iPhone 2.0 - Impressions and Favorites

I know that about every other iPhone owner has posted to their blog about this and almost a month ago already, but I’ll throw my own take into the mix.

I originally planned on waiting a while before installing the second major revision of the iPhone software, but Sharvil tried it almost immediately and told me that I needed to give it a shot. So, I finally upgraded it, and have not been disappointed. Some highlights:

• Contact list has search! Sweet! Sad that it only searches the Name fields and not other things like addresses and notes.
• Maps and the GPS stuff are getting a lot of press, and they’re cool as always, though it seems very much like the old one, so it may be the case that the gain here is restricted to people with the 3g models.

But of course, the most buzz is over the apps. Here are some I’ve liked:

• Shizam is majorly cool. It uses some sort of algorithm to listen to a song and link that back to the song’s information, and allowing you to purchase it from the iTunes Store, watch it on YouTube.
• Remote is awesome. It lets you remote control your iTunes via wifi, and it sports a far better interface. I found came across this editorial about precisely this, called: Dear Apple: Please Make the iPhone’s Native Interface Like the Remote App. They definitely have a point here, I’d love to see those changes integrated into the standard iPod interface.
• The Facebook app is impressive. It allows chats, way better photo support(drag scrolling, names placed over faces for a second then disappearing, a totally sweet comment interface), good integration with emailer and phone dialer. I’d like to see a way to update sections(ie, add a new favorite quote or interest), but this was clearly built as a more of  a communications + photo tool rather than the more general purpose Facebook, whose sole purpose is to suck huge chunks of your life away, and it serves that purpose excellently.

And of course, the more playful apps:

• PhoneSaber, a lightsaber program that makes appropriate noises and lets you switch colors at will.
• iPint - a program to let you enjoy some virtual brew.
• iLight - a simple program to white the screen and maximize brightness, letting it function as a flashlight. It actually works quite well, too.