iphone!

I’ve only had my iPhone—has it really been just?—two weeks, and I already can’t fathom life before it.

Going from the narrow boundaries of my piecemeal Verizon web to the full internet in my hand has been astonishing. From my ability to conjure my boyfriend’s full business plan at a moment’s notice on the first night it was mine, to the wide world of the App Store, I’m so very hooked. I said it as justification—and it’s come true in more ways than I expected—this device isn’t a luxury item, but a basic necessity for me.

They weren’t kidding when they said the “S” is for speed—in the three or four minutes I’ve been typing, I just synced my 80+ song iTunes gym playlist and a half-dozen podcasts to the iPhone; that would have taken at least an hour to load onto my iPod!

I was very concerned that I would have a hard time transitioning to the non-physical keyboard, after years of being thoroughly spoiled by the generously-wide, super-tactile fold-out keyboard on my first-gen LG enV. But a few days before I bought by iPhone, Daring Fireball ran a fantastic piece that almost-completely allayed my worries. And the experience of adapting to touch-screen typing has been simple.

There are some things that I’m still getting used to—or that simply aren’t intuitive. One of those is using the iPhone as a phone. There have been a few times when I’ve placed accidental calls simply by tapping on a contact intending an edit or to check on a detail, without hitting any clear or labeled “call” or “send” button. The other fluke that I keep experiencing, over and over, is with the camera. I’m just conditioned to press a physical button to snap a photo, and the physical button quits out of the camera application. I’ve lost several excellent shots this way, accidentally shunting myself back to the home screen when I mean to snap a picture. It’s a learning curve, but I’m getting it.

But of course, the fun and most exiting part—mostly, it seems, for other people who have iPhones—is the apps. So here are some of mine:

1. Facebook. It has limitations (I can’t seem to consistently read messages in my inbox), but it’s at my fingertips and thereby useful. EDIT. The updated Facebook 3.0 app is amazing!! SO many new incredible features, whose initial lack were definite pain-points for me. Love it.
2. The Weather Channel. Everyone said that it’s better than the native Weather app, and for once “everyone” is right.
3. MiGhtyDocs. All my Google Docs, all the time. Very necessary.
4. Bookmarks. All my delicious bookmarks. Can’t figure out how to view my network, which is really the utility of delicious. That might be in the paid version. Also thinking of looking into Instapaper, which I’ve heard great things about.
5. Twitterrific. I’ve been avoiding paying for a twitter app. And I haven’t found a pain-point with twitterrific yet that will make me buy something just to see. I tried Tweetdeck first, and that one lasted almost two days.
6. CrossLight. I am very, very, very addicted to this crossword puzzle game.
7. WordFreak. I am even more addicted to this word game, a bit like a cross between hangman and scrabble.
8. ActionMethod. This was one of a half-dozen fantastic recommendations from my friend Emily. I live list-to-list, and this app is really intuitive to how I work.
9. PhotoGene. This has the honor of being the very first app I paid for. It does everything I need it to do for photo-correction, and is well worth every penny, twice over.
10. Brushes. Another paid app. Super-advanced fingerpainting. It’s cool to be able to sketch and doodle without anyone around me being aware of it. This is the program that the New Yorker cover was painted with. I might be investing in a more advanced paid painting app, called Layers, quite soon.
11. TED. It’s sort of like having genius-level NPR in my pocket. Most of the talks are between 3 and 18 minutes; brilliant for my short commute.
12. Kindle, Stanza. Will never replace paper. Between the two, I prefer the reading experience of the Kindle app.
13. Fandango. You know, for movies.

I also downloaded, but wasn’t impressed with, the free apps Shazam and What the Font? The things I read about WTF contributed to perhaps a larger percentage of my rationale for switching to the iPhone than I might be comfortable admitting. However, everytime I try to use it, it crashes! I haven’t managed to identify a single font yet. And Shazam hasn’t been able to identify—or even guess at—even a single song over the ambient background sound of my favorite bar; I’ve given it easily a dozen chances; no luck even when there were very few, very quiet people in the room.