I nixed the last post I wrote, for the reason that part of it was incorrect – my fault was to rush to review something without having spent ample time using it. Mea culpa. But I’m reposting my first impressions, along with some further thoughts:

So I finally picked up an iPhone 3G after not having a phone for a few months. No regrets so far, and the relief of having a phone is actually overwhelming.

The iPhone is the best phone I’ve ever used, and the first phone I’ve wanted so much that I’m happy to commit to fork out a considerable sum, every month for 18 months, for the privilege. It’s a joy to use: while some (most) mobile interfaces frustrate me, I love using the iPhone. There’s a seamless harmony between software and hardware, involving very organic and pleasing screen transitions which Mac users are already familiar with. The touch-screen feature really adds to this: there’s something inexplicably pleasing about using it. It’s different from pressing a button and seeing an effect occur in quite a different area from where you pushed the button.

One complaint I have is that it’s quite heavy to lift to your ear (call me traditional – pun not intended – but that is how I like to talk on the phone). Still, the weight is a small price to pay. The actual price is rather more considerable, but still, for me, worth it. Being able to carry my ball and chain around with me is a big bonus.

The three things I do the most with it are check email, check Twitter, check Facebook (in that order). The text prediction feature, while frustratingly wrong at times, is overall excellent. Many times I’ve completely botched a word to have the word I wanted suggested to me. It’s like magic.

Speaking of magic, the application Shazam – which has apparently been around for years – is extremely impressive. So many times I’ve been walking around town, or in a pub, and heard a song that I loved but had no idea what the name was. With Shazam, I can identify the song, even over background noise. The app is free.

I’d also like to add:

1) I’ve been taking a lot of photos recently – far more than I’d usually take (although my Flickr page is a chronological mess, it’s pretty easy to spot which ones were taken by an iPhone). I really like that I can snap a photo and instantly zip it to Facebook, Flickr, or send it to a friend by email. Facebook’s photo feature is excellent – a camera button sits prominently on the home screen – but there doesn’t seem to be a reliable Flickr app at the moment. The one I’m using, Mobile Fotos (previously Mobile Flickr) is buggy. It uploads portrait-orientated photos upside down, I kid you not. It was £1.79. Still, worth it for me – even if I have to rotate the photos manually, for now.

2) I’m still amazed at all the apps. Today I played with Graffitio, which is a means of adding digital graffiti to a location:

Attach conversations to the places you go and the things you see! As soon as you open Graffitio, it looks around you for Walls created by other users at restaurants, bars, stores, parks, events, or anywhere else you could imagine. Read what other people have to say, and leave your own thoughts behind for others to find later. You can even create your own Walls. Graffitio connects you to people who have been there before and those who will follow.

I read about the concept of digital graffiti fairly recently. At the time, just a few months ago, it felt like reading about hover shoes. It seemed like a really cool idea, but also something very far away in the future. I can’t believe it’s here now, though not mainstream yet.

It’ll be interesting to see how this concept develops over the next few years, and how institutions like cafes, restaurants, hotels, etc, will moderate it. I’m also concerned that these “walls” are owned by a company – when a company fails, its archives of digital graffiti go with it. It seems rather too ephemeral to me – but so are, I suppose, real-life walls. Graffiti can only ever be ephemeral. Still, I love the idea of browsing big archives of digital graffiti going back into history…

Jemima Kiss of the Guardian wrote an article today on location based services. I’m personally very much looking forward to Loopt being available in the UK, although I’m not convinced yet it’ll replace Twitter’s usefulness for the same thing. Here’s how Loopt describe themselves:

Loopt shows users where friends are located and what they are doing via detailed, interactive maps on their mobile phones. Loopt helps friends connect on the fly and navigate their social lives by orienting them to people, places and events. Users can also share location updates, geo-tagged photos and comments with friends in their mobile address book or on online social networks, communities and blogs. Loopt was designed with user privacy at its core and offers a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls.

For more iPhone apps reviews, check out Idlemode. Here’s their review of Graffitio.