Last Thursday saw the release of iPhone 2.0 software update, unfortunately, as an iPod touch user I had to wait until Sunday morning before the update for available to me. But, it was certainly worth the wait.
For the past few days I’ve been able to try out a number of the new apps and enjoy a whole new lease of life for my iPod touch. There are many great free apps and there appear to be many great paid apps.
My initial impression is that I just don’t have enough time to play with all the apps I’d like to, but that means I can take my time and continue to play with new and updated apps over time. But this will really only cover the free apps. With the average paid app under $5 they are cheap enough. Many are even worth $5, but there in lies the problem. How do I know an app is worth paying for ? The App Store offers no ‘preview’ or trail period, plus I doubt there’ll ever be a refund option. So because of this, I’m going to sit back and wait for others to try and review first.
Current favorite apps…
Apple’s Remote is a first class application and one I’ve been wait for since buying the AppleTV. I have it setup to control AirTunes over two Macbooks and our AppleTV. Am I using it, no, not really 
but I fully intend to find a way to start doing so.
The Facebook application is much more usable than the web based app and I’m impressed just out on the front line Facebook have been at support the iPhone platform. If you’re a Facebook fanatic, it’s a must have app.
Twitterific. I depend on Twitterific on my Macs every days to serve up Twitter’s ‘too many connections’ errors. I don’t know what my day would be without those! Arghh.. Anyway, Twitterific is a beautiful application and they’ve carried that same experience and more over to the iPhone/touch. I’m not a Twitter power user so have opted for the free version.
Tap Tap Revenge is a lot of fun and I’m finding it slightly addictive. It’s a very simple game that takes advantage of the touch screen and accelerometer. If you like a good beat, you’ll enjoy this game.
Band. If you have a musical streak in you, then you’ll really enjoy this application. If has a very innovative UI and simple to use. You can either just mess around and play with the instruments or go as far as recording tracks. Having just spent 6.5hrs on a flight last night I was able to spend some quality time with Band and found myself striking up little beats and rythms.
What I’m really coming to realise is that I really want to do more with these apps and the iPod touch is only capable of so much because many of the quality apps require seemless internet access and the iPod touch just don’t provide that. I’m not prepared to buy an iPhone because I have a company issues crackberry, but if there was a data service only option I’d bite immediately.
I’ve been a huge fan of .Mac - Apple’s suite of online services for syncing and accessing your address, calendar, email, files and many other types of data - for many years now.
