This is my first blog post using the iPhone wordpress app. I really like the interface. I doubt having the wp app on my iPhone will result in more posts, but it might.

so earlier this evening i downloaded and installed the new iTunes 7.7 software and also the work-around install for the iPhone 2.0 firmware (for my 1st generation iPhone). the installs were trouble free and easy enough, although i’d say the iPhone firmware update took 15-20 minutes. after resyncing my iPhone i started exploring the iPhone App Store. there are a lot of apps, free apps, apps for as cheap as 99 cents and i think i saw a few apps for as much as $59.99. i didn’t buy any apps but i did install a few free ones that i found to be pretty cool… and i held myself back from buying the Super Monkey Ball game for $9.99 although it seems like it’d be the coolest game currently in the iPhone app store, since it utilizes the way cool accelerometer.

here’s a few free iPhone apps that i grabbed:

WeatherBug – nice interface with more info than the standard iPhone weather app. i wasn’t happy to see that you could only save 3 locations though that limitation needs to go away.

iTunes Remote – an official Apple app that allows you to remote control the iTunes software from your iPhone. this is a really nice feature. now that i have this capability i’m going to get iTunes installed on my media pc in the living room theater (currently just using Yahoo unlimited).

AOL Radio – this is iPhone app is going to be used a lot at work 🙂 finally an app that will give me access to the talk radio shows and music stations around the country without needed to stream via our company bandwidth (which is a precious commodity). no more reliance on my iPhone’s 8Gb drive of limited music and stale podcasts.

Pandora Radio – if you don’t know about Pandora you’re missing out on more than you can imagine. Pandora is one of the coolest music related websites ever and now it’s on my iPhone. this app too will be used extensively while i’m working.

BoxOffice – very cool iPhone app for looking up movie times and nearby theaters. nuff said, it’ll be handy.

Jott – tomorrow i’ll actually play with this, but it looks like a nice app for voice recordings. seems like a better solution for notes than the ‘notes’ app since you don’t have to type (except to label the recording)

so there ya go, a few ideas for iPhone apps you should check out. in the not too distant future i hope to have a couple iPhone apps of my own creation on the App Store. i’m not saying what they are yet… but i’ll definitely post about them once they’re actually completed.

ok i’m tired and it’s late so i’m crashing.

my friends and frequent visitors have undoubtedly noticed my lack of blogging over the past couple of months… but they probably didn’t know that I’ve been doing better at least with keeping up with their blogs. i’ve tried a few feed readers in the past and nothing really fit my style too well… i’m also not an iGoogle or MyYahoo homepage kinda user. but, i did find a really cool rss feed reader that integrates nicely with Outlook that has made it easier for me to keep up with the double digit number of blogs i try to frequent. that nifty rss feed reader for Outlook is called RSS Popper. it works with Outlook 2000, Outlook XP and Outlook 2003… and the makers claim it works with Outlook 2007… but i’m pretty sure 2007 supports RSS natively. Also, Outlook Express users can pull RSS feeds using RSS Popper!

you can get the RSS Popper here

Here’s a screenshot:

thanks to this little rss reader i’ve gotten see just how much my buddy JJ (Double Danger) has been turning more and more into a garden blogger with each passing day 🙂 and it’s totally cool too… it looks like he and shala are having a lot of fun creating a beautiful yard.. can’t wait to see it one of these days!