iPhone Application Exploration

This morning I decided to check out some apps for the iPhone… Things seem to work great actually and I’ve set up dynamic dns services to enable access from EDGE when away from my systems.

BeeJive is a Multi-IM web service that can connect you to AIM / iChat, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ and Jabber / GoogleTalk nicely in the browser. Seems to be smart enough to manage the network switching between EDGE and WiFi. I’m hoping for some buddy management as they update things… it’s currently in a public alpha.

If you enjoy staying in touch via IRC, Colloquy has enabled a web server plugin which lets you connect through your Mac. I found it really works well and while I don’t do IRC every day it’s nice to know I can easily connect here.

As you may have heard there is currently no ToDo app on the iPhone for some reason even though it exists in iCal today and in Mail in the upcoming Leopard release of OSX. Omni Group has heeded the call by enabling their pending GTD app OmniFocus serve itself up through the browser. Seems to work very well – though I noticed it takes a few moments to update back on the desktop. Regardless, this is a great solution if you’ve already organized yourself or are planning to use Omnifocus.

PocketTweets is a beautiful way to stay connected with Twitter … while I’ve been using the m.jaiku.com site for about a week for my Jaiku fix, I’d love to see something similar developed to take specific advantage of the iPhone browser UI.

I’m also dabbling with iPhone Remote which lets you do some interesting things in a remote way with any Mac you install it on. You can run apple scripts, use the webcam, remote control iTunes, browse and send links to files (though they don’t work as attachments yet) and a few other tricks. This is one to watch I think as it really has the potential to extend your desktop into your mobile experience.

I’m still hoping there will be a way to get widgets if not full local apps on the iPhone though I don’t think that will happen until at least after the dust settles on the launch.

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