So I’m out of town this weekend, relaxing. But what that means is part two of my iPhone apps writeup is going to be delayed for all the reasons/limitations I wrote about regarding the WordPress app - I have a draft on the site, but this app can only see local drafts. I also have no desire to do that much writing on the iPhone keyboard. More posts soon.

Like the majority of iPhone and iPod Touch users, I’ve used the iTunes App Store a ton, downloading and installing a ton of applications.

Most stayed on my iPhone only a few days, or in some cases, only a few minutes. There are a ton of apps available from the store – both free and pay. A big bit of them are junk. Below is my list of applications still on my phone – the ones I use regularly, and a quick review of their utility and/or amusement.

All in all, I’ve got 14 applications installed on my iPhone presently. Below are the first 7:

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The iPhone’s second major release was oft hyped and many waited with baited breath for its release a few short weeks ago here in the summer of 2008.

So here are some random thoughts and opinions on the current state of the iPhone 2.0 software and the applications that came with it – most of which have already been said before:

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It was only a matter of time. When the iPhone app store launched just a few short weeks ago, another one of the big blog publishing software had an iPhone app.

You knew it was only a matter of time till the others followed. Now, WordPress, the software Keefer Madness runs on has an iPhone app – which I’m typing this entry on currently.

It’s pretty basic, but is definitely nice for making an occasional post on the road.

The app will also work with wordpress.com hosted blogs.

WordPress iPhone App

Do I need Apple’s new MobileMe service? That’s the question that’s been in the back of my mind since Apple announced MobileMe as the replacement and facelift for their aging .Mac service.

I used to use .Mac. I first started using it when I was working for Apple and we were given free accounts to it as one of the many perks of working for the Cupertino, CA (albeit I was in Durham, NC at their retail store). .Mac at the time broke down as being advantageous as it gave a free backup utility, free (though not really needed) virus protection, 100MB of online storage via their iDisk setup, a way to sync Safari bookmarks and other data between multiple machines, an email address, and a way to host photos and web pages. After leaving Apple, when my account came up for renewal, I renewed it for a year at the $99 price, but never renewed it the following year.

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Alright fellow iPhone and iPod Touch owners – today is our day. iTunes 7.7 has been released early this morning and with it, access to the Applications Store which has 500+ apps, 25% of them are completely free! I’ve already downloaded four of the freebies at home, and am sifting through the deeper areas to look for more.

As of the writing of this post, the other half of making the apps work has yet to be released – the 2.0 firmware/software for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The assumption is that is it will be released later today. My prediction is around 9am PST when Apple employees have all rolled into the office.

Anyway, this gives us a single day’s jump on iPhone 3G owners who can start buying their phones tomorrow morning. Since the 2.0 software wasn’t released by the time I left the house this morning, I’ll have to wait till tonight for the software upgrade and application installation. I’m really looking forward to playing with the iTunes Remote later on tonight. I’m also interested to see how apps like AOL’s IM client compare to web-based clients already out.

I am super psyched about this – a legitimate application and solution for something we’ve struggled with in our home audio setup. Recently, we upgraded our home theater system and now have the living room Airport Express’s audio out streaming to our living room home theater. Well, I’ve got iPhone Remote running, which works wonderfully for skipping tracks forward and backwards, as well as pausing, but there’s no indicator of playlist, currently playing track. *Plus* to initiate, I have to go upstairs and switch iTunes to stream its audio to that given Airport Express. We overcame that last part by getting a VNC client running on the laptop downstairs, but even that’s a pain.

My hope is this iTunes Remote will have a nice amount of polish and be full-featured. It should fit right into our home music streaming wants and needs. So far, this will definitely be my first download when the Application Store goes live.

iTunes 7.7 reveals iTunes Remote app for iPhone and iPod

This is just a followup from an old post I made way back when regarding Mac users having their very own optimized versions of Firefox. It looks like that will continue with Firefox 3. There are Intel and G5 versions currently, with a G4 optimized version in the works.

Firefox 3 Optimized Builds for G5 / Intel