Thank you, three hour nap! I am so happy that I was awake.  I have been waiting for this app since I got my iPhone 3G at the end of August. Needless to say, I promptly purchased it using the App Store on my iPhone and got it all set up with my Google Calendar information (for calendar sync) and my Toodledo account (for to-do sync).

I had already set up my GCal to sync with my Outlook and gotten Toodledo populated with my tasks earlier this week so that I would be prepared for Pocket Informant once it was released. I’m so glad I did, and I’m glad that PI chose the services it did to use with sync out of the box.

Syncing both my tasks and calendars went flawlessly and I am really impressed so far. A full review is forthcoming, but I just had to express my joy. I have missed having a good calendar application at my fingertips! I suppose now I have absolutely no excuse for being disorganized…

“It seems that everyone under 40 who dies takes their cell phone with them,” says Noelle Potvin, family service counselor for Hollywood Forever, a funeral home and cemetery in Hollywood, Calif. “It’s a trend with BlackBerrys, too. We even had one guy who was buried with his Game Boy.”

Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE my gadgets.  I rarely leave the house without at least my iPhone in tow, if not also my Nintendo DS, digital camera, and Asus Eee PC.  But there’s something just a little creepy to me about making sure that among the funeral directives and wishes you put together for your family or spouse is something along the lines of “Bury me with my iPod.”  Apparently one guy even arranged for his beloved Bluetooth headset to be affixed to his ear during the showings before the funeral.  But, I don’t know…the article also mentions that it can be comforting for people to know that their deceased loved ones have something with them that they loved, much along the lines of the ancient Egyptians being buried with treasured possessions.  I can see how that might be the case.

Now the burning question on my mind is…do all iPods go to heaven?

Apparently the hack will only work on jailbroken phones with firmware 2.11 and below. Just a word of warning to jailbreakers: Dev Team is recommending that people only use PwnageTool to jailbreak, not QuickPwn, or else the unlock might not work.

I don’t have any reason to unlock my iPhone 3G, but I know a lot of people are thrilled that the day is finally at hand. It’s so difficult to get your hands on an iPhone and NOT be tied into an AT&T contract that I imagine most of the unlockers will be using their phone internationally.

Are you going to unlock your iPhone? Do you have it jailbroken? Talk back in the comments.

I’m not a huge fan of the built-in iPhone calendar–it is functional, and I have it syncing with my Google Calendar via NuevaSync, but otherwise it’s nothing to write home about.  I’m used to a much more robust calendaring setup, and I’ve really had to do some work to make this simplified setup useful to me.  I am looking forward to having my categories back, as well as other great PI features that I’m really missing.

Pocket Informant for iPhone won’t be as fancy as Pocket Informant 8 for Windows Mobile is, considering that it’s written from the ground up instead of being a direct port.  That’s really a benefit to the end user though, because 1) it’ll be more solid from the get-go and 2) it really shows that the developers care about the iPhone platform enough to do the work the right way.

One of the things I’m most excited about is that Pocket Informant will sync with Google Calendar for calendar sync, and Toodledo for task sync.  This is how the developers are getting around syncing issues and lack of access to the iPhone databases for the calendar.  I hate having to sync my phone up to the computer on a regular basis because I am very used to syncing to the “cloud” now.

I personally can’t wait for the program–I know that the delays are due to Alex & company at WebIS doing the best job they possibly can, and that the road to developing such a feature-rich app is never a smooth one.  Even though Alex has said on his blog that he’d love to have it 100% complete by the end of the month, it’s probably heading our way sometime right around Macworld (January 5-9) or shortly thereafter.  I think it’d make a great birthday present for me…so hopefully I’ll get an iTunes gift card from the birthday fairy that I can put towards it!

Pocket Informant for iPhone will retail for $19.99 and will be available for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.  For more information, visit http://www.pocketinformant.com.

There have been a few attempts at a proof of concept so far; the popular Notes replacement app MagicPad features copying and pasting between notes, but not between MagicPad and any other app on the iPhone.  Back in August, an open-source solution called OpenClip was introduced that allowed users to copy and paste between applications using a common folder that the apps could read from and write to.  However, firmware upgrade 2.1 broke OpenClip and I haven’t heard much about it since then.

Enter pastebud – an ingenious workaround that lets you copy and paste between Mail and Safari (really, the apps that I have wanted to copy and paste between) using a couple of handy bookmarks in Safari and a secret pastebud address that only you have access to.  Clipboards are deleted after five minutes to avoid any potential security issues, and the developers say they’re looking to make it even more secure in the future.  It does not require your iPhone to be jailbroken nor does it require anything to be downloaded from the App Store.  It is free to use, but users can upgrade their clipboard for $5 to remove the pastebud ad clip at the end of their copied text.

All you have to do is fire up Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch, or a web browser on a computer that syncs with your iTunes.  Then you follow the directions on pastebud’s website to bookmark a COPY and a PASTE link.  You have to edit a bit of the link, since pastebud had to be creative with it.  You cannot bookmark a javascript in Mobile Safari, so they had to put a bit of extra text on the front of the link that you just edit out after setting the bookmark.  Then, you just save your secret pastebud address as a contact on your iPhone or iPod Touch, and you’re ready to go!  I’ve tried it out on my iPhone and it’s pretty slick.

Pastebud reminds me a lot of the popular online clipboard service cl1p.net, which I have used quite frequently.  I’ll do a more in-depth review once I’ve had a chance to play with pastebud some more.

To learn more about pastebud, watch the demo I’ve embedded below or visit http://www.pastebud.com.

I had done quite a bit of research on the iPhone cases out there, and of course none of the ones I really wanted were available at the Apple Store the morning after our iPhone purchases.  The only one they had that I’d looked at before was the Agent18 Eco Shield, which did not impress me in person at all.  The plastic looked cheap and dull, and I didn’t want to put my baby in a cheesy looking case.  One thing I had also realized was that I didn’t want to put my iPhone in a bulky case.  It’s a sleek design that fits great in my hand, and I didn’t want to add a lot of heft to it, even in the name of protection.

It’s quite funny–as we were searching for cases, I noticed an empty-looking box that had been opened and put back on the rack.  In the name of being a good Samaritan, I took it to the nearest Apple genius and explained that I had found this empty box over in the case section and I wanted to bring it to their attention.  The guy thanked me, looked at the box and said, “Oh, actually the case is still in here!  See, it’s right there!”  He held it up and I looked a little closer than I had before–what I thought was part of the plastic insert that held the case WAS the case.  It was so thin I hadn’t even noticed it!  Needless to say, I was intrigued–so intrigued I bought it!

The case in question was the Power Support Crystal Air Jacket for the iPhone 3G.  The Air Jacket consists of a back piece that snaps on to protect the plastic back of the iPhone and 2 full screen protectors (crystal and anti-glare) that cover everything but the Home button and the earpiece.  It comes in both Crystal, which I got for my white iPhone, and solid black, which Shawn got for his black iPhone.

The Air Jacket adds only 0.7mm to the body of the iPhone–the plastic back is thin but feels very protective.  I have noticed that it scratches easily, but you can’t really tell until you take the back off the phone.  And hey, it protects my iPhone from getting scratched, so it can scratch all it wants!  There are small, sticky clear plastic “dots” that you put in strategic places on the back of your iPhone to ensure that the plastic back fits without being too tight, which creates little gray pockets of trapped air that are harmless but unsightly.

I have quite a bit of experience with screen protectors given my background with PDAs, and I have to say that both the crystal and anti-glare screen protectors are among the best I have ever used.  I had issues getting mine on the first time (per usual) so I just cleaned it of hair and lint by running it under the tap, shaking off the water until it was mostly dry, and using the corner of a paper towel to barely touch the protector and soak up any remaining water droplets.  It went on very easily even after being cleaned, and after a couple of tries I got my protector on perfectly.  I used the crystal screen protector and Shawn used the anti-glare, and I think we’re both very happy with them.  I like that the case comes with both the crystal and anti-glare so that you can choose your favorite and also have one in reserve.  If you already have a case, the screen protectors can be purchased separately in packs of two.

The AirJ acket will not, of course, protect your iPhone from a steep drop or something really abrasive, but I think it does a great job of protecting from every day elements without adding bulk.  I have been really happy with my choice and I highly recommend both the Power Supply case and the screen protectors.

We catch up with our heroes at the mall, of course!

My husband and I were out having dinner and then intended to see a movie.  Since we happened to be at one of the big fancy malls here in Dallas that has nice restaurants, a stellar movie theater, AND lots of great shops, we swung by the Apple Store to see if they might just happen to have 2 iPhones left over at the end of the day.  No luck, but no worries either–we (individually) got the brilliant idea to check the AT&T store on our way out of the mall when our movie excursion didn’t pan out.  They happened to have a few left, and they were MORE than happy to sell them to us.  I have to give the AT&T store major props…they pushed for the hard sell right away when they found out we were interested buyers, but not in an overbearing, annoying way.  The saleslady was very helpful and answered our questions, and in return we were probably the easiest sale she’d made all day.

We discovered from AT&T that our T-Mobile contract didn’t actually expire until midnight on 8/31 (so, technically 9/1) and that AT&T would be closed for Labor Day.  Since we weren’t able to port our number over until Tuesday 9/2, we went ahead and got them and had temporary numbers put on our SIM cards.  I called on Tuesday and it took about 5 minutes on the phone with a rep to get the numbers ported–very fast, very easy.

I think we may have broken speed limits on our way home from the mall that night.  We walked out with the iPhones in our hand (hubby used his to take the pic of yours truly, right outside the store) and busted ass to get back to the apartment and set them up in iTunes.  I got mine registered and all loaded up with apps first, but much to my disappointment I discovered 3 dead pixels!  So it was back to the Apple Store Sunday morning, where I made a Genius Bar appointment to exchange it per Apple’s 1-pixel exchange policy on their iPhones and iPods.  We ate lunch next door, came back, exchanged the iPhone and I was on my way with a pristine, pixel-perfect model.  We also bought cases while we were there (more on that in another post) and all was right with my world.

So what’s the verdict?

I absolutely LOVE my iPhone so far.  The user experience is vastly superior to any phone I’ve owned.  It’s surprisingly small and sturdy, which makes me happy on a number of levels.  I can slip it into my smallest clutch purse with no problem, and it has a satisfying heft to it that makes it easy to hold on to–so easy that I’ve hardly put it down since I purchased it!

The screen is utterly gorgeous (especially with all the pixels working!) and bright.  I keep my brightness turned down to a lower level because at full-throttle, it actually hurts my eyes.  This also helps with battery  life a little bit.

I knew what to expect with the battery life of a 3G device going into the purchase, since I have worked with quite a few of them in the past while writing documentation and marketing materials for phone manufacturers and carriers.  I wish the battery life was a little better, but I just plug it in during the day while I’m at my desk, and make sure to charge it in full every night.  I keep wi-fi off unless I need it.

My biggest disappointment is the lack of support for older iPod accessories.  We have a small portable boombox with an iPod dock in it that will not charge the iPhone (even though it said iPhone compatible on the box–must be original iPhone only!), and my husband’s iTrip works despite an error message that it’s not compatible, but he gets a great deal of interference on it.  This is really annoying, but not a total dealbreaker.

My biggest surprise was how easy it was to get used to the on-screen keyboard.  I’m not 100% with it yet by any means, but it was my biggest concern when moving from a phone with a full QWERTY hardware keyboard.  The recognition and correction feature on the iPhone is superb, and I like that the character zooms out as you type it so that you know what you’re hitting.

I’m loving the apps–my most used apps at the moment are probably Stanza, Twitteriffic, Pandora, and Tris, plus the iPhone-optimized Google Reader page and the built-in Mail app.  I’m using Nueva Sync’s services to sync my Google Calendar and my Google Contacts to the phone, which has worked flawlessly so far.

Next up, I’ll review Stanza, talk about Nueva Sync, review my new iPhone case, and more!

After I decided which iPhone I wanted to get (white or black really isn’t a hard choice!) the first thing I started thinking about was the kind of case I wanted for my phone. I know that the iPhone is very elegant on its own, but I’m being realistic here–not only am I a girl who likes to accessorize, but I’m a clumsy girl at that. If I’m plunking down $299 for a phone, I want it to be as well-protected as it can be without losing any style or usability. I know lots of people like carrying their iPhones naked, which is all well and good for them, but it just makes me too nervous.

My case requirements are as follows:

1. Must be a hard case or really, really good silicone case
2. Must include a screen protector or be screen protector friendly
3. Must completely cover all parts of the iPhone except for the screen
4. Must NOT include a belt clip
5. Must include a color choice I like

The first case on my radar is the Griffin Wave. I love the wave styling on the side that gives the case its name, and I like that it includes a screen protector too.  It’s a hard case, which I really like, because I’ve grown very used to the Agent 18 Nano Shield I have my red iPod nano G3 in.  Investigation into the Wave has produced some great reviews on the original iPhone model, all which lead me to believe I would really feel good about choosing this case for my 3G iPhone.  I also think that the Wave is a great price–ony 24.95 for both a good case and a screen protector.  That’s a value!  And, of course, it comes in pink…I definitely like that!

Another case I want to check out is the Agent 18 Eco Shield.  As I said, I’ve been really happy with the Agent 18 case that I have on my iPod nano–I put it on almost as soon as I got my nano, and while the case looks a little dinged up in places, my iPod is in pristine shape.  A friend of mine is a huge fan of Agent 18 and he turned me on to their cases–I’m glad he did!  The Eco Shield is also a hard case that covers most of the iPhone while still providing access to all the buttons and the screen.  It features silicone pads for extra cushioning and a dock adapter so you can dock your phone without taking it out of the case.  It doesn’t come with a screen protector, so that’d be extra.  The Eco Shield runs at a very reasonable $29.95.  It also comes in pink!

My friend Kathleen is really happy with the iSkin revo that she has for her 1st Gen iPhone.  iSkin has come out with a version of the revo for the iPhone 3G–the revo2.  It has a lot of great things going for it, like full silicone coverage, antimicrobial material, good screen protectors, and much more.  Despite its list of impressive features, it is the one that I’m least sold on.  It looks really rugged and not very sleek in all the pictures, and none of the color choices are jumping out at me.  I’m also concerned that a silicone case may not be protective enough, or durable enough.  The last silicone case I had for my PDA phone tore in quite a few places.  I also hate how silicone cases pick up any lint or hair that is in the area–and I’m usually either covered in cat hair or shedding my own mane!  I’ll give it a look, but I’m not sold on the revo2.

What case is protecting your iPhone?  Do you have any other suggestions for me?  Talk back in the comments!

I’ve considered the T-Mobile Wing (aka the HTC Herald) quite a few times since it was introduced into the T-Mobile lineup, but never bit the bullet despite the temptation.  When I found out that’s what I was getting on loan, I was pretty excited to be able to try it out.  I love HTC devices, and so far this one has NOT disappointed me!

Let’s look at what the Wing is packing under the hood:

• TI OMAP 850 201 Mhz processor
• 128 MB ROM
• 64 MB RAM
• Talk time of up to 4 hours
• Standby time of up to 6 days
• 2.0 megapixel camera
• MicroSD slot
• Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• Windows Mobile 6 Professional

My JAQ3 was running virtually the same processor, but it never felt as fast and responsive as the Wing does.  Programs that took up to 20 seconds to open on the JAQ3 open in just a few seconds on the Wing, and since I’ve had it, I haven’t had to soft reset the device once.  I was resetting the JAQ3 4 or more times a day at the end.

I can also see a huge difference on battery life using the Wing as well.  My typical usage during the day has the device checking my GMail and work IMAP accounts every 10 minutes, syncing my calendar via GooSync a few times, syncing my tasks via Milksync once every 4 hours, and talking for anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours.  I also fire up uBook to read an eBook quite a bit.  I’ve only seen the battery drop down below 50% when I’ve done all those tasks PLUS read an entire eBook.  That’s pretty impressive, considering I have grown used to constantly having a charger or mini-USB cable on me at all times, just in case the JAQ3 runs out of juice!

I grew quite used to the QWERTY thumbboard on the JAQ3, and while it had a really beautiful, clear screen, I often wished that it was bigger.  The slide-out QWERTY keyboard on the Wing seems like the perfect answer to that wish–the screen is large, clear and bright, and when I need the keyboard I can just slide it out.  The screen auto-rotates when the keyboard mechanism is engaged, which is a nice touch.

The JAQ3 was a slightly buggy device that I hoped would be fixed by a Windows Mobile 6 upgrade that was promised but never delivered.  I can only imagine the things it might have fixed…the Wing runs flawlessly on the newer OS.  Programs that never quite worked right on the JAQ3, like SPB Phone Shell, are working in ways I never thought they could on the Wing.  For instance, I have a black list set up in SPB Phone Shell to block random 1-800 numbers that call me from time to time.  On the JAQ3 it would work sometimes, but not all the time.  Numbers on the blacklist would still ring through or shoot to my voicemail.  On the Wing, I never get a single blacklisted call.  Video also works perfectly on the Wing, whereas on the JAQ3 it was laggy, would only play in portrait mode (read: sideways) on the JAQ3’s landscape-oriented screen, and you could only play video in Windows Media Player, which has never been my choice for mobile video.

The call quality on the Wing is on a whole other level from the quality of the JAQ3.  My poor friends and family have put up with a buzzing noise over the line for the last year and a half, and I know they must be happy to be free at last!  I actually have to turn the volume down on the Wing–on the JAQ3 I had to keep it cranked up to the highest level to hear my calls clearly.

Data on the Wing works without a hitch–the JAQ3 worked great at first, but the longer I had it, the spottier the data connections seemed to get.  I rarely connected on EDGE, even though I was in the middle of the T-Mobile EDGE network, and the data connection would drop intermittently, as would my signal.  I would have to reset the phone to get it to pick the signal or the data back up again.  It was so frustrating, but I dealt with it because it was just too convenient to have my PDA and my phone all in one device.

I’m looking forward to moving on to the iPhone a great deal, especially now that the App Store is open, but in the meantime I’m really enjoying one last month with a great Windows Mobile device.  If you’re on T-Mobile and looking to pick up a solid PDA phone, I highly recommend the T-Mobile Wing. I give it 4 out of 4 DTD stars!

I’m spending the next 45 days leading up to iPhone Liberation Day planning out my iPhone experience–researching cases, drooling over all the new programs in the App Store, reading reviews, etc. I’ve already got a running list of the apps I plan to install on my shiny new toy to take the place of similar apps I’ve grown used to on the Windows Mobile platform:

1. Pocket Informant for iPhone – This app won’t be out until the fall, but it’s already at the top of my must-have list! Finding out that Pocket Informant would be coming to the iPhone was what cemented my decision in the great Windows Mobile vs. iPhone debate. I decided quite early on that Windows Mobile’s built-in Calendar was not powerful enough, and when I found Pocket Informant it was love at first sight. It’s a wonderful, customizable calendaring suite that is easily the most useful thing in my mobile arsenal. I am a heavy mobile calendar user (as I’ve detailed in previous posts!) so knowing that I’ll have a more robust solution on the iPhone makes me happy.
2. Stanza – One of the things I use my PDA phone for most often is reading eBooks. I have amassed quite an eBook collection over the years, a mix of current stuff from retailers like eReader/Fictionwise and classics that are readily available from sites like Project Gutenberg and ManyBooks. When I saw Stanza in the App Store and examined it a little further, the top of my head almost blew off. It supports pretty much any format out there, which means that I won’t have to convert any of my library for the iPhone. I can just use the Stanza Mac application to transfer books to my iPhone and start reading right away. I think the iPhone’s gorgeous screen is going to make it a wonderful reading device. I can’t wait!
3. Evernote – I love Evernote. It’s a great catch-all for the little bits of information that would otherwise end up on a random computer print out or scrawled on a wayward sticky note. My Evernote contains bits of stories, ideas that occur to me in the middle of the night, phone numbers, software registration information, web pages I’ve clipped, recipes…the list goes on and on. The Evernote iPhone app lets you access all your current notes, upload new text notes, use your iPhone camera to capture an image and upload it (Evernote lets you search text within photos, how cool is that?!) and lots, lots more. I’ve been using their Windows Mobile application in addition to having the desktop clients installed on both my Windows PC at work and my Mac at home. What a great application!
4. eWallet – This is another program I use extensively on Windows Mobile that is making the transition to the iPhone. It’s not in the App Store yet, but apparently it’s just waiting on Apple to put it there, so it should be out shortly. It’s a GREAT service that stores and encrypts all your important information (accounts, passwords, etc.) so that you can access them easily AND safely. It’s been a lifesaver more than a couple times for me. I’m so happy that my favorites (or great equivalents thereof) will be on the iPhone!
5. ListPro – Another favorite of mine from Windows Mobile by the same company that makes eWallet is coming to the App Store in the near future. I have a crap ton of lists in ListPro–books I own (exported from Delicious Library), things to buy, food lists, etc. I hope I’ll be able to import information like I can in the Windows Mobile version (or better yet, use the lists I already have created!) because that would make the transition just that much easier for me.

What are your go-to apps on the new iPhone?  Talk back in the comments.