iPhone resources are everywhere

leaflets.jpgOne thing about the iPhone. After nearly a month on the planet, there are already hundreds — thousands! millions! — of aggregators, blogs, critic and user reviews, tips and tricks, hacks, applications, podcasts and video podcasts about the little phone that could.

I’m overwhelmed. I’ve been on safari, hunting resources on the iPhone, and I’ve collected a few links and applications of interest along the way.

This list, like others I’ve seen, is far from complete as new sites and applications are added daily. Please feel free to jump in and add your own favorites to the comment section.

Here goes.

Aggregators

Phone Topsites: one stop shopping, the site aggregates seemingly any site having anything to do with the iPhone; but it’s butt ugly and hard to read.

Indie Blogs (not affiliated with traditional media or big-time blogs)

iphone blogeverythingiPhone: just as the name implies, you can shop here, read news and reviews, visit the forum, download iPhone wallpapers, check out applications, read an iPhone FAQ, and contribute to a wiki; it’s thorough. The wiki is interesting to read.

Any iPhone: news about the iPhone.

The iPhone Blog: Kent Pribbernow keeps up with iPhone news just for you; and he does a pretty good job.

iPhone Freak: the usual reviews, accessories, news, and hacks; lots of advertising; ugly presentation.

iPhonic: the latest news, what rivals say, iPhone basics, iPhone killers, rumors.

Big-Time Blogs or Websites (affiliated with traditional media or blogs with lots of resources)

iPhone (ZDNet): iPhone offerings from Jason D. O’Grady; aggregates news items on the iPhone on ZDNet.

Wired: Articles on iPhone often appear in Cult of Macintosh by Leander Kahney.

CNET: news, blogs, applications, tips and tricks, reviews.

iPhone Reviews

cnetWant to see what others are saying about the iPhone? Check out these thorough reviews from Gizmodo, Engadget, Ars Technica, and Cool Hunting. They include positive and negative remarks, but all were written within days of the iPhone’s release. And then there’s the Big Two: Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of The New York Times.

For other perspectives, especially ones written nearly four weeks after the iPhone’s release, check out these: last100 (here and here), blogger extraordinaire Dave Winer, someone who really hates the iPhone, someone else who doesn’t care for the phone; and you can read all sorts of comments about the iPhone on Technorati.

iPhone Applications

When Apple announced there would be no third-party applications (at least in version 1) for the iPhone, it drew the ire of the developer community and the curiosity of future users. Instead, Apple chose to allow development of small Web 2.0 applications, which resemble easy-to-use widgets found on desktop and laptop computers.

The rub is these “mini apps” do not run natively on the iPhone and require the Internet to work, which is fine when using a Wi-Fi connection but a bit dodgy on AT&T’s Edge Network.

Even so, they can come in handy when checking movie times, who’s leading the Tour de France, or what’s the cheapest gasoline prices in your town.

One of the best ways to find “mini apps” is at iPhone Widget List. It categorizes widgets as applications, bookmarking, commerce, entertainment, feed readers, games, launchers, reference, social/sharing, specialized searching, and web content.

gridgetsLaunchers is a good place to start. Launchers organize “mini apps” onto a page that looks like the iPhone home interface; it’s a convenient place to, well, launch the “mini apps” you frequently use. I really like: Mock Dock (example), Gridgets, and Leaflets.

As I am a Twitter-aholic, there are two “mini apps” dedicated to the social “What am I doing?” network site: PocketTweets, followed closely by Hahlo. I just wish either of these programs would let me view more than one screen of recent Tweets from friends.

Because Apple did not include any third-party applications, that means chat clients for AIM, Google Chat, MSN, Yahoo and ICQ, are not included, which, truthfully, sucks. The way around this is to use chat “mini apps” like BeeJive, FlickIM, iPhone Chat (also providers of iPhoneDigg and Google Reader), and heysan. When I turn off the iPhone, BeeJive logs me out, but all I need to do is tap on login and I’m back in chat as it remembers my login name and password.

Already the wife and kid have asked about movie times. I use Showtimes more than I do goMovies, but both work well. Enter a zip code and receive back a list of movies, theater, and start times in your area. I like the fact that Showtimes includes additional information, like movie length, so I know when to pick up the kids and friends at the theater. Both are available through Mock Dock, Gridgets, and Leaflets.

newsgator clipsSomething else I do frequently with the iPhone is check RSS feeds. This can be done a number of ways, including using iPhone readers for Google Reader (available through launchers), but there are limitations that frustrate me. For the most part, all I can do is read a list of links and go to the articles. I do a lot of web research, and I’d like to have the ability to at least save for future review something I read. NewsGator, maker of NetNewsWire for the Mac and FeedDemon for the PC, has just released a reader that allows me to “clip” an article for review later at Newsgator.com.

The iPhone does have a watered-down Notes program, but you can keep lists using “mini apps” such as listingly, One Trip, and Ta-da List from 37 Signals. One Trip provides a predetermined grocery list (food, fruit, veggies); Ta-da and listingly tie in nicely with lists I’ve made on my desktop. I like these for store or going-on vacation lists, but I find them a bit disappointing for managing tasks.

Another “mini app” of note is iPhlickr, an interface to your photos on flickr. It provides a quick gallery and seemingly downloads much faster than going to your flickr web address. iActu allows me to skim headlines from The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Sun-Times, and The Wall Street Journal. And if I need online access to documents or spreadsheets, iZoho is available.

And if all of this is hard to keep up with, there’s always the iPhone Apps Manager.

Tips, Tricks, Hacks, and Bugs

Hack the iPhone.

Applehound bugs list.

Podcasts and Video Podcastsicali

iCali (of GeekBrief.tv fame).

Today in the iPhone.

ApplePhone Show.

Journey into iPhone.

Next up, we’ll look at wish lists and the future of the iPhone.

last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

44 Responses to “iPhone resources are everywhere”

  1. darwin says:

    Iphone Nova is the place where u get want your looking for quick and easy and download it fast.. well im tryign to fill up my 8gb of memory (still long way to go LOL) overal it cool i like it and its easy check it out..

    http://www.J-Winzo.com

    Iphone Nova Is Afficially the worlds 1st Iphone download service. Unlimitied 24 Hour Downloading! Download From Over 2000 Categories WOW!!! Join Now…!!!!!!!

    100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE

  2. JP says:

    Best. iPhone app. Ever: Remote Buddy! Use your iPhone to wirelessly control your Mac-centered home theater. Simply awesome!

  3. Steve says:

    I dunno about that.

    _______________
    http://www.FreeOpenMoko.com

  4. Mike says:

    You forgot to mention AddFone
    http://addfone.com

    It is a search engine / directory for iPhone related applications. It has the largest list of iphone applications around (twice the size of the second largest list on the web).

  5. nick says:

    iPhone Hacks deserved a mention.

  6. Troy says:

    I love the fact that the first post I read was from “everythingiphone.com” yet that name was on sale on eBay, and advertised about 3 months prior to launch. I smell a douche and its not my girlfriends… finally… : )

  7. Cyndi says:

    Found your site from digg. Thanks for the list.

    I have found two additional sites very important:

    Tech-Recipes iPhone Tutorials/Tweaks has been a great start in teaching me some basic and advanced iPhone techniques.

    MacRumor’s iPhone blog has been ahead of most of the rest of the blogs on iPhone news.

  8. galactor81 says:

    you missed a great source for iPhone sized (320×480 pixel) wallpaper which is http://iphone.interfacelift.com/

  9. 10668844 says:

    I’m glad that some useful hacks have been created for this device, otherwise, I would think it one of the most overly hyped and under bought products ever – oh yeah, it is that.

    But, the amount of hacks, the absolute destruction of what was attempted to a ‘proprietary’ system, is beautiful.

  10. Aaron says:

    What about games… my personal favorite is http://www.iphoneFingerNipple.com yes that’s Finger Nipple…

  11. Jose E. says:

    You missed THE place for iPhone wallpapers

    http://iphonelive.org/wallpapers

    this is the mirror of our group at flickr, with the most extensive collection of iPhone wallpapers available online.

  12. James says:

    You forgot to mention iphone.macworld.com

  13. Eric says:

    Found your site from digg. Thanks for the list.

    I have found one additional site very important:

    http://iphiend.com

  14. Jonathan says:

    I’d like to also suggest that you check out the Simple Spark, a catalog of web apps which is currently tracking more than 4200 apps. The catalog includes a featured iPhone section with 140+ apps made specifically for the iPhone. And our catalog is growing every day – check it out!

  15. greg says:

    iPhoneApps is also a blog that has information and news about the iPhone and it’s using an iPhone friendly format.

  16. Kevin says:

    Great list. Not a very comprehensive list of reviews though.

    A better list of iPhone reviews is over at ProductCritic.

  17. Dan says:

    A nice source for scenic backgrounds over at http://www.iphonescenics.com Free and purchase.Got to mention also a comprehensive list of apps over at http://www.iphoneapplicationlist.com

  18. Thomas M. says:

    One app that I’d love to see is a movie ticket and times service, most likely by fandango, that trims down the interface to first ask for a zip (ala Google home page), then displays the nearest theather. After selecting a theater, select a movie. Once the movie is selected, show only remaining show times for that day, and allow for tickets to be purchased via the iphone. Once ticket purchase is confirmed, toss up the image of the bar code on the interface that you can take immediately to the theater ticket taker to scan. I’ve experimented with the bar code image already, but the problems I’ve had are either related to the size of the bar code image (not all that likely, I think in most cases, the size of the barcode doesn’t matter), OR the reflectivity of the glass surface on the iPhone doesn’t allow the red-beam scanners to get a good read. I haven’t tested using a screen protector that reduces glare, but if that worked, I would think Fandango would have a great app on their hands.

  19. Paul L. says:

    http://www.iphoneinspire.com a place for all your iphone news and blogs!

  20. C says:

    Dude! You forgot the best of all! iPlayboy
    http://www.iphoneappr.com/apps.php?app=95

  21. Don says:

    You forgot to mention http://taoofiphone.com as well.

  22. James says:

    http://iphonicka.com looks to be launching soon.

  23. Chris says:

    http://www.iphoneapps.org is up and running! Please post in the forums!

  24. Brett says:

    one I visit almost daily is iWeathr for Doppler radar from tons of locations. Even internationally.

  25. Brett says:

    forgot the link: http://iweathr.com

    Only works on an iphone though.

  26. you totally forgot this one

    http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone

    everyone
    should
    read
    it
    before
    buying
    a
    MeMeMePhone

  27. Evangelist says:

    I wish you had added http://www.ihyped.com also to the list of iPhone resources.

  28. Gary Logsdon says:

    Great article with all of these iPhone resources.

    http://www.11amdesign.com/faq

  29. Jim says:

    Can I suggest RSS Mixer? It outputs to multiple RSS Feeds to iPhone formatted pages (and a variety of widgets)
    http://www.rssmixer.com

  30. Brad says:

    Great round-up, thanks for doing this! You forgot to mention Launchrz though. Its currently the number one rated launcher over at iphonewidgetlist and has a large selection of iphone applications in its directory. Members can also rate applications and manage their app list from another computer or iphone.

    http://www.launchrz.com

  31. Dean says:

    “Hahlo. I just wish either of these programs would let me view more than one screen of recent Tweets from friends.”

    I’m working on this for version 2, i’ve almost got it working, except for a few little issues with accessing the twitter api itself. V2 will also (hopefully) have auto refresh its timeline every couple of minutes, so there will be no need for constant reloads.

    Thanks for the mention of Hahlo. Cheers.

  32. I googled much for a program which can rip DVD to iPhone, but have not find a free one.
    The free-trial software listed at http://www.iphonevideoconverter.com/ works nice, but it will cost me $30.
    Anybody knows the free iPhone converters for Windows XP?

  33. MergeMedia says:

    Totally missing one of the best iPhone Wallpapers websites out there. Should be on your list for sure. Check it out.

    Enjoy!

  34. horiab says:

    and a nice native iPhone Wallpapers source you should not miss.

  35. Bob says:

    Awesome list! looks like ill be busy for the rest of today. If you could please add
    iphone for you to your list. cheers!

  36. This list is boomarked on my iPhone!

  37. Steve says:

    I found http://www.theiphoneresource.com when I was case shopping. The cases they recommended are top notch. There’s also other stuff on there as well like apps and wallpaper..

  38. With a lofty name such as that, we are still a humble lot sharing information on iPhone related stuff. You have really compiled a very cool list of websites and I am adding some new ones in my feed reader. Thanks!

  39. Dorin says:

    Nice work, If you could please add http://www.iphoneapplicationslist.com to your list. Thanks

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