to audiobooks as I walk or drive
* Play games
* Watch videos
* Read e-books
* Take photographs
* Find my way with maps, compass and GPS
* Store all of my passwords
* Check the weather
* Check the stock market
* Record sound
* Browse the Internet
* Look up train, tram and bus timetables (with real-time advice on arrival of trams)
* Find the nearest ATM
* Look up postcodes
* Identify planets, stars and constellations in the night sky
* “Fax” documents
* Remotely control my computers
* Improve my musical ear

Oh yes, nearly forgot:
* Make and receive phone calls
* Write and receive text messages

Others, with a different selection of ‘apps’ will have a different list. But I submit that such a list of capabilities is truly astonishing. It’s the kind of ‘magical machine’ that I could barely have dreamed of when I was young. Heck, I spent a long while saving up for a simple four-function calculator when I was in my first year at college!

If you are wondering how I do some of the things in the list above, here’s a short list of my favorite iPhone apps at the moment:

MotionX GPS

This is currently my very favorite app. It really leverages the power of the GPS, compass and accelerometer. I set off for my morning walk, start my audiobook playing, fire up this app and start walking. When I get back home, I stop and save the ‘track’. Now I know exactly how long I’ve walked for, how far, what my average speed was, what my maximum speed was, and the highest and lowest altitudes I’ve visited. My exact path is shown on the map, and I can even email it to myself or friends, complete with a Google Earth KMZ file. Brilliant and worth every cent (AU$3.99).

JotNot

This is a clever application for those out on the road – essentially it turns your iPhone into a mobile scanner/fax. Take a photo of a document with your camera – even at an angle – and then an overlay appears with movable corners. Position the corners to match the corners of your document, and voilà ! JotNot processes the image, reshapes it to make it into a perfect rectangle, adjusts the sharpness and contrast, and you have something which looks like a pretty good scan. JotNot then lets you email the result as an image or as a PDF. Terrific for receipts, newspaper clippings, white-board workings, business cards…. I love it. (AU$5.99)

Pocket Universe

This really leverages all the features of the iPhone 3GS. It knows what time it is because of the clock; it knows where in the world you are because of the GPS chip; it knows which way you are facing because of the compass; it knows how much you are tilting it because of the accelerometer. Thus, you can hold it up to the night sky and it will show you essentially the same view – but with the constellation lines shown, and labels next to the brightest objects. Instant recognition of ‘what’s that star or planet’? It tracks the phase of the moon and all of the planets, and has a summary of ‘Tonight’s Sky’, with rising and setting times. Very clever stuff. (AU $3.99).

MetLink and Tram Tracker

These are specific to the Australian city where I live (Melbourne), but offer a really handy way to discover when the next public transport vehicle is leaving for your destination. Metlink has all the latest timetables (updating live) for train, tram and bus. You can set up your favorite stations/stops. Tram Tracker is even neater: it shows the actual time – not just the scheduled time – before the next tram arrives at your stop, working off the very same live electronic information available to the company running the trams. Both of these are free!